imposs1904
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Just scanned this in. A wee poem that appeared in the June 1955 Socialist Standard in the aftermath of the May 1955 General Election.
Spring Song after the Election (1955)
Another Election has come and gone.
The tumult’s ended, the shouting’s done.
Tweedledum’s lost, and Tweedledee’s won.
Loud sing cuckoo!
Lib., Lab., Con.,—and C.P. too,
Made up a right reformist crew,
Dispensing the usual vote-catching brew.
Loud sing cuckoo!
Liberal and Tory, C.P. and Lab.,
All full of promises, all full of gab.
Labour with ’Erbie, Tories with Rab,
Loud sing cuckoo!
Sugar and soft soap again the rule.
Kissing the babies, playing the fool,
Nice glossy photos to make the girls drool.
Loud sing cuckoo!
Candidates handsome, candidates plain,
Candidates pleasing with might and main,
All to keep capitalism running again.
Loud sing cuckoo!
All the old catchcries out once more,
Canvassers knocking at every front door,
First they’d been seen since the barney before,
Loud sing cuckoo!
Street-comer meetings, things of the past,
Democracy’s symbol’s a radio mast.
Now its the “ telly ’’—with all star cast.
Loud sing cuckoo!
Millions of workers put down their crosses,
Applauded the “gains,” regretted the “losses,”
Fine difference it made, they still work for bosses,
Loud sing cuckoo!
So the farcical game goes on.
Tweedledum’s lost and Tweedledee’s won.
Another Election has come and gone,
Loud sing cuckoo!Stan Hampson
The Revolutionary Communist Party (formerly known as Socialist Appeal) are putting up a candidate in Stratford and Bow in the East End of London.
Their candidate, Fiona Lali, is listed as an independent but that’s only because they probably didn’t register in time as a political party with the electoral commission:
https://communist.red/this-election-punish-the-warmongers-vote-for-the-rcp/
Their candidate was recently in the news when she debated the issue of Palestine with Suella Braverman on GB News:
Damn, I didn’t spot that book review.
Hilarious how the term “ultra-leftists” is thrown around willy-nilly against all and sundry. It brings to mind that famous Princess Bride meme.
Funny how the reviewer of the book thinks yourself and John Crump were “follow”[ing] on from Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski.
I’m presuming the reviewer, Richard Barbrook, is this guy:
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/07/richard-barbrook-man-war-gaming-corbyn-governmentSome people in Left Trainspotting circles have suggested that though Starmer wasn’t formally a member of Militant, he did sell the paper as a young man in the LPYS in either Leeds or Oxford.
He then went on his Pabloite excursion in his mid to late 20s.
Here’s a link to an issue of the short-lived Socialist Alternatives magazine when Starmer was on its Editorial Board. In this issue he has an article on Wapping and its aftermath, and he interviews Hilary Wainwright and Tony Benn about the direction of the Labour Party.
I’m genuinely surprised that the Tories haven’t made more of his Trot past. Britain’s very own Lionel Jospin. You also know that if the press weren’t so over this Tory government, and now think it’s Labour’s turn as the Capitalist B Team, they would have been all over this like a rash. By July 3rd the Sun would be doing centre spreads on ‘What is Pabloism?’ and ‘Do you know your Fourth Internationals from your Fifth Internationals?’
“Actually, we should probably have a separate thread under General Discussion to discuss these groups attitude to the Labour Party in the election.”
There should be a new thread (or threads) for the Election.
Interesting couple of undated clips of Luke Akehurst – the longstanding Labour Right political fixer and now PPC for the Labour Party in the North East – playing out the role of a non-Jewish gatekeeper of what constitutes a proper Jew. (A clue – it relates to that person’s position on Zionism.)
Maybe he is an excellent behind the scenes fixer/hatchet man/factionalist extraordinaire (delete as appropriate) for the Labour Right but he also looks like he’s quickly becoming a liability for Starmer’s Labour Party. He comes across as a 2024 version of John Spellar . . . but without the charisma (I hope people get that joke):
February 1974 was the last General Election where the SPGB didn’t put up a candidate.
I’m curious to know why the Party didn’t contest Feb ’74 but did end up contesting Oct’74. Does anyone know? Was there a debate within the Party at the time about whether or not we should put up candidates?
The moderators can remove this post from the thread if they don’t think it’s in the right place, but I just scanned in an interesting article from the June 1987 Socialist Standard which provides an overview of what was going on in Middle East – and its attendant intra-capitalist rivalry – during that period:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/06/islam-sigh-of-oppressed-1987.html
Faiza Shaheen is standing as an independent in Chingford & Woodford Green:
https://x.com/faizashaheen/status/1798369070657782177
I guess that’ll increase the chance of Iain Duncan Smith retaining his seat. Maybe, if re-elected, he’ll decide to have a second go at being leader of a rump Tory Party.
I think I might need more popcorn.
“Those who are experienced in such matters tell us that all brands of cornflakes taste the same. It has also been said that they all conform to a standard of nutrition which results in the package having more food value than the flakes. It is rather like this in the political field. The parties which are likely to get into power in this election all offer the same low level of social nutrition and politically they all have the same flavour. Their only difference is in their presentation – their packaging – and this is where they are in competition, their programmes and their leaders dressed, decorated, obscured so as to bear little relation to their true character.”
Lovely piece of writing from ‘Ivan’ (Ralph Critchfield) from the June 1987 Socialist Standard, when covering that British General Election. Nothing’s really changed.
Full article here:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2024/06/snap-crackle-pop-1987.htmlFaiza Shaheen, who was the Labour PPC for Chingford & Woodford Green before she was politically ambushed by the Labour leadership for social media activity, has resigned from the Labour Party. No news yet if she’s standing as an independent:
I thought this was interesting clip of Michael Crick talking about the vindictiveness of the Labour Right over the selection of parliamentary candidates. No doubt this past week of Starmer own goals will be (temporarily) forgotten come July 5th but I think it does point to a deeper poison within the current Labour leadership. This kind of political-gangsterism will be par for the course for the Labour Government, and once they run out of Labour Lefts to punch down on, they’ll quickly turn on each other.
During the discussion period of Keith Scholey’s talk on the SPGB and the Spanish Civil War last Friday, I mentioned an article from 1937 on the conflict which appeared in the New York journal, The International Review. The people involved with the IR were the same people who, amongst other things, first translated Martov’s The State and the Socialist Revolution into English and published the pamphlet Bolshevism by Rudolf Sprenger.
The article is well worth a read if you’re interested in the period and the complexities of the situation on the ground. Though there is definitely an overlap of sorts with our position in places in the article, it is the case that ‘Roberto’ was probably writing from a Council Communist position:
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2006/09/spain-turns.html
