jondwhite
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I missed this first time around but here are my responsesI think this jumbles a number of issues together. Most predictions about capitalism, although interesting, do not form part of the Socialist Party case. Changing the world, however, is part of the Socialist Party case. Crump’s critique whilst wrong about tendencies says ‘If the economic determinists could be criticised on the grounds that they were more interested in interpreting the world than in changing it, the utopians who now came into the SPGB were barely interested in what was happening in the real world at all. For them, capitalism was just “the passing show” (the title of a column which was featured in the Socialist Standard for many years) and if it warranted any comment whatsoever it was simply to show what a stupid and unpleasant social system it was compared with the sane and orderly society of socialism.’I’ve heard one member blame the workers. The workers are influenced by mass media, but not controlled. Blaming the workers oughtn’t be an excuse to dismiss anything said about the party.Not all decisions take a year, presumably this is a reference to conference.I agree if any members wish to stay in head office (which I found too uncomfortable to sleep at) they should be allowed to do so.Using head office main hall as a bookshop or the rear yard as a community garden would attract passersby and currently much of the footfall on the high street ignores head office. I don’t think the objections to this are couched as objections to capitalism when the party is going to be investing some of its liquid capital in other assets anyway.The objection to employing someone to run head office is not for lack of funds. However I think it is worth employing someone to run head office.The party should actively try and increase diversity of background among membership, there is a good article in this months Standard. However, Wikipedia says the book you mention is in favour of direct action so perhaps you are talking about diversity of tactics.As far as the Socialist Party case is concerned, the important difference is between the ruling-class and the rest. Just because Western Europeans enjoy certain freedoms that the rest of the world might not, does not mean the Socialist party case should not be about the class struggle.The party can capture the state through contesting elections (as was done this year) and ‘No Compromise, No Political Trading’ which is both the title of an excellent pamphlet and the inscription on an early party banner in the 1905 conference photo.The current situation is not typical of the party history. Capital assets including head office are vastly in excess of membership strength (which I think carries direr risks). We are already in the situation you are advocating unless you are suggesting investing in a second head office? May I be the first to suggest one in the North!In general I thought this would be more about head office, which is structurally stuck in the past, for which I have suggested various renovations but so far, to no avail!
Has there been any news on
Quote:an urgent review of the sustainability of its organisational structure and its ability to effectively engage its members and supporters to achieve its objectives and operate in the 21st Century. Conference instructs the Executive Committee to organise a consultation of the entire membership on:1. Their views on the current and future organisational structure of the Party.2. The views of members on the priorities of the Party.3. How best individual party members, supporters and sympathisers can be enabled to participate in achieving the object of the Party. “Maybe refraining from calling women an 'old trout' (Pathfinders January 2017) or refraining from advertising the party in sexist magazines such as Viz, might help narrow the activism gap. This blog highlights other examples;http://withoutdistinctionofraceorsex.blogspot.co.uk/
mcolome1 wrote:http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lenin-statue-of-fremontThere is a large statute of Lenin in Seatle, WashingtonThe Strange Story of Seattle's Suddenly Controversial Lenin Statue
Thanks. Some of the archived versions are spam so I would advise looking only at 2001-2002 such as this one;https://web.archive.org/web/20020324171301/http://www.democratie-socialiste.org/After 2002, the site seems to have moved to the the same address but with a .net suffix instead of .orghttps://web.archive.org/web/20021030180808/http://www.democratie-socialiste.net/Until 2007 when spammers took over the abandoned page.I e-mailed bataille socialiste but their blog seems to have called it a day a couple of months agohttps://bataillesocialiste.wordpress.com/2017/06/08/la-bataille-socialiste-sarrete/
It seems this term alt-left has been given more publicity by the latest statement by Trump.https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=alt-leftThe counterpunch article defines it as a rejection of identity politics.Trump seems to think it is a term for violent antifa and BLM.Jacobin suggests the term "alt-left" was originally a slander against the Bernie Sanders campaignhttps://jacobinmag.com/2017/08/charlottesville-alt-right-left-bernie-bros
Thanks for the report. Shame that they gave us barely a mention both last time and in their program this time. So much for an open press.
18k views explainer animation in under six months; DSA What is Capitalism?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sLgqq939JQ
Could it be IS? It would be ironic considering how fond of 'Bliar' (sic) placards during the invasion of Iraq. Surely even IS wouldn't have the front to conceal something like that?IMG?SLL seems more like Alistair Campbell type breeding grounds.Could it be a complete fabrication to tack left to gauge support for launching a breakaway party? Why this would garner any significant support I don't know, there really aren't that many Trots in Britain however much they like to overstate their numbers.
How does the DSA get this sort of presshttps://www.thenation.com/article/america-has-a-long-and-storied-socialist-tradition-dsa-is-reviving-it/
Bob Hope, comedy's answer to Kissinger, ever-willing to entertain the troops on the latest US military adventure.
Quote:Bob Hope was the establishment. Bob Hope was friends with Nixon. Bob Hope was speaking in favor of the [Vietnam] War. Bob Hope was expressing that kind of backward, suburban, WASP view of minorities, homosexuals, the women's movement. Even his comments on the women's movement were very condescending. He did a special in the '70s on the women's movement and it was so silly, so backward. And [in his act] the woman who had some big political office was dusting the chairs in between her meetings. It was just awful. He got mail … from feminists.He was clueless at that time. That was why that generation of comedians turned off to him. … It's hard to be [a] comedian and be part of the establishment because comedians, their job is to satirize and to poke fun at the powerful people. And this is something that Bob was — one of the powerful people. So just as a comedian, he became less and less relevant.http://www.npr.org/2014/11/24/366137941/the-rise-and-fall-of-comedian-bob-hope
