Old habits die hard. A couple of days ago I saw a link to a political event in Britain called 'Dangerous ideas for dangerous times'. My immediate reaction is that calling something 'dangerous' almost certainly means it isn't. I was right.
Snow way out
Dunedin has been hit by heavy snow in parts today. So much so that all the schools were closed, bus services were cancelled and there were no mail deliveries. But if you had the sudden urge to walk a few kilometres to get the latest Lee Childs novel, you could because all the public libraries were still open. It has always struck me as absurd that when there's a big dump of snow, workers are expected to trudge through it to get to their poorly paid jobs. When I lived in Britain whenever this happened, someone from the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) would pop up with an astonishingly high figure of the number of man hours lost by people not working.
View from a darkened room is going to be a regular feature.
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| John Rees |
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| Lenin |
Sponsored by a variety of organisations such as trade unions, the publisher Verso and the SWP spin-off Counterfire, the 2 day festival this weekend trots out the usual speakers including long time old frauds such as Tony Benn and Tariq Ali.
Counterfire is the bastard love child of John Rees and Lindsey German, the Ron and Nancy of the left. Apparently a growing organisation, it is populated by students, academics and cafe owners. Countrrfire has continued the SWP's tradition of popular fronts as in Respect Stop the War and countless others. Their other current product s the People's Assembly.
Whilst looking on the counterfire website, I took the opportunity to download a free copy of 'Strategy and tactics' by John Rees. This is every bit as terrifying as it sounds; simplistic, one-dimensional and tedious. It reads like he's channelling the spirit of Ted Grant:
"Marxism is a theory of history, a philosophy, an economic theory, a political theory, and so on. And of course this is true..."
Well, actually it's not John.
"Marxism is a theory of history, a philosophy, an economic theory, a political theory, and so on. And of course this is true..."
Well, actually it's not John.
One of Rees' problems is he thinks he is Lenin rather than Tony Cliff without the wit, brains and hair. Him and Lindsey are like vampire victims with a twist; they claim to be revolutionaries but on the inside, they've been hollowed out and are thoroughly bourgeois.
Weasel words
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
A friend of mine is facing the prospect of losing her job in the next year due to a restructuring of her workplace. Luckily, as she told me, the staff are encouraged to take ownership of the changes and turn them into what they think will improve things. To do this, of course, they have to stop concentrating on the negative side of the restructuring...
Snow way out
Dunedin has been hit by heavy snow in parts today. So much so that all the schools were closed, bus services were cancelled and there were no mail deliveries. But if you had the sudden urge to walk a few kilometres to get the latest Lee Childs novel, you could because all the public libraries were still open. It has always struck me as absurd that when there's a big dump of snow, workers are expected to trudge through it to get to their poorly paid jobs. When I lived in Britain whenever this happened, someone from the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) would pop up with an astonishingly high figure of the number of man hours lost by people not working.
View from a darkened room is going to be a regular feature.
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