Monday, December 21, 2009

Manchester, So Much To Answer Three

It's that time of year again, people.

Anarcho-Stalinist-Wobbly-Zapatista surfer dudes have the Christmas number 1, and Manchester Branch have once again issued details of the quiz from their end of year Branch social.

It's the usual routine on the blog. I reproduce the quiz questions below. I place my own pisspoor answers in the comment box. Not ONE of my seven readers join in the spirit of the season by trying to supply their own answers and I then post the correct answers in the comments box at a later date.

. . . .Oh, and I once again use a variation on the same post title that I always use for the Manchester Branch end of year quizzes because I can't think of any wittier alternatives.

Your starter for ten:


1. 'On a summer day in the month of May a burly bum came hiking/ Down a shady lane through the sugar cane, he was looking for his liking./As he roamed along he sang a song of the land of milk and honey/ Where a bum can stay for many a day, and he won't need any money.'

Which song?

2. What is the subtitle or alternative title of News from Nowhere?

3. In 1907, why did the Party pay £2 to Richard Bell, secretary of the Amalgmated Society of Railway Servants?

4. What happened in Derbyshire on 24 April 1932?

5. Which Party member was known as 'Two Shirt'?

6. Which footballer refused to give a Nazi salute when England played Germany in Berlin in May 1938?

7. Which year were the big Party meetings at the Metropolitan Theatre?

8. Who were the four people who threw Engels' ashes into the sea?

9. Who was Ishi?

10. Where do Blackburn Rovers play?

Get guessing.

6 comments:

Imposs1904 said...

My duly considered answers:

1. Big Rock Candy Mountain? As mentioned in Marie-Louise Berneri's Journey Through Utopia.
2. No idea. I must get round to actually finishing that book sometime.
3. He sued the Party/Standard for libel.
4. I presumed it was something to do with the Labour Party - the last known day that the late George Brown was known to be sober? - but it looks like Robert and others got the right answer.
5. Clifford Groves. The first parliamentary candidate for the SPGB. According to Barltrop's The Monument, he was known for "haughty manner', and it was presumed that only someone who owned two shirts could act so high and mighty.
6. I thought they all gave the Nazi salute? I'm sure I'm sure I saw the photographic evidence years ago with them all the players lined up.

There is a story from the same period that when Aston Villa made a club tour of Nazi Germany in the 30s their players were also called upon to give the Nazi salute before a game. A Scotsman playing for Villa - sorry, can't remember his name - took exception to this instruction and when the moment came to give the stiff armed salute, he chose instead to stick up his two fingers. Apparently a large part of the crowd applauded his actions.
7. I'm guessing 1945. The time of the Paddington North election campaign. (With 'two shirt' Groves as the Party candidate.)
8. Hard question. Never even knew he was cremated. I'd hazard a guess that it was maybe some of the German Socialists exiled to Britain at the time. Bernstein, Bebel, Liebknecht and their apolitical mate who came along for the open bar at the wake afterwards.
9. Is this another Party question? Izzy Benjamin? Mentioned in Barltrop's Monument as one of the thrities generation.
10. Aah, a trick question at the end. Everybody knows that since Sam Allardyce took over as manager of Blackburn Rovers that they haven't been playing football anywhere.

Brigada Flores Magon said...

All I got was 'Big Rock Candy Mountain'. In spite of reading Tristram Hunt's life of Fred the Foxhunter I can't tell you who ditched his ashes though Eleanor Marx might have been one. Wasn't Stanley Matthews who refused the salute? Not a very good set of answers, I'm afraid.

Imposs1904 said...

Sadly Matthews played in that infamous game and gave the salute.

Didn't Eleanor die before Engels? I'm not sure. I'd have to google.

mikeovswinton said...

I think you'll find that Blackburn Rovers play at Ewood Park. Judging by the Mcr Branch website I'm surprised they didn't ask where Blackburn Olympic play.
They didn't play that much football in the first year or so of Sparky's reign either. Seem to recall Sam being outraged at their physical approach in one Trotters/Dingles derby.
News from Noweher subtitle - isn't it "An Epoch of Rest"? I was apalled when some mates int he sixth form told me what a load of dreck it was when we had to read out bits of a fave book. Then I re-read it. It is highly overrated. Though the palace of Westminster as dungpile was a good idea.

JM said...

1. Big Rock Candy Mountain.

2. Something Utopia? A Practical Utopia? The book is sitting five feet away but I'm to lazy to go look.

3. Sexual favors.

4. That was the Stones concert where I got so fucking wasted, and took off my shirt.

5. Trick question. No member of the SPGB has ever owned more than one shirt.

6. I refuse to answer that question until you call it soccer.

7. 2001. I will never forget.

8. His four favorite French whores.

9. The last of the Yana people.

10. Blackburn.

What do I win?

Imposs1904 said...

The answers to the quiz are cut and pasted below.

A couple of thoughts:

- Everyone seems to have got Big Rock Candy Mountain right. Any thoughts on it being next year's Xmas number one? Any thoughts on which version?
- Mike, I agree with your opinion about News From Nowhere. I always feel guilty that I don't enjoy it as much as I'm supposed to. (Hence, I've never finished it.) I've always preferred Tressell's novel, despite Morris having the better politics.
- JM, what do you win? The opportunity to re-activate your blog. At least five of us miss it. Oh, and the two shirt question? That was joke. It was the hungry thirties, and apparently most SPGBers were skint. At least, that's what they claimed when the Branch Treasurer came knocking.

Those answers:

1. 'On a summer day in the month of May a burly bum came hiking/ Down
a shady lane through the sugar cane, he was looking for his liking./
As he roamed along he sang a song of the land of milk and honey/ Where
a bum can stay for many a day, and he won't need any money.'

Which song?

[The Big Rock Candy Mountain.]

2. What is the subtitle or alternative title of News from Nowhere?

[An Epoch of Rest]

3. In 1907, why did the Party pay £2 to Richard Bell, secretary of the
Amalgmated Society of Railway Servants?

[Libel damages - we said the union had sold out its members. See the
Standard for January 1979.]

4. What happened in Derbyshire on 24 April 1932?

[The Kinder Scout Trespass]

5. Which Party member was known as 'Two Shirt'?

[Clifford Groves]

6. Which footballer refused to give a Nazi salute when England played
Germany in Berlin in May 1938?

[Stan Cullis. According to some accounts, he was dropped from the team
as a result.]

7. Which year were the big Party meetings at the Metropolitan Theatre?

[1945]

8. Who were the four people who threw Engels' ashes into the sea?

[Eleanor Marx, Edward Aveling, Eduard Bernstein, Friedrich Lessner (in
order of guessability)]

9. Who was Ishi?

[The last 'wild' native American in the US, died 1916]

10. Where do Blackburn Rovers play?

[Ewood Park. So spelled, despite what some political publications
claim.]