[jondwhite]

Bob Andrews wrote:

jondwhite wrote:

For clarity, the masthead you are talking about is not the SPGB one, but the one athttp://www.socialiststudies.org.uk/ 

Yes, I know. And Socialist Studies is produced by the SPGB. Over on the Local Election Campaign 2017 thread, the sinister "Alan Johnstone" asks, quite reasonably, "What name are we contesting all these elections under?" The Anarcho-Socialist party of Clapham in a nutshell.

Are you trolling us, them or both parties?

[jondwhite]

Here's what the SWP have said over the years about printed press

Quote:

When people want to taunt at revolutionary socialists they often make fun of the effort we put into producing, distributing and selling our newspapers. The stock caricature of us is of wild-eyed, misdressed lunatics clutching wads of papers that nobody wants to buy. It is an image that ex-revolutionaries now making a remunerative career in respectable politics like to encourage. They can compare their present ‘influence’ as they sit on parliamentary committees or administer municipal parks with their wasted past standing outside factories failing to sell one or other weekly paper.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1984/xx/revpress.html

Quote:

Hostility to the revolutionary paper (as outdated) goes with hostility to the party (as elitist). Hence, arguments about new forms of communication also go with arguments about new forms of organizing. This argument is now widespread on the left and finds an echo in our party.It’s an argument that tends to privilege technology as the driving force in society: with a smart phone in our pocket what can’t we, networked to one another, do to change the world? The idea that only the working class has the power to change the world is not one that comes naturally to those who hold this argument – and the idea of ‘organising’ to make that power effective even less so (indeed, ‘organisation’ is seen as imposing on and taking over movements).

http://socialistunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IB1sept2013.pdf

Quote:

Laurie criticises us for continuing to produce and sell a weekly newspaper. I agree that no organisational practice is sacred, and how we communicate has changed in recent years: thus we now put a lot into our website, though no doubt we should do a lot more.But Socialist Worker allows us to have an organised weekly dialogue with thousands of other activists. One of its advantages is precisely that it doesn’t just exist in cyberspace but is a physical product that has to be sold in a specific time and space – this particular neighbourhood or workplace or picket-line or demonstration – and that involves face-to-face interaction.This allows us to develop continuing relationships with other activists that, we believe, strengths both us and the broader struggle.

https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/23099/Alex+Callinicos%3A+a+reply+to+Laurie+Pennys+reply

Quote:

 Parties don't sell papers expecting that the dissemination of ideas in hard copy will by itself change the world. The newspaper is there when the internet isn't. The newspaper is a way of overcoming atomisation, giving complete strangers the occasion to stop and talk to one another about political ideas. You stand in a street, or in a workplace, asking people to stop and buy a copy of the newspaper not so that they will take it home and passively absorbe its contents, but so that a minority will stop and talk to you about what's wrong with the world and where we can go from here. It's a way of building up a network of real life relationships in a way that the internet can't yet replicate, much less replace.

http://www.leninology.co.uk/2010/12/in-defence-of-old-hierarchies.html 

[jondwhite]

The World Transformed are doing a festival for young people, details herehttps://takebackrealcontrol.com/youth

[jondwhite]

I just remembered a couple of organisations who sort of touched on these issuesthe Independent Working Class Association and to a lesser extent the Black Panthershttps://web.stanford.edu/group/blackpanthers/programs.shtml

[jondwhite]

Choosing where to put a litter bin is activity – but it sounds like a bit of a stretch to call it 'political activity'. That is, I suppose, unless 'all power to the parish councils' ever catches on.

[jondwhite]

For clarity, the masthead you are talking about is not the SPGB one, but the one athttp://www.socialiststudies.org.uk/It may be a bad replacement logo (reminiscent of 'One World, One People') but anthropogenic global warming is real, its what environmentalists do about it is where Marxists might disagree.

[jondwhite]

6 pamphlets are for sale on ebay 'Vintage Socialist Party of Great Britain Book Pamphlet Collection (Rare) Kautsky'http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252834203640?ul_noapp=trueThey're described as SPGB but I don't think they are

Quote:

Item: Vintage Socialist Party of Great Britain Book Pamphlet Collection1: Fabianism and the Fiscal Question2: Anarchism in Socialistic Evolution3: Municipal Trading4: Economic Discontent, Father T. J. Hagerty5: Socialism versus Tariff Reform (cover is loose and and worn, see photo)6: Socialism versus Tariff Reform (cover aged, still attached)6: The Working Class, Karl Kautsky7: Socialism and Tariff Reform, Fred Henderson (cover not attached/wear)8: The Blight of Competition, George D. Hardie9: The Socialist Commonwealth, Karl Kautsky10: Manifesto of the Communist Party (1883 / 5th edition)11: The Road to Power, Karl Kautsky12: Municipal Socialism in West Ham, J. J. Terrett13: Socialism and Science, Dr Eden Paul14: Socialism and the Home, Katharine Bruce Glasier15: The Working Class, Karl Kautsky (second copy) cover not attached, no back page16: Hands Across the Sea, G.H. Perris17: The Capitalist Class, Karl Kautsky Condition: various from very good to poor; see photos

[jondwhite]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwcbu5_sg8ZBYjNtSnF4TlF1Tkk/view?usp=sharing

[jondwhite]

Inkpen, are you familiar with the analytical work he produced on the SPGB?

[jondwhite]

I raised this before (possibly on spintcom) but seem to recall EC weren't keen

[jondwhite]

Often thought about going to this.

[jondwhite]

What about changing Clause 4 to

Quote:

That as in the order of social evolution the working class is the last class to achieve its freedom, the emancipation of the working class will involve the emancipation of all mankind, without distinction of identity

[jondwhite]

Well the WSM organises on a per-country basis, or more accurately a companion party to conquer each 'state'. Its likely any sort of large Socialist party in opposition would lead to an avalanche of government reforms to try and buy off the working class as happened on a smaller scale with the 'Socialist Party of America' and the New Deal. This alone should be signal enough that socialism poses a viable alternative that the ruling class don't want and that austerity is really a matter of political priorities.Current change in membership depends on over what period. Since Bernie Sanders campaign, the so-called 'Democratic Socialists of America' have seized the opportunity to loudly proclaim tripling membership to over 20,000 and dutiful media establishments have reprinted this.Apart from declaring yourself not to be a vanguard, avoiding vanguardism for me means avoiding becoming a cadre party expecting or judging members on their activity. It also has to be a participatory party and my idea of open primaries (similar but not the same as the US system) seems to be the main way of doing this.

[jondwhite]

What is the pissoir theory of history?

[jondwhite]

Contacts now been made.

[Author]

Posts