Comments on The Pensive Quill: Another Sky

Mick, I am not sure the similarity you refer to is...

2009-06-01T16:03:42.714+01:00

Mick, I am not sure the similarity you refer to is the one I had in mind. That bedrock divides them more than anything else. I have always preferred Trotsky to Stalin but guess the Trots we have in Ireland are pretty much like what you have over there. The good activists they have do themselves no good by being among them.

The similarity between Galloway and the SWP I was referring to is their essential inability to deal with democracy. Which is all the more annoying with the SWP. After the experience of Trotsky at the hands of Stalin why they are so enamoured to Stalinist methodology seems best explained by their innate authoritarianism.

I am firmly convinced that Trotsky would not be in any of the sects that wear his identity as a brand name. I can only speak for here and not England but the amount of jail hardened activists that have been dissuaded from socialist organisations by the Trots is evidence in itself of their failure. People who spent say a decade in jail have been tested in a way that people who spent a decade in university have not. In my view they will always be more reliable but they won’t touch the socialist organisations with a barge pole.

In jail I would suggest to some people that as individuals we should consider remaining members of the IRA but politically align with some of the Left groups and avoid Sinn Fein. When they got out and would come back in again to jail I would discuss with them why that type of thing never occurred. They simply asked me to have a look at the Left. When I got out I learned very quickly how unviable the Left was. I tried working with them but it was like a Punch and Judy show. The first chance to roar and shout deviationist at one another they went for it.

After that I concluded that the probability is great that these sects are state driven and populated by a sizeable section of spooks whose objective is to secure the organisational existence of the sects for the purpose of ensuring socialism is a an unattractive idea.

If you have a better explanation I am willing to consider it.

There are major difference between George and the ...

2009-06-01T12:30:41.849+01:00

There are major difference between George and the leading members of the SWP, (both here and over your way} not lease George is one hell of a political operator, whilst the SWP are, well Trots ;) who seem to have no idea politics is an art form which to be successful at takes considerable skill, finesse and tact; and marching down the street crying the workers united will never be defeated alone will not do the trick.(puts tin hat on)

Nevertheless there are similarities between them, the most important is their bedrock is events that occurred in Russia/USSR in the first half of the last century. George is an incorrigible Stalinist, hence his partiality to a 'great and infallible leader' and the SWP are as I have already said Trots, although whether Leon Trotsky would claim them as 'disciples' is another matter.

Mary, it was already posted at the bottom of anoth...

2009-06-01T11:55:31.426+01:00

Mary, it was already posted at the bottom of another article:

http://thepensivequill.am/2009/04/be-honest-mr-adams-you-no-longer-have.html?showComment=1243847390773#c4806269805440098424

I am posting it here again in case you don't notice that it was posted under the earlier piece. Although it is not directly relevant to the current review there is no point in me being formal or tight on these matters!

What happened yesterday to him is a result of where the legacy of lies has taken him. There may well be an inability to distinguish between what happened and what he might like to have happened.

And nobody in the party will come out and point it out to him

Mick, no doubt there are obscure imans everywhere ...

2009-06-01T11:40:34.368+01:00

Mick, no doubt there are obscure imans everywhere who hate the thought of free speech but in the case of Turkey I think you are right.

As for the Left. I think you got the wrong end of the stick here. I do not believe that the Left attract only those who have difficulties coping with social situations and as a consequence need to find some structure that will allow them to impose their views on everybody else. I think it is a feature of the Irrelevant Left although even there we find people who are genuine in their pursuit of radical politics.

I was reading a few days ago a piece you did on the SWP and Respect from about 2007. It was a very good piece in which I felt you summed up the problems of the authoritarian Left. Although I also felt you imposed too much of a dichotomy between the SWP and Galloway.

Kate, the pity about this comment is that it is mu...

2009-06-01T11:30:06.858+01:00

Kate, the pity about this comment is that it is much too valuable to be buried in the comment section of a blog. It very much needs airing in its own right. You should think of some way of further highlighting this very important matter. I am pleased that the review prompted such a thought out response but it does need raised in many other places.

Anthony Thanks for this I enjoyed reading it, I j...

2009-06-01T11:17:56.080+01:00

Anthony

Thanks for this I enjoyed reading it, I just have a couple of points, I worry greatly at the ease governments have had in censoring the WWW. You mention Google and Yahoo, when they colluded with the State capitalist dictatorship in China. In Turkey you tube is banned and has been for some time, the government claim it is nothing to do with them, but due to an obscure imam bringing a court case.

Perhaps I am the most stupid man to ever set foot in Turkey, but it seems to me the Turkish government has had no problem in the past influencing and circuiting decisions of the judiciary, so a sane man can only conclude you tube is banned because the State wishes it so.

My other point is a bit more contentious, you seem to blanket all of us on the left together when you write.

"They are attracted to the Left not by its politics but by its authoritarianism."

In reality we are far from a homogeneous group, indeed we are more like squabbling cats in a sack. ;) True as with all political ideologies, whether they be of the left, right, or centre [NL for example) a small section of the left is authoritarian but most of us are not.

2009-06-01T10:47:21.728+01:00

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Sorry if this is the wrong place to be posting thi...

2009-06-01T10:19:41.687+01:00

Sorry if this is the wrong place to be posting this, but I am new to it and not too sure if it has to be posted under certain postings or just the latest?

Was I the only one laughing at Gerry getting caught out yesterday on telling lies about his time in the H-Block, how he and all his mated used to sing 'Always look on the bright side of life' as they waited for beatings from the screws? Of course, the song hadn't even been written then...
Poor Gerry. Is this what it's all come down to?