Socialist Party Head Office
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Message received from Critisticuffs in relation to a workshop they are organising on 17 April:
Quote:David Harvey is the dominant commentator on Capital in English and many Capital reading groups use his video lectures or his book – A Companion to Marx' Capital – to guide them. Capital can be a daunting book and David Harvey's commentaries have encouraged many to pick it up and work through it. This, in principle, is a valuable project as much can be learned about the world we are forced to live in from that old book. Yet, those who read A Companion to guide them through Capital in order to learn about the capitalist mode of production will be disappointed: it neither gives an adequate account of what Marx said nor of the capitalist mode of production. In this meeting we want to focus on A Companion's failure to grasp what value and the value forming activity – abstract labour – are. /A Companion/ does not inform the reader what value is – access power to social wealth – and has nothing to say about labour being reduced to pure toil – “expenditure of human brains, muscles, nerves, hands” (Capital, p.134). Instead it exclusively concerns itself with the magnitude of value, i.e. for how much a commodity exchanges. Hence, Marx's charge against political economy also applies to his most prominent commentator: “Political economy has indeed analysed value and its magnitude, however incompletely, and has uncovered the content concealed within these forms. But it has never once asked the question why this content has assumed that particular form, that is to say, why labour is expressed in value and why the measurement of labour by its duration is expressed in the magnitude of value of the product.” (Capital, p.132) All this might seem like a scholastic exercise by people who care about old books instead of, say, the poverty all around us. However, it is important to highlight these problems not because they misrepresent Marx, although this is often the case, but because we think that David Harvey's account in A Companion does not adequately explain the commodity, money and capital; in short capitalism. Harvey's failure to grasp these fundamental concepts is the premise for him proposing futile solutions to socially made poverty. When David Harvey proposes oxidisable money against accumulation this does not only reveal his ignorance of money but also and more fundamentally of commodity production and the poverty it entails. The purpose of our workshop is hence not so much to point out that David Harvey wrote a bad book, but to encourage people to pick up a copy of Capital in order to understand the misery all around us.We have just been informed by email that this exhibition at the Bishopsgate Institute has been extended until 19 May.
Message from the author, Peter Critchley, that he posted to the Socialist Party email address today -Monday 24th March:Just to say that I am the author of The Proletarian Public, the book being discussed by Alan Johnstone.The book was never published in hard copy form. It was written up from notes I made early in my doctoral research. I wanted to write a thesis on the proletarian transformation of politics and the tradition of 'socialism from below'. I share that commitment to working class self-emancipation and autonomy, and so gathered materials for a thesis on proletarian order. As it happened, the thesis took a more philosophical direction, and the notes were left unused. I decided to gather them up and put them out, hoping to inform a little, inspire and just pay tribute to the James Connolly's and the Tom Mann's and all those who breathed fire and life into socialism. We need them back. We need to follow their example.So thanks for the interest. Hope I've done a little something to keep these figures and their ideas alive.
We have also received this email at Head Office from what appears to be a government agency:
Fracking: The Debate on Hydraulic Fracturing for Gas
The Mermaid, London, 19th May 2014Govtoday and Securing the Future are delighted to be hosting Fracking:
The Debate on Hydraulic Fracturing for Gas. The conference will be held
on Tuesday 19th May at the Mermaid Conference Centre, London.REGISTER YOUR PLACE TODAY via the URL below
http://www.fracking-conference.co.uk/index.php?option=com_gtereg&subid=
{subtag:subid}&refcode=FR14AG&Itemid=262Discounts for Group Bookings Available
VIEW FULL DETAILS OF THE PROGRAMME
http://www.fracking-conference.co.uk/programmeAlicia Greally
Marketing Executive
Tel: + 44 (0) 161 686 5589
Email: alicia.greally@gtevent.co.ukFracking: the Debate on Hydraulic Fracturing for Gas will discuss how the
advancement of fracking could contribute significantly to the UK’s energy
security and reduce the reliance on imported gas as the country moves to
a low carbon economy.The conference will provide delegates with an opportunity to hear about and
understand the prospect of increased shale gas extraction in the UK.A high profile panel of speakers will discuss the impact of the recent
recommendations examining the cases both for and against fracking UK shale.Confirmed Speakers INCLUDE:
Duarte Figueira
Head of the Office of Unconventional Gas and Oil
Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)Dan Byles MP
All Party Parliamentary Group on Unconventional Oil and GasProfessor John Loughhead
Executive Director
UK Energy Research CentreJoin The Debate
TOPIC: The Debate on Hydraulic Fracturing for Gas in the UK
Have Your Say – comment on this topic using the guest log on provided
below.Username: fracking20 Password: fracking20
Comrade Paddy Shannon who is not on this forum has sent in this contribution:The thing about quantum mechanics is that it works but nobody knows why it works. There have always been two conflicting views on this, which one could call the chaos and the hidden order perspectives. On the chaos side there were Heisenberg, Niels Bohr and others who contended that fundamental ‘particles’ were probably not really particles, nor waves, nor anything we can possibly imagine, and their behaviour was essentially unknowable. Even attempts to measure their position or velocity introduce an observer bias. ‘Theory’ in the prevailing Copenhagen perspective is really ‘probability’. It works because, just like with humans, you can’t predict the behaviour of individuals but you can always predict the behaviour of crowds.The other school of thought follows the tradition of classical Newtonian physics (though this goes right back to Aristotle’s dictum ‘a thing is either X or it is non-X’), and this school has never been able to accept the Copenhagen view as anything but a fudge. In this viewpoint belong Einstein (“God doesn’t play dice” etc) and Erwin Schrodinger, whose famous ‘cat’ was an attempt to illustrate the intrinsic paradox of quantum uncertainty (how can a cat be dead and not dead?). Pilot wave, hidden variables etc, are attempts to explain quantum phenomena in deterministic frameworks.Quantum mechanics is the practice of quantum physics, without the theory. You do the sums, you get the right answers, no questions asked. Quantum theory, on the other hand, is where all the bitching takes place, with jobs and promotions often depending on which view you take. For an accessible and entertaining bitching session about string theorists and why they are the spawn of Satan, check out Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics.
Another letter received on this:Dear Editors, RE: R. BrandTotally agree with Ian McRae – Letters Soc. Stand. January 2014 – he has hit the nail right on the head with his comments and condemnation of R. Brand.Your printed reply is very disappointing after so much learned writing which appears in the Socialist Standard – anyone new to Socialism and reading this article on first viewing of the Soc. Standard would, in my opinion, be likely to put the magazine down and forget the idea of a new way of living as led by as yet another ' bunch of nutters'.Biggest problem we have is continuing with the title SOCIALISM – the majority of people to whom I talk about this logical idea of human progression and betterment invariably condemn the title Socialism as State Capitalism with their minds wandering off in the direction of the next 'big bucks' job or 'who's won the footy tonight' ! Is a change possibly on the cards ?T.L. Smith
DAP who is not on this forum has sent in this contribution:Yes, it's (an ad?) from Money Week and they are known to be quite bearish, especially the editor, Merryn Somerset Webb, who also writes in the FT.There's a grain of truth of course but lots of hyperbole. YMS's comment underneath is right about not properly taking inflation into account. Big nominal numbers can be deceptive here – percentages are best.The point about gilts being in a bubble is right of course and interest rates will indeed rise as we know. But the main problem is likely to be the levels of personal debt not state debt, as these are far more serious and have risen more noticeably in the last 10-20 years. State debt is less of a problem in a relative boom, which will happen at some point, but personal debt is, as we've seen before. But highlighting that, I guess, doesn't fit in so neatly with the obvious agenda of the writer!
Conway Hall's publicity for this debate here:http://www.conwayhall.org.uk/what-are-we-going-to-do-with-capitalism
There's now going to be a local radio broadcast on this too on Sunday 19 January..
Here's the details.
Due to be broadcast *19th January 6pm* on Resonance FM, this half hour
program is an insider’s tour of the many faces of Speakers’ Corner,
peppered with sonic surprises. It reveals Corner’s intriguing origins, its
enduring mystique, and why people who write it off as a realm of cranks and
fanatics should think again. The show gives a taste of the incredible
archive of oral history, field recordings and photos which is nearly ready
for researchers at Bishopsgate Institute.The show features
– snippets of oral history with Speakers' Corner regulars
– entertaining archive footage of orators and hecklers past and present
– a musical adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s gallows satire “Clever Tom
Clinch” by the amazing Kalbakken.Listen online anywhere in the world: http://resonancefm.com/listen Or tune in to 104.4FM if your radio is near London Bridge! After the 19th you can download it from On the Record's website<http://soundsfromthepark.on-the-record.org.uk/radio-show/> .
"On the Record" who have prepared this oral history of Speakers' Corner have sent us a number of complimentary copies of their booklet on this. If anyone would like a copy we will send them one in return for postage costs (50p second class stamp if in the UK or international reply coupon if abroad). Write to: 52 Clapham High St, London SW4 7UN or email spgb [at] worldsocialism.org
Here are the words of the pre-WW1 Party song. We haven't been able to find the music:"THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS".A SONG OF REVOLUTION.Words & Music by H J NeumannYou toilers of the world, arise!To bravely speed the day,When all your forces organiseKing Capital to slay,And from the master class you'll wrestThe powers of the State,Which, wielded in your interest,Your class emancipate.There sounds above the class war dinThe battle-cry we use:Unite! you have a world to win,Your chains alone to lose.Your lot in life is darkest gloom;You sow and others reap.And want and mis'ry are your doom,While idlers treasurers heap.Why have they riches, you distress,Though you all wealth have wrought?It is because the few possessThe earth while you have nought.There sounds, etc.While you an idle class maintainFor pittances you'll toil.To own your products you must gainPossessions of the soilAnd of all means the workers needTo found the Commonwealth,And thus enable all to leadFull lives of peace and health.There sounds, etc.Arise! the message to proclaim,The message full of cheer;That Labour's freedom is your aim,That brighter days are near.To men exhausted by the fray,To women in despair,To children wanting food and play,To all the message bear.There sounds, etc.COPIES of the above four-part song–S., A., T., B.–(which will be sung by a choral party at the Annual Social on April the 9th), complete with pianoforte accompaniment and Tonic-Solfa setting may be obtained, price 3d, or post free 3 1/2d, through the branches or from the Head Office."
Dr. Charles Smith, who runs The Alfred Russel Wallace Page http://tinyurl.com/q6cqnqt comments: Thanks for writing, and the tip. I am glad that this piece has found its way to the socialist readership, and agree largely with the *general* points you make. However… Unless you have some new information I don’t, there are a lot of—too many–factual errors in what is written below, as well as a number of dubious conclusions on specific matters (for example, where did you see that Wallace met Bates at a “social reform” meeting—does Bates say this? Bates had little or no interest in politics, and Wallace said he thought they met in the town library at Leicester. Wallace says nothing that I know of about any interests in social issues while he was at Leicester). I can live with a bit of literary license, but Wallace did not, for example, lose *all* his Amazon collections, nor was he penniless on his return, because of a substantial insurance policy—he even had time and resources for a while to vacation in France. Please don’t ask me to comment individually on all the inaccuracies I perceive, as it would take more space than the essay itself! Well, maybe I’m just being too picky, but it seems a pity to make some good points (especially in the last paragraph) and surround them with a caricature of factuality—this is at best lazy, and at worst counter-informative. And in Wallace’s case, the facts are just as interesting as any inaccurate embroidery. All of this leaves me with mixed feelings… CHS. P.S.: Despite his early experiences with Owenists, Wallace did not consider himself a socialist until his reading of Bellamy in 1889. He was not interested in Marxist socialism, though he seemingly knew about it at least as early as the time of Marx’s death in 1883.
Comment received at Head Office:
To PB… Liked your review of Pinker's nonsense book..lol.. you should read the new collection by Douglas Fry called
"War, Peace, and Human Nature".. there are a few essays which debunk Pinker
from a scientific perspective.Vin, there's a second-hand paperback copy of The Making of the English Working Class amongst the books on sale at our Head Office. Price: £5. You can have it for this plus postage and package, say, another fiver (it's a hefty tome of over 900 pages), say, £10 in all. Just send a cheque (made out to "The Socialist Party of Great Britain") to our address.
