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Monthly Archives: February 2013
Squeezing blood from stones – Tory style
Under the current system, people on low or no incomes have up to 100% of their council tax paid by their local council through Council Tax benefit. However, in just five weeks time, at the beginning of April, the current … Continue reading
Posted in Austerity, Cuts, Green Party, Labour Party, Politics, Resistance
1 Comment
The Buddha’s parable of the burning house – Brecht
Guatama the Buddha taught The doctrine of greed’s wheel to which we are bound, and advised That we should shed all craving and thus Undesiring enter the nothingness that he called Nirvana. What is it like, this nothingness, Master? Every … Continue reading
Can’t pay? Don’t pay
Obviously, we all know that this is Government is absolutely vile. But of all the vile things that they have done, or are planning to do (or at least, that they currently admit they are planning) the imposition of the … Continue reading
Posted in Austerity, Cuts, Democracy, Green Party, Labour Party, Resistance
Tagged Bedroom Tax, Council Tax, Disability, Government, Housing Benefit, Universal Credit
1 Comment
Orthodoxy and the Left
A few days ago I wrote about how the SWP’s leadership, who endlessly go on about the need to ‘defend the IS tradition’, have over the years coarsened and stultified the organisation’s politics and practice to the point that they … Continue reading
Posted in Quotes, Socialism, The Left, Theory
Tagged Harry Braverman, Jim Higgins, Marx, Marxism, SWP, Working class
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A little nag about food
I rather like my local farmers market. Yes, I know that farmers’ markets are full of insufferably smug Guardian readers pushing four wheel drive baby buggies and buying expensive vegetables and even more expensive meat and bread because it is … Continue reading
As soon as this pub closes
Thanks very much to my old comrade Richard Kuper for reminding me of this extremely irreverent, but detailed and devastatingly accurate overview and history of the British left from the late ’80s. He suggests that it is still relevant in … Continue reading
In praise of Leon Rosselson
I was astonished to discover the other day that Leon Rosselson will be 80 next year. To be fair he is still a sprightly 78, but still…) I first saw him in the early ‘60s on TV, performing as a … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Music, Reviews
Tagged Billy Bragg, Dick Gaughan, Georges Brassens, Leon Rosselson, Palestinian people, World Turned Upside Down
2 Comments
William Morris on work
“Worthy work carries with it the hope of pleasure in rest, the hope of the pleasure in our using what it makes, and the hope of pleasure in our daily creative skill. All other work but this is worthless; it … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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The SWP and the IS tradition
One of the recurring themes of the SWP leadership’s current furious efforts to repel the criticisms of an increasing number of its members is the need to ‘defend our tradition’, or ‘defend the IS tradition’. It’s worth taking a look … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Marxism, Michael Kidron, Russia, Socialist Workers Party, Soviet Union, Stalinism, SWP, Trotskyism
3 Comments
Remembering 1968; the Tet Offensive
1968 was one of the most dramatic years in my life. Many of the unshakeable pillars holding up the status quo began to shake, even if only temporarily in some cases. The world seemed to be beginning to reshape itself … Continue reading
Posted in History
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Captain Jack 