SWP expulsions and squabbles

[Nigel Irritable]

They've got six months, but at this point it certainly looks like it will be tough for them to get many "names" to speak.

 

[sihhi]

Albo edits the Socialist Register.

His name didn't ring a bell, but that's an important academia position.

This year's Socialist Register features:
Vivek Chibber,Leo Panitch, Gregory Albo (all editors) Sam Gindin, Jodi Dean, Barbara Epstein, Mimmo Porcaro , Michalis Spourdalakis, Hilary Wainwright, Christoph Spehr, Charles Post, Stephen Hellman,
John Saul, Atilio Boron, Susan Spronk, Johanna Brenner, Nancy Holmstrom, Joan Sangster, Meg Luxton, Eli Zaretsky, Alex Callinicos, Michael Lebowitz as article authors so it's got tentacles within the newer generation of leftie academia aswell as Callinicos.

 

[belboid]

If Harvey adds his name to that list, it's game over.

they'll be happy as long as they've got Benn, Ali, Zizek, Serwotka etc (the evil left reformists). There are still only three or four names of any note on that list.

 

[emanymton]

They've got six months, but at this point it certainly looks like it will be tough for them to get many "names" to speak.

If Dano Mayoo (or whatever he called himself) is right they won't cares. It will be interesting to see who makes it onto the timetable.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

Yeah I don't think Marxism 2013 is quite headed for the Vyborg District just yet.

 

[Pickman's model]

but no you won't.

So evidently, being an anarchist is like the film Fight Club. At every meeting the mantra is "the first rule about anarchism is, you do not discuss anarchism".

I can. And for a lot of people I would. But not for you, because you're a useless cunt oxygen thief.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

they'll be happy as long as they've got Benn, Ali, Zizek, Serwotka etc (the evil left reformists). There are still only three or four names of any note on that list.

The question is more if any "boycott" spreads beyond academia.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

They won't will they. Hearing some middle grounders watering down their motions ahead of branch meetings this week. pendulum swinging against them.

I don't think they'll make it by the CC's deadline. And I wouldn't be surprised if some of the "moderates" are still vacillating, desperate to avoid a big split. But then comes the NC and the counteroffensive. Can they continue to sit on their hands, hoping the "hard" oppositionists walk?

 

[bolshiebhoy]

You could argue, ok I am, that this boycott stuff will have its high point among the academies because of the whole socialist feminist milieu of lecturers and students alike. Not sure it'll have the same traction outside the Unis. As with the swss vs branch votes contrast.

 

[sihhi]

If Harvey adds his name to that list, it's game over.

Good point. David Harvey is doing a free public lecture on the crisis and recession in Warwick Uni on Valentine's Day. If anyone knows anyone in Coventry able to go that's the kind of place where an answer could be drawn.

 

[SLK]

Phil Gasper is in the US ISO and stayed at my house one Marxism. He's a philosopher. He's also the uncle of a work colleague of mine (not related).

 

[sihhi]

You could argue, ok I am, that this boycott stuff will have its high point among the academies because of the whole socialist feminist milieu of lecturers and students alike. Not sure it'll have the same traction outside the Unis. As with the swss vs branch votes contrast.

The aim is to influence CC loyalists to think 'Marxism will just be us talking to ourselves and Michael Rosen, unless we sort out the "disputes" process'.

 

[SLK]

I don't think Rosen can be too happy. Random teachers who disagree with him on phonics on twitter are smearing him as being close to the SWP and his response has not gone further than "I am not a member of the SWP".

 

[Nigel Irritable]

You could argue, ok I am, that this boycott stuff will have its high point among the academies because of the whole socialist feminist milieu of lecturers and students alike. Not sure it'll have the same traction outside the Unis. As with the swss vs branch votes contrast.

More resonance, quite possibly, although the initial list contains no shortage of crusty old Marxists. The issue is if once going it has an effect on wider circles.

 

[emanymton]

The aim is to influence CC loyalists to think 'Marxism will just be us talking to ourselves and Michael Rosen, unless we sort out the "disputes" process'.

I am not sure about Rosen, he has posted a bit on Lenin's tomb, and did not explicitly come down on one side or the other, but I got the impression he wasn't very happy. I beat the likes of Gallowy, Benn, Loach and Pilger are loving this after the shit they got for supporting Assange.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Phil Gasper is in the US ISO and stayed at my house one Marxism. He's a philosopher. He's also the uncle of a work colleague of mine (not related).

The ISO seem to be paying a great deal of attention to this row. And are clearly taking sides.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

The ISO seem to be paying a great deal of attention to this row. And are clearly taking sides.

At the risk of sounding like a witch finder I think they are arguably the side Seymour is looking for. They have been making the running in recent years with some of the explicit Patriarchy stuff he's only obliquely broached recently. They are lapping this shit up in spades. And stirring it.

 

[SLK]

I should say I'm not 100% that Gasper is still an ISO member - my work colleague is utterly apolitical, her Dad lives in China and says that they are two "Marxist brothers" - which is what made me ask if it was Phil. I asked about the ISO and she said she wasn't sure any more.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

Rosen always says I'm not in the SWP though surely?

His tone on LT reads like a loyalish external member.

 

[imposs1904]

I don't think Rosen can be too happy. Random teachers who disagree with him on phonics on twitter are smearing him as being close to the SWP and his response has not gone further than "I am not a member of the SWP".

outside of resistancemp3 and bolshiebhoy I always considered Rosen their most unabashed fellow traveller.

 

[emanymton]

Rosen always says I'm not in the SWP though surely?

His tone on LT reads like a loyalish external member.

Did you think so? i may not have read all the posts on there due to the stupid commenting system, but that wasn't the impression i got.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

I should say I'm not 100% that Gasper is still an ISO member - my work colleague is utterly apolitical, her Dad lives in China and says that they are two "Marxist brothers" - which is what made me ask if it was Phil. I asked about the ISO and she said she wasn't sure any more.

Either way the ISO have been organising meetings on this stuff (bizarrely) and their members posting stuff well to the 'right' of Seymour on it so we can see where they're coming from.

 

[sihhi]

I am not sure about Rosen, he has posted a bit on Lenin's tomb, and did not explicitly come down on one side or the other, but I got the impression he wasn't very happy. I beat the likes of Gallowy, Benn, Loach and Pilger are loving this after the shit they got for supporting Assange.

I mentioned him because I've seen him thus far as the most SWP-supporting, non-SWP member, but, yes, if Conor Kostick can oppse then Rosen could too.
It's worth pointing out he's never been a SWP member but has been part of a number of key SWP strategy projects including StWC and UAF - in addition to Socialist Teachers Association and Anti Academies Alliance.

 

[SLK]

Rosen always says I'm not in the SWP though surely?
His tone on LT reads like a loyalish external member.

He has resolutely refused to respond to tweets about it - he retweeted one and invited others to attach the tweeter and that's it. My experience of him is that he'll find this hard to comprehend, but he has no particular loyalty to the SWP - he did do a talk at Bookmarks with John Rose yesterday for HMD though.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

Did you think so? i may not have read all the posts on there due to the stupid commenting system, but that wasn't the impression i got.

Maybe I was reading what I wanted to into it. Would trouble me more if he jumped sides than most!

 

[gawkrodger]

Good point. David Harvey is doing a free public lecture on the crisis and recession in Warwick Uni on Valentine's Day. If anyone knows anyone in Coventry able to go that's the kind of place where an answer could be drawn.

Unrelated to the rest of the thread, but cheers for this, just booked tickets

 

[Nigel Irritable]

At the risk of sounding like a witch finder I think they are arguably the side Seymour is looking for. They have been making the running in recent years with some of the explicit Patriarchy stuff he's only obliquely broached recently. They are lapping this shit up in spades. And stirring it.

Revenge is best served cold and all that. Callinicos and Co. did rightly fuck them all those years ago, both encouraging a breakaway faction and expelling the ISO from the international grouping. So it's hardly surprising if they are taking advantage of the SWP leadership's discomfort.

Also, they have in recent years both been more willing to describe themselves as feminist, and have at least somewhat loosened their previously very rigid internal regime. So they almost certainly genuinely agree with the Oppositionists anyway.

 

[SLK]

Either way the ISO have been organising meetings on this stuff (bizarrely) and their members posting stuff well to the 'right' of Seymour on it so we can see where they're coming from.

I thought the ISO were getting closer to the SWP, particularly because that split was about them not moving away from the class and seeing the anti-capitalist demonstrations as a new form of social change, or whatever. They were like the anti-Counterfire. In fact, they might not have drifted apart from the SWP if it wasn't for the Rees/ German axis. This last bit is all speculation.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Unrelated to the rest of the thread, but cheers for this, just booked tickets

Please don't tell us you are planning to heckle him about the SWP.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

I mentioned him because I've seen him thus far as the most SWP-supporting, non-SWP member, but, yes, if Conor Kostick can oppse then Rosen could too.
It's worth pointing out he's never been a SWP member but has been part of a number of key SWP strategy projects including StWC and UAF - in addition to Socialist Teachers Association and Anti Academies Alliance.

No disrespect to Conor but he and Rosen aren't really cut from the same cloth.