I’ve come across more than a few obituaries for the SWP in the last week or so, particularly since a number of people split from the party and are now forming the IS Network. This article on the Left Unity website, for instance, starts with the following statement: “The SWP
Continue readingTag: Crisis
RedBedHead: Is The SWP A Dead Duck: Part 1
I’ve come across more than a few obituaries for the SWP in the last week or so, particularly since a number of people split from the party and are now forming the IS Network. This article on the Left Unity website, for instance, starts with the following statement:
“The SWP – one of the most successful organising forces on the British left over the last few decades – is close to death…”
But
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 2
The debate with the US ISO remains a source of much controversy, having ended with the biggest split from the Tendency to date. This makes it worth exploration and, I believe, it is an example of the way in which the SWP’s growing bureaucracy negatively impacted the IST. However, both
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 2
The debate with the US ISO remains a source of much controversy, having ended with the biggest split from the Tendency to date. This makes it worth exploration and, I believe, it is an example of the way in which the SWP’s growing bureaucracy negatively impacted the IST. However, both of the dominant narratives of the events leading up to the ISOs expulsion are, in my view, one sided. The main
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 2
The debate with the US ISO remains a source of much controversy, having ended with the biggest split from the Tendency to date. This makes it worth exploration and, I believe, it is an example of the way in which the SWP’s growing bureaucracy negatively impacted the IST. However, both
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 1
The tradition in the IST is to not intervene in the controversies and debates of other organizations. This was explained to me as a reaction against the practice amongst the early Trotskyists & within the Fourth International to involve every affiliated organization in the debates of every other national section.
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 1
The tradition in the IST is to not intervene in the controversies and debates of other organizations. This was explained to me as a reaction against the practice amongst the early Trotskyists & within the Fourth International to involve every affil…
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 1
The tradition in the IST is to not intervene in the controversies and debates of other organizations. This was explained to me as a reaction against the practice amongst the early Trotskyists & within the Fourth International to involve every affiliated organization in the debates of every other national section.
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Special Conference Shows Bureaucracy’s Fangs
On Sunday, March 10 the British Socialist Workers Party held a Special Conference to deal with the crisis that has been raging in its organization since its annual January conference. The trigger for the crisis was an allegation of rape against a member of the party’s Central Committee (CC) that
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Special Conference Shows Bureaucracy’s Fangs
On Sunday, March 10 the British Socialist Workers Party held a Special Conference to deal with the crisis that has been raging in its organization since its annual January conference. The trigger for the crisis was an allegation of rape against a member of the party’s Central Committee (CC) that
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Special Conference Shows Bureaucracy’s Fangs
On Sunday, March 10 the British Socialist Workers Party held a Special Conference to deal with the crisis that has been raging in its organization since its annual January conference. The trigger for the crisis was an allegation of rape against a member of the party’s Central Committee (CC) that was reviewed by a Disputes Committee composed of long-time colleagues and friends of the accused. I
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: The Grad School Gospels – Part 3: Academe Can’t Be Your Everything
The Grad School Gospels is a series of posts inspired by Dirk Hayhurst‘s The Bullpen Gospels. In the Bullpen Gospels, Hayhurst tells stories from his struggle to self-actualize through professional baseball. Inspired by Hayhurst and the many commonalities I noticed between the minor league track to the Majors, as he
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Mayans, the ecological crisis and the end of the world: a little sanity please
It seems like a lot of people are going to extremes with regards to the Mayan predictions – and I mean the skeptics as well as the fanatics. Some are dismissive of the Mayans altogether, while others are taking a very literal and grossly overly simplistic view, and thinking the
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Canadian National Debt Growing Faster Than GDP
Canada’s debt is growing faster than our ability to pay for it.
Since 2008 Canadian public debt has been growing faster than our GDP. Though there are many warning signs of economic trouble, there is no clearer caution of a potential crisis than when…
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Conservative Canada Is Closer To Crisis
Referenced IMF data can be found here
Canada’s increasing Debt-to-GDP ratio is a problem no one is talking about. While the country’s gross government debt (which includes all levels of government) is large, it is rising faster than our …
The Scott Ross: Canadians Should Envy Greeks
Canadians aren’t too envious of Greeks, Italians, and Egyptians right now, but maybe they should be. Though Canada has a relatively better economy and a stable political system, the other countries in the world facing crises have something Canada seems to be lacking, a resolve to make things better. Facing
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Europe’s Export of Political Integration
From democracy to banking, Europe has launched institutions that have shaped the world; with its recent financial crisis, Europe might be about to do it again. The European financial crisis is only giving further legitimacy and urgency to greater European political integration. It is argued that with many economies dependent
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Debt Ceiling Debate is Moot: USG Owes More Dollars than in Existence
Image by Images_of_Money The current debate in Washington as to whether or not and under what conditions to raise the debt-ceiling has for the past week dominated global news coverage and the public mind. Absent from the debate and mainstream coverage is a discussion of the debt limit in the
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis a Sovereignty Crisis
Greek Parliament, Syntagma Athens – by kouk News outlets around the world have focused heavily on the so-called Greek Sovereign debt crisis this week. The proposed solution–an IMF loan package requiring “austerity measures” and a fire-sale of public assets–has sparked massive unrest in the capital, where people from all walks
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