Socialist Standard Past & Present Blog

[imposs1904]

Just a bit of fun.

The 20 most viewed posts on the blog from 2023. Scroll past my waffle to the find the list – with added links:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/01/dropped-ball.html

[imposs1904]

Just stumbled across this recent post on the Party and its Head Office whilst I was looking for a picture of John Burns from the 1880s (christ sake, the internet is wasted on me):

https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/blog/the-clapham-party

As I mentioned in this blog post

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-clapham-commoners.html

Andrew has known about us for many years – and written about us previously – so though I don’t usually subscribe to the notion that ‘all publicity is good publicity’ in relation to the Party, I don’t think we should take too much umbrage at the brickbats he’s thrown our way in the piece. They’re gentle enough and not all of them hit their target.

[ALB]

By coincidence Andrew Whitehead has a new book out in March on the Siege of Sidney Street in the East End of London in 1911:

https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/a-devilish-kind-of-courage

We were sent an advance copy to review which should appear in the March issue.

I don’t think his comments are unfair but he has an interesting field of interest for a former BBC journalist, even if it was the World Service.

He must live in the Clapham area to have visited our offices on the off chance.

[imposs1904]

This post of his from 2021 includes – amongst other things – his 1992 New Statesman article on Harry Young:

https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/blog/the-spgb-and-the-standard-of-socialism

[imposs1904]

A hundred years ago today – I’m posting Stateside, so it’s still January 22nd at my end – the first (minority) Labour Government, led by Ramsay MacDonald, took office.

At the following link is a series of links to Socialist Standard articles from that period covering the 1923 General Election and the duration of that short lived Labour Government:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/01/a-false-dawn.html

[ALB]

Good stuff. Particularly relevant today are the two articles about the bombing of tribesmen in the Middle East which show that Starmer’s support for bombing Yemen today is consistent with past Labour practice — and would be continued under a future Labour government.

[imposs1904]

One for the Marxologists on the forum. Just scanned in. A political quiz from the January 1983 Socialist Standard.

Test your theoretical wits against those who have the Marxist Internet Archive homepage as their screensaver:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2019/11/qu.html

[imposs1904]

Ralph Critchfield (‘Ivan’)

I’ve put together a page on the Socialist Standard Past and Present blog which lists all the standalone articles, reviews, short stories and regular columns that Ralph Critchfield (‘Ivan’ in the Socialist Standard) penned down the years.

It’s a partial list ‘cos not all of Ralph’s articles are online (yet) but, as it currently stands, it amounts to over 500 pieces from the 1940s up until his last article in the Standard in 2018:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2023/11/ralph-critichfield-ivan.html

If you click on the month and year on the left hand of the page it will take you to individual articles.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by imposs1904.

[imposs1904]

Just posted a dedicated page for the Pathfinders column on the blog. Paddy was good enough to provide the following intro for it:

Pathfinders is a column that broadly looks at aspects of science and technology in capitalism, with an eye on how they might look or be applied in a future world where money and profit are not the driving factors. Areas covered have included industry, society, health, gender, energy, electric cars, computing, climate change, space, anthropology, genetics, language, intellectual property and the scientific method.
PJS

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/pathfinders-column.html

[imposs1904]

Following on from the dedicated page for the Pathfinders column on the blog, I’ve also added one for the long-running Material World column:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/material-world-column.html

Bookmark the page. It’s a good to have the articles side by side, and it’s a good resource for socialists.

Like the Pathfinders page, I think it should have an introductory paragraph. If anyone thinks they can provide one, please contact me offlist.

[imposs1904]

I’ve now added a dedicated Cooking the Books page onto the blog.

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/p/cooking-books.html

It’s an excellent resource for socialists. Please share where you can.

[imposs1904]

Just a bit a fun as I’m adding new features to the blog, a run down of the 20 most popular Pathfinders columns on the blog. I’m not saying they are necessarily the most best of the columns but it does some indication of what catches people’s eye:

Top 20 Pathfinders columns

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/03/new-blog-page-pathfinders.html

• This reply was modified 4 months, 1 week ago by imposs1904.

[imposs1904]

Following on from the previous post, a rundown of the 20 most popular Material World columns as featured on the Socialist Standard Past & Present blog:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/03/new-blog-page-material-world.html

[imposs1904]

Following on from the previous post, a rundown of the 20 most popular Cooking the Books columns as featured on the Socialist Standard Past & Present blog:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/03/new-blog-page-cooking-books.html

[imposs1904]

As Tim K. is doing a Zoom meeting on the Economic Calculation Argument tonight, I found this article by Robin Cox from 2005 and whacked it on the blog:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-economic-calculation-controversy.html

• This reply was modified 3 months, 4 weeks ago by imposs1904.

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