ZJW
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For finding and posting that quote from THE AMERICAN RADICAL PRESS 1880-1960 a round of applause is called for.
‘The Distasteful Nonsense of Olympism’:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240818-the-distasteful-nonsense-of-olympism
The last paragraph of which being:
‘It’s such instances of political oddities that permit the following suggestion: make all athletes truly amateurish by abolishing their associations with countries. Most nation states, soldered and cemented compacts of hatred, based upon territory often pinched from previous occupants, are such a nuisance in this regard. If Olympism is to make sense, and if the ravings of the physique obsessed de Coubertin are to be given shape, why not get rid of the State altogether, thereby making all participants neutral, if only for a few weeks?’
But what is he proposing? What could be the alternative (in a hypothetical but still capitalist/statist here-and-now) to organising by nation-state?
Well, there’s always Industrial Unionism.
The IWW’s industrial unions are generalised into six ‘departments’, that you can see listed here:https://midvalleyiww.org/member-resources/industrial-unions-and-departments.
Things having changed somewhat since 1905, nowadays one of the departmental divisions (this one, of Public Service) is:
‘Sex Industry Workers Industrial Union 690:
All workers who use sexuality as the primary tool of their industry including telephone and webcam sex workers, actors, erotic massage services, erotic and escort services, and dancers and models in night clubs, exotic dance clubs and peep shows.’
So, at the Olympics there might be a soccer team consisting of male prostitutes, porn actors etc; and likewise for women’s sports. Good, huh?
1) What is the explanation for (at least) 20% lost audio from when Keith Scholey was speaking? Very disappointing.
2) I am very much looking forward to eventually hearing a recording of the other Keith (Graham) speaking on POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS: WHAT LESSON CAN WE LEARN FROM MARX? and hope there won’t be a similarly missing 20%.
3) During the discussion, an individual identified as ‘Adam’ mentioned that the SPGB has in its archives a full set (he didn’t say ‘full set’, but I assume it’s so) of the mentioned International Review.
For the interested, titles of all articles in International Review, 1936-1938 can be seen here:
https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/MSH/1/133
There is a piece by the mysterious Roberto in every or nearly every issue.
The frequently seen name Jonathan Ayres among the authors rings a bell, but I can’t remember in what connection. (Anarchist? Bordigist??)
A member of the Anarchist Communist Group’s ‘Report from Plymouth’ of August 6:https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2024/08/06/report-from-plymouth
Financial Times article of April 26 2024 on the different (‘positive’ vs ‘negative’) results of immigration in Ireland / UK / US vs Belgium / France / Netherlands / Sweden:
(Hardly a class- or social-revolutionist perspective of course, but …)
Re the touching co-display of union jacks and tricolors:
Aside from the garden-variety leftist objections to Vance seen in the CPUSA article that ALB has linked to above, there is also:
Pro-Israelist paranoia about him:
https://archive.ph/E8nAhPro-Palestinian complaint about him:https://mondoweiss.net/2024/07/the-shift-j-d-vances-anti-palestine-record
Libertarian complaint about him:https://reason.com/2024/07/18/what-the-media-hate-about-j-d-vance
Meanwhile, as for Harris, this libertarian wonders ‘Could Kamala Harris Be an Anti-War Candidate?’:https://reason.com/2024/07/22/could-kamala-harris-be-an-anti-war-candidate
Regarding ‘landslides’ and first-past-the-post, Thomas More may benefit from reading:
‘Labour election result most distorted in history’:
I am looking forward to seeing in the Weekly Worker a more SPGB-orthodox reply to Mike Macnair (re SPGB / ‘petty-proprietor classes’ / ‘forced collectivation’) than what is provided in this week’s issue by by SPGB-sympathiser Louis Shawcross of County Down.
If it were just semi-Turnerist (?) it would be one thing, but then he had to go on to: ‘externally generated frequencies that have been developing since at least the 1950s, which can plant thoughts and perceptions in the minds of people (see the work of Neil Sanders, to give but one)’.
Unless I missed it, I have not seen in the election-threads mention of the Septics (i.e. the David North brand of Trotskyism).
They’re standing two candidates. One in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire. One in Holborn and St Pancras.
Here’s the party’s election manifesto, but there’s nothing much in it that you wouldn’t otherwise have seen on their site:
The civil war in anarchism over Ukraine is not in the least new news. From February of 2022–
‘British Anarchism Succumbs to War Fever’:
https://libcom.org/article/british-anarchism-succumbs-war-feverAnd here is the most recent installment from just three days ago. In it, the term ‘Natopolitan anarchist’ is liberally applied.
‘War on Anarchism — A response to two articles by Wayne Price in the anarchist journal Black Flag.’:
https://libcom.org/article/war-anarchism-bill-beechIn case anyone wants to read it, the 2004 Weekly Worker article to which imposs1904 refers is here: https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/533/100-years-of-solitude
And here is the verdict of the ICC. (Not the court!) Aside from blowing its own trumpet (and banging others over the head with it) just a bit, it provides useful information.
https://en.internationalism.org/content/17524/activism-barrier-political-clarification
Following the pre-congress CWO article whose url is given above, there has now appeared a post-congress comment. Its first paragraph is about the organisational/venue chaos. The second two paragraphs are of political content:
‘From a political point of view, the real divide that emerged was between the activists who were looking for immediate solutions on how to stop the war, and those with a class struggle orientation who had a more long term perspective and understood wars, as a product of the capitalist system, can only be ended by the mass struggle of workers.
However, it wasn’t all a waste of time. Over the week, many good conversations were had (particularly in smaller groups, in pubs, cafes, etc.). Experiences were shared and links were made between organisations and individuals from many different countries. Above all, seeing internationalists of various tendencies join forces to basically improvise their own congress was heartening. We all tried to make the best of a bad situation and it drew us closer together. In that sense, we are glad we went.’
