Manic Internet Preacher

Whilst the SPGB website continues to do its extended impersonation of Lord Lucan, here's just another cheap excuse to once again bring attention to the Socialist Standard Past and Present blog. This morning it chalked up its 8,000th post. Telegrams were read, hosannas were sung and Paul Hollywood refused my request to bake a cake.

Feel free to check it out at your leisure. Discover new (old) Socialist Standard writers such as May Otway, John A. Dawson and Eddie Critchfield. (All top notch writers, in my humble opinion). Sit and wonder if any SPGBers went to the cinema before 1943, and, just think, if the early Impossiblists had hated capitalism as much as they hated John Burns and Will Thorne back in the day, we'd have arrived at socialism  thirteen years before the "White Horse" FA Cup final.

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/

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.

Blogging Shorts

What's the point of having multiple sidebars to click on at random unless you're going to make use of them on a Friday morning?

Reads like a Ret Marut short story, but the BBC website carries news of the last living member of the Durruti Column, who's been living in Bolivia for the last fifty years. (Hat tip to Will Rubbish.)

This much he knew Lost Karl Marx interview from the the Manchester Guardian Saturday Supplement, March 15th 1882. Hat tip to John Counago.

Oldish post from the Madam Miaow blog, but I'm sure the title alone will drag you in, 'Keith Richards stole my last joint': guest post from Charles Shaar Murray.

Why be a student lefty, when you can be a graduate lefty? Swap the papersales and megaphone for three day conferences and a defective mic. Ian Bone maps out the next ten years of your life.

Trainspotting was on TV tonight. Strictly Sinatra was on the other side at the same time. Has Kelly MacDonald died or something? I'm sure I would have heard mention of it on The Scottish Patient Radio Show. Scottish Patient Kev gets extra kudos for playing Salon Boris on last week's show.

Socialist Alliance Mark II or just the new sound of Medway? Neither, but I had to crowbar the Billy Childish link in there somewhere. John Rees, Hannah Sell and Alan Thornett debating on the same platform? It could only happen in the safety of Kent. Click on the link to find out what I'm havering about. Click on this further link to discover what the mumblings about the sound of Medway are all about.

American Trotskyism had Saul Bellow, James T. Farrell and Harvey Swados. British Trotskyism had Julian Symons. Latest in the Normski's Writer's Choice series has Martin Edwards discussing Symons novel, 'Bloody Murder'.

Whilst I was over at Normski's 'Writers Choice' series, I found Ramachandra Guha discussing Eduardo Galeano's 'Football in Sun and Shadow' from a few years back.

. . . and children's author, Jean Ure, discussing Alexander Berkman's 'Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist'. Did I ever mention that Jean Ure used to be a member of the SPGB? She was a member of Croydon Branch for a couple of years in the early eighties. Wrote a couple of funny and entertaining articles for the Socialist Standard during that period. From the Q & A section of her website, it mentions that she has published over a 100 books. I know a comrade from my time in Central London Branch of the SPGB whose been known to collect books - any books - that have been written by people who were once members of the Party. Pound to a penny he's got at least twenty of her books. Once he gets the reserve price for his kidney on eBay, he'll be able to buy the other eighty.

Joseph Dietzgen and Dialectical Thought 17/10/82

Another talk from the 1982 'Socialist Thinkers – People Who History Made' lecture series and, again, the speaker is Steve Coleman:

First Part

DOWNLOAD LINK: Dietzgen and Dialectical Thought

FILE NAME: 01 Steve Coleman Dietzgen Part One.mp3

FILE SIZE: ~53.24 megabytes

LENGTH:57:47

Second Part

DOWNLOAD LINK: Dietzgen and Dialectical Thought

FILE NAME: 01 Dietzgen Part Two.mp3

FILE SIZE: ~48.46 megabytes

LENGTH: 52:36

Further Reading on Dietzgen:

Jospeh Dietzgen page on the Marxist Internet Archive website

'Joseph Dietzgen - The Workers Philosopher' by Adam Buick, which originally appeared in the journal, Radical Philosophy (1975).

Centenary Of Joseph Dieztgen by Frank Roberts, which originally appeared in the OBU Bulletin (1928).

'Cosmic Dialectics, The Libertarian Philosophy of Joseph Dietzgen' by Larry Gambone