The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Mar 30, 2017 10:55:20 GMT
Are there any forum members who were ever members of the SWP or other Trotskyite groups for that matter? Constituency Labour Parties used to be chock full of ex-Trots but I've not seen any reminiscences about the old days on here. This is a slight exaggeration, simply because there were never that many of them (Trots) in total  |
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right
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Post by right on Mar 30, 2017 11:22:46 GMT
Are there any forum members who were ever members of the SWP or other Trotskyite groups for that matter? Constituency Labour Parties used to be chock full of ex-Trots but I've not seen any reminiscences about the old days on here. This is a slight exaggeration, simply because there were never that many of them (Trots) in total But they were outsized within the Labour Party. And if you count various flavours of Stalinists you have quite a lot of them. Not all of them continuing Marxists by any means. |
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Mar 30, 2017 11:27:24 GMT
Yes, but even all taken together they form a minority of LP members and always have.
This is important because exaggerating the *size* (if not always influence) of these tendencies is one way that people get Corbyn's support within the party wrong.
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neilm
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Post by neilm on Mar 30, 2017 12:25:17 GMT
Yes, but even all taken together they form a minority of LP members and always have. This is important because exaggerating the *size* (if not always influence) of these tendencies is one way that people get Corbyn's support within the party wrong. He's got over half the vote twice, so his support would seem fairly sizeable... |
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Mar 30, 2017 12:27:57 GMT
Yes, and *most* of them are not even ex-Trots/Stalinists/Maoists/Posadists/whatever  |
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Apr 2, 2017 11:02:10 GMT
His domestic policy agenda is pretty much so in LP terms, at any rate.
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polupolu
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Post by polupolu on Apr 10, 2017 17:55:21 GMT
Funny thing about Socialist Workers when I was at university - they either got firsts or thirds, nothing in between.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2017 18:11:11 GMT
Funny thing about Socialist Workers when I was at university - they either got firsts or thirds, nothing in between. A bit like Chinese students. |
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 11, 2017 15:47:21 GMT
Funny thing about Socialist Workers when I was at university - they either got firsts or thirds, nothing in between. A bit like Chinese students. I found that Chinese students tended to listen to awful love songs at high volume, constantly. All of which sounded like "On The Wings of Love" by Jeffrey Osborne. |
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Post by finsobruce on Apr 11, 2017 19:49:18 GMT
A bit like Chinese students. I found that Chinese students tended to listen to awful love songs at high volume, constantly. All of which sounded like "On The Wings of Love" by Jeffrey Osborne. Can't find a Chinese version, so ...... |
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Foggy
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Post by Foggy on Apr 11, 2017 20:26:48 GMT
That was not my experience of living in the same corridor as a Chinese student, but I'd hold students of any nationality in higher regard who listened to "Fly on the Wings of Love" by the Olsen Brothers on a frequent basis.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 11, 2017 20:46:14 GMT
That was not my experience of living in the same corridor as a Chinese student, but I'd hold students of any nationality in higher regard who listened to "Fly on the Wings of Live" by the Olsen Brothers on a frequent basis. Shhhh....don't tell @odo! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2017 21:33:45 GMT
That was not my experience of living in the same corridor as a Chinese student, but I'd hold students of any nationality in higher regard who listened to "Fly on the Wings of Live" by the Olsen Brothers on a frequent basis. Funnily enough the Scottish and Chinese versions of that song have the same title, "Fry on the wings of love" |
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neilm
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Post by neilm on Apr 11, 2017 22:32:43 GMT
The Chinese students I was with used to cook bloody awful smelling stuff with dried prawns, which tastes fantastic.
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Merseymike
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Post by Merseymike on Apr 12, 2017 8:40:57 GMT
The Chinese students I was with used to cook bloody awful smelling stuff with dried prawns, which tastes fantastic. They always used to leave their seasoned woks after doing their masters degrees in management which were miles better than the ones you get here - though you can get decent ones in the Chinese supermarkets now There were some interesting post grads on my corridor. An Iranian student - a secularist who faced instant death if he ever went back to Iran and couldn't access his money. Was trying to get refugee status. And a Syrian Christian who lived on nithing but frozen beefburgers as it was the only thing he knew how to cook. |
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Apr 12, 2017 10:50:56 GMT
I lived in a small block of flats with some Iraqi students for a while in Newcastle.
Their main cooking talents appeared to be steaming - and somehow burning - vast quantities of rice, and adding to it some genuinely revolting and inedible "mango chutney".
Despite all that I got on with them fine, but the same can't be said for all their compatriots at the university. People with Iraqi and Syrian names - but no party description - made a habit of standing for various student elections in the 1980s. I was told by an Iraqi exile engineering student (who was a LP member*) that they were Baathists, who stood in these contests (of course they never got elected to anything) as a means of "keeping an eye" on their student compatriots and making sure they behaved.
(*just after the 2003 invasion, he had a letter published in the FT cautiously welcoming Saddam's ouster - he soon turned against the US and its allies, though)
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 12, 2017 14:50:08 GMT
We had a Chinese lad on our corridor in halls who would leave his washing-up in the sink for us to do. He was disabused of this notion when a girl from Yorkshire threatened to smash it all over his head.
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Foggy
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Post by Foggy on Apr 12, 2017 17:48:31 GMT
The Chinese students I was with used to cook bloody awful smelling stuff with dried prawns, which tastes fantastic. They always used to leave their seasoned woks after doing their masters degrees in management which were miles better than the ones you get here - though you can get decent ones in the Chinese supermarkets now I must pop down to my nearest Oriental market and buy myself a Masters in Management Studies, in that case!  My own experience of living in the same corridor as a Chinese student is that he'd invite a lot of his compatriots and fellow Economics students around of an evening and occupy the kitchen for hours, leaving 7 flatmates to work around them and get their cooking done as quickly as possible then eat in their rooms. Despite the fact that he had requested to live in a quiet hall, his friends and the rice cooker were very loud. This carried on for most of the first semester until the warden had a word with him and he started only having one friend round at a time. That meant that he didn't have as many classmates to share his exotic fruit with, so I occasionally got some pieces instead. [Not a euphemism; I genuinely can't remember the names of the fruits.] Oh, and almost needless to say, but he scarcely spoke a word of English. |
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john07
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Post by john07 on Apr 15, 2017 19:48:48 GMT
This is a slight exaggeration, simply because there were never that many of them (Trots) in total But they were outsized within the Labour Party. And if you count various flavours of Stalinists you have quite a lot of them. Not all of them continuing Marxists by any means. Counting any shade of Stalinist as a Trot is rather contentious. They don't like each other very much! The former are liable to attack the latter using very sharp mountaineering equipment. It can result in the latter being more 'open minded' than usual! |
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carlton43
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Post by carlton43 on Apr 15, 2017 20:32:54 GMT
But they were outsized within the Labour Party. And if you count various flavours of Stalinists you have quite a lot of them. Not all of them continuing Marxists by any means. Counting any shade of Stalinist as a Trot is rather contentious. They don't like each other very much! The former are liable to attack the latter using very sharp mountaineering equipment. It can result in the latter being more 'open minded' than usual! Do not confuse bar tenders with climbers! |
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