I just want to dance

Kudos to Matt and the Education Department of the SPGB (who they?) for updating - and posting online - an A-Z of Socialism on the SPGB website.

As the Education Department lays it out:

Preface

This compendium is intended to be a reference-companion for socialists. It is aimed particularly at the newcomer to the socialist movement who may be unfamiliar with socialist terminology. We have included cross-referencing, suggested books for further reading and links to relevant websites at the end of most entries.

We have concentrated on those ideas that are relevant to the case for socialism. In addition, there are many biographical entries of individuals and organisations of interest to the socialist movement. The inclusion of any of these should not necessarily be understood as an endorsement of their ideas and practices. Likewise, many entries have suggestions for relevant books and websites, but the views expressed in these are not necessarily the same as those of the Socialist Party.

It will be obvious that there are some errors, omissions and unworthy inclusions. We make no claim to comprehensive, final and definitive truth. This compendium can and should be better. We therefore invite suggestions and constructive criticisms for use in future editions of this compendium.

Education Department

August 2008

Why start at A? It'll only be banging on about accumulation, alienation and assorted anarchists. Take the scenic route.

D*I*S*C*O

Yes comrade, you too can boogie.

Whatever happened to the saturday kids?

Love this pic via Twilightzone! blog.

1994: And Mr Hansen's losing it with the pop kids

Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain (59)

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the 59th of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.

We now have 1315 friends!

Recent blogs:

What to Do About Fascism?

Not Worth the Paper

Free work versus forced employment

Quote for the week:

"Not only can we manage very well without the interference of the capitalist class in the great industries of the country, but that their interference is becoming more and more a nuisance." Engels, 1881, Social Classes - Necessary and Superfluous.

Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!

Robert and Piers

Socialist Party of Great Britain

Fresh by Mark McNay (MacAdam Cage 2007)

Fresh chickens to be sold in butchers and supermarkets for the ease of the purchasing public. Fresh chickens you assume have been killed recently. You picture a redbrick farmyard with purple foxgloves growing in a corner. The healthy smell of shite. An old 1950s tractor quietly rusting on flat tyres, only useful to the robins that nest under the seat. The farmer's wife comes out of the door, pulls a chicken from the ground it was idly pecking, and twists its neck with her fat powerful hands. She sits on a stool, places the quivering bird on her lap, and plucks it while it's warm. She sings a song of somebody's lover lost in a foreign war. She stuffs hand-stitched pillows with the feathers and sells them on the local market on a Wednesday afternoon. The plucked and dressed chiken is trussed ready to be hung that afternoon in the butcher's and you walk in and buy a bird whose pulse has barely died in its throat.

The fresh chickens Sean handles are driven to the factory in shoebox-sized containers packed on the trailer of an articulated truck. The driver flicks a roll-up butt out of the window and calls for Rab, who sidles out of his hut and guides the lorry into the loading bay. Strong forearms reach into the shoeboxes and drag their prey into the artificial light and hang them by the ankles on a hook. They fly along, upside down, flapping their wings, trying to escape, shitting down their chests, squawking and pecking at their mates. The hooks drag them into a tank of water where an electric current stops their hearts moments before rubber wheels grind the feathers from their skin.

Too much Barking, not enough Brighton Beach

Buddha Da by Anne Donovan (Canongate Books 2003)

'Most religions do have a god, or gods, but Buddhism doesn't.'

'Ah thought that was whit religion was - worshippin sumpn.'

Mr Henderson smiled. 'If that was the case then supporting Celtic or Rangers or even,' he turnt tae big Davie McCormack, 'Partick Thistle would be a religion.'

'Haw sur, that's no funny slaggin him aff for bein a Partick Thistle supporter,' Angela Hughes piped up fae the back. 'His da brung him up tae it.'

Everybody burst oot laughin. Mr Henderson laughed too. 'That would definitely make it a religion then. I hope you didn't think I was laughing at David for supporting Partick Thistle. I only know because I see him there on the terraces every week.'

'Are you sayin you're a Jags fan?' Kevin Anderson looked up fae drawin RFC on the inside cover of his jotter.

'I am indeed,' said Mr Henderson. Kevin went back tae his drawin.

The world (temporarily) turned upside down

The Road to Colchester

Bastard godlike. The hairs on the back of my neck are tingling at the brilliance of this YouTube clip.

Who thought the nearest I would ever get to a religious experience this side of Denise Mina answering one of my emails would be from watching a black and white clip from an acoustic set performed at the Colchester Arts Centre?

I'm actually jealous of that (seemingly) disembodied foot away in the audience. How's that for a personification of going soft in the head?

Info accompanying the YouTube clip is as follows:

"Martin Newell performs Julie Profumo, in an excerpt from the 1st Golden Afternoon. Recorded live at the Colchester Arts Centre in the summer of 2003. Martin is joined by Nelson on mandolin & backing vocals. The film was produced & directed by Michael Cumming."

There's another 5 or 6 YouTube clips from the same performance that you should also check out but it's Newell singing 'Julie Profumo' that does it for me. A well played mandolin banjoes me every time. Put it down to early exposure to an alternative universe Rod Stewart where he used to be good.

You don't love this clip as much as me? Fuck you cloth ears. (My God is definitely Old Testament.) As penance you can check out this fascinating 49 minute interview with Martin Newell, where he catalogues his life and times, and which comes courtesy of Cherry Red Records Web TV. Yep, that Cherry Red.

I'm saying it's a form of penance but in fact Newell is a witty and entertaining motormouth in the interview. The interviewer, Iain McNay, hardly gets a word in edgeways for forty odd minutes, and Newell takes you on an autobiographical journey that starts in the backwoods of early seventies Essex, careering on to the nascent punk scene in mid-seventies London to selling out tours in Germany but selling sod all back in Britain. Throw in a mention of dodgy dock pubs in Ipswich, Captain Sensible, the cassette culture of the early eighties to Newell at one point being the best selling living British poet - and it all being told with a garnish of wit and Newell's bullshit detector firmly in place - and you'll come to realise that my God has a bit of the New Testament in her as well. Just a smidgeon. That's all you need.

The things they say

Olympic commentators on American TV say the strangest things:

"She was born - quote unquote - to a workers family. Gymnastics has changed the life of that family . . . "

That's all.

Unofficial Beijing Olympic merchandise

Remember the How China got its Olympic logo image that was previously mentioned on the blog?

Now, via Amused Cynicism blog, we have another politically pointed image highlighting the collective media amnesia surrounding the current Olympic Games being held in a country with a Government that has a bronze medal attitude when it comes to such trifles as free speech, labour rights, human rights etc etc.

However, this time, it's an image that you can put on a T Shirt or your commemorative tea towel. In fact, Amused Cynic blog specifically came up with the idea of the image for that expressed purpose:

On the matter of the Olympics itself, I guess I might do what I usually do when it comes to half-watching the Olympics: try and catch a bit of the athletics, the boxing and final of the football but what with the football season starting this weekend I know the wall to wall coverage on US TV will probably pass me by.

Who needs Michael Phelps and LeBron James when it's Bolton Wanderers versus Stoke City next weekend?

For a more considered political take on the Beijing Olympics, check out Dave Zirin's recent 'China's Olympic Trials' article from his Edge of Sports website.