Thursday, December 18, 2008

Gerry Gow'ism

Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain (77)

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the 77th of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.

We now have 1423 friends!

Recent blogs:

  • Co-operation
  • Banks - Who needs them?
  • 150 Years of the Communist Manifesto
  • Quote for the week:

    "The credit system has a dual character immanent in it: on the one hand it develops the motive of capitalist production, enrichment by the exploitation of other's labour, into the purest and most colossal form of gambling and swindling, and restricts ever more the already small number of exploiters of social wealth; on the other hand however it constitutes the form of transition towards a new mode of production." Marx, Capital, Volume III, Chapter 27 (1894)

    Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!

    Robert and Piers

    Socialist Party of Great Britain

    5 comments:

    Unknown said...

    The Comunist Manifesto is a 150 years old? It looks about 160 but there ya go.

    Imposs1904 said...

    The article dates from '98. Hence the '150 years bit.

    As indicated, Robert and Piers select the articles and the quote.

    I just come up with the totally unrelated accompanying picture and the leftfield references to Bristol City midfield enforcers from the 1970s. (Though I remember him more from his Man City stint.)

    Kevin Williamson said...

    Darren

    In the review of the Communist Manifesto the SPGB writer says:

    "Later in life Marx argued that the universal franchise meant that the working class might be able to bring about change peacefully by force of numbers."

    Do you have a reference for where ole Marxy argued this?

    Imposs1904 said...

    Hello Kev,

    I vaguely knew of the Marx quote that was being referred to in the article but I couldn't find it for love nor money. (Just knew it was in the Penguin edition of The First International and After.)

    Thankfully, a comrade who knows these things helped me out and has provided the reference to Marx making such a (qualified) assertion in 1872::

    "You know that the institutions, mores, and traditions of various countries must be taken into consideration, and we do not deny that there are
    countries -- such as America, England, and if I were more familiar with your institutions, I would perhaps also add Holland -- where the workers can
    attain their goal by peaceful means. This being the case, we must also recognize the fact that in most countries on the Continent the lever of our
    revolution must be force; it is force to which we must some day appeal in order to erect the rule of labor."
    (From here.)

    Cheers to ALB for helping me out with the quote.

    Kevin Williamson said...

    Read the piece but still cant see any reference to the "universal franchise" referred to by the SPGB writer. Methinks the writer was extraploting beyond the limits of extrapolation. :-) Still, it was a nice thought which got me excited for a moment.