politics

First off, hat tip to the Stroppyblog for bringing this to my attention. To quickly quote from the Daily Mail: Lillian Ladele has launched proceedings against Islington Council in North London, claiming that to officiate at civil partnership ceremonies between same-sex couples is incompatible with her religious principles. Her refusal to supervise such unions has brought her into conflict with the council, where she has worked for more than ten years....

I'm slowly getting through my e-mail, anyway I had a question e-mailed to me a few days ago from a chap called Nathan. Could you please make a list of differences between leninism and marxism i cant find one anywhereand you seem to know alot, it would be greatly appreciated. This is one of those questions you can ask 10 different socialists and get 10 different answers, unfortunately there is no such thing as the Communist Check-list, where everything is neatly divided up and we can just quickly run down and decide what is what....

This afternoon the government will bring a bill to parliament that will nationalise the troubled bank Northern Rock. Only the Tories are expected to oppose it. Virgin's bid for the bank - frankly an insult to the taxpayer was, as even the treasury admitted "out of the ballpark". I wish I could of seen the look on Richard Branson's face when the Alistair Darling told him the government wouldn't accept his ridiculous offer - expecting the taxpayer to prop up his attempts at profiteering what planet is he living on?...

Gordon Brown has at last revealed his socialist side. If the prospects for the least fortunate are to be as great as they can be, then they must have the final say—and that requires a massive and irreversible shift of power to working people, a framework of free universal welfare services controlled by the people who use them. But socialism will have to be won also at the point of production—the production of needs, ideas and particularly of goods and services....

I was invited to attend the Yeovil Trades Council meeting yesterday. I was pleased to see the discussion was very open and it sparked a debate about being in or out of the Labour Party, one I've had with myself prior to joining for many years. I wasn't able to get all of my thoughts out at the meeting on this, so here they are. A couple of comrades brought up the point that because the Labour government was carrying out a neo-liberal agenda, which is perfectly true, such as moving the postal service in the direction of privitisation etc, they shouldn't have our support and we should attempt to form a new party....

So in the wake of this whole Abrahams thing, the New Labourites are plotting to destroy the Union link, something they've been keen on doing for years but have so far been unable to. This will prevent Trade Unions from funding the Labour Party, their contributions would have to be dramatically reduced, and as such radically change how the Labour Party operates, it will force trade unionists to essentially make individual donations (and I can't see many doing that with how the government are carrying on)...

Chavez has admitted that the reforms have been lost "for now", after his 33 proposed changes lost 49.3% to 50.7%, with 45% abstention, and the other 66 changes lost 49% to 51%. Minimum program for getting out of this situation should include: 1) Expropriation of all media outlets which in violation of electoral law encouraged people to stay at home because the outcome was obvious. 2) Expropriation of all media outlets which published blatant falsehoods about the reforms, including things like the state will own your children, and the reforms will turn the country into Cuba....

Our comrades in Venezuela are today going to the polls, the media in the west are of course going on about how Chavez is an evil dictator and so on and so forth, and this move is only to centralise power in his hands because it abolishes term limits (well guess what we don't have term limits here yet and the media don't complain about that). So let's actually look at what is contained within these reforms....

So Brendan sent me a message a while back in which he asked: whats the difference between socialism, communism, leninism, and marxism? This is no simple question, but I will attempt to be brief as possible. To start off with its necessary to know a few back details. Starting with capitalism, capitalism dates back on average 200 to 300 years (it developed in Europe, and Europe then spread it throughout the world)....

LABOUR MP John McDonnell demanded that the Brown government make "a choice between democracy or oligarchy" at the weekend. At Saturday's Hands Off Venezuela national conference in London, he condemned new Labour's ongoing hostility towards Venezuela and pledged to make solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution an issue that "no MP would be allowed to dodge." Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack roused the 200 activists present when he attacked the hypocrisy of the British government in accusing Venezuela of corruption last week....