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SWP expulsions and squabbles

Anyway everyone is now sticking their oar in desperate to get the fresh student blood when the 'Big Bang' happens.

Real life Barry Mainwairing no7 Martin Thomas
Martin%2BThomas.jpg


explains what Leninism is:

'Leninism is, first of all, realism, the highest qualitative and quantitative appreciation of reality, from the standpoint of revolutionary action. Precisely because of this it is irreconcilable with the flight from reality behind the screen of hollow agitationalism, with the passive loss of time, with the haughty justification of yesterday’s mistakes on the pretext of saving the tradition of the party.

Leninism is genuine freedom from formalistic prejudices, from moralising doctrinalism, from all forms of intellectual conservatism attempting to bind the will to revolutionary action. But to believe that Leninism signifies that "anything goes" would be an irremediable mistake. Leninism includes the morality, not formal but genuinely revolutionary, of mass action and the mass party. Nothing is so alien to it as functionary-arrogance and bureaucratic cynicism. A mass party has its own morality, which is the bond of fighters in and for action. Demagogy is irreconcilable with the spirit of a revolutionary party because it is deceitful: by presenting one or another simplified solution of the difficulties of the hour it inevitably undermines the next future, weakens the party’s self-confidence. Swept by the wind and gripped by a serious danger, demagogy easily dissolves into panic. It is hard to juxtapose, even on paper, panic and Leninism. Leninism is warlike from head to foot. War is impossible without cunning, without subterfuge, without deception of the enemy. Victorious war cunning is a constituent element of Leninist politics. But, at the same time, Leninism is supreme revolutionary honesty toward the party and the working class. It admits of no fiction, no bubble-blowing, no pseudo-grandeur.'
 
Yes that is hard to understand. Maybe it has something to do with the translation from the Russian. A more common and well-known expression from Lenin, often referred to by Tony Cliff is "bending-the-stick". I read it defined as meaning "over exaggerating" somewhere recently but I have always thought it was meant as making compromises. I have difficulty in relating the origin of the phrase in the real world. What stick- I would ask? Sorry for the derail.

Look again, it's not from Russian, it's from a bilingual academic Mimmo Porcaro from the University of Ferrara writing in an English-edited major socialist journal.

https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/srv/article/view/18810
 
Look again, it's not from Russian, it's from a bilingual academic Mimmo Porcaro from the University of Ferrara writing in an English-edited major socialist journal.

https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/srv/article/view/18810
I looked at your link, but the paragraph under discussion does not occur in the abstract which is all that anyone can access from that website if you are not a paid up subscriber. I guess you must be, especially as you describe it as a 'major socialist journal'.
 
I looked at your link, but the paragraph under discussion does not occur in the abstract which is all that anyone can access from that website if you are not a paid up subscriber. I guess you must be, especially as you describe it as a 'major socialist journal'.

I'm not a subscriber so I can't see it either but Bambery's organisation is quoting from it. :)

The reference given is Porcaro, Mimmo; Occupy Lenin; Socialist Register 2013: The Question of Strategy; ed. Panitch, Albo, Chibber; (Merlin Press 2012); 89.

It's edited by at the very least 3 English speakers.
I'm not asking you decipher it if you can't.:D I can't.
 
Yes but Bambery's organisation all speak English with a Scottish accent; I wonder what it sounds like when they discuss it amongst themselves.
 
Yes but Bambery's organisation all speak English with a Scottish accent; I wonder what it sounds like when they discuss it amongst themselves.

:confused:

Anyway, sticking to the ISG's approach what does 'the movements' actually mean - which movements, where?

"Today, our organisations must acknowledge the fact that the class is increasingly stratified, less organised and more dispersed than they were in the early 20th century, even than they were in the “heyday” of the 1970s (in which comparison we can add ‘more precarious’ to the list). More than just acknowledge these facts, we must build organisations that can accommodate these shifts. Our interaction with the movements is the real test."

I find the positive quotation of this odd aswell:-

"We must understand that the notion of running society by a system of workers’ councils does not immediately make sense to those who have been most radicalised against private property, the state, and the capitalist system. For a generation that is used to unemployment or precarious employment, where ‘delayed transitions’ to adulthood express themselves in perpetual callowness and immaturity – finding cultural expression in ‘kidult’ cartoon culture, inflected sentences, and passive-aggressive resistance to all and every ‘authority’ figure – calls for a new democracy and opposition to all hierarchy make sense"

Is it saying people can't understand socialising production because they've never had 'proper jobs' or is it something more subtle?
There probably is something worthwhile in there somewhere I just can't quite get to it.
 
Can you or anyone explain this?

'But what should interest us…now, is not this or that thesis but the way in which each of them was produced. What should interest us is a style of thinking and action, a style that can be summed up as continuous and constant change in relation to the given situation. Lenin is the continuous redefinition of the given situation on the basis of the dynamic of the class struggle and of the spaces which open up from time to time, or which become closed, to the activism of the popular movement. Lenin is the minute attention to singularity, to the unrepeatability of each historic moment, to getting a concrete hold on an unprecedented condition, and thus to the constant mutation of the objective situation and of the subjects that act within it. Lenin, therefore, is a continuous movement of rupture in the face of convictions, of political lines and of organizational forms, which, having matured in a preceding situation, tend by inertia to repeat their problems and solutions and therefore to remain prisoners of the old class relations.'

View attachment 28295
Has theblackhand joined bambers?
 
Advice for comrades feeling the heat from the CC and its full-time organisers

In the face of the unprecedented opposition within our party to the Central Committee, its shocking handling of the rape allegation against a leading member, its attempts to force through a post-conference pretence that all is settled, and its continuing bullish defence of undemocratic methods and ongoing attempts to silence dissent, the Central Committee and its full-time organisers have started to move against those of us demanding an accounting in the party.

Comrades around the country have been summoned to meetings on their own, or at best with one fellow member to accompany them.

In these meetings they have been accused of all manner of attacks on "forty years of British Leninism", and recantations, confessions and apologies have been demanded, along with suggestions that they leave if they cannot toe 'the line'.

Don't be intimidated. It's our party. You are not alone, much as the CC may wish to make you feel isolated.

Here are some suggestions for comrades in these situations:

DON'T go alone to one of these meetings. If "invited", accept, and tell the CC member or organiser the names of three other comrades who will be coming with you. Stick to your guns on this.

DO take notes during the meeting and reject any demand that you should not.

DON'T agree to anything - tell whoever is disciplining you that you will go away, discuss their points with other comrades, and respond later.

DO tell other comrades before and after the meeting that it will be happening. We have NOTHING to hide from other members and from the class.

DON'T apologise for standing up to them and for fighting for our party.

DO tell us, here at the IS blog of any incidents of bullying and / or intimidation. Any threats, any suggestion of disciplinary sanctions - tell the party, the party needs to know what is going on.

Kris Stewart
Gareth Dale
China Mieville
Richard Seymour
Alex Anievas
Adam Marks
Jamie Pitman
 
OMFG - A Swappie docudrama/musical resignation - is this black propaganda by the CC?


I needed some cheering up this evening!

If the revolution's in his hands we're properly buggered...

Maybe it's his screen test for Les Miserable 2 - Revenge of the Swappies.
 
I needed some cheering up this evening!

If the revolution's in his hands we're properly buggered...

Maybe it's his screen test for Les Miserable 2 - Revenge of the Swappies.

I think I'm warming to Cde Brindelli:

Jack Brindilli + tony benn.png

eta: via that Far Left Fashion Tumblr page
 


I see the piece Butchers quoted from the opposition blog has since been pulled from their blog. I wonder why?

Funnily enough, reading through it and it's advice in case of local full timers or CC applying pressure, it reminded me of this piece of unintentional hilarity from the Weekly Worker that dates from 2001 and details the the expulsion of Eric Karas from the SWP.

Look who was applying the pressure back in the day. I'm sure that was the first time I'd ever heard of cde Delta.
 
Surveillance via facebook, and I guess via any medium really, really is about gaining confidence. Luckily, those who should know better are very vain and entirely too open with friend requests. If you are having problems getting people in the SWP to accept friend requests I suggest setting up a facebook account with a profile picture of an attractive young woman, you won't have any problems with people accepting your friend requests.

Once you have a couple of swappie 'mutual friends', you can be friends with whoever.

Enjoy.

Apparently there was a big bust up at a Sheffield SWSS meeting on feminism today https://www.facebook.com/events/530...0183184/?ref=notif&notif_t=plan_mall_activity - AWLers tried to turn up and got barred, people shouted at each other etc

I know what your sock account is. Bit of a relief to be honest, only accepted the request cos you had loads of people I knew on your facebook and just assumed I knew you but couldn't remember where from - but I was getting concerned cos something didn't seem right with it and me and a couple of others began to suspect you might be a copper :D

Hang on, how do I know you're not a copper :hmm:
 
Did anyone see this from a Unison NEC guy: http://jonrogers1963.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-blog-post-for-my-friends-and-comrades.html

If that's indicative of left tu responses the swp can relax a little. He'll still happily vote for and work with them. He just doesn't like an article defending leninism written by the prof, shock, would someone like that ever have probably not. If the level of political critique is how many women Alex name checks in his article that isn't going to worry anyone much either.

Last few branch meetings tonight i guess, recall looks dead in the water.
 
Did anyone see this from a Unison NEC guy: http://jonrogers1963.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-blog-post-for-my-friends-and-comrades.html

If that's indicative of left tu responses the swp can relax a little. He'll still happily vote for and work with them. He just doesn't like an article defending leninism written by the prof, shock, would someone like that ever have probably not. If the level of political critique is how many women Alex name checks in his article that isn't going to worry anyone much either.

Last few branch meetings tonight i guess, recall looks dead in the water.
"the swp can relax a little". From the rest of your post it's clear that, for you, "the swp" is the leadership and not the membership. So you see no problem with a tainted clique lording it over an impotent membership, many of whom believe the cc have scant credibility or legitimacy any more.
 
I know what your sock account is. Bit of a relief to be honest, only accepted the request cos you had loads of people I knew on your facebook and just assumed I knew you but couldn't remember where from - but I was getting concerned cos something didn't seem right with it and me and a couple of others began to suspect you might be a copper :D

Hang on, how do I know you're not a copper :hmm:

You seem really nice and I was starting to feel guilty so I made it obvious :(
 
I can't find a link to it, but there was a piece on the R4 Today Programme this morning about a woman in the army who committed suicide after the military police investigated a rape allegation she made against two colleagues.

Someone from Liberty was on there and made the following criticisms:
  • That the investigators were not independent
  • That the investigators were not sufficiently trained in dealing with rape allegations
  • That the complainant did not receive sufficient care and counselling
  • That there was a climate of triumphalism in the barracks concerned - a culture of resentment against the complainant for making the complaint.
Presumably all of this would be supported by most people, and especially those actively involved in fighting womens' oppression.
 
I see the piece Butchers quoted from the opposition blog has since been pulled from their blog. I wonder why?

Funnily enough, reading through it and it's advice in case of local full timers or CC applying pressure, it reminded me of this piece of unintentional hilarity from the Weekly Worker that dates from 2001 and details the the expulsion of Eric Karas from the SWP.

Look who was applying the pressure back in the day. I'm sure that was the first time I'd ever heard of cde Delta.

Part of the IS tradition?
Eric Karas But I`m a state capitalist and I believe in the permanent arms economy, etc.
 
I can't find a link to it, but there was a piece on the R4 Today Programme this morning about a woman in the army who committed suicide after the military police investigated a rape allegation she made against two colleagues.

Someone from Liberty was on there and made the following criticisms:
  • That the investigators were not independent
  • That the investigators were not sufficiently trained in dealing with rape allegations
  • That the complainant did not receive sufficient care and counselling
  • That there was a climate of triumphalism in the barracks concerned - a culture of resentment against the complainant for making the complaint.
Presumably all of this would be supported by most people, and especially those actively involved in fighting womens' oppression.

Aside from moving the the cobweb left and the anarchist scene from 'civil society' to being part of the state are there any other implications of modelling the 'radical left' on lessons learnt from the British Army?
 
'But what should interest us…now, is not this or that thesis but the way in which each of them was produced. What should interest us is a style of thinking and action, a style that can be summed up as continuous and constant change in relation to the given situation. Lenin is the continuous redefinition of the given situation on the basis of the dynamic of the class struggle and of the spaces which open up from time to time, or which become closed, to the activism of the popular movement. Lenin is the minute attention to singularity, to the unrepeatability of each historic moment, to getting a concrete hold on an unprecedented condition, and thus to the constant mutation of the objective situation and of the subjects that act within it. Lenin, therefore, is a continuous movement of rupture in the face of convictions, of political lines and of organizational forms, which, having matured in a preceding situation, tend by inertia to repeat their problems and solutions and therefore to remain prisoners of the old class relations.'

trans. Lenin paid particular awareness to changes in the political situation and was able to respond appropriately
 
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