They Blogged About Andrew Glyn, So I Don't Have To Pretend To

Old Etonian Oxbridge academic was apparently a member of the Militant Tendency in the 70s and the 80s? How did that square with their much celebrated workerism during that period? Mmm, where's that quote again from the 'Communist Manifesto'? There it is:

Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the progress of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole."

That's the one. I bet he had it typed up in bold, laminated and carried it dangling from his neck at Millies get togethers. It would have helped avoid misunderstandings.

As a pre-eminent economist in his day, I wonder if he reined in Ted Grant's 24/7 millenarianism during that time, or did hee supply the number-crunching to back it up?

OK, enough waffle from me. A few links about the recent passing of Andrew Glyn are in order:

From Stumbling and Mumbling Blog: Andrew Glyn

From 1/888 Branch News blog: Andrew Glyn - Marxist economist and socialist fighter

Andy gets in on the plaudits: Socialist Unity Blog

Labour and Capital get in on the blourning: Andrew Glyn

Nice comments accompanying the piece: Andrew Glyn is Dead

SPGB gets snotty (again): Andrew Glyn

The British Security Services allegedly tapped his phone in the eighties. A Foreign & Commonwealth Office blogger eulogises him in the naughties: Andrew Glyn

Finally, I did like this comment attributed to Glyn by one of the commentators over at Crooked Timber:

"Towards the end of the term in which I was taught by him, the film ‘Rosa’, about the life of Rosa Luxemburg, came out. After remarking on how the film made no mention of Luxemburg’s criticisms of Lenin, Andrew’s next comment was something like: ‘Her life shows that it is actually possible to be both a serious revolutionary socialist and a human being."

Sounded like he was a decent bloke.