Socialists and the Early Church

The seeds of the Catholic Church were planted in Palestine. They managed to grow despite ferocious persecution and even gained the respect of their persecutors.

Acts2:42-47 gives a description of the early Christian community which could be fairly described as socialist. All goods were held in common and property was sold to help the poor. Selfishness was not allowed. Although they were subject to persecution they still saw themselves as a part of the community and were daily attracting more followers from that community (Acts2:47). In the nature of things, prior to the evangelism of St Paul, the first Christians mainly came from the Jewish tradition.

While the early Church was able to recruit from the community, the rich and powerful regarded them as a threat. Jesus advised his apostles that it was as hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom as it was for a camel to pass the eye of a needle. (Mark 10:25). He emphasised that those who would be great must act as humble servants (Mark 10:43-45). This was a concept rightly feared by those in power – it meant turning the world upside-down.

Moreover, He did not just put these dangerous ideas in words. An example of this is the narrative which appears in all four Gospels ( Mark 11:15–19, Matthew 21:12–17, Luke 19:45–48, John 2:13–16). Jesus casts out the profiteers from the temple which he refers to as “My father's house” (John 2:16). The Chief Priests wanted to kill him but thought him too popular (Luke 19:48). 

We live in a world in which Christians are still persecuted for their beliefs – for example by ISIL in Iraq. Nevertheless for the most part to be a follower of Christ in a civilised country does not carry the same high probability of martyrdom as it did for the early Church.

There was initially a continued failure to understand Christ on the part of the apostles. They did not see beyond “restoring the Kingdom of Israel” as the goal of Christians. Jesus, on the contrary, told them they would have to take the message to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). By definition, that would involve turning to the Gentiles as well as the Jews.

Acts 1:26 refers to a practice of the early Church which seems very strange to 21st century Christians. There were two nominees to take the place of Judas. Peter did not assert his authority to give a casting vote but the apostles drew lots and the lot fell to Mathias. It was stressed that both nominees had a long history with the apostles (Acts 1:21).

Peter does assert his authority on the day of Pentecost. He appeals first to the devout Jews by quoting David's revelation concerning the Messiah. (Acts 2:25-28) and he addresses them as 'fellow Israelites' (Acts 2:29). However, he is already talking of the wider mission of the Church when he talks about spreading the Good News around the world.(Acts 2: 39)
Moreover, the next incident recorded was Peter's healing of a lame beggar (Acts 3: 1-10). At this stage, Peter is beginning to look very like the rock on which the Church will be built rather than the vacillating doubter portrayed in Luke 22:54-62. Under Peter's leadership, it is likely that the Church was more self-confident than before. After all, 3000 people had been baptised and he had demonstrated his power to heal the sick.

Peter's appeal to the witnesses is couched in terms of Old Testament prophecy (Acts 3: 24-26) which would appeal to an audience of devout Jews. Although Peter holds them collectively responsible for the Crucifixion, their sins can be washed away through Christ.

The name of Ananias was to become a byword for dishonesty. The story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira is a fair indication of the attitude of the Church towards selfishness. When questioned by Peter both of them lied (Acts 5:1-11) and both of them died. They had a free choice as to whether to give the price of the land which they had sold to the Church (Acts 5:4) but their attempt to have it both ways by lying about the price was construed as lying to the Holy Spirit, lying to God.

The same point was made in a backhanded way by the Pharisee called Gamaliel who asserted that if the Church was indeed a man-made institution then it would crumble of its own accord but that if the Sanhedrin opposed the Church and Jesus Christ was the son of God then the Sanhedrin would be in conflict with God. (Acts 5:34-39)

The appointment of the seven men of good reputation to oversee the welfare of widows in the Church was an indication of the increasing emphasis on integrating the Hellenists and Hebrews (Acts 6:1-6).

The martyrdom of  St Stephen would have been both a shock and an inspiration to the Church. His accusers from the Synagogue of Freedmen were bearing false witness in  violation of the Law despite claiming to adhere to it. Stephen's martyrdom would have brought home to every member of the Church how great was the danger they faced. Their opponents were capable of abandoning their own Law in order to strike blows against the Church.  On the other hand, St Stephen's faith and courage in adversity and the way he forgave his enemies (Acts 7:60) would have been a shining example to them. 

The subsequent persecution of Christians by Saul proved to be counterproductive. (Acts 8:4) The Christian community was scattered but wherever they went they spread the Good News. Evil is unavailing. A bad deed such as the persecution of Christians could lead to a good consequence, the spreading of the Gospel.

Christians have often been mocked for blessing those who persecuted them (Luke 6:18). Foremost among the mockers was Nietzsche (Genealogy of Morals, p17). However, the sacrifice of the first martyr, Saint Stephen, and the subsequent persecution of the Christians suggests that those who persecuted the Christians were a blessing in disguise. Indeed the witness of the martyrs strengthened the Church rather than weakening it.

Joseph A Fitzmyer (Contemporary Catholic Theology p165-167) pointed out that Saul probably had the name Paul from birth. He is more often referred to by his Gentile name, Paul, after he began his mission to the Gentiles but he was “set aside” from birth for the mission he eventually undertook. (Gal 1.15).

Over a period of time, Gentiles joining the Church were no longer expected to comply with the strictures of Judaism. The dietary rules were relaxed on the basis that a Christian could not call unclean that which God had made clean (Acts 10:15); Gentiles did not need to be circumcised (the sign of the old covenant) (Acts 10:45). The 613 Laws listed by the scribes (http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Articles/Taryag/taryag.html) were simplified to the two commandments given by Jesus (Luke 10:27).

On this basis, St Paul was able to take the good news to the Gentiles. The gospels do not have a surprise ending. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were the foundations on which they were built. The early Church believed the second coming of the Lord was imminent. By the time St Luke came to write the Acts of the Apostles this was clearly not the case. Nevertheless, the death on the cross and the resurrection of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit's constant presence and guidance enabled the early church to grow and to become a catholic Church.

Frank Field attacks pensioners

Frank Field, chair of the Commons Work and Pensions committee has called for the "triple lock" on pensions to be abolished. Under this scheme the government solemnly promised to raise pensions by the same rate as average earnings, the Consumer Price Index or 2.5 percent.

With breathtaking mendacity, Field argued that this would mean raising the pension age to 70.5 by 2060. It would mean no such thing and Field knows this very well.

It would only mean that if there were to be no increase in expenditure on pensions. This would be a measure to save money. Scrapping Trident would save money. but Field is careful not to suggest that. An end to the prestige Grammar School program would save money, indeed stopping MP's expenses would also be a measure to save money and Hell would freeze over before Field would suggest that!
What a disgrace.

Unite Community Video

Domain of Dreams and Carmarthen

Readers may remember that Space Dog Alfred invaded Carmarthen. Now Domain of Dreams has done the same thing! It has been purchased by Carmarthen libraries. I think books are expensive and libraries are very important for people who want to read them. Tories close libraries because they fear ideas.

It is a book of short stories. Read one a night and you will have better dreams!

Chichester Festival update

I had to arrange a venue and ticket price by the end of this month in order to participate in the Chichester Festival and June and July. The venue is

The studio

New Park Community & Arts Association

New Park Road

Chichester

PO19 7XY

It can seat 40 and the cost is £15 an hour.

On that basis a ticket price of £1 will easily cover our costs

The time is 5.30 pm to 7 pm

The date is 4 July.

Chichester Festival

Phil Hewitt (group arts editor for Sussex Newspapers which includes the Worthing Herald) has asked me to speak at the Chichester Festival. At the moment I am seeking to round up a posse - possibly a panel - of Worthing writers to come along and read some of their work. This can be either an extract from a book or a short story.

If you are interested, please email me on derekmcmillan1951@gmail.com

I am proposing to talk about flash fiction and read the audience an example. Depending on the time I might also talk about self-publishing, the way such diverse writers as Stephen King and Virginia Woolf started out on their careers.

 

Author Central updated biography

I write the kind of stories I enjoy reading, whether they are detective, adventure, science fiction, fantasy or alternative history. Most recently I completed a new #mirrorofeternity book, "Domain of Dreams" which is a collection of short stories. It has something for everybody.

I write about 500 words a day and my wife (who is also my editor) discusses the work with me. This is the part I love most. Writing can be a solitary activity but it need not be.

My favourite type of story is the short story. Mark Twain once apologised for the length of a letter to a friend by saying "I didn't have time to write a short one." I have written short stories for Alfiedog.com  and http://www.everydayfiction.com/ as well as "Page and Spine". It is the devil's own job to get short stories published and these sites are a godsend if you will excuse the mixed metaphor :) I like editors who don't just give an "accepted" or "rejected" but tell the writer exactly why they liked or disliked the story. This is really useful.



#mirrorofeternity

Ed Balls Speaking Out for Capitalism

Ed Balls has a conversational style of writing which makes this book easy to read. However his view that there is nothing wrong with capitalism will not make him any friends in the Labour movement.

He elicits sympathy for his battle against his stammer. His view that anyone who disagrees with him is a Communist will probably elicit less sympathy. He criticises the Oxford Labour Club for discussing whether to have a hammer and sickle on its banner and complains they rejected his openly pro-capitalist stance.

The book seems to be more significant for its omissions than for its content. It gives some interesting and amusing anecdotes from the point of view of one of Gordon Brown's henchmen but glosses over the role of New Labour in turning the Labour Party from a party promoting peace and public ownership into a party promoting war and privatisation.

The Blairites wanted Labour and Tories to be as different as "left Twix" and "right Twix"..

He talks of his and Brown's "distress" and " "disquiet" over Iraq. He fails to explain why they did damn all to publicly oppose Blair's blood lust and subservience to George W Bush.

In his Education role he developed a useful skill. Every teacher organisation in the country was opposed to SATs and Academies. Balls managed to metaphorically stick chewing gum in his ears every time they spoke to him.

He coined the phrase "Every child matters" except the children of Iraq and Afghanistan who were bombed from a great height. Clearly they did not matter. 
 
Balls' sycophantic grovelling to the royal family is disgusting. He talks about the privilege of meeting the queen (the richest tax dodger in the land). He also expresses his (probably unique) view that Prince Charles' ventures into politics were of any use whatsoever.
 

Stick to the dancing, Balls. As Craig Revel Horwood might say, "New Labour was a disaster, dahling."

#socialist reviews

Click here

Rail Safety

I remain to be convinced that driver-only trains are as safe as those where there is a guard. There are many case histories of people who have been helped by rail guards. I think Southern Rail have handled the dispute very badly and getting passengers to contact the rail unions to criticise their actions was scraping the bottom of the barrel. This is particularly so because RMT report that most passengers who contacted them supported the idea of guards on trains.
What they are not telling passengers is that the increased risk to passengers of DOO has even been recognised by the Rail Safety Standards Board (RSSB) which is funded by GTR and other Train Operating Companies. RSSB have said
“DOO does not create additional undesired events but may increase the likelihood of an event occurring or increase the severity of its consequence." That is not a ringing endorsement of Driver Only Operation. Yet that is what Southern Rail is incorrectly telling passengers.

 

Remembrance

Those who survived the Great War, greeted the 11th of November as the end of the insanity and the beginning of peace. They would have been mystified to see generals and royals using it as an opportunity to celebrate war over a hundred years later.

Since the end of the Second World War, there has not been a single day of peace. In my lifetime there has been one imperial war of conquest after another.

The red poppy is an ambiguous symbol. On the one hand it represents remembering those who fell in war and the money is used to support those soldiers who suffered as a result of war. 

On the other hand it is used by generals and the royal family to glorify war. If anyone dares to criticise this disgusting militarism they are immediately accused of disrespecting the fallen and being too mean to help the military victims of warfare. This has been characterised as "Poppy Fascism".

The Anzac monument in Sydney is "for all the victims of war", friend or foe, military or civilian. Since the second world war and the advent of mass civilian bombing, wars have seen a massive increase in civilian casualties. We are just "collateral damage" as far as the Pentagon is concerned. 

Socialist internationalism is the only basis on which militarism can be opposed. The people of Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan are some of the poorest people in the world. What with the ruthless bombing campaigns of American Imperialism and the disgusting brutality of the Taliban and ISIL their sufferings have been made worse. 

"Blessed are the warmakers" is the creed of Boris Johnson. It is unacceptable and his hypocritical respect for "the fallen" is nothing but an old Etonian fabrication.

 
 

Maggie May and Grammar Schools

May presides over the most divided Tory Party imaginable. There is one thing, however, which the Tory backwoodsmen will always welcome and that is the return to Grammar Schools.

Just as the drive to turn every school into an academy was not evidence of sufficient thought, the Grammar School policy could have been jotted down on the back of a cigarette packet.

The Tories may pursue this expensive and flawed policy to the death but it is also possible they will have a brand new policy in time for the local election in May of next year. Education is seriously underfunded but the hundreds of millions needed for this policy were magically produced by the government.

May wants to survive as long as Margaret Thatcher as Tory leader. To listen to her you might be excused for feeling Thatcher has risen from the grave. Her desire to emulate the most hated Prime Minister in history is extraordinary but it is symptomatic of the crisis in the Tory Party at the present time.

Although popular with the Back bench yahoos in Parliament, there is serious concern over the Grammar School policy in the shires. It has been described as similar to someone trying to write a novel when they have not mastered the alphabet. 

 

The flu jab

If you go to your GP's surgery you may be told you are not eligible for the flu jab. However the NHS choices website says the following:
Flu vaccination is available every year on the NHS to help protect adults and children at risk of flu and its complications.

Flu can be unpleasant, but if you are otherwise healthy it will usually clear up on its own within a week.

However, flu can be more severe in certain people, such as:

    anyone aged 65 and over
    pregnant women
    children and adults with an underlying health condition (particularly long-term heart or respiratory disease)
    children and adults with weakened immune systems

Anyone in these risk groups is more likely to develop potentially serious complications of flu, such as pneumonia (a lung infection), so it's recommended that they have a flu vaccine every year to protect them.

The injected flu vaccine is offered free on the NHS annually to:

    adults over the age of 18 at risk of flu (including everyone aged 65 and over)
    pregnant women
    children aged six months to two years at risk of flu.

So if you are told "computer says no", in many cases you will find "computer says yes".

They stopped me voting for Jeremy. Now I need you to vote for both of us.

I got this email today and I would like to share it with you:

My name is Christine. I am a fitness instructor and single mum who'd always voted Labour and been passionate about fighting injustice but never joined the party until June.

I did so because Jeremy Corbyn's vision for the future of our country is what I want for my life and for my daughter's future. I trust him because he sticks with his principles and values.

It said on the website I could vote in the leadership election so the decision to exclude me from voting just seemed unfair and undemocratic. I could not stand by and let that happen to tens of thousands of new members like me, so I went to the High Court, and won.

The NEC appealing against the High Court decision was hugely disrespectful to members, risking members' money to block those who could not afford to pay another £25 from voting. Now I don't have a vote. So please use your vote to restore democracy to this party. Only a vote for Jeremy Corbyn will achieve that.

Leadsom up the garden path

“I envisage there being absolutely no regulation whatsoever – no minimum wage, no maternity or paternity rights, no unfair dismissal rights, no pension rights – for the smallest companies that are trying to get off the ground, in order to give them a chance,” Andrea Leadsom.

It is rare to find a Tory quite so explicit about their attitude to workers' rights. Workers' rights are not a gift from benevolent employers or the EU. Workers' rights came about because workers fought for them. If the unions are not prepared to fight then the nightmare vision of Leadsom would become a reality.

If the TUC gets off its knees it will be a different story.

http://www.derekmcmillan.com

Tory dilemma

Johnson would have a job assembling a majority government: a job Labour could make impossible. However Cameron would have the same problem post Brexit. 

Final Cover for Classroom Teacher Manual 2016

Home grown terrorists

"Home grown terrorists"? Whatever next? 'Common or Garden Terrorists'? 'Lesser-spotted terrorists'?

If someone becomes a terrorist thanks to Tony Blair's imperial ambitions in Iraq, does that not make them a 'home-grown' terrorist. If not, why not?

And now Zac Goldsmith's spiritual father Donald Trump has weighed into the row over Sadiq Khan, calling him 'ignorant' and 'nasty'.

Labelling all Muslims as terrorists or, in Goldsmith's term, "friends of terrorists" could be called ignorant. It is certainly nasty!

Do you need 167000 pounds?

"When in that House M. P.’s divide,

If they’ve a brain and cerebellum, too,

They’ve got to leave that brain outside,

And vote just as their leaders tell ’em to."

(Gilbert and Sullivan)

The Tories are beyond a joke though.

When will the TUC get off its knees?

http://derekmcmillan.com

Last Stand of the Levellers

There is an event to commemorate the last stand of the Levellers.

The details are here

More details nearer the date.

Space Dog Alfred

West Sussex have agreed to stock my book 'Space Dog Alfred' after I told them other libraries treat local writers more favourably ( I had chapter and verse)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find out whether the book is therefore available for inter-library loan.

Either way I would like to know.

Announcement

Space Dog Alfred is now available from any library in West Sussex. The ISBN is 978-1517351182

This book will fire the imagination of any reader.

Know your place!

The local MPs are Conservatives to a man (no sexism there then) and the Trade Union Bill will not change that.

However what it will do is to severely limit the ability of working people through their unions to influence the political process. I am a proud member of a trade union which is not the lickspittle of any political party but uses a political fund to influence all parties.

The venom the Tories have towards the working classes is understandable. The working classes gave Margaret Thatcher a bloody nose over the poll tax and Tories have long memories if nothing else.

 It is undermining the basis of democracy in the UK. It will do nothing to prevent the rich, the tax dodgers and the spivs from using their dosh to influence (shall we say bribe?) politicians  but it will keep the lower orders in their place.

More than anything else, the millionares fear a movement like 15 now spreading across the world. This movement has even forced the McDonalds union-busting anti-working-class company to make concessions.

#socialistreviews

"Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you:

Ye are many—they are few!"

Dickens #socialistreviews

Dickens would not have spared the blushes of the Tories when it came to exposing social evils.

Dickens was not a Socialist. Indeed in A Tale of Two Cities he portrays the plebs as a bloodstained mob who would have all decent people decapitated. So far so Tory.

And yet it is a paradox that more people have been brought to Socialism through Dickens than through explicit Socialist writers like London and Orwell. It is Dickens' heart which appeals to the heart of those who want a better world. Reading Oliver Twist or Hard Times gets the most mild-mannered reader ready to tear a strip off the next hypocritical Pecksniff they come across. Be they Cameron or Blair!

Nobody can read Hard Times and Nicholas Nickleby without wanting to take Wilshire, Gove or Morgan aside to ridicule their outdated educational thinking. It is strange to think Dickens never even met the Gove when he can read the mind of the hypocrite so clearly.

Dickens takes things to extremes. While Bumble the Beadle, Josiah Bounderby and Wackford Squeers dine in luxury, they decry the greed of the plebs who dare ask for more. He cannot have realised that this is mild compared to the behaviour of the British cabinet who dine on caviar and champagne while three quarters of those paying the bedroom tax are cutting back on essentials and endangering their health.

Dickens appealed to the conscience of the rich. In Chrismas Carol, Scrooge is a version of Ian Duncan Smith until he sees the light. One percent of the population hog the wealth and make sure they use the power of the state to keep their wealth. Anyone who breaks ranks to help the poor can wave goodbye to all that. 

Ostentatious charity matched by private penny-pinching is the best you can expect from this canaille.

Dickens would have approved of the “trickle down” theory. Capitalism is fine but the poor need help from the rich so perforce the rich must be generous. The rich have no such scruples. In their view -enforced by the state -the poor and disenfranchised must be kept that way.

A user of a food bank in Horsham once shared this with me. “Any trickle-down is the effect of being peed on from a great height.”

Dickens' host of characters and caricatures have been a source of delight and enlightenment. This is true of the books, which had a genuine working-class following through "Household Words" and did not confine their audience to the novel-reading middle class. 
It is equally true of the television adaptations although the temptation to emasculate the social message of Dickens and focus on the humour is too much for the spineless BBC to resist.
Oliver Twist asked for more. The ruling class usually need more than asking. Lord George Brown used to say that "no ruling class in history has given up its position without a fight and that usually meant a fight to the finish with no holds barred."

Why should the poor be content with a piece of the cake when they could take over the bakery?

Know your enemy

Nick Robinson is doing his best to oppose Kuenssberg's Conservative agenda but his is a lone voice. There is more joy in heaven over one Nick Robinson who repenteth than over an hundred righteous though.

Tail wagging the dog.

Ewen MacAskill in The Guardian has broken ranks with the media to do an analysis of the changes in the Labour Party. Unsurprisingly it gives the lie to much that the BBC is saying and everything that the Prince of Lies, Mandelson, is saying.

The Guardian has the tail wagging the dog, saying “Leader’s hopes of remoulding the party boosted as Guardian survey shows surge in members, huge support and shift to the left”.

Any sane person would say that it is the surge in members seeking a new kind of politics which thrust a socialist into the leadership of what was a capitalist party hell-bent on war and privatisation.

The article explicitly gives the lie to Mandelson.

“Party membership figures are a controversial issue, with the former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, who is opposed to Corbyn, telling a Labour meeting in the Lords last month that “30,000 long-term members have left the party, real members, tens of thousands”.

“But the newly released figures undermine his claim, showing a total of 13,860 have left since the general election, some of them having resigned while others have gone as part of natural churn. The increase in membership is continuing, with just under 1,000 having joined since Christmas Eve.”

“The Guardian survey shows a shift to the left among the new members while those deepest in the counsels of New Labour have obeyed the instruction of Blair, Mandy and "dodgy dossier"Campbell to be more Tory than the Tories.”

Small wonder that grass-roots members are fed up to the back teeth with squabbling MPs. The system of election was supposed to prevent anyone on the left becoming leader. It failed. Now instead of kicking themselves the Blairite rump are kicking Jeremy Corbyn.

This is a golden opportunity for Socialists in the UK. Our ideas are have been deeply rooted in the working class movement since the days of the Chartists. Now is the time to build the momentum for a movement against the cuts which can drive this Tory canaille from power.

Adolf Duncan Smith worships lies

The Mirror reports that Adolf Duncan Smith thinks it disgraceful that people want to know the truth.

How dare they.

Plebs! It is none of their business.

Here is the link.

I bet the Tories privately boast about how many useless mouths they have silenced. "I killed a thousand paupers today. Have a drink with me old man."

David Jones Lockout - your money or your life?

A Doctor David Jones has proposed a £10 fine for attending your GP. If you are sick you will be punished.


There will always be people with more money than sense who will go to the GP with trivial complaints even if it costs them £10 or £100.

Charging the poor is contrary to the principles of the NHS. To emulate the Australian system, as Jones suggests would mean not having a national health service and paying
up to 150 dollars for a simple blood test.

I hope I never need the services of the mercenary David Jones because I cannot afford him.

Bill Nighy's character in Dead Man's Chest. There will be plenty of dead men and women without the NHS

 

Petition against BBC bias

According the the BBC Charter, the BBC and it's representatives MUST remain neutral in its approach. Laura Kuenssberg has completely violated that directive so can no longer function as a representative of the BBC. She must be sacked.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/impartiality

Sign

SUPPORT THE JUNIOR DOCTORS

8am-12.0 TUESDAY 12 JANUARY
Doctors will be there from 7 to greet early workers
Outside Royal Sussex County Hospital Eastern Rd, Brighton
and
2pm New Road Brighton “Meet the Doctors”

Picket as above also at PRH, Haywards Heath

 

Progress has dodgy donors

Lord Sainsbury of Turville has provided substantial funding for Progress, contributing £2 million of the £3 million of donations and sponsorship to Progress from 2001 to 2011. In 2014 Progress was fined £6,000 by the Electoral Commission for accepting donations of £390,000 from Lord Sainsbury while he was not on a UK electoral register, between December 2011 and April 2013.

And calling them a Blairite fifth column is rude?

Alson McGovern is the latest Blairite to trumpet her opposition to Corbyn. Neither Kuenssberg nor the other canaille thought of asking her about the dodgy donors she associates with.

Socialism - it's not a dirty word Kuenssberg

We have a great socialist tradition, it goes back to the chartists, to the creators of the first trade unions, the co-operative movement - everyone who sought social justice. There have been socialists inside the Labour Party (like my father in 1946) and those outside (like me in 2016).

They are not communists,they are not fascists and only a babe in arms, or  Laura Kuenssberg, would call them terrorist. They do believe in peace and like any sane person they realise that peace means sitting down to talk with people you disagree with and who probably want to kill you. That is the opposite of terrorism,Kuenssberg.

The blatant BBC bias against Corbyn prevents any serious criticism or analysis of the Labour leadership. Nick Robinson has his work cut out to counter the thousands of examples of bias which have been brought to light by social media. The BBC is, or at least ought to be, better than Murdoch. It does itself no favours by sinking to his level.

The "Corbyn insurgency" is a golden opportunity for socialists to work for common objectives. The Trade Unionists and Socialist Coalition, set up by Bob Crow, has been quick to sieze this opportunity with both hands and support those Labour councillors who want to stand up against Tory cuts. They have provided practical support and advice on how to carry out a needs budget rather than one dictated by the millionaires

What have the unions ever done for us?

Snoopers Charter

I have written the following to my MP, Sir Peter Bottomly.
I do not expect it to do any good but he will not be able to say none of his constituents are opposed to Teresa May's activities.
I am concerned about the Investigatory Powers Bill. I fail to see how continually restricting the rights of the citizen will do anything against terrorism. Governments have notoriously used these powers against their political opponents rather than against terrorism. Peace campaigners and trade unionists have had their rights infringed. These people are not terrorists but Teresa May seems intent on treating them as such. There are many examples like that of John Catt http://derekmcmillan1951.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/police-squander-our-money-attacking.html

Please vote Jane Nellist 1 for BOLD LEADERSHIP and A STRATEGY TO WIN

From October 28, ballot papers will be arriving at NUT members' homes
for the NUT Vice-President election.

Jane is campaigning for a National Charter for all teachers which gives:
● A life outside school - minimum 20% PPA in all sectors
● No more than 1265 directed hours, 195 days
● An end to performance-related pay
● Limits on observations and marking
● Retirement at 60 - not 68
● Abolish Ofsted/Estyn
● A pay rise to compensate for the huge losses we have suffered

"The iron fist of the Tories has been exposed. Performance-pay has been
imposed and our pensions cut. They have stood by and watched our
workload get ever greater.
Not content with stopping teachers moving up the pay scale, now they
want to force teachers back off the Upper Pay Scale too!
Teachers are suffering and leaving in droves. Colleagues are being
driven out of a profession they once loved. We have to act.

The NUT's campaigns have not yet been enough to protect teachers and
education. Government attacks on schools and teachers will continue with
a ferocity that will require our Union and our members to stand firm and
fight. That will also require strong, effective, bold leadership. I
believe that I have the experience and commitment to help provide
that lead as NUT Vice-President.
I am a Primary teacher and currently the National Executive member for
the West Midlands. As Joint Secretary of Coventry NUT for the last 15
years, I have been responsible for managing casework and negotiations
with the Local Authority and Academy managers.

I am a formidable campaigner against cuts and on community based issues,
working closely with other trade unions in our local anti-cuts groups
and Trades Council.
I am proud of the work I have done in creating new NUT policy through
motions I have written and steered through Conference on Domestic
Violence and to oppose the discrimination of older women teachers.
I am a founder member of LANAC, Local Associations for National Action,
which has been instrumental in pushing the Union to develop a real
strategy to win.
I want to see one teachers' trade union but one that will use that
strength and unity to fight and win for teachers and education.

Jeremy Corbyn's victory has shown the growing mood to stand up to
Government attacks, a mood we must now build upon.
To protect our working conditions, trade union rights and the learning
conditions of pupils, we need bold leadership and a serious strategy
that will rebuild national action so that teachers can seize back our
lives and our professionalism".

Corbyn's nuclear stance

The i newspaper has made much of Jeremy Corbyn's assertion that he would not use nuclear weapons. They put it to a number of senior Labour figures who apparently blamed him for saying out loud what everybody knew - he is a lifelong opponent of nuclear war.

I do not for a moment think Jeremy Corbyn's Labour critics would launch a nuclear holocaust so what is this war of words about?

Any PM is bound by international treaty not to use nuclear weapons (The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 1970). It is nice to think the Labour leader is not a psychotic killer with no respect for international law.

Socialist Reviews

Death Agony of Capitalism

The Miranda Revolution

Blairites for war

People have been expelled for not agreeing with 'the aims and objectives of the Labour Party'. I have searched diligently and I cannot find 'nuclear holocaust' as a Labour aim or objective. Are the Blairites going to expel themselves? 

NUT Supply Teachers' Network

Please keep working to build a turn out for the October 28 lobby of supply teaching agencies.

We will be meeting at the NUT HQ Hamilton House (close to Euston Station) at 11.30 am. The lobby of the agencies will be from about 12.00 - 12.30 more details to follow. For cost reasons some people will need to get a later train so you can go straight to the lobby, don't worry if you can't make the 11.30 at Hamilton House.

There is a suggestion that we finish the lobby by going to the PCS picket at the National Gallery. this is an all out strike against privatisation and the sacking of a union rep.

National Anthem?

The gutter press were all ready with the headline "HYPOCRITE!" if Corbyn had sung the National Anthem. Patriotism may be the last refuge of a scoundrel. For the Tory press it is the first refuge.

Andrew Marr's Schoolboy errors

This is a very clever and witty fantasy on the workings of the "corridors of power." I will not reveal the plot but suffice it to say the title is not what it seems! The caricatures are finely drawn and wicked.

Andrew Marr's book shows him to be a political insider. This is both his strength and his weakness. In the Labour Party leadership elections 2015, Marr made a series of schoolboy errors. He knew the "insiders" but the vote was decided by outsiders he struggles to understand. Young people, people on zero hours contracts struggling to make ends meet and people described by Ian Duncan Smith as "abnormal" and treated as scroungers.

"Corbyn will make Labour unelectable" is an opinion. Marr presented it as a fact. A Year 7 pupil would be told off for such an error. Presenting opinion as fact is virtually the definition of propaganda. Likewise Marr and the rest of the BBC news organisation spend time promoting the views of the Blairites. The result of the election was that the Blairites were comprehensively defeated. That was a massive miscalculation. The Blairites are rich and powerful. The people who voted in the election were not. They are beyond Andrew Marr's experience it would seem.

 #socialistreviews

BBC Bias

The BBC is a publicly funded body with a mandate to report issues in a balanced manner without fear or favour. The coverage of the Labour Party leadership election fell far below that standard and the BBC should apologise for showing such bias.

The press is beholden to millionaires and expresses their prejudices. "You pays your money and you takes your choice." With the BBC we pay the money and we deserve a balanced and thoughtful approach to major issues of public policy rather than derision and innuendo.
1) The BBC gave publicity to supporters of Tony Blair which was disproportionate to their importance. They were comprehensively defeated in the leadership election.
2) The BBC referred to the eventual winner, Jeremy Corbyn as "a joke candidate" and there has so far been no apology for this lapse of journalistic standards.
3) The focus on ridiculing Jeremy Corbyn meant that the other candidates were virtually ignored.
4) The "Anyone but Corbyn" slogan suggested there was nothing to choose between the other candidates.

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Hamish McRae - a disgrace to journalism.

In a frankly disgraceful article in The Independent today, a man called Hamish McRae equates Socialism with Stalinism. How anybody could regard this as "news" is an interesting question. McRae joins with the gutter press in a denunciation of Jeremy Corbyn.

Have these gentlemen not noticed that their increasingly hysterical denunciations do not seem to be working? They are not as omnipotent as they think they are.

Equating Stalinism and Socialism is called an amalgam. It was a debating trick used widely by Stalinists.
Fascists oppose us.
Trotsky opposes us.
Therefore Trotsky is a fascist.

The smug McRae should be proud.
I expect the rich pay him well for his fawning admiration.

New Labour chicanery

The Blairites have excluded an 84-year-old from voting in the leadership election. Is he a Tory or (God forbid) a member of the Socialist Party? Oh no apparently he is "not on the electoral register". This is what is known as "a lie."

He has been on the electoral register for 63 years. He voted in the last election. He has been disqualified because his vote was for Jeremy Corbyn. They have no shame.

His letter to the Labour Party remains unanswered.

Silly Season story in the i

Journalists live in a strange world where party leaders take all the decisions. The policy of women-only carriages - adopted on British railways in the 1950s -is not an invention of Jeremy Corbyn nor would it necessarily become policy if he were elected. By the same logic the Daily Mail insisted a Corbyn government would have us all eating cold baked beans. Probably not!

In other news, Andy Burnham was put on the spot about whether Labour was ready for a female Labour leader. A female socialist would make an excellent leader. A Margaret Thatcher clone probably less so. Liz Kendall was on the BBC rubbishing the trade unions and lauding free schools.

I did not have a vote in this election - being one of the reds under Harriet Harman's bed apparently - but it is a significant development in British politics as Rodney K Kreizman explains here 

Optimism/-Hope-Scorn /Derision……Possibilities abound. Let’s recognise them!

I received this from Rodney K Kreizman:
 
After 40 years approx. (Thatcher 1979) of reactionary Government’s, abandonments of opposition in the form of New labours conversion to the Free market and the removal of Clause4…swings, ever further to the right, widespread Free Market madness, privatisations, that all but made the UK a mirror image of the USA where they emulated the politics of attacks on the working classes, in the name of free Markets, and consumer choices. 

We have now reached a plateau of huge inequalities, widespread poverty even for those in work, very tiny actual trade union sector covering about a quarter of the workforce but predominantly in the Public Sector, indebtedness as a fact of life, non-existent Pension jobs sector, where only Teachers and MPs and Civil Servants have pensions, the poverty of the British worker is apparent all over Europe except to the British Workers, who see themselves as carrying the rest of Europe, a myth perpetuated by UKIP, and the right wing of the Tory Party.
 We are really unable to live and work to bring our families up in a decent standard which in general take at least 2 decent salaries to do. 

We work longer hours that all the rest of the countries in Old EC Europe.  Long hour’s equals ever greater exploitation of ones labours. Also, it a moral obligation, to put the huge hours in to get a medium to reasonable living out of the job. Amongst this mayhem the leadership battle in the Labour Party explodes into a one sided landslide for a hard left candidate, who really didn’t want the job of Leader at all?  Around 400 thousand predominantly young people, sign up to join the Labour Party to become Labour and join, Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for the leadership, and the heart and soul of the Labour Party.
 
 They are totally out of step with the ruling elites, that want any of the other three candidates, but certainly not Corbyn’s Socialist vision, however, it’s the” Socialist vision” that gives hope and optimism to the millions out there. Hence the paradox.  We have to state quite unreservedly that this re-emergence of new forces to the Left has strengthened the Left generally as it has given us a boost of new fresh young forces that all movement needs to sustain a future development. When we cease to be able to enthuse and give hope to the youth we are failing in our basic tasks to re-generate ourselves and our political philosophy. So what is the Corbyn version? Well it seems more Keynesian, Aggregate Demand management, than really Socialist. Although its lots more return to the Public Sector, Rail, Transport, Utilities, Power, abandonment of £100 Billion Trident Nuclear Deterrent, but the public sector deal is done, with additional Industrial Democracy, which is the real winner for me.! 
So a major return to a sort of Post War UK that we had under the Atlee 1945 Gov’t.  The difference between then and now is that in the main the ownership of the companies we Nationalised were British owned or majority shareholding was based in the UK.. Now our Water is owned by both French and German Utilities and USA utilities, so the ownership of the Cartels and Companies being taken into public ownership, is now much more widespread in their shareholding.
What then should responsible Socialists be doing to aid and abet this process, and how do we relate to it ? Not with scorn and derision, and I’ve seen it all before, not with irresponsible paternalism, at their fumbling for the correct terms and words to express their anger and outrage at the naked exploitation that goes on all around them all day and all night long, not by laughing at them or being indulgent, or by just ignoring what’s happening. We have a responsibility to lead by example. We have a duty to recognise the possibilities that exist now, and help to turn todays “Corbynite idealists” into tomorrows “ Class struggle materialists and fighters for Socialism “ in the future !   That’s our job and that’s our role. Not scorn and derision !  That’s the real tasks for real Marxists and real Socialists  of whatever variety ! We have to lead by example.  We have to show we can work in coalitions, we can work together to defeat the Tory  forces of reaction, and we can, and must work together, towards common desired objectives!
We work on Anti Austerity Campaigns (Wage Freezes) we work on smashing austerity for the poor, and super profits for the rich. We work on re-establishing Public Ownership of Transport Rail. Utilities, Power, we organise and lead struggles against Markets in Housing, Education, Health, other necessary parts of our needs in the UK.
 
It’s the taking part of real time real life struggles that show where the balance of forces is, and how we can organise to beat them, and build both a new party and a movement,  that can lead the way for these ….and other future struggles in the UK.

A watershed in Labour?

I think some comrades have underestimated the situation. Labour is a capitalist party pursuing privatisation at home and war abroad. Those who oppose this agenda are already being ruthlessly witch-hunted. If Corbyn elected the battle will not end. It will begin.

"Factional nutters of the world unite!"

The i newspaper quotes a "senior Labour figure" describing anyone who opposes austerity as "a factional nutter". The privileged Westminster elite have a choice. They can just ignore the attacks on the poor. In abstaining on the Welfare cuts that is exactly what they have done.

Andy Burnham excuses this behaviour by saying that he had "cabinet responsibility" and could not vote against a decision of the shadow cabinet. In 1951 a young man called Harold Wilson was faced with a similar dilemma. He chose to resign from the cabinet rather than support an attack by Gaitskell on the NHS. To fall lower in the test than Harold Wilson is not a good start for a would-be leader.

The poor do not have a choice. The disabled do not have a choice. Public sector workers do not have a choice. They either oppose the politics of austerity or they let a government of, by and for the millionaires trample all over them.

So why didn't they flock to Labour in the election? Because Labour, Tory and Liberal were all offering similar flavours of austerity. 

Mark Steel satirises the attitude of the right wing towards new Labour Party members - they are horrified that people will join Labour to vote for socialism.

Whatever the outcome of the leadership election, the fight against austerity will continue. The trade unions will be in the front line of that fight because they have no choice. 

There is a lobby of the TUC on 13th September. It is time for the TUC to get off its knees. "factional nutters" of the world unite!

The rally will begin at 1PM on Sunday 13 September in the Charlotte Room of the Grand Hotel, 97-99 King’s Road, Brighton, BN1 2FW.

Burnhamites crass manoeuvres

Enlisting Lord Kinnock of Humbug to support Burnham was an act of crass stupidity.

The latest move by Harriet Harman is to warn all MPs that new Labour members might be dangerous lefties. Kinnock witch-hunted his political opponents who were fighting the Tories in ways he did not approve (and showed up his pathetic leadership). 

Is Harman engaged in a pre-emptive  witch hunt?

Heart treatment

Today I was discharged from hospital following free heart treatment  In America it would cost 3-11 thousand dollars for cardiac catheterisation. Let Cameron and his Eton chums have their way and that is what we will get. 

And I was treated by people that cheeky Adolf Farage would hate 😀

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What the fox?

The government are set to ditch the ban on fox hunting. Bad news for foxes but of course this is more important than the NHS or care for the sick and disabled. Their next proposal? Hunting the poor with dogs?

We now know the SNP has shot their fox! Oh that smarts!