Ozymandias
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Shit I don't think I cut and payed it too good. Just thought it was useful as far as an "Eco – Socialst " approach.
Cheers mate. I guess I was kind of disappointed when I watch the video link they provide because it looks as if it's The Venus Project which is behind this.
Forgot to ask if anyone can tell me who the "Internationalist Communist Tendency" are. I've never heard of them but they look like Trots.
And of those 3261 rejected ballots how many would have been down to the SPGB? 50? 100? The party misses every opportunity because it is almost invisible and the bulk of the membership (about 500 worldwide?) are elderly. Most of Glasgow Branch will be dead in 10-15 years. It's not the party's fault. It's the fault of the "Working Class". What depresses me utterly is the nationalism that workers are full of up here. On George Sq tonight you've got teenagers draped in Union Jacks (giving Nazi salutes) facing the "enemy" who are wearing Saltire flags. I listened to Adam Buick's fantastic debating skills on the African Radio Show and the same sinking feeling came when listening to how the SPGB argument completely passed over the heads of his opponents. It's the same with my cousins and friends up here. It doesn't even get to the stage where I'm getting looks of utter incomprehension anymore, they just can't hear it no matter how many times it is explained to them. They just don't want to see. They just don't listen. I read this really excellent article http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2014-08-18/the-scottish-independence-referendum-the-great-diversion# from the "Internationalist Communist Tendency" that was posted up earlier. But the sinking feeling came again when reading through the comments section cos the dude who wrote it (someone called Shug) clearly has little time for the SPGB if his remark that "As always, the SPGB swallows the myth of the primacy of parliament" is anything to go by. How frustrating that it's "so near and yet so far" with a lot of these groups (incl TZM). Yesterday I dithered between actually voting no (!) or spoiling my ballot. Realising a no vote was effectively a yes vote for Capitalism it felt good to attach my wee SPGB sticker onto my ballot paper. But beyond that drop in the ocean I actually felt major relief this morning that workers had rejected secession. I think it would have been a disaster. I can't say I'm impressed though with the highest turnout since universal suffrage was granted to us in 19 canteen because over 3.6 Million workers were utterly hoodwinked with lies from both yes and no camps. This is cause for further depression. I'm trying not to give into my usual "we're fucked because workers are so fuckin stupid so let's just give up and die" position because I know there is still hope. In the past ten years we've had mass rallies against the Iraq war, Wikileaks, Edward Snowden, Occupy, Bradley Manning, Arab Spring and the emergence of TZM as well as more voices similar WSM popping out of the woodwork online. This week Naomi Klein publishes a new book about Capitalism v The Climate and even though she will probably diagnose more Capitalism as a solution to Capitalism (like Piketty) I guess at least Capitalism is a topic for debate now in the media. You hardly ever saw the word written about or mentioned even 10 years ago. A few days ago I received an email from "Occupy Wall Street" alerting people about a new futile march they are planning to coincide with another useless climate summit in New York next week. A few sentences from the bulletin immediately gave me hope…"Together we will confront the 1% economic system of capitalism that is causing and profiting from the climate crisis – an economy fundamentally based on inequality and exploitation."" We expect thousands to join us in a collective sit-in to confront capitalism and climate change.""…helps us to serve on the front lines of the class war to end the capitalist system that injures everyone in its path." They also reproduced a photo of one of their banners… I just wish the whole thing wouldn't take so fuckin long…like hundreds of years long!
Just spent a minute heckling Alex Salmond there on Buchanan St. Could hardly get near him for reporters and press people…it was like flies round shite. A flurry of Yes supporters were crowding around Salmond and Sturgeon so I just thought I would get my oar in. A Sun reporter came up to me and took my details and I explained my position to him then a guy from a Sky News mentioned that he'd like a short spot for the Sky News website. I spoke to camera for a few minutes but whether they will stick me on the website tonight or not is anyone's guess. Probably onto plums but I tried.
Hello punk mate. Yes we do keep getting drawn back because the party is the antidote to all the madness out there and as mcolome1 says there is nothing better. I guess I shouldn't be coming on here spouting my hatred like this but in a way I wish I was one of the "idiots" out there. I am in a fairly unique position because I was brought up with SPGB ideas right from infancy and straight through childhood because both my Da and my old dear were members. My old man still is. I was reading the Standard by the age of about 11 or 12 and I remember all of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle suddenly coming together in one momentary flash around about that age. A blessing or a curse? Sometimes I just wish I didn't know what I know. It's hellish to have the old X-Ray specs on all the time because as Socialists we see through everything. I guess I can't really call myself a Socialist though after what I've been saying. However I tell you it's not a patch on what I was hearing from party members all through my childhood and adolescence. From what I could tell the dirty secret of various different SPGB members was an extreme loathing of the working class. I'm trying to exonerate myself here but I'm onto plums I guess. I just harbour a great fear that we are all headed for something catastrophic in the near future…and I'm talking extinction event here. I think there have been various signs of hope in the past 10 years (Occupy/Bradley Manning/TZM/Wikileaks/Snowden/Arab Spring etc) but the pace of change is glacial even in the Internet age. I just have this terrible fear all the time. I'm scared wer are not going to make it. Please forgive me everyone. I don't mean to offend. I'm angry and mega frustrated.
Ok I shouldn't have used the word "Faith". Still I have no hope or confidence in the "Working Class"…their brains are dormant. They are fuckin idiots.
Look I concede hypothetically that a minority of the global workforce involved in the armed forces/police might end up joining the struggle for World Socialism, in fact it could even be a majority. However you're going to get a small hardcore of fanatics and psycho's in the military who will defend the property rights of their masters to the very last. And this element will exist in every country on earth. It only takes one loony to set off a chain reaction by pressing the button. In my mind all of this is conjectural anyway because for the life of me I just cannot see the 99% ever getting to the point where we've woken up enough to get things organised politically, consciously and democratically to bring about the establishment of a post capitalist society. Certainly not within the dwindling amount of time we have left before environmental or nuclear armageddon finishes us off.As far as Lenin is concerned the only thing the bastard ever wrote that I roughly agree with was his estimation of how long it would take for workers to achieve class consciousness. I think he said it might take hundreds of years. Perhaps he was right on that point although I disagree with his idea that workers at best were really only able to achieve "Trades Union Consciousness". The fact is in 2014 many workers cannot even achieve that! For instance I've heard workers praise gangsters like Thatcher by saying shit like…"At least she was tough on the unions". Workers are more stupid than they've ever been and the Internet is making it worse. It makes workers more isolated, more addicted, more phobic.The SPGB through no fault of its own has consistently failed to capture the imagination of workers for 110 years now. It is almost impossible to convince your average worker of the urgent need for World Socialism, never mind trying to appeal to the human sediment which makes up most of the armed and police forces.These are the kind of workers who love power and it's this unfortunate element in human behaviour that Capitalists are only too happy to exploit. These pathetic slaves enjoy dousing workers faces in pepper spray, they love battering black people to death in police cells, or get some of their kicks by treating "illegal" immigrants like animals in detention centres, they relish beating strikers into submission, getting deep satisfaction from electrocuting protesters with tasers, they create and cover up human tragedies like Hillsborough, they spy on innocents like Doreen Lawrence, they ritually humiliate and patronise members of the public, they protect high ranking paedophiles as well as posing as activists in pressure groups so they can infiltrate them…the sorry list goes on.The bottom line is that many of these pathetic uniformed cretins would love nothing more than to gun down "their own people". Work is like being in a video game for many of them. I do not consider such filth to be members of my class, even though economically they obviously are. For me they inhabit their own limbo land of corruption, lies, racism, violence and very low cognitive ability. Yet the entire gambit of Socialism is predicated on depending on these people to join the class struggle.Also this isn't even taking into account all of the other variables which could make a transition from this society to the next extremely hazardous. We have elite military squadrons, armies within armies, vast spy networks, intelligence organisations, secret societies (allegedly), far right wing armed paramilitary groups, survivalists, cults, religious fanatics, terrorist networks, you name it. How the hell are we ever going to get to revolution with all of this in place?Meanwhile governments continue to invest in researching ever more horrible and ghastly ways of killing workers. Licenses are issued to toy companies so sets of "Swat Team" playmobil/Lego figures can be sold in toy shops to ensure kids are desensitised to the increasing fascist police presence growing all around them. Governments are developing Frankenstein experiments with the very fabric of space time by creating mini black holes. They are rapidly developing drone technology to the extent that such machines can be minimized to the size of insects. Sonic, laser and microwave weapons are being increasingly developed to create "death rays". Robotics and nano-technologies are slowly enabling the fantasy of robot infantrymen which can be controlled like drones. Each branch of the armed forces will have an entertainment office in Hollywood so they can assist the production of increasingly militaristic movies and violent video games which often contain wild historical innacuracies which suit the neo-con worldview. Yesterday I read a report about a sergeant major and former US Army/Vietnam veteran who was caught on video saying some pretty vile things about his fellow workers. This vegetable made his remarks whilst holding a Bible during an address earlier this year to a St Louis branch of the Oathkeepers, an association of former and serving military personnel, police officers and first responders. The group says that its members “pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to ‘defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic". This is only one example of the maelstrom of obstacles we face. How many miriad groups of "Oathkeepers" are there throughout the world? With all of them unwittingly defending their right to be slaves? Each of them staunchly believing all the lies their governments ever told them? Of course I'm hoping I'll be proven utterly wrong about everything I've said here. However workers consistently refuse to stand by each other. I despise them exactly because they lie…to themselves. They are dishonest liars because they don't know any better.The kind of mental leap we would require for Socialism to be established is of near miracle proportion. I left the SPGB 15 years ago because I was disgusted with the pathetic attitude of slaves all over the world in reaction to the news of the death of the parasite Princess Diana. I have no faith in the "Working Class" and that's why I won't be rejoining. Unless as I say there is a never before witnessed mental revolution around the corner then I think either we will blow ourselves up to Kingdom come or the planet itself will get rid of us. What is "humanity" anyway but a disgusting virus which is polluting and destroying its host. This is becoming more and more apparent. Whilst I cannot say Socialism is totally impossible I think it's establishment in our lifetime (or any lifetime for that matter) is at best almost impossible. Sorry but it's the way I feel.
And we expect the police and the armed forces to eventually join the class war? What a fuckin joke. These pathetic slaves will do anything their masters tell them to do because they love power. That's the reason they get up in the morning. How can we possibly rely on this filth? Many of these fuckin cretins are psychopaths. We are so fucked. Socialism? Forget it. That cunt Mao said only one thing that I would go along with (that Nuclear War is in some way inevitable) and I hope when the end does come it's quick.
What is the point of continually humouring this guy? He's as bad as that loon from TZM. The phrase about brick walls comes to mind.
Reading this just depresses me. It reminds me of the hopeless fantasies of that guy from the "Socialist Centre" in India. Clearly your'e never going to attract TZMers to think about joining the WSM. I used to view TZM with real hope but I think apart from popularising the idea of a moneyless society it has also filled workers minds with a whole new set of delusions. A whole new set of entanglements and problems to try and iron out. What a fuckin mess we are in.
I meant to ask if the SPGB have been in contact with RT. I think they have a studio in London. Can the party capitalise on the recent BBC appearance? TZM have been on RT several times. If they can get on the telly why can't the WSM?
