Search SoC
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- S. Duncan on On The Decline and Fall of The American Empire and Socialism
- FruitLupus on On The Decline and Fall of The American Empire and Socialism
- Edith on The Case of Comrade Dallas
- James O'Brien on Wailings about Left Unity
- James O'Brien on Wailings about Left Unity
Archives
- July 2019
- January 2019
- March 2018
- August 2017
- June 2017
- April 2017
- December 2016
- October 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- May 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- October 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
Categories
Meta
Author Archives: Gavin Mendel-Gleason
Working Class Hero
There is a fairly widespread argument concerning the working class that goes something like this: The Working class is now only a small fragment of the population. The old class politics is therefore permanently dead and can not be resuscitated. … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Proletarian politics
Comments Off on Working Class Hero
What is Historical Materialism?
When we are born we see the world without preconceptions. The sense data from the world flows into our brains without systematic categorisation. For this reason the world seems a nonsense. We can not understand it and we can hardly … Continue reading
Posted in History, Philosophy
2 Comments
Disrupting Democracy
In that last few years there have been numerous mass demonstrations which lead to changes of government, including in Egypt and the Ukraine. During this period the United States has been a major player in attempting to destabilise democratically elected … Continue reading
Posted in Geopolitics
Comments Off on Disrupting Democracy
The Transition
The period of transition between our current capitalist economic and social system and a socialist economy is a very controversial subject among socialists. Maintaining an active dialogue and critique of this period is absolutely critical to our strategic and tactical … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Politics
4 Comments
Is Dialectics Nonsense?
In classical philosophy, the dialectic was a method of interrogating truth in its full complexity. Rather than collapse questions into a stark binary resolution of propositions into true or false, we would take a more nuanced view. The Socratic dialogues … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
Comments Off on Is Dialectics Nonsense?
Review and Analysis: Patterns of Betrayal
In 1992, the Workers’ Party published a pamphlet: “Patterns of Betrayal: the flight from Socialism”. The pamphlet details the events leading up to the split in the Workers’ Party, including several primary source documents. The contemporary Left in Ireland is … Continue reading
Posted in Proletarian politics
2 Comments
The European Monetary Union and the Left
Recently a 45 page report written by Heiner Flassbeck and Costas Lapavitsas was issued by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, “The systemic crisis of the euro – true causes and effective therapies”. They later popularised their report in a Guardian article. The … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Proletarian politics
Comments Off on The European Monetary Union and the Left
Why I am no longer an anarchist
What follows is an outline of my personal process of ideological formation. The process of changing ones world view is in my experience a gradual one. All world views will have places in which they do not match up quite … Continue reading
Posted in Critique of the Left, Politics, Proletarian politics
2 Comments
Tendency of the rate of profit to exasperate
A few years back Deloitte issued a report that had a long term analysis of the rate of return on various measure, investment capital, equity and assets. In all three cases there was a fairly clear downward trend. Deloitte come … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
Comments Off on Tendency of the rate of profit to exasperate
European Left Summer University
The European Left Summer University was held between July 3rd and 6th. Organised by Bloco de Esquerda of Portugal, the University was a three-day series of lectures and seminars on the key issues facing the European Left, the party of … Continue reading
Posted in Proletarian politics
1 Comment
The Philosophy of Science
As we saw in Part I, scientific progress is used by the capitalist class as a tool for the expulsion of labour from the workforce by way of technological improvements, which enables them to increase profits. This fact was immortalised … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Proletarian politics, Sci-tech
Comments Off on The Philosophy of Science
Science and Socialism
“Soviets plus electrification,” proclaimed Lenin, “equals communism”. Even allowing for the simplifications inherent in sloganeering, Lenin’s quip does capture a version of the optimism, even faith, that his generation of socialists had in science and its essential compatibility with the socialist … Continue reading
An Uncritical Critique of The Critical Net Critic
Recently a friend in a reading group suggested that we read The Critical Net Critic. While the piece is somewhat long and meandering it is also very good at helping to answer some of those fundamental questions about what is … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
Comments Off on An Uncritical Critique of The Critical Net Critic
Hypermodern Political Strategy
Aron Nimzowitsch was a brilliant chess theorist who broke new ground in the 1920s with his treatise: My System. The system he proposed has become the most famous exposition of what is known as the Hypermodern school. Positional play, the … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Proletarian politics
5 Comments