Some thoughts on leftie politics and the unhappy cohabitation of Marxism and feminism … what is to be undone!

Haven’t been blogging that much mainly cos I have been tired therefore lack energy to write something thoughtful…usually I bang out these posts in a conveyor belt style but alas I have been doing other things..mainly politicking and campaigning. Just not the time to write so world has been passing me by a tad.

There has been interesting posts over at TCF such as on the Labour Left , future of the Left , and Paul’s Labour Left 5. plan. Plus this article (thanks to Splintered for telling me about it) And this from AVPS re Compass, all of which I have been meaning to engage in as these are important questions and discussions to be had around how the Left organises in the next few months but after the next general election ‘cos whoever gets elected there will be a fight to be had. Also, it is an excuse for me (haha) to debate the merits of democratic centralism and witness the collective cyberspace glazed over expressions of comrades….

But in the meantime, Kevin raises important questions about Griffin standing against Margaret Hodge, what does the Left do, call for a vote for Hodge based on ‘anyone other than Griffin’?

And this post troubled me a lot. I find myself despairing at both the post and the comments (indeed I really thought I had stumbled onto the comments of CiF). And it becomes like another Groundhog Day experience. Many on the Left shoulda, coulda and do know better when it comes to feminism but it is easier to indulge in the usual sexist, defensive and tired old tabloid-esque parodies. And the usual argument that has been thrown at me in the past is that feminism is ‘petit – bourgeois’ (I had this ‘debate’ in Weekly Worker a couple of years ago). And this reminds me of Barbara Ehrenreich when she wrote about ‘mechanical Marxists’ who ignore the totality of society and how patriarchal capitalism invades every sphere of life. And frankly, I describe myself as a Socialist feminist as feminism is integral to Socialism. Yes, there are various different strands of feminism but why it is when it is debated sometimes on the Left it is belittled, disregarded, devalued and parodied by mainly men, who, to be honest view oppression in a very reductionist way. And ask yourself, why do many active and organised feminists by-pass the Left…? One reason, ‘cos they have to put up with this kind of crap that goes by the name of debate.

When I first got involved in politics in the mid-1980s many of leftie men I encountered professed some understanding of feminism, indeed not perfect not brilliant but at that time there was a still functioning dynamic feminist movement and a vibrant Left that did influence, ideas feeding off each other. But rather like the Left, feminist movement is smaller and fragmented therefore that influence in developing political consciousness about women’s oppression isn’t that great. Like I said, it wasn’t perfect and I always encountered individuals/groups who dismissed feminism but certainly there was at least some understanding. But then you had/have leftie blokes who had/have, for example, an excellent grasp of dialectical materialism yet knew/know basically sweet fa about feminism….There’s no bloody excuse for it.

I think the comment that best sums up the ‘debate’ over at Dave’s blog is Eddie Truman’s, Ha ha, man spouts sexist drivel knowing fine well it’ll wind up the women comrades, male comrades all laugh together and get another round in at the bar.

I think Eddie hits the nail on the head when it comes to these defensive leftie men. And that’s how I certainly saw the ‘debate’.

“Domestic Extremist” t-shirts

From Random Blowe. Fantastic idea… have ordered mine in shocking blue!

I was thinking of getting t-shirts made bearing the slogan ‘Domestic Terrorist’ and selling them in support of Fitwatch – another bright idea that came to nothing. However, it looks as if Red Molotov has beaten me to it.

So I was thinking: wouldn’t it be great if we injected a little radical politics into the climate change protest – The Wave – on Saturday 5th December by turning up with blue ‘Domestic Extremist’ shirts (the protest organisers want everyone to wear blue, you see)?

Fifteen quid a shirt might seem a bit steep – but if enough of us order one, wouldn’t the impact be great!

Confessions of a New Romantic

We all have guilty pleasures in life, though it is whether we admit to them. So in the words of Edith Piaf ‘non, je ne regrette rien’… and last Friday I settled down to watch ‘Classic Albums: Duran Duran - Rio’ on BBC4. And what was shockingly embarrassing was that I still remembered the words from the album after all these years…27 in actual fact.

Indeed Rio was the first album I ever bought late 1982, saved up the pennies and got my LP  (ahhh, vinyl) from the local Woolworths where I bought the majority of my singles and albums from.

And I saw myself as a budding new romantic, I missed punk but I do remember my brother sauntering into the house from art college sporting a Mohican hair style which shocked my mother so much she had to sit down (pretty much similar effect 10 years on when I pretty much shaved my hair off and bleached it blonde….). But New Wave and New Romantic periods I remember well. I liked the androgyny of the New Romantic fashion, bedazzled by the over-blown, colourful and bombastic look. Wasn’t interested in the politics of the time but mainly the look. Remembering Visage’s wonderfully synth ‘Fade to Grey’ to early Spandau Ballet. The style just seemed artistic and cool to emulate, and many at my old secondary school did. One teenager used to backcomb her hair religiously and in order to keep this magnificent sculptor static she would bung copious amounts of washing up liquid when backcombing it… Amazed she never damaged it. So the memories came flooding back watching this programme on BBC4.

One review I read argued that Rio can’t be considered a ‘classic’ in comparison to Human League’s Dare. I owned copies of both LPs but never really developed a taste for the Human league until later, I regarded them as totally synth based and a bit nondescript. Looking back Dare is a much more inventive and creative sound to the frenetic ’pop’ sound of Duran Duran. I like the orchestral sound during the intro of Rio with the sax solo during the middle and the iconic opening to the Human League’s Don’t You Want Me, which spent forever at number 1 during late 1981/early 1982. And both LPs were released in 1982. I was fascinated by Duran’s videos, mini global epics directed by Russell Mulcahy which created the MTV generation of visual entertainment. Along with the pure escapism of a time of unemployment and war, suppose another reason I would ensconced myself in my bedroom, life up the arm of the record player and gingerly place the stylus on the groove of the vinyl. And, of course, peer group pressure and all my friends were Duran fans obviously as 3 out of 5 of the band came from the West Midlands.

Liking their music jarred and contradicted my other more political tastes such as The Specials, The Beat, Selecter, UB40 and The Jam, what attracted me what the political ethos of anti-racism. But hey, I was eclectic in my tastes. Suppose as well I influenced by the music of my older siblings, prog rock (I never saw the point!!) blasting out at one minute then The Slits the next. Though my sister refused point blank to buy me The Lexicon of Love by ABC as a birthday present as it was just too embarrassing to be seen clutching that LP in Woolworths though later she relented (I have to say…embarrassingly…still have been known to listen to it..love the voice of Martin Fry and the musical arrangements on that particular LP.

But then my political consciousness evolved, deepened and progressed which kinda reflected my shift away from bands like Duran where I saw them as a bunch of individualistic sexist Thatcherites who adorned excess and over bloated pomposity. Though I have ‘Last Chance on the Stairway’ from Rio on my iPod (and they name check Voltaire) and reminiscing my early teens last Friday was kinda fun and bittersweet. I moved on from Duran to more miserablist music like Joy Division, The The and The Smiths. I related to the lyrics of Marc Almond (and still have a collection of his poetry in my book collection given to me many many years ago by a friend for my birthday) that highlighted alienation, isolation, feeling like an outsider and more generally….life.

Think I became a very earnest and seriously depressing teenager. Conversely I liked the more uplifting sentiments of the Style Council. I may have given up practicing the guitar to devoting my time to the revolutionary struggle but I didn’t totally depart from the New Romantic look as I continued to wear frilly ruffled shirts throughout my teens and backcombed my dyed hair in homage to those early 1980s….well until I had it shaved off and bleached blonde that is……much to my mother’s chagrin…..

Anyway, think I’ll stop there, have confessed far too much already…..

Jumping on a bandwagon

Ok, I am jumping onto the X-Factor bandwagon that piece of pre-packaged hyped-up commercialised and commodified soulless talent show.

Jamie, sadly, got voted off last Saturday and his audition of the Kings of Leon, Sex on Fire, was a definite highlight.

One word. Jedward. Might win…. Be afraid. Be very afraid!

Funding and the third sector…just what is NL up to?!

WTF..??

Those selected included organisations working with ex-offenders, refugees, transgendered people and gypsies.

And NL doesn’t want to be seen, obviously, helping and supporting the above people. Absolute crap decision by NL.

The response from The Office of the Third Sector to the decision:

This decision was taken because of the pressing need to support the sector through the recession. It was a difficult decision, but in the current circumstances the minister believes it is right that we channel money into supporting organisations providing vital recession services to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society.

I still don’t understand why that means they have to reallocate the money. Who don’t NL want to offend? And of course they made this decision without consultation.

Oh, and the money has been reallocated to a hardship fund which helps disadvantaged people.

Is that code for bankers?

Sayonara Edward Woodward

I don’t know whether I am right but I remember reading an interview with Edward Woodward some years back and he came across as a bit of a leftie.

Shame to hear then that he has died at 79 of pneumonia. There is a whole body of work that spans over 50 years including the theatre, also remembered for television work such as Callan and The Equalizer….I even started watching ‘Enders again after so many years just to see what character he was playing.

But I will always remember the powerful performance he gave as the doomed virginal iconic Sgt Howie in the cult classical The Wicker Man.

Welfare Reform Bill receives Royal Assent

I forgot to inform but the Welfare Reform Bill has received Royal Assent.

Lord Freud said he wouldn’t push the issue of the Commons overturning his amendment on benefit sanctions as it had “become a political game for the Government”.

The Bill received assent on the 12th November, the 13th would have been a more apt day to have received it!

Welcome to a world of sanctions, stigmatisation, vilification, misery, penalisation, conditionality…. and workfare.

Welcome to the workhouse.

Short review of The White Ribbon

Just back from seeing The White Ribbon. Excellent, truly excellent. Very powerful and political, beautifully shot in monochrome which emphasises the horrors and traumas. I am too tired to write a fuller review but it is an absorbing film that deserves further analysis.

It is film that intertwines social class and gender, hierarchy of power dynamics with a veneer of respectability yet scratch the surface exposes the under belly of brutality, isolation, powerlessness, abuse and violence. It highlights the strict vicious patriarchal order of the family, women knowing their place while children are seen and not heard (’spare the rod spoil the child’). And the children are villains/victims, though it is not as simple and straightforward it is much more complex.

It is a study in early 20th century cruelty.

Eh?

Off to cinema….

Well I am off to see Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon at the BFI  later meant to see it last night but was just too knackered after the LRC AGM. Crikey…I am getting old.

So I ended up at home, brain addled (still recovering from a sinus cold) slumped on the sofa watching Four Weddings and a Funeral. I saw that film twice in one week at the cinema way back in ‘94…. don’t ask! I didn’t mind it to a certain extent, well made bubble gum for the eye, though it had the stamp of the Richard Curtis annoying style of pompous dialogue…and the start of a franchise starring Hugh Grant.

Indeed…. I also remember going to the cinema around 2003 and seeing a trailer for Love Actually. Have experienced cheering, clapping and walk outs but never booing before. Once the trailer was shown there was immediate booing by the whole of the audience. I think people were suffering from Richard Curtis fatigue (and now he is writing Dr Who episodes). And  the recent The Boat That Rocked sank without a trace… again I saw a trailer sans booing and it looked….in prosaic language… sexist shite…

The film I was seeing in 2003, if you are interested, was the wonderfully bittersweet and an exercise in alienation, Nói Albínói. A great antidote to the over blown and bloated, Love Actually….

I have great expectations regarding Haneke’s The White Ribbon…..

LRC AGM

So I am putting together my overall impressions of yesterday’s LRC AGM. Tony Benn made a good speech at the start of conference. John McDonnell set the scene about what needs to be done with an election looming. He also stated (with much applause) that he would stand again if there’s a leadership contest and especially if the alternative is a Kinnock-style compromise character (I certainly agree with that political position). Also, the importance of the canvassing and supporting Labour MPs who haven’t kow-towed to warmongering NL and the ideology of neoliberalism. It was a good rousing speech which then led to the resolutions.

I don’t want to go into too much detail as wanna keep this short but the resolution that stands out for me is the one on sex work (and as a Socialist feminist and supporter of decriminalisation and unionisation was pleased to see the resolution), Mary Partington made an extremely powerful speech which argued for solidarity and self-organising of sex workers, pragmatic and integral to this is support for decriminalisation and unionisation. And as Nicky Adams (English Collective of Prostitutes) during a lunch time discussion on sex work said NL has brought in the oppressive Policing and Crime legislation which will further criminalise sex workers (it will not ‘protect’ sex workers) against the current political backdrop of welfare reform and a recession! How the hell does NL think people will financially ‘exist’ faced with limited choices?

So on this resolution the LRC passed it pretty much unanimously.

Briefly, there was resolutions on the industrial situation, economic crisis, Royal Mail and postal dispute, media, opposition to the cuts in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, welfare benefits, transport, People’s Charter, local people’s conventions, Iraq and Afghanisation, Iran, social ownership, Labour Party democracy, the BNP, general election campaigning, LRC recruitment.

You can see the wording of these resolutions here.

In the afternoon there was an international speaker, Cristian Dominguez (United Confederation of Bolivian Campesino Workers). Christian gave an inspiring account of the Bolivian masses’ fight against their ruling classes. Their struggle involves facing tremendous hardship. It started with a fight against water privatisation. Christian stressed that these struggles are not something limited by international boundaries: they are for the whole of humanity.

The final speech of the day was by Katy Clark and it was an exceptionally rousing and impressive speech about the way forward.

 Election results: Maria Exall and Susan Press were re-elected as Vice Chairs. Commiserations to Marsha-Jane Thompson.

Two representatives selected to go forward to the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance slate are for the Labour Party NEC:

Christine Shawcroft

Susan Press

I can’t find my notes which included the names of the new LRC NC, though I am sure they will be published on the LRC website (I was re-elected btw).