Weekly Worker 940 November 29 2012 3 EGYPT
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Paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain weekly Lawrence Parker’s book: n Letters and debate workern Pharaoh Mursi llluminating the factional n Workers Power struggles of the CPGB 1945-91 n Rotherham fostering No 940 Thursday November 29 2012 Towards a Communist Party of the European Union www.cpgb.org.uk £1/€1.10 The madness of a dying system weekly 2 November 29 2012 940 worker LETTERS Letters may have been version of socialist revolution? Not beforehand, avoided buildings of of revolutionaries on campus would Respect, but this has been sidelined shortened because of only will we all be dead by then: the political significance and proceeded be an important step in this direction. by our magnificent, positive space. Some names human race itself is likely to have down almost empty streets, as it Callum Williamson campaign with the Respect battle may have been changed become extinct as well. meandered away from central London London bus, advertising truck and campaign Andrew Northall south of the river Thames. The rally groups in every ward. SPGB enigma email in Kennington Park did not go as the Loopy Polling conducted in the Croydon I was pleased to see Jon D White’s NUS would have hoped. President The Socialist Workers Party’s habit North by-election suggests that Lee quite reflective letter about the Sort it out Liam Burns was heckled and forced of bending in the wind to every Jasper, the Respect candidate, is Socialist Party of Great Britain, and I must thank Heather Downs to leave the stage. Liam will be passing screech of liberal outrage now neck and neck with the Labour his comments about sectarianism for correcting my error (Letters, counting on a continued ebbing of really does land it in some contorted Party to win the constituency. This and its twin, liquidationism (Letters, November 15). She is correct: the the student movement, the active positions. overturns a Labour majority of over November 22). women in the Assange case asked elements of which are beginning to And so it is that the good comrades 16,000 at the last general election. To its credit, the SPGB is the for an HIV test, not a paternity test. show their disillusionment. Unless found themselves yesterday in This is nothing short of astounding longest lasting genuinely socialist However, it makes no difference to there is a significant resurgence in the peculiar position of calling and is testament to the excellent party in Britain, and has pretty my argument that the real concerns political activity on campus, and the for a Labour vote over Respect’s campaign team, candidate and consistently advocated socialism as of the two women were ignored students see their supposed leadership Lee Jasper in the Croydon North brilliant policies we have. the only alternative to capitalism and by the law. If the women were as a fetter upon their struggle, he by-election. The reasoning was If Respect wins one of these the only remedy to its ills. As part concerned that they may have will avoid the fate of Aaron Porter, summed up succinctly: “Respect’s constituencies, it will make headlines of this, it has consistently defined contracted Aids it would be difficult who was barracked during the 2011 Lee Jasper has tapped into anger across the world. If we win both, socialism in the most clear and for them to practice their chosen protests and subsequently declined around police racism in the Croydon we will deliver the biggest blow simple terms, and which do not allow lifestyle responsibly. to stand for re-election as NUS run-off. But Socialist Worker is not to the squalid political consensus for any ambiguity or compromise. As for Chris Knight’s “just so” president. calling for a vote for him, following that has suffocated British politics It has, remarkably, published the stories on the human revolution, An article on the NUS website Respect leader George Galloway’s since the 1970s. It will mark the monthly Socialist Standard for the speculation is based on the entitled ‘Demo 2012 - what’s next?’ disgraceful and well-publicised transformation of our party into the virtually every year of its existence. best evidence available. I will stick gives an outline of NUS plans for comments on rape. Instead we fourth force in British politics and Although relatively small, the with his view that females were the 2013 and attempts to offer a narrative encourage supporters to vote for the most sustained challenge to three- SPGB in my view consistently adds driving force behind the creation of to students who were probably Labour in this instance” (Socialist party politics since it developed in value to the labour and progressive modern humanity. That sex was the asking themselves what the point of Worker December 1). the 1980s. movement by being a clear and fundamental relation between males ‘Demo 2012’ was. This excerpt reads There you have it - Lee Jasper For Respect, this is like a general consistent advocate of socialism and females, and that human culture like the PR material of a faceless represents yesterday’s hot-button election. We can deliver a damning and expressing a straight-talking was the outcome of our female corporation: “The demo should act issue (police racism); but the verdict on the path of British politics and straightforward language most ancestors’ struggle for the right to as the beginning, and at NUS we’ve publicity afforded to Galloway’s and society in the last two years. We people can understand. choose their own mates. And that the been busy putting together a calendar infamous comments on the Assange can deliver a challenge that shows Those of us who believe in a outcome of this process produced of campaigns for students to get case makes not only him, but any what real Labour means and what strategy to develop and unite the communistic social relations that involved in.” Respect candidate, too embarrassing real communities need. Please struggles against the effects of lasted everywhere until the coming Students are invited to enter to touch. It is almost Workers’ help us deliver Yvonne Ridley and capitalism, and to develop these into of agricultural societies, which student politics on the terms Liberty-esque. Lee Jasper to parliament to make a struggle against capitalism itself, reintroduced minority control over of the NUS leadership, within How do we deal with this loopy a formidable team with George are forced by the SPGB to consider society. the parameters of events and reasoning? Perhaps we should take Galloway. whether or not we risk tipping into Admittedly this argument is campaigns they have organised and it at face value, and this gets to the Chris Chilvers reformism and preservation of the convenient for a communist because control. The events listed include core of how the SWP makes political National secretary, Respect capitalist system. it implies that to be human is to be “shareholder activism training” (if decisions. A while ago, the Catholic I would like, however, to question communist. But hunter-gatherer only the capitalist class understood church came up with an ingenious Terry Liddle two elements of the SPGB’s case societies still exist. What lessons the importance of responsible ranking system for sins of the flesh. I knew Terry Liddle, who died on and practice. One, the SPGB is can we learn from them? investment) and a national It has achieved a certain degree of November 15, very well. He was a of the view that capitalism will Firstly that the mode of production constituency lobby (a bankrupt infamy for putting masturbation friend and comrade, someone I had of itself generate the political and is not just a matter of economics, tactic adopted by successive NUS higher in the sinfulness stakes than known since the early days of the socialist consciousness required to but its long-term existence depends leaderships as a substitute for serious rape - because, after all, rape can Socialist Alliance in the 1990s, when take the necessary revolutionary on the cultural superstructure of collective action) for January in plausibly lead to conception, unlike he was the secretary of Greenwich action to establish socialism. Yet its society, including myths and rituals. protest against reforms in further spreading one’s seed on the dry earth. SA. He regularly attended national principal yardstick, membership and The power of women comes from education for adults. The NUS The SWP, in the absence of any meetings once they started to take support remains microscopic. Given their role in society, which they claimed the march was about setting meaningful political calculus for off around 1996, and was on the SA several hundred years of capitalism jealously guard by active social the higher education agenda, but it taking such decisions, also seems to national council and other national (and over a hundred years in its solidarity. For example, control of is clear the leadership is looking to maintain a grand list of Bad Things, bodies. decaying, decadent phase), why is food preparation and childbirth make return to business as usual. ordered according to their Badness. I was always impressed by Terry’s socialist consciousness as defined them both essential and central to NCAFC is more and more trying Making an off-colour comment complete lack of sectarianism and his by the SPGB not very much more the social whole - unlike in class to assert itself as a rival to the NUS about alleged sexual assault registers determination to build left unity. He widespread? society, where they are condemned bureaucracy. Its supporters marched higher on the list than police racism always spoke in a most positive way Two, Jon refers to the fact that to a second-class status.