Socialist Historians send solidarity to lecturers & students impacted by Government COVID-19 failures
The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, London University, has sent solidarity to lecturers and students impacted by Government COVID-19 failures.
The solidarity message was unanimously agreed by those attending the first seminar of the autumn term on Monday 12th October.
Rhys Williams presented some new research and ideas on Tom Mann in Australia 1902-1909. Mann (1856-1941) was a leading activist in the British labour movement and a founder member of the Communist Party in 1920 as well as someone who played a key role in Australia before World War One.
In a spirit of international solidarity Rhys spoke to the seminar from Australia at 3am local time.
The historians are holding all seminars this term on Zoom in support of calls by the University and College Union (UCU) that face to face events are not safe or sustainable at present.
LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, we can only imagine what Tom Mann, someone who organised many strikes and protests, would have done about the current situation. He would certainly have been in solidarity with lecturers and students and harshly critical of many University authorities
The Government has unveiled (by announcing it in the Sunday Telegraph obviously) its latest plans to prevent statues of racists and imperialists in public places being taken down and placed, more appropriately, in museums.
The plan will see Housing Minister Robert Jenrik put in charge of vetoing any plan to take down a statue that the Tories want kept up.
Given Mr Jenrik’s record we can surely expect a statue of himself to be erected in the centre of his Newark Constituency to mark this important new role.
Tom Mann (1856-1941) is one of the most well-known figures in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century labour movement. He became a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920.
The seminar has an interesting of its own. Rhys Williams was in London earlier in the year and was due to speak on the subject at the Institute of Historical Research on Monday 16th March.
The LSHG took the decision to cancel the seminar, ahead of the national lockdown, because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in the Capital.
Our autumn term seminars are on-line via Zoom and we fully support the position of the University and College Union (UCU) that face to face gatherings in an academic environment are not appropriate currently.
Rhys Williams will be joining us (technology allowing)from Australia for the seminar something undreamt of back in March.
Michael Rosen questions Arsene Wenger on the philosophy of Wengerism
In today’s Observer former Arsenal manager answers questions from the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, Spike Lee and of course Michael Rosen.
Below Wenger addresses the key issue of Wengerism, a philosophy of life as well as football. Typically though he gives little away. We may have to wait for Wenger: the Collected Works
Michael Rosen
Do you think taking part in football at your level teaches a person a form of philosophy?
Yes, I would say without a form of philosophy you cannot work at that level. You are the guide. And the guide needs first of all to know where he goes, no? That’s why it’s important to have a clear idea of what you want from people, and that you can share that in a clear way with your players. Why do players listen to some people and not to others? I don’t know. But you need a clear philosophy, because it gives you a consistency as well. You always have to know: why am I here? Why do I do that? That gives you strength when it’s tough.
Will Keir Starmer get a good reception in Ambridge?
Keir Starmer has had a meeting with the National Farmers Union this week to discuss Labour’s plans to protect British farmers food standards in the wake of potential watering down in a post-Brexit environment.
Readers of the Ambridge Socialist may legitimately wonder exactly what standard of food comes from Berrow Farm’s pig factories but clearly there is still scope for matters to be worse still.
A visit of the Labour leader to Ambridge must be next on the agenda but one wonders who will give him the time of day in the village? Brexiteers like Adam and Brian are not likely to be keen and we suspect Justin Elliott has never heard of him. Whether Eddie Grundy approves of Keir then is perhaps the question of the moment.
Should Susan’s Radio Borsetshire show lead to an Archer’s spin-off?
This suggestion was made by Lillian (Sunny Ormonde) on Dum-Tee-Dum on 9th October. We sense it will be controversial particularly after Susan was heard playing a Barry Manilow record on the show this week. Her announcement of Alice’s pregnancy live on air while Jennifer didn’t know might qualify her for a spot on LBC though.
Temperance reaches Ambridge
Temperance hasn’t been too much heard of in Ambridge since a former landlord of The Bull died of alcohol related issues. Alice’s first consultation about her pregnancy this week was accompanied by medical warnings that even sniffing a glass of alcohol could harm the baby. As quite often these days sensible evidence based advice that drinking excessively is likely to be injurious comes mixed with an ideological view that any drinking is bad for you, because well it just is. Unfortunately this less than helpful approach probably wont actually make Alice address her problem drinking which she quite urgently needs to do.
Competition bristles for Beard of Autumn 2020 accolade in final days of voting
The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has said that the poll for Beard of Autumn 2020 will conclude at midnight on October 15th with competition bristling for the seasonal accolade.
It is the last of the four seasonal awards that conclude with the Beard of the Year in December 2020.
As usual there is a wide ranging field of beard wearers who have made a positive impact in the public eye recently.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, as the year moves on we look for autumn beards that have resilience against the elements, weather beaten perhaps, and of course deployed positively in the public eye. We expect hairs will be split by Thursday.
The vote for the Beard of Autumn is open and will close at midnight on 15th October
Ive written on the Carlisle State Management Scheme which ran between 1916 and 1973 before.
It was a fascinating social experiment that not only worked but did so in a way that was not originally intended.
In 1916 concerned about drinking amongst munitions workers during World War One (whether the concern was genuine is another matter) the Government nationalised breweries and pubs in the Carlisle area. A State brewery was set up and pubs in the area were all run by the Government.
The Scheme,always profitable, lasted until 1973 when the Heath Tory Government privatised it.
The 1916 changes were dictated by temperance policies, the aim being to discourage drinking. The strength of beer was reduced and strict rules were introduced (see below).
Temperance was never officially promulgated as the policy but rather the promotion of national efficiency.
In the current context it is interesting to note that the closing time on all days was 10pm and that ‘time’ was called in order to allow the pub to be cleared by that hour.
As the pubs promoted good food, games and a well regulated environment they became very popular with a wider range of customers than had previously used pubs. So much so that temperance campaigners,aghast that the scheme had had precisely the reverse effect to what they intended it to be, were demanding the pubs were returned to private hands.
Socialist Historians take autumn seminars on-line in support of UCU
The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in central London has confirmed that its Autumn seminars which begin on Monday 12th October will be on-line.
Social distancing requirements as well as wider considerations about COVID-19 safety mean it is impractical to meet in person at the IHR this term.
The historians say they full support the position of the UCU that seminars and teaching in an academic environment should be on-line this term.
The link to the details of the first seminar is now live for booking below
Oct 12th Rhys Williams, Tom Mann and Australia: 1902 to 1909
Book (free) at the link below. Once the short form is filled in & submitted you will be e-mailed a link to the meeting details:
John Lennon warned authority would seek to provoke beard wearers
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that on the 80th anniversary of his birth on 9th October 1940, it looks to John Lennon for important advice to beard wearers who are provoked by beard haters and pogonophobes.
Lennon warned that the establishment would seek to provoked beard wearers by pulling their beards. He underlined that the appropriate way to react was to avoid the provocation by using ‘non-violence and humour’
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, John Lennon was one of the twentieth centuries most iconic beard wearers, and is advice on how to deal with pogonophobes remains relevant
“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humour.”
The Beatles Revolution. On his 80th anniversary should John Lennon be counted in or out?
John Lennon was born 80 years ago on 9th October 1940. He was shot and killed 40 years ago on 8th December 1980
The Beatles released the John Lennon song Revolution on 26th August 1968 and sat at No.1 in the charts for 12 weeks.
Revolution was the ‘b’ side to a rather better-known Beatles song, Hey Jude. If that song has primarily endured as something that audiences at major events worry Paul McCartney may pop up and try to sing, Lennon’s thoughts on revolutionary politics remain of interest.
The chronicler of Beatles songs, the late Ian McDonald, noted that the musical range that spanned Lennon’s earlier song, I Am the Walrus, and Revolution was unmatched by any post-1945 musician.
The song was rejected as an ‘A’ side officially because it was too slow but really because McCartney, at that time, regarded it as politically controversial. The singer later changed his position and released Give Ireland Back to the Irish, as a single which was promptly banned by the BBC. Revolution never was.
Revolution was recorded in May 1968 as the Paris ‘nights of the barricades’ reached their peak. However alternative and longer versions of Revolution appeared on the Beatles White Album.
But it was not the music of Revolution, essentially a slow blues, that caused comment and controversy but the words.
In particular debate centred around Lennon’s words that ‘when you talk about destruction’ you can ‘count me out’ which on an alternative version he sang as ‘count me in’.
Those used to British TV in 2020 may be slightly amazed that a video of the Beatles performing Revolution was aired on the BBC’s Top of the Pops in September 1968.
Lennon’s drift in the song was that change in society had to come through ‘peace and love’ rather than a more combative approach to capitalism.
It was not well received by the left, which considering the furore it caused on the right was unfortunate for Lennon.
Lennon was clearly alive to the Beatles main audience in 1968, a worldwide one of youth who were rapidly becoming radicalised.
The Rolling Stones had very much the same idea with Street Fighting Man, a song which now sounds distinctly odd when sung by Sir Michael Jagger.
Lennon’s track provoked an article in Time magazine and a critical response in song from Nina Simone that deserves to be better known particularly in the age of Black Lives Matter.
The British radical paper Black Dwarf attacked the peaceful sentiments of Revolution, provoking an exchange on revolutionary politics between Lennon and the paper’s Editors. In the US the new left saw it as a ‘betrayal’ of the movement and a ‘petty bourgeois cry of fear’.
Ian MacDonald nevertheless argued that the song was the first ‘crack in the Beatles corporate façade’, while, no leftist himself, going on to note that by 1987 Revolution was being used by a Nike in an advert to promote its training shoes.
Historical hindsight tells us that Lennon himself was a on a political journey, reflected in the words of the song and his indecision about whether he supported the ‘peace and love’ pacificism of the 1967/8 period or the harder revolutionary politics that began to appear as the 1960s drew to a close.
By 1970 the Beatles had split up and Lennon was in the US, often seen as a participant on left-wing demonstrations and reportedly funding left-wing campaigns. Certainly by that time the man who had sung Can’t Buy Me Love less than 10 years before was regarded by the FBI as a political subversive whose activities needed to be watched
