stuartw2112
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I'll concede that printing money to invest in infrastructure seems like a crazy idea. But then, ordinary quantitative easing and all the monetary policy we've seen over the past seven years or so would have been considered crazy before it became the norm. Thatcherism seemed crazy before it became the norm. Perhaps Jezza can make social solidarity seem normal. Though whether he could do that by not assuming the continued existence for quite some time of capitalism is doubtful – that really would be crazy!Syriza was not cowed by the banks. It got the best deal it could without Grexit, which it had no mandate for. That "best deal" was, I admit, shockingly worse than I would have predicted.
Mason is at least trying to identifying trends and forces in present day society that push in a socialist direction – the Marxist method. The author of your piece merely reasserts centuries old dogmas and tries to wish into existence ideal situations – a globally organised working class poised to overthrow the system. That's the old utopian method, dressed up in Marxist language.
But you've both missed my point. As I said, such compromises are inevitable, given its outlook and practice. You can dismiss the whole project, as you do. I don't – and I think it's reasonable not to, from a socialist and working-class point of view.
Well, not really, its aim and values have always been socialist, guided by the idea that a workers party must win power to pursue reforms within capitalism that will better workers' situation. If you accept that idea, then compromises with capitalist reality are inevitable. I think Corbyn winning would be a good thing, so am prepared to vote for him, knowing full well that the result won't be utopia instantly.
I hadn't seen it but it's great, thanks! I must admit that my trembling hands were not reaching out for the cartoons about communism in The Sun, but for other features, including that cartoon strip where the woman always took her kit off. That for some reason was just as exciting as the non-cartoon women taking their kit off on earlier pages. But then I guess this isn't the forum for such revelations!
Although, thinking about it, not relevant, at least to me. Labour is inviting people to join – people who do not anyway have other memberships or oppose their aims and values – and people who do join get to vote for the leader. So not entryism, but accepting an invitation, playing a role in the democratic process.
I can't see why it couldn't come like a thief in the night. At least, that's probably how it would appear to us "ordinary people", even if historians subsequently made sense of it in other ways.
Well, I think Mason is right about one thing – that capitalism will only go when people have options and start to make their living in other ways. The old left, Marxist way of taking the state and forcing change has proved a failure, and that's about as likely to change as Uber is to usher in revolution.
I should imagine the quote was truncated and distorted due to unskilled and hurried editing and/or writing, or lack of understanding of nuance, rather than out of malice. This is how Britain's best-selling financial weekly, MoneyWeek, reported the news:Irony of the weekA fringe political party which believes that money should be abolished has turned out to have a significant amount of cash and assets. The Socialist Party of Great Britain was founded in 1904, has just 300 members, and fielded ten candidates in the election this year, all of whom lost their deposits. However, it also owns a property on Clapham High Street in south London, which it bought for £3,000 in 1951. The property boom in London means it is now thought to be worth around £900,000. Along with cash reserves of more than £450,000, the party is sitting on well over £1m. In the same issue:Imagine a world without moneytakingnote.blogs.nytimes.comIn these times of doom and gloom, Star Trek can seem “kind of quaint”, says Anna North. After all, the TV show, especially The Next Generation series, takes place in a time when, essentially, “everything has worked out”. It’s precisely this that interests Manu Saadia, author of Trekonomics, a forthcoming book about the economics of the Star Trek universe. In the Star Trek system, money no longer exists and anything you want can be made in a replicator, essentially for free. When everything is free, says Saadia, objects will no longer be status symbols. Success will be measured in achievements, not in money: “You need to build up your reputation, you need to be a fantastic person, you need to be the captain.” People will work hard to reach those goals, even though they don’t need money to live. In a time of rising inequality and stagnating wages, a world where everyone’s needs are met and people only work if they feel like it seems pretty far away. But Saadia reckons a post-scarcity economy is actually within reach. Wealthy pensioners today have arrived early. Watching Star Trek might inspire us to hit the warp drive and catch them up.
After all, it is a proletarian party:http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/understanding-jeremy-corbyns-support.html
So, no one else here joining up in order to vote Corbyn? Surely you're all secretly hoping he wins? Either because you agree with the Tories that it'll destroy Labour (and good riddance), or because you think there's some hope for the reemergence of some kind of party of labour?
