The first strike in space

Marxist sci-fi fans might be interested in SF Forward,  an attractively designed blog which has varied and erudite discussions of all manner of material relating to science fiction and utopianism - recent posts for example include discussions of JG Ballard and William Gibson, 'Structures of Soviet Science Fiction', 'Red Star Gazing and the Inevitability of Full Space Communism' and even a discussion of the first strike in space. 

Notes from the left blogosphere

Two one-time stalwarts of the left blogosphere - the respective custodians of the much missed blogs If there is hope... and International Rooksbyism are now, it seems, back blogging again at, respectively, Student Syndicalist and this eponymous effort. Which is great, though it does suggests that being a blogger is a bit like being in the mafia, and it is difficult to give it up for any real length of time once addicted. 'Every time I try to get out they pull me back in...'

The 2011 Histomat Awards

Firstly, an apology for barely keeping this blog ticking over the last year - in my defence all I can say is that this failure has in part been for good reasons; namely, a slow awakening of the British working class movement amidst a year of riots, resistance and revolution has inevitably meant an intensification of the level of activity (by which I mean offline 'real life' political activity) for any Marxist who takes what Marx said about the point being not simply to interpret the world but to try and change it seriously. Another slight problem, as Andy Zaltzman noted, has been that 2011 has been a relatively difficult year to satirise: 'For satire, as the rogue bastard offspring of news, it's been a year in which jokes have scarcely dried in the notebook before being rendered obsolete by the breakneck speed of More Stuff Happening.'

'It's been a year in which – with riots, revelations of the full grotty extent of the phone-hacking mega-blooper, and the continuing failure of those most responsible for the economic crisis to eat their share of the blame cake – Britain's moral compass has been spinning frenziedly...At the centre of it all, driving the economic vortex that is controlling public life, are "The Markets", a merciless, amoral, almost mythical force, behaving with the irrational self-indulgence of a particularly obstreperous Greek god. Politicians seem resigned to the fact that there is nothing they can do to appease the monster in our midsts, other than pray for mercy and occasionally sacrifice things to it (money, dignity and principles, mostly). All of this has made for rich, if unsettling, material. But perhaps the greatest challenge facing the satirist this year is how to satirise a world that seems so intent on satirising itself.'

During the phone-hacking scandal, for example, I was trying to think of one person in the UK who would be safe from the 'criminal-media nexus' that is News International so I could spoof that - and settled on the Queen - thinking surely the News of the World wouldn't risk daring to try and do over the official head of state - only to find that, yep, they tried to do over even Queenie. I then thought about doing a whole series on the Murdochs as the Corleone's in a new Godfather-esque series, but then even the decline and fall of the Murdoch Empire seemed suddenly old news as the Eurozone imploded and riots erupted. Anyway, there are still certain things that I feel I owe to the readers of this blog - and one of them is the annual Histomat awards...

2011 Histomat International Heroes/Heroines of the Year: The people who fought and died - and continue to fight and die - for democratic rights across the Middle East and North Africa this year - in particular Mohammed Bouazizi, the guy whose self-immolation in Tunisia last December inspired a wave of political revolutions which have themselves inspired millions more...

Runner up: The international Occupy Movement which has grown this year out of the inspiration of Tahrir Square - once again proving in style that at the start of the 21st century, anti-capitalism is definitely an idea whose time has come...and whose popularisation of slogans about the 99% vs the 1% have put the question of class division and injustice at the centre of that movement.

2011 Histomat International Idiot(s) of the Year: Those neo-liberal politicians across the US and Europe who continue to insist against all the evidence that worshipping the free market, enforcing austerity packages and making structural adjustment programmes make any economic sense as a way of getting out of the current capitalist crisis.

Runner up: Anders Brevik, Nazi terrorist and mass murderer.

2011 Histomat National Heroes/Heroines of the Year: Those 2.6 million public sector workers - mainly low-paid women - who struck on November 30 in the biggest strike Britain has seen for decades - delivering the ultimate lie to the idea that the organised working class no longer has relevance or power - even though it is increasingly clear that one one-day strike will not in itself be anywhere near enough to win on the question of defending pensions.

Runner up: PJ Harvey, whose anti-war album Let England Shake deservedly won this years Mercury Prize. I also have a soft spot for the comedian Jonny Marbles, for managing to pie Rupert Murdoch at his parliamentary hearing.

2011 Histomat National Idiot of the Year: David Starkey seemed to have this in the bag until Jeremy Clarkson stole it from him late on. As I think Ed Byrne first noted, Clarkson really deserves be taken out and shot in front of his family as a nice Xmas present to them. Speaking of public executions in Britain - and other 'national idiots' - the Met police have again really excelled themselves this year with the killing of several black people - including Mark Duggan - whose death sparked the riots in August.

Joint Runners up: David Cameron - incidentally also part of the Clarkson/Murdoch/ Tory super rich 'Chipping Norton set' - for his 'active, muscular liberalism' which seems to mean declaring war on workers and Muslims at home and Afghans and Libyans abroad - and also Nick Clegg, for going along with pretty much all of Cameron's shit without so much as a whimper over the last year.

2011 Histomat Socialist Bloggers of the Year: When I wrote about Arthur Ransome and the question of journalists and revolution back in early January, it all seemed a bit abstract. Then the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions exploded, and since then numerous revolutionary journalists have come into their own - but the award has to go once again to the comrades in Egypt for their work in the last year reporting from the frontline of the struggle - a struggle that still continues - and the team behind the MENA Solidarity Network

Runner up: Lenin's Tomb - another sterling year's work.

2011 Histomat Most Incredible Quote of the Year: ''a force of nature, a phenomenon, a great man" - Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove on Rupert Murdoch even after the phone hacking scandal broke

2011 Histomat Most Idiotesque Quote of the Year: ''No riots here, just quiet, ever-deeper misery'' - headline of Nick Cohen's Observer column on August 7th discussing the state of politics in the UK - the day, er, riots erupted.

Solidarity with Egypt's revolutionary journalists

Sign this statement - solidarity with Hossam el-Hamalawy and Reem Maged

Make Love Not Cuts/The 2010 Histomat Awards

2010 Histomat International Heroes/Heroines of the Year: Students across Europe and internationally fighting fees and cuts and for free education. Their revolt this year is the lightning strike that signals the coming storm of working class struggle and rebellion in 2011. Well, let's hope so eh?

Runner up: The people and families who campaigned for justice for Bloody Sunday, and in particular revolutionary journalist Eamonn McCann - deserved winner of the Private Eye Paul Foot Special Lifetime Campaign award.

2009 Histomat International Idiot(s) of the Year: The Israeli state for bravely massacring innocent people on an aid flotilla back in May.

Runner up: All those Islamophobes and racists who protested at the 'Ground Zero Mosque' that wasn't.

2009 Histomat National Hero of the Year: Jody McIntyre, a headache for BBC and ITN news anchors as well as the Metropolitan Police and Con-Dem government.

Joint Runners up A) The voters of Barking and Dagenham for telling the Nazi BNP fuhrer Nick Griffin where to go in the 2010 elections
B) The English Football Association - for ensuring England was utterly humiliated in the World Cup and then were utterly humiliated all over again in the same year when, after abjectly prostrating themselves before the corrupt fucks who run FIFA still came bottom with 2 votes when they tried to win the bid for the 2018 World Cup. Keep up the good work guys!

2009 Histomat National Idiot of the Year: So many to choose from the Con-Dem government - very very tricky - while I was tempted to award this (yet again) to Phil Woolas, but there can really only be one winner of this - Nick Clegg. Well done Nick, you may have gone from 'hero' to 'zero' among the wider mass of the British electorate and be on course to destroy your own political party in the process in the space of six months but you've won a Histomat award!

Runner up: The Police - especially Met police commissioner Paul Stevenson. Despite their past track record of bloodshed while 'policing protests' ranging the anti-fascist and revolutionary socialist Blair Peach 31 years ago to Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests, the police seemed to have learnt very little when faced with students protesting this year. Guys - when faced by 12 year old school students and disabled protesters wielding wheelchairs you shouldn't need to shit yourselves and start beating them up, and we shouldn't have to all praise your 'restraint' and 'professionalism' because you didn't resort to actually shooting those exercising their democratic rights but only left them needing brain surgery.

2009 Histomat Socialist Bloggers of the Year: This year has seen a proliferation of sorts in the number of blogs and internet sites documenting the history of far-left wing groups in the UK = for example see the list here, but I am aware that I have never given this prestigious award to a woman and so - even though she urged lefties to vote Lib Dem in the 2010 elections, took a crappy position on the SWP/Counterfire split and is already currently in slight danger of 'over-exposure' (she was on the BBC's Any Questions recently) - I have been increasingly impressed with the quality of Laurie Penny's work as the year progressed, which ranged from reports while 'embedded' within the UK student occupations to discussions of Mad Men, so she is a very deserved winner.

Runner up: This is Gramsci Country

2009 Histomat Most Incredible Quote of the Year:
'He has an incredible legacy: he improved the lives of millions of people here and around the world.'
Ed Miliband remembers Gordon Brown (well I guess someone has to...)

2009 Histomat Most Idiotesque Quote of the Year:
'You've Never Had It So Good' - rich Tory parasitical fuck Lord Young on the economic crisis. Young went on to describe the looming attack on 100,000 public sector jobs as a number so insignificant it falls 'within the margin of error'.

Runner up:
'A fascinating book...beautifully written, it is a rich and deeply moving history, which leaves the reader awed, humbled, yet uplifted...Figes visits their ordeals with enormous compassion, and he brings their history to life with his superb story-telling skills. I hope he writes for ever'
Historian Orlando Figes's 'skills' means he not only writes books - he also writes his own book reviews

Some Greatest 'Hits'

Recently I reached 500,000 'original hits' on Histomat, and as you might expect, accordingly I have been deluged with correspondence from far and wide congratulating me, and wondering if I might mark the historic occasion in any particular way. This blog has been going just over five years now, and so to have supposedly had 500,000 people read this blog in five years is well - a piddling 'achievement' in comparison with some of the best known left wing blogs, but still noteworthy in a sense. In previous junctures such as this, I have done top 'ten lists' about various things, so I figured a top ten list of some of my favourite posts ever - my 'greatest hits' as it were - might be appropriate. Okay, then here we go:

10. Book Review: Adventures in Marxism by Marshall Berman - see also here
9.Dead Queen Watch: Queen Elizabeth I
8. Anyone for England? Cricket, New Labour and the Ashes of Empire see also here
7. Book Review: Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History by Paul Blackledge - see also here
6. Blogging: New Commentariat or New Grub Street?
5. Book Review: A People's History of the British Empire by John Newsinger
4. The Romantic Anticapitalism of Iron Maiden
3. From Hegemony to Hot Fuzz: The 'Marxism' of Simon Pegg
2. Book Review: The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker
1. This Battle of Trafalgar Nonsense

However, I would have also like to have included for example my takes on Gosford Park, Phil Woolas, Marxism and Religion, the 'white working class', Oliver Kamm and the Euston Manifesto Tristram Hunt, the '7/7 bombings in London', Niall Ferguson, and The Decline and Fall of the English Murder but I guess one has to stop somewhere. Anyway, that gives people bored enough to visit here something to read - and if you think I have missed something out then please feel free to let us know. Cheers.

Socialists, Blogging and the election

It was noticeable that when Labour launched their election manifesto, Gordon Brown was introduced by a young blogger who apparently runs a blog called 'the stilettoed socialist'.

She told the gathering how the election would be fought not just through traditional mediums like posters and TV, but via blogs, YouTube and Twitter. "We are asking our supporters not just to have a look at our manifesto but to share it with their friends and we're making it easier than ever to do so."

Quite what the 2010 Labour Party Manifesto (which begins with a foreword from the Great Leader praising a criminal and disastrous illegal military occupation of an impoverished country before declaring 'I love Britain') has to do with socialism remains rather unclear. Indeed, the last time Gordon Brown wrote or said anything about or to do with socialism was probably before 'the stilettoed socialist' or myself were even born - and to be honest, if you ask me Brown's 'socialism' began to go downhill after this early piece from 1975.

I guess maybe one might reconcile one's commitment to socialism with the Labour Party Manifesto of 2010, if by socialism one actually means 'saving capitalism from itself'. In which case it is possible that what is exciting about the Labour Manifesto 2010 is less the Manifesto itself but simply the act of 'sharing' the manifesto with friends through social networking sites and blogs simply because sharing is vaguely socialistic in some sense...

But more importantly, the launch of the new 'easy to share online' Manifesto raises the question of how important the internet actually is to political organising and campaigning in the modern world. Some erstwhile socialists have argued that in the 21st century the simple rule should be 'Newspapers out, websites in'. As someone who has been kind of making a vague pretence of running a socialist blog over five years or so, I think it is worth quoting a piece by Jonny Jones in this weeks Socialist Worker, who argues against this.* Jonny notes that 'the internet can be a great tool for activists — but it is worse than useless if people start to believe it can be a replacement for real members and work on the ground'. It's a slightly provocative point, but one that I fully concur with.**

* For the classic defence of 'the revolutionary paper', see The Revolutionary Press by Chris Harman.

**But then again, what do I know? I mean, I hadn't even heard of 'the stilettoed socialist' until earlier this week and her exciting blog has been busy sharing all the tons of good and exciting news about New Labour since as far back as 2008...how on earth could I have missed it before now?

The 2009 Histomat Awards

After The Battle of Seattle a decade ago, I remember Socialist Worker had as its front page something like 'after a century of war, barbarism and crisis, Seattle shows the hope for the new century'. Well, as once again world leaders responsible for war, poverty, hunger and economic crisis find themselves holed up behind lines of riot police, besieged by anti-capitalist and environmental protesters in Copenhagen, it is clearer than ever that the only real hope for humanity in the next decade lies in building a mass movement against the system from below.

In short, we need to, ahem, Rage Against the Machine. Karl Marx understood this very well because he understood the barbaric consequences of the inequality resulting from the relentless capitalist drive for profit above everything else.

'Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time the accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole'

On the one hand one gets websites and magazines such as How to Spend It, designed to help the infinitessimily small minority of super rich - whose wealth rises year upon year at an almost exponential rate - spend some of their vast ill-gotten wealth and 'Christmas bonuses'. On the other hand, among the billions of people around the world who actually produce this fantastic wealth, the question that comes to mind is 'How to Spend What Exactly?' Millions upon millions go hungry, or die from starvation, wars and climate catastrophes. Billions suffer exploitation and bullying at work from managers determined to exert their 'right to manage' or else experience the one thing worse than having a shit job - not having one and the misery of unemployment. Millions in any case end up so alienated that 'celebrity culture', Simon Cowell and X-factor seems to represent something akin to the culmination of thousands of years of human civilisation.

I'd rant further, and more eloquently, but I have gone down with a nasty cold and just want to summon up the energy to get this post done before I can retire to my bed with lemsip. But lets just say, in a nutshell, that this year, basically, has been shit on so many levels - and small mercies such as the war criminal Blair being blocked from winning the position of President of the EU don't really make up for just how much shit has taken place. Still, roll on 2010 - and let's hope the new year is a happier one for socialists than the last year has been...

2009 Histomat International Hero(es)/Heroines of the Year: The people of Iran for rising up against a brutal regime in a valiant attempt to commemorate the Revolution of thirty years before.

Runner up: Malalai Joya, anti-war Afghan MP

2009 Histomat International Idiot(s) of the Year: Well, always a tricky one this - so many strong contenders. I was going to give it to the international banking community again for even imagining they could get away with waging a campaign to retain their bonuses this year - a campaign they seem to have won against all odds - but then I read about the growing racism in Switzerland and so in a slightly unsatisfactory compromise I decided to give it to 'Swiss bankers'.

Runner up: Whichever idiot thought it appropriate to give Obama the Nobel Peace Prize amidst the unfolding nightmare of Afghanistan.

2009 Histomat National Heroes/Heroines of the Year: The people around Military Families Against the War, particularly Joe Glenton and Peter Brierley

Runners up: Those workers who have so inspirationally fought back this past year in Britain - from Visteon to Vestas to the Lindsey oil refinery workers to Tower Hamlets lecturers to the Leeds bin workers to the BA Cabin staff and every other small struggle in-between - finally a bit of serious class struggle in Britain...

2009 Histomat National Idiot(s) of the Year: The Members of the British Parliament - particularly the Labour MPs - with perhaps a handful of exceptions. As John Newsinger noted,

'at last Labour MPs are beginning to revolt. Unfortunately, they are not revolting against union busting in the post or at the disgracefully low level of unemployment benefit. And they are not revolting at Brown’s proposed assets sale, at the obscene bonuses still being paid to bankers – or even at the Afghan war. Instead, they are revolting against having to pay back some of their fiddled expenses. Has there ever been such a contemptible shower? Revolting is the right word.'

Runner up: The BBC for inviting 'Nazi Nick' Griffin onto Question Time and so allowing a British fascist party perhaps the greatest ever single dose of mass publicity since the Daily Mail had a frontpage in 1934 saluting the British Union of Fascists under the banner 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts!'

2009 Histomat Socialist Bloggers of the Year: John Molyneux / the late, great Chris Harman, who will be sadly missed.

Runner up: Norman Strike.

2009 Histomat Most Incredible Quote of the Year:
'The banks are fucked, we're fucked, the country's fucked.'
A Labour Cabinet Minister reveals the awful truth, January 2009

2009 Histomat Most Idiotesque Quote of the Year:
'Out of office, but still in public life, Tony Blair remains a man of high intelligence and insight and above all a man of faith, idealism and integrity.'
- George W Bush awarding Tony Blair a Presidential Medal of Freedom

Runner up:
'I want to thank my good friend Tony Blair for coming today, somebody who did it first and perhaps did it better than I will do. He has been an example for so many people around the world of what dedicated leadership can accomplish. And we are very grateful to him.'
- Barack Obama on Tony Blair

Classical Marxism in the Blogosphere

While this blog of late has struggled to remain as exciting as watching Ipswich Town under Roy Keane playing football, it is good to know that there is still some excellent Marxist blogging out there going on - and not just from the usual suspect. Check out - if you have not done so already - for example, John Molyneux write On Shakespeare, Money and Power and Michaelangelo and Human Emancipation, while Chris Harman's blog is also well worth a look...

The 2008 Histomat Awards

What a year 2008 has been! We have seen Karl Marx's prophecy of potential capitalist downfall through the system's own internal contradictions once again vindicated, a black guy become the world's most powerful man and one of the leading lights of the European fascist movement, Jorg Haider, make one right turn too many for his own good. And just when you thought 2008 couldn't get more momentous, the annual Histomat awards come around again. Hallelujah! I mean, what are the chances of that happening?

2008 Histomat International Hero(es) of the Year:
The people of Greece for coming closest to paying true honour and respect to the memory of '1968' by having a general strike and rioting against murderous police brutality in the grand style.
Runners up: The people of America for making sure that after a long eight years there is village somewhere in Texas that will finally be reunited with its idiot.

2008 Histomat International Idiot(s) of the Year:
The international banking community should win hands down, but that would let the stockbrokers and the rest of the Western ruling class off the hook somewhat. Hmm, tricky. I think if I had to single out one merchant banker in particular for people to channel their anger against it would be this one...
Runners up: The people responsible for this tragedy at Walmart - a tragedy which illuminates the competitive and alienatiing nature of life under modern capitalism - above all blame here lies with the greedy bosses of Walmart.

2008 Histomat National Hero of the Year:
Tony Benn - an 'ideological thug' if I ever knew one.
Runners up: The Archbishops of York and Canterbury for hammering capitalism while praising Marx.

2008 Histomat National Idiot of the Year:
Its a dead heat between Phil Woolas, (Dumb) and James Purnell (Dumber) - both New Labour apparatchiks with only one thing on their mind - their slimy rise up the greasy pole of political power. Purnell, for those not in the know (and to be honest, you are best off not in the know), wants to force those on incapacity benefit (akin to 'the undeserving poor' in his world view) back to work at a time when anyone watching the news would know that firms are not exactly rushing to take on new staff at the moment...
Runner up: Former London mayor Ken Livingstone for championing first Sir Ian Blair then Cressida Dick for their 'talents' despite their presiding over the Met police slaying of Jean Charles de Menezes.

2008 Histomat Socialist Blogger of the Year:
As always this is such a close call, but I am going to give it to Hossam el-Hamalawy for not only running the best blog about labour struggles in Egypt but for initiating the Lenosphere project earlier this year...
Runners up: Ady Cousins/ Resistance MP3 for their services to the international proletariat. Check out audio coverage of recent Marxist day schools on the economic crisis.

2008 Histomat Most Idiotesque Blogger of the Year:
'Harry's Place' for among over things launching a nasty McCarthyite witch-hunt against cultural critic Owen Hatherley.
Runner up: As controversial as this sounds, I have to say that for all the massive attention that the blog initially rightly attracted when set up, George Orwell has been slightly disappointing as a blogger so far. Okay, the guy is new to the blogosphere, and needs time to find his feet, but his blog has rarely been worth dropping the dead donkey over (despite his interesting location in Spanish Morocco amidst the dying embers of the Spanish Civil War). We have however learnt a lot about Orwell's taste in food (he is partial to an egg or two a day), and we have had insight into his love of nature and fascination with the animal kingdom - which no doubt helped shape his great novel Animal Farm. I still have high hopes that Orwell will develop as a blogger over time, even though he is not quite currently living up to my initial billing (as a 'very much needed new presence in the blogosphere given the kind of idiocy which currently dominates it, not least from those who claim to stand in his legacy yet cheer on imperialist war' - like 'Harry's Place' - above)

2008 Histomat Most Incredible Quote of the Year:
George Bush admitting his biggest regret of his time in power was a 'failure of intelligence'. Yeah, like that was ever on the cards once he became President...
Runner up: David Blunkett on Clem Attlee: 'In freeing hundreds of millions of people from imperialism after the war (not least in India), he laid the foundations of a commonwealth of equals.'

2008 Histomat Most Idiotesque Quote of the Year:
'It was absolutely brilliant...an Obama moment a la Britain.'
Ian Gibson, Labour MP on, er, Gordon Brown's speech to this years Labour Party conference.
Runner up: George Galloway's idea that the world economic crisis means that the left has to stop talking about 'dead Russians'. Presuming Galloway is talking here about the likes of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin rather than say Leo Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, the argument is still idiotic. As someone once put it, 'those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it' and while of course the Left should always be doing far more than simply arguing the toss about the Russian Revolution and how it was lost ad infinitum, the destructive historical legacy of Stalinism cannot just be wished away by socialists - and those who stand in the real revolutionary democratic vision of 'socialism from below' still have much to critically learn from the likes of Lenin and Trotsky.

Reasons to be cheerful # 94

One of the few positive things about the global capitalist crisis is that it has led to the resuscitation of some superb Marxist blogs which had gone somewhat quiet of late but have now returned with a vengeance. Take for example, Monuments are for Pigeons, by the Canadian socialist 'Victor Serge'. As well as posts on the capitalist crisis, there are ruminations on why localism is no challenge to global capital, discussion of the politics of Barack Obama, reflections on what its like to go on strike as a low-paid part-time lecturer when its cold, and even a review of 'Rock the Dock' a (worthy but slightly uneven in quality if I remember rightly) album produced at the height of Britpop in solidarity with the Liverpool Dockers who went on strike in 1997 and were ultimately sold out by the trade union bureaucracy in league with New Labour. Oh, and there are some other reasons to be cheerful in the midst of the crisis - it is not just part-time lecturers in Canada who are striking back - the Greek working class is starting to fight back big time...

George Orwell Blogs! (sort of)

'It appears from reliable private information that Sir O. Mosley is a masochist of the extreme type in his sexual life.'

So wrote George Orwell in his diary on 29 August 1939*. If only Orwell were still around to see that certain things seem to run in the family of the British Union of Fascist leader...

Anyway, instead, we will have to make do with the fact that Orwell's old diaries will be serialised online starting from tomorrow, day by day, here. Orwell I think would not only have approved of the blogosphere, he is a very much needed new presence in it given the kind of idiocy which currently dominates it, not least from those who claim to stand in his legacy yet cheer on imperialist war.


*Thanks to this weeks Private Eye for bringing this to my attention.

Blogging for International Socialism in 2008

Last year I attempted to compile a list of bloggers linked to or supportive of the International Socialist Tendency, which can be read here. My pioneering effort in this direction was flawed however, crucially missing out lots of new IST bloggers while including all sorts of IST 'fellow travellers', at least one of whom has, er, sadly stopped 'fellow travelling' since then.

Now in 2008, Hossam in Egypt has issued A Call to Blogo-Arms to try to build up a definitive list of IST bloggers - a fascinating project which has already thrown up a whole number of revolutionary socialist blogs I had no idea about...probably in part because my Arabic is well, sadly non existent...

On Marxist criticism

Though he didn't have 21st century Marxist bloggers in mind, in 1928 Anatoly Lunarcharsky posed the interesting question, 'Are sharp and bitter polemics to be allowed?' His answer:

Generally speaking, sharp polemics are useful in that they keep the reader interested. Polemical articles, especially where both sides are wrong, all other things being equal, have more influence on the public and are better understood. In addition, the martial spirit of the Marxist critic as a revolutionary leads him to express his thoughts sharply, but at the same time it should be mentioned that to camouflage the weakness of his arguments with polemical brilliance is one of the critic’s greatest sins. Generally, when there are not many arguments but a multitude of various scathing remarks, comparison, mocking exclamations, and sly questions, then the impression may be gay but not at all serious. Criticism must be applicable to criticism itself, for Marxist criticism is at the same time scientific, and, in a way, artistic work. Anger is not the best guide in criticism and often means that the critic is wrong.

Admittedly, sometimes biting sarcasm and tirades are torn out of the critic’s heart. The more or less discerning ear of another critic, reader, and particularly writer can always distinguish between natural anger and mere malice. In our constructive effort there must be as little malice as possible. It must not be mixed with class hatred. Class hatred strikes with intent, but like a cloud over the earth it is above personal malice. By and large, the Marxist critic, without falling into cheerful indulgence, which would be very wrong on his part, must be a priori benevolent. His supreme joy must be in finding the positive and revealing it to the reader in all its splendour. Assistance must be another of his aims – to channel and to warn – and only rarely should it be necessary to attempt to undo the villain with the piercing arrow of laughter or contempt or with overwhelming criticism, which can easily annihilate any puffed-up nonentity.

All worth thinking about, certainly, even if Histomat personally falls very short of this ideal. Anyway, after a brief plug for Anindya Bhattacharyya's article on 'culture, commerce and class society' and Sadie Robinson on the roots of reformism, I thought I would just highlight a few excellent little articles on the Marxist blogosphere which I found while pissing about during my lunch hour. First up, Ed Rooksby blames capitalism not the working class for the current credit crunch, Richard Seymour writes on apartheid in South Africa, and finally Louis Proyect writes on Herman Melville and indigineous peoples. I also came across a new Adorno-esque blog entitled Futures and Pasts, which I thought also deserved a mention.

Edited to add: Stuart Hall on Raymond Williams (1988)

The 2007 Histomat Awards

Yep, its time to hand out this years Histomat Awards - possibly the most prestigious awards going in the Marxist corner of the blogosphere...

2007 Histomat International Hero(es) of the Year:
The people of Burma, Pakistan and Egypt for courageously fighting against brutal Western-backed dictatorships. (Runner up: The people of Australia for finally dumping Tory warmonger John Howard in spectacular fashion.)

2007 Histomat International Idiot of the Year:
Whichever very sick individual it was who thought Tony Blair perfectly fitted the job description of international 'peace envoy' to the Middle East (Runner up: Whichever sick individual it was who thought Al Gore deserved the Nobel Peace Prize)

2007 Histomat National Hero(ine) of the Year:
The students who defended democracy by storming a Nazi infested Oxford Union (Joint Runners up: Karen Reissmann, mental health nurse sacked for campaigning against NHS privatisation / George Monbiot, campaigning environmentalist)

2007 Histomat National Idiot of the Year:
Nick Cohen for writing the quite abysmally dire What's Left? (Runner up: Margaret Hodge)

2007 Histomat Socialist History Blogger of the Year:
Reading the Maps (for among other things putting two huge chunks of his PhD on EP Thompson online) (Joint Runners Up: Lenin's Tomb/ Louis Proyect)

2007 Histomat Most Idiotesque Blogger of the Year:
Oliver Kamm. (Runner up: The horrendously mis-named 'Socialist Unity' blog).

2007 Histomat Most Incredible Quote of the Year:
George W Bush on the inspiration of the victorious American war of Independence: 'We were a small band of freedom-loving patriots taking on the most powerful empire in the world.'

2007 Histomat Most Idiotesque Quote of the Year:
David Lammy who said of Tony Blair: 'In highlighting slavery in the way he did the Prime Minister struck the right tone and showed tremendous courage. He showed leadership but more importantly enabled us to move on. I feel very strongly that he follows in the tradition of Nelson Mandela who talked about peace and reconciliation.'

Probably the best International Socialist blogs in the World

It is official - Histomat is currently the 25th best left-wing British blog. Well, the 25th best left blog according to a random socialist with a penchant for Labourites and soft Stalinists who comes from Swindon anyway...

As my contribution to the apparently unsatiable desire that exists in the blogosphere for lists of left-wing bloggers, I have decided to compile a list of the top ten bloggers who are fellow members or supporters of the International Socialist Tendency. Well it is the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution and all that coming up next month and this seems as good a way as celebrating as any...well, maybe.

The Top Ten International Socialist Blogs...Probably

1. Lenin's Tomb (UK)
2. arabawy (Egypt)
3. ISO Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe)
4. If there is hope... (Canada)
5. John Molyneux (UK)
6. Sursock (Middle East)
7. The Measures Taken/ Sit Down Man... (UK)
8. Le Poireau Rouge (France)
9. Respect Supporter's Blog (UK)
10. Through the Scary Door (UK)

The list is rather dominated by UK based bloggers I am afraid - I am aware that there are must be many bloggers who are part of the IST or who stand for socialism from below and uncompromisingly against imperialism who deserve to be in this list - like perhaps The Sharp Side and many of the other fine blogs I link to - if I have missed anyone obvious out please don't feel offended - get in touch...

Edited to add:
The IS Blogs/Sites I forgot (sorry)

Kotaji (Korea)
The Bat Cave (UK)
Keep Left (South Africa)
Unity blog (New Zealand)
Resistance MP3 (UK)

Also edited to add:
Blogs/Websites which have made an historic past contribution to the IS tradition online (yes, a snappy title I know)

Rick Kuhn
David Renton
Dead Men Left

Orwell and the blogosphere

Given this weeks Socialist Worker has an article which suggests George Orwell might well have approved of blogging, I thought I would just put up two great little Orwell quotes, dating from 1939 and typical of his writing in the period just after he had returned to Britain from fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and which I think might illuminate some of the current fraternal debates between those socialists who remain inside the Labour Party in Britain and those of us trying to build Respect as an alternative.

'a Left-wing party, which, within a capitalist society, becomes a war party, has already thrown up the sponge, because it is demanding a policy which can only be carried out by its opponents' (1939).

'Nothing is likely to save us except the emergence within the next two years of a real mass party whose first pledges are to refuse war and to right imperial injustice.'(1939).

The Last Post*

Dear brothers, sisters, comrades, friends,

There comes a time when all good things must come to end and this is true of this blog, Histomat: Adventures in Historical Materialism. As I wrote in my first post, 'I hope that it will strengthen the work of all those involved in recording and remembering the truth, in the face of official apologists for imperial and corporate power.' It is now clear that this mission has been accomplished as we have succeeded in winning the battle of ideas to the extent that now even the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has come over to our way of thinking.

As the esteemed editor of the Daily Mail Paul Dacre has noted:

'What really disturbs me is that the BBC in every corpus of its corporate body is against conservatism with a small c...it exercises a kind of cultural Marxism where it tries to undermine conservative society by turning those values on their head.'

There is now no longer any point in trying to keep up a Marxist blog with a cultural bent as one only needs to read the BBC site, particularly its society and culture pages which often represent the Frankfurt School at its best. On the BBC, one can watch and listen to endless discussions of cultural Marxists such as Antonio Gramsci, Theodor Adorno, Britney Spears, Walter Benjamin, David Beckham, Victor Serge, George Lukacs, CLR James, Paris Hilton and Stuart Hall. After all, the fact that Marx was voted the greatest philosopher of our time by BBC listeners surely shows the extent to which the British working class now exercises hegemony over other classes and wider British society through the BBC.

Dacre has also argued the BBC is 'Orwellian' which is really the ultimate tribute one can pay - this blog has always been inspired by George Orwell's 'literary Trotskyism'. One can understand how revolutionary and deeply subversive programmes such as 'Strictly Come Dancing' and 'The Weakest Link' clearly work to spread the Marxist ideas of Leon Trotsky among the British working class. Programmes such as these clearly stand at the pinacle of human culture, working as both politics and art. I will end by thanking all those who have contributed comments to this blog to date, and with quoting from an article by the late Paul Foot on Orwell on the centenary of his birth. Orwell, who once worked of course for the BBC, sadly never lived to see this historic day when cultural Marxism would triumph within the institution. Writing in 2003, Foot noted the following of Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four:

'It foresees a horrific world, divided into three power blocks constantly changing sides in order to continue fighting against each other. The governments of all three keep the allegiance of their citizens by pretending there has only ever been one war, one enemy. "The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control' they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'."

There is doublethink going on now as Oceania (the US and Britain) prepares for war against Iraq. We, the Winston Smiths of today, know that 15 years ago, the US and Britain were in alliance with Iraq. We know that the British Foreign Office sided with Saddam Hussein when he did those terrible things to his own people listed in Jack Straw's recent doublethink dossier. We know that our government changed their own guidelines in order to sell Saddam the ingredients of any weapons of mass destruction he may or may not now have. We also know that the key bases from which US bombers will take off to kill Iraqis are in Saudi Arabia, whose regime is even more dictatorial, savage and terrorist than Saddam's. But where does that knowledge exist? Only in our own consciousness.

Orwell's great novel was not only a satire, but a warning. He wanted to alert his readers to the dangers of acquiescence in the lies and contortions of powerful governments and their media toadies. The anti-war movement is growing fast, in Britain and the US. Fortunately, we can still, as Orwell urged in another passage, "turn our consciousness to strength" and shake off the warmongers "like a horse shaking off flies". If we don't, we are in for another awful round of victories over our own memories and of doublethink.'

*Possibly.

The 2006 Histomat Awards

Karl Marx talks somewhere about 'rural idiocy' - and it is hard to get more idiotesque (an invented word, but I like it) than rural Suffolk in England. Still, I suppose at least now when I say I am from Ipswich, people know where I mean...

Anyway, if people were wondering why this blog had gone kind of quiet recently, it was not because I had met a grisly end at the hands of a psychopath (well, not at the time of writing) but because in general everything kind of moves somewhat slower outside of a city (contrary to much media coverage, Ipswich is a town - not a city, hence Ipswich Town Football Club...)

This post is just to wish Histomat readers seasonal greetings and good wishes for the new year, as well as to hand out my end of year awards, (a new feature, partly inspired by Morbo):

2006 Histomat International Hero of the Year: Gary Younge (a Guardian journalist based in America - almost always bang on the money and consistently a voice for the voiceless) (Runner Up: Hugo Chavez)

2006 Histomat International Idiot of the Year: Tony Blair (I know this blog seems to have developed an unhealthy obsession with him - I promise I will move onto Gordon Brown next year) (Runner up: Donald Rumsfeld)

2006 Histomat National Hero(ine) of the Year: Salma Yaqoob (Respect Councillor) (Runner up: Tony Benn, President of the Stop the War Coalition).

2006 Histomat National Idiot of the Year: Jack Straw (Runner up: Billy Bragg's idiotesque 'New England' campaign)

2006 Histomat Socialist History Blogger of the Year: Dave Renton (a UK bias, I know, apologies) (Runner Up: If there is hope...)

2006 Histomat Most Idiotesque Blogger of the Year: The collective at Harry's Place. (Runner up: The Monarchist Blog - has to be seen to be believed)

John Molyneux

John Molyneux, a leading British revolutionary Marxist, has decided to set up a blog. This is excellent news - not least because I now have somewhere in the blogosphere to direct those who happen to hit on my blog after searching for 'adventures in historical materialism', somewhere where they might have a chance of learning something about, you know, Marxism. I particularly recommend reading his article on 'Their History and Ours' and his review of Geoffrey Swain's biography of Leon Trotsky - which was printed in International Socialism. Goddamn it - go and read it all.