DJP

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  • in reply to: Socialism at your fingertips #87875
    DJP
    Participant

    Gog, If you and some friends want to get together and grow some fruit and veg and share the produce then fine, go ahead be my guest.But if you think this is a magic path to socialism you are wrong.The fact is at some point the question of state power will have to be met and that is why it is necessary to organise politically.

    in reply to: Socialism at your fingertips #87868
    DJP
    Participant

    The socialist party has held that socialism cannot exist in one country let alone one small holding.Copied from our FAQ

    Quote:
    One country cannot establish socialism. No country is completely self-sufficient in the resources people need to satisfy their needs. No country can really isolate itself from the rest of the world in a peaceful manner, so a peaceful “socialist nation” would be easy prey for the outside capitalist world. Just as capitalism is a world system, socialism will have to be a world system.

    What you are talking about would not be a demonstration of socialism as a system of production but a demonstration of a group of people within capitalism co-operating to run an allotment, something which I’m sure happens very often today and is not very controversial or significant to the question in hand.

    DJP
    Participant

    Brian, you’re half right and half wrong. It is made by two people from TZM who we debated with in Norwich but they’re making the films under their own initiative. Here’s their youtube channel to see more of what they’ve done:http://www.youtube.com/newfuturemedia

    in reply to: SIC – International Journal for Communisation #87862
    DJP
    Participant

     You can read this journal online here:http://sic.communisation.net/They definitely share the same definition of communism with us, as a moneyless, stateless world community. Though I haven’t read them in enough depth to have a real opinion of their concept of  ‘communisation’.The related journal ‘Endnotes’, is worth reading.. www.endnotes.org.uk

    in reply to: Interview on Marx’s method #87693
    DJP
    Participant

    Just read Deitzgen’s “The Positive Outcome of Philosophy”.  I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in “dialectical monism”.  I like his clear and down to earth style. There’s a talk by Steve Coleman which should be re-uploaded soon that would make a good introduction, as would the one in the book, written by Pannekoek – who all leftist trainspotters should have heard of.It’s online here:http://www.archive.org/details/positiveoutcome00dietgoogHere are some passages I liked

    Quote:
     
    The first principle, then, declares that A is A, or to
    speak mathematically, every quantity is equal to itself.
    In plain English : a thing is what it is ; no thing is what
    it is not. “Characters which are excluded by any con-
    ception must not be attributed to it.” The square is ex-
    cluded from the conception of a circle, therefore the pre-
    dicate “square” must not be given to a circle. For the
    same’ reason a straight line must not be crooked, and a
    lie must not be true.

    Now this so-called law of thought may be well enough
    for household use, where nothing but known quantities
    are under consideration. A thing is what it is. Right is
    not left and one hundred is not one thousand. Whoever
    is named Peter or Paul remains Peter or Paul all his life.
    This, I say, is all right for household use.

    But when we consider matters from the wider point of
    view of cosmic universal life, then this famous law of
    thought proves to be nothing but an expedient in logic
    which is not adequate to the nature of things, but merely
    a means of mutual understanding for us human beings.

    Hence the left bank of the Rhine is not the right, because
    we have agreed that in naming the banks of a river we
    will turn our backs to the source and our faces to the
    mouth of the river and then designate the banks as right
    and left Such a way of distinguishing, thinking, and
    judging is good and practical, so long as this narrow
    standpoint is accompanied by the consciousness of its
    narrowness. Hitherto this has not been the case. This
    determined logic has overlooked that the perception
    which is produced by its rules is not truth, not the real
    world, but only gives an ideal, more or less accurate, re-
    flection of it. Peter and Paul, who according to the law
    of identity are the same all their lives, are in fact dif-
    ferent fellows every minute and every day of their lives,
    and all things of this world are, like those two, not con-
    stant, but very variable quantities. The mathematical
    points, the straight lines, the round circles, are ideals.
    In reality every point has a certain dimension, every
    straight line, when seen through a magnifying glass, is
    full of many crooked turns, and even the roundest circle,
    according to the mathematicians, consists of an infinite
    number of straight lines.

    in reply to: 2012 STRIKE FOR A MONEYLESS WORLD #87830
    DJP
    Participant
    gnome wrote:
    For my part, I’m taking a very positive attitude to this strike. I’m positive that it’s a waste of time even discussing this half-baked stunt any more than I already have which is virtually zilch. Best thing to do with those who subscribe to this nonsense is to provide them with a platform and then sit back and wait until they fall off it!  I predict that the wait won’t be very long………

    Well, 150 days according to the Olympic Games website.But saying that if anyone is serious about the idea of a moneyless society they are free to join the Socialist Party, providing they take the time to study our aims and principles and understand and agree with them.

    in reply to: 2012 STRIKE FOR A MONEYLESS WORLD #87828
    DJP
    Participant
    yabanji wrote:
    The billions already convinced are enough.

    I’m sorry to say it but you’re deluding yourself. The 27th July will come and go and NOTHING will happen.If you really want to work for a world of free access you’ll have to accept this and be prepared to put in the long and tedious work that is required to bring it about.It took hundreds of years for the transition from fuedalism to capitalism to be fully completed, we have to accept that we may not live to see the realisation of a moneyless society; but, like the builders of cathedrals, we have contributed to something that will long outlive our children and childrens children.There are no shortcuts to the new society, we must face this or otherwise suffer bitter disappointment and withdrawal.

    in reply to: 2012 STRIKE FOR A MONEYLESS WORLD #87826
    DJP
    Participant
    yabanji wrote:
    Fuck the reality that They created!  Imagine the new world We can create, with real justice for all!

    Indeed! But if you’re going to convince anyone other than those already convinced you’re going to have to learn to convey yourself better than that.

    in reply to: The ‘Occupy’ movement #86465
    DJP
    Participant
    Ozymandias wrote:
    Watched this video and it doesn’t  fill me me with hope at all…just depression. I went over to Blythswood Sq in Glasgow in November to talk with the “occupiers” there. Ok they were enthusiastic but didn’t have a single iota about how capitalism operates or what the solution is. It really depressed me.

    But why would you expect it to be any other way? I think there is a tendency for people to project their own wishes on to large and visible movements and then to feel disappointed when they do not act in the way they hoped. It is clear that real communism is an ultra minority view point at the present time, this is to be expected.All that these developments present us with is a platform with which we can explain and discuss our perspective with people who are BEGINNING to question the status-quo. You visited the occupy camp in Glasgow, how many times? Our argument has so many layers / premises that it takes more than one meeting to get the point across. All we can do is partake in the process, I attended many discussions at the Norwich camp and even presented a brief text on the Marxian analysis of how capitalism works. (Though most of the campers, especially near the end, did not seem to be interested in discussing, I think these things had a tendency to turn into homeless shelters / hang-outs for teenage kids)

    Quote:
    Looks as if Occupy is in disarray now anyway whilst TZM is dwindling fast. Let’s face it folks we are all doomed. This species is on it’s way out…fast!

    I think you place too much emphasis and hope in big flavour of the day ‘organisations’. The ‘real movement that changes the existing order of things’ is not Occupy, TZM or even the Socialist Party; it is the proletariat as a whole. All we can do is participate in the process – we have no ther choice.

    in reply to: 2012 STRIKE FOR A MONEYLESS WORLD #87823
    DJP
    Participant

    How on earth can a strike achieve a moneyless society? Such a thing cannot be achieved by people withdrawing their labour but by people consciously cordinating how their labour is conducted and distributed.This is bound to be a dismal flop.I guess the best thing it will provide is platform for speaking to people who may be interested in ‘full communsim’ as it were…

    in reply to: The ‘Occupy’ movement #86462
    DJP
    Participant

    Just sharing this rather twee video of Occupy Norwich

    in reply to: The Communist Manifesto Illustrated (2010, Red Quill) #87772
    DJP
    Participant

    Here’s the 1934 illustrated version of ‘Capital’http://graphicwitness.org/contemp/marxtitle.htm

    in reply to: Summer School – 6th to 8th July 2012 (Birmingham) #87771
    DJP
    Participant
    jondwhite wrote:
    Gutted it clashes with Marxism Festival.

    Perhaps they should rename it the confused leftists and state-capitalist apologist festival. “Thank heavens I am not a Marxist!” 

    DJP
    Participant

    Don’t know about Fredrid Jameson or what he says.There are numerous guides to Capital out there, of the ones I’ve read Ben Fine’s and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s is probably the best:http://www.scribd.com/doc/27910148/Ben-Fine-Guide-to-Marx-s-CapitalOr this unpublished guide by Simon Clarke is pretty good:http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~syrbe/mst/Capital.doc

    in reply to: Andrew Kliman & The “Marxist Humanist Initiative” #87108
    DJP
    Participant

    Re-reading the page I linked to above it would seem I got the wrong impression that they are suggesting a transitional society at all. Still there are some obvious differences.

Viewing 15 posts - 1,996 through 2,010 (of 2,084 total)