Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags

[cesare]

Unionise.

I expect she already knows the NS's stance on that.

 

[butchersapron]

She endorsed it by taking the job. In fact, she is now part of imposing it.

But but... the internet..individual bloggers...so alone..

 

[cesare]

She endorsed it by taking the job. In fact, she is now part of imposing it.

But but... the internet..individual bloggers...so alone..

Yes, it's not as though she was unemployed before starting there. She's also prepared to complain about pay equality and yet stop short of encouraging organisation - any kind, not just union membership.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I expect she already knows the NS's stance on that.

Kind of my point. How can she care about such an issue if she's unwilling or unable to bring herself to make a stand? It's not even as if joining the NUJ would get her fired. What Jason Cowshit is doing is about is not recognising an NUJ chapel at the NS. That doesn't disbar individuals from being members, it just makes it more difficult for them to organise.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Yes, it's not as though she was unemployed before starting there. She's also prepared to complain about pay equality and yet stop short of encouraging organisation - any kind, not just union membership.

Fair point. You don't need to be a member of a union to organise a bloc around a specific issue or issues.

 

[frogwoman]

Historically, the English (or, to be more accurate, the ruling classes of the British Isles) were no worse to the Jews than their European cousins.
Institutional anti-Semitism is nowhere near as manifest in the modern-day UK as it is in the more Catholic European states, though. It still exists here, but it really is just bourgeois and ruling class spite, and the occasional working-class fascist with less critical thinking ability than a three day-old kitten.
I wouldn't want to live in Poland, for example, or Spain, if I were observant.

I wouldn't like to live in France either frankly. I reckon the UK is probably one of the best countries in the EU in terms of tolerance of Jewish people (and probably most other minorities as well) not that I've lived in any of the others but just from stuff I've heard.

 

[J Ed]

I expect she already knows the NS's stance on that.

You're kidding? I know they used unpaid interns but fuck that's too much.

 

[editor]

This thread has now been read well over half a million times!

 

[treelover]

Apart from the celebrities like Pilger and Foot aren't there probably a few unsung reporters plugging away in particular sectors doing unglamorous research and investigations? Maybe not so many these days, apart from on specialist papers.

Sonia Poulton in the D/M does a sterling job for disabled/claimants and on other inequality issues.

 

[cesare]

They can't ban the NUJ by the way. They can only refuse to voluntarily recognise them, and it's now open to the NUJ to attempt the involuntary recognition route via the CAC.

I wonder if they've done this yet.

 

[Steel Icarus]

This thread has now been read well over half a million times!

And yet SOME people still don't get what it's about. (Hi, if you're still peeking!)

 

[ViolentPanda]

I wonder if they've done this yet.

They've talked about it, but they haven't forced it yet. I think they're still hoping against hope that Cowshit will fold. Fat chance.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This thread has now been read well over half a million times!

Ive only looked at it twice. DIdnt have time to read all 618 pages and im sure it's not that interesting

 

[cesare]

They've talked about it, but they haven't forced it yet. I think they're still hoping against hope that Cowshit will fold. Fat chance.

Yep, I've just checked the CAC website - no applications since I last checked in Dec. There doesn't seem any degree of urgency about it, eh.

 

[sihhi]

How the New Statesman celebrated a couple of weeks ago at head office:

I think that's Cowley behind a bald guy with glasses.

Here are just some of its adverts on its centenary issue - one for Finmeccanica which produces 1m$+ single assault helicopters for the US military (the kind that did the damage in the Wikileaks-leaked Colateral Murder video), one for BASF worldwide death merchants in health and safety in the chemicals industry resisted for years paying a dime in compensation over its wealth gained in support of the Nazi industrial machine, one for Lock & Co Hatters St James Street, an ultra exclusive part of central London, supplied hats for James Bond, cheapest standard hat at £215,

Finally one for Barton Park an exclusive retirement and nursing home (not reflected in the wages of its staff)
Barton Park:
A Barton Park retirement home.

A Barton Park nursing home.

 

[editor]

Tis a tough life to be sure.

 

[cesare]

My illusions about the New Statesman - shattered

 

[Firky]

That carpet is enough to put anyone in an early grave.

 

[sihhi]

It's worth attacking the fact that the New Statesman and the Guardian and Independent et al would rather give space to right-wing arseholes than allow young journalists of whatever colour or gender to have jobs/ be published.

So NS have got Simon 'Enoch Powell was a firm anti-racist' Heffer and David 'nuclear weaponry or bust' Owen
doing their extended analysis of Thatcher

 

[treelover]

It changes over the years, in the late 90's it had lots of articles on direct action, anti-capitalism, etc.

blimey, 3.50 a week...

 

[J Ed]

I know this is from the racist misogynist 'libertarian' filth Guido Fawkes but it shows you exactly what the NS is like:

http://order- order.com/2012/12/17/new-statesman-internship-auctioned-for-1000-interns-aware-say-staggers-should-be-ashamed/

At the recent Olympics Ball raising money for Britain’s young athletes, the New Statesman, that paragon of equality of opportunity, auctioned off internships £1,000-a-pop. A great scoop from Dave Lee this lunchtime. “You will have the chance to contribute your ideas and writing to their hugely popular website” gushed Lot 75 with a starting bid of £1,000. Guido is currently trying to find out exactly how much the slave ship ticket actually went for.

Seeing as the Staggers would be getting the free labour from whichever champagne-swilling parent that coughed up for their lucky child’s week of work experience, would they be contributing anything to the deal? “No travel included”.

Intern Aware have slammed the Staggers this afternoon:

“Most people can’t afford to work for free and even fewer people can afford to pay thousands of pounds for the privilege of interning. The New Statesman should be ashamed of operating a practice than puts opportunities out of the hands of hardworking and talented young people.”

They also estimate that “around 1/3 of the editorial staff at any one time are unpaid. Not only do they readily do all the necessary drudgework, they help to depress the wages of paid journalists there.” Shame on them.

 

[butchersapron]

It changes over the years, in the late 90's it had lots of articles on direct action, anti-capitalism, etc.

blimey, 3.50 a week...

No it didn't.

 

[chilango]

Who the fuck reads the New Statesman anyway?

I never have. Why would I?

 

[J Ed]

Who the fuck reads the New Statesman anyway?

I never have. Why would I?

Honestly I prefer the Economist, better journalism and you're getting a more honest party line.

 

[Idris2002]

Who the fuck reads the New Statesman anyway?

I never have. Why would I?

I remember it being quite good back in the 80s and early 90s. Went to hell after Blair turned to the Dark Side, though.

 

[sihhi]

Weird article in the New Inquiry on twitter and voyeurism into teenagers:

Twitter is a self-curated world of choose-your-own-adventure voyeurism. It becomes interesting when you realize that you can just sit behind the scenes of someone’s life and listen to them talk to themselves, when you realize how many inner monologues — those of friends, celebrities, strangers — are waiting there naked-faced in a neat backward scroll. Voyeurism is not widely acknowledged as useful, and social media are constantly being asked to justify their efficacy. Although Twitter succeeds as a mechanism for self-promotion and offers a way to connect with strangers or friends of friends, its main utility is as entertainment. We have all wished at times that we could be there for someone else’s argument, gossip session, or first date: Twitter gets us pretty close. Twitter is where we go to be creepy, and #followateen demonstrates this: It is precisely what has made Twitter so popular, so successful, and so addictive.

Thank goodness I don't have a twitter account.

 

[DotCommunist]

nice implication of one-handed twitterism

 

[The Pale King]

Hello there.
Sometime lurker, first time poster.

Here is Laurie Penny speaking truth to power at the Oxford Union:



Trigger Warning: she's pretty radical, you might not be able to handle it. She also swears at one point.

 

[editor]

You would have thought they might have turned the heating on. It's so cold she's had to keep her hat and scarf on!

 

[The Pale King]

Even the Oxford Union are not exempt from making savings in these austere times it seems. Is nothing sacred?