Branch Meeting: The French Revolution

Sister M took over the lead off reins last night to present a short talk on the lessons of the French revolution. Considering none of the massed ranks of Stoke Socialist Party knew anything about this pivotal moment in world history, we did well to have a half hour discussion! She began with Marx's observation that revolution starts at the top. This may seem counter-intuitive from a socialist perspective. After all, aren't revolutions the forcible intrusion of the masses onto the stage of history? Yes, but ruling classes are not immune to pressure welling up from below. Before a revolution comes along they can feel the ground trembling beneath their feet, and it is these tremors that start to focus the minds of the ruling class. One section supports modest reform to protect their privileges and the other favours repression, of keeping the masses under the cosh.

And so it was with France in the 1780s. That decade found a country the peasantry made up 80% of the population and its division between three so-called estates; the nobility, the clergy (who between them owned the majority of land) and the famous 3rd estate, comprising everyone else. To demonstrate their relative sizes, Paris at this time had a population between 500,000 - 600,000. This comprised of 10,000 clerics, 5,000 aristocrats and then the rest (of whom 40,000 were 'bourgeois'). So we have a numerically small ruling class sitting on a population through the church and the musket. But unfortunately for them, this was a class structure perched on a knife edge. The revolution drew deep from the well of many discontents, combining and condensing a constellation of grievances that kept piling upon one another. Here, M dwelled on Louis XVI's lavish spending on the military and military adventures. This she argued produced a budget crisis. As has been the case with subsequent crises under capitalism, the first instinct of the rulers is to get the ruled to bear its cost. But it was not possible here. Previous years of bad weather had exacerbated poverty in the lower orders and rumblings of discontent stayed the King's hand. Instead he caused a split in the ruling class by trying to introduce property taxes on the clergy and nobility.

It was at this point the more reform-minded elements struck. To deliberate over the tax, an Assembly of Notables was formed out of the clergy, nobility, bourgeois and bureaucrats. This grouping rejected the plan and demanded the King convene the Estates-General, a legislative assembly divided into three equal portions representing each of the estates. However, to reflect the great size of the 3rd Estate (comprising some 25 million people) its numbers of votes were doubled but owing to gerrymandering were stripped of weight to keep parity with the status quo. The Estates-General fell into farce and the Third Estate began meeting independently through a number of communes (commons) bodies. They verified their own powers and declared themselves to be a National Assembly of the people. Despite resistance to it on the part of the royalty, the first estate of the clergy came over to it followed 47 nobles. Thus achieving hegemony, the Third Estate, or rather its leading bourgeois representatives declared a Constituent Assembly in July, 1789. Two days later the King sacked his finance minister and began reconstructing the treasury, an event that provoked the famous storming of the Bastille. And as soldiers began arriving back, summoned to shut down the Assembly, the Parisian masses arose in an anarchic outpouring of looting and rioting. But nevertheless they won over the French Guard, the household troops of the Royal Palace and the King was forced to quit the capital. These events found their echo in the countryside as there was a generalised agrarian insurrection against the legalised bondage many peasants had been held in. Title deeds and châteaux went up in smoke.

In the 'August Decrees' the Assembly formally abolished what was left of feudalism and published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. But by the end of the year the breaks has started to be applied to the revolution. 21st October saw the first hanging - of a working class man - by the new regime for the crime of sedition. In short order the "excesses" of the countryside were stamped on. The National Guard militia set up to protect the new constitution was staffed almost exclusively by bourgeois elements, and slowly but surely the revolution was beginning to assume a definite class character. The attitude of many Assembly members can be summed up by the quote of one participant that "one must work for the good of the people so they do nothing for themselves".

Very quickly factions in the Assembly began to form. Those who sat on the right were supportive of the royalty and were in favour of a constitutional monarchy on the British model. Those who sat on the left were republicans and favoured more extreme and thorough-going measures against the ancien regime. As a result of the intrigues and arguments a monarchical settlement was hammered out and the Assembly dissolved in favour of its legislative successor in September 1791. It was however to prove unworkable. The King was not subordinate to the Assembly, he was, constitutionally speaking, its partner. He possessed a veto over its decisions and retained the power to appoint ministers. This led to constitutional crisis again and a new phase of the revolution began.

In August 1792 power in Paris was seized by the city's commune. The government was forced to rely on it to remain in power, the King and Queen arrested and the monarchy was abolished. What remained of the Legislative Assembly also convened a National Convention - a body that wielded executive and constitution-making powers and was elected on the basis of universal adult male suffrage. As France was being assailed from foreign armies pledged to restoring the monarchy the Convention was a revolutionary government, and one which was forced to abrogate more powers to itself to beat off the dangers facing the revolution. For example, military reverses stimulated counter-revolutionary uprisings, which in turn invited the wrath of the Convention. This was the period of the Reign of Terror, where Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety arrested and executed anyone suspected of aiding reaction. The Convention also introduced conscription, pressing the general populace into either the army, suppliers for the army or gangs used against recalcitrant peasants to seize their grain. Though brutal this dictatorship defeated the armies of the Spanish, British, Austrians and Prussians. But it quickly began turning on itself. First the moderates to its right were denounced as counterrevolutionaries and guillotined followed swiftly by the radicals to its left. This was too much for many from all sides of the Convention and Robespierre and his supporters swiftly met the same fate as thousands of others. This was the period of Thermidor, of reaction within the revolution.

In 1795 after a period of terror directed toward the left, the Convention announced a new constitution. It created a 'Directory' in which executive power was held by five 'Directors'. This new body was not held in high confidence by the populace at large thanks to its arbitrary style of governing (the Directors routinely ignored the constitution). Furthermore this was a warmongering government. Revolution and war had so depleted France's wealth that government could not function without plunder and tribute seized from other countries. By keeping the army in the field, a certain Napoleon Bonaparte was able to build up a base of power, enabling him to easily lead a coup in 1799 and to the years of dictatorship and war that followed.

Opening for discussion F noted how the revolution was an advance for democratic principles, despite the Terror and its culmination in Napoleon's dictatorship. It was a revolution that only liberated the people up to a point and succeeded in speeding up the development of capitalism in France. Another legacy of the revolution lies in the spirit of the French working class, who show time and again their willingness to fight. P noted two things about the French revolution. First, though taking place in a period when the bourgeoisie were the rising class and the working class as we understand it were a variegated embryonic mass, even then they were afraid of letting the revolution go too far. This was typified by the way many among the bourgeoisie were satisfied with the constitutional settlement of the first phase of the revolution and their attacks on workers and peasants who went beyond their comfort limits. His second point was on the class character of the revolution. Marxists do not term the French revolution a 'bourgeois revolution' because the Richard Bransons and Alan Sugars of the day were taking to the streets. It is so-called because of the effects of the revolution. Its lasting achievements were the sweeping away of institutional arrangements that hindered the development of capitalism, and what it did was to raise the bourgeoisie to the position of the ruling class.

A compared the French with the Russian revolution. Leaving aside the national peculiarities of each country, the key difference between the two is that in Russia, the bourgeoisie had emerged relatively late on the scene of history. Though a bourgeois revolution was in their objective interests they faced a small, growing and politically confident Russian working class. The bourgeoisie was not strong enough and nor was it able to articulate their grievances, because they were aimed as much at them as they were at Tsarism. When push came to revolutionary shove, the capitalist class had a million and one ties to the bureaucracy and imperial family. They were not ideal, but the Tsar did at least defend bourgeois property relations. As was borne out in 1917, the regime brought about by the October revolution was forced to make inroads into these relations to retain power. From the standpoint of the Russian bourgeoisie, their stand with the Romanovs was entirely understandable.

Finally, P noted the impact of the French revolution is difficult to overestimate. All modern political ideas have those events imprinted in their DNA to greater or lesser extents. Conservatism is representative of the ideological reaction to it. Liberalism bases itself on the principles of political liberty the revolution popularised, but strives to limit that liberty to the public rather than the private realm. It is socialism that is the true heir to the revolution. The slogans of liberty, equality and fraternity point toward a society beyond capitalism, toward a society where the economy is taken from private hands and becomes the property of us all.

Keele UCU Suspends Grey Listing

There has been a welcome development in the six month long dispute between Keele UCU and the university's management over the planned closure of School of Economic and Management Studies and Centre for Health Planning and Management. Previous posts and statements on the dispute can be read here, here, here and here. The deal itself won a majority vote among the SEMS Action Committee, the rank and file body of UCU members that has played a leading role in this dispute and their decision was unanimously backed at an emergency meeting of the union's branch committee this afternoon. Here is the message our union branch has circulated to members.

To all UCU members,

Following talks on 10th June 2008, an agreement has been reached between UCU and management on the SEMS/CHPM dispute. The agreement was approved by a meeting of UCU members in SEMS/CHPM and by a meeting of the Local Association committee today.

All industrial action - both the SEMS/CHPM assessment boycott and the other action short of a strike begun on 21st February - is therefore suspended with immediate effect. Members are asked to work normally from now on.

The greylisting of Keele University is also suspended with immediate effect.

The aim of our action was to bring management to the negotiating table on the issues of

- academic discussions with the School on the future of the teaching programmes,
- the terms of the voluntary severance offer and an extended period of voluntary severance.

We feel that we have achieved those aims and also defended the role of Senate in consideration of course closures and academic restructuring, and furthermore that the agreement provides a space in which this situation can be resolved without need for compulsory redundancy. However, there is still much work in front of us to implement the agreement.

The agreement is available at
http://www.keele.ac.uk/socs/ucu/local/sems2008/agreementJun08.doc

See also an accompanying statement from Sue Davis, UCU regional official, at
http://www.keele.ac.uk/socs/ucu/local/sems2008/statementJun08.html

I should like to thank all members who have supported the industrial action and greylisting. It is only by our vigorous campaign, and the immense support we have received from colleagues across the country, that we have been able to get this far.

Peter Fletcher,
for the Keele UCU committee.

You can also read the national UCU's official statement here.

Edited to add: this is a significant step forward in the dispute and can rightly be regarded as a victory against a management who were determined to dig their heels in.

Seven Songs for the Summer

I was going to leave this to the slow period over the weekend, but I have a piece that's taking while to gestate and I'm keenly feeling the empty space where a post should have been. Anyway I've been tagged by my feline comrade Madam Miaow to fess up my top summer choons of the moment. Despite having a highly cultivated and sleek appreciation of music, this little meme is about letting it all hang out and to hell with one's self-respect. So here are mine, and remember, judge not lest ye be judged!

1) The Boo Radleys, "Wake Up Boo" - Yes I know, it's shameful. But I just cannot help myself. This snazzy sizzler was one of the songs from back in '95 that triumphantly announced indie bands were going overground. And what a tune it is. It's bouncy, catchy and, after repeated listens, bloody annoying! But still, if this happens to be the very first thing you hear in the morning it sets you up nice and cheery for the wage slavery ahead.

2) White Zombie, "El Phantasmo and the Chicken Run Blast-o-Rama" - Astro-Creep 2000 remains one of the finest albums of the 90s in my humblest opinion and is partly responsible for my brief musical journey into the heavier side of things. Nothing ever beat bombing around the sunny country lanes of Derbyshire with this shit pouring from your stereo.

3) Euroband, "This Is My Life" - This is way too much. I've become a little bit obsessed with this, Iceland's entry into the Eurovision song contest. It is simply incredible, words fail me ... (I am aware this paragraph may make me look slightly sad).

4) Garbage, "Only Happy When it Rains" - At first glance a strange choice for a summery song this, but I've always found it a bit of bouncy number, despite the miserable lyrics. "Pooooour your misery down" Shirley Manson moaned into the microphone, and we did by stomping and air guitaring our way across the Rock City dance floor sometime in the mid-90s. Only Happy was the summer sound track to Tinnitus and greasy hot dogs with plenty of mustard at two in the morning

5) Supermode, "Tell Me Why" - Crap video, brill song. And Jimmy is great.

6) Skin Up, "Juicy Red Apple" - "A juicy red apple is nice, but not every apple is red". Erm yeah, they be wise words. This evokes all those summers I was way too young to go to a rave, and when I finally did I was too knackered to do any silly old skool choreography. Humph! You are committing a crime if you listen to this on a rainy day.

7) Phil Oakey and Giorgio Morodor, "Together in Electric Dreams" - Back to the 80s with this cacky synth special. You can almost feel the wind blowing through the Oakey Blokey's mullet, the sun beating down on his designer stubble, and the surf dribbling between the toes of the weird lobster puppet thing at the end. Has anyone ever seen the film?

Right, who to afflict with the tags? How about:

Through the Scary Door
The Nation of Duncan
Inveresk Street Ingrate
Stropps
Catherine Buca
Leftwing Criminologist
Jim Jay

PS Comrades looking for images on Google would be best not to look up 'sunny' while at work. Eeeek!

A Touch of Virtual Vanity

It's been one of those days where I've felt the need to blog, but didn't have a clue what to blog about. I could take the easy way out and stick up a Youtube vid or something, but I fear I've inflicted my musical tastes on AVPS enough already. This void in my head got me thinking of the days when I used to be a Weekly Worker columnist. Comrades who've been around the internet block a few times might remember Around the Web, a certain Phil Hamilton's (who?) look at the websites of individuals and organisations who had earned his sectarian ire. The abiding memory of those two happy years was the difficulty of coming up with a website to review, week after week. Occasionally either me or Peter Manson, the WW editor, would have an idea or a theme that would see me through a month's worth of articles, but most of the time it was seat of the pants stuff. Very often you could find me in the customer service desk at a certain branch of Sainsbury's on a Tuesday morning scribbling that week's outpourings onto the back of unused till receipts, and furtively flicking between the official corporate home page and the ra-ra-revolutionary rantings of the IBT. (In fact, the assignments for most of my first MA began life in this way, and yes, I still have all those till rolls somewhere. But I digress).

I could never resist having a sectarian dig if I was reviewing another left-wing website and I used to be really gratified if someone penned a moan about my witterings for the following week's letters page. You can imagine the excitement in the Hamilton/BC household when not one but four irate SPGB'ers took issue with my review of their website on the occasion of their centennial. Bless, I used to be so easily amused. Another classic was from a rather hurt Phillip Alan, who was stung by my review of the CWI's website. So enraged was the comrade that he hit me with the devastating "Phil has somehow propelled himself to celebrity ‘left’ status by virtue of never leaving the internet" and the classic "If Phil would like to go visit the CWI comrades in Kazakhstan or Kashmir and tell them they are not a “serious working class organisation”, I’d be more than happy to pay the cost of his airfare (one way)." One wonders what the tetchy comrade would think if he knew my "celebrity" had been gracing his organisation, and now mine, for the last two-and-a-half years? But what really tickled my vanity was my piece on various anti-abortion websites, that rather clumsily associated George Galloway with the reactionary SPUC. But still, it did the job - Galloway wrote in the following week.

Ah, things seemed so much simpler when I was an ultra-left adventurer. Well, fond memories aside, that's because this kind of politics is all very black and white. It's very easy to pontificate from the side lines when you or your organisation has no stake in and little connection to any kind of struggle. Things appear much clearer cut when you don't have to make yourselves relevant to working class people. So while Around the Web was fun, it is an object lesson in how a socialist should not behave, either toward comrades in the movement or people outside of it.

Blog Roll Round-Up

It's been a long time since I last took a look at the blog roll. This is partly because of the lack of time, but also because I've created a rod for my own back. It's been a month since AVPS last took a look at the latest movers and shakers in leftyblogland and since then loads more have been heaped onto it.

Without further ado, it's hello to A Few Words Before We Go, Boffy's Blog, Craig Murray, Don't Trip Up, Five Chinese Crackers, Green From Below, Handala Blogs, John McD's Union Blog, Johninnit, Kicking Over the Idol, Kotaji, Lancaster Unity, Lay Science, Mark Steel, Mask of Anarchy, Patience and Perseverance, Rolled-up Trousers, spEak You're bRanes, The Tory Troll, and The Void. Phew, that's a lot of blogs!

All these blogs are excellent and deserve a wider readership. But there's a few that stand out for some reason or another. First there's Boffy's Blog, written by Stoke labour movement legend, Arthur Bough. His blog is an eclectic mix of polemic, Marxism, current affairs commentary, essays and labour movement history. The AWL apparently banned him from their site for a short period - does that serve as a recommendation? ;)

Lancaster Unity needs little introduction to anti-fascists. As a source of gossip and info on the BNP and other far right knuckle-draggers, I personally much prefer it to the national Unite Against Fascism site. Then there is spEak You're bRanes, a merciless piss-taking catalogue of right-wing comments vomited onto the BBC's Have Your Say discussion boards. Really, some comrades have too much time on their hands ... Complimenting spEak nicely is The Tory Troll, an avid watcher of the desperate and the degenerate found inhabiting the opposition benches, the media, blogland and of course London's City Hall. Finally, I have to mention The Void for this article. I don't know what is worse - a wannabe porn star offering to have sex with keyboard warriors for defending the internet's "neutrality", or the hordes of desperate guys trying to impress just for a bonk! Oh dear.

And finally, after a period of inactivity, it's good to see For a New Left Party, Plattitude, Karl Marx Strasse and SouthPawPunch are back in action. If there are any more great blogs out there not listed do let me know.

Martian Chronicles

Pictures of sand and rock don't normally excite. But when they've been transmitted across 40 million miles of void, they're something a bit special. The latest Mars lander, Phoenix (so-called because it rose out of the ashes of previous missions) landed on the planet on 25th May. Its mission is to dig into the Martian desert and analyse the soil and ice the scooper unearths. Over the next six months it will gather more data on the planet's geological and climatic history; and spend time prospecting for future colonisation and exploration.

But perhaps most importantly from a scientific point of view is Phoenix will help determine if life ever arose from Mars' rusty landscape. No one's expecting alien imperialists in tripods running around with heat rays (fortunately), but there's a good chance bacteria could be suspended in the sub-surface ice. If they are detected by the on-board laboratory, it is a very significant finding for a whole host of reasons. Leaving aside the philosophical, theological and moral fall out from the discovery of alien life, from a strictly scientific viewpoint the presence of Martian microbes will confirm terrestrial biological observations that where there is water, life isn't far behind. If it turns out the two worlds orbiting our sun's 'goldilocks zone' (the distance from the star where water can exist as a liquid - Mars orbits its outer limit) have life, it is reasonable to assume life could exist on extra-solar planets orbiting analogous regions around their stars. Life's relationship to water will be shown not to be a unique property of the Earth.

At a cost of $386 million Phoenix hasn't come cheap. One could argue space exploration is yet another wasteful and socially useless way of disposing of surplus capital. There is indeed something obscene about people dying of hunger while sophisticated robots are scrubbing around in the Martian dirt. But at the same time, given the balance of class forces existing in the world today, and there being absolutely no chance NASA's budget will be cut to fund US welfare and infrastructural programmes in the immediate future, is it not better to see funds channelled in this direction than more tax cuts for the rich or more cash for the military?

No one believes the immediate interests of our species depends on the colonisation of the Moon, Mars, etc. But you can argue past and present space exploration has continually raised the bar of scientific endeavour. This is not a crude endorsement of RCP-style progress for progress sake. It is important socialists distinguish between space exploration and the militarisation space. However you don't have to be a Trekkie to realise the long-term survival of our species depends on spreading beyond the Earth. But the character of the social system we take to other worlds is up to us.

Branch Meeting: Race and Class in South Africa

The recent attacks on refugees in South Africa made headlines around the world. 56 people have lost their lives and around 70,000 immigrants from Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe have been displaced. To cope with the problem the South African authorities have been laying on buses and trains to help them escape back home, seeking refuge in the very lands they're refugees from.

At tonight's Stoke Socialist Party branch meeting, F looked at the background to these attacks in the context of the frustrated hopes of the black South African working class. He opened the discussion with the significant moments for racist rule in the country. British colonialism in The Cape had seen the progressive introduction of segregative policies from the late 19th century onwards, beginning with a system of passes to regulate the movement of black populations from the hinterland into the growing metropolitan centres, they increasingly became formalised with the passing of a series of racist Acts. For example, there was the 1911 Mines and Works Act which institutionalised a white (and to a lesser extent, 'coloured') labour aristocracy by creating a colour bar for jobs. Black workers could only be employed in menial jobs, forming a large pool of cheap labour. The 1913 Lands Act set up 'black reservations'. These encompassed approximately 17% of South Africa's land area and forbid black people from owning land outside of these regions.

Apartheid proper didn't come into being until after the 1948 elections. The National Party narrowly won and formed a coalition with the Afrikaner Party to push through toughened racist laws. Separateness was the principle; employment and residential segregation was no longer enough. Public space and institutions were redesigned and racially coded. This was the era of white-only beaches, white-only rail carriages, white-only parks. White children went to schools up to Western educational standards. Black children however were expected to achieve academic excellence in subjects like weeding and pot washing.

Apartheid provoked uprisings, strikes and armed resistance and successive governments responded by converting the administrative and coercive apparatus into a police state. Despite the ratcheting up of repression the organisations built up by black workers endured. When the old regime underwent its final collapse between 1989-91 and after a period of political unrest it was these organisations, the ANC, the South African Communist Party and COSATU that emerged hegemonic from the black working class. Though the history of the 'rainbow' nation has been far from smooth since, the ANC's grip on power has never been seriously challenged, and so successful (in parliamentary terms) it has become that 2005 saw the bizarre spectacle of its fusion with the old National Party.

This was basically the culmination of a project the South African ruling class had to undergo to save their necks. In the late 80s it was between a rock and a hard place, it either instituted reform from above and dismantle the racist state apparatus or face revolution from below. It chose the former option. And the so-called 'national democratic revolution' hasn't been unkind to South Africa's rulers. The ANC has 'sensibly' pursued a neoliberal course and its tripartite alliance with the SACP and COSATU has so far deflected away serious opposition. But where the black majority are concerned, though the abolition of apartheid represents a tremendous advance, their hopes remain unfulfilled. For example, out of a population of almost 44 million between an estimated 6-8 million are unemployed. 50% live beneath the poverty line and there are over 1,000 AIDS-related deaths a day. As a whole the white working class remain a labour aristocracy, on average earning six times the income of blacks, and 98% of the country's wealth remains in white hands. The ANC has managed to cultivate a new black elite but for most, the "revolution" hasn't brought much in the way of material benefits. This is the context in which the outbreak of anti-immigrant violence took place.

It has to be noted that the attacks, though brutal, were concentrated in the environs around Johannesburg. The majority of black workers expressed their revulsion at the events and there were cases of immigrant families finding refuge. But there were no reports of organised defence, nor was their much of a lead taken from the traditional organisations of the working class. The ANC condemned the attacks but denied they had anything to do with poverty and blamed criminals, opportunists and provocateurs. COSATU was slightly better, but only just. It called for a demo against xenophobia but failed to build it in any meaningful way, hence only 300 marched in Johannesburg. It also called on the poor to concentrate their fire at 'the capitalists', without actually organising them to do just that.

In the discussion P pointed out it was unlikely COSATU would take a lead in organising any kind of opposition, despite the lip-service paid to socialism and revolutionary rhetoric. The activist base and lower level officials might be prepared to fight, but the leadership is bound hand and foot to the Tripartite Alliance. As an institutional arrangement it may not have benefited the members very much but for the leaders there is the pretence of influence and position. At the end of the day a top trade union bureaucrat lives a conservative life and will see little sense in upsetting their comfortable existence by overly disturbing the status quo. This is the case with COSATU's relations to the ANC, the TUC's relation to New Labour or AFL-CIO affiliates' dealings with the Democrats.

On the Triple Alliance, A noted the Democratic Socialist Movement's forerunner, the Marxist Workers' Tendency was opposed to the Tripartite Alliance when it was in the ANC, precisely because it would hamstring revolutionary elements and force all three organisations down the path of constitutional politics. While this has been the case, the contradictions of South African society find an expression in the alliance. For example in the power struggle between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, the latter's take up of left populist arguments reflects a certain level of discontent at the base. Similarly in the SACP, its Young Communist League has been in rebellion and in recent years threatened to run independent YCL candidates against the ANC. And in COSATU, findings from a survey taken three years ago found approximately a third of members were in favour of a new workers' party. Also there has been an increase in industrial struggle, particularly in the public sector, and last month dock workers struck to prevent a Chinese arms shipment from reaching Zimbabwe - a real slap in the face to Mbeki's cosy relationship to Mugabe's increasingly dictatorial regime.

Though it may be too early to tell, these internal ructions and disputes may have placed all three organisations on split trajectories. But unless this can be resolved positively with the establishment of working class political independence, then xenophobic attacks and other spontaneous outbursts of reaction are more likely.

Sex and the City

When a film has “every woman in her twenties coming to New York is looking for two Ls: Labels and Love” as the opening line, you know you’re in for a pretty vacuous two hours 20 minutes. And so it is with Sex and the City’s big screen adaptation.So the plot, such as it exists, is all about those two little Ls. Fans and casual viewers of the show know it looked like Carrie Bradshaw had finally found her happy ever after at the end of the series’ six-year run. Her on-off relationship with Big was definitely on the last time we saw them. And this is how the film opens. A blissfully happy Carrie and Big are out apartment hunting and settle on a place you’d never get a shared ownership deal on. Being an attentive and knowing boyfriend, Big gifts Carrie a closet the size of my street. But beneath the happiness is a slight ripple of unease. The serpent in Carrie’s romantic idyll is Big’s aversion to marriage. So what does she do when he tentatively suggests they tie the knot? Carrie arranges a gaudy Hello-style marriage with ostentatious Vogue photo shoots, an absurd Vivienne Westwood dress and a society guest list including all of Park Avenue. It’s a wonder she didn’t ask the Pope to officiate.

It’s a set up just begging to go wrong, and it does. Big gets cold feet and the wedding doesn’t take place. The girls – Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha accompany Carrie on her pre-booked honeymoon to Mexico to comfort her. And in a mini-adventure involving sunsets, pubic hair and a very public bathroom malfunction, Carrie begins to make a slow recovery.

As was the case with Sex and the City on TV, Carrie’s troubles are reflected in the sub-plots of her friends. Samantha’s discontented about her life with actor boyfriend Smith. His long hours and her isolation in Los Angeles constantly tempt her to stray, but she manages to remain faithful by turning to food. Charlotte – who is something of a waste of space in the movie – falls pregnant. And Miranda separates from on-off partner Steve after he admits to a one nighter with another woman. As the film grinds itself toward the inevitable Hollywood ending, a new character is introduced when Carrie takes on Louise as her personal assistant. She helps Carrie reorganise her life while Carrie in turn sees her as a representative of the new generation of New York women. Cue many a moment when she gives Louise the benefit of her accumulated wisdom.

By the end everything has come good again … until the inevitable sequel that is. It is a formulaic piece, the jokes are rather flat, the sex is neither titillating or risque and the last four years haven’t been kind to the format. But when it is all said and done, you have a movie that the fans will adore.

Sex and the City has been critiqued as a celebration of post-feminism. That is the notion feminism is no longer relevant to women’s lives because structural gender inequalities have largely withered away. The same choices and privileges long enjoyed by men are now available to women. Whether one pursues a traditional feminine trajectory (Charlotte) or seeks meaning and happiness independently of heterosexual monogamy (Samantha), it is simply a matter of choice, and it is a choice open to all women. This is the essence of Sex and the City. The characters are free to pursue their projects of self though an endless merry go round of fashion shows, restaurants, bars, shops and exclusive parties. What makes their post-feminist orgy of consumption possible is their freedom from (economic) necessity. Because all four occupy privileged class locations it makes it possible for them to erase any presentation of that position.

This is nothing new. The culture of the ruling class has long eschewed references to the crude business of how one makes money. Take Jane Austen, for example. Most of her characters effortlessly make their ways through life on the back of inherited fortunes, allowing them to devote themselves to finding a husband, match-making and attending balls. The same is true of here. Carrie is a writer and we often see her tapping a few lines into her laptop without any real degree of effort. Samantha owned a PR firm and became Smith’s manager as his acting career took off. Charlotte appears to do nothing and secures her living from her wealthy lawyer husband. In fact the only one who ever moans about work is Miranda, who is also a lawyer, but a lawyer whose work is completely invisible and never intrudes into the Sex and the City universe. Theirs is a life where identity is defined by consumption.

This erasing of class through the ostentatious display of class privilege has historically set the tone for formations of femininity. Through their privileged access to economic and cultural capital the experience of bourgeois women defines what it is to be feminine for all women of all classes. Their experience is the norm and therefore unsurprising their lifestyles are marketed as the aspirational ideal. Carrie’s singling out of labels and love is significant because they are the foundation of this world. It is the dialectical interplay of the two on which her femininity hangs – femininity is performed through the consumption of trendy labels and services. The better one is able to strategically deploy this style, the more desirable one is to (bourgeois) men, the more one’s femininity is affirmed and the greater the chance of landing a wealthy partner. In turn the rich boyfriend/husband provides an effortless income enabling a richer cultivation of femininity. That at least is the aspiration.

For working class women who aspire to this dominant mode of femininity, a number of strategies are available. The only working class character in the movie is Louise. She is black, hails from St Louis, has recently graduated with a degree in computer science and hasn’t got two pennies to rub together (it is interesting that as the only black character of any note to have ever appeared in Sex and the City, Louise is cast in a servile and subordinate position). But she is a woman who buys into the lifestyle Carrie leads. They may be a different class, the relationship between them is a power relation in which Carrie holds all the cards, but their shared femininity successfully obscures the true character of the relationship for both women. Like Carrie, Louise came to New York in search of those two Ls. Louise has had her heart broken by a man she still loves as well, so there is shared pain. Despite having no money Louise manages to keep up feminine appearances by renting the latest handbags, much to Carrie’s approval. And as Carrie’s PA, Louise is able to feminise her computer science knowledge by building her a professional website and creating a secret folder of emails from a penitent Big in the hope Carrie will stumble across them and give the relationship yet another chance. So by pleasing this bourgeois woman, Louise paradoxically confirms her working class location by acting in such a way that suppresses it, and it is a behaviour Carrie is all too keen to encourage.

Discussing the film on Newsnight Review, Paul Morley suggested Sex and the City is the last swan song for a gilded age that is now passing from the scene. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Cable and digital channels are packed with “reality” shows chronicling privileged lives that make Carrie and the girls look like Calvinists. Despite the increasing social distance between those featured in such programmes and their audiences, there will be a greater demand for shows and films that offer an escape from the grinding class-bounded realities of most women, and this will particularly be the case as the credit crunch and economic slow down start to bite.


So it looks as though Sex and the City will be with us for a bit longer, and could be returning to the big screen fairly soon.

BNP Councillor Fraud Claim

Oh deary me. This was in last night's Sentinel, and will be of interest to anti-fascists and BNP-watchers all over the country:

08:51 - 02 June 2008

Police and council officials are investigating allegations that a newly-elected BNP councillor has broken strict election laws.

John Burgess was elected to represent the far-right party in the Meir Park and Sandon ward on Stoke-on-Trent City Council on May 1.

But concerns have been raised about statements he made on his nomination papers.

It is claimed he incorrectly stated he had a business interest at an address in Stoke-on-Trent.

Mr Burgess lives outside the city, in Blythe Bridge, and has been a BNP councillor on Staffordshire Moorlands District Council for a year.

But he used a business connection in Longton to stand for election in Stoke-on-Trent.

He stated that his military memorabilia business, J & J Antiques, operates from a premises in Wood Street, as well as from his home address in Crossfield Avenue.

But a Meir resident claims he has breached the Local Government Act 1972 and the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false declarations on his nomination papers.

Now Staffordshire Police, the city council and the district council are all investigating complaints about Mr Burgess's conduct.

A police spokesman said: "Officers from our economic crime unit, which oversees electoral issues for the force, are liaising with Stoke-on-Trent City Council following a complaint concerning the May local elections."

City council head of legal services Paul Hackney said: "We have received a complaint which we are investigating. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."

The district council has passed the matter to its standards committee, which is assessing whether to investigate further. Breaches of the Local Government Act can see defendants jailed for up to a year or given a heavy fine.

An Electoral Commission spokesman said: "We do not investigate breaches of the Act, as they are a police matter."

Mr Burgess vehemently denies any wrongdoing over his nomination papers and insisted the election campaign and result were legitimate.

He said: "I won that seat fair and square. This is just sour grapes from someone.

"I make pottery at the building in Wood Street, and although I don't have a rental agreement, I have an arrangement with the owners where they let me work there in return for some of the pottery I make.

"I also hold a military memorabilia fair twice a year at Longton Town Hall, which I rent from the city council, and I've done that for nine years.

"I'm not worried about these allegations and will continue to serve my ward and the city council as normal."

There's more here and here.

As I have noted previously Stoke BNP are starting to run out of cadre it can put up for election, which has meant they had to get an already sitting councillor in a separate authority to stand and win in Meir Park. What totally beggars belief is if the allegations are true, how did Burgess expect to get away with it? What a tool.

Mad Men

I eagerly awaited Mad Men, produced by Matthew Weiner who was previously a script writer for The Sopranos; a series I thought was superb. Mad Men and its lead actor (John Hamm) received awards at the 2007 Golden Globes.

I found the first episode a bit disappointing. I did not feel that there was a lot to it, but as with a lot of quality art, it grows on you as you come to appreciate its complexities. (Pretentious? Moi?)

Hamm plays Don Draper, a highly-successful advertising executive employed at the fictional Sterling Cooper in New York's Madison Avenue in the early 1960s. Don seems to have it all. He has clean-cut Rock Hudson good looks, money, status and an all-American, cookie-cooking ex-model of a wife. Lucky old Don you might say. But Don has one scary skeleton in the cupboard. He is not really Don Draper but Dick Whitman who served in the army in Korea. When his officer (Don Draper) was killed, Dick stole his dog tags and therefore his identity, and instantly climbed the social ladder.

The new Don is eventually exposed by a rival employee, but Don’s boss doesn’t seem to care. Money makes the world go round and as long as you bring it in, who cares if you have been a bit creative with your CV? Throughout the series Don seems increasingly troubled as if the shallowness of the consumer-driven society becomes ever more apparent. His wife's mood seems to mirror his deepening melancholy as she becomes increasingly unfulfilled. The men in the series are generally depicted as boozy chauvinists who are unfaithful to their wives. The women are either secretaries (although one woman at the office pushes through the glass ceiling) or homely wives. Both sexes smoke incessantly. There are several instances of anti-semitism.

The series conveys the old message that money doesn’t buy happiness, but it seems to go deeper than that. I struggle to find exactly what the message is, but there are elements of a critique of the American preoccupation with materialism. Whatever it is, it is a lot better than a soap set in an advertising agency.