Redemption by Tariq Ali (Picador 1990)

Ezra's letter was correctly addressed: 'Ms Emma Carpenter, General Secretary, Committee for Socialist Democracy'. Emma sipped her first coffee and smiled. And why not? She would go to Europe and hear what they all had to say. Then she would tell them a few things. She would meet a few old friends and come back. She looked at the letter again. No mention was made of fares. PISPAW had all the money in the world. They never needed aid. The Centre knew that the other groups in the States, and there were at least seven, would have to be subsidized.

She would give Ezra a ring from work later in the day. It would be nice, despite everything, to hear the old, familiar voice. Ezra's English, spoken in heavy Continental accents, always reminded Emma of her Jewish grandparents, who had migrated from Tsarist Russia between the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. They had both belonged to the left wing of the Mensheviks and, though they had regretted not being in Petrograd in October 1917, the feeling had not lasted more than a few years. Both had died natural deaths, at home in bed, while in their eighties. Emma had often argued with them, sometimes ferociously, but her father, apolitical and loving, always insisted on a truce. She shivered at the memory of how, during her PISPAW trial, some hack had said: 'Menshevism runs in her blood.'

Grandfather Moshe always used to tell her: 'You wait and see. In the end they'll be toppled by the people. The whole bloody lot of them. States can't float permanently on seas of blood. Sooner or later there will be a storm. One day, my little Emmushka, you will learn that the much-maligned Mensheviks were not so wrong when they warned against the Bolshevik adventure.' Emma used to provoke him, point to the rubbish can in the corner of the kitchen and say: 'Grandad, that's where the Mensheviks went. Straight into the dustbin of history.' Then old Moshe would lose his temper, curse Lenin as an 'amoral adventurer', denounce Trotsky as a 'ruthless fanatic' and insist that taken individual by individual, the Menshevik leaders were far better human beings than their Bolshevik counterparts. 'Can you even compare Martov to Zinoviev? he would shout, and before Emma could reply, her father would gently remove her from the room. That would temporarily end one skirmish in the ongoing battle between Bolshevism and Menshevism, which took place in quite a few kitchens in different cities of the United States.

Whatever happened to the dislikely lads?

They must have finally remembered their password. It's back up and gurning:

https://www.counterfire.org/

Counterfire? That was the website that was set up by the dissidents in the SWP late last year when Rees, German and co were fighting a rearguard action for the life, soul and a seat on the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party.

The website was taken down under instruction from the SWP CC because it was viewed as factional activity by the Left Platform. (Turns out they were right.)

Now that the 60 or so members of the LP have either decamped or been expelled from the SWP, the website's out the blocks and picking up speed. With 60 plus members - amongst that number there's some very talented individuals - they're already bigger than the likes of the Weekly Worker; Workers Power and Permanent Revolution and not much smaller than the likes of AWL or Socialist Resistance, so they (and their snazzy website) are definitely ones to watch in the British Left Blogosphere.

If I was going to use a football analogy, I'd say that they probably see themselves as the FC United of the Trotskyist Left at the moment. For their sake, I wouldn't want to stretch that analogy too far, though, because after a strong start FC United are currently stalled in mid-table mediocrity in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. (Aren't I being overly generous on a Monday morning for the latest rehash of Generals Without Armies? I must be on a sugar rush.)

Amongst other things, they're offering the rest of us 'Leninism in the 21st century' as part of their introduction to Counterfire. I suggest they handpick their four burliest members and install them on the door of the blog. The comments looking to push their way in uninvited won't be pretty and will be looking to cause trouble.

Hat tip to MP over at Leftist Trainspotters.

Are You Smarter than a 4th Internationalist?

How are you with your knowledge of the history of early British Trotskyism?

Do you know your Heaton Lee from your Ralph Lee? Ted Grant's real name? The first bullshit myth Gerry Healy spun about himself? CLR James's batting average for the Old Fractionians Second XI? The name of the De Leonist organisation in Scotland which turned towards Trotskyism in the thirties? Who debated for the Bolshevik Leninists' against the SPGB's Adolph Kohn at the AEU Hall in Doughty Street in London in 1936?

Well, the answers to all of the above questions will not be found in the following clip from Mastermind, but what does follow is Paul Moorhouse answering questions on his specialist subject,"British Trotskyism Until 1949'. (What's the odds that all the questions were cribbed from Bornstein and Richardson's two-volume history of British Trotskyism?)

This edition of Mastermind dates from March 13th of this year but I've only just now stumbled across the clip. I got nine answers right but that's only because I'm from the Menshevik-SadBastard Tendency.

Give it your best shot:

But there's more.

When Paul returned to the black chair for the second round, John Humphrys asked him about his specialist subject in the first round and inquired, in an amused tone, if there were any Trotskyists left?

Paul resisted the temptation to leap upon the black chair and declaim 'The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International' in its entirety but he did lean forward in his chair like the seasoned cadre that he is and gave a fifty second thumbnail sketch of what it is to be a Trotskyist today.

Humphrys said nothing in reply, thus confirming the suspicions of two million Daily Mail readers that the initials BBC really do stand for the 'Bolsheviks Broadcasting Communism'.

A quick google search reveals that Paul Moorhouse is a longstanding member of the Millies (SPEW/CWI) down in Bristol.

I'm sure he got muchos-kudos from his comrades for putting his politics before an audience of a few million (back in the eighties, Mastermind could be watched by up to 15 million people), but I wonder if he also got his nose tweaked by the local full timer for not mentioning Peter Taaffe's name at least twice during those fifty primetime seconds.

The Menshevik-SadBastard Tendency member in me can't help heckling to the computer screen that he should have said: 'Trotskyism? Past'

More on that particular episode of Mastermind over at Life After Mastermind, the blog of 2007 Mastermind winner, David Clark.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Political Big Brother

AWL apparatchik, Mark O, always insisted that Ken Loach had a major political crush on Alan Thornett (if Loach had ever adapted Jack London's 'Iron Heel' for the big screen, I'm guessing that Thornett would have been his Ernest Everhard), and up pops a love letter in 'The great and the good 2007' article in the Independent on Sunday's Review section that suggests that Mark O. might have had a point.

The rebel: Ken Loach on Alan Thornett

Ken Loach, 71, is a film-maker. Alan Thornett, 70, is a left-wing political activist, journalist and writer

"I met Alan in the 1960s at political meetings; he stands for those many people who struggle to keep the idea alive that society can be organised in another way socially, industrially and politically. He was a senior steward at the Cowley car plant through the 1970s, and like many union members, didn't think his union leadership represented the workers' interests. He was victimised for his views and subsequently lost his job.

He wrote about that period and has this ability to be clear and articulate on the issues he cares about. He contributed to a documentary series I worked on in the 1980s called Questions of Leadership, about the willingness of rank-and-file union members to take on the government. It was never broadcast because it was deemed, wrongly, to be defamatory.

Since then Alan has been speaking and writing really persuasively in left-wing newspapers. There's a whole other world that runs parallel to the mass media, a real political alternative, and Alan is prominent in that world; he is also senior in the Respect Renewal party. Alan has battled illness over the past few years, yet he is finding renewed energy in his work as a Marxist and a Socialist. Mike Higgins

Loach met Thornett "in the 1960s at political meetings"? Christ, that means that Loach was in all probability part of the luvvie brigade of the Socialist Labour League during that period. What with his long working relationship with the late Jim Allen, I guess it makes sense but it's still depressing to read. Anybody who tries to tell you that an organisation led by Gerry Healy was still a viable and healthy political option in the sixties is kidding themselves on. It was warped from the get go. Have a flick through the autobiographies of Harry Ratner or Bill Hunter or Brian Behan if you don't believe me.

Hat tip to Liam Mac Uaid.

What's My Name

Quick one.

One of the best political novels I've read in recent years is 'Standing Fast' by Harvey Swados. I write in 'recent years' only in the sense that it's one of the best political novels I've read in recent years, but the novel itself was published way back in 1970 and has unfortunately long been out of print and, sadly, Swados has long been out of literary fashion*, with only this book of his currently in print.

I could crank out a few hundred words of sawdust prose in praise of the book, and why you should seek out a second hand copy for yourself, but it's easier all round if I just point you in the direction of Steve Cohen's excellent article on the novel**, which originally appeared in the AWL's paper, Solidarity, and which prompted me to seek the novel out for myself.

As is my fashion when I stumble across a writer I like, I've since went on a treasure hunt to locate his or her others writings, and recently bought a second hand copy of Swados's debut novel, 'Out Went the Candle', from a bookseller in Washington. Nice hardback edition with a dust jacket that is just about still in one piece. Thing is, is just me or does the young Harvey Swados in the dustjacket picture below remind you of someone? Christ, it's the same haircut and everything.

The clue is in the title of the post.

* I wrote: "Swados has long been out of literary fashion . . ", but sadly it appears that was always the case: "Harvey was an unfashionable novelist yet his career has been an exemplary one. He is a writer free of public postures, indifferent to literary fads, and totally devoted to perfection of his craft." [Irving Howe]

**As a sidenote; one night coming home from work I was reading the novel on the F train when a bloke came up to me to talk about the book. He hadn't seen a copy in years, but it was a book he knew from his childhood days as it had been on his parents bookshelf. His way of telling me that they were political was to say that they had been in the 'movement'. I thought that was sweet.

Leftist Trainspotter Quote of the Day

Funny quote from someone with the moniker of 'cutandsplice' on the Urban 75 UK politics, current affairs and news forum:

"Workers Power always reminded me of kids at school who dressed like, and listened to the same music as their older brothers, but really had no idea what it was about."

'Some Socialist Equality Party Members are more equal than others'

Read to the accompaniment of The Jam's 'Funeral Pyre' playing in the background:

SEP leader a capitalist.

A Tale of Two Men

Call me naive, but I thought 'North' was his real surname, but it's always nice to finally put a face to a (false) name. Never did get to see the great leader speak in person.

A storm in a alice-in-wonderland teacup if you ask me, and it's got sod all to do with the fact that Fred had a factory in Manchester.

However, the burning question for me is how is it that when the head honcho of the WSWS/ICFI owns a ultra-modern printing press, the Socialist Equality Party members always end up giving out badly photocopied leaflets at demos? If I was one of the rank and file, I'd be pissed.

Apparently there is a furious thread on this matter going on over at the socialism discussion group on myspace, where a former SEP'er is all upset at this news and at the earlier realisation that the SEP isn't *shock* *horror* that democratic.

It's always a shame when a would-be vanguardist gets fucked over by his central committee before s/he gets a chance to fuck over the working class.

Now, come in on the second beat:

And as I was standing by the edge
I could see the faces of those who led pissing themselves laughing

(and the flames grew)

Their mad eyes bulged their flushed faces said

The weak get crushed as the strong grow stronger

The Freedom Presidential Election

From the SPGB blog, Socialism Or Your Money Back:

Next Sunday In France

I have one wee quibble from reading the post; I'm not sure if Lutte Ouvriere are still considered the premier Trot group in France. (If they ever were.) I wouldn't pretend to have a hundredth of the knowledge of the French politics that the post's author has, but I was under the impression that the LCR is now making all the running on the vanguardist left in France.

The LCR's Presidential candidate, Olivier Besancenot, looks set to get more votes than the perennial LO candiate, Arlette Laguiller, next Sunday and, though in the real world that won't amount to much, for all us lefty trainspotter types, Laguiller - who has contested very Presidential Election since '74 - being beat into second place on the Trot front for the first time will have the letters pages of both the Weekly Worker and Socialist Worker fizzing for at least a week.

For those of you interested in the minutaie of the Fench Left, Liam Mac Uaid - a supporter of the International Socialist Group, the British sister group of the LCR - has a google video of LCR's Francois Duval speaking at a recent ISG/Resistance meeting on the French Presidential Election.

N.B. The post is entitled 'The Freedom Presidential Election' - rather than 'The French Presidential Election' - in honour of that diner in Long Island I ate at a few weeks back, which still insists on selling 'Freedom Fries', rather than French Fries.

God bless.