I’ve been retired a year. Sometimes it feels like the last three decades were just a fever dream and I’ve always been a student, particularly since I’m back at the very same uni for another MA. But right now, nearing the start of a school year, I have to remind
Continue readingTag: bureaucracy
A Puff of Absurdity: On Argumentation and Straddling the Middle
At the school board meeting Monday night (video here, starting at 1:23:50 for over an hour), an open letter the board recently sent out was discussed. I said nothing because everything had already been said by everyone, and I didn’t think it necessary to just be one more to add
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Kafkaesque?
It might be called Kafkaesque, that this talk focuses on bureaucracy and its tyrranical absurdities, while Kafka’s most important contribution was, not simply to highlight the tyrrany of bureaucracy, but the horrors of authoritarianism. So much for relying on intelligent talks coming from Ted. But then again, fascism has swept
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Bursting bureaucratic bullshit bubbles #nlpoli
The daily average for new CVD cases has been declining since late March. In one of the provinces hardest hit by COVID-19, Ontarians got a roadmapon Monday on how the provincial government will loosen restrictions on their daily lives. One of the indicators used to make the judgment will be
Continue readingScripturient: Madigan to chair do-nothing committee
A story in last week’s Connection has the headline, “Madigan named chair of Collingwood development, operations committee.” Councillor Madigan has the dubious honour of chairing a standing committee that does nothing of value, has no decision-making authority and – like the rest of the standing committees – is redundant, ineffective
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: His best shot #nlpoli
The most important measurement you need to take of Dwight Ball’s great vision for the provincial government is that this is his one, best shot. That shot consists of a hackneyed, worn-out, tired list of all sorts of things that government departments are already doing, things that won’t materially affect
Continue readingLeft Over: Pricey Passports R Us……..
Canadian ePassports arrive July 1 New ePassports feature electronic chips, other security features CBC News Posted: Jun 28, 2013 2:55 PM ET Not only are the passports getting even more outrageously expensive, but if you get a ten year passport, you get a deal! Step right up, wealthy elites..5
Continue readingRedBedHead: Is The SWP A Dead Duck: Part 2
It isn’t only in the nations, like the former USSR, that bureaucracy can use its control of wealth and power to defeat grassroots challengers. What happened with the rise of Stalinism was an historically profound human tragedy. But the process of bureaucracy developing independence from its original base can occur
Continue readingRedBedHead: Is The SWP A Dead Duck: Part 2
It isn’t only in the nations, like the former USSR, that bureaucracy can use its control of wealth and power to defeat grassroots challengers. What happened with the rise of Stalinism was an historically profound human tragedy. But the process of bureaucracy developing independence from its original base can occur
Continue readingRedBedHead: Is The SWP A Dead Duck: Part 2
It isn’t only in the nations, like the former USSR, that bureaucracy can use its control of wealth and power to defeat grassroots challengers. What happened with the rise of Stalinism was an historically profound human tragedy. But the process of bureaucracy developing independence from its original base can occur on a much smaller scale and this holds lessons for revolutionaries grappling with
RedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 2
The debate with the US ISO remains a source of much controversy, having ended with the biggest split from the Tendency to date. This makes it worth exploration and, I believe, it is an example of the way in which the SWP’s growing bureaucracy negatively impacted the IST. However, both of the dominant narratives of the events leading up to the ISOs expulsion are, in my view, one sided. The main
RedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 2
The debate with the US ISO remains a source of much controversy, having ended with the biggest split from the Tendency to date. This makes it worth exploration and, I believe, it is an example of the way in which the SWP’s growing bureaucracy negatively impacted the IST. However, both
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 2
The debate with the US ISO remains a source of much controversy, having ended with the biggest split from the Tendency to date. This makes it worth exploration and, I believe, it is an example of the way in which the SWP’s growing bureaucracy negatively impacted the IST. However, both
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 1
The tradition in the IST is to not intervene in the controversies and debates of other organizations. This was explained to me as a reaction against the practice amongst the early Trotskyists & within the Fourth International to involve every affil…
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 1
The tradition in the IST is to not intervene in the controversies and debates of other organizations. This was explained to me as a reaction against the practice amongst the early Trotskyists & within the Fourth International to involve every affiliated organization in the debates of every other national section.
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Bureaucracy & The IST: Part 1
The tradition in the IST is to not intervene in the controversies and debates of other organizations. This was explained to me as a reaction against the practice amongst the early Trotskyists & within the Fourth International to involve every affiliated organization in the debates of every other national section.
Continue readingRedBedHead: The SWP & Revolutionary Bureaucracy or No One Here Gets Out Alive
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the international working class suffered a series of decisive defeats. This put to a halt and set in reverse the post-war tendency for living standards to rise and a more recent phenomenon of rising worker militancy. I…
Continue readingRedBedHead: The SWP & Revolutionary Bureaucracy or No One Here Gets Out Alive
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the international working class suffered a series of decisive defeats. This put to a halt and set in reverse the post-war tendency for living standards to rise and a more recent phenomenon of rising worker militancy. It led to years of a downturn
Continue readingRedBedHead: The SWP & Revolutionary Bureaucracy or No One Here Gets Out Alive
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the international working class suffered a series of decisive defeats. This put to a halt and set in reverse the post-war tendency for living standards to rise and a more recent phenomenon of rising worker militancy. It led to years of a downturn
Continue readingRedBedHead: SWP Special Conference Shows Bureaucracy’s Fangs
On Sunday, March 10 the British Socialist Workers Party held a Special Conference to deal with the crisis that has been raging in its organization since its annual January conference. The trigger for the crisis was an allegation of rape against a member of the party’s Central Committee (CC) that was reviewed by a Disputes Committee composed of long-time colleagues and friends of the accused. I