Kmflett's Blog

22^nd January marks the 101st anniversary of the first Labour Government and the 134th anniversary of the birth of Antonio Gramsci. Which has had the more lasting legacy for the left? In 1977 New Left Review 1/100 Perry Anderson published a major essay the Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci. It was notable for looking at the relevance of Gramsci for a revolutionary politics in the mid-1970s, focusing on the concepts of wars of manoeuvre and position. In 2017 Verso republished the essay in book format with a new introductory essay by Anderson.

In the concluding paragraph he suggests a balance sheet between reform and revolution:

Viewed world-historically, the difference (social democracy) has made has not been
great. The welfare state attributed to it exists in countries where it has
never enjoyed significant power- Japan, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, even in
its fashion the United States-as well as those in which it has. In favourable
conditions, it has yielded a set of small societies in Scandinavia markedly
more civilised than the bourgeois median, even if these too are now subject to
erosion. The balance sheet of what was once reformism is not negligible but it
is modest. Of the revolutionary tradition, that cannot be said. Europe was
largely saved from Nazism by the Red Army, and China today looms larger in the
scales of growth and power than the Soviet Union ever did. The crimes and
disasters, not to speak of the ironies and reversals, of the communist record
are plain. But that it changed the world as the Second International never did
is equally plain. Not coincidentally, the legacy of its ideas, for those with
any interest in ideas, is much richer. Gramsci alone is sufficient testimony to
that.

It is an interesting balance sheet even if I wouldn’t agree that Russia was part of a revolutionary
tradition after the late 1920s or that modern day China can be included in
that. But of the classic theorists of the 1920s and 1930s, Gramsci included,
Anderson surely has a point about an important legacy. There may be political
lessons to be learnt from the 1924 Labour Government but in terms of relevant
ideas for the left Gramsci is the person to study

In the British Library January 2025

I’ve been a reader at the British Library and before that the Round Reading Room since 1984.

Since the October 2023 cyber attack things have been difficult,  not least for Library workers who have been working to sort out the significant issues the attack raised.

Progress has been made. A remote ordering service was restored in October 2024. Its clunky but it does work. Access to much of the BL collections has also been restored. On the downside there is still no PC access in the St Pancras reading rooms (personal devices only) and hence no access to a range of electronic resources that prior to October 2023 were only available in the reading rooms (at least without paying)

Visiting on a typically miserable January afternoon this week, the reading rooms looked rather better populated than they have been since October 2023. They are a good studying place with working wi-fi so how many readers were using BL material, as opposed to something else, its impossible to say. Certainly the shelves at the issue desk which hold books ordered in advance still don’t  look exactly overburdened.

Kudos again to the Library workers and perhaps the new CEO Rebecca Lawrence will opine at the some stage.

Why the Government, the last and the current, have not acted to help  the UK’s National Library does seem to reflect the times…

The Eyebrow question. From Engels to the AI eyebrow

Carlo Ancelotti, currently Real Madrid manager, is probably the foremost current exponent of the raised eyebrow.

 The wider question of eyebrows in social and political expression is an underplayed one.

The late Denis Healey had amongst the most impressive of post-1945 male eyebrows in public life although it is perhaps less clear if they were deployed in the service of making a political point.

Jeremy Corbyn however is a noted eyebrow raiser, a combination of which with his award winning beard is often more impactful than verbal communication.

Searching the archives for how significant eyebrows can be I found Engels noting to Marx in a letter dated 19th November 1844:

I am up to my eyebrows in English newspapers and books upon which I am drawing for my book on the condition of the English proletarians

All power to the eyebrows in my view.

However 2025 suggests a possible exception. In a trade union consultation, part of which was a demonstration of how AI can now produce plausible (i.e not robotic)human interaction, an example of an AI raised eyebrow was shown. What would Engels have made of that I wonder?

Beard Liberation Front

21st January

Garth Hudson the Canadian musician who played with the Band and also in that capacity played with Bob Dylan has been admitted to the Beard Hall of Fame following his death at 87.

Garth Hudson was one of the musicians who played with Bob Dylan at the famous Manchester Free Trade Hall concert in May 1966 when an audience member shouted ‘Judas’ at Dylan who had moved from an acoustic to an electric set.

Garth Hudson’s beard was an iconic presence over seven decades underlining magnificent resilience in his musical beard power.

The Beard Hall of Fame is a virtual construction consisting of impactful beard wearers of the post-1945 period

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jan/21/garth-hudson-founder-member-of-the-band-and-bob-dylan-collaborator-dies-aged-87

Fred Engels was a beer enthusiast- particularly Pilsner, and particularly draught versions of it. He also took a dim view of temperance.

He might well have viewed Dry January as revisionist at best, so consider a visit to the pub a way of sticking two fingers up at capitalism and all its works…

We sampled the beer conscientiously right up to 71 degrees of lati-
tude; it was good but not so good as the German stuff, and invariably
bottled. Only in Trondheim could one actually get draught beer. Here
too, by the way, the legislators are much concerned with temperance and
it would seem that sales of Bismarck’s spirits have been steadily drop-
ping. We shall probably carry out a reconnaissance today to see whether there is a beer hall in Bergen where draught ale may be had.

Engels to Liebknecht 22^nd July 1890 near Leipzeg

Farage is a self proclaimed ‘friend’ of Trump but he wasn’t at the 20th January inauguration- he didn’t get an invite. Neither did Braverman or Truss but to be fair they were never invited anyway.

The UK politician who did make it into the Rotunda was of course Boris Johnson…

Both Suella Braverman and Liz Truss have been seen hanging around in Washington for Trump’s Inauguration. Whether they were actually invited and if so by who is unknown.

They have been in a competition for what might be called Leaving the twenty-first century. The below was posted on their respective (official) twitter accounts on 20th January.

Braverman

A national emergency declared on the southern border.

Drill, baby, drill.

There are only two genders: male and female.

A merit-based country.

Let freedom ring!

Truss

A golden age for America.

The era of decline is ending.

Now we need to bring this spirit to Britain.

The West must be saved and this is the start

American Carnage-whisky, cognac, angostura bitters

Im-PEACH This-gin, vermouth, peach

Red Wave-vodka, aperol, lemon

Sunday Times 19th January

The Ambridge Socialist

19^th January

Brian lies about how good he is at bridge

Brian, as a member of the Ambridge ruling class, is not required to tell the truth. However being found out by his current special friend Miranda, for over promising how good he would be at a bridge game was an awkward social  faux pas.

Neil is also struggling and continues to claim that he was fostered when documented Archers history shows he was not. Perhaps the current BBC regime feels that the Archers just has too much history..

Beavers

Beavers was again the big story of the week. For Daveed Archer beavers equal badgers and are the enemy. Justin does not agree and is funding the eventual arrival of badgers legally at the rewilding project. What is in it for Justin, and he wouldn’t be doing it otherwise, is not year clear

Rex & Rochelle

The Ambridge Socialist has checked and this week’s BBC script writer has not just popped over for a guest appearance from Eastenders but has written 150 episodes over the years. The Rex, Rochelle, Joy and Mick too saga continues to stimulate large amounts of speculation on Archers social media. Joy and Rochelle have excellent acting pedigrees and drama is far from always absent from the Archers. Hence, neither to laugh or to cry but to understand…

Nigel Farage, the leader and indeed owner of Reform UK Ltd is not in Clacton this weekend, as might be expected as he is the MP. Rather as often he is in the US, in fact in Washington for Trump’s inauguration.

Meanwhile it has emerged that deputy leader Richard Tice, who is MP for Boston and Skegness is actually spending a good deal of time not in his constituency but in Dubai. His partner Isabel Oakeshott, the right-wing media commentator, has moved there reportedly because she does not like the Government’s decision to impose VAT on private school fees. All is well however as Tice has noted that his family oversaw the construction of the first tower block in Dubai back in the day.

Truly men of the people…