Workers' Liberty

As the AWl keep deleting my posts replying to the article by Glotzer here I am posting the replies on my blog as above.

Arthur Bough

See my blog on Northern Rock here

Arthur Bough

See my blog on Burma here

Arthur Bough

What should be Marxists approach to Workers Parties such as the Labour Party?

See my blog here

Arthur Bough

I read this piece (Marxists and the Workers Party) and thought your argument was very convincing. Unfortunately I'm not such an advanced socialist so its beyond me to offer a counter-argument. Maybe some some of AWL's Illuminati can provide some resistance.

Personally, I'm highly suspicious of any self-anointed 'vanguard of the class'

A further question I have regards not just AB's writing but Marxist/socialist writing in general is: Why does it have to be so masculine and couched in military terminology?

See my blog "The Idiot Imperialists" here

Arthur Bough

See my blog here

Arthur Bough

No not a typo. As Stalinism is rejuvenated in Russia and China read my blog here

Arthur Bough

In my blog here I explain why Marxists do not call for nationalisation by the capitalist state.

Arthur Bough

In my blog here I argue that modern capitalism rather than having a tendency for the Rate of profit to Fall, on the contrary has a Tendency for the rate of profit to rise.

Arthur Bough

In my blog here I look at the question of why Exchange Value derives from the Labour time only of wage workers, and the consequences this has for modern capitalism.

Arthur Bough

National March and Rally in support of the Burslem Strike - 19th
January, 2008.

13:30 Assemble at Burslem Delivery Office, Scotia Business Park,
Scotia Road, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent

14:00 March

15:30 Rally:
- Chair - Jane Loftus - CWU President
- Billy Hayes - CWU General Secretary
- Dave Ward - CWU Deputy General Secretary
- Joan Whalley MP
- Lee Barron - CWU Midlands Regional Secretary
- Speakers tbc Midlands No.7 Branch, Burslem 12

Immediately following the rally there will be a benefit gig at Burslem
WMC with bands playing for free. All money raised goes to the
strikers. All welcome and bring your banners!

12 Members, 200 Years Service, Over 100 Striking for Justice - Support
the Burslem Strike. Messages and donations can be sent to "Defend the
Burslem 12", CWU Midland No.7 Branch, Lindsay Street, Stoke-on-Trent.
ST1 4EP. All should be marked "Defend the Burslem 12". Cheques are
payable to CWU Midland No.7 Branch. Solidarity messages can be emailed
to political@NOSPAMcwumid7.org.uk with copies to
andybentley3@NOSPAMtiscali.co.uk (remove the NOSPAMs).

Arthur Bough

See my new blogs "Stuffed Up" hereabout the change from the Congestion Crage to a CO2 Charge, and "The Peasants are Revolting" here

Arthur Bough

Did whoever wrote this think to check some basic facts first? First of all WHAT RECESSION???? As I wrote some time ago for the first time since 1967 there is not one single economy IN THE WORLD in recession. On the contrary most are experiencing rapid growth. Not he fictititious debt fuelled, and statistically fiddled growth that the US experienced during the 1990's, but REAL growth. But even the world's sickest major economy the US is still not in recession. In the last quarter its growth was .6%. Yes pretty weak, but prior to that it even the US was growing at 5%! In Britain manufacturing industry is still growing rapidly. Only retailing is going through a bad patch as all the people encouraged to go into massive debt to sustain the economy over the last 20 odd years of downturn have suddenly been pulled up by the rise in interest rates.

The world's fourth largest economy China is growing at around 10% a year, and is likely to grow faster this year due to the Olympics. The other Asian powerhouse India is also growing rapidly. Yes the US buys a lot from China, but China has 3 billion people in its home market. It has a growing working class with rapidly rising standards of living - one reason for rising world food prices as Chinese workers move to westernised diets. Most of China's trade takes palce with other Asian countries. Anything other than a complete collapse of the US is more than capable of being absorbed by the Chinese economy.

As for a collpase in the dollar causing widespread economic turmoil in the world economy - dream on. The dollar in the last 30 years has fallen dramatically in several occasions. It fell by 50% against the Deutschmark, it has fallen on a trade weighted index continuously since 1985, and it has fallen by around 50% against the Euro already in the last few years alone from its high of 1 Euro = 80c, to the curent level of 1 Euro = $1.47. UNless you are talking a complete collapse of the dollar its difficult to see why any further such falls should be any more catastrophic than the falls that have already occurred without any noticeable effect. The main fall is likely to be agianst the RMB and other Asian countries which is in fact desirable. The US needs it to reduce its trade imbalance, and Choine needs it in order to reduce its imported inflation caused by the tie to the dollar.

As for the other stuff about Government policy over the last 30 years get real. The 1987 Stock Market Crash was caused because of fear of the US's twin deficits i.e. huge Government intervention to keep the US Economy afloat. Alan Greenspan a former devotee of Ayn Rand and lover of the Gold Standard became the world's greatest inflationist turning the Fed into the lender of last resort for troubled capitalists. Where in the post war periods Government's only intervened to counter economic weakness, under Greenspan the Fed intervened if the Stock Market took a bit of a dip, leading to the introduction of the term "The Greenspan Put". Recent events can lead us to repalce it with the Bernanke PUT", the man who has said that the Fed could simply drop dollar bills from a helicopter. And the arch supposed Neo-Liberal Bush has just implemented a huge $150 billion piece of Keynesian Demand Management just like every other US Government has done over the last 20 years to avoid recession. And of course the US like every other major capitalist economy does not need such overt measures. The state in these economies already accounts for nearly 50% of all economic activity, it can effect keynesian demand management merely via its own day to day spending - hence the deficits, hence the huge Public Spending of Gordon Brown as a counter-cyclical policy over the last few years.

Arthur Bough

The current violence in Iraq represents the outbreak of class war between the Iraqi bouregoisie and its backers, and the Sadrist Jacobins. How should the Labour Movement in Iraq respond?

See my blog here

Arthur Bough

See my blog here on the local elections, and the reaction here in Stoke, where as elsewhere the BNP continued to goose step forward.

Arthur Bough