Left Portal

I'm posting this tonight from Southpaw of Southpaw Punch fame. His blog is acting as the hub for the debate, discussion and organisation, so all interested parties should head in that direction. Needless to say, I endorse this project and urge every left blogger and reader to get involved.


Many blogging leftists need to think about they are trying to do with their blogs. I intend doing a critique, soonish, of mine - and others - but I also think that the left needs to develop an infrastructure that is beyond individual blogs.

I think the revolutionary left (and more) needs a portal.

(The ‘more’ is anyone looking to overthrow capitalism and replace it with something better - all forms of revolutionary socialists, anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists, etc.)

Some of the things I would love to have two clicks away include -

- a list of all strikes happening by postcode, location;

- listings of all left meetings happening this week or month in London or Lossiemouth.

- where I can read an USDAW branch publicity officer getting advice on better branch newsletters from an Amicus steward.

- a place where a dental nurse could ask, ‘How do I organise a trade union?’ and get an appropriate reply from an active nurse trade unionist.’

- a site where a school student could ask, ‘What is anarchism?’ and get good (and varied) answers.

Who would provide?

It’d be best if we had a communist party to do all this. It’d be more coherent.

The British National Party, as a party, are a lot more on the ball. For example, they will do a daily news release tearing apart some new government policy and are sussed enough to have the premium rate phone numbers, party shop etc to support all this (but don’t do all the other things I have listed).

Failing a party (some hope) it would be great if the SWP, SP, indies and more supported a portal site, maybe calling it something like www.socialist-tradeunion.org.uk But they’re too sectarian to do that, probably.

Failing that it’d be great if there were a red personality who could use their weight to run a portal, in the way that Richard Littlejohn could (and Rush Limbaugh does?).

My personal view is that I think a lot of credibility would be lost by having Labour supporters taking part in any such initiative. Many hate Blair - and Labour - for the right reasons. Likewise Greens and other forms of ‘alternative’ capitalist politicians would, I think, be beyond the pale. But I also think I would be in a minority about this.

What could it look like?

I’d imagine this sort of portal looking a little like the site that consumer journalist Martin Lewis does rather well on personal finance - full of facts, advice, news, bulletin boards.

www.libcom.org is good. It’s an organising (and more tool) produced by libertarian communists (a bit like anarcho-syndicalists).

It could be better. It needs to be more hierarchical (how apt) so that you could, for example, easily find details of meetings.

(On a sad point - libcom.com includes postings by many anarchists complaining about ‘Lennies’ [Leninists] and discussing how best to physically attack us. Who’s the enemy?)

www.urban75.com does the job a little but there’s a lot of lifestyle/cultural stuff on there (which is fine) but not so much agitational/organisational/propaganda content.

Content

Any such left portal shouldn’t just be agitational/informative.

It’d be great to have the current blogs written by revolutionaries in such a portal - or at least linked and promoted through there e.g. Lenin (Lenins Tomb) writing his foreign news stuff; Socialist Unity with their art stuff and more; reports on public meetings, etc.

A left portal would also need a lot more - reporting, policy, debate, etc. - but could also do other innovative things to attract new people (and make money?) e.g. left lonely hearts?

There could be chat rooms.

If you book a coach for a demo, you could use online booking to fill the seats.

Photos - if you attend a demo you could upload photos so that they could be used by other activists (although maybe not, Special Branch would be monitoring).

A bigger portal

A portal could possibly even be an educational or even a cultural and social tool.

Any such further services would have some resonance to the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) of a hundred years ago with their social and educational facilities or the CPGB influenced cycling clubs in the 30s (out from Manchester, into the Peak District).

There’d be dangers in providing services, especially on a commercial basis, for any lefts. All sorts of ‘short term’ exceptions can get made to keep up a revenue stream.

That route can just lead to becoming like the Co-op. There’s a danger in building parallel worlds and opting out.

Furthermore our primary task isn’t to provide to the needs of comrades but to rise up and destroy capitalism.

But all that’s running before even crawling. It could all be too big a task.

I know revolutionary socialists have established a presence at www.myspace.com.

We could exploit the usual capitalist channels but never in the way that we could if we ran the show.

But if libcom.com can do it, we could do it even better. And how useful it would be.

Zombie Interlude

There was a bit of an undead fest on Channel 4 this weekend. We were treated to Star Trek: First Contact at Saturday tea-time. In case you're not a sad Trekkie this is the one where the cybernetic zombies known as the Borg go back in time in an attempt to assimilate the Earth. Luckily Picard and co follow them and soon put a stop to their evil machinations.

A lot of laughs were had later on in the evening with vampire flick Blade II , which was the funniest film I've seen in a long time. The action was over the top, the machismo utterly silly, and seeing Wesley Snipes getting kicked around by Luke Goss(!) is something I'll cherish for a long time. (Can anyone take Snipes seriously as an action hero after To Wong Foo?)

C4 served up Dawn of the Dead on Sunday night. Now, I freely admit I'm something of a wuss when it comes to zombie films. When I saw Day of the Dead at about the age of nine it terrified me. It was 11 years before I could bring myself to watch the original Dawn. It must have been the relentless shambling terror of a near indestructible enemy that struck fear deep into my delicate disposition. When I learned the remake (the version screened last night) featured zombies capable of running after you I thought there would be no way in hell I'd ever bring myself to watch it. Well, I did, and my what a bleak and miserable film it was. Whereas the original was loaded with satire and black comedy this was more of a conventional splatter horror with little in the way of social commentary and critique about it. Leaping acrobatic zombies might shit me up but I do like my make-believe to be a little bit plausible

Coincidentally I finished a novel on this very topic on Saturday. Having cooked up the spoof Zombie Survival Guide in 2004, Max Brooks came back last year with the super serious World War Z, a horror/sci-fi meditation on a post-zombie holocaust near future. Taking the standpoint of a globe-trotting journalist, the book mockuments a series of survivor stories - civilians, solidiers and politicians (bizarrely, Brooks claims Studs Terkel as an inspiration!). Unlike Romero's doom-laden tetralogy the living dead threaten but in the end fail to overwhelm humanity. After billions succumb and become the undead hordes, the US (of course) leads the way in developing strategies for dealing with 'zack', and slowly, brutally, the ghoulish menace is relentlessly whittled down to 'nuisance' levels.

In WWZ Brooks has thought about zombies from every possible angle. Not just in terms of how to fight them but has also had a stab at possible psychological and ecological impacts. Unlike Dawn zombies here are interested in all fresh meat, whether two-legged or four. The meditations on psychology are also quite intriguing for what is ultimately a pulpy novel. For instance alongside "normal" mental health issues related to the strains of war, he introduces 'quislings'; humans who've undergone a complete mental collapse and behave as if they were zombies themselves. Normal humans have trouble telling them apart but trust me, zack knows an easy lunch when it sees one.

There are a number of shortcomings. The characterisation is very ropey - it reads as if the same charcter is narrating different episodes of the war. When SFX reviewed it they gave it one star out of five for being tedious. As a long chain of very short slightly-samey vignettes it would be a chore to plough through in long sittings (I read it in snippets over a period of a couple of months). And last but not least the ridiculously common meme of redemption through recourse to the military permeates throughout. Though to be fair I doubt an appeal to class conscious zombies to turn their jaws on the real enemy would have much success.

Some Distractions from the Class Struggle

Sunday is the day when the AVPS tune of the week is changed. Normally it isn't much of a problem. Being exceedingly choosy only a couple of songs usually make the cut, but this week and the last I've been right royally torn on what to feature. This is because there's three really great efforts out there. First up is last week's tune, Golden Skans by Klaxons. This track tells you why they're one of, if not the leading New Rave trailblazers. It is to my eternal regret I was too young when rave exploded all them years ago. Instead I had to make do combing Derby indie record shops for old discs and tapes years after clubby stuff had become the corporate dance hegemon. So when I first saw the Klaxons vid for Atlantis to Interzone, it immediately took me back. The baggy shirts, the smileys, the erratic hand movements, the DIY sound; clearly Klaxons have studied their history and are happy to be doomed to repeat it. Golden Skans is simply sumptuous. It clearly marks the point when their record company have realised they've got a money spinner on their hands. The track is slickly delivered thanks to fancy studio jiggery-pokery and the video just oozes production values. The lyrics are of course pure nonsense ... almost the kind of gibberish you'd expect if writing under the influence of certain substances. But it doesn't matter, this is high energy indie disco at its best, and if it gets "the kids" checking out old skool rave, so much the better. The next track refuses to leave me alone. It's one of those that enters your consciousness and plays itself over and over when you're trying to make sense of Marx's reproduction schemas. Step forward Giddy Stratospheres courtesy of The Long Blondes. I am slightly biased toward this Sheffield outfit because they like Pulp, cite Stock, Aitken and Waterman(!) among their influences, and drip the kind of urban glamour to which this metro wannabe can only but aspire. Vocalist Kate Jackson's quite nice too, but that has nothing to do with it. Honest. GS is a perfect slice of indie pop, the sleaze-lite lyrics whip themselves around vigorous guitar work and threaten to blast us into low-earth orbit. Giddy stratospheres indeed. This was dead cert for track of the week ... until The Gossip crudely reminded me of what a monster Standing in the Way of Control is. One thing I loved about (gay) 80s electro pop was the uncompromising fuck you attitude. If you didn't like what they were and who they were having sex with, then tough shit. Openly gay stars today don't make an issue of their sexuality. They might be out the closet, but their private lives stay firmly within it. You could call this progress, but angry and politicised "gay music" is sadly amiss. If it's going to make a comeback, The Gossip will take some of the credit. Standing in the Way of Control is a pop punch against Bush's attack on the rights of LGBT people to adopt, and it's a bloody good track too. Beth Ditto's vocals and the underpolished drums and bass battle for the listener's attention, resulting in a cacophonous bulldozer of a record that refuses to take prisoners. It might be an older track than the other two but given the LGBT adoption controversy here this week, it is more timely for a UK audience now than when it was first released in October. For these reasons this is my tune of the week. While my attention from the class struggle is diverted, I might as well take this opportunity to let you know the latest Carnival of Socialism came out yesterday. Just stroll on over to Stroppyblog to see what the eponymous Stropps has put together. I've also added a few more blogs to the list. Badmatthew's blog offers us a regular commentary on the left press and assorted journals. SouthPaw Punch is one of those blogs that is a pillar of the UK left blogging community. He only links to a select few, and AVPS isn't one of them, not that it matters. I've got a lot of love to give and I don't need it reciprocating. Last but by no means least The Revolution Decides is the newest kid on the left blog block. I hope everyone will give Big_D a great welcome, not least cos he's another Stokie fighting the power!

Smoke and Mirrors

According to this morning's Guardian the US government is considering whether building giant space mirrors and pumping dust(!) into the atmosphere could be a viable means to combat global warming. The idea is these could reflect away around 1% of the sun’s rays, counteracting the heating effects of greenhouse gases.

This reminds me of the urban myth about the US and Soviet space programmes. Because conventional pens couldn't work in weightless environments, the US spent millions developing one that did. The Russians on the other hand just used a pencil.

And so it is with this latest technological fix. The administration stands prepared to spend billions undertaking complex engineering projects in near-Earth space but refuses to countenance the technically simpler measure of reducing emissions. We can't have business paying to clean up their mess can we? And yet tax dollars by the billions can be found to fund hare-brained schemes, such as these.

Am I being overly cynical to suggest the patent bonanza and potential spin-offs offer greater profitable opportunities than a concerted effort at waste reduction? There are more smoke and mirrors to this story than just the technology.

Keeping it (Un)Real

What constitutes the British left these days? If asked current or ex-lefties are likely to point to the barely-functioning Labour left, the smattering of independent socialist activists, the Socialist Workers' Party, the Socialist Party, and the dozens of smaller groups.

In my opinion, these smaller groups make the British left a wonderful place to be. There's no experience like a good haranguing on the position your organisation took on the 1991 coup in the Soviet Union while you're marching in defence of the NHS. Whatever your proclivities may be there will be a group to suit - anarchist, Trot or Stalinist.

Yep, that's right, Stalinist. There are still hardcore Uncle Joe fans out there, and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) are the most beautiful example of Stalin-love you're ever likely to come across.

The CPGB-ML website is priceless. Their latest statement, 'Saddam Hussein - Martyr of the Iraqi Resistance' is superb. There's a few points in there you wouldn't find out of place in any left wing publication; about the dubious nature of Hussein's trial, that life under his regime was better than it is at present, and that it should have been Blair and Bush in the dock. But strangely not a word on the despicable crimes of his regime. If the CPGB-ML was your sole news source you'd be forgiven for thinking all was sweetness and light in pre-invasion Iraq.

I'm not even going to mention their October release. It has to be seen to be believed.

Glancing at 'Why the CPGB-ML?', it turns out the organisation gestated in the belly of Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, an initiative whose promise was cruelly sacrificed at the altar of Scargill's personal vanity. The petty dictatorship Scargill built around his person has been extensively documented elsewhere, but given the politics of their organisation I'm not surprised founder CPGB-ML'ers stayed in the SLP long after Scargill had eradicated any semblance of democracy.

The statement goes on to highlight the absurd lengths Scargill was prepared to go to see off our tankie chums, some of which really beggars belief. But our comrades were left with a dilemma, what do hardcore Stalinists do when they haven't got a political home? Naturally first job was to "dismiss out of hand the counter-revolutionary Trots". No, there's absolutely nothing to learn from revolutionary working class organisations of greater members and influence. Like true sectarians their fealty to Stalin came first and so the Stalin-lite Communist Party of Britain and the Blair-loyal Stalinoids of the New Communist Party were looked at ... and dismissed for their "cretinous support for the imperialist Labour Party". Nice one. Even Galloway and Respect were considered for a moment and rejected because the gorgeous one apparently supported the break up of Yugoslavia. You would have thought Galloway's links to the previous Iraqi regime would have endeared him to them, but apparently not. I bet George felt hurt to learn these comrades had decided not to support Respect.

This is what justifies the CPGB-ML's existence, and not carry around huge portraits of Stalin on marches as I'd previously thought. But despite their distasteful views and downright lunacy the left would be a far gloomier place without them. I do hope the lack of recent activity on their website doesn't mean they've slipped quietly into the night.

Long live the CPGB-ML!

Branch Meeting: Annual General Meeting

Tonight was Stoke Socialist Party's AGM and it was down to yours truly to deliver a short lead off on branch strategy.

I kicked off with an overview of our fair city, noting along the way the disappearance of the pots and mines, the decline of manufacturing and Stoke's transition to a low wage service economy. This industry is not secure either, with the ever-present threat of outsourcing hanging over call centres, for instance. Looking at other West European states the trend toward post-industrial economies was manifest prior to the rise of neo-liberalism, but this process was accelerated in Britain by Thatcher's successful attacks on the labour movement. As a result that key section of the class prepared to fight for its interests in the past has declined and the balance of forces have temporarily shifted in the ruling class's favour. What this has meant in Stoke is wide layers of the class have lost confidence in their ability to make their destiny. On stalls for example, Stoke comrades often have people coming up, signing a petition, buying a paper and then wishing *us* good luck with the campaign. There is no appreciation that fights against hospital cuts, for instance, is their fight too.

But not all is gloomy in Stoke. Where there is capitalism there is struggle, and where there is struggle, groups of people will be prepared to fight. Stoke is a unique place in many ways, but it hasn’t defied this law of the class struggle. Like everywhere else spontaneously struggles can seemingly appear from nowhere, as Tuesday's walkout of 40 pupils from Berryhill School testify. In terms of industrial struggles postal workers came close to strike action last week in a dispute over working practices. This looks set to simmer as one of the union stewards has been suspended by Royal Mail and their branch have decided to stand up to this pathetic attempt at intimidation. At the end of this month civil servants will be taking to the picket lines again, and over the last 12 months we’ve seen council workers and health workers taking action. Even relatively privileged sections of the class have been compelled to take action, such as recent disputes at the colleges and universities.

We then concentrated more specifically on our party activity and what lessons we can draw from our 'routine work' of stalls, paper sales, and so on, our experiences in the local NHS campaign and the electoral intervention in Abbey Green. I then addressed how we can improve our work with trade unions, among young people and a number of other technical matters.

NB. This is a heavily condensed version of a document running to about 2,500 words, a comprehensive account of Stoke SP's 2006 will have to wait for a rainy day.

Then came the discussion. F opened on the necessity to keep our NHS work going because of the frustrations patients and staff are suffering as services are continually cut to the bone. Though resistance to the cuts is not as forthcoming at the hospital itself (primarily because of the role played by the unions) it is an issue that could spark anger and activity in the near future.

After explaining to L what the comrades involved in trade union work have in mind, N suggested we need to find ways of getting highly exploited and non-organised agency workers involved in the labour movement. M emphasised the need to be careful when carrying out such work because of the threat of victimisation. On trade unionism in general A noted that the lack of union organisation can present dangers along with opportunities. The lack of a workplace presence can mean a lack of decent representation and exacerbating the isolation of the trade union tops from the class. But on the other hand sporadic future struggles could explode and the unions not be in a position to derail them.

M spoke a little while about our interventions at the local universities and the plans we have building for the NUS day of action against top-up fees in February. I asked him about the friendly relationship we have with a group of independent student activists and it does look like there will be plenty of room for us to work together on many issues.

With the end of the discussion we moved to vote for a number of comrades responsible for certain areas of work. All nominations passed unopposed. With the branch reorganisation and with knowledge of what we want to achieve this year, Stoke SP is now in a position to make the best of whatever 2007 throws at it.

A Day of Two Halves

My random thoughts is a blog run by fellow Socialist Party comrade, Scott. These three words are also the topic of today’s post.

My morning didn’t get off to the best start.

1) I was up late.
2) There was a puddle of cat diarrhoea in the litter tray.

Just what you need when you’re contemplating the first meal of the day. Nice.

Well I managed to get myself to university around 9.15, sat myself down with the mandatory cup of green tea and got stuck in.

Except I didn’t.

From a strict PhD perspective it was a singularly unproductive day. I emailed some people from the CANE conference, cancelled a coffee appointment for tomorrow (have to stay in for a delivery of pet food) and confirmed another for the afternoon. But that was it. I checked some happenings in blogland, caught up on the UKLN, and acquainted myself with Patience (or “Solitaire” as the US cultural imperialists at Microsoft insist on calling it). Take it from me, Google Earth isn’t a great remedy for procrastination either.

Things brightened up in the afternoon. At 2 I met up with S, another SP’er Keele resident. We chewed the fat about British Perspectives, the CNWP and what we as a collective can do to help rebuild the labour movement in North Staffs. I think what we came up with has promise but I’ll refrain blogging about it until more flesh has been put on the bare bones of coffee shop talk.

I then called it a day. As you may have already seen my travelling companion at the moment is The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. I am really enjoying this book. It follows the adventures in New York 'society' of one Undine Spragg, spoiled heiress to a nouveau riche fortune. This background is the source of much anxiety as Undine covets bourgeois respectability, and is cynically and ruthlessly prepared to do what's required to get it. I do love reading about how our masters live(d) and especially the lengths they go to to acquire and display their cultural capital.

That's quite enough Bourdieu for this post.

One guy on the bus home tickled me. This bloke was quite happily chatting to himself, that is until a young lad got on the bus. Abruptly the conversation ceased. The hand disappeared into the jacket ... and out came a mobile and charger. From civilian to Del Boy Trotter in one fell swoop, Superman would be envious at the speed of the transformation. Well, just before my stop the price had dropped substantially beneath the Argos going rate. I'm wonder if the kid took him up on it?

Just enough time for a quick tea before heading up to A&M's to talk over the business of the branch. As I've blogged elsewhere we're having our AGM this week and muggins here has volunteered to put together a lead off on strategy, so we had a bit of a talk about that, the state of play in Stoke and what S and I chatted about earlier in the day.

So there you have it. A day where my PhD sat in a corner of my mind, admonishing me for my lethargy, but still a few party matters got dealt with. All a bit dreary really.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Stoke this happened.

Bowing to the Inevitable

AVPS has been a Celebrity Big Brother free zone. Until now.

Lately I can't move about blogland for the sheer weight of comment on the "racist bullying" controversy. It's everywhere. It's leached into virtually every left blog. People are falling over themselves to offer analysis and opinion.

I'm no exception. Too many times I've found myself pondering Jade's relationship with Shilpa in other people's comment boxes. I hope by presenting some thoughts my compulsion will now abide.

Channel 4's board met earlier this afternoon to decide how to handle the CBB furore. Predictably they decided not to do much. C4 has released a statement apologising for "any offence caused" and announced a review of the programme. That's alright then, problem solved.

Well C4 were always bound to wriggle off the hook. After all it wasn't them who were guilty of the banal racism of Jade. They're only the ones who decided to broadcast the incidents, no doubt with an eye to generating publicity and ratings for what was shaping up to be a lacklustre installment of the franchise. And what of CBB's production company, Endemol? It has emerged unscathed. Just take a look at their website, there's nothing about the storm it's cynically whipped up. The concentrated press venom spat at Jade has seen both these faceless institutions get away virtually scot-free.

This should come as no surprise. The likes of The Sun are past masters at throwing stones in their tabloid glass house. But I am disappointed a lot of left-blogland comment has chosen to ape them. I've waded through reams and reams of text condemning Jade and her companions in crime, Jo and Danielle, and it strikes me a number of them appear to be revelling in the opportunity to put the boot in. Yes, Jade is dim, inarticulate, uneducated and uncultured. This is what made her famous and as such she is the epitome of the celebrity mediocracy built up by bourgeois multimedia interests. Still, this isn't an excuse for the abuse Jade has come in for.

You can take the woman out of the working class, but you can't take the working class out the woman. Jade has had, by her own admission, a rough upbringing. Before she found fame in BB3 a life of crap wages and bleak prospects stretched before her, as it does for millions of young working class women and men. As she's amply demonstrated on many occasions, her behaviour and outlook remains stamped by her formative experiences at the bottom rung of the class ladder. Add to this an unhealthy dose of insecurity dating from before she was famous and amplified by that self-same fame predicated on being the nation's laughing stock, is it any wonder the privileged and (apparently) talented Shilpa coaxed out her explosive inferiority complex?

Let me be clear. I'm not excusing Jade's comments, but I believe socialists would do well to reverse John Major's dictum: we should understand a little more and condemn a little less. The kind of banal bigotry and ignorance aired on CBB is common among our class. If we were to condemn such sentiments in the shrill and superior tone adopted by some on the U75 CBB thread for instance, we'll get nowhere. Or worse, help drive such sections of the class into the arms of the racists and xenophobes of the BNP.

Right that's it. No more Big Brother commentary for me.

CANE Conference, 20th January

Few people know how it feels to get up at twenty-to-four in the morning. I’m now one of them.

Yet neither this, nor the three-and-a-half hour car journey (kindly provided by GL) unduly impede my participation at the CANE conference of postgraduates, held at Newcastle University.

We should always be grateful for small mercies and by luck my paper was slotted into the schedule early on. My panel (‘Research and Education’) was up against the titans of ‘EU and European Studies’, and ‘Rural Economy and Fishing’.

The heavyweight competition crushed us. We attracted an audience of three.

Not to be daunted my fellow panellists gave fine and dandy presentations on the state of Higher Education in Putin’s Russia (Patricia Leon), and the issues and responsibilities arising from interviewing in politically contentious environments (Bryony Slater). In contrast I felt my own meditation on movement-relevant and liberal surveillance knowledge effects of studying socialist activists came across as a semi-coherent, vacuous ramble. This is despite the advantage of reading directly from the paper I prepared for the event (the others were PowerPoint whizzes).

What the audience lacked in quantity, they made up in quality. It came out in the discussion that Bryony and I encountered similar ethical and methodological issues. Her fieldwork is with the indigenous Blackfoot peoples of southern Alberta and locates it as a contribution to the effacement of cross-cultural misunderstandings. This work is important as the Canadian authorities, who historically have treated the Blackfoot as a colonised people, has now taken upon itself the responsibility of preserving their heritage. Yet despite this the Blackfoot are only employed by the relevant agencies at very low levels in the institutional hierarchy. You will find no Blackfoot people on the boards or in any decision making capacity. Despite the obvious differences I think we had an interesting exchange on reflexivity, knowledge effects, interviewing methods and the problems of being an ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’.

After the break there was only really one panel choice for me – ‘Approaches to Marxism and Imperialism’. David Hallinan gave a paper on Sartre’s relationship with Marxism and made the case for his continuing relevance. I can’t pretend I know much about old Jean-Paul but it seemed to me the framework proposed here was not a million miles away from Bourdieu’s philosophical anthropology. The second was by Foday Kabbah on liberal guilt, aid and anti-imperialism. This provoked lively discussion on the nature of contemporary changes in class composition, sublimation of middle class guilt and my enemy’s enemy mentality. Both panellists suggested that we should cautiously welcome the development of a ‘progressive’ middle class. I wouldn’t go as far as they did by suggesting this is the best hope for a socialist transformation.

Over dinner I got chance to network with a couple of people and catch up with NB, a former Keelite. After dinner we went to ‘Ecology and Environmentalism’ and listened to papers on ecological footprints (Pia Halme), justice and animals (Jennifer Clare Haywood) and ecological conflict between elephants and humans in NE Namibia (Lorraine Moore). I made a couple of contributions, reinforcing what a few others had said about the relationship between capitalism and environmental destruction, as it seemed Pia was advocating consumerist-type solutions. In fact she favoured far more radical action but was unable to elaborate further in the time allotted. I did like all these papers but by now I was seriously flagging and I’m sorry to admit I nodded off during the last one.

I didn’t fancy any panels in the final session and neither did GL, so we wandered around town for a while. Now, I freely admit I’m something of a country bumpkin. I come from a small village, and live in a city renowned for its parochialism. And bloody hell, didn’t Newcastle remind me of it! I was blown away by the sights of the quayside, the complex mishmash of building styles, the literal multi-layered character of the city and the sheer scale of the engineering. Walking over the Tyne Bridge and soaking in the riverside sprawl is a memory that will stay with me for a long time.Wish I'd brought a camera along :(

We got back with plenty of time to spare for the final keynote speech. This was given by Prof William Maloney on declining participation rates in parties and voluntary associations, and the rise of third sector organisations (Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, etc.) marked by spectator activism. That is, a commitment not going beyond the opening of one's cheque book. For example, it is a sobering thought that the RSPB has more members than all of Britain’s political parties put together. He did not go into the reasons why this is the case, but rather dwelt on the problems it posed the functioning of liberal democracy and whether they help integrate members into the system. He suggests these organisations strive to represent an interest policy makers may otherwise ignore, but the membership is not empowered by the process. In fact most members have very little say over how their organisation(s) are run. Their role is to ensure a full time cadre of protestors, office staff, media people and researchers get on with the job. Members either accept as is or get out. This was the basic gist of the paper and a number of other issues were raised in the discussion, such as if a certain oppressed group was not mobilising around its interests, should we bemoan other people from taking them up? That’s something for me and others out there averse to hand-wringing politics to chew on.

CANE was the first I presented at and there are quite a few lessons I’ve drawn from the experience. It was heartening to see quite a few Marxists in attendance, and great to speak to other sociology PhDs for once! The organisation was spot on, and my heartfelt thanks goes to the CANE team.

Being a Socialist Woman – An Activist’s Experience

As regular readers will know my PhD thesis is on the radicalisation and commitment of socialist activists. This means I’m spending a great deal of time undertaking intensive life history interviews with comrades from the Socialist Party and Socialist Workers’ Party.

As women’s liberation remains a key political question for all radical projects, I ask all my respondents for their views on the matter given the difficult historical relationship between feminism and socialism. Below is a small section of an interview I did with an SP member a couple of months ago. In the extract she responds to questions about her experience of being a woman and a revolutionary socialist; her involvement with the internal caucus, Socialist Women; and whether there are significant political issues arising from gendered dispositions and outlooks.

I hope all readers will find something interesting in the transcript, and if it gets some male comrades out there to be more sensitive to women comrade’s perceptions, so much the better.

For your information, I = Interviewer, and R = Respondent.

I: I know being a bloke this is quite a difficult question to ask, but do you think being a woman has meant being a socialist is somehow different to what it is for men? Do you think there are things expected of you as a socialist woman that isn’t expected of socialist men?
R: … Doing women’s meetings! (laughs). I guess there can be a little bit of, “you should be bringing women into the party”. Some times you get that, depending on the branch you’re in and what the situation is. The first lead off I did was a woman’s meeting-related lead off to a group of young men (laughs). That was interesting! I think some women feel the pressures of going into places that are perceived as “male environments”. I’ve always been perfectly happy with that but I know for other women it has been an issue. This can be reflected in where meetings are held. If a branch is mostly men they will be quite happy to meet in a rough bit of town in a backstreet pub. If you’re a woman you have to go along and be assertive about not being happy coming here on your own. Other women will feel the same so you’ve got to change it. But overall I wouldn’t say my gender has mattered too much. A lot of the leading members of the party are women so you have a lot of role models and also a lot of these women have families so you realise you can do it. It shows it’s possible to go full time and have a family. They also provide a support network so you can talk about how they do this and that.
I: Have you found the woman’s group in the party quite useful?
R: It hasn’t really taken off in a big way. They do have meetings but these generally take place in different parts of the country. The last one was in Yorkshire and I was living down south so it was hard for me to get to, so it’s been difficult for me to get involved. Other female comrades are very much into the women’s group. It is positive. I took some young women who weren’t party members but were interested from Brighton to one of the last women’s meetings in London. They were happier going to that than coming to the branch meeting, so the group is definitely a positive thing to have. One of the best I had was a South West regional meeting when I was living in Bristol. It was small but very good. The branch I was in at the time was male dominated, in fact I think it was nearly all men so it was nice to talk in a different way, because I think women tend to talk about politics in a different way to men. It is nice to be in such an environment, it can be more comfortable.
I: Have you come across any comrades in the organisation who might treat women members differently from the men?
R: Not that I can think of, in fact I think it might be more the other way. Often male comrades don’t think about things from a woman’s perspective, such as the desirability of meeting in a back alley pub. If a meeting is going to go on until late that might not think about whether the women are able to get home safely, things like that. This is apart from the “you must do the women’s meetings” you get sometimes (laughs). You do think though just because I’m the only woman in the branch, why should I do the women’s meetings? Apart from that it’s not been an issue.
I: Seeing as you’re pregnant at the moment how has that changed comrades’ perceptions toward you?
R: I think they expect me to collapse a lot! (laughs). They all look very worried to me! They’ve been very good about not asking me to do things; it’s been very much up to me what activity I’ve done. This is very good because I would not want to feel that pressure of doing a stall when in fact I wasn’t feeling very well. They’ve been very welcoming, very supportive. Being pregnant means I’ve done a lot less physical stuff such as stalls because I can’t stand for very long. I do stand I feel a bit off so that’s not much use really! I’ve done less of that sort of thing. I didn’t go on the student demo when normally I would have done. I’ve still gone to meetings though and that sort of thing and I’ve still been speaking, even if a little cloudy-headed and getting hot! (laughs).
I: (Laughs). Turning now to some of the ideas of feminism, do these tend to have currency among the women’s group? Or does the group tend to just provide a space where “women’s issues” can be discussed and reflected on in more depth?
R: More of the latter I think. People I’ve brought to meetings and other people who’ve come along as well don’t have illusions in strong feminist ideas. But women’s meetings I’ve been to are more about specific issues. For example, ‘What policy should we have on unionising sex workers?’ The way we discussed it was in more or less the same way we discuss all ideas in the party. It has been more like that than bringing in feminist ideas.
I: Also when you report back to branches about the women’s meetings you’ve been to, are you met with genuine interest? Or do some roll their eyes and you can tell they’re not that bothered really?
R: There has been a lot of interest, certainly on the one in London I went to. The branch in Brighton had quite a few young men and they were very interested, I think we actually had a separate branch meeting to discuss some of the issues that had come up.