Rejoice!
Rejoice, rejoice! A mighty blow for republicanism has been struck
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:: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 ::
All Aboard the Convenorship
For Socialism & Independence - Journal
Alan McCombes blog covering his bid for the convenorship of the SSP has moved. The new one is above.
(update: typo fixed)
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:: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 ::
Return to the Forbidden Planet
One Edinburgh blogger who has been hitting the headlines in a big way is Joe at the The Woolamaloo Gazette. I actually read about his story in El Mercurio de Valparaiso, with the words 'blogger de Edinburgo' jumping out the page somewhat. Joe was sacked from his job at Waterstones in Edinburgh because he gave his opinion about his boss on his blog. His case was taken up throughout the web by such luminaries as Neil Gaiman. And now he has a new job as SF expert at Forbidden Planet in Edinburgh. This is a shop I have been known to frequent so I'll be seeing you Joe.
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:: Friday, February 04, 2005 ::
A New Viewpoint
I see that International Viewpoint has a new website. Looks very good but more importantly the content is thoughtful and of a high standard. There are other comprehensive Marxist news sites like In Defense of Marxism and the World Socialist Web Site, but frankly you could write most of the articles by computer programme.
Included in the new site is a report on the World Social Forum, which saw controversy over the path taken by Brazilian President Lula, whose PT dominates the forum.
Bob Crow of the RMT recently visited the Scottish Parliament and told the story of his visit to the WSF. He was billed to speak at one of the big rallies. Immediately before Hugo Chavez. No pressure then.
Chavez' speech is interesting. Here is a little excerpt.
"Everyday I become more convinced, there is no doubt in my mind, and as many intellectuals have said, that it is necessary to transcend capitalism. But capitalism can’t be transcended from with capitalism itself, but through socialism, true socialism, with equality and justice. But I’m also convinced that it is possible to do it under democracy, but not in the type of democracy being imposed from Washington," he said.
"We have to re-invent socialism. It can’t be the kind of socialism that we saw in the Soviet Union, but it will emerge as we develop new systems that are built on cooperation, not competition," he added.
Chavez said that Venezuela is trying to implement a social economy. "It is impossible, within the framework of the capitalist system to solve the grave problems of poverty of the majority of the world’s population. We must transcend capitalism. But we cannot resort to state capitalism, which would be the same perversion of the Soviet Union. We must reclaim socialism as a thesis, a project and a path, but a new type of socialism, a humanist one, which puts humans and not machines or the state ahead of everything. That’s the debate we must promote around the world, and the WSF is a good place to do it."
He added that in spite of his admiration for Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, he said Che’s methods are not applicable. "That thesis of one, two, or three Vietnams, did not work, especially in Venezuela."
The President cited Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky by saying that "each revolution needs the whip of the counterrevolution to advance." He listed actions by the opposition and the U.S. government to drive him out of power. "But we resisted, and now have gone into the offensive. For instance, we recovered our oil industry... In 2004, from the oil industry budget we utilized $4 billion in social investments, education, health, micro-credits, scholarships, and housing, aimed at the poorest of the poor, what neoliberals call waste of money. But that is not a waste of money because it is aimed at empowering the poor so that they can defeat poverty. He added that "that money before stayed out of Venezuela or just benefited the rich."
He criticized privatizations by saying that "privatization is a neoliberal and imperialist plan. Health can’t be privatized because it is a fundamental human right, nor can education, water, electricity and other public services. They can’t be surrendered to private capital that denies the people from their rights."
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:: Thursday, February 03, 2005 ::
Defend SpongeBob SquarePants!
Dr. Dobson's Newsletter: Setting the Record Straight
The American fundamentalist right are always good for a laugh, well they would be if they weren't so powerful. Witness this from family.org which spends its time fighting 'diversity' and 'tolerance' "which are almost always buzzwords for homosexual advocacy" according to them.
"If you had told me a month ago that I’d be devoting my February letter to a cartoon character named SpongeBob SquarePants, I’d have said you were crazy."
He holds hands with a starfish it seems.
Parents, I urge you to keep a close eye on your sons and daughters. Watch carefully everything that goes into their little minds. Monitor their textbooks and the words of their teachers.
Focus on the Family will continue to help you fulfill this task of bringing up your children "in the fear and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).
Sounds like a lot of fun in Dr Dobson's house.
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:: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 ::
B for Belmarsh
A nightmarish world where the government install cameras on every street to monitor the citizens. Identity papers must be carried at all times. Any citizen can be detained indefinitely without trial by the government. How far fetched.
Alan Moore's V for Vendetta portrayed one insane gay anarchist terrorist's response to a dystopian fascist society with certain resemblances to Thatcher's Britain. Christ knows what Hollywood are going to do with it though. One website is reporting it is set in a world where Germany won WW2, whereas in the original fascism was imposed in an internal coup following a nuclear war, which puts a completely different slant on it. Sections of the British ruling class have contemplated a military coup from time to time. Other websites report the original plot will be used.
The opening scene is the fawksian demolition of the houses of parliament with high explosives by V. Guess they're aiming at the blue states.
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:: Monday, January 31, 2005 ::
Red Blogs and the Blue Brazil
Title stolen from the brilliant book 'Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil' by Ronald Ferguson which is about the town of Cowdenbeath during the miners strike, following the fortunes of the striking miners and the local football team Cowdenbeath FC. Despite being a supporter of their arch-rivals Dunfermline Athletic (the 'townies', although this is a bit like saying Andorra is the arch-rival of Spain) this is a great book, read it if you can find a copy anywhere (link goes to Word Power books in Edinburgh who have it.)
Anyway the reason I mention this is to list a few new blogs starting with Kircaldy and Cowdenbeath Votes by the prolific doctorvee, a Gordon Brown monitoring blog.
Secondly we have Joe Middleton's Republican SNP Weblog. Well, maybe he should change the description as the SNP have just turfed him out. No room for Republican socialists in that party. They also proscribed the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement for good measure.
Speaking of nats, there is also Independence, by Stuart Dickson. I wondered when there would be a decent SNP blog, well now there is. He seems to have missed me in his list of Scottish political blogs, what an oversight!
Finally and perhaps most interestingly of all we have Alan McCombes: For Socialism & Independence. I haven't commented on the SSP conveners election yet. To call it a leadership contest is taboo in the party, partly because the convener actually has no actual powers beyond being a 'public face' of the party. This is of course actually a very big power, and can effectively decide how the party reacts to issues on a day to day basis. Alan's rival is Lothians MSP Colin Fox (see the SCRAP campaign for his current prescription charges bill). I have worked closely with both Alan and Colin over the years and know them both well. They both have strengths and weaknesses like any other politician.
So I don't know how I'm going to vote. I will say that I was surprised by the Sunday Herald's description of Colin as the clear favourite. I would have placed Alan as the favourite, jeez miss a couple of meetings and you get completely out of touch.
:: | 11:59 AM | | | (2) comments