Kmflett's Blog

27^th April 1937: 87 years since the death of Gramsci

The Italian revolutionary and Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci died 87 years ago today. He was just 46 and had been held illegally in fascist prisons since 1926.

With the publication of the second 100th edition of New Left Review (July/August 2016) Perry Anderson returned to Gramsci, who he wrote about in the 100th edition of the first series of the NLR (Nov/Dec 1976).

In the Antinomies Anderson concluded that while it may seem to be stretching things a little to look at Gramsci’s relevance for the 1970s, in reality what he was involved in- factory occupations, workers control, a lengthy spell in a fascist prison that produced the Notebooks- was at that time only 4 or 5 decades away. We’re now 4 further decades away.

In 1976 Anderson made the point that the debates about revolutionary theory and practice that Gramsci was involved in, in the 1920s represented the pinnacle of where left thinking had reached on these questions and in some ways it still does.

In the 2016 Heirs of Gramsci, Anderson attempted a rather different exercise- primarily to look at how theorists in recent decades have applied Gramsci’s ideas in the Prison Notebooks. He praises the work of the late Stuart Hall in using Gramsci to analyse Thatcherism but notes he lost his way in the early New Labour years. He also seems keen on the work of Laclau and Mouffe (I was and remain no fan) which to be fair he suggests had some relevance to the kind of political approach taken by Podemos.

He doesn’t, unfortunately, in my view mention the work of the late Chris Harman on Gramsci who argued against the appropriation of his ideas by what were then known as ‘eurocommunists’.

There is now continuing research and writing on Gramsci including the publication of all his writings (in 8 volumes) up to the period of the Prison Notebooks.

However as the convenor of the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, while Gramsci influenced the work of EP Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm (Anderson 2016 notes this) I can’t recall a paper in recent times that has touched on Gramsci, unless it was something I mumbled from the chair.

87 years on however Gramsci’s writings and his life repay study by anyone interested in Marxist ideas on how to understand and change the world and by anyone who is trying to do so.

Beard Liberation Front

27th April

First anniversary of the Tony Blair mullet: Beard Liberation Front claims victory on beard warning

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has claimed victory on the first anniversary of leading clean shaven revisionist Tony Blair appearing with a mullet hairstyle.

The campaigners said at the time that Blair could not hope to cover up his clean shaven past by growing a beard. It was a warning that he heeded.

It was during Blair’s time as Labour leader that the late Frank Dobson, Labour candidate for London Mayor in 2000, was ordered to shave off his trademark beard. He refused.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, it looked like Tony Blair was trying to revive his Ugly Rumours image and hairstyle but he didn’t have a beard then either. History will record him as a clean shaven revisionist and hopefully, a year on from Mullet Day, he has now learnt to embrace the verdict.

Why I’m staying with Twitter, despite the new owner

There is considerable discussion (mostly on Twitter) about the implications of a very wealthy person, Elon Musk, buying Twitter. The deal has yet to be completed and it will take a good while for Musk to start to have an impact on the way the Company is run.

Musk has a controversial reputation, and workforce relations at his Tesla company are part of that. Perhaps there are very wealthy people whose reputations are unsullied but I tend to think the nature of the status suggests issues.

Aditya Chakrabortty is appropriately scathing about Musk here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/26/elon-musk-king-of-trolls-purchase-twitter-dangerous

Musk clearly has some ideas about what to do with Twitter. He will not be accountable in any serious sense for what happens if he manages to implement them, but then the previous very wealthy owners were in exactly the same place ( a point Musk has frequently made).

Of course it would be much better if the left not only had its own independent media, but one which had anything like the reach of Twitter. Twitter itself does not refresh all the areas and sections of society that others don’t either, as I reflect frequently in looking for effective ways to communicate in my professional capacity as a union officer.

In the meantime I’ll be sticking with twitter and hoping that pressure leads to effective and democratic regulation of social media that puts some constraints on whoever owns it.

In addition this may be only one part of a longer story. Musk may be a very wealthy person but as the Financial Times notes his $44bn bid for Twitter does not represent him buying it as such. It is financed by debt to banks, other equity (in essence investment Musk has lined up) and a loan secured against the value of Tesla. At the moment financing all that may not be a big issue for Musk but it could become so, in which case Twitter might end up for sale again…

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release 26^th April

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front expresses caution on Twitter sale

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has expressed caution on the news that wealthy US businessman Elon Musk has brought Twitter.

The campaigners note that Musk has on occasion worn an Abraham Lincoln style chin beard but more frequently appears clean shaven, while former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had a full organic beard.

However it is Musk’s intentions for how the social media platform will run in future that has focused the BLF’s interest. Twitter is a forum for discussion, debate and promotion of hirsuteness. However there can also be pogonophobia. The BLF says getting the balance right between the two is something that keenly interests its supporters and the wider hirsute community.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, in the UK there will be a legislative framework around Twitter if Parliament finally agrees. However this is unlikely to make a significant difference to Beard Twitter and here we will be watching closely what Elon Musk says and does and whether he decides to adopt a more frequent hirsute appearance.

Jacob Rees Mogg is in the Office

Jacob Rees Mogg has made the front page of the Mail with an edict that civil servants should return to the office and has reportedly been leaving what he no doubt calls billet douxs for those he finds not at their desk.

Boris Johnson, whose attendance at offices seems, er variable, backs him while Nadine Dorries for some reason or other doesn’t. One is tempted to note, who cares? To actually check whether someone is an office or not and if they are not why not, requires a significant number of people with accompanying expense and probably a (most likely illegal) electronic monitoring of what they are up to.

Many employers tend to focus in 2022 on whether employees are getting the job done they are meant to be doing and appear when they are meant to for specific things either in person or virtually. Its often called hybrid working.

I started work in an office in 1979 and I still have a (very large) central London office (to myself) which I haven’t been in for a while. This does promote some minor issues that need to be dealt with from time to time but in general in 2022 is no problem at all. Very few are interested where I actually am as long as I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

An obsession with being in the office for many is a very twentieth century idea if not a Victorian one, which may be why Rees Mogg has it. Offices are expensive to run and rarely occupied for more than part of any week. There are reasons for being in one. Collaborative work meetings may go better in person, particularly if lengthy. Meeting colleagues, socialising and informal chats may well be helpful, depending on whether those one wants to meet are actually there and available.

The world of on-line meetings via Zoom or Teams has changed the perspective somewhat. Why spend hours travelling to a relatively brief in person meeting for example, when it can be done virtually and the time saved used productively for other things?

Of course without trade union representation and organisation one can pontificate on the matter but ultimately the employer will determine without consultation or consent. That no doubt is what Rees Mogg has in mind, but he will find the world of work in 2022 is not so simple as he thinks.

Beard Liberation Front

PRESS RELEASE 26th April

Contact Keith Flett      07803 167266

HIRSUTE PREPARE FOR TRADITIONAL MAY DAY BEARD WAGGLE

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the ancient May Day tradition of Beard Waggling will be revived once again on Sunday May 1st as, with the weather set reasonably fair in many areas, the hirsute will celebrate the coming of Spring by waggling their beards

The beard waggle, a traditional British May Day custom, involves shaking the beard vigorously from side to side and in doing so stimulating air currents that can cause objects to levitate slightly.

Waggling the beard when it has become damp due to rain however is problematic. The BLF says that those preparing for a beard waggle need to pay careful attention to the weather forecast as some rain is always possible.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, the Beard Waggle is one of the great May Day traditions but it went into decline with the rise of the safety razor. Now with the new culture of beards, the waggle is firmly back and is gaining in popularity each year.

Beard Liberation Front guide on how to train for May Day beard waggling

1] Ensure the beard is supple. This may be done by moistening is slightly with water or, if preferred, craft beer.

2] Choose a suitable location to waggle, preferably in the sun rather than the shade

3] Move the beard vigorously from side to side and then up and down while otherwise standing still. Repeat several times

4] While waggling the traditional chant is, Hail the Beard, Hail Spring

5] Alternatively beard wagglers may simply intone Om, Om, Om

6) Beard Waggling may be done standing up or sitting down. The latter may help beard stability while waggling*

*thanks to the South Wales Breakaway Faction of the BLF

Ambridge Socialist

25th April

Illegal P&O style sackings at Grey Gables. Update: lawyers no substitute for staff action

After the owner of Grey Gables Oliver Sterling claimed that the explosion at the hotel in early 2020 and the impact of COVID meant that he has had to take the decision to shut Grey Gables and sell it to a company fronted up by Mr Shah who has recently been staying at the hotel, a dispute with Grey Gables workers is brewing.

Grey Gables will not be sold as a going concern but will now close for at least 12 months and be relaunched as a new upmarket venue and eaterie for Borsetshire.

Grey Gables has more than 20 staff but Stirling made no attempt to consult with them or trade unions and did not provide for a statutory 30 day consultation period or file the appropriate HR1 form detailing the redundancies with the Government.

This is exactly the same behaviour as the rogue employer P&O used recently. It is illegal and Grey Gables workers will have a case for unfair dismissal. Roy Tucker threatened the new owner Adil Shah with Tribunal cases last Thursday.

It now seems that Tucker has employed a solicitor with a view to challenging the decision to shut Grey Gables without consultation and sack the workers.

‘Generous’ redundancy payments have been mentioned but it’s not clear whether, as with P&O, this will extend beyond the current statutory maximum capped at £17,130 for 20 or more years service. Shah told Roy Tucker that a ‘bonus’ would be paid on top of statutory redundancy, clearly with the aim of heading off legal proceedings. Certainly chef Ian believes he is in line for a substantial pay out.

Given that Sterling plans to close Grey Gables by early May and make people redundant the Ambridge Socialist calls on workers to occupy the building to stop closure. Their specific demands will no doubt need to be democratically discussed and agreed amongst the workforce and with Unite, where they are members.

Legal action, which will take time if it is to be pursued, is an important tool with which to threaten Oliver Sterling and Adil Shah but is no substitute for workers action now.

Ambridge Socialist Editor Keith Flett said, Oliver Stirling and Adil Shah cannot be allowed to get away with tossing long serving and loyal employees on the scrapheap at short notice and breaking the law in doing so. We think Grey Gables workers should occupy the hotel and seek a way forward that is acceptable to them. Legal action is an option but the best its likely to achieve is to order statutory redundancy to be paid. A Court could order the reinstatement of sacked workers but there is no way of implementing that if the owners resist. Rather compensation would be paid.

Macron’s En Marche: a failed political project or something to be copied in the UK?

Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the second round of the French Presidential Election made him the first President for a while to win a second term. Yet his vote dropped while the vote for the fascist candidate Marine Le Pen went over 40%. Her father got derisory votes in the 1970s but the impact of his political project has only increased since.

Macron was not a particularly popular candidate not just for his policies such as increasing the pension age or a focus on Islamophobia, but because he was thought to be an aloof candidate of the rich. He admitted in his victory speech that much of his second round vote was people wanting to stop Le Pen. The abstention and blank ballot count was high for France.

It might be argued that while Macron’s victory was a defeat for fascism, this time, there was also a failure of the left. Melenchon narrowly failed to be in the second round ballot and it can be argued that had at least some of the left parties combined- for example the Greens and the Communists and perhaps the NPA, it might have been different. Melenchon says he plans such a coalition for June’s Parliamentary elections.

Macron’s victory was met with street protests in Paris and the Yellow Vest movement is a reminder that whether Le Pen can ultimately now be stopped in 2027 is about a good deal more than what happens electorally.

Even so the Sunday Times (24^th April) has noted that Tony Blair, Trevor Philips, Rory Stewart and others are planning a British version of En Marche partly it appears in the belief that Starmer is not an Election winner. How far this is actually true is another matter but there have been numerous ‘centrist’ political projects in Britain over the last 10 years or so, all of which went nowhere at all, due to lack of interest from voters in the main. The Liberal Democrats who arguably own the franchise are not polling notably better than in the recent past despite their well known ability to focus on and win individual polls rather than wider elections.

We shall see but perhaps the key thing here is that while there is a focus on electoral politics, this isn’t just about that. In fact very far from it, as Le Pen unfortunately understands well.

Macron win. No dancing in the streets, but protests

In 2012 a victory for the socialist Hollande in the French Presidential Election offered hope that a major European Government would ditch the neo-liberal policy of austerity and develop something that hits bankers more than those who use banks. The hope was confounded and a Minister in that Government, Macron, broke with it to form a new centrist party En Marche. Macron won easily in 2017 and much less easily in 2022.

The news of Hollande’s poll win brought out many thousands on to the streets, not least to a victory rally at Bastille in central Paris where Hollande addressed the crowd.

There is an historical benchmark for such occasions and it is whether or not people were to be found dancing in the streets at the news of Hollande’s win.

Barbara Ehrenreich has written a book about dancing being an expression of collective joy stretching back to ancient societies.

Ehrenreich uses primarily an anthropological framework for her commentary.  It is clear that people coming together in a crowd to mark important occasions and to celebrate in certain ways such as dancing and music is a very old tradition indeed.

In more recent times this became in many cases celebration through the rituals of Carnival, a moment when traditional constraints to behaviour could be loosened.

Not all such occasions have been expressions of collective joy which opened towards the political left. The English tradition of Rough Music which was certainly a collective expression of a popular mood as a crowd gathered to make a noise and focus on those who had transgressed expected behaviour in some ways, was sometimes reactionary.

The modern usage of the term has been more specific and can probably be dated back to the Martha Reeves and the Vandellas 1964 Tamla Motown record Dancing in the Streets.

The song was a massive hit for the group and Motown and is still played almost 60 years after its release.

Yet the meaning of the song was both disputed and perhaps left deliberately unclear.

When Martha Reeves came to England it is suggested that a reporter asked her if the song was about riot. She replied that this was absurd. It was of course about having a celebratory party.

However when the oppressed in society decide to take action against their oppressors there is often a moment of celebration of collective power about it.

A view is that Dancing in the Streets was certainly about, for a wider public, enjoying yourself. It also sent a message to the substantial black audience for Motown records that getting out on the streets around the civil rights movement was not just appropriate but potentially enjoyable.

There was however no dancing in the streets of Paris on Sunday night but rather young protesters angry at the strength of the fascist vote and the fact that Macron’s neo-liberal policies had again triumphed. The Socialist Party of Hollande has been reduced to the political margins. The street is likely to be a significant factor in French politics…

Beard Liberation Front

PRESS RELEASE 25th April

Contact Keith Flett      07803 167266

HIRSUTE PREPARE FOR TRADITIONAL MAY DAY BEARD WAGGLE

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the ancient May Day tradition of Beard Waggling will be revived once again on Sunday May 1st as, with the weather set reasonably fair in many areas, the hirsute will celebrate the coming of Spring by waggling their beards

The beard waggle, a traditional British May Day custom, involves shaking the beard vigorously from side to side and in doing so stimulating air currents that can cause objects to levitate slightly.

Waggling the beard when it has become damp due to rain however is problematic. The BLF says that those preparing for a beard waggle need to pay careful attention to the weather forecast as some rain is always possible.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, the Beard Waggle is one of the great May Day traditions but it went into decline with the rise of the safety razor. Now with the new culture of beards, the waggle is firmly back and is gaining in popularity each year.

Beard Liberation Front guide on how to train for May Day beard waggling

1] Ensure the beard is supple. This may be done by moistening is slightly with water or, if preferred, craft beer.

2] Choose a suitable location to waggle, preferably in the sun rather than the shade

3] Move the beard vigorously from side to side and then up and down while otherwise standing still. Repeat several times

4] While waggling the traditional chant is, Hail the Beard, Hail Spring

5] Alternatively beard wagglers may simply intone Om, Om, Om