stevead1966
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The Making of the English Working Class is a great book – required reading for 1st year BA Humanities degree. I don’t see Thompson as a Labourite considering his criticism of Wilson and Callaghan governments in 60s and 70s. Leninist ? Well, he was a Leninist when he was in CPGB but he left in 56 which really is the latest date to leave in my opinion. The best communist historian ? It is no compettition but there are Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbawn, even AJP Taylor was once a communist ! Althusser believed there was some clear division in Marx’s writings between ‘young’ and ‘mature’ which personally I disagree with, the development of Marx’s thought from writing on the thefts of wood in the Rhineland to ‘Capital’ is clear. How can anybody not appreciate Marx’s 1844 Paris Manuscripts ! The argument about Althusser is more about arguments in the New Left between Trots, Maoists and old CPGB’ers i would think but there are others who will know more. I have not read Thompson’s Morris biography but if he was following some CPGB diktat to identify domestic currents of Marxism as opposed to ‘foreign’ influences ie. Moscow, then it could be suspect. Anyway Morris is a forerunner of SPGB and is ours and always will be ! Thompson is described as a ‘socialist humanist’ which can’t be bad.
Personally I have a lot of time for Hegel although he is ultimately an apologist for conservative Prussian state. I have not read a lot of his works but just parts of his tome ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’ where I admit his language is rather off-putting. My favourite part is the small section ‘Independence and dependence of self-consciousness: Lordship and Bondage’ which contains the “master-slave dialectic” which was hugely influential on Marx. Georg Lukacs found it a rich seam. This dialectic is also important for the ‘existential’ aspects that can be drawn from it – see Jean Hyppolite and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Hegel has to be admired for being a proto-feminist ! Yes, it is true. His defence of Antigone from the Sophocles play identifies gender politics and male chauvinism. See David MacGregor.Still, ultimately Hegel is standing on his head and needed Marx to turn him the right way up.
Time to stand with Spanish miners Share 1158 Emailguardian.co.uk, Sunday 10 June 2012 21.00 BSTAlthough many British newspapers have quite rightly given extensive coverage to the financial crisis in Spain (Spanish bailout deal emerges, 9 June), there appears to be an almost total blackout of news about the response of the workers’ movement in Spain to the austerity measures being pursued by the government. Most significantly, any reader of the British press could be excused for being unaware of the indefinite strike by Spanish coalminers that began on 31 May and is already escalating to the point of near civil war in some areas of Asturias and León. The announcement by the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy of drastic cuts in subsidies to the mining industry, which will threaten the livelihoods of around 8,000 miners and endanger another 30,000 jobs, is being met by miners and their communities with a determined and united resistance. The response of the government is classically neoliberal and has no doubt brought tears of joy to Christine Lagarde and the other free-market warriors of the IMF. For those of us in the UK who remember the miners’ strike of 1984-85, it is also depressingly predictable, with the Guardia Civil out on the streets in force firing teargas and rubber bullets at miners and their supporters. British miners and those who supported the NUM owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Spanish trade unions and particularly the miners for their solidarity and financial support during 1984-85. It is now time to stand with them.John Cuningham Acting secretary, Spanish Miners’ Solidarity Committee, and ex-miner, Dinnington Colliery, South Yorkshire, Carrie Hedderwick Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures, Ian Isaac Executive committee, South Wales NUM, 1982-87, and ex-miner, St John’s Colliery, Steve Brunt Ex-miner, Arkwright Colliery, Doncaster
