Spain 1937 – Spain Turns

[alanjjohnstone]

The often forgotten and neglected Socialist Standard My Space published an interesting account/analysis of Spain from the 1937 council communist journal International Review (editor, Paul Mattick?)

http://www.myspace.com/socialiststandard/blog/152388504?MyToken=478de57d-4ab5-4dc4-bf05-2dee0eb61cbc

"War sometimes breeds revolution. Continued for any length of time, it seems to defeat revolution."

 

[ALB]

International Review was not edited by Paul Mattick (he just wrote the occasional article for them) nor could it be described as "council communist". It was basically more "anti-Bolshevik Marxist" and published the first English translations of Luxemburg's Reform or Revolution and Martov's The State and the Socialist Revolution.There's another good article on Spain here that was first published in Wildcat in 1986:http://www.af-north.org/Subversion/subversion_18.htm#spainIt was originally published under the title "Spain '36; The End of Anarchism?" This version republished in Subversion and put on the internet by the Anarchist Federation (ex Anarchist Communist Federation) has the title to "Spain 36, the End of Anarcho-Syndicalism?" I don't know whether it was Subversion or the AF who changed the title (probably the AF). From our point of view of course the original title was better.It's been translated into French (in issue No 30 of our then French-language publication Socialisme Mondial) and Portuguese so we already have a ready-to-hand introduction in these languages to our criticism of "self-managed capitalism" (revived today by such groups as Michael Albert's Parecon).

[alanjjohnstone]

Thanks for the link. The Subversion issue it was from had an article about the mid-90s postal strike wave.Although i didn't write anything about them for Subversion, i acted as an on-the-spot informant for them, in touch by phone, exchanging insider info. Edinburgh had 2 branch officials on the national executive who provided details of negotiations and who were also instrumental in instigating walk-outs so the line between unofficial and official at times were blurred. I remember one mass meeting where one of those EC members explained for legal reasons he had to disassociate the union from the strike and instruct us to return to work but when he did he told us we were to make a lot of noise and throw things at him…nothing more lethal than leaflets…and to ignore his statement and stay out. The press who had been excluded from the meeting  dutifully reported that he was heckled in an attempt to end the strike. On another occasion we were on the verge of actually occupying the sorting centre to stop management scabs who had been brought up from England from working but the problem of the security of the registered mail and the cash held us back and would have led most likely to a police attack and criminal charges. But it was an example of how militant it had become. Another strike saw me being the SWP hero of the day when i defended them at a mass meeting for exposing some union/management collusion which the union said was just Trot propaganda whereupon i verified the truth of them. Anybody who has taken strike action know how the SWP hang around the picket like vultures selling their Socialist Worker, and never ever one to be had free from them.Anybody interested can read two articles about the strikes that i did write for the IWW's Industrial Worker, not many strikers these days start with a quote from Dietzgen…lol.Others written for Counter-Information, an Edinburgh free-sheet, i'm afraid have disappeared.http://mailstrom.blogspot.com/2009/12/wobbly-days.html

[ALB]

Mike Ballard who was associated with Subversion confirms that the change of title from "The End of Anarchism?" to "The End of Anarcho-Syndicalism?" was not made by Subversion and was not in the original. So, it was made by the Anarchist Federation, a bit out of order I'd have thought. He also says that the author was Mark Shipway, author of Anti-Parliamentary Communism and of the chapter on "Council Communism" in Non-Market Socialism in the 19th and 20th centuries.

[imposs1904]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

The often forgotten and neglected Socialist Standard My Space published an interesting account/analysis of Spain from the 1937 council communist journal International Review (editor, Paul Mattick?)http://www.myspace.com/socialiststandard/blog/152388504?MyToken=478de57d-4ab5-4dc4-bf05-2dee0eb61cbc"War sometimes breeds revolution. Continued for any length of time, it seems to defeat revolution." 

 Just stumbled across this old thread when looking for something else.Here's an updated link for the Spain Turns article:http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2006/09/spain-turns.htmlThe editor of International Review was a Herman Gersom.Someone named Gersom had a front page review in the January 1934 issue of the Socialist Standard:http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2014/11/bolshevism-past-and-present.htmlHe's listed as a member of the Workers Socialist Party of the United States, but I'm a wee bit skeptical myself. I may be wrong.

[ALB]

The March 1934 edition of the Socialist Standard has the following correction on p, 103:

Quote:

Owing to a misapprehension it was incorrectly stated in the January SOCIALIST STANDARD that the writer of the article "Bolshevism, Past and Present" is a member of the Workers Socialist Party, U.S.A.

He is mentioned on page 144 of Gary Roth's biography of Paul Mattick. He also translated Martov's The State and the Socialist Revolution into English under the pen name of "Integer" (reviewed here and sold by the Party). But of course you knew that.

[imposs1904]

ALB wrote:

The March 1934 edition of the Socialist Standard has the following correction on p, 103:

Quote:

Owing to a misapprehension it was incorrectly stated in the January SOCIALIST STANDARD that the writer of the article "Bolshevism, Past and Present" is a member of the Workers Socialist Party, U.S.A.

He is mentioned on page 144 of Gary Roth's biography of Paul Mattick. He also translated Martov's The State and the Socialist Revolution into English under the pen name of "Integer" (reviewed here and sold by the Party). But of course you knew that.

That makes sense. I remember thinking, when I was transcribing the article, 'Interesting review but this isn't really us.' Glad to know that my faulty political antennae stills works every once in a while.It does begs the question, though: did the editorial committee of the Standard publish the review, thinking he was a member of the WSPUS? Would they have published it otherwise?

[ALB]

As DJP explained in his talk at Summer School, that is not begging the question:http://begthequestion.info/I agree, though, that like everything else language changes and that this is an example of a change happening.

[imposs1904]

ALB wrote:

As DJP explained in his talk at Summer School, that is not begging the question:http://begthequestion.info/I agree, though, that like everything else language changes and that this is an example of a change happening.

Have I walked into something? I'm just here to get my coat.

[ALB]

imposs1904 wrote:

Have I walked into something? I'm just here to get my coat.

That's what I call begging the question, i.e assuming what has to be proved. But this begs the question whether banter is allowed on this forum.

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