Swines

My heart raced for a moment.

With a heavy heart . . .

. . . but what Phil said.

Blog Comment of the Day

A lot of froth and fury about the old RCP over at Harry's Place, but I really liked this comment from Shuggy - one of the Drink Sots - in the midst of the thread:

But that does not mean that the opinions of every affiliated person should be dismissed. To do that is just tripping into another form of identity politics.

"I’m not so sure about that. The LM crowd are like so many former Marxists: you’d think if someone no longer believed in Marxism they’d retain a commitment to social justice, the emancipation of the working class etc. But what seems to happen so often is that it is the economic determinism that dies last. The LM crew derive their morality from being on what they see as the right side of history. This is why, for example, that most of them seem to spend a great deal of their time prostrating themselves before the rising Chinese dragon. In this sense, I don’t think it’s guilt by association: we should look at every argument they ever make with the understanding that, at base, what moves and animates them - despite their protestations to the contrary - is the cynical worship of power, and power that has been completely emptied of anything one could associate with the left. This is why they backed the Serbs - they admired their Will to Power. It is for this reason they also backed Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf war. Nietzscheans is what they are. I think this should be remembered every time anyone finds their arguments ‘interesting’."

Simon's Placed

Harry's Place moves addresses, and 'Harry' moves centre stage. (I guess this means that I can now delete this link from my bookmarks.)

Will's right: Harry is a bit of a disappointment as a sports writer. None of the wit and verve that he displayed when he was winding up the CPGB/Weekly Worker crowd over at UK Left Network (or the rest of us in his incarnation as 'Dave Dudley') is evident in his sports journalism, and I don't think Dave Zirin's gig as the pre-eminent radical sports journalist is under threat any time soon.

Will's post over at Drunk Sots provides a couple of links to old discussion boards where Harry discusses his Tankie past - and where he is discussed in turn - and I couldn't help but notice this passage from 'Harry' Simon that is dated 9/14/00:

"If for the sake of brevity I must find some neat expression to sum up the SL [Straight Left] strategy it would be “political sleepers”. I presume that most comrades here are familiar with the use of the term “sleeper” in relation to intelligence work (I am sure Guy and Kim are!) and the Artists (a number of whom were not without some knowledge/experience of intelligence work –allegedly) applied the same strategy to politics.

It is, as Guy points out, superficially similar to the Trotskyist “entryist” strategy but there are crucial differences. For a start the project was carried out with subtlety. Did you ever see an Artist standing outside meetings with their paper? Did you ever see posters? There was a “fighting fund” of sorts but that too was discreet. The only time the group resembled an orthodox organised political unit was at the CPGB congress. Meetings were held prior to congress and efforts were made to gather the maximum number of votes for SL-backed candidates.

The sleeper strategy involved select individuals gaining key positions within certain bodies. But, and this another difference with classic entryism, the aim was not necessarily to take over but to take up a “holding position” and slowly build influence until the time came to activate those key people and those selected organisations. The activation might be done in a period of social unrest, a rise in militancy in the working class, or a threat to the peace during the cold war. In the meantime the short-term aim was to develop progressive policies and outlooks, that would assist the struggle for peace, oppose destructive forces and strengthen the broad left, while attempting some raising of consciousness.

This strategy necessitated a different approach to recruitment. If people were to be trusted with holding a sleeper position for a lengthy period of time, building relationships, both personal and political, then they must be reliable, intelligent and effective individuals. The Artists did not recruit openly, nor did they accept all those who wished to become part of their circle. They took the concept of a revolutionary vanguard seriously and were building an elite group of cadres. The Artists were rarely among the rank and file in any organisation they were involved in – they were invariably holding top positions, although not in the CPGB."

The 'Artists' that Harry Simon is referring to is Straight Left members. Love the following nugget from piece quoted above:

"This strategy necessitated a different approach to recruitment. If people were to be trusted with holding a sleeper position for a lengthy period of time, building relationships, both personal and political, then they must be reliable, intelligent and effective individuals. The Artists did not recruit openly, nor did they accept all those who wished to become part of their circle. They took the concept of a revolutionary vanguard seriously and were building an elite group of cadres . . . [My emphasis.]

And some people wonder why I have an issue with the 'generals without armies' crowd. Pompous and elitist blowhards one and all.

But it does conjure up the fascinating thought that 'Harry' might still sleeping. I wonder if David T, Gene and the other HP regulars ever ask themselves that. Like they give it shit.

Courtesy of Red Ken's Dirty Tricks Dept

There's me mulling over the minor matter of the bandwidth limit of my fileden account exceeding past bursting point when, in the real world of grown up politics, Harry's Place has become a victim of its own success.

A week before the Mayoral Elections, and HP can’t run well researched and even handed stories on Livingstone, Galloway and the SWP? Oh, that’s a sore one. Some of its regular posters and commentators must be tearing their hair out. No wonder Wardytron always wears a hat in his pictures.

I suggest that some of the HP regulars put ‘Mikey’ on suicide watch in the meantime. What with him not being in a position to exhibit his ongoing expertise on the politics of the left he’ll be kicking his little green football in frustration.

On second thoughts, leave him be.*

*Yep, a variation on this joke first appeared over at Socialist Unity blog. I'm nothing if not repetitive.

Steven Patrick: the original wannabe music blogger

Via Martin at Counago & Spaves comes the wee gem of Morrissey's youthful letters to the NME.

I think I've seen excerpts of the letters before - maybe from Johnny Rogan's 'Severed Alliance'? - but this month's Uncut music magazine captures the letters in all their glory.

Read on as a 'Steve' cribs from my school of music journalism when penning a lust letter about the 1974 Sparks album, Kimono My House: 'Here are my favourite tracks in descending order. Don't you dare contradict me'.

Fast forward to 'Steven' doing the original 'I heard of this band before you lot. Suck it up as you cling for dear life on the back of my superior musical knowledge' type music blog post as he coughs up a love you more type letter about the Buzzcocks.

And don't forget the 'guilty pleasure' type music blog post as he mentions having to put his Carly Simon, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Phil Ochs albums on a "smouldering . . . low light" since discovering Johnny Thunder and the Heartbreakers. (Guilty pleasure music blog posts always make me do a double take 'cos I'm like, 'What do you mean you're not supposed to admit in mixed company that you think that S Club 7 rocks?')

Saying that, guilty pleasure or not, I never would have pegged Mozzer for a Phil Ochs fan. Not Moz in any of his musical or personal permutations: Not going by the name of 'Steve', 'Steven' or 'Steven Patrick'.

But I'll take that on board when I listen to Phil Ochs's wonderful 'Love Me I'm A Liberal' in the future. I'll think of Moz and his number one fan in the political blogosphere, Harry Place's David T.

Cup Thai'd #4

ESPN's match commentator:

85 minutes in: "This is a match that Daniele De Rossi will want to put in the dustbin of history."

Looks like the old RCP 50 year plan of placing themselves in visible parts of the media is starting to bear some fruit.

What would Harry say?

Whatever happened to the likely lads?

Remember the Euston Manifesto? Of course you do. Harry's Place never seem to mention it much these days, but I'm sure that's because they're too busy making anniversary plans for marking its 5th anniversary in 2011.

Splintered Sunrise blog pops up to put the EM in a nutshell in his latest blog.

"It may be best to go back to the Euston Manifesto. You remember the Euston Manifesto, one of the defining documents of this century, yes? No? Well, the Reader’s Digest condensed version goes like this: Norman Geras and Nick Cohen go to the pub. Nick bitches and moans about what a shower of bastards the left are. Norm scribbles a manifesto on the back of a beer mat. (Eustonians like to say there was Serious discussion involved, but I’m sticking with the beer mat theory. It’s the best explanation for the combination of windy truisms with weirdly specific stuff on the Middle East and, er, Linux.) Alan (Not The Minister) Johnson then sets up another one of his thousands of websites, and invites punters to sign the document."

Ah, O'Neills pub on Euston Road. Halfway between the Housmans Bookshop of their past, and the British Museum of their future.

Blogbumps

Something I said?

I'm sure my current inability to access Harry's Place is nothing more than a temporary glitch - and has more to do with techie questions that I don't properly understand than any notion of someone blocking my IP address - but it does seems weird that it appeared so soon after I made this wee observation on the UK Left Network yahoo discussion group:

Re: [UK Left Network] Weekly Worker

Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:46 pm

Show Message Info

"Darren"

New picture editor?

Btw, if you view UK Left Network posts as grouped messages rather than as individual posts you will get some strange messages cropping up under the same post title.

For example, the following post cropped up under the 'Weekly Worker' grouped message title:

> Sat May 26, 2001 12:34 am
> Show Message Info

>"Harry Steele"

>formercommunists@...

>The following UK_Left_Network poll is now closed. Here are the

>final results:

>

>

>POLL QUESTION: Should the Weekly Worker group allow Harry Steele an article on his views regarding the CPGB in the pages >of their paper?

>

>CHOICES AND RESULTS

>- yes, 13 votes, 81.25%

>- no, 3 votes, 18.75%

The people have spoken.

I await the details from the editor.

As a gesture of good will to the WWG I will drop my usual fee.

HS

________

Did 'Harry' ever write his article for the WW? It seems so long ago. I guess he's in a happier place these days writing about Posh and Becks.

regards,

As I say, it must just be a glitch and, being the technophobe that I am, I'm reading too much into such things but 'The Dedicated Follower of Fashion' on HP does seem to be increasingly tetchy these days since he was prominently featured in a 'What To Wear' section on Lenny's Place.

But what about Harry the Hatchet? Where is he? There he is.