Socialist Party Head Office
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BTSomerset wrote:how should I go about getting hold of some literature to distribute at the event?
Either from your branch or directly from Head Office by emailing us.By the way, the meeting took place in October 2012 but email anyway if you want leaflets, etc for future meetings.
Reply from author of the book review that originally appeared in the Socialist Standard in 1980:
People still argue about how many were killed at Peterloo, so I suppose we
should expect some disagreements.I can't immediately find my copy of the Williams book, but there are other
websites which state that up to 24 workers were killed, eg:
http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/nov2008/merthyr-rising-1831.htmlNo specific source cited, tho.
Here's a better photo of the new banner:and here's the old banner (you can't see the "of Great Britain" part):
Email received at Head Office from Peter Clark: On your website you quote Gwyn A. Williams's book Dic Penderyn and the Merthyr Rising stating 26 workers were killed by the Highlanders on 3rd Jume 1831.But although as you state it was an outrage against the working class to which I agree, at the inquest of one of the bystanders reported in the Cambrian newspaper of 25th June that year, 8 to 9 were killed at the scene with others later of their wounds. No proof of this number exists of such a high number as 24.You might also be interested in a current exhibition at the British Library on Propaganda.
Message received today from the organisers:
Quote:Message:
Please note there has been a change to the programme (with an additional
speaker) of the 1913 Dublin Lockout Cententary Conference being held in
Salford on Saturday 19 October which is advertised on your website. The
amended programme is below – which I'd be very grateful if you could upload
to replace the previous version, thanks.Quote:9.45am -10.30am: Registration and Coffee
10.30am- 10.45am: Welcome and Introduction
10.45am-11.30am: The Dublin Lockout: Speaker: Padraig Yeates, former Irish
Times industry and employment correspondent; author of Lockout: Dublin 1913;
project manager of the Irish 1913 Committee
11.30am-12.15pm: The Irish Transport and General Workers Union: Speaker:
Francy Devine, author of Organising History: A Centenary of SIPTU; 1909-2009,
former President of Irish Labour History Society and editor of journal
Saothar; ex-tutor in the SIPTU Education and Training Department
12.15pm-1.30pm: Lunch, Music and Exhibition Display
1.30pm-2.15pm: Jim Larkin: Speaker: Emmet O’Connor, senior lecturer in
History, Magee College, University of Ulster; author of James Larkin and
Syndicalism in Ireland
2.15pm-3.00pm: Dora Montefiore and the ‘Save the Kiddies’ Scheme: Karen
Hunt, Professor of Modern British History, Keele University; author of
Equivocal Feminists and co-author of Socialist Women: Britain, 1889s to
1920s.
3.00pm-3.45pm: Solidarity and Defeat: Speaker: Ralph Darlington, Professor of
Employment Relations, University of Salford; author of The Political
Trajectory of J.T. Murphy and Syndicalism and the Transition to Communism: An
International Comparative Analysis
3.45pm-4.30pm: Speakers Panel: Questions and DiscussionComment on recent events in Egypt sent us by email by the author :http://www.tolerance.ca/Article.aspx?ID=172331&L=en
Email letter received:Dear EditorsI thought your article Resistanbul in the July Socialist Standard was one of the best, most informative and helpful I have read in a very long time.But did you really have to spoil it on the front cover with a trite and infantile reference to turkeys and stuffing?Your article was extremely respectful and sensitive to the issues and challenges facing Turkish society and the Turkish people.Your cover was cheap and childish.Yours for socialismAndrewAndrew Northall
Part 2 on Tony Turner has now appeared today (28 June) on their blog. See: http://soundsfromthepark.tumblr.com/
There is an entry for Tony Turner on their blog on 21 June here:http://soundsfromthepark.tumblr.com/
Article reproduced here:http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php/catastrophismsocialists
The 50 copies we ordered arrived at Head Office on Wednesday and so the book will be available for members and visitors to look at and/or buy at Summer School as well as at other meetings.
Further reply by letter from Laurens Otter:
Quote:Mr Clayton is on the one hand citing the Aug. 1918 SPGB case; (Soc Standard, Aug 1918), arguing that Russia was not ready for socialism; (though, arguably the party's case was more nuanced, than that might suggest, Sammy Cash used to recollect that the Party's General Secretary sent Lenin a telegram of congratulation in December 1917.)That is an argument, which, if taken to its logical conclusion, would condemn Marx for supporting the Commune, since Russia in 1917, was economically more advanced than France in 1871, moreover if he wishes to pursue that line of argument as far as he suggests then he needs to go back to Peter Struve – the original Russian Marxist – who on the basis of that argument launched the Constitutional Democrats, (Cadets) saying Russia is not ready for socialism, the democratic-bourgeois revolution is all important, the bourgeois don't appear to want such a revolution so we must raise their slogans on their behalf.The "Octobrists" (the majority right wing party in the Duma) were a breakaway from the Cadets, so it is quite interesting that all parties in the Duma, except for a short time when the Bakunian Maximalists were briefly represented, regarded themselves as Marxist.The trouble with that line of argument (taken in its purity) is that it provides no basis for Marxist-socialist opposition to the war; (if only capitalist policies were/should have been on the table, then only possible Marxist criterion for judging the war was whether it was economically in the interests of the emerging Russian capitalist class), &, if the SPGB had relied solely on it, any discussion of the relative merits of Russian political groups on the basis of where they stood in the war would have been ultra vires.Comment from a Party member not on this forum:It’s interesting though not nearly as complete as it might be of course. Falling-Rate-of-Profit and disproportionality should be mentioned specifically (and profit squeeze is really a subset of the latter).Would be interesting to develop an alternative version.
