DOCSLIB.ORG

Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) t9 resist « to The mass movement in solidarity with _theVietnamese people againsT imperialism was a major feature of 1968 in Britain. It was the focus for the radicalisation of entire L an generation: a radicalisation which went beyond the single issue of Vietnam and led many thousands to embrace varying forms of revolutionarypolitics. TESSA VAN GELDEREN spoke to PAT JORDAN and TARIQ ALI, both founding members and leading figures in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC). Pat Jordan was a full time worker for the campaign during the mass demonstrationsof 1967 and 1968. He was a member of the International Marxist Group at the time and has been a lifelong fighter for socialism. Pat is currently recovering from the effects of a stroke. In 1967-68 Tariq Ali’s picture was never far from the front pages of the press. An editorial board member of Black Dwarf, he became a symbol of the mass demonstrations and occupations. His book about the period, Street PAT JORDAN The orientation of CND was to get the Fighting Years: An Autobiographycf Labour Party to adopt unilateralism. the Sixties, is reviewed elsewhere CND WAS THE left campaign of Then Aneurin Bevan, after initially sup- the fifties, its main activity porting unilateralism, made his famous in this issue. was a once—yearly march from Al- somersault. This rapidly disillusioned dermaston. The march was like people. They realised that they needed a revolutionary university — people ar- something else other than this simple guing, tactics and strategy debated, orientationwhich was entirely within the thousands of papers bought and sold. framework of supporting the Labour The main organisation to gain from Party, at that time under the leadership this was, rather surprisingly, the Labour of Gaitskell. Party Young Socialists (this was before Many CND activists were people who the Socialist Labour League’s control in had left the Communist Party at about 26 the sixties). the time of the Hungarian revolution in SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 7 May/June 1988 There was also a resolution on the agenda which had been inspired by the BCPV which called on the Wilson government to take an initiative ‘to bring this dreadful war to an end’. Nottingham South’s delegate, Peter Price, came under immense pressure from the Tribunites to withdraw his resolution: they supported the BCPV. They did horrific things like waking him up at two o’clock in the morning, bully- ing him. They argued that if the Nott- ingham South resolution remained on the agenda it would jeopardise the pass- ing of the BCPV resolution. We were, of course, totally opposed to withdrawing the resolution. In the end it got a not insignificant number of votes as did the BCPV resolution. This then was the background to the establishment of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. Schoenmann was part of these discussions and observed the pro- duction of The Week bulletin. He came to us with a proposal that we start a diffe- rent type of movement against the war in Vietnam. He’d discuss it with Ken Coa- tes, who was a member of the Fourth International and worked for the Ber- trand Russell Peace Foundation. I moved to London from Nottingham to work for the Peace Foundation to set up such an organisation. I did that in January 1967 and we held the founding conference of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign in June 1967. We tried to intervene with all groups of people including CND, arguing that they should support the struggle in Viet- nam where it was possible that nuclear weapons could be used. We had no joy from them, although individuals did 1956. As a result of these developments tain. This was the British Council for support us. We also had support from the Committee of 100 emerged and ar- Peace in Vietnam (BCPV) which was led various maoist groups. New Left Review gued for direct action. by the Communist Party. The first line gave us facilities. We produced a photo- One of the people involved with this of its founding statement was ‘we do not graphic exhibition of the war in Vietnam was Ralph Schoenman who persuaded take sides, we want peace in Vietnam’. which was shown round the universities. Bertrand Russell to support the com- Quite rightly the Vietnamese did not There were a few hundred delegates at mittee. The Bertrand Russell Peace like this as it took out the anti-imperialist the founding conference, a large propor- Foundation was established. The name essence of their fight. tion were students but there were a was to make bridges, Schoenman was In Nottingham The Week group was in sprinkling of trade unionists and a the driving force. the Labour Party. At the Labour Party number of people from Labour parties. When Schoenman went on a visit to conference in 1966 it produced a daily Local groups were established to mo- Vietnam he was told by the Vietnamese bulletin. There was a resolution from bilise for national demonstrations and communists that they were very dissatis- Nottingham South CLP which ended up local activities. A favourite passtime was fied with the anti-war movement in Bri- with ‘Vietnam for the Vietnamese’. stalking Labour prime minister Harold 27 SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 7 Mayllune 1988 whole period its political Wilson who said: ‘Everywhere I go, I get ‘why we’re not marching’! what gave that left its entire followed by people picketing me about The great strengthwe had was that we meaning and mark on an all the world. Viet- Vietnam’. were part of a world-wide movement. If generation over The focal point in to prevent La- we talk about the objective effects, what namese were a that. There was an attempt imagine the Viet- foreign Michael Stewart the VSC did in part was to reinforce the It’s foolish to that bour secretary be mechanically from speaking the Oxford Union. American anti-war movement which in nam exprerience can at the political situation This raised the whole question of ‘free turn was one of the factors demoralising repeated now. If in Europe, anything’s possible. speech’. You have to rememberthat the the American army of occupation. The changes then I don’t think that the Vietnam the television main factor demoralising them was the But even war was on conjuncture will be repeated nearly evening and there was a fight put up by the Vietnamese and the particular every because its conjuncture that happens revulsion against Wilson who was giving fact that they were completely socially a least in political to isolated in Vietnam. Only the scum of very rarely in a century. support, at a sense, nothing like it. People the Americans. People outraged. Vietnamese society would have any dea- There’s been were it like the twenties and thirties. We well aware of weaknesses lings with them. say was were our Yes and Spanish civil in terms of social compositon. We took This was expressed in various ways. no. The war was a big in Europe. It did not steps to try to remedy that. We orga- Many were drug takers, the level of very event about world-wide radicalisation. nised trade union conference and a discipline started to collapse. If Ameri- bring a a revolution did, the youth conference. can imperialism had not been forced to The Russian so twen- the whole withdraw its army it would have had a ties are more comparable. But its its widest business about 1968 is that it not ‘a mutiny on hands. In scena- was favourite pastime was rio that’s the kind ofjob that will have to confined to Europe. stalking Harold Wilson, who be done in relation to central America. It is true that many important things in Europe: the general strike said “Everywhere I go I get There should be an internationally coor- happened dinated campaign. in France, the creeping general strike in followed by people picketing the first military defeat Italy, the overthrow of a senile bonapart- ’ Vietnam was me about Vietnam” suffered by the United States. After- ist regime in Portugal. wards the Fourth International drew the But you also had a general strike in 1969 toppled milit- The steering committee of VSC met conclusion that it was virtually im- Pakistan in which a dictatorship and led the break weekly over this period. There were possible for American imperialism to ary to up fights and packing of meetings. It intervene again because there of the country. There was a massive many in different of usually fight between the Inter- was such revulsion to the Viet- peasant uprising parts was a beginnings of struggle in national Marxist Group and the mao- experience. I wish they’d India, the a nam against the ists. At the first conference of the VSC the been right. Latin America, the fight Angola, Bissau maoists had wanted to write into the Portuguese in Guinea and successive strike constitution support for the ‘13 points’ and Mozambique Argentina. the and the ‘10 points’. These nego- waves in There was were there the tiating points forward by the Viet- uprising in Sri Lanka. And was put in the United States We were opposed to that TARIQ ALI anti-war movement namese. which without precedent in the hi- because it would have tied us hook, line was of that So it really and sinker to the North Vietnamese THE SOLIDARITY movement story country. was that’s what made it uni- government’s position. It would have with Vietnam was not sponta- global and so allowed political freedom what- neous it had to be organised. que. us no — struggle of the Vietnamese It was in part the result of a The some- soever.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Stop Solidarity's Counterrevolution!
    Time Runs Out in Poland Stop Solidarity's Counterrevolution! The massive strike in the Baltic ports last August brought Polish workers before a historic choice: with the bankruptcy of Stalinist rule dramatically demon­ strated, it would be either the path of bloody counter­ revolution in league with imperialism, or the path of proletarian political revolution. The Gdansk accords and the emergence of Solidarity (Solidarnosc), the mass workers organization which issued out of last year's general strike, produced a situation of cold dual power. This precarious condition could not last long, we wrote. And now time has run out. With its first national congress in early September, decisive elements of Solidarity are now pushing a program of open counterrevolution. The appeal for "free trade unions" within the Soviet bloc, long a fighting slogan for Cold War anti-Communism, was a deliberate provocation of Moscow. Behind the call for "free elections" to the Sejm (parliament) stands the program of "Western-style democracy, " that is, capitalist restoration under the guise of parliamen­ tary government. And now leading Polish "dissident" Jacek Kuron, an influential adviser of Solidarity, and a member of the Second International, has issued a call for a counterrevolutionary regime to take power. To underscore their ties to the "free world," Solidarity's leaders have invited Lane Kirkland, the hard-line Cold Warrior who heads up the American AFL-CIO, to attend the second session of the congress scheduled for late September. This top labor lieuten­ ant of U. S. imperialism, a man deeply involved in Washington's anti-Soviet war drive, has announced he .
    [Show full text]
  • Pablo Bio-Bibliographical Sketch
    Lubitz' TrotskyanaNet Michel Pablo Bio-Bibliographical Sketch Contents: Basic biographical data Biographical sketch Selective bibliography Basic biographical data Name: Michel Pablo Other names (by-names, pseud. etc.): Abdelkrim ; Alain ; Archer ; Gabe ; Gabriel ; Henry ; Jérôme ; J.P. Martin ; Jean-Paul Martin ; Mike; Molitor ; M.P. ; Murat ; Pilar ; Michalēs N. Raptēs ; Michel Raptis ; Mihalis Raptis ; Mikhalis N. Raptis ; Robert ; Smith ; Spero ; Speros ; Vallin Date and place of birth: August 24, 1911, Alexandria (Egypt) Date and place of death: February 17, 1996, Athens (Greece) Nationality: Greek Occupations, careers, etc.: Civil engineer, professional revolutionary Time of activity in Trotskyist movement: 1928 - 1964 (1995) Biographical sketch A lifelong revolutionary, Michel Pablo for some one and a half decades was the chief leader of the Trotskyist Fourth International – or at least of its majority faction. He was perhaps one of the most renowned and at the same time one of the most controversial figures of the international Trotskyist movement; for all those claiming for themselves the label of "orthodox" Trotskyism, Pablo since 1953 was a whipping boy and the very synonym for centrism, revisionism, opportunism, and even for liquidationism. 'Michel Pablo' is one (and undoubtedly the best known) of more than about a dozen pseudonyms used by a man who was born Michael Raptis [Mikhalēs Raptēs / Μισέλ Πάμπλο]1 as son of Nikolaos Raptis [Raptēs], a Greek civil engineer, in Alexandria (Egypt) on August 24, 1911. He grew up and attended Greek schools in Egypt and from 1918 in Crete before, at the age of 17, he moved to Athens enrolling at the Polytechnic where he studied engineering.
    [Show full text]
  • ESS9 Appendix A3 Political Parties Ed
    APPENDIX A3 POLITICAL PARTIES, ESS9 - 2018 ed. 3.0 Austria 2 Belgium 4 Bulgaria 7 Croatia 8 Cyprus 10 Czechia 12 Denmark 14 Estonia 15 Finland 17 France 19 Germany 20 Hungary 21 Iceland 23 Ireland 25 Italy 26 Latvia 28 Lithuania 31 Montenegro 34 Netherlands 36 Norway 38 Poland 40 Portugal 44 Serbia 47 Slovakia 52 Slovenia 53 Spain 54 Sweden 57 Switzerland 58 United Kingdom 61 Version Notes, ESS9 Appendix A3 POLITICAL PARTIES ESS9 edition 3.0 (published 10.12.20): Changes from previous edition: Additional countries: Denmark, Iceland. ESS9 edition 2.0 (published 15.06.20): Changes from previous edition: Additional countries: Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden. Austria 1. Political parties Language used in data file: German Year of last election: 2017 Official party names, English 1. Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs (SPÖ) - Social Democratic Party of Austria - 26.9 % names/translation, and size in last 2. Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) - Austrian People's Party - 31.5 % election: 3. Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ) - Freedom Party of Austria - 26.0 % 4. Liste Peter Pilz (PILZ) - PILZ - 4.4 % 5. Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative (Grüne) - The Greens – The Green Alternative - 3.8 % 6. Kommunistische Partei Österreichs (KPÖ) - Communist Party of Austria - 0.8 % 7. NEOS – Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum (NEOS) - NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum - 5.3 % 8. G!LT - Verein zur Förderung der Offenen Demokratie (GILT) - My Vote Counts! - 1.0 % Description of political parties listed 1. The Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, or SPÖ) is a social above democratic/center-left political party that was founded in 1888 as the Social Democratic Worker's Party (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei, or SDAP), when Victor Adler managed to unite the various opposing factions.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxism and the Solidarity Economy: Toward a New Theory of Revolution
    Class, Race and Corporate Power Volume 9 Issue 1 Article 2 2021 Marxism and the Solidarity Economy: Toward a New Theory of Revolution Chris Wright [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Wright, Chris (2021) "Marxism and the Solidarity Economy: Toward a New Theory of Revolution," Class, Race and Corporate Power: Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. DOI: 10.25148/CRCP.9.1.009647 Available at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol9/iss1/2 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts, Sciences & Education at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Class, Race and Corporate Power by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Marxism and the Solidarity Economy: Toward a New Theory of Revolution Abstract In the twenty-first century, it is time that Marxists updated the conception of socialist revolution they have inherited from Marx, Engels, and Lenin. Slogans about the “dictatorship of the proletariat” “smashing the capitalist state” and carrying out a social revolution from the commanding heights of a reconstituted state are completely obsolete. In this article I propose a reconceptualization that accomplishes several purposes: first, it explains the logical and empirical problems with Marx’s classical theory of revolution; second, it revises the classical theory to make it, for the first time, logically consistent with the premises of historical materialism; third, it provides a (Marxist) theoretical grounding for activism in the solidarity economy, and thus partially reconciles Marxism with anarchism; fourth, it accounts for the long-term failure of all attempts at socialist revolution so far.
    [Show full text]
  • Solidarity: Reflections on an Emerging Concept in Bioethics
    Solidarity: reflections on an emerging concept in bioethics Barbara Prainsack and Alena Buyx This report was commissioned by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCoB) and was jointly funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Nuffield Foundation. The award was managed by the Economic and Social Research Council on behalf of the partner organisations, and some additional funding was made available by NCoB. For the duration of six months in 2011, Professor Barbara Prainsack was the NCoB Solidarity Fellow, working closely with fellow author Dr Alena Buyx, Assistant Director of NCoB. Disclaimer The report, whilst funded jointly by the AHRC, the Nuffield Foundation and NCoB, does not necessarily express the views and opinions of these organisations; all views expressed are those of the authors, Professor Barbara Prainsack and Dr Alena Buyx. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is an independent body that examines and reports on ethical issues in biology and medicine. It is funded jointly by the Nuffield Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, and has gained an international reputation for advising policy makers and stimulating debate in bioethics. www.nuffieldbioethics.org The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to improve social wellbeing in the widest sense. It funds research and innovation in education and social policy and also works to build capacity in education, science and social science research. www.nuffieldfoundation.org Established in April 2005, the AHRC is a non-Departmental public body. It supports world-class research that furthers our understanding of human culture and creativity. www.ahrc.ac.uk © Barbara Prainsack and Alena Buyx ISBN: 978-1-904384-25-0 November 2011 Printed in the UK by ESP Colour Ltd.
    [Show full text]
  • Report on Civil Rights Congress As a Communist Front Organization
    X Union Calendar No. 575 80th Congress, 1st Session House Report No. 1115 REPORT ON CIVIL RIGHTS CONGRESS AS A COMMUNIST FRONT ORGANIZATION INVESTIGATION OF UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED STATES COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ^ EIGHTIETH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION Public Law 601 (Section 121, Subsection Q (2)) Printed for the use of the Committee on Un-American Activities SEPTEMBER 2, 1947 'VU November 17, 1947.— Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1947 ^4-,JH COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES J. PARNELL THOMAS, New Jersey, Chairman KARL E. MUNDT, South Dakota JOHN S. WOOD, Georgia JOHN Mcdowell, Pennsylvania JOHN E. RANKIN, Mississippi RICHARD M. NIXON, California J. HARDIN PETERSON, Florida RICHARD B. VAIL, Illinois HERBERT C. BONNER, North Carolina Robert E. Stripling, Chief Inrestigator Benjamin MAi^Dt^L. Director of Research Union Calendar No. 575 SOth Conokess ) HOUSE OF KEriiEfcJENTATIVES j Report 1st Session f I1 No. 1115 REPORT ON CIVIL RIGHTS CONGRESS AS A COMMUNIST FRONT ORGANIZATION November 17, 1917. —Committed to the Committee on the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. Thomas of New Jersey, from the Committee on Un-American Activities, submitted the following REPORT REPORT ON CIVIL RIGHTS CONGRESS CIVIL RIGHTS CONGRESS 205 EAST FORTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK 17, N. T. Murray Hill 4-6640 February 15. 1947 HoNOR.\RY Co-chairmen Dr. Benjamin E. Mays Dr. Harry F. Ward Chairman of the board: Executive director: George Marshall Milton Kaufman Trea-surcr: Field director: Raymond C.
    [Show full text]
  • [Communist Pamphlets]
    ILLINOI S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Brittle Books Project, 2011. COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION In Copyright. Reproduced according to U.S. copyright law USC 17 section 107. Contact [email protected] for more information. This digital copy was made from the printed version held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was made in compliance with copyright law. Prepared for the Brittle Books Project, Preservation Department, Main Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Northern Micrographics Brookhaven Bindery La Crosse, Wisconsin 2011 C OMMUNISM I. RUSSIA 1. HISTORICAL. The idea of Communism, which Webster defines as "Any theory or system of social organization involving common ownership of the agents of production, and some approach to equality in the distribution of the pro- ducts of industry," is not new. In 1776 Dr. Adam Weishaupt, a professor of law in a Bavarian college, founded the Order of the Illuminati with the aim of abolishing monarchy and all ordered government, private property, inheritance, patriotism, the family, and religion. The order spread rapidly tl :agh France, Italy and Germany, but was eventually exposed and driv- e :nderground. In 1789 the Jacobin Club, organized by Robespierre and ot a who had been affiliated with the Illuminati, did much to give so sa ,ainary a hue to the French Revolution and provide a pattern for the R ussian Bolsheviks some 130 years later. Undoubtedly influenced by Weishaupt, Jean Jacques Rousseau and ot' ers, Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, two apostate young German Jews, produced the famous Communist Manifesto in 1848 as the platform of the Communist League, a German organization which later became inter- national.
    [Show full text]
  • What Happened to the Workers' Socialist League?
    What Happened to the Workers’ Socialist League? By Tony Gard (as amended by Chris Edwards and others), September 1993 Note by Gerry D, October 2019: This is the only version I have of Tony Gard’s docu- ment, which contains the unauthorised amendments as explained in the rather tetchy note by Chris Edwards below. [Note by Chris Edwards (May 2002). War is the sternest possible test for any Trot- skyist organisation. While many British organisations failed this test in the case of the Malvinas/Falklands War (e.g. the Militant group with its “workers war” against Argen- tina position), the British proto-ITO comrades did attempt to defend a principled posi- tion against the bankrupt positions of the leadership of their own organisation, the British Workers Socialist League (WSL). This is an account of the tendency struggle over the Malvinas war and many other is- sues to do with British imperialism. This document was written with the stated purpose of being a “balance sheet” of the tendency struggle. It was somewhat ironic that, Tony G, the author of most of this document, and the person who had played the least part in the WSL tendency struggle during 1982-3, felt himself most qualified to sit in judge- ment on the efforts of those who had been centrally involved in the tendency struggle. This was despite his insistence that he did not wish to do so at the beginning of this ac- count (see below). In fact, one of the barely disguised purposes of this “balance sheet” was to rubbish and belittle the efforts of the comrades who had been centrally involved in the tendency struggle.
    [Show full text]
  • Militancy and Pragmatism an International Perspective on Maritime Labour, 1870-1914*
    FRANK BROEZE MILITANCY AND PRAGMATISM AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON MARITIME LABOUR, 1870-1914* SUMMARY: The militancy of maritime workers led worldwide to strikes of great magnitude, visibility and impact. In many countries these strikes had vast repercus- sions for the industrial and political development of the labour movement. As this comparative overview of maritime labour and unionism in some ten countries shows, however, after the first wave of strikes two conflicting tendencies arose which became a permanent feature of the maritime scene. The men themselves never lost their potential for militant action and adherence to radical ideologies. By contrast, many union leaders became increasingly pragmatic and even accommoda- tionist. This article investigates the causes of this dichotomy and assesses the resulting tensions and conflicts. In many ports these led to break-away moves, spontaneous action and the replacement of moderate by radical leaders. In others the pragmatic tendency survived in power. This included a strong interest in alliances with adjacent unions and international unions. Introduction The historiography of trade unionism and the labour movement in general in recent years has grown at such a frenetic pace that it is doubtful whether any individual can still command or even oversee the whole field. Amongst the plethora of themes several vie for primacy on centre stage: the identity of the proletariat, and the extent and nature of its working-class conscious- ness and class-war strategies; the identification of chronologically distinct phases in the development of trade unionism and, in particular, the nature of the so-called "new unionism"; the influence of socialist ideology on the developing trade-union movement and, more generally, the relationship between the syndicalist and political wings of the labour movement; and, of more recent vintage, the nature of union leadership and reconstructions and social analyses of workers' lives both on the job and within the circles of their families and communities.
    [Show full text]
  • To Download As
    Solidarity& Workers’ Liberty For social ownership of the banks and industry Reminiscences of Ted Knight, 1933-2020 By Sean Matgamna am saddened by the death of Ted Knight (30 March 2020). I knew him well long ago in the Orthodox Trotskyist organisa- Ition of the late 1950s and early 1960s. When I first encountered him, Ted was a full-time organiser for the Socialist Labour League (SLL), responsible for the Man- chester and Glasgow branches, alternating a week here and a week there. He was on a nominal wage of £8 a week and was lucky if he got £4. He recruited me, then an adolescent member of the Young Communist League, to the SLL. I’d come to think of myself as a Trotskyist, but was unconvinced - didn’t want to be convinced, I suppose - that a revolution was needed to overthrow the Rus- sian bureaucracy. Ted Knight (in middle background) with Bertrand Russell (right Ted lent me his copy of Trotsky’s The Revolution Betrayed. I foreground) and Russell’s secretary Ralph Schoenman (bearded, didn’t take a lot of persuading, as I recall it. left). From The Newsletter, 25 June 1966 That Ted Knight would have been very surprised to find his obituary in the Morning Star headlined “A giant of the labour of the Orthodox Trotskyist Labour Review when it became a big movement” (as if the Morning Star would know about such A4-sized magazine designed for (successful) intervention into things!). the crisis-ridden Communist Party from January 1957. But in The Manchester SLL branch I joined early in 1960 was going 1959-60 there was still a great deal of the old hostility to Trot- through a bad period.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Partly Made Politicians': the Youth Wings of the British Political Parties
    ‘PARTLY MADE POLITICIANS’: THE YOUTH WINGS OF THE BRITISH POLITICAL PARTIES, 1918-1939 The Complete Imp, The Imp, April 1931, p. 16. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of History PhD by Matthew David Seddon, Lancaster University, May 2020. Abstract This thesis is a comprehensive study of the youth wings of the major political parties between the wars. It examines the Conservative Party’s Junior Imperial League, the Labour Party’s League of Youth, the Liberal Party’s National League of Young Liberals, and the Communist Party of Great Britain’s Young Communist League. This thesis makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how the 1918 and 1928 Franchise Acts changed British political culture, and how young people were inducted into the British political system. The central premise of this thesis is that it is only by looking at these groups comparatively that we can get the full story of politicised youth. It will argue that, while their primary purpose was to recruit activists and party workers, these organisations were far more than insular, narrow interest groups. Rather than operating in isolation, these organisations learned from one another, adapted and reacted to each other’s activities, and actively sought to cast their recruiting nets as wide as possible to counter each other’s influence. Whereas studies of the class and gender dynamics of interwar politics abound, this thesis brings youth to the forefront of its examination of political culture between the wars. This thesis uses youth as a new lens through which to explore the themes of citizenship, the relationship between people and politicians, the blurring of the boundaries between public and private lives, and how mass democracy changed the practice of politics.
    [Show full text]
  • Worker Cooperatives and the Solidarity Economy in Barcelona James Hooks [email protected]
    Clark University Clark Digital Commons International Development, Community and Master’s Papers Environment (IDCE) 5-2018 Centering People in the Economy: Worker Cooperatives and the Solidarity Economy in Barcelona James Hooks [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.clarku.edu/idce_masters_papers Part of the International and Area Studies Commons, Political Economy Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons Recommended Citation Hooks, James, "Centering People in the Economy: Worker Cooperatives and the Solidarity Economy in Barcelona" (2018). International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE). 189. https://commons.clarku.edu/idce_masters_papers/189 This Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Master’s Papers at Clark Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE) by an authorized administrator of Clark Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Centering People in the Economy: Worker Cooperatives and the Solidarity Economy in Barcelona James A. Hooks March 2018 A MASTER’S RESEARCH PAPER Submitted to the faculty of Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in the department of International Development, Community, and Environment And accepted on the recommendation of Dr. Jude Fernando, Chief Instructor This project was partially funded through the IDCE Travel Award Approved by the Institutional Review Board of Clark University (IRB Protocol# 2016-095) Hooks 2 Acknowledgments I would like to begin this paper through acknowledging all those who have helped make this project a reality.
    [Show full text]