On Jamborees
I note on twitter that the World Transformed event, to be held in Brighton in late September is being denounced as a ‘trot jamboree’
https://theworldtransformed.org/
The denouncers are it appears individuals who are often described currently as ‘centrists’ but are in fact just Labour right-wingers. What they know about Trotskyism or what the event itself has to do with it is perhaps something for another post.
It might be better to understand it as a gathering of strands of the Labour and radical left looking, in the main, at various issues on the current political agenda.
Obviously it will generally be to the left of Keir Starmer and the current Labour leadership but only in a one-dimensional society would that be worthy of further note.
The use of the term ‘jamboree’ is however interesting. The word does not example appear in either E P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class or in Tony Benn’s Diaries. Generally its most often associated with the Scouts.
The implication when used critically however seems to have been that while the event may be fun it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. The right-wing author A N Wilson in his book on the Victorians describes Chartists gathering before the Kennington Common protest for the vote on 10th April 1848 as being involved in a jamboree. Covering a more recent period the late socialist historian Raph Samuel in the Lost World of British Communism describes Marxism Today events as jamborees. He was I’m sure no great fan.
That said looking at the TWT programme there seems to be space for both fun and serious political discussion so perhaps those looking for a jamboree may not have their expectations fulfilled.
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