Durham Open Meeting
The Communist Workers’ Organisation (North East Section) holds regular meetings in Durham open to all who are interested in defending the independence of working class action These are usually on the third Wednesday of every month at 7.00 p.m.
Room 3
Alington House
4 North Bailey — Durham — DH1 3HT
Main topic: No War but the Class War: with the slaughter of the innocents in Gaza, Ukraine and Syria (to name but the most obvious) going on as our rulers "commemorate" (celebrate?) the First World War we look at how nationalism has become one of capitalism's main ideological weapons against the working class and how it has to be opposed.
The next meeting will be on Wednesday August 20, 2014. The previously planned discussion on the period of transition has been postponed until September 17.
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Comments
Re a period of transition between capitalism and communism, we might not need one, but are likely to get a very long one, if what you understand by 'communism' is ever to be implemented..
Re period of transition between capitalism and communism. We may not need one if the Good Fairy waves her magic wand and changes all the monstrous horrors perpetrated by capitalism and its camp followers, just like that and overnight, into something good and free from exploitation. But in the world as it is the fairies are impotent.
If what you understand by "communism" T 34 is capitalism under a new name, then of course we won't need a period of transition as we're more or less there now. For instance, aren't China and Cuba communist already in your book?
Charlie, somewhere or other I read someone's saying that a period of transition between capitalism and communism might be brief, or not need an interim period of socialism etc. All I meant by saying that the time between capitalism and communism (as per ICT's view of communism) might be a very long one, was that it seemed and still seems likely to me that to persuade workers to operate in almost all ways withoug using money at all is likely to take a very long time. If you think that it could be only a very short time, good luck to you, as you would need a very optimistic view of practical education, because, of course, under capitalism, workers have long known that trying to live without money is virtually impossible and a very unattractive idea so far. It would be somewhat less difficult to get workers to accept that it would be better to live without money altogether if clear plans were in place, explaining just how the whole thing would work, but then we are back to the old (and barmy) adage that 'it is too early for blueprints' for a planned communist economy. Workers 'plan' to go along to shops for food, so there had better be plans for some food to get there ahead of requirements, or else. Remember food rationing ? We could sell half our sweet coupons and so raise enough cash to buy sweets with the coupons we had left !
As for views of China and Cuba, obviously they don't yet operate according to what the ICT advises. Whether or not they have moved towards communism any further than other parts of what you regard as a totally capitalist world could be debated, preferably, rather than immediately dismissed, but I personally can't offer to wade into all that vast subject.
Charlie, if you are so clever at communist analysis, why not spend less time attacking me and more time on constructive planning ?
Re your forthcoming meeting of Aug 20, 2014, re Gaza, ICT and readers might take a look at an article which contains an argument against a 'two-state' solution and for a 'single state' one. Of course most readers including myself are well aware of ICT arguments against states altogether. However, in the immediate or short term period, as it seems unlikely that workers in Israel and Palestine are ready to opt for a totally non-state solution to their worsening situations, it seems to me worth considering whether a single state would be less divisive than two states there, until and if ever fully anti-states propaganda prevails. The section of the article to which I refer can be found in the article entitled 'Rise up for Gaza - for a Third Intifada' on the website workerspower.co.uk. The fact that it is a Trotskyite website need not bar study.