stevead1966
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There was no mention of Marx in the whole of 'Spirit of 45'. Even John Rees never mentioned the most famous Rhinelander to live in London: he saw the spirit of 1945 in line of 1381 Peasants Revolt, John Ball, Diggers of St Georges Hill and the Utopian Socialism of Rober Owen, he is probably correct, Atlee's govt was not socialism although twice Loach showed the Atlee speech saying His Majesty! had asked him to form a governemnt and Clem uses line 'Labour Movement with a socialist policy'. The use of a George Fenton arrangement towards the end of the music by Hubert Parry of 'Jerusalem' is a definite signifier to this film. Although I believe William Blake would have been a supporter of William Morris and by association that of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.
'Spirit of 45' has many talking heads- working class activists and left reformist celebrities – Tony Benn, John Rees, James Meadway from the New Economics Foundation, Dot Gibson of National Pensioners Convention, 'leftist' ex trade union leaders from ASLEF, RMT, NUM, ex Liverpool Councillor Tony Mulhearn.At the Q&A afterwards at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, Owen Jones (author of Chavs) plugged the Peoples Assembly (he said it embodied the spirit of 45) on 22nd June 2013. Loach himself plugged on several occasions Left Unity.org – he called for a "new political formation, a new party, we can't leave it to left groups, the labour party, trade unions although some are progressive, a left alternative to Labour"What has happened to Loach's attachment to Scargill's Socialist Labour Party which he joined in 1995 when New Labour abandoned Clause 4 ?Loach called for "a real socialist alternative" which already exists in a party called the Socialist Party of Great Britain which was established in 1904 before the Labour Party
ALB wrote:This mumbo-jumbo seems nearer to Hegel's thought than some other interpretations. He was an idealist and religious philosopher. For him "alienation" began with the "Fall of Man" (when Adam ate the apple) and will end when "Man" is reconciled with "God" and History comes to an end. Not much for us there, i'd have thought.I will attempt in my talk to show that this "mumbo jumbo" has relevance.
Mike Foster wrote:Thanks for the suggestions so far. I'd forgotten about Perlman, so I'll look into his pamphlet. Lukacs gets more disappointing the more I read of his stuff. In the later preface to History and Class Consciousness he says that he rejected most of what's in the book, which doesn't inspire much confidenceThe 1967 Preface is rather peculiar, there's self-criticism and there's Lukacs self-criticism! He is very harsh on himself. His mistake in confusing the concept of alienation in Hegel with Marx's concept "invalidates some of the assumptions" of the book but the issues at the heart of the book remain valid argued Lucio Colletti in 1974. I have been reading on Hegel, Marx, alienation and the 1967 Lukacs preface and have doubts about Lukacs misgivings. For Hegel objectification = alienation, therefore when subject-object transcends alienation it must transcend objectification – Object is alienated from self-consciousness, to take it back into Subject means end of objective reality and thus of any reality at all ! Lukacs believes. What is Lukacs saying here ? Reality is abolished ? But I thought Hegal and alienation was failure to realise world was not external to spirit, alienation cease when men see environment part of spirit then they would be free, that is aim of history, the transition to the totality of objective essential-reality (Kojeve), for Hegel history of man is history of man's alienation from its own essence, and abolition of alienation is subject is taking back object into subject as mentioned earlier. Hegel's alienation is different to Marx's concept.I will be talking about Hegel, Marx and Alienation at my head office talk on 20th January.Steve Clayton
"OUTTA Babylon" ! is the cry everyday on the lips of the African and West Indian men at my workplace when it is time to go out on delivery.BABYLON equals the oppression of the bosses in the office, the alienation felt in the workplace. Freedom from Babylon is amongst the peoples of Battersea !Babylon is bourgeois capitalist society.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1895/xx/idealism.htm Paul Lafargue: Idealism and Materialism in the Conception of History 1895
Libcom.org : In 2011, Maruti Suzuki made over $65,000 profit per employee. Despite unprecedented profits, workers in the industry have seen their wages reduced by 25% over the last ten years, whilst directors have seen their pay skyrocket. Working conditions at the factory are horrendous. A car is produced every 38 seconds. If a car is a second late, workers get a pay cut, if they are a second late clocking in they lose a day’s pay, if they are a second late back from a break, they have their salaries reduced. The dispute is generally a result of rising inflation, reducing wages, attacks on terms and conditions, and the use of casual labour to bypass labour laws. It was a hard strike. The workers gave no notice to management, they stopped production completely and around 2,000 workers stayed inside the factory for nearly two weeks. The strike ‘postponed’ the production of 13,200 cars and caused a loss of about 6 billion Rs. (133 million USD / 100 million Euro). Maruti Suzuki’s June sales figures dropped by 23 per cent, the sharpest fall in two and a half years. In July management announced to shift one production-line back from Manesar to Gurgaon plant. Workers continued the strike despite the police stationed within the factory premises and despite the strike having been officially declared illegal by Haryana government on 10th of June.
alanjjohnstone wrote:When the London riots/looting took place I detected a difference of opinion within the party. Those critical of the actions, accusing the perpetuators of being Lumpen-proletariat and other members also critical but lesser so and more sympathetic who saw the unrest as an understandable reaction to social conditions.50% of young black men unemployed, 1 million young people 16 to 24 unemployed, NEETs I think is the term – not in educaton, employment or training. Huge increases in university tuition fees, no jobs anyway if you manage to graduate. These are sizeable chunks of the working class, and consequently large lumpenproletarian blocks. In Spain I think there are 5 million unemployed or 24%. if these figures are correct then that is huge slabs of lumpen proletariat. We cannot give up on these people. The so-called lumpen proletariat are victims of capitalism. As a socialist I did not condemn the social unrest in our inner cities last August but understand the frustrations of young people, their conditions caused by poverty and alienation under capitalism – these people are, could be, doubly alienated – alienated from bourgeois conceptions of the work ethic, and alienated from humanity because they live in capitalism, they are even alienated from the consumer society and the ability to own branded goods like I phones and nike trainers – these are the goods (aswell as bottles of water! )- they ‘looted’. These are the products valued in our consumerist capitalist society, they are only trying to access this aspect of capitalist society. Critics on the Left said it was not a political protest – I disagree – when are attacks on the police (the guardians of the state and private property) and on property itself not political acts. The state reacted with obvious political court sentencing of the ‘looters’ and ‘rioters’.
crtiical history ‘The origins of the second world war’ by AJP Taylor is worth a look, it got up the nose of liberal historians. Taylor’s ‘English History 1914-45′ is very good and was the standard A Level British History text in early 1980s. Taylor’s ,Bismarck’ good.(according to Kenneth Maorgan : AJP Taylor and Michael Foot singing ‘The Red Flag’ at Lord Beaverbroks house in the 1930s…..)CLR James ‘The Black Jacobins’. Christopher Hill ‘The World Turned Upside Down’, Hobsbawn,of course EP Thompson.EH Carr ‘What is History’ is sympathetic, required text for BA Humanities 1st year in 1984.
“common heritage of all the world’s peoples” and “a system of access rather than property and money”. “communism in the forms in which it has ever existed had money, banks ..”The above are from TZM/Venus Project literature handed out at the debate on sunday.Martin Wolf is an apologist for free market capitalism, trickle down theory of wealth. Positivemoney.org are using his quotes according to literature handed out by TZM on sunday.
Letter in Socialist Standard May 2012 Dear EditorsIn the March Greasy Pole – Baby David Speaks – Ivan wrote a witty and perceptive account about the August Riots and Tottenham’s MP David Lammy.Lammy is a typical reformist Labour professional politician. It is bewildering that Lammy links the riotous behaviour to legal restraints on parents smacking children. It is quite obvious the antisocial behaviour by young people is caused by poverty and alienation endemic in the capitalist system (1 million 16 to 24 year olds unemployed also 50 percent of young black men are unemployed) and also harassment by the guardians of the state and private property, the police. I would like to add that as a Socialist I do not condemn the young people who ‘looted’ goods like Apple I-Phones and expensive trainers from shops last August. These are the branded goods/commodities that are fetishised in the capitalist consumer society and young people were only desiring the same commodities that the affluent can afford. Young people are surrounded daily by images of get rich quick, cutting corners, quasi- legal means of making money like in the banking sector and their “looting” is chicken feed compared to the financial looting/terrorism of the financial capitalist class.Steve Clayton. London SW8. March 2012
The debate yesterday was disappointing. Adam Buick and Dick Field for the Socialist Party were good and explained the socialist case well but Zeitgeist were disappointing. I agree that a Resource Based Economy which is the “common heritage of all the world’s peoples” and “a system of access rather than property and money” is akin to socialism. But there are fundamental things about Zeitgeist (TZM) that are just so wrong. They do not recognise economic class as an important factor, they say that “property is an outgrowth of scarcity”, they believe that “the root causes of all problems lie with the foundation of the monetary system itself”, there is no acknowledgment that it is capitalism, they say “communism in the forms in which it has ever existed had money, banks ..” – so where were these communist societies – I assume TZM are referring to the state capitalist USSR,, so they are already falling into the capitalist trap of anti-socialism. Francesco(TZM) at the debate described the New Economics Foundation booklet ‘Where Does Money Come From?’ as having the right anwsers to the problems of the monetary system. Has he not read Adam Buick’s article ‘Where Money Comes From – A reply to the NEF’ in the ‘Socialist Standard’ in February 2012 – basically – a lending organisation cannot lend more than it has saved with it, banks do not create “money” or “loans” out of thin air. This belief is widespread in so-called anti-capitalist circles – from Occupy, NEF, TZM, and PositiveMoney.org. There were positivemoney leaflets at the debate yesterday which were quoting that free market capitalist advocate Martyn Woolf of the FT: “the essence of the contemporary monetary system is the creation of money, out of nothing, by private banks…” Woolf is deluded as well and should read Buick’s reply to the NEF booklet. Positivemoney.org believe the root cause of our current problems is “the way we allow money to be created”, they say “money appears – doesn’t come from anywhere” !Zeitgeist is the offspring of a film by a former private equity trader on Wall street, said film featured ideas of resource based economy of a futurist in what is called The Venus Project. Is it me, am I the only one but I keep thinking of the sci-fi comedy film ‘Sleeper’ by Woody Allen where there is the Aires Project!Anyway comedy aside, there are the conspiracy theories associated with the Zeitgeist movement which give it a cranky American feel and I think of Jon Ronson’s explorations in ‘Them’ several years ago.
