Just to let you know that the July 2006 issue of the Socialist Standard is online, and can be either read in its entirety as a PDF here or as individual articles at the links provided below. Pik Smeet's love letter to George Galloway has already been talked up a storm by the good people at the Shiraz Socialist blog, but I have to be honest in stating that I'm not too impressed with the article on Woody Guthrie in the July issue. Not so much on the matter of the author's take on Guthrie himself - the jury is still out for me on Woody, so I'll stick with Bragg for now - but more on the misrepresentation of the IWW in the body of the article. I think the author gets the IWW wrong, but I guess you'll have to read the article yourself to draw your own conclusions. What I will say is that you should also check out this article on the Wobs that I have posted before on the blog. The article originally appeared in the Socialist View, a fine socialist publication that used to be produced out of Belfast in the late eighties and early nineties in difficult circumstances, and I think it does a good job of giving an alternative take on the IWW.
Editorial
The Way The World Is
Regular Columns
Pathfinders
Whales, genes, and why low status is bad for your health.
Cooking the Books
The Nutty Professor & Baron Rothschild Rides Again.
Greasy Pole
John Prescott finds grace and favour.
Main Articles
What Price Democracy?
Recent scandals about donations to political parties confirm that under capitalism some - those with money - are more equal than others.
A So-Called Socialist in Parliament
Respect MP George Galloway, backed by the SWP, is a counter-example of how a lone Socialist MP should behave.
Exploding the Human Nature Myth
If humans are warlike, why do they desert in droves? If selfish, why do they put money in charity boxes? John Bissett discusses one of the most common, and most bizarre, objections people make to a society of common ownership.
Asylum: From Pillar To Post And Back.
Take a woman, threaten her with death so that she runs half-way across the world, then give her nothing and force her into crime, then put her in jail. A story of how capitalism gives some people no options, then punishes them for it.
Time For Capitalism To Go
Just what is the nub of the case against capitalism, and for socialism? Richard
Montague lays it all out in brief.
Woody Guthrie
Resonant Voice for the Downtrodden: Woolly-Eyed Lefty
Reviews
Book review of Jonathan Porritt's 'Capitalism as if the World Matters
Voice From The Back
Turning wine into disinfectant, and why the Lord remains silent.
2 comments:
I agree , Darren . When i first read it , i ,too, felt it was a tadge unsympathetic to us Wobblies ( or ex- , in my case ) , repeating the stereotypical myths. The IWW for its time was quite well organised and quite sophisticated in its attitudes to-wards industrial struggle .
Never strike with empty stomachs against full wallets , is one strategy i still endorse.
"As the Socialist Standard has demonstrated for over a hundred years, two thousand words is plenty to incisively damn capitalism and point the way towards socialism." (From the Galloway piece) Class, pure fucking class!!:-)
Liked that piece on Galloway, didn't like the Woody article at all, however! Not sure at all what the writer is saying about him - maybe that's my problem, of course!
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