" “Of all the sights and sounds which attracted me on my first arrival to live in London in the mid-thirties, one combined operation left a lingering, individual spell. I naturally went to Hyde Park to hear the orators, the best of the many free entertainments on offer in the capital. I heard the purest milk of the world flowing, then as now, from the platform of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.”Michael Foot, Debts of Honour, 1980.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Do They Mean Us? #2
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5 comments:
You old romantic you.
I like Foot.
Good bloke.
Lets not forget to mention the other Foot , Paul of the SWP, ( Michael's nephew ?) . He is on record expressing his gratitude to members of the Glasgow SPGB branch for advancing his political knowledge .
That's true. I understand that he was best mates with Vic Vanni, when they were both in the Young Socialists in Glasgow in the early sixties.
I remember a letter Paul Foot wrote to ALB, when the latter was piecing together material for the centenary publication and Foot wrote a nice letter back, where you definitely got the impression that he held VV on a working class pedestal of sorts.
Paul Foot is parked very close to Chuck. Dunno how he managed that. Someone must know where the bodies are buried *cough* *hat* *coat* ...
I wonder what our beloved British PM Tony Blair has made of the SPGB?
The recent revelations in "The News Statesman" tells us Blair's long letter was motivated to a certain extent by Foot's book, which is the source of the quote Darren gives.
The SPGB is a strange beast. People say they've never heard of us yet so many "famous" people have. There's a little mention of the SPGB by Orwell in an essay; I haven't a clue where though. If memory serves, he said he listened to speakers at speakers corner, including the SPGB, but there was nothing on offer that interested hi. It's hidden away in the old Penguin editions of his essays.
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