The original mod, Marc Bolan, presenting and 'Jam' performing' All Around The World'
You still here?
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The defender is for turning
Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain (74)
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 74th of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.
We now have 1408 friends!
Recent blogs:
The Continuing Trade Cycle The taxation myth Reply to the BNP
Coming Events:
DID YOU ENJOY YOUR CHRISTMAS?
Public Meeting followed by Social.
Saturday 10 January, 6pm, at SPGB Head Office, 52 Clapham High St, London SW4 (nearest tube: Clapham North).
Quote for the week:
'Everything in the world is purchased by labour.' Hume, 'Of Commerce,' in Political Discourses, 1752.
Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!
Robert and Piers
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Voorburg, Zuid-Holland
He wasn't expelled. He dropped out of activity, and was lapsed by his Branch (with much regret) many months later.
Visit again.
Pictures of Smiling Babies Increases Blog Traffic . . . amongst friends and family
Negotiations over the 'Socialist Standard subscription as a Christmas gift' continues apace:
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'You're kidding me on? I don't believe you. You mean every single article concludes with the same final paragraph? What about the book reviews?'
'I'm going to clean your clock in a minute if you don't tell me a real bedtime story! Ire of the Irate Itinerant doesn't count.
Tell me that one about 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' again. I love that one. See when you told me Frank McAvennie used to be a top class striker, I knew then it was a fairytale.'
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'OK, this blog has now officially jumped the shark. Once you decide to actually get back to real posts rather than falling back on YouTube clips, Weekly Bulletins and unsanctioned pics of me, then you can get back to me. I might - just might - stop pretending to be asleep all the time.
PS - I'm still adamant that I don't want the Socialist Standard in my stocking come Christmas morning. Get me a sub to the New Yorker instead. The cartoons are funnier.'
Hat tip to Auntie Anne for the pics.
Separated at birth?
". . . Otherwise we would be like the SPGB standing on the sidelines for a 100+ years saying 'abolish money' and wondering why folk walk on by slightly bemused . . . "
Thus spake a Millie cadre over at Urban 75 only the other day.
He was half right. According to next month's Socialist Standard front cover, what we actually do from the sidelines is scream and shout 'IT'S ALIVE! We have to kill money.'
Is it just me or does Godzilla's next nemesis on a street near you look like a distant relative of 'Ciao', the 1990 World Cup mascot?
Click on both pics to get the full flavour of what I'm wittering on about.
Monday, November 24, 2008
'All I want for Christmas is a T shirt with that bloke from Prague on it
What Paulie said . . . except, unlike Paulie, my shirt size is a svelte L.
Picture via Philosophy Football.
'NOTHING but Wagner?'
It'll be John Cooper Clarke riffing about it next week but for this week it's Attila the Stockbroker - with a hat tip to Kirsty MacColl, perhaps? - who has his take on that leaked list:
'There’s A Man Down Our Road Who’s A Nazi!'
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Hitler's BNP membership gets leaked
Promised the world and its second cousin that I wouldn't post any more downfall videos on the blog but this one is too good to pass up.
It's almost like the film was made just for the express purpose of this particular spoof.
Hat tip to the fascist numpties over at the NWN blog for the heads up about the clip.
Nice to see that they still have time to surf YouTube inbetween blaming everything on the Marxist establishment, the Secret State (controlled by Marxists, naturally) and Nick Griffin (controlled by people who are controlled by Marxists).
No wonder you never see anyone selling lefty newspapers outside Tescos anymore on a Saturday morning. They're too busy running the world to knock up a bogus petition.
PS - He's really is on that infamous list. Look under H. Turns out he lives in Larkhall, and someone has put 'painter & decorator' next to his name.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Santa Claus isn't coming to town
'I don't want a subscription to the Socialist Standard for my Christmas!
Hat tip to Auntie Anne for the picture.
Facism - the ugly inside
Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain (73)
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 73rd of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.
We now have 1402 friends!
Recent blogs:
Good Cap, Bad Cap Why not socialism now? Another Winter of Discontent?
Coming Events:
Free Film night at SPGB Head Office,
52 Clapham High St, London SW4 (nearest tube: Clapham North).
Film starts at 4 p.m.
Sunday 23 November: The War on Democracy
"Have we evolved to make money?"
Saturday, 22nd November at 6.00pm
The Socialist Party debates with Dr.Terence Kealey (author of Sex, Science & Profits)
Birkbeck College. (room 407), Malet Street, London. WC1, (nearest tubes: Goodge St & Russell Square)
Quote for the week;
"For nearly 40 years we have raised to prominence the idea of the class struggle as the immediate driving force of history, and particularly the class struggle between bourgeois and the proletariat as the great lever of the modern social revolution; ... At the founding of the International, we expressly formulated the battle cry: The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself." Marx and Engels, Strategy and Tactics of the Class Struggle (1879).
Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!
Robert and Piers
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Black Racially pure sheep in the extended family
That leaked BNP membership list.
Can you believe that there are seven people listed with a variation on my surname? Are you fucking kidding me? Christ, the irony. Do the master race do irony?
I stopped counting the number of Darrens on the dishonors roll once I got to the twenty-fifth one listed. . . and I was still on the letter H.
Why am I not surprised?
Have we evolved to make money?
ON SATURDAY, 22nd NOVEMBER AT 6.00PM
'Have we evolved to make money?'
Bill Martin of the Socialist Party debates with Dr.Terence Kealey (Author of Sex, Science & Profits)
BIRKBECK COLLEGE, (Room 407)
Malet Street, London. WC1
(nearest tubes: Goodge St & Russell Square)
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
There is power in a union
Via The Onion.
It's like a flashback to the seventies when the unions were all powerful . . . the three second chat up.
Attractive Girls Union Refuses To Enter Into Talks With Mike Greenman
Hat tip to Pandagon.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday moaning
Imperial College: who are you?
UPDATE
Don't mind me. A random ramble fuelled by a lack of sleep and an Owen permanently glued to my left arm. Here's a random 25 by way of recompense:
Not a duff track in sight. K-Tel would be very proud.
Still curious to know who Imperial College is, though. I'm not that sleep deprived.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Cue fanfare
That bloke with the salt and pepper beard that Paddy McAloon was always writing lyrics about must really be up there.
I feel a Kitcheware music marathon* coming on.
Hat tip to Tin Can Pot
*The sprouts; Hurrah!; Kane Gang & Martin Stephenson
"A pram in the hallway being the enemy of creativity?" A hungry baby in the bassinet is the enemy of me finding out which . .
. . . demo just marched past my window.
Bless my old boots (can't swear - an Owen is beside me). Just heard a bit of shouting and hollering outside the apartment - "We are not illegal." being chanted in unison - and, looking out the window, I spot about thirty to forty people walking down the sidewalk towards Borough Park.
I'm guessing that they're not local. Not because of the chant but because the marchers were overwhelming white and they appeared to have American accents. Kensington is considered one of the most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in the United States but if you see a white person on the main street, seven times out of ten they are either Polish, Albanian or a cash strapped hipster pining for Williamsburg.
I know, I know. Typical armchair rocking chair socialism of your average SPGBer. Someone calls a demo that is partly outside their apartment building and they still don't even turn up with papers, leaflets and the abstract propagandism.
I can't even blame Owen on this one. He dragged me to a Socialist Alternative/CWI meeting last month when he was only 12 days old. Something about him wanting his bolshevik inoculation jab sooner rather than later. I blame such precocity on the boston terrier named Martov. He's a bad influence.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Whatever happened to Buck Tarbrush?
Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain (72)
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 72nd of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.
We now have 1381 friends!
Recent blogs:
The call of the patriot Democracy - and 'democracy' Obama wins
Coming Socialist Party Events:
Free Film nights at SPGB Head Office, 52 Clapham High St, London SW4 (nearest tube: Clapham North).
All films start at 4 p.m.
Sunday 23 November: The War on Democracy
"Have we evolved to make money?"
Saturday, 22nd November at 6.00pm
The Socialist Party debates with Dr.Terence Kealey (author of Sex, Science & Profits)
Birkbeck College, (room 407), Malet Street, London. WC1, (nearest tubes: Goodge St & Russell Square)
Quote for the week:
"War is not a pathology that, with proper hygiene and treatment, can be wholly prevented. War is a natural condition of the State, which was organized in order to be an effective instrument of violence on behalf of society. Wars are like deaths, which, while they can be postponed, will come when they will come and cannot be finally avoided." Philip Bobbitt in The Shield of Achilles.
Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!
Robert and Piers
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Listening In
Socialism Or Your Money Back blog carries a nice wee piece about the late, great Studs Terkel.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
A rolling Bone gathers no Moss
The title of the post comes courtesy of Robert of MySpace SPGB fame (as does the links below).
In 8-parts, the links to the YouTube clips of the Socialist Party's 20th October debate with Class War's Ian Bone on the subject of 'Which Way to Revolution?'
Debating for the Socialist Party was Swansea Branch's Howard Moss and in the chair for the meeting was a fellow SPGB blogger. (Mentioning no names. Providing no links. You'll have to guess for yourself.)
I've yet to watch the debate in full myself but I thought I'd post it up asap because H over at Cactus Mouth Informer was asking after it a few weeks back.
You can also download an audio version of the debate over here if you're more the iPod type of armchair activist.
Pt.1 'Which Way to Revolution?'
Poster boy for socialism
Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain (71)
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 71st of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.
We now have 1379 friends!
Recent blogs:
The end of 'neoliberalism'? The Great US Presidential Election Show Ideology and censorship in capitalist society
Coming Socialist Party Events:
Free Film nights at SPGB Head Office, 52 Clapham High St, London SW4 (nearest tube: Clapham North).
All films start at 4 p.m.
Sunday 9 November: Zeitgeist
Sunday 23 November: The War on Democracy
"Have we evolved to make money?"
Saturday, 22nd November at 6.00pm
The Socialist Party debates with Dr.Terence Kealey (author of Sex, Science & Profits)
Birkbeck College, (room 407), Malet Street, London. WC1, (nearest tubes: Goodge St & Russell Square)
Quote for the week:
"So tractable, so peaceable, are these people, that I swear to your Majesties there is not in the world a better nation. . . [they should be] made to work, sow and do all that is necessary and to adopt our ways." Christopher Coloumbus to the King and Queen of Spain on reaching San Salvador Island in 1492.
Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!
Robert and Piers
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
"Smack a midget for Norm."
Kara's just back from voting.
A registered Democrat she originally wanted to vote for Dennis Kucinich in the primaries but his campaign didn't reach New York so instead she opted for Clinton over Obama.
What was a political 0/2* now looks like 1/3 as, but for real life imitating art, it looks Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.
No four hour queues, no problem with whether or not she'd be allowed to vote. In and out from the local school/polling station in the time it took me to play side 1 of Trout Mask Replica to Owen. (I've put him on a crash course of Pretentious Muso-Bollocks Disappreciation. I'm inoculating him against The White Stripes next week.)
She was that quick with the exercising of her democratic rights that she didn't even pause to see who else was on the ballot paper. Shame that 'cos I would have been intrigued to see if the Socialist Party Presidential candidate, Brian Moore, had made the ballot in New York.
If nothing else, you've got to admire the chutzpah of Moore for issuing a press release on the Sunday before election day whereby he announced his shadow cabinet in the event he gets elected the 44th President of the United States. He's pencilled in Howard Zinn as Secretary of Labor; the original maverick, Mike Gravel, as Secretary of Defense; and, my favourite curveball from his proposed political dream team, Barack Obama's former religious mentor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, would be appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in a Moore administration.
Before any reader scoffs too hard at Moore's press release, the bloke's no fool. He's a student of history. The history of political humour. He knows his Lenny Bruce, and because of that knowledge he's ensuring that he doesn't fall victim to the same lack of preparation that Norman Thomas did when he won the Presidential Election in a Lenny Bruce sketch all those years ago:
Norman Thomas/Filipinos/Midgets mp3
There's a lot of political truth in that Lenny Bruce skit. Dating back to the days of Werner Sombart, social scientists, radical activists and bar room philosophers have debated again and again the complex matter of American exceptionalism. In a nutshell - and to paraphrase the title of Sombart's own classic 1906 work - 'Why has there been no Socialism in the United States?'
Now we know. Second International Social Democracy never looked out for the little people.
*Compare and contrast Kara's 1/3 with my own political 0/1904.
Election by Tom Perrotta (Berkley Books 1998)
Mr. M
All I ever wanted to do was teach. I never had to struggle like other people with the question of what to do with my life. My only dream was to sit on the edge of my desk in front of a room full of curious kids and talk about the world.
The election that turned me into a car salesman took place in the spring of 1992. when Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill were still fresh in everyone's mind, and Gennifer Flowers was the momentary star of tabloids and talk shows. All year long my junior Current Events class returned again and again to a single theme, what the media liked to call "the Character Issue": How are private virtue and public responsibility intertwined? Can you be an adulterer and a good President? A sexual pervert and an effective, impartial member of the judiciary?
Monday, November 03, 2008
Only in the cartoons. Homer Twelve-Pack votes Obama
Latest YouTube viral smash. Homer Simpson meets with some polling booth difficulties when trying to cast his vote for Barack Obama:
And don't forget The Simpsons Army Recruitment clip.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
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