UPDATE / Merry Xmas / Surf Miscellany

Pushed by a possibly plaintive Google search from Germany I've noticed in tracking ("What has happened to Southpawpunch"), I'm copying something I posted on my Facebook page in reply to a question from Duncan Money - "Have you given up on blogging for the time being?"

"Duncan - for a while yes. I'm sort of disheartened by it just being about debate and argument rather than action and organisation (as we have discussed) so I'm spending the time I have for political activity on other matters for now.

But I do expect to return - (and will email an announcement when I do to save people having to check - I should put this on my blog)..."


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Southpawpunch readers.

I provide friends with a list of useful weblinks. As this year end approaches, I’ve culled a small selection from that list - some I’ve found useful in 2007 and that may also interest readers of this site.

I haven’t (generally) listed well known sites nor given details of the websites of well known Left parties or individuals.

I’d be happy to hear about any other smaller and relevant sites that readers find interesting.

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News

www.counterpunch.org Leftist online magazine with occasional good investigative journalism - overwhelmingly US focussed.

www.lobster-magazine.co.uk“Lobster was first published (in Britain) in 1983. It investigates state espionage, government conspiracies, the abuse of governmental power, and the influence of the intelligence and security agencies on contemporary history and politics. If you generally accept the government line, that there is a "national interest", and believe what you read in the newspapers, then Lobster is probably not for you.”

Paid for access. Subscribe online or buy magazine - £3, twice a year. I usually buy it in Borders in Charing Cross Road, London.

www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks “Have documents the world needs to see? We protect your identity.”

http://cryptome.org/ “Documents on cryptology, dual-use technologies, and national security and intelligence. Includes archives.” Includes some leaks.

http://www.southpawpunch.blogspot.com Southpawpunch

Misc

www.adherents.com “is a growing collection of over 43,870 adherent statistics and religious geography citations: references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics.”

www.rulers.org “This site contains lists of heads of state and heads of government (and, in certain cases, de facto leaders not occupying either of those formal positions) of all countries and territories, going back to about 1700 in most cases.”

www.worldstatesmen.org “This site is a complete and up to date encyclopaedia of all the leaders of nations and territories.”

www.symbols.com “Symbols.com contains more than 1,600 articles about 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. You can start exploring this world of symbols by several means: Use the Graphic Index to search for the meaning or history of a sign or Use the Word Index to find a sign with a certain meaning.”

Translation

http://babelfish.altavista.com and www.google.co.uk/language_tools?hl=en

Telecomms

www.countrycallingcodes.com Tells you e.g. to call a Nice number in France, you dial 00 33 493 x.

www.infobel.com/en/world/index.aspx International telephone directory.

www.saynoto0870.com Alternative normal rate numbers.

Legal

www.adviceguide.org.uk Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Maps

http://maps.google.co.uk/, www.multimap.com, www.nationalgeographic.com/maps/ , www.viamichelin.com (good for continental Europe), www.streetmap.co.uk

Email

www.guerrillamail.com “This website provides you with disposable e-mail addresses which expire after 15 Minutes. You can read and reply to e-mails that are sent to the temporary e-mail address within the given time frame.”

Social Networking

www.ning.com “Ning is the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds.” I’ve seen it predicted that this approach may eventually do for the ‘walled garden’ method adopted by Facebook et al (you need to follow their rules and info is kept in their site) and which also eventually saw similarly configured systems at Compuserve and AoL seen off by the ‘open’ browser of Netscape in the 90s.

IT

www.alexa.com Website info for bigger sites e.g. how many visitors.

www.bugmenot.com “Find and share logins for websites that force you to register.”

http://freenetproject.org/ “Freenet is free software which lets you publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. To achieve this freedom, the network is entirely decentralized and publishers and consumers of information are anonymous. Without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack.”

www.hcidata.co.uk/host2ip.htm “Convert Host Name to IP Address or Vice Versa.”

www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp WhoIs - Find out who is behind a site - addresses, phone numbers, etc.

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Wayback machine. They’ve gone and deleted that webpage and there is no cache of it appearing when you search Google etc. That’s possibly not a problem now - this site is an archive of pages from more popular sites. “Browse through 85 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago.”

www.polarrose.com “Beta test underway…The Polar Rose browser plugin for Firefox (Internet Explorer coming soon) lets you discover who's in any public photo.”

http://anonymouse.org/ (Claims) anonymous browsing via a proxy.

www.eff.org Electronic Frontier Foundation. “EFF is the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.”

Blogs

Blog Search www.blogsearch.google.com , www.technorati.com

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices Blogs by country.

Politics, Campaigns

www.cfoi.org.uk Freedom of Information

www.epolitix.com Info on UK parliament and politicians.

http://politicalbetting.com

www.psr.keele.ac.uk/ General political links.

www.publicwhip.org.uk MPs votes.

www.lhc.org.uk “The London Hazards Centre is a resource centre for Londoners fighting health and safety hazards in their workplace and community. This site is for union and community organisers anywhere who need health and safety information.”

www.pcaw.co.uk Public Concern at Work. “Public Concern at Work (PCaW) is an independent authority on public interest whistleblowing…Offering free advice to people concerned about danger or malpractice in the workplace but who are unsure whether or how to raise the matter…”

www.worksmart.org.uk “workSMART, from the TUC, is here to help today's working people get the best out of the world of work.” What a predictable wimpish description from the bosses’ friend, the TUC. Despite that, this is a good site and gives easy to understand advice on employment law and similar matters.

(Anti) PR and Media

www.mediachannel.org Watching the (US?) media.

www.prwatch.org “The nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda.”

www.spinwatch.org.uk “Monitoring PR and Spin” UK focused.

www.fair.org “Outraged by the corporate media? Angry at media spin? Want ad-free news? Support FAIR and strengthen an organization dedicated to challenging media bias and censorship.”

www.medialens.org/ “MediaLens is a response based on our conviction that mainstream newspapers and broadcasters provide a profoundly distorted picture of our world. We are convinced that the increasingly centralised, corporate nature of the media means that it acts as a de facto propaganda system for corporate and other establishment interests.”

www.lobbywatch.org “LobbyWatch helps track deceptive PR involving lobbyists, PR firms, front groups, political networks and industry-friendly scientists.” Dislikes ex RCPers in particular.

www.abc.co.uk Audit Bureau of Circulations. Industry body that reports circulation figures for media publications.

Reference

http://www.192.com UK people/business finder - charges.

www.yell.com Yellow Pages.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter Currency Converter.

www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook

www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk Endless government stats for any UK address.

http://www.direct.gov.uk UK government main portal.

http://europa.eu/index_en.htm European Union main portal.

www.ico.gov.uk “The Information Commissioner's Office is the UK's independent authority set up to promote access to official information and to protect personal information.”

www.timeanddate.com Worldwide.

Business

www.carol.co.uk “CAROL is an on-line service offering direct links to the financial pages of listed companies in Europe and the USA. CAROL provides direct access to companies’ balance sheets, profit & loss statements, financial highlights etc. Access is free of charge.”

www.companieshouse.gov.uk Mostly pay to access, but some useful free services.

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Don’t get enough email!? The following organisations send out interesting (and free) email newsletters.

www.wsws.org World Socialist Web Site - International Committee of the Fourth International. Daily international news - good quality.

http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?page=contact&id_rubrique=1 International Viewpoint is the monthly English-language magazine of the Fourth International (sic). “Each month we send out a digest of new articles and news pieces.”

http://mondediplo.com/ Le Monde Diplomatique (in English) “receive free online monthly summaries.”

http://www.hrw.org/act/subscribe-mlists/subscribe.htm “Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice.” “Monthly Update” and “Weekly Digest”.

www.stratfor.com Strafor - Strategic Forecasting. Sometimes surprisingly detailed “Free Weekly Intelligence” email.

www.janes.com Free regular emails on different ‘defence’ subjects such as air, sea, police.

www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1200&l=1 "CrisisWatch is a 12-page monthly bulletin designed to provide busy readers in the policy community, media, business and interested general public with a succinct regular update on the state of play in all the most significant situations of conflict or potential conflict around the world.” Provided by “The International Crisis Group - an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, working… to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.”

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Warning

If I was a part of a repressive state apparatus and wanted to keep tabs on those who wish to be avoided, I may well set up web services that provide ‘anonymity’ as bait to attract the gullible or even to monitor the data that travels through such services. I’d probably use a streetwise cover story and ‘underground’ type design as well.

I don’t know which organisations (if any) or what hidden agendas (if any) may be behind some of these sites, such as the ones commentating on lobbyists and the media. I do know some of these organisations have a big input from capitalists - such as the large financial support that George Soros has provided to Human Rights Watch.

I’d also be wary of those sites that might be manipulated by the criminally minded who could, for example, share logins to collect your data, etc.

It’ll still be a little while until I return to regular posting.

Respect cracks / No Football, No Free Speech - By Order / Battle of IDs

Respect cracks

It’s a picture of a crack in the ground, right?

No it isn’t. Why do I have such philistines as readers?

It’s in the Tate Modern, so it’s Art.

But in fact it’s a lot more than just art. According to the leaflet issued to those who view the (sculpture?) -

“First, and most obviously, the contemplative nature of such a venue allows the gesture to resonate in its widest sense. Walking down (the artist, Salcedo) incised line, particularly if you know about her previous work, might well prompt a broader consideration of power’s divisive operations as encoded in the brutal narratives of colonialism, their unhappy aftermaths in postcolonial nations, and in the stand off between rich and poor, northern and southern hemispheres…For Salcedo, the crack reveals a ‘colonial and imperial history [that] has been disregarded, marginalised or simply obliterated… the history of racism, running parallel to the history of modernity and… its untold dark side.’"

But it’s also clearly a lot more than that description. It’s not just a leftist commentary on “colonial and imperial history” for this piece of art is called no less than Shibboleth.

Yes, that’s right, the very term, one of a million words used by Respect members, that is the touchstone of how that party’s rightist critics express their disdain about the organisation - Lindsey German reportedly said that gay rights are not a shibboleth. Lindsey German, long-time socialist feminist, turns homophobe? - only in the ravings of the Labour liquidationists.

With four SWP or SWP sympathetic councillors splitting from the Respect group on Tower Hamlets council, there’s an almighty crack in Respect as well as in the Tate Modern. I think it’s only a matter of time before the two wings of that party permanently split asunder. Coincidence that Salcedo called her work, denoting a small fissure that turns into a gaping division, Shibboleth? I think not.

But the artist does seems a bit coy in commentating further on what she clearly devised her work to describe. I haven't yet read her views about John Rees, George Galloway and the other major (no, that’s not the right word) players in Respect, so let me add my view instead.

A measure of contempt should be ladled on both sides in this looming divorce.

The disdain with which the SWP treated its leftist critics, when the latter remarked upon the often reactionary nature of some of Respect’s members (such as was well reported in devastating interview after devastating interview with Respect candidates in the Weekly Worker) makes the SWP’s late discovery of the true nature of their allies beyond pitiful.

The SWP is accused of bureaucratic manoeuvrings against its foes in Respect (and to be fair, accuses them back). This charge against the Socialist Workers Party is more than credible to anyone with experience of how they work.

I thought it noteworthy that the SWP criticised the raising of a petition, amongst its members, that complains about the recent expulsion of three of their comrades for siding with the anti-SWPers, in Respect, and against their own party.

Those members (wrongly) concerned about this decision were criticised by their leaders for acting not in the culture of the party, by raising such a national petition, rather than arguing the issue at their branch meetings.

It says a lot, about the reported culture in the SWP, that aggrieved members don’t feel confident enough to follow this formally correct advice from their Central Committee. All I’ve ever heard from ex members of the SWP is that if you did do as the CC advised, you’d pretty soon find yourself consigned to outer darkness, if not beyond membership.

But worse than the SWPers are the rightward movers, including the supposed Trots (in fact, in the ‘Fourth International’ [sic] itself) who have found themselves on the side of the small businessmen and Galloway against the ostensible Marxists of the SWP. Huh?

Glyn Robbins chair of Tower Hamlets Respect writes well about a common Leftist mindset. “I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the SWP. The very fact that I feel the need to make this statement and in those words should alarm anyone who is serious about left wing politics. For as long as I’ve been involved in the labour movement (over 25 years) there has been a neurosis about the SWP that, at its most extreme, almost requires medical treatment. I am sorry to say that there are some people within our movement who are far more interested in fighting the SWP than our enemies”

A prime example of this is the recent reporting on a Left blog that the East London Advertiser has reported that the 6 Respect-SWP councillors on Tower Hamlets council are in discussion about joining in an alliance with the Liberal Democrats. It is beyond the realms of possibility that SWP members, in this or any other parallel universe, would undertake such a move.

It is completely scurrilous for any Left to repeat such garbage. When the SWP leadership tell their membership, falsely, that all other far Lefts out there are sectarian losers out to destroy their party, they sadly have now been given another piece of ammunition supporting their tainted worldview.

You can read chapter and verse, if you so desire, about the slow-burning implosion of Respect on websites like Dave’s Part (from Dave Osler). From there, you can go to lesser sites where there are hundreds of comments about the minutiae of this particular small candyfloss stall in the long running carnival fairground that is British Leftism.

There’s a strong culture of Leftist trainspotting in Britain. So on Osler’s site, there are more than three times as many comments on the SWP expelling three members than on another article about the Left and Saudi Arabia. It’s hard not to feel scorn for the over excited Lefts dedicating endless bytes to the politicking of other Left parties.

I think that, on the whole, these developments in Respect are positive. It was never going to last unless the SWP (and Socialist Outlook, etc) really did break completely with their history.

The SWP will walk away (or be pushed out) with six (?) councillors and the experience of having Lindsey German come fifth (and beating the BNP and the Greens) in the last London Mayoral election. (No I don’t think electoral strength is the be all and end all - but neither do I treat it with disdain. It’s good, not bad).

Similar in support, at least in terms electoral terms, is the Socialist Party with, I think, also about six councillors.

How about a lash up between both of them, the CPB (with the Morning Star - and the SLP), the small Trot groups (which I would loosely define as Workers Power, Permanent Revolution, AWL, etc) and any remaining ex (and it must be ‘ex’) Labour Lefts? Add in a few hundred (possibly four figures?) unaligneds (like me) who are in this general political area and we may have a goer.

Fantasy politics? Doubtless. But why should it be?

The Netherlands has the Dutch Socialist Party (which started life as a Maoist organisation), the Scots had the SSP (born from various Trot groups), the Germans have the Linkspartei (coming from ‘official’ communism and social democracy) and the Italians have the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (starting life in ‘official’ communism) (or maybe had, in terms of Leftism able to be supported). There are other such formulations in Scandinavia, eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Are we so incompetent, in Britain, that we can’t at least have the same? It’s hardly as though the Labour Party is attracting the support of Lefts that it did, in say, the 80s.

Sure, such a group wouldn’t be a perfect party. Those looking for an excuse not to join could always find one. I’d have a fair few differences with any of the above European parties myself - but I’d also join them if I lived there and argue my politics inside.

Let’s have a British (or if we must and English and Welsh) Socialist Alliance / Party / Organisation - whatever.

Or, like the Whigs, Gnostic Christianity and the Temperance movement; be prepared to fall permanently down a crack, just like in Salcedo’s work.

Update - I see that a "Solomon ("Simon") Punt" described as a "Respect supporter, Hoyland Nether (West Riding)" has signed the SWP's "An Appeal to Respect Members". This isn't me. I do wonder whether there is such a person - do people still say they live in 'West Riding'? - maybe. I live in London and I'm not called "Solomon Punt" - that's just a nom-de-plume to keep my Facebook account - or even Southpawpunch, in real life.

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No Football, No Free Speech - By Order

This week I read an article in a London council publication that was bemoaning the way that kids nowadays play football.

The writer correctly reported that it’s very rare indeed that you’ll see an informal and spontaneous game of football, as I took part in as a kid in my local park or even across my street. Just about all young players now have to take part in organised (and paid for) games - arranged and timetabled for them by businesses.

An obvious consequence of this degradation in the quality of the lives of these children is that, as reported by the article, fewer kids now play soccer outside school.

It was a good point that the council was making. They were wondering what they could do about it.

In the same publication I also read that the same council would be stepping up its activities against those engaging in unauthorised leafleting in its streets. This initiative follows on from its activities in breaking up (and having arrested) those setting up leaflet stalls (primarily Islamists) in some of its shopping areas.

Then add into this mix it’s scathing reply to me, ridiculing my concerns that I expressed in a letter to them, when its staff refused me access to leaflet one of its old people homes during an election - Any legitimate political party will issue photo ID to its members, without this and a prior appointment and approval, you will not be given access to any of these premises in line with our duty to protect those in our care.

Further infuse the council’s stated determination to stop ‘doorstep calling’ in its borough and the result is pretty much that anyone with a view to express better hope that what they want to say is in line with the view of the editor of the local rag.

That is, if they hold any hope of being able to locally disseminate their message. It’s that culture of control, compliance (and censorship) that also contributes to keeping kids indoors.

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Battle of IDs

It’s interesting when you recognise a few names, from long ago, on Facebook and note how many of them have either reinvented themselves or at least obliterated their Left past.

I’ve seen not a few former members of Militant who are now firmly ensconced as ‘petit bourgeois’ small (and even big) business types. And so are now guilty of that ‘crime’ of which they often accused me - being a ‘PB’ - and levelled at me when I was in fact an unemployed squatter.

I haven’t yet managed to find the guy in Militant to whom I, in a sarcastic manner (but that was completely beyond him), offered a (completely fictitious) job to as my dad’s chauffeur - and the tale of which mutated to me supposedly sacking his dad as my family’s (completely fictitious) butler - by the time I went along to a threatening reception at the next Greater Manchester meeting of the Labour Party Young Socialists. I hear that he’s nowadays joined the Satanists; he’s a Director of Human Resources.

There’s a few former SWPers on Facebook, who, from reading their profiles, not only no longer have a political thought in their head but little else in way of thoughts about anything else.

But it’s the alumni of the Revolutionary Communist Party that brought the most wry smile to my lips. (You remember them, the ‘Party of the Future’ as they described themselves in the 80s - including on a near inaccessible bit of flyposting that blighted for years one of the few bits of pleasant decoration, amongst the general dinghiness, of the communal areas in my council tower block).

If you look up former RCPers on Facebook, they’ll often make mention of how they met some of their Facebook Friends (and former RCP comrades). ‘We took part in this great project to reshape the world’. ‘We met whilst thinking big big thoughts’ ‘We went on a journey together.’ No one on the Left could patronise like they could.

Some of what I read in their modern incarnation as Spiked Online can give pause for thought, especially when they comment upon the ridiculousness of some aspects of modern life. They’re big on criticising risk adverse cultures and the mealy mouthed pandering to the censorship of the elites or the 'easily offended'. They can sometimes be correct.

I thought of them when I recently lost or had stolen (I’m not sure which) a wallet. I reported this at the local cop shop (God knows why). I was surprised not to receive a letter noting the ‘crime’ that I had reported but also to get lengthy advice about how I could make use of Victim Support services and counselling to contemplate the misfortune that had befallen me.

(It was a deep relationship, counsellor. I first saw her on a market stall in Hoxton. I overlooked her minor faults, such as her loose clasp, and I grew used to her leathery skin. I was devastated when she left, I haven’t yet found a worthy replacement and, in dark moments, sometimes think about her now - inside the trousers of some other bloke).

The offer to me of counselling also reminded me of one of the most cringeworthy exchanges (there were a few) that I had to witness when working in the NHS.

Mental Health Patient’s sister - She was never right after she lost Terry in the Bethnal Green tube disaster. I was with her.

Patient Care Coordination Liaison Officer (or similar Mickey Mouse title) - What was that? Terry got lost on the tube?

Patient’s sister - A lot of people died, it was in the War, dear. It was her son, he was crushed.

(On March 3 1943 at Bethnal Green Tube station, a nearby anti-aircraft battery opened up with a deafening roar. Some people, heading down to shelter from a bombing raid, slipped on the stairwell and 173 people - including 62 children - suffocated or were crushed to death in the ensuing panic.

Think of how you’re walking through where all their bodies lay, if the lift is ever out and you need to take the stairs).

PCCL (to patient) - Oh dear. That must have been a bad time for you. Did you access proper counselling? It helps to talk about these things.

Patient - The council never did nothing. They didn’t even get us a prefab after the war. I couldn’t talk to him, he was dead.

The ex RCPers don’t like ludicrous self-indulgence masquerading as social concern but then neither do I. But I don’t go from laughing at the muddy thinking (or cynical manipulations) of the caring and controlling professions to writing right-wing political manifestos for their business sponsors that favour decimating regulations and laws so as to promote their joint vision of a laissez-faire economy.

Southpawpunch goes corporate

This website has an account at Facebook but I’ve had to change my account name there from “Southpaw Punch” to Solomon Punt (Solomon seemed to scan [?] better than Simon).

Both account names bear the same relation to my real name - very little - but I’ve already been befriended on Facebook by another Punt who wants me to sign up to some Punt family network.

This reminded me of other occasions when someone has got me confused with a 'namesake'. I don’t have that common a name but there are a few of us

I received an interesting email last year, addressed to ‘me’, and that was sent to one of my accounts (my name at gmail.com).

Let me call myself ‘Solomon Punt’ in my report below of what happened.

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-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
From: Big Boss Andrew (Blackberry)
Date: April 9
To: Big Big Boss Alan and 19 others Bosses at BadBank
Cc: Solomon Punt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Colleagues,

This is to let you all know that Rajesh left the company yesterday and Solomon Punt has joined BadBank with effect, and with full operational responsibility, from today as Financial Controller - Europe.

Solomon will be responsible for all Financial and corporate (non Legal) matters for all the European Markets and will be based in the London Office.

I hope that you all join me in welcoming Solomon onboard the group.

An email account and mobile phone number is being setup for Solomon and will be active on Monday.

Welcome onboard the group Solomon...

Thanks & Kind Regards

Big Boss Andrew

- Sent from my Blackberry -

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So I looked up BadBank, I was interested to find out more about where I was going to be working.

The company is the UK subsidiary of a US ‘financial services company’. It specialises in providing sub prime mortgages (at crippling interest rates) as well as credit cards to the ‘financially vulnerable’.

That’s not credit cards that maybe give you a 1% cashback to help you a little bit with your financial plight.

That’s credit cards where you pay a fee for the credit card, are not given any credit (you have to top them up before you use them) and where you also pay a fee every time you use your card.

But it’s ok - your card looks flash and has a fancy name - ‘Portfolio’ or ‘Prestige’ or similar.

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-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
From: Solomon Punt
Date: April 9
To: Big Big Boss Alan, Big Boss Andrew and 19 others Bosses at BadBank
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everybody,

I'm really pleased to hear about my new job. There I was thinking I was a PR consultant on London but now I'm appointed financial controller for some financial services company even though I failed my Maths A Level and didn't apply for the job.

Please remind how much I am getting and make sure my salary is in the bank at the end of the month - I can send the details.

As the new Financial Controller - Europe of BadBank, one of my first decisions is for some radical financial restructuring.

I note that we claimed, in our recent response to our trade body’s request for information for their submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee investigating our sort of company, that BadBank “at all times operates with the highest ethical considerations. We are proud to provide financial services to those who may be otherwise disadvantaged and we are also proud of our entrepreneurial ability to grow our company whilst dealing with clients who may be high credit risks…we are leaders in treating our staff well, we beat the rest in our industry.”

I’m making these changes to bring us fully in line with this declared ethical policy.

I am awarding all our mortgage holders a six-month holiday from their payments.

All directors will no longer be paid. The next quarter of staff paid immediately between the level of the directors will be subject to a 90% pay cut. All the lowest 60 percent of staff (by pay) will have their pay increased by 400% with immediate effect and their holiday entitlement will likewise be increased to 100 days.

I can see no mention of trade unions in any of the corporate information that we put online, so I’ve taken the initiative. I’ll be involved in a quick discussion with the TUC to ask them to get the appropriate trade union to set up a branch in our company - we will then recognise this body.

Alternatively you may wish to change your contact details so you have the correct email address for the real (or is it the fake?) Solomon Punt and so you don't send me any more emails - although if you do send me more, such as your secret plans, maybe I can sell them to your rivals?

Another thing. It’s all a bit sudden isn’t it, making the announcement the same day as Rajesh has been unpersoned? What have you done with him? Was it a case of ‘It's not personal, Rajesh. It's strictly business.’ Has his wife been told where to find his body?

Best Rgds,

- Not sent from a Blackberry -

Solomon Punt


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
From: Big Big Boss Alan (Blackberry)
Date: April 9
To: Big Boss Andrew and 19 others Bosses at BadBank, Solomon Punt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andrew

I think yu sent to wrong address!

Check with Solomon...

Rgds

Alan

- Sent from my Blackberry -


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
From: Boss Dave
Date: April 9
To: Big Big Boss Alan, Big Boss Andrew, 19 other Bosses at BadBank
Cc: Solomon Punt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sure Alan, to what extent I remember Solomon was never so funny!!!...


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
From: Big Big Alan
Date: April 9
To: Big Boss Andrew, 19 other Bosses at BadBank, Solomon Punt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

All,

I’m concerned that confidential information like this is so easily getting sent beyond the company...

I have found there can be a particular probelm that once an email address is uesd it can be hard to weed it out. Make sure you do that now. I’ve copied Solomon Punt in (the real one, not the joker!!) and weeded our ‘friend’ out on this to explain what happened.

More attention all...

Rgds

Alan

- Sent from my Blackberry -


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
From: Boss Dave
Date: April 9
To: Big Big Boss Alan, Big Boss Andrew, 19 other Bosses at BadBank
Cc: Solomon Punt

URGENT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alan, I’m sorry to tell you that you are still copying in the ‘joker’ in on your emails. I’ll get Skip from IS to sort for you...

- Sent from my Blackberry -


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
From: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
Date: April 9
To: Big Big Boss Alan, Big Boss Andrew, 19 other Bosses at BadBank
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all again,

Hey, I’m pleased that I am getting all my emails and you’re clearly taking measures to eliminate the other ‘joker’ who is pretending to be me.

Anyway - a few more initial financial decisions:

1. Donation of 100% of last year’s net profits to the International Red Cross

2. I’ve arranged an early meeting with HM Revenue and Customs to put our arrangements with them on an ethical basis (as per our stated policy). I am going to insist we pay at least 70% of our gross profit as tax but I would also like a full declaration from all of you of all the ‘scams’ regarding tax - legal and illegal - that we pull so I can inform them. We appear, from perusing our Annual Report online to have paid an astonishingly low level of tax last year - 2%? - some error, surely?

Look forward to seeing you all in the office, tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll have a warm reception.

PS. Why do us corporate types end every email message with ...?

Solomon Punt

- Sent from a dubious Internet café in Portsmouth (with no food) but who’s complaining at 50p per hour? -


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Solomon Punt - Financial Controller - Europe
From: Boss Mary
Date: April 10
To: Solomon Punt
Cc: Big Big Boss Alan, Big Boss Andrew, 18 other Bosses at BadBank
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Solomon Punt -

Who the hell are you to give us the benefit of your ‘wisdom’?

You are a sad joker. Doubtless your only other activity is to wander down to the dole office every two weeks to collect the payment that I and the rest of our staff here (on whatever wages) are paying towards.

How dare you consider emailing the top executives of this company with your asinine ‘witty’ commentary? Grow up.

Boss Mary


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Emails
From: Legal, BadBank
Date: April 11
To: Solomon Punt
Cc: Big Big Boss Alan, Big Boss Andrew, 19 other Bosses at BadBank
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr Punt,

It would appear that employees of BadBank might have sent you emails in error.

As the legal representative of BadBank, I would like to inform you that BadBank has not, and does not, intend to offer any form of contract of employment or any other undertaking to yourself.

With Regards,

Legal, BadBank


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Payment in lieu of notice
From: Solomon Punt
Date: April 12
To: Legal, BadBank
Cc: Big Big Boss Alan, Big Boss Andrew
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Legal, BadBank,

Damn, That must be my shortest job ever. Just over three days between the notice of my appointment and my sacking by you. Oh well.

Anyway, can you advise me on how much you will be paying me in lieu of notice and when can I expect payment?

Regards,

Solomon Punch

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- SILENCE -

Then, four months later I started being copied in again on a series of emails concerning mundane financial and corporate matters of BadBank. Sadly nothing was particularly confidential (that I could sell) and it was all rather tiresome reading.

So, getting bored... (Damn, I’m doing it now...)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


--------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: BadBank, financial status
From: Solomon Punt
Date: September 10
To: Big Big Boss Alan, Big Boss Andrew and 19 others Bosses at BadBank
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear colleagues,

Well I’ve been ploughing through all the financial strategy stuff that you’ve kindly been sending to me recently. It’s the most turgid task I’ve ever done. When they said it’s the dullest witted automatons with a paperweight for a heart that become accountants, they weren’t wrong.

But even just flicking through this stuff I see that my impostor ‘Solomon’ (no relation) predicted a 1.6% increase in C3 outturn over the last quarter but, in fact, there’s been a 0.2% decrease. Likewise, the predicted uplift rate expected for non-complaint conversions was 300% out - it’s 16%, not the 4% Solomon predicted.

Really, you’ve got the wrong Solomon. Surely you can see that now? Give me my job back and all will be forgotten.

Solomon Punt

- Not sent from a Blackberry -


-------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: unsolicited emails
From: Legal
Date: September 13
To: Solomon Punt
Cc: Big Boss Andrew
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. Punt,

Without prejudice.

I am writing to you to insist that you do not further contact anyone working for BadBank by email, or by other means.

I would also draw your attention to the legal provisions under which you may have accidentally received copies of emails originating from BadBank.

This email and its attachments could be confidential If you are not the intended recipient of this communication and its attachments, you must take no action based upon them, nor must you copy or disclose them to anyone. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of BadBank. Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email wrongly.

I must ask for an undertaking from you that you will forward copies of all emails from BadBank employees and/or relating to the business of BadBank and that are in your possession or control to us without delay.

I must also insist upon written acknowledgement by you that you have destroyed all copies of these emails and which may have been stored by electronic, paper or other means.

We reserve our rights in connection with the above matter.

Judith Name, Legal Counsel, BadBank


-----------------------Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: unsolicited emails
From: Solomon Punt
Date: September 15
To: Judith Name, Legal Counsel
Cc: Big Boss Andrew, BadBank
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hiya Jude, How are you doing?

I’d also like to draw your attention to the legal text that has accompanied my emails to you and the rest of you working for BadBank.

This email and its attachments could be confidential. Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent. It is for the purposes of satire and can be copied freely. Does anyone ever read this stuff? Any views expressed here are those of revolutionary socialism and represent the views of Karl Marx. If you are the intended recipient of this communication and its attachments, you must send a PayPal payment of £1000 to the sender (the details of which will be given on request), you must also copy them to all the staff that report to you and post them on the public area of your company’s website.

I’d always considered the spiel written at the bottom of corporate emails - threatening all sorts of dire consequences - to be just ‘legal’ hot air that types like you use to try and scare the gullible.

But clearly you believe that the act of simply receiving an email actually imposes a legal contract on the recipient. Well who I am to argue with you, I mean you’re the lawyer?

So I must insist that you fulfil your obligations arising from receiving emails from me - I reckon BadBank owe me about £84,000. If you could pay up quick - I’ve got a bookie breathing down my neck and nine kids with 4 different women to support - I’ll be sure to send you back your emails pronto.

Warm Rgds,

Solomon Punt

Socialism and Stalinism / Competition - book

Socialism and Stalinism

Che Guevara’s been dead forty years. He was maybe the most radical; the most to be admired in what some still call ‘Stalinism’.

But how much did the Left lose when he was executed, what losses were endured when no end of ‘Stalinist’ liberation movements & parties slowly strangled themselves and what damage was done when various ‘socialist’ states - generally ruled by homburg wearing geriatrics - expired during the night from their own decrepitude?

Stalinism

First - on terms. It’s traditional amongst Trots to describe all those in membership (or close to) the ‘official’ communist parties - those that were in fraternal relations with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, as led by Stalin - and those latter descendents or splits by parties from this tendency (and which still kept much of the politics, even if only to bury them deep) - as ‘Stalinists’.

So today this terminology may be still be used about those expressing widely differing politics - from the Parti Communiste Français to the rulers of China to Naxalite guerrillas in India.

Even just in Britain, the term Stalinist was and still could be used about some collaborationist, drippy, reformist feminist separatist from the ‘Eurocommunist’ end of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) right through to a member of the ‘Tankie’ faction of that organisation - the sort of person who didn’t think Beria went far enough in the 30s purges of oppositionists (including Trotskyists) in the USSR.

It may still be appropriate to use the word ‘Stalinist’ about some historical figures or in referring to the very few who really do argue for the politics of Uncle Joe today.

Stalinism is also, perhaps with a small ‘s’, used to describe undemocratic manoeuvres of Left parties. Be it meeting packing, political slurring or the spreading of disinformation, the Stalinist left in Britain once certainly excelled at this practice e.g. Trotskyists = fascist collaborators. But I’ve no doubt, that given a bigger stage, some of today’s Trots would also excel in ensuring compliance with their line in ways which would get more and more degenerate as their influence grew.

So I much now prefer the term ‘official communist’ to ‘Stalinist’. With their Left influence near dead in the UK, these ‘official communists’, such as those in the Communist Party of Britain are now no more than just Left reformists anyway - no worse and sometimes even better than not dissimilar thinkers to them in the Labour and nearby Left.

Cuba

I’ve yet to see a good Marxist analysis of present day Cuba. Everything I’ve ever read, including from Trots, bases its view on present day Cuba on the events of 50 years ago e.g. because it was a peasant supported guerrilla army that seized power, with relatively little involvement from workers, it could never have developed into socialist regime.

Whilst all that may be true, I’d be interested to know a lot more about, for example, what would happen to you if you tried to organise a political party there now that was in favour of communism - in defence of the Revolution but in opposition to the current regime. I suspect you’d end up in a prison cell.

But that’s not to say that Cuba’s all bad. I’d defend the revolution against its overturn but I suspect the most progressive elements of it died long before its true hero did.

When Che Guevara was captured In Bolivia and was awaiting execution, he was asked by one of his tormentors whether he was Argentinean or Cuban? The way I remember his answer (or possibly a myth that was later created?) is that he replied along the lines of 'I’m Argentinean, Algerian, American, Australian etc etc, you understand?'

Would that I’d have the wit to think of such a correct reply at such a time. I’d rather spend an hour reading about the ‘Stalinist’ Che than spend a few minutes in the company of some ‘Trotskyists’ of my acquaintance. He was someone to be admired.

Trotskyism

Trotskyists supported the ‘defence of the deformed workers state’ i.e. the Soviet Union. The USSR was a healthy workers state at the start but became deformed at some time in the 20s. We’d also support the defence of ‘degenerated workers states’ - that is those countries that became ‘workers states’, but in a stillborn manner, in the period after World War II and which included all of the Eastern bloc, China, Indochina, Cuba and, according to some, a few other places such as Syria (and Burma?). But in all these countries we thought a revolution was needed - a political revolution to otherthrow the rulers - who were a caste, not a class (they couldn’t pass on inheritances, etc) - rather than a social revolution.

There was a fault line between those of the ‘The USSR etc. is state capitalist’ view - and whose best known proponent in Britain was the SWP with their slogan 'Neither Washington or Moscow’ - and other Trots. It’s also why that tendency wrongly didn’t support North Korea (and its official communist allies) in the Korean War, although it doesn’t explain why they then (correctly) later supported North Vietnam in the Vietnam War. This division is sometimes defined as that between ‘Orthodox Trotskyism’ and ‘State Capitalist Trotskyism’. There are also a few ostensible Trots who subscribe to different formulations.

(Orthodox) Trotskyists would defend all workers states to the hilt against attempts to restore capitalism and so would support them, unconditionally, in any wars against capitalist countries, regardless of cause, or even would support them in dealing with internal elements that supported the return of capitalism (even if the demands of such oppositionists - such as for national self determination - were formally justified).

I do still hold to those views - I was convinced at the time, and remain convinced by the arguments made by those such as Trotsky in his ‘In Defence of Marxism’ (even though that text was written before World War II). But this argument is now just academic, save for a couple of places. And despite being reflected and distorted through no end of crazy mirrors, I think today’s Cuba and probably North Korea (despite being a monarchy!) still meet the criteria - as would anywhere else where capitalism hasn’t been restored (although I think there probably aren’t any other such states).

I remember the way that we’d look with contempt at the politically naïf amongst us - or close to us - who’d sometimes politely query the uncompromising line of ‘Defend the Soviet Union’ that was one of the main points in the programme of ‘Classfighter’ - the youth movement of Socialist Organiser and Workers Power in the 80s. Thinking of it now, I’m reminded of the not too dissimilar way that immature school student members of the NF would flick Nazi salutes at all and sundry, just to give the appearance of being uncompromisingly hardcore. I’m sure you’d have been considered suspect by them even for suggesting you’d be interested in an explanation for their conduct and is was the same for us about that particular slogan.

Events intervene

But events can stretch or even break what looks good on paper. The above was the policy - but could it always be held to? In the eyes of the Spartacists, who are correctly accused of Stalinophilia by most other ostensible Trotskyists, I was on the “side of the CIA and the Madonna” in supporting Solidarity in Poland in its actions against that country’s regime. Likewise I would’ve supported the uprisings against the Stalinist regimes that occurred in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968. These movements were originally workers movements, despite the misreporting of, for example, the Hungarian events as being purely nationalistic. It wasn’t written in stone that Solidarity would help restore capitalism to Poland and that its leaders, like Wałęsa would play the reactionary role that they later did. It was right - and consistent with Trotskyism - to support them.

When the Stalinist Left mattered

Some of my convincing, about these arguments about the nature of the workers states, was supplied by the empirical evidence before my eyes. Whole swathes of the planet were liberated by these regimes - Cuba, in particular, committed large resources to fight the troops of the apartheid regime in southern Africa. No end of national liberation movements, and ruling classes in developing countries whose policies put them in the crosshairs of the major capitalist countries, benefited from the largess of the Soviet Union and its allies.

Nonetheless I have always concluded that the prime motivations - the reasons why the Eastern bloc correctly supported Nasser during the Suez War or various Palestinian guerrillas in their actions against Israel - were near always because of the geopolitical advantages in doing so for Moscow and the rest - and rarely because of the progressive nature of that which they supported. There is some grit in the smoothness of this argument - what could the Cubans have gained in Africa? - but I think it’s generally true.

Guerrillaism

I wouldn’t be as hard on guerrillaism as many other Trotskyists. Without the guerrillaism of the IRA and the INLA, Catholics in Northern Ireland may still just be organising petitions and peace marches protesting against their latest clubbing by the RUC. Ian Smith could still be lording it over Rhodesia. Indeed sometimes not more that guerrilla formations bore major fruit - such as in the despatch of the British colonial rulers from Aden. But like all cross class liberation movements, these forces are bound to unravel once the immediate objective is realised - the removal of the Brits, French etc and those who have taken power then need to decide how Algeria or Angola or wherever is to be run.

Life under ‘socialism’

It was always wrong that somebody couldn’t have easily just got up and relocated from Karl Marx Stadt in the German Democratic Republic to Köln in the Federal Republic. The building of the Wall through the middle of Berlin was a demonstration both of the weakness of the GDR and also its anti-democratic tendencies.

But ‘socialist’ countries were also never fairly judged by the standards applying elsewhere. I don’t know if you’d have been shot at if you’d been seen by border guards attempting to skip over the border, say between Austria and Italy, before Schengen, but I’m pretty sure that if you’d been, say a British or American nuclear scientist, with access to military secrets, and you’d announced your intention to give it all up and go and live in a Russian Orthodox monastery in Crimea during the period of the Cold War - you’d instead have ended up being framed for something, or been killed - you'd have never got to leave the West.

There’s no denying that near all in the workers states voted to move westwards - politically and sometimes literally - once they had the chance, such as from East to West Germany. If we’re socialists, we pride ourselves on being the best democrats and supporting the rights of workers to change their society. It’s when they clearly also want to overthrow ‘socialism’ as they will have seen it, or reintroduce capitalism, as it actually was - such as in the dying days of the Soviet Union - that holes in orthodox Trotskyism theory start opening. I don’t have any Polyfilla to fill in that particular question.

Gravediggers

Neither as the makers of shoddy consumer goods nor as places that promoted free expression did the Stalinist regimes excel. But it was as the gravediggers of revolutions that they did beat all comers.

These actions included telling the Greek communists (at the end of World War II) to submit instead of going for it; the collaborationist policies of the postwar French and Italian official communists and the inability to either move beyond supporting guerrillaism (amongst what were usually splits from official communism) or, conversely, the inability to support the same guerrillaism (as one of a few tactics) by the official communists in the same country.

Maybe above all it was simply the murderous turning on revolutionaries, even on their own side - such as during the Spanish Civil War - that shows how distant from Marxism were the policies of that branch of ‘communism’.

Official communism in Britain - from rabid reformists to poodle pups

I saw the tail end of the above tendency. CPGB members at union meetings and elsewhere would happily combine, even with the Right, in order to defeat the ‘ultraleft’ Trots and all in a futile hope of building broad ‘across class’ coalitions. Their former magazine, ‘Marxism Today’, was the epitome of the defeat of Leftism. In its pages they’d scrabble around in a vain attempt to try and stitch up some sort of popular front with which to move Britain even just slightly towards the Left - this got no traction except with a few media types. It was no great step for Sue Slipman OBE, a former president of the National Union of Students to move quickly from being a member of the Executive Committee of the CPGB to joining the Social Democratic Party in the early 1980s.

Two-way traffic

Whilst some official communists were recruited to the ranks of Trotskyism, after the hard face of their master was occasionally exposed - such as in the brutal crushing of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 - the traffic was more in the other direction. This pressure to drop revolution, and move instead to the militant sounding Left reformism of the ‘official communists’, has always caused damage amongst Trots. It’s always an easier option to capitulate. Pablo and more wrongly bought the idea that tension with the ruling castes of what was the Soviet Bloc meant that some of these official communist parties could move in the direction of socialism. What was probably once the largest Trotskyist party in the West, the SWP (US), passed over into official communism and that explains their current day praisesinging for ‘socialism’ in Cuba.

This pole of attraction is now all but gone but that still doesn’t stop the weaker Trots moving toward the hole in the ground that it left behind. So Alan Woods, leader of Socialist Appeal / International Marxist Tendency, and a former leader of Militant writes this week that, “We have no doubt that had (Che Guevara) lived he would have moved towards Trotskyism and in fact he was already doing so before his life was cut short.”

In fact these words (which remind me very much of how the SWP US claim that Malcolm X was moving towards them before his assassination) demonstrate instead the continuing uncomfortable position of Trotskyists. We’re hanging on by our fingertips to the undercarriage of the Left whilst being severely battered by every bump in the road. This leads to the flakier end of the movement rashly letting go, whence they’re crushed by the following truck - the one driven by Chávez, in the case of Woods.

A gamble untaken

I’d be interested to know how Stalin personally set on the course that he did. His early Bolshevik career included some work that is still well regarded by Marxists, such as on nationalism, and his early activities including time spent expropriating banks for the party. But individuals don’t make history. It’s events that made Stalin, not vice versa. The Soviet Union was, early on, faced with a harsh choice - it could go all out to spread revolution throughout the world or it could play it safe. If it went for broke it’d either be successful - and its communism would remain healthy - or the capitalist world would combine and commit everything and manage to destroy this mortal threat to them. Stalin and co. decided not to gamble. They raised the drawbridge and engaged in a futile attempt to build socialism in one country. Whilst the former course could have led to the early extinguishing of socialism, the latter just delayed the inevitable demise of their regime for 70 years.

But the making of that decision probably wasn’t the most significant moment in helping capitalism survive. Capitalism had been overthrown in Russia - the imperative was to spread it quickly, particularly to another major country. I know such a view could be criticised as being terribly determinist but if ever I was asked the question ‘Communism, where (and why) did it all go wrong? I’d answer like this. I’d reply on the ‘why’ - There is a necessity of ideological purity. The correct line is important above all else - small differences in actions now can have fundamental impacts in the long term, as the slow death of Stalinism demonstrated (the fact that it is near impossible to sometimes work out the correct line is perhaps our most fundamental problem). But on the ‘where’ - I’d say this would’ve been in a room in Berlin. It would’ve been where some Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (or predecessor party) faction was meeting on some date in the period after the end of World War I.

And in that room they made whatever wrong decisions that meant there was to be no German socialist revolution. When I work out the address, I'll erect a plaque. Amongst the sauerkraut, a few squabbling comrades determined the course of the rest of the 20th century. If only Che Guevara or, a lot better, some Trots had been at that meeting - then maybe the Daily Worker would be selling a lot more than the Daily Mail.

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Competition - book

The first Southpawpunch book will be published in a few weeks - in good time for Christmas. The book will contain both some of the highlights from what I've written in these columns, a few of my comments from elsewhere and some exclusive content that’ll only be available in this publication.

The name I am running with at the moment for this book is ‘Uppercuts’ but I’d also be grateful for your suggestions for what it should be called. If you do put forward an idea that I use (or a variation of it), then I’ll send you a copy of the book. Please either add your suggestion in the comments box below or, if you prefer, email it to me via the link given on the profile page.

And talking of competitions, the Prize Draw and Survey about this site will draw to its scheduled close at the end of this year. Thank-you to the many of you who have completed this survey about the Southpawpunch site. I’ve already made quite a few changes here to reflect the views and ideas expressed by readers but I’d be grateful if some more of you could spare some time - less than five minutes - to complete the Survey. I designed and run the Survey and Prize Draw myself. Your responses are completely confidential and, if you reply, you can also enter a competition with a chance of winning an Amazon £20 (or local currency equivalent) voucher. Thanks. Just click here.

Preston Bus Station / More de Menezes / Facebook

Preston Bus Station

‘Preston Bus Station’ are probably not the three most enticing words with which to start writing something that you want people to read, and indeed that particular combination of text may never have been used before in a socialist article. But it’s also a sequence of words that will seldom be used again, in any context, as the forthcoming demolition of this magnificent Lancashire colossus has been announced.

But this article isn’t a paean to backwaters in the North West of England from which Trotskyists, entrepreneurs, professional footballers or even junior under assistant branch librarians all escape through a combination of pure Darwinian evolution and self-interest. This article is about architecture and councillors, public services and lost visions - and the way that capitalist politics screw them all up.

Public transport?

In the traditional bombastic style of local journalism, the bus station has variously been described as the ‘biggest bus station in the world’, the ‘second biggest in Europe’ or just ‘one of the largest in the North West of England’.

I travelled many a time through Preston Bus Station’s roadways and bays, often at dawn on a National Express coach heading north. On quite a few occasions I also ambled in on a Ribble Bus and headed onwards to Blackpool, Blackburn or Lancaster.

I remember the pale blue light there, similar to that which you occasionally see in public toilets (to prevent drug injectors finding a vein) but also quite close to the colour that, rather more prosaically, filled the screen as Robert de Niro’s character rode into Los Angeles, on their newish metro service, at the commencement of the armed car robbery scenes in that excellent film, ‘Heat’.

De Niro’s ride was delayed by decades because rail public transport provision by Californian municipal authorities was suppressed for so long by the auto industry - although things did eventually get better. But my journeys into Preston Bus Station were before British public transport infrastructure got worse.

Last week I waited at a bus stop, on a windswept street in Reading, that was tantalisingly within sight of the now disused, covered bus station that once served the town. Like bus stations up and down the country, it'd been sold off, along with the bus companies, to the pariah dogs, like Stagecoach, who then sold on the infrastructure. These private companies have left bus passengers standing in the street or standing around in railway stations with few seats because of their wish to cram in as many retail outlets as possible.

Brutalism

Preston Bus Station, built in 1968 and 1969, is a tremendous example of Brutalism - a now near totally discredited movement - this was architecture that ‘encompassed a new way of thinking about construction’…fundamentally aimed at architectural honesty - a way of building that exposes the rawness or roughness of the materials and the construction.’

Exposed pipes, open drains and even windows just attached onto the surrounding wall rather than built in flush. And lots of lovely undressed concrete, coated just with pigeon droppings and spray can obscenities - not the white sheen that covered all the faults of its predecessor - and short-lived pretender to the road to the future - Modernism. Brutalism was a fitting, work-a-day architecture utilised by those borough leaders who still thought of building a better Britain. It contained a desire by some councillors to give you somewhere to wait for your bus away from the drizzle - and in some sort of style.

Municipal socialism goes building

Before and during the time of Brutalism, there was a zeitgeist amongst some councillors (right-wing Labour councillors in the main) to think big (developing town centres with public facilities - transport interchanges, shopping centres), run services themselves (like the buses) spend money (on things like council housing) and, on occasion, even tell the government to go hang when it wanted to truncate their big, big plans.

Preston Bus Station can fit a whole fleet of buses into its cavernous interior. The city council owned bus fleet and the state owned local and long distance bus company would disgorge their passengers into this concrete behemoth and from here you could travel further afield via the state owned railway or with the state owned coach company, all the while seeing that Brutalist testament linger behind you for quite some time.

This same strand of architecture was the leitmotif behind many a council housing estate built in this period. Local authorities - from London boroughs, like Islington and Southwark (that were then run by rancid right wing castes) to a few Leftish authorities in the North - acted to ensure the availability of cheap housing but also to keep this provision under their control rather than to subject it to the tender mercies of private landlords.

Throughout inner London, the next largest group of housing estates after the former London County Council’s distinctive set of dark brick estates, are the complexes built in the 60s and 70s by the borough councils - places like the Aylesbury or North Peckham estates in south London. No one now defends the forward thinking that these housing estates once represented. But there’s no reason why such architecture should fail on its own merits.

I lived high in the sky for a long time in a south London 60s council tower block. It was poor maintenance and the social conditions (which made me install steel plate behind the door, to stop it getting kicked in) that made these blocks hard to let in the 80s, not the concept itself. The rich of Mumbai, with a lackey opening every door, don’t mind living a long way above the ground.

Homogenised privatised Britain

Swindon’s a town that once would have looked different. The railway buildings - both for the trains and for the railway workers, as well as the underworld passage that links them under the mainline, make that side of the town different to others. But the commercial heart of the town could now just as easily be Salisbury, Shrewsbury or Sheffield - save for its glorious Brutalist car park, with a spiral car ramp, that picks out the skyline from the morass.

For what came later, under the rule of private developers who now run the show in every borough, was the homogenisation of near every town in Britain - the same shops, the same pastel coloured buildings and the same pastel flavoured food from the same pastel themed chains of pastel selling shops.

But this isn't a whinge about the way the distinctive look of so many towns has gone. It’s reporting how the rule of capital causes that but also screws up towns in so many more profound ways.

One of its offences is its attempt to squeeze out every last bit of public space. A favourite trick, that I’ve noticed in London’s Docklands, is to put a barrier half across a public footpath (so not actually blocking the right of way) and erect railings right up to the edge of the public domain to which 'private property' notices are affixed. So, even if you think it’s a right of way, you’re not sure. You're pushed off your right of way through being unsure whether you can go past.

Unfulfilled vision

Post-war municipal socialism was no wonderland. It was the podium of no end of ne’er do wells, like one time Trotskyist, T Dan ‘Mr Newcastle’ Smith - that city’s Council Leader in the 60s who got fat on backhanders from those who rebuilt his city.

This almost, save for the river Tyne, included that sublime bit of Brutalist architecture, Trinity Centre Multi-Storey Car Park, built just across the river in Gateshead - a car park famous from its appearance in ‘Get Carter’, (just about the only decent British crime film ever made) and a movie in which corrupt councillors are an unseen presence.

The standards of these Brutalist and other municipal buildings could be poor, the utopian vision of the architect would often never be even half realised but touches, like putting a challenging Henry Moore sculpture amidst some edge of town council housing, showed a vision and occasional expectation of the best that few modern day councillors would now even be able to conceive how to aspire towards.

Not just buildings

And it wasn’t just the physical infrastructure that interested these councillors and aldermen. There’s no point in building world-class bus stations if no one's going to be riding the buses anymore.

I grew up in various backwater edges of conurbations that were near culturally bereft save for a few amateur dramatics performances and Scout shows in church halls. But even just getting to these venues - well, it was an escape from watching wall to wall Wendy Craig and Richard O'Sullivan - was a lot longer a trek than would be calculated by an overflying sparrow.

All the streets in the suburbs in which I was incarcerated as a kid seemed to be laid out as crescents. It was as if a society of Islamic proselytisers had undertaken secret missionary work through acting as the developers of so many petit bourgeois post-war estates. Rose Crescent would slowly flow into Park Crescent that would lazily turn into Yew Crescent. This all meant that what would’ve been a ten minute cut through some estates in the city, was a 25 minute meander through suburban doppelganger roads. The route that I’d be obliged to follow would map out a strange, multi-sided shape whose name would fox most postgraduate maths students. Yet more ‘Crescents’, interspersed with an occasional ‘Rise’ or a ‘Close’ led back into yet another ‘Crescent’, all in the way on the route to get from home to somewhere interesting.

On the buses

So, like all kids heading towards or just having entered their teenage years, I took the bus. And in that day of council bus fleets, cheap fares and services to places that have now been abandoned, the desire by those councillors to have reasonable public transport made a tangible difference to my quality of life.

First I travelled to the local town (and on my first occasion, ended up getting very lost, following the intuitively correct 'rule' of getting back on the bus at the same stop where I had alighted) and then I went on into the city.

(‘What do you want to go to London for’ asked my mother. ‘There’s all you could ever need in Croydon’).

And then it was as far as I could get on a rover ticket. I kept on going like this until new horizons arose - an interest in music, politics and making longer distance trips, travelling by thumb.

(Did I miss the passing of the law that has apparently made hitchhiking illegal in Britain - or did it just fall victim to paranoia and dirty tactics, such as those used by the US authorities who erect roadside signs saying things like - ‘Hitchhikers may be escaped convicts’).

Until those new interests did beckon, travelling from Croydon I did glimpse the last of the post-war vision before it died. My travels by bus and coach would take me in ever increasing rings to the places just beyond the edges of London - the extensive post-war council housing of Harlow; the cycle ways and open spaces of Crawley and the industrial estates, still full of manufacturers, in Stevenage. These were all post-war New Towns, built to house the Blitzed population of London.

Later, returning to the North West, the 10p kids bus fares in the metropolitan counties would get me, by local bus, from Stockport to Sheffield or to Wigan or to Liverpool. I developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of good record shops across the North (including the one in Liverpool where I was served by an amazingly-dressed young Pete Burns -and who was surprisingly later beaten in the unconventional dress stakes by George Galloway on Celebrity Big Brother).

But that’s not something a kid could do now. South Yorkshire was famous for its low bus fares in the mid to late 70s - pennies from Sheffield to Doncaster or from Barnsley to Rotherham. It was also famous for the resistance its Labour councillors put up when the Labour government of that period forced them to jack up these fares.

For most kids now, it’s high bus fares (although not in London), privately owned town centres that frown on non paying customers or corporate owned leisure centres that squeeze the last penny. When a little older, it's staying at your mum and dads for ever with no chance of being able to rent or buy somewhere to live with the prospect of being given just social housing being hopelessly remote.

When Labour fought

The 1974-1979 Labour government was not, by any means, a time when the Labour Left had much of base. It was to be a few more years until the rise of Bennism. But still some Labour councils then actually tried to fight back against cuts - from the earlier period of the Clay Cross councillors right up until after the IMF intervention in 1976. Conferences against these first cuts happened in places like Lambeth, then under the leadership of Ted Knight. A few then would fight back.

When’s the last time you heard of a Labour council that decided it was going to defy the government or even the advice of the Audit Commission?

Where are the Left councillors engaging in internecine warfare against the rightwing leadership of their Labour groups?

(This happened for years and years, in places like Manchester, where the old manual worker right was gradually driven out by the once Bennite left, but which in fact was the progenitor of the professional class right-wingers who run nearly all Labour councils nowadays.)

Even in the old right-wing Labour fiefs during the first days of Thatcherism, councillors would be expelled from the council Labour Group for buying their council house. Nowadays such a councillor not doing this would probably be removed from any positions they have for not showing enough entrepreneurial savvy.

Whilst the icons of municipal Brutalist architecture are slowly felled - from Preston to Portsmouth - also spare a thought for the strong willed right wing Labour councillors of thirty and forty years ago who wanted and acquired innovative architecture and provided a wide range of council owned services for the population of their towns.

And compare them to political pygmies who now follow them - they may share the social democracy of their predecessors but the modern councillors also now just a cipher for business interests, they’ve an overwhelming identification with the bourgeoisie and they’ve never had the guts to stand up to their national party leaders.

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More de Menezes

When the pigs executed Jean Charles de Menezes on a London tube train in July 2005, does anyone remember being reported what is now transpiring in the prosecution of the Metropolitan Police for, er, allegedly breaking Health and Safety laws?

The BBC reports from the trial that - At the same time, (as executing de Menezes), one of the armed officers physically dragged 'Ivor' (who was the cop first cornering de Menezes on the tube train) onto the platform while holding a gun against his chest. 'Ivor' shouted he was a policeman and heard more shots in the carriage. Terrified, the tube driver fled his cab - but was chased by another armed officer into the tunnel. I’ve furthermore seen it reported elsewhere that the driver was threatened with a gun.

Never mind shooting de Menezes seven times - I understand professional killers generally find one to the head and one to the chest to be sufficient - was that cop ever prosecuted for whatever crime he committed in threatening the tube driver with a loaded gun - you would have thought the driver’s uniform and the fact that he was driving the train would have alerted even the most atavistic pig to that fact that he didn’t need to pursue him.

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Facebook

I’ve set up a Facebook account as Southpaw Punch (I’m unable to use the correct term - Southpawpunch) - also see link, top right.

This account will carry each post from this site and a few that are immediately previous. It’s aimed at distributing Southpawpunch content to members of the ‘Facebook Left’ (what a term!) who don’t otherwise visit this site. So whilst it’s possible to read my website there, it’ll remain a better experience to follow it here - better design, comments, side features, etc.

I’d be happy to make ‘friend’ links on Facebook with anyone who wants to. If I stick to just those with communist politics, I’ll only be talking to myself. Or put another way, when the revolutionary period unfolds, it’ll be useful to have the fine detail on where the counter-revolutionaries are and what they’re doing, so that arrangements for their 're-education' can be quickly implemented.

I can assure all that there won’t be any of the puerile and inane behaviour on my account that bedevils the Facebook presence of even ostensible Marxists. It appears that those members of Left groups - who throw virtual sheep at each other or post the modern equivalent of saucy seaside postcards on each other’s profiles - are not being given harsh enough paper selling targets by their organisations.

I think it's interesting to observe the large amount of time, that is being invested by some, in writing user generated content for commercially owned sites like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, etc. There’s nothing to stop these companies setting up a pay wall around any of their property on which we squat. People could yet find themselves investing a lot of time and effort in their ‘own’ profile only to find they’ll have to pay, or others will have to pay, to access ‘their’ content.

Even now you’re obliged to sign up to the service to get access to content. If you click on the Facebook link I have given above, you won’t see content unless you're a Facebook member. If it was a ‘normal’ web page, you would.

This parallel has flaws, but it’s almost as if you rent a flat and then fix it up for free for the landlord. Companies like Facebook should be treated like any other utility. Would people go online and contribute to forums and join communities to promote and preach for their telephone company or electricity provider? I hope people will learn to treat Facebook, and the other Web 2.0 sites, with less naivety and adopt a greater awareness of the sassiness of newer forms of capitalism.

Justin's adventures in Bournemouth

Hi all!

Listen, there I was off to the Labour Party exhibition (my first big job at Smoothly Connected Public Affairs Consultants since I came down from Cambridge in the Summer) when I got into my usual tizz wazz and ended up lost somewhere near Waterloo station in a place called, can you believe it, ‘The Cut’ (my first time in South London - scareee!!).

Anyway I asked some bloke, passing by in the shadows, for directions. He turned out to be called Mr Southpawpunch and he accompanied me towards the station whilst I made the small talk. However, when Mr Southpawpunch found out what I do to make a humble crust, I got the strong impression that he was going to stab me and throw me into the Thames!!

A bit of fast talking from me (I was a regular in the Cambridge Floodlights) did get me out of that difficult situation but not before me having to agree that I'd write a report about Bournemouth for him - so here we go.

The exhibition

I thought I might start by giving those of you - not connected into the political mainspring, unlike myself - a flavour of the Labour Party exhibition by telling you about some of the stalls that I blagged my way around.

Whilst being rather squiffy on my first afternoon there from all the Pimms I’d consumed at various socials and fringe meetings, I came across Saveco’s large stand at the front of the exhibition hall. I was pleased to find Abigail (from my tutorial group) stood under their large sign (‘Your Saveco store - the heart of your community’). She’s apparently slumming it working for the retailing giant in some glorified glad-handing role that she secured through contacts she acquired when she was Protocol Secretary of the University Labour Club.

She showed me round the reproduction they'd built on site of part of one of their megastores. There were mock ups of council enquiry counters, a mini police station, a small chapel and more - all located inside one of their shops. There was some blurb about how Saveco could provide this package as a ‘total link solution, providing all the public services for your community’.

Whilst chatting with Abigail I noticed that the Saveco staff just looked on benignly at the visitors to their stand blatantly shovelling up as much as they could of the jars of Paraguayan upland olives, packets of Mongolian unpasteurised cheeses, flagons of Belgian First Pressing Damson beers and more besides; from the large mounds of Saveco ‘Uppercut’ products that were on display. The visitors squirreled their bounty away into large sacks that all exhibition attendees seemed to be carrying round all the stalls for this very purpose.

So anyway, still rather groggy on my feet, yours truly pressed something I shouldn’t have and this damn alarm started going off, just besides one of those detector things that you see at the entrance to Saveco stores. I then noticed a pair of wall mounted shackles opening and a blue flashing light going off along with a metallic voice saying: ‘Attention. You’ve passed in breach of the unresolved payment protocol. Place both your legs now in the shackles. They’ll close to ensure your safety and so that Security can attend to your under resourced customer revenue situation’.

All the Saveco staff tried to stop this palaver that I’d caused, and they walked over to where I was to try and turn off that part of the display. But whilst they did this I saw a dozen or so visitors take the opportunity to strip the Saveco stand bare.

A large, under the table, stash of champagne bottles, three small flat screen monitors and two large boxes of Saveco £100 vouchers (they were only being given out to those who had credentials to prove that they were members of council planning committees) swiftly disappeared into various sacks.

A model, wearing items from Saveco’s ethical (all items edible) lingerie range, was also carted off by a couple of staff accompanying a former minister. He walked swiftly away in front of them all, with both a threatening gait and his beer belly obscuring his upper thighs. He looked back over his shoulder to tell his aides to make sure that they didn’t ruffle his captive’s underwear.

Amongst the other interesting stalls that I visited were some in the ‘community safety’ enclosure. There was a rather fine device for deterring anti-social behaviour - a shopkeeper mounts a cylinder-like object above his door that he can then use to spray skunk scent over anyone hanging around and thus ‘negatively conflicting his retail revenues’.

There was also a great gadget that could be a big help in educating slower children. If they type in too many wrong answers in an online spelling test, delivered on a specially adapted computer monitor, the keyboard delivers a small electric shock.

Casecon

I was also quite taken by some of the service providers who demonstrated how they could bring 'leading edge innovation to the heart of the political process.' There was an exhibiting company there, Casecon, who are specialists in providing outsourcing solutions to MPs and councillors.

As well as handling the arrangements for making surgery appointments with elected representatives, Casecon will actually conduct the casework - right through from the initial query to the eventual outcome. Somewhere offshore they have computer servers that generate one of several proforma letters that deal with all possible issues that might be raised. These can then electronically interact - and for an indefinite period - with parallel letters that are generated by those companies providing the same services to councils, the NHS, etc.

And in a clever twist, more often than not it’s actually the same company working for both sides and thus creating a virtuous circle - promoting efficiency by just communicating with itself.

But it gets better. The guy showing me around explained how much of a councillor’s or an MP’s time is spent dealing with mundane issues - constituents complaining about the local hospice shutting down or some chav parents whinging that a foundation school is refusing to enrol their kid despite them living next door to the school playground.

Those who we elect shouldn’t be dealing with this grind but instead could spend their time better - developing their policy awareness, e.g. going on parliamentary delegations to research winter sports resort development in Dubai or participating in events like the ‘Promoting Growth Through Building a Moral City’ jamboree that was recently held in Las Vegas.

To resolve this conflict, Casecon have now introduced online avatars - they represent the MP or councillor - and which can ‘meet’ with a constituent who wishes to raise an issue.

The trials of these new services have demonstrated that both sides are satisfied with this innovation. In a survey conducted with those who have undertaken online consultations with a Casecon computer avatar, the percentage of electors who thought that the simulation was more intelligent or more interested in their problems than their real life elected representative was 97% and 94% respectively.

And likewise, both MPs and councillors were confident that this computer application was proving a great help to them - for example, various MPs found that they now never needed to make the long journey to their constituency and this was proving to be a big help in their push towards meeting their carbon neutral targets.

Furthermore the introduction of 0870 numbers to access these virtual MP or councillor surgeries, along with nationality entitlement checks and fingerprint scanning beforehand, had worked well in reducing the number of frivolous enquiries that Casecon was needing to handle on behalf of their politician clients.

The rise of Justin

I’ve got myself into a bit of a sticky situation on the ladyfriend front in Bournemouth. I went to several social events the other night (photo - featuring top totty - from the 'Fund Managers for Labour' shindig shown above) finishing with the McSparran Whisky Scottish Trade Union Ceilidh night - Kilt, Dinner Jacket and Black Tie obligatory. Free Bar. (Pay bar for the press).

After having sampled a glass from every distillery that they’ve got, I found myself doing the crossed hand dance with a 40s something, rather weather-beaten former Mayor from some place in east London that I’ve never heard of. We’d both been knocking them back since early morning and I’m