New pamphlets
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Hi folks
In the course of participating in a number of online forums and debating with different strands of oppostion to socialism, I have quite often linked to material on this site – particularly pamphlets. Though the pamplets are generally excellent, it strikes me that you could do with having a much greater choice of them and particularly those with a more specialised focus. If not in a pamphet form then at least in the form of a stand-alone handout – a sort of smallish pamphlet or "discussion paper" if you like
As an example of what I have in mind, have a look at the list of publications available from the Libertairain Alliance, my old anarcho capitalist adversaries , It is quite impressive for a small organisation though the list could do with organising into clear categories
Two immediate suggestions I would make – there are many more I can think of – arising out of current debates Im involved with are
1) The "lazy person" argument. For example, this link has some usful ideas to construct an argument around – https://hbr.org/2013/04/does-money-really-affect-motiv . Ditto stuff on the extent of unpaid work outside the money sector in present day society
2) A critique of Marginalist economics. Bukharin's "Economic Theory of the Leisure Class" is a good starting point here https://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1927/leisure-economics/
As I said, there are many other more specialised "discussion pspers" or short pamhlets that could be produced online and in hardcopy form too. For example something specifically on Climate Change or on the sutation in Syria.
The point is to be able to commision writers to produce something quickly and on the spot so to speak that is sufficiently focussed on a particular narrow topic rather than on a broader theme
What you think?
Have you looked at this section of the website as well as the one on pamphlets as such?http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education
ALB wrote:Have you looked at this section of the website as well as the one on pamphlets as such?http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/educationI had overlooked that – thanks for drawing it to my attention… Yeah the stuff is good and some of it quite focussed but it is not quite what I had in mind. These seem to be mainly shortish articles but I was thinking of something a little more substantial – somehere in between an article and a pamphlet in length I dont quite know what the appropriate term would be – maybe "Discussion Paper". Also perhaps suggesting a somewhat different approach – more rigorous, systematic, modular and – dare I say it – "academic" in its treatment of the material. Does the SPGB have a Research department, or something like that, that could be responsible for putting out this kind of thing into the public domain? Actually the "Study Guides" that I now see listed under "Education" is a little closer to what I had in mind.. So perhaps what I am suggesting is to expand the list of Study Guides or Discussion papers to cover a lot more topics to make up for the dearth of pamphlets and particularly recent up to date pamphlets….
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