SPGB Talking Shop

Just stumbled across this list on Wiki.

Looks like some comrades have too much time on their hands. Shouldn't you be doing a paper sale, comrade? Only joking . . . maybe.

From a quick glance through the list, I think I attended maybe six of the listed debates. I think the compiler missed out a debate the Party had with the AWL at the Lucas Arms in Kings Cross in '97. I remember Dave Flynn speaking for the SPGB but, for the life of me, I can't remember who the AWL speaker was.

It was when I was a *cough* candidate member of the AWL and, if I remember rightly, I was half-cut quite early on and proceeded to make an intervention from the floor in favour of the SPGB. This resulted in leading AWL member, Tom Rigby - whatever happened to him? - sidling up to me and whispering in my ear: "You haven't psychologically broke from the SPGB, comrade." He may have been right 'cos after the meeting, I ended up getting the other half cut downstairs in the bar with old SPGB comrades.

For some reason there always seemed to be a bit of needle at AWL/SPGB debates, and I'm not sure why. I think it was more from the AWL side. They seemed to encourage a culture of snottiness and high-handedness amongst their members. A 'less is more' approach to Trotskyist grandstanding that meant that part of their debating technique was to look down their collective noses at political opponents.

The SPGB didn't get the worse of it. If the AWL cadre hated the capitalist class as much as they hated Socialist Action and Workers Power, the North London Poly Junior Common Room would have stormed the Alexandria Palace sometime around tea-time, October 1997.

Should mention that Kara and I attended the Left Forum last weekend at Coopers Union in Manhattan. Really interesting event, once you get past the overpriced tickets - we got a free pass by volunteering for the event - and the academic jargon wafting through the air. Attended a couple of panel discussions that I found of interest, and if I can get off my lazy arse, I might blog about them. But in the meantime, Next Left Notes has some photos on its blog from the event. Enjoy.

Take hArt

It's official: Banksy has entered the mainstream.

Forget the artwork for the Blur album cover or him post-punking Paris, you know that he's made the leap from a EC1 coffee table to the dashboard of the white van man, when the Sun does a story on some of his early graffitti in his home city of Bristol being officially vandalised by some over-exuberant workmen from the local council.

It's not exactly on a par with the demolition of Diego Rivera's 'Man at the Crossroads' mural at the Rockefeller Center in the thirties, but don't be too surprised if you switch on Radio 4 in the coming weeks, only to discover that The Archers has a storyline about an anonymous tearaway leaving his signature tag around the sleepy environs of Ambridge, whilst the locals sit in The Bull, supping their beer, speculating on who might be the 'young Banksy' in their midst.

Banksy inspired Tesco carrier bags coming to a supermarket checkout near you.

Hat tip to Will Rubbish.

IWW Day

Thoughtful piece from Richard at the Commie Curmudgeon (II) blog on today, March 8th, International Women's Day:

International [Working] Women’s Day - Time Again to Remember the Words of Clara Zetkin

The last line from Clara Zetkin that Richard quotes is particularly telling:

"We must not let ourselves be fooled by Socialist trends in the bourgeois women’s movement which last only as long as bourgeois women feel oppressed."

Choke Yourself On The Flag

Max Blumenthal of The Nation takes a day out to meet the I-Don't-Care-In-The Community at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

David Horowitz, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter = box of frogs. Do I need to say anymore?

Hat tip to Will Rubbish

Press the Word

Quick post to mention that the blogroll has been updated.

No new additions as such, but just to let you know that Richard at Commie Curmudgeon and those crazy kidz over at Shiraz Socialist have both moved their blogs over to wordpress.

Richard's latest post at CC is a trip down memory lane where he meets ten thousand maniacs.* As well as writing consistently excellent posts on genuine 'ultra-left' politics**, Richard is also a canny writer on music. You should blogroll him if you haven't already done so.

The political Dead End Kidz at Shiraz Socialist are the latest toastmasters at the Carnival of Socialism, and choose the subject of “Why is the left obsessed with the Middle East?” as the topic for debate. Again, you should check them out and if you haven't already blogrolled the scamps, then you should do so. If only so that you can keep tabs on JD's alcohol consumption and VP's increasingly bizarre obsession with Yvonne Ridley.

The last line is meant in jest even if they did neglect to include me in their new blogroll.

What do they want from this blog . . . politics? humour? originality? insight? No chance, it's not on my agenda. But have they been out recently in sub-zero temperatures working to unionize home child care providers or to fight health care cuts? Course they haven't . . . I've checked the temperature chart for Birmingham. It's a balmy 12 degrees in the Midlands at the moment. Bah, Armchair Sean Maxshachtmanite Wankers

I should rant more often. It has such a calming effect.

*Reidski, did you really think that was led off for me do a lame gag about the old Den?

**Real ultra-left politics. Not the 'You fucker! You don't follow the same self-appointed leader as me. You don't stuff the same bundle of unsold shouty-lefty newspapers under your bed that I do, therefore you're an ultra-leftist' type of political labelling so beloved of the 57 varieties.

This is not an automated blog message

Apologies for the light blogging in recent weeks.

Still about, but cold weather and other such suck-ass stuff has intervened. Currently involved in this campaign at a grassroots level, after being partially involved in this other campaign previously. (Also at a grassroots level).

Both campaigns, however slightly, have gone some way in exorcising the spirit of Tommy Jackson from my frozen bones.

Why the sleeve of Win's, 'You've Got The Power', as an accompanying pic to the post? No other reason than the fact that a kind chap by the name of Eddie has made the song temporarily available for download on a fan page for Win on - you've guessed it - MurdochSpace MySpace.

As my two Win albums have long since been hocked to some smug muso bastard at Record & Tape Exchange on Camden High Street - come the revolution, those bastards are going up against the wall before the capitalist class but after that bloke who put the kibosh on Smiths' Bovril Crisps - I'm just grateful to get my greedy wee mitts on the mp3 whilst it's up for grabs.

Undeniably dated in a way that only songs recorded between 1984-1987 can be - anybody Wang Chunging Tonight? - try and get past the plinkity-plonk keyboards and the tinny production so you can wrap your ears around one of the best lost singles of that lost musical weekend best known as the mid-eighties.

It can be played on its own, or if you have the means, could I suggest that you also sample Love and Money's 'Candybar Express' as a sweet.

Win's main man was Davey Henderson, still releasing music as part of the band Nectarine Number 9, but best known as the voice and guitar of the seminal post-punksters, the Fire Engines.

Do you have a CD in your music collection from some band with choppy angular guitars and shouty vocals? Whether they or you know it or not - musical copyright lawyers are looking in - they probably ripped off the Fire Engines. Think early Fall, but with a better looking singer and lyrics that didn't namecheck shop assistants at the Cheetham Hill branch of Debenhams

Strange but true, but the Fire Engines evolved out the band 'The Dirty Reds', who had the actor Tam Dean Burn as their lead singer. Dean Burn was a parliamentary candidate for the CPGB/Weekly Worker mob back in the nineties in a Glasgow seat. It was pre-internet so I don't have the exact facts and figures at my fingertips.

How do I know this obscure lefty political bullshit? A blend of wikipedia; too many hours mispent in Housmans and Porcupine . . . breathing in paper dust and polemics; and 'after the pub closes' styled half-pissed sectariana conversations.

Back to my regular irregular blogging soon.

March 2007 Socialist Standard - 'American Workers On Death Row'

Editorial

Slavery and slavery

Regular Columns

Pathfinders Particles of Faith

Cooking the Books #1 Venture or Vulture

Cooking the Books #2 Is Ian Paisley a Socialist?

Greasy Pole If John were Prime Minister

50 Years Ago The Unification of Europe

Main Articles

Death penalty: state-sanctioned murder The bungled execution of Saddam Hussein has raised this issue again. But executions in the US Constitution are no better.

Who caused global warming? “Global warming is caused by mankind, is here to stay and is getting worse, leading scientists have concluded”.

Burberry applies the law of profit Last September Burberry announced that its Treorchy factory was no longer viable and would close this March with the loss of 309 jobs.

This land is your land (or maybe not) Author Kevin Cahill is wrong. Wider landowning is not the answer as we are excluded from ownership of the means of production in general not just land.

The God of the Killers When in comes to condoning violence it’s a case of the Christian kettle and the Muslim pot.

Reviews, Party News & Meetings

Book Reviews Capitalism. A Very Short Introduction by James Fulcher; Socialism. A Very Short Introduction by Michael Newman; Anarchism, A Very Short Introduction. by Colin Ward; Bash the Rich by Ian Bone; Make Capitalism History: Poems and Other Communications by Bob Dixon

Party News Report of public meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Meetings London, Manchester, Norwich & Birmingham.

Voice From The Back

The Sick Society; A Brave New World?; The Distortion of Science (1); The Distortion of Science (2); The Distortion of Art; The Distortion of Honesty; And Now The Good News

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

 

The Last Days of Disco (1998)

 

And An Ass Saw An Angle*

It's only March, but John Counago has posted the funniest blog story of the year.
*No apologies to Nick Cave. The bloke's a tube.