Debates of the Decade.
Two Debates of the Decade, one after another:
The Lucas Arms, 245a Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross.
A joint Workers’ Liberty-Campaign for a Marxist Party event.”
Then there is the Paris Debate with Denis MacShane the following day.
Crowds are assured for the London event. Dave Osler is “turning up outside the pub with a sleeping bag the night before, just to be assured of a place.” Sparks are certain to fly – though if they will shed any light is not certain. Jim Denham is rumoured to be descending from the West Midlands in a tank (gas fueled) to lend support to Sean Matgamna. The CPGB, marshalled to back Moshe Machover, are accused of synthesising enriched uranium.
No doubt the kitsch left will whinge if cde Denham obliterates Sommer’s Town and the CPGB (Provisional) CC. But does not he have the right to self-defence? Are the claims that The Weekly Worker is manufacturing uranium only for civil purposes to be taken seriously, eh?
The next day in Paris will be a unique opportunity of another kind. It will be the occasion to hear MacShane, one of the European Left’s giants, speak the mellifluous French he learnt in Geneva from a Swiss Yodeler Professeur. Oh, and say something or other.
Not to be missed: neither.
I see that Dave, of Dave’s Part, describes you as Britain’s greatest living Pabolite.
Does your support of Pablo extend to Pablo’s role in the Algerian War of Independence? To me it was his and the FI’s finest hour! Let the sectarian Trots scream all they like about him entering the FLN government.
NollaigO
October 6, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Yes.
This was very important to ‘les vieux’ (the old ones) as we called them.
Though in point of fact I was never a member of the TMR – just a ‘compagnon de route’.
Still it is also an important part of why I am heavily anti-Islamist.
They killed our beloved comrades.
Andrew Coates
October 7, 2008 at 12:04 pm
They killed our beloved comrades.
Do you have sources for this?
NollaigO
October 7, 2008 at 9:25 pm
There were about 200,000 killed in the Algerian Civil War. A hefty number were communists, socialists and leftists and all stripes. They were not murdered by ‘le Pouvoir’ but by the Islamists.
Sources? Well you could start with ‘X’ whose an Algerian leftist exile who lives a few streets away from me.
PS I am well aware of the TMR relations with Ben Bella when he got out of gaol, ones which I personally described as ‘a la con’.
Andrew Coates
October 8, 2008 at 12:40 pm
What about us sect-starved provincials who can’t get to the face-off?
Why don’t the AWL/CBGB do a national tour – a ‘Let’s Get Ready To Rumble’/WWF – type extravaganza?
Further down the card there could be a tag-team event, perhaps German/Rees v Galloway/Newman.
Doug
October 8, 2008 at 3:36 pm
a tour, great idea, but I’ll bet half of the British left would hate to leave London, let alone visit the provinces for political debates
why not an international tour? taking in the middle east? or would that be too close to reality for some?
modernityblog
October 8, 2008 at 5:20 pm
[...] must read in the run-up for the Debate of the Decade: Mike Marqusee, If I am not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew (Verso 2008). Mike stands [...]
A Must Read: Mike Marqusee. « Tendance Coatesy
October 9, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Sources? Well you could start with ‘X’ whose an Algerian leftist exile who lives a few streets away from me..
You will have to better than that, Coatesy!
I have just read Alaine Krivine’s recollection of the Algerian War of Independence. I note that there is no reference to
A hefty number were communists, socialists and leftists and all stripes. They were not murdered by ‘le Pouvoir’ but by the Islamists.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/krivine/1956/algeria.htm
NollaigO
October 10, 2008 at 9:03 am
The Civil War, not the War of Independence.
Mbari
October 10, 2008 at 9:15 am
Just to add to Mbrai, who obviously is a person who knows something about the subject, google it in French.
Andrew Coates
October 10, 2008 at 10:53 am