Young Master Smeet
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Forums › General discussion › “Revolutionary Communist Party” name to be revived
#248759Binned, rules 1 & 14
This is a nice write-up of the exploration of the Lloyds archives
“White and Seth estimate that in the 1790s, insurance for the slave economy made up 41% of the broader marine insurance industry.” and “The agreements fix the value of an enslaved person at £45, which works out at £3,454.25 in today’s money. They also feature a clause unique to slaving voyages: underwriters would cover damage to the ship or any devaluation of enslaved people (including death) due to insurrection.” (I’m not sure if it was entirely unique, the model was borrowed from the risk of stampeding livestock, but, as the article says, recognising that insurrection aboard ship was a risk is an acknowledgement that there was something worth rebelling against and some part of the human agency of slavery’s victims.
Forums › General discussion › “Revolutionary Communist Party” name to be revived
#248651
#248653
#248685Binned, rule 1.
@Everyone
1. The general topic of each forum is given by the posted forum description. Do not start a thread in a forum unless it matches the given topic, and do not derail existing threads with off-topic posts.
14. Rule enforcement is the responsibility of the moderators, not of the contributors. If you believe a post or private message violates a rule, report it to the moderators. Do not take it upon yourself to chastise others for perceived violations of the rules.
@Bijou Drains:
1. The general topic of each forum is given by the posted forum description. Do not start a thread in a forum unless it matches the given topic, and do not derail existing threads with off-topic posts.“Hammerhead” is off-topic.
@lizzie45
6. Do not make repeated postings of the same or similar messages to the same thread, or to multiple threads or forums (‘cross-posting’). Do not make multiple postings within a thread that could be consolidated into a single post (‘serial posting’). Do not post an excessive number of threads, posts, or private messages within a limited period of time (‘flooding’).You’ve been cautioned on this rule before. My view in this case was that in the context this was a legitimate comment, but please do try and contribute a bit more than ‘you guys suck’, if only to save my poor brain cells from tedium.
Please do not reply to Bijou drains about Hammerhead, let’s leave it as a mystery.
There will be no replies to this post, I have the ban hammer ready, let’s get back to discussing RCP: I’ve had a good two weeks without having to do any mod interventions, I prefer life like that.
The war is taking its toll on Israel’s economy
“The war with the Hamas terror group is costing Israel at least NIS 1 billion ($269 million) per day and is poised to take a bigger toll on the country’s economy than previous conflicts, according to a report by global ratings agency Moody’s based on an initial estimate by the Finance Ministry.” And, in particular, that 18% of the workforce has been drafted in (the report doesn’t mention lost Palestinian labour, but that must also be a factor.
Also, a small overlooked fact, apparently 200,000 Israelis have been displaced from the border area.
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Much smaller demo, I only shifted about 280 leaflets, despite moving from the front of the march to Trafalgar square, organisers say about 100K.
Interestingly little intervention by Jo Grady of the UCU: they erected a stand on Park Lane, and she gave a wee speech that no-one listened to (largely because of the drums), but she did make a good point about Gaza’s univirsities being destroyed.
The link doesn’t seem to go anywhere, can you give us the author/title in plain text?
While I’m here, I’m flicking in and out of: “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States / Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz” which gives some interesting and much needed refocussing on the events of the growth of America.
That’s an interesting take, clearly the Somerset case had spooked the American slave holders: and that, coupled with British prevention of expansion into further native American lands (as well as the other nominal causes of taxation and mercantilism and paying for the French wars). Certainly, the British tried to weaponise the enslaved by freeing them and recruiting them into their army during the wars of independence.
But, again, this just shows the extent to which the institution of slavery shaped events in world history and structured the conditions in which capitalism was developing (and that capitalism is compatible with slavery).
I’d dispute that the British Empire is gone, as mentioned re: arms exports, and the disproportionate military spend, the UK does exert informal dominance still in some parts of the world, it just doesn’t trumpet them.
Part of why I flagged this article, is that it struck me how arms exports formed a core part of the spread of colonial dominance, and, in fact, to this day, the UK is reckoned by it’s own state machinery, to be the second largest arms exporter in the world
That reminds me: it seems Fran Perrin, the daughter of David Sainsbury, ennobled by Tony Blair, has given the Labour Party£1million (His Lordship has already given £2 million) it looks like bankruptcy is staved off thanks to the disinterested largess of this millionaire family.
Hub, pivot and formative are not causative, they are positional and instrumental. What was ‘set in motion’ was innovations in activity, not capitalism itself: it would be obtuse to say that mass enslavement had no effect on the society that practiced it.
The final sentence of the quote: “Slavery…was formative in the timing and nature of Britain’s industrial transition.” is the precise summation of what they are proposing, not that slavery caused capitalism but that it structured and shaped it in the British case.
Take for example Bristol, slavery spurred allied trades, such as metallurgy (someone had to make the chains) rope and other trades needed to support it.
We know from the Legacies of British slavery database that the compensation paid out to emancipate the enslaved people in British territories very much did fund a lot of mid-19th century projects and firms exist to this day which were capitalised through that route.
Berg and Hudson don’t say slavery caused capitalism, but that it shaped the character of the British development of capitalism: and certainly, colonialism too (especially in the way it related to land clearance in Britain). The point is the so-called primitive accumulation of capital was closely entwined with colonialism and enslavement: and it shaped the for particularly of financial services, as well as some parts of the geographical growth of industry in Britain (in part explaining the industrial west, and cities like Liverpool Bristol and Lancaster).
Belgium did have a small part in the slave trade but capitalism was born early in Flanders, and it’d be interesting to see how slavery and colonialism helped Britain compete and overtake that early lead (also, I wonder how much Flemish capital was linked to Dutch, which had a more extensive part in slavery).
The important part is that contrary to the myth of thrift and industry, capitalism was born out of violence and bloodshed, which created and structured racism to this day.
