Poltical Earthquakes?

There's a theory going around that time itself is speeding up. It's to do with something called the Schumann resonance. It may sound like typical internet weirdness, but looking at the speed of political and economic events in the last year or so it would make you wonder.

Starting with the banking collapse: I'm doing a lot of research on this for a presentation I'll start giving in public later this year. I strongly suspect it is not so much a mystery of capitalism - more a gigantic heist. Scores of billions going into a black hole as the state underwrites casino-fraud and people run around calling it "socialism". Privatised gains and nationalised losses; The elite consolidating assets and power while the profane mass look on agog, knowing in thier gut that something is amiss but not fully understanding because we're not being told. The Guardian has just reported that big bonuses are back in the city.

Are we witnessing the latest in a series of bubbles - the Bailout bubble?

Following the bailouts came a series of scandals people could relate to more easily, but essentially the expense / allowances scandal is a story of petty corruption. In the 1980s MPs salaries started to increase less quickly. It was seen as too politically insensitive to openly give them so much money. Generous expenses with lax rules were a back-door way of keeping up their incomes. Anyone who followed politics closely knew this. So the basic MP wage is something over £60k, but I always assumed that they got quite a few 10s of thousands on top of that, plus the chance to employ their families as secretaries and so forth.

I'm not for a minute defending or excusing the behaviour of many MPs, and the detail has often quite shocking. Many more should be prosecuted for fraud likely will be. However, the scale of any rip-off by individual MPs is nothing compared to massive systemic problems and rip-offs in the banking system.

Nonetheless, the atmosphere before the European elections seemed far more angry than following the bailouts. Was it a straw breaking the camel's back or is just that flipping 2nd homes, Duck Island and the like are easier understood than co-lateralised debt obligations, credit default swaps and other instruments of mass banking fraud?

Through May we were endlessly told how furious the public was and how terribly humble the MPs felt. What did it amount to? Letters to the editor, moaning in pubs, some heckling on "Any Questions"?

Localised cases of workers struggle and community resistance exist, and are growing through neccessity, often under-reported. But a meaningful mass resistance to the mass rip-off simply hasn't occurred. The biggest protests, organised for the same day by Climate Camp and G20 Meltdown, were put down with violence. That's what awaits anything much more assertive than a whinge.

So to the election results themselves, and the victory of the fascists in the North-west and Yorkshire: The repercussions will be with us for years and the blogosphere is full of analysis and a degree of headless-chickenism. For me the region is now politically contaminated. Although we are gutted, we also have to take the long view as calmly as possible.

The BNP got in through the ballot box and the only way to truly lift the curse will be to kick them out the same way. It's not a partisan analysis to state that The Green Party look like the best hope for doing so (0.3% behind the BNP in the elections)

In truth UKIP were even closer to denying the BNP by taking a 2nd seat, but I can't imagine many people reading this are about to take a bigger interest in them :)

So what do recent events show us? That people are angry, but do not feel empowered to do very much about it. Surely this represents a let-off for the elite and a failure of the broad left, even if many circumstances are against us.

We are still paying for the banks and have the same basic political system we've had for many generations.

Was all that anger just "sound and fury signifying nothing"?

If people were motivated to do something at the ballot box, it was at least as likely to benefit reactionary politics as radical politics. There is a historical bias in the media towards the former, played out again this time by over-hyping of the BNP's chances (in the end they got less votes than The Greens nationally but far more coverage before and after June 4)

Am I just blaming other people? A lying press, a timid or gullible public? No. The Greens and the broad left have to seriously up our game. The communiques are flying back and forth between left groups and it's too early to say what will come of it yet.

For all the pros and cons of No2EU I think their biggest strategic drawback was simply leaving it too late. I doubt they will survive long term, but am interested in unions backing a non-Labour Party. That alone is worth building on (I'm also sympathetic to euro-skepticism. I don't want the UK to pull out, but if The Lisbon Treaty is passed I may reconsider that. Lisbon represents steps too far, and the deliberately anti-democratic way it is being implemented is flat-out vile)

If the left prevaricated too long before the Euros, it looks like they are doing the same for the General Elections. For better or worse, it looks like The Green Party represent the best chance of getting a genuine radical party in Westminster next time around. And regardless of how you feel about that, remember that 1 or 2 Green MPs could well offset the propaganda effect of 2 fascist MEPs.

Till next time

Steve.

For my first post here I'd say a bit about my political background and some of experiences with Manchester left politics since 2000. The times we are living through clearly present a huge challenge to the broad left in how we build and disseminate our narrative to a public who are, as we know, constantly lied to through mainstream channels. I hope I can draw some lessons on the way forward in this blog.

Since being asked to start this blog a lot has happened that I will comment on in future posts. These include the expenses / allowances scandal and the election of 2 fascist MEPs. For now I will just stick to the original idea that can give readers a handle on where I'm coming from as they read future pieces. Prior to 2000 I aligned most to the left-ish of the Labour Party with some sympathy for green and communist politics. But it was all strictly "armchair" stuff. I've since realised how much politics, especially the non establishment kind, is very much a participation sport (even a contact sport on the streets sometimes).

I don't know how common it is, but my conversion to activism came through a "Damascus" moment. In the summer of 2000 I tagged along to an eco-activist camp, having no clue what to expect. It was a wonderful fortnight on a beautiful island with people from all over Europe. It was run on broadly anarchist / consensus decision making principles, the first time I had seen anything like it. I was easily won over. For those not familiar with CDM I strongly recommend you look into it and even consider introducing it to some of your decision making.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_decision-making

This is that annual festival, Ecotopia, I think some of the money comes from the European Commission, which is quite funny.
http://ecotopiagathering.org/ecotopia-what-is-it.html

Anyway I arrived as a pub-rant leftie, and departed with far more anarchist and green outlooks. But chiefly, I was determined to get active. It would be an injustice to the profoundness of the experience not to. Also, from self interest I figured that to try and change things is less frustrating than shouting at the TV. In the 9 years since I've been involved in too wide a range of campaigns and actions to go into now, but one of the first things I did was to join The Green Party. I had always been interested in the party system and so thought a party would be an appropriate outlet for my efforts.

As a Green I'm always frustrated by left factionalism. We all know aspects of this are comic, the "Peoples Front of Judea" sketch is still too near the bone decades after it was written. Being in the Green Party has the bonus of insulating me from getting too involved.
Unity across the broad movement is one of my big interests. For ease, I break the broad progressive movement into three crude strands: socialist, anarchist, green. Obviously there is a large crossover of concerns and as well as fascinating differences in views and strategies.
But these times call for as much co-operation as much as possible. The attempts to build this in Manchester in recent years started for me with Riotous Assembly.

Then there was a Social Forum for at least a couple of years. But recently we have seen the rise of Convention of The Left and The Climate Forum. These are both vast improvements on organisation and inclusivity, which isn’t to denigrate former efforts but to celebrate the evolution. I'd be especially interested in responses analysing and detailing earlier groups, perhaps going back further than I can relate to.With the fascists in relative ascendancy we can no longer afford the luxury of bickering factionalism, even if we are in different groups and parties. The attempts to build a unified left party continue. I wish them luck and will save my thoughts and concerns about the process for now.

I have always considered that there is room enough on the broad left for two parties: Green and more orthodox socialist. Some may accuse Greens of being too "reformist" and "pro capitalist". Again, I won’t get into the detail here and it only backs up my assertion that there is room for two parties. This is the case in Scotland where the Scottish Greens and SSP were doing reasonably well under PR. The chief reason they lost many seats in the last election wasn't down to them as much as the strong desire for Scottish people to chuck out the Labour Party - our votes went to the SNP.Along with a growing number I am a member of Green Left, a group within the Green Partywho, in simplistic terms, aim to make greens redder and reds greener. It isn't always easy work whichever way you look at it.

Socialists have done a great deal to adapt to the agenda dictated by climate change, resource scarcity etc. Producerism was never a fundamentally necessary aspect of socialism, more of a historical habit produced from very different circumstances to those that prevail under modern capitalism.Although the Green Party of England and Wales is quite left wing compared to other green outfits internationally, we too often face the accusation of "selling out". It appears a function of power that sell-out becomes more likely with electoral success. I won't name my guilty brothers and sisters internationally for now. I'm sure comrades can fill in the gaps.That is precisely why we need a strong contingent of Greens to guard against sell-out if and when we achieve goals such as elected MPs in Westminster (most likely in Brighton Pavilion and Norwich South)

This is the homepage of Green Left
http://www.gptu.net/gleft/greenleft.shtml
And one for the Eco-socialist Manifesto from GL
http://gptu.net/gleft/glesoc.shtml

Anyhow, I'm sure that's enough intro and background to be going on with. I look to writing on specific topics over future months and moving on the discourse and action.
For Peace and socialism.
Steve.