chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
Yeah mate sure. I hear your relentless self-regard, don't worry.
I don't know who they are, where they are, but they can't do any worse than what is going on now. Pretty basic point imo.
Have you ever been on tumblr?
lefty party predictions
- Thread starter frogwoman
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Have you ever been on tumblr?
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Not half a million and, as has been explained before, money that they were given for this purpose only.
TUSC's votes were predictably small. I'm not a fan at all of the idea of low profile parties standing huge numbers of candidates. But let's at least be fair.
Y, under a rock, that's it
YouSir
Retired from Urban
Aye, only real question is what they do next, split off into the composite parts or spend the next few years working on real stuff and building support for next time.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Not for next time, for now ( and i know every single person involved is already doing) but all that money...
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
Aye. I think it's perfectly valid to think about what else it could have been spent on.
The only other idea I have is a massive piss up though.
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
YouSir
Retired from Urban
Am I imagining it or was the deposit money given on the condition be spent that way? Sure I read that somewhere on Urban ( so tenuously reliable source). If so a waste but it is what it is.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
I have heard one claim of it - a bequeathment .
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
Be fair, most weren't paper candidates, there were active campaigns.
Because it enabled us to put forward Socialist ideas in this election, because its helped us to make contact with hundreds of new contacts up and down the country who want to do something, not just vote, and that matters. Especially now we've got a majority Tory govt to take on. Because Don Thomas got re-elected, and hopefully so have other ex Labour councillors TUSC is working with. Because I'd rather use the elections on our terms than sit at home and moan at the telly and the bleakness of everything.
And because I personally spoiled the Green vote in my ward by standing and caused them to lose a seat to Labour.
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
Yep, that's true, to what remains of the old Socialist Alliance.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Y, under a rock, that's it
You don't seem to have any idea where these new people are to be found, you fucking clown.
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
What are you trying to tell us lassie? Did someone fall down a well?
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Yes. An old left winger left money to the remains of the Socialist Alliance for electoral purposes only, which the SA remains then dished out for deposits etc. TUSC were not given a large sum of money to spend as they chose.
YouSir
Retired from Urban
If it was for 'electoral purposes' could the money not have been used to focus on a handful of reasonable seats rather than the scatter gun thing?
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
As I understand it, no, Left Unity were up for doing that but it was a wide challenge kinda deal.
Just so you know though, even if you did spend a lot of money on a couple of seats you'd still only get 50-1000 votes.
"“Can’t you see that the problem is you? That politics has nothing to do with being right, that politics is about succeeding?” One can have the best analysis, understand the keys to political developments since the sixteenth century, know that historical materialism is the key to understanding social processes. And what are you going to do — scream that to people? “You are workers and you don’t even know it!”
The enemy wants nothing more than to laugh at you. You can wear a T-shirt with the hammer and sickle. You can even carry a huge flag, and then go back home with your flag, all while the enemy laughs at you. Because the people, the workers, they prefer the enemy to you. They believe him. They understand him when he speaks. They don’t understand you. And maybe you are right! Maybe you can ask your children to write that on your tombstone: “He was always right — but no one ever knew.”"
The enemy wants nothing more than to laugh at you. You can wear a T-shirt with the hammer and sickle. You can even carry a huge flag, and then go back home with your flag, all while the enemy laughs at you. Because the people, the workers, they prefer the enemy to you. They believe him. They understand him when he speaks. They don’t understand you. And maybe you are right! Maybe you can ask your children to write that on your tombstone: “He was always right — but no one ever knew.”"
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
I see you're quoting that wanker Iglesias. Link to the full article so we can read about how strikes are futile.
Riklet
procrastinación
He's just one guy though, what is behind Podemos is much more powerful and significant than that. There is a lot of working class involvement and participation, by both young and old. Age isn't the important thing. But they do seem fresher and a challenge.
I wouldn't be snearing when there are such key tactical lessons to be learnt. From either the electoral approach or what goes behind it.
A mass movement without blahing on about a general strike is hardly a waste of time. What use is a one day general strike every now and then when capital has total control and there's mass unemployment? It has achieved jack fucking shit in Spain, if anything it has demotivated people from more regular struggle.
I wouldn't be snearing when there are such key tactical lessons to be learnt. From either the electoral approach or what goes behind it.
A mass movement without blahing on about a general strike is hardly a waste of time. What use is a one day general strike every now and then when capital has total control and there's mass unemployment? It has achieved jack fucking shit in Spain, if anything it has demotivated people from more regular struggle.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
The Socialist Equality Party stood two candidates in the general election, Katie Rhodes in Glasgow Central and David O’Sullivan in Holborn & St. Pancras, London. Rhodes secured 58 votes and O’Sullivan 108. The purpose of the SEP’s campaign was to raise the necessity of a new socialist movement of the working class, one based on the fight for a workers government in Britain within the framework of a United Socialist States of Europe and a world socialist federation.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/05/09/brit-m09.html
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/05/09/brit-m09.html
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
I'm not sneering at Podemos but I am a bit sceptical of the nature of this w/class participation - Iglesias seems to be centralising power around himself and the 'circles' don't have any structural power in the organisation.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
It's a usefully soft name for vote gathering. Ironically, years ago the Irish SWP (then SWM) used to criticise the Workers Party for using People Before Profit as a slogan, because it puts a cross class "people" at the centre of its politics.
Very good performance by Carroll though. That must put him in line for an Assembly seat. The odd thing is that the SWP is tiny in Belfast. The vote they just got bears absolutely no relationship to their activist numbers in a city where they may well be the sixth or seventh biggest left group.
Jean-Luc
Well-Known Member
There's a party in Lewisham called "People Before Profit". In Deptford they went head-to-head against TUSC (represented by an ex-councillor). They got 666 votes (1.40%). TUSC got 286 (0.5%). In the two other Lewisham seats, "People Before Profit" stood in one, TUSC in the other. The one got 390 votes (0.91%), the other 391 (0.81%). I agree that "People Before Profit" is better than "TUSC". "People Not Profits" would be better, though.
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