Showing posts with label Steve Coleman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Coleman. Show all posts

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion

Quick, no one's looking. Delete that best of James Blunt playlist from your iPod and upload Steve Coleman's two part talk on Karl Kautsky's Critique of Religion:


First Part

DOWNLOAD LINK: Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion

FILE NAME: 02 Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion.mp3

FILE SIZE: ~46.17 megabytes

LENGTH:50:07

Second Part

DOWNLOAD LINK: Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion

FILE NAME: 03 Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion Part 2.mp3

FILE SIZE: ~51.61 megabytes

LENGTH: 56:01

Further Reading on Karl Kautsky:

  • Kautsky on the Marxist Internet Archive
  • William Morris's Vision of Socialism

    Another bit of flagrant cut and paste from the blog archive.

    Another talk from the 1982 'Socialist Thinkers – People Who History Made' lecture series.

    According to the Socialist Standard of the time, the talk dates from Sunday 12 December 1982, and was held at the Prince Albert pub in Kings Cross, London.


    First Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: William Morris's Vision of Socialism

    FILE NAME: 02 william morris Part 1.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~60.58 megabytes

    LENGTH:1:05:46

    Second Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: William Morris's Vision of Socialism

    FILE NAME: 03 William Morris Part 2.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~50.57 megabytes

    LENGTH: 54:54

    Further Reading on William Morris:

  • William Morris on the Marxist Internet Archive
  • The William Morris Society
  • William Morris: Life and Times (From the Socialist Standard, 1984)
  • Morris and the Problem of Reform or Revolution (From the Socialist Standard, 1984)
  • Art, Labour & Socialism by William Morris . . . With a Modern Assessment (SPGB pamphlet from 1962.)
  • Saturday, August 02, 2008

    Belfort Bax and the "Ethics of Socialism"

    I've decided to repost the Socialist Thinkers Series on the blog via mediafire filesharing service. Same deal as the recently reposted audio lecture, 'The Historical Place of the SPGB'; a lot of the old ZShare links are dead and I much prefer uploading mp3s via mediafire. Less hassle all round.

    I won't mess you about with the whole posting one lecture a day on the blog like I did with Hardy's economics lectures. If I've got the talks on the computer, I'll repost them as quickly as I can.

    There's no rhyme or reason as to why I've opted to post the Belfort Bax talk first, other than the fact it is the closest talk to hand.

    For more background info on Bax and the talk, I've previously blurbed about both over here.


    First Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: Belfort Bax and the "Ethics of Socialism"

    FILE NAME: 02 Belfort Bax and the Ethics of Socialism Part 1.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~59.47 megabytes

    LENGTH:1:04:33

    Second Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: Belfort Bax and the "Ethics of Socialism"

    FILE NAME: 01 Belfort Bax and the Ethics of Socialism part 2.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~41.88 megabytes

    LENGTH: 56:01

    Monday, December 24, 2007

    William Morris's Vision of Socialism

    Penultimate talk from the 'Socialist Thinkers – People Who History Made' lecture series.

    According to the Socialist Standard of the time, the talk dates from Sunday 12 December 1982, and was held at the Prince Albert pub in Kings Cross, London.


    First Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: William Morris's Vision of Socialism

    FILE NAME: 02 william morris Part 1.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~60.58 megabytes

    LENGTH:1:05:46

    Second Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: William Morris's Vision of Socialism

    FILE NAME: 03 William Morris Part 2.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~50.57 megabytes

    LENGTH: 54:54

    Further Reading on William Morris:

  • William Morris on the Marxist Internet Archive
  • The William Morris Society
  • William Morris: Life and Times (From the Socialist Standard, 1984)
  • Morris and the Problem of Reform or Revolution (From the Socialist Standard, 1984)
  • Art, Labour & Socialism by William Morris . . . With a Modern Assessment (SPGB pamphlet from 1962.)
  • Saturday, December 22, 2007

    Belfort Bax and the "Ethics of Socialism"

    Down to the final three talks in the 1982 'Socialist Thinkers – People Who History Made' lecture series. Once again, the speaker/lecturer is Steve Coleman, and this time the socialist thinker under discussion is Ernest Belfort Bax.

    Down the years, Bax is someone who has been pretty much written out of the history of the nineteenth century British Socialist Movement.

    Whilst Hyndman is always on hand to take on the role of the Victorian villain for the failure of the Marxist Left in Britain for not fully integrating into the wider Labour Movement, and William Morris gets rediscovered every generation via a new biography and/or a new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Bax, who was a comparable heavyweight figure in the Social Democratic Federation in the 1880s and was a major player - alongside Morris, Aveling and Eleanor Marx - in the Socialist League split from the SDF in 1885, if he is known at all, is best known these days for his virulent anti-feminism in the latter years of his political life, and his capitulation to British chauvinism at the outbreak of the First World War.

    In recent years, Old Skool Trotskyist, Ted Crawford, (Officer Class), has done sterling work in creating a Bax archive on the Marxist Internet Archive which is comparable to many of the better known socialist writers on the website. And more background on Bax is available via Ted's autobiographical sketch on the Marxist Internet Archive website.


    First Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: Belfort Bax and the "Ethics of Socialism"

    FILE NAME: 02 Belfort Bax and the Ethics of Socialism Part 1.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~59.47 megabytes

    LENGTH:1:04:33

    Second Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: Belfort Bax and the "Ethics of Socialism"

    FILE NAME: 01 Belfort Bax and the Ethics of Socialism part 2.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~41.88 megabytes

    LENGTH: 56:01

    Further Reading on Ernest Belfort Bax:

  • Bax on the Marxist Internet Archive
  • From the August 2005 issue of the Socialist Standard: Eleanor Marx, Belfort Bax and “the Woman Question”
  • Friday, December 21, 2007

    Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion

    Another talk in the 1982 'Socialist Thinkers – People Who History Made' lecture series. Once again, the speaker/lecturer is Steve Coleman.

    Don't mind the accompanying picture for the post. Thought I'd indulge myself by using the front cover of Dick Geary's 1987 biography of Kautsky that was published as part of the 'Lives of the Left' series.

    Those were the days . . . when I used to read books.


    First Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion

    FILE NAME: 02 Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~46.17 megabytes

    LENGTH:50:07

    Second Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion

    FILE NAME: 03 Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Critique of Religion Part 2.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~51.61 megabytes

    LENGTH: 56:01

    Further Reading on Karl Kautsky:

  • Kautsky on the Marxist Internet Archive
  • Wednesday, December 19, 2007

    Plekhanov and the Materialist Conception of History

    From further investigation - cheers RD - it looks like I've already buggered up the chronology of the 1982 'Socialist Thinkers – People Who History Made' lecture series so, with that in mind, I'll just plump for the Steve Coleman talk on Georgi Plekhanov as the next one to be uploaded.

    From listening again to the Plekhanov talk, I'm guessing that it was the first in the series, followed by the Dietzgen talk already posted, and then the talk on Karl Kautsky:


    First Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: Plekhanov and the Materialist Conception of History

    FILE NAME: 03 pleknanov 1.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~60.57 megabytes

    LENGTH:1:05:45

    Second Part

    DOWNLOAD LINK: Plekhanov and the Materialist Conception of History

    FILE NAME: 04 plekanov part 2.mp3

    FILE SIZE: ~34.20 megabytes

    LENGTH: 37:07

    Further Reading on Plekhanov:

  • Plekhanov on the Marxist Internet Archive
  • Tuesday, December 18, 2007

    More Dietzgen

    Further to the recent post on the blog of Steve Coleman speaking on the subject of 'Joseph Dieztgen and Dialectical Thought' - and the accompanying assorted Dietzgen links - fellows WSPer, Morgan M., has posted me a link to another article on Dietzgen that appeared in the August 1918 issue of the Western Clarion*:

  • 'Proletarian Logic' by Rab**

  • *The Western Clarion was the paper of the Socialist Party of Canada, and dates from 1904 onwards. After 1918, it's history gets a bit sketchy as the Canadian Government banned its publication of its outspoken opposition to the war: "But there remained always a small and hardy group who carried on the theoretical work of the Party; and its official organ "The Western Clarion," forever in dutch with the authorities, continued to reach its readers. Banned, it became "The Emancipator"; banned again, it became "The Red Flag"; there was never a time when those interested could not receive the journal "Published in the Interest of the Working Class Alone."" [From here.]

    ** 'Rab' was the pen name of Isaac Rabinowich, a founder member of the WSPUS. See pic accompanying this post.