jondwhite
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I attended the Corbyn rally last night in Liverpool described by Jeremy as "the largest so far". The weather was chilly and drizzly throughout but it didn't seem to put people off attending. They said there was ten thousand there but I'd estimate no more than five thousand. This was in the centre of Liverpool and the police had to close roads off to make enough space. "Socialist Party of England and Wales (SPEW)" were plentiful in attendance with a stall there. They were leafleting and selling the paper which had a rebranded masthead reading 'Formerly Miltant'. I guess they are proud of the Militant history now – or at least not entryist. I asked SPEW about any pamphlets, but they had none on their stall. They reluctantly offered the 200th issue of Socialism Today (est. 1995) but it looked rubbish when I leafed through. Why were they so keen to dumb down the level of politics? RCG were there selling FRFI too – strange for Labour party opponents. Lots of trade unions, a few home made banners, one TV broadcast, no SWP or anyone else.I also attended the Owen Smith rally on Saturday. By contrast the sun was shining, the temperature nicely baking but only a hundred at most turned up although later claims were two to three hundred. Maybe it was because it coincided with Pride (although the march had finished), maybe it was because the venue was moved at the last minute from the original out of town trendy warehouse bar to a patch of wasteground (similarly out of town) following "pressure on social media" applied to the bar.There were two or three photographers taking careful photos of the crowd, lots of professionally produced and approved campaign placards and two free standing banner stands. Most were party functionaries, wannabes, an MP or two (who Owen arrived late with), members, the naive and the deluded. One lady wore a Jeremy Corbyn t-shirt. There were planted questions from hangers on. Some were bussed in, one person declared when asking a question that they were from Stoke-on-Trent. One heckler was dismissed rudely and unkindly by Smith as 'you're not a member, what's your card number?' The warm up act encouraged attendees to crowd the stage more closely. Owen Smith explicitly said there are free ice creams and sandwiches from the vans behind. People got bored, some were having conversations, some on their phones, some looked asleep at a picnic table. Owen talked left but also about the need for a Labour government. All in all, pretty pathetic by comparison.There is a good picture going round summing it up;http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/people-are-laughing-at-how-small-the-crowd-was-for-an-owen-smith-rally-in-liverpool–Z1c7moC5IZ
Here's a meme circulating relating to this. Rather simplistic and all comes across a bit Maoist to me.On Brocialism and Identity Politics
Was something like this ever tried?https://libcom.org/library/radio-my-bomb-diy-manual-pirates
A button to click to buy all CDs produced is now available herehttp://socialistpartytalks.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/buy-all-cds.html
The SPGB idientifies itself as influenced by the writings of Marx, not the pre-Marxian communists like Fourier, Saint-Simon etc. The difference is Marxists are scientific socialists and Pre-Marxian socialists were utopians.
https://itsgoingdown.org/are citing Bernie's 'betrayal' as a reason to reject electoral politics.
Young Master Smeet wrote:Well, the legal issue is that technically, the party doesn't exist. The good news is that it limits the liabilities of members to their voluntary donation, the bad news is the trustee is liable for all the parties debts (in strict terms, all the property of the party belongs to the trustees personally, as individuals, and we are the ones who get taken to court if anyone sues the party as a party – the party did get sued once for libel).In terms of the issue of courts: basically, the law of contract applies, and where not contract, the principles of justice and equity. So, if, say, a HOO one day changed the locks, and pevented the gen sec coming in, the Gen sec could say they were sacked without due process, and without the rulebook being followed. They could appeal to the courts for redress.Likewise, if the EC decided to spend the parties money on a visit to a brothel, the courts could stop that as it wiouldn't be money spent in keeping with the object of the party.The big lesson of the Labour fiasco, is don't change the rules as a procedural fix, and make the rules as clear as possible.Thanks very much, this was exactly what I was getting at.
mcolome1 wrote:jondwhite wrote:I heard recently that Attlee spoke out against what he called "doctrinaire socialists". Is this a simple Labour misrepresentation or is there more to this?Engels on his Principles of Communism he wrongly called communism a doctrine, and then the opportunist Lenin continued using the same exression. Only religion can be called a doctrine
Why only religion? And what was Attlee getting at?
Would it be worth the party funding the purchase of EANs / UPCs in order that the CDs could be distributed more widely?http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/seller/asin-upc-isbn-info.html
