Neprimerimye

Tron Ogrim has died but his life was not in vain as he spent it well fighting for a better future for humanity. That most precious quality was regularly on show in his contributions to the Spotters list an oftimes silly but peculiarly serious discussion list for the followers of the doings of the multitude of warring groups which situate themselves on the left worldwide. It matters not a jot that Tron had politics that had little in common with my own. What mattered when reading Tron was that sense of humanity and humour he conveyed that is only possessed by those who have fought and alas lost battles with the enemies of humanity. Tron fought those battles and it would seem he played a role in leading our side in his homeland. But now he fights no more and it is left to others to continue that fight. We shall win!

The American people have much to be proud of - not least George Herriman the creator of Krazy kat, the single most extraordinary strip cartoon character ever inked. Making every other cartoon cat look insipid, Krazy lived in a world that was as confused and confusing as that of any European surrealists over-intellectualised phantasy. Krazy was and remains both more complex and simpler than the elitist art of galleries and museums. He was and remains popular in a fashion that the self-conscious art vanguard which flourished in his life never were nor could be. More important he was funnier by far.

Krazy Kat was a great artistic statement in that most popular of media; print. The later animations which bear his name are shallow even by comparison with Hanna-Barbera toons. Despite not immediately finding his audience, he was protected by that great patron of the arts and all round bandit, William Randolph Hearst, so proving that even a capitalist got soul.

My own discovery of Krazy came by accident through a friend and it was only later that i came to know of the secondary literature concerning Krazy that went ito detail as to how subversive of gender roles and suchlike the toons were. Bullshit in my view it really doesn't matter whether or not Krazy was 'gay' he's a cartoon! The only thing genuinely subversive about Krazy was that the strips were and are very funny. The authoritarian personalities that yearn to dominate and rule over others simply cannot abide that.

That Brown has the leadership in the bag our right wing friends know full well. For them the point is to have a 'debate' in the ranks of the Labour Movement' about the 'way forward' in order to begin the renewal of the Labour Left (RIP). Neprimerimye blog wishes them the best of luck in this enterprise but wishes to point out that the 'Labour Movement' is now a much reduced force largely consisting of elderly male white dullards and equally dull liberal apparatchiks in the white coller unions.

Our right wing friends are, in the opinion of this blogger, engaged in a form of politics that is utterly futile functioning as a hobby not as a serious attempt to raise the class consciousness of a working class which cannot be recognised in their posts as it is seemingly of no real concern to them. But like it or not it is amongst the working classes, which is oblivious to the petty politicking of McNonentity versus Moocher, not the comatose 'Labour Movement' to which socialists ought to be looking for a response to the Brown administration.

Plaid Candidate ex-Trot Shock!

Glancing through the incredibly uninteresting returns for the Welsh Assembly elections one name caught my eye. The name in question being that of Danny Bowles Plaid Cymru candidate in Swansea West. Danny is that unusual creature a Welsh nationalist from Engerland.

More importantly Danny has passed through a fair number of left groups prior to finding a home in Plaid Cymru. When I first met him he was a member of Workers Power and later progressed to being a member or at least organised sympathiser with Red Action. A little while later he was defintely in the Socialist Labour Party during which time he entered into a reasonably close relationship with the cpgb and certainly claimed that he was a member at one point.

The above are the groups I know for certain that he has been associated with but at different times he made claims to myself and others that he had been in the Socialist Party prior to the Poll Tax riot after which he quit 'cos they grassed people up' as well as the Socialist Workers Party.

Danny oscillated between a largely verbal leftism, dominated by his visceral and quite correct hatred for fascism, and a desire to work within the 'democratic' system. So enamoured with acting as respectably as possible he once argued in the SLP that all canvassers should wear suits or stay at home. naturally he did nt last long enough in that party to actually participate in an election but I know his thoughts were with us later.

It is often remarked that in recent years educational standards have fallen in this country. In the view of neprimerimye blog this viewpoint has some validity. But in many regards educational standards have always been low amongst the working classes. I mean have you read this blog?

Complaints have reached us here at neprimerimye blog, or so my staff tell me, that out readership, now thought to number in the double figures, are concerned that I have not helped those of them who live in England and Scotland decide how to vote. Clearly this is a failure on my part so what follows is a brief set of guidelines as to how one should vote in the mock elections tomorrow.

First of all lets be frank and admit that these elections don’t really matter very much. For the most part because local councils have very few discretionary powers and are subject in every area of policy to central government as well as a powerful bureaucracy which is not subject to the ruling party on any given council. As for the Edinburgh parliament it has some powers it is true but is essentially as far removed from the active participation and control of working people as the Assembly of the United Nations. The only real purpose in socialists standing then can be to make propaganda as no substantial reforms are possible from such toothless bodies.

With the above in mind then and mindful of the need at all times to develop proletarian independence from all the parties of the boss class this blog has to say, very reluctantly, that in 99% of cases a Labour vote is the only possibility. There will be a very small number of exceptions which we discuss below.

First of all in Scotland it is principled to vote for candidates of both Solidarity and the Scottish Socialist Party. Both are miserable sects with no future before them embroiled in a nasty personalist feud based on their shared elevation of that doyen of cheap demagogy Tommy Sheridan with almost identical politics. As to their rotten politics little need be said but their shared support for Scottish nationalism and opposition to proletarian internationalism stinks. As does the adulation of tyrants such as the Caribbean tyrant Castro common in both sects. But do vote for them if you can stomach their politics.

In the council elections in England fewer alternatives to Labour are on offer. Some candidates are standing in the name of Respect the populist coalition but nobody with an iota of self respect will vote for that rotten alliance. One can but hope it falls apart soon if only for the sake of the poor members of the Socialist Workers Party who must loathe seeing their efforts treated with such clear contempt by both their own leaders and their communalist allies both. So save the SWP don’t vote Respect!

More realistically the Socialist Party, led by Peter Taaffe the former office manager for the late Ted Grant, are standing a few candidates. All are well worth supporting as they are usually good solid reliable comrades. Although what they hope to achieve is beyond my ken given that they do not raise openly evolutionary politics in their campaigns and rely instead on presenting themselves as some kind of continuation of the old Labour Party they yearn to recreate. I suppose it keeps the operation functioning even if it contributes exactly nothing to the development of a revolutionary leadership.

To close if you happen to be French vote against Sarkosy. That is vote for that horrid woman standing for the Socialist Party.

(1903)

Fellow-Workers,

The most significant feature of the political development of this last ten years is the growing dis-satisfaction of the working-class with the existing political parties. The defection of the workers from the capitalist parties has for long been the theme of orthodox politicians. Very few of their speeches at the present time fail to conclude with a querulous expostulation with the workers for their desertion of those whom they had previously trusted, or a tearful entreaty to return to the fold. The causes of this phenomenon are pretty well known. The ruthless attacks made upon the workers striving by means of strike or boycott to obtain slightly better conditions of life, as evidenced by the actions of capitalist Home Secretaries at Featherstone, Broxburn, Motherwell, Hull and Grimsby; the suppression of Trade Union organisation by the legal decision in connection with the Taff Vale Railway dispute, and the case of Quinn versus Leatham - these and other occurrences for which all parties at present represented in the British House of Commons are equally responsible have induced in the workers the belief that their interests as a class are menaced by their present legislators, and that the welfare of their masters alone meets with consideration. The need for a party representing the working class and defending its interests is generally felt and expressed. Class feeling in short is becoming increasingly manifest. But what is not clearly recognised is the necessity for such a party having a clear, definite and practical basis, and an intelligent conception of its position, method and goal. There is considerable danger that honest aspirations of the workers and their sincere endeavours to better their lot by political activity may be frustrated and led into a blind alley by the efforts of crafty and unscrupulous politicians and self-styled Labour Leaders. Therefore in calling upon you to give us your support in forming the party of the workers we lay before you our methods and aim, together with the attitude with which we intend to adopt towards the existing political parties, ”Labour” or otherwise.

The SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY differs from all parties at present in existence in that it appeals to the working class and the working class alone for support. Whether it be in the city or the nation, in Town Council or in Parliament, it is the one section of the population that has any right to consideration. They alone produce the wealth of society, and it is our aim that they alone should possess it. Our attack upon the present constitution of society is both its political and economic aspects is due to the fact that the class that dominates the state, to whose interest and advantages all our social institutions are directed, is the useless, obsolete and parasitical capitalist class. The power to rob and exploit, which is vested in this class, rests upon their political supremacy. It is thus they are enabled to bring all the powers of the state, police and military, to bear upon those workers who strive to decrease their aster’s spoils by increasing their miserable wages. It follows then that all efforts of the workers to better their conditions must be centred in the task of overthrowing the supremacy of the master class in the state, and of using the power so gained to seize the means of life to be used by the workers and their dependents, in short, to obliterate the capitalist class as a social and political entity.

By this we do not mean what is variously called “State Socialism”, “Public Ownership”, or “Municipalism” - that is the ownership of certain public utilities by a community in which capitalism is still dominant. A worker is as much exploited by a capitalist state or corporation as by a private capitalist employer - as post-office or municipal employees an testify. We insist upon the political overthrow of capitalism as an absolutely necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the working class, and the establishing of the Socialist Republic. Otherwise an industry controlled by a capitalist state differs only from one controlled by an individual capitalist in the superior powers of the former to rob and oppress those under its thraldom.

This is precisely the point that has been hitherto ignored by organisations appealing to the working class. At the present time there are certain bodies of this nature named respectively, the Independent Labour Party, the Labour Representation Committee, the Social Democratic Federation, and the Fabian Society - parties differing only in name and in phraseology, but almost identical in principles and tactics. All these organisations are dominated either by middle-class men or working men influenced by middle-class habits and thoughts.

As contrasted with all such compromisers and confusionists who would lead the working class to destruction, we desire to lay before you the principles of polical action on which our party will proceed. We intend wherever possible to contest on behalf of the working class, and against all other political parties, very election, municipal or national. We do not cater for the support of those workers who do not recognise our goal, nor agree with us as to the means whereby it is to be attained. These means, we repeat, are the conquest of political power by the working class and in the interests of the working class, manifesting itself through an avowedly Socialist organisation.

This explains alike our policy and our name, Socialist Labour Party. Socialist, because through socialism alone can the workers be emancipated; Labour, because by the labouring classes alone can Socialism be attained; Party, because we are not merely an educational or propagandist body, but stand for the political expression of our class interests for the formation of the Socialist Republic.

SOCIALISM IS THE ONLY HOPE FOR THE WORKERS. ALL ELSE IS ILLUSION.