Not really, but I was asked the other day. Here are some notes. Continue reading “The Cold War, my part in it”
Tag: History
Gramsci in context
Martin Thomas (of the AWL) together with Peter Thomas has produced a pamphlet/book on the Life and thoughts of Gramsci. I might read it some time, but not today. Their landing page which hosts the .pdf is called Gramsci in Context. I also found this, from Socialist Appeal which argues that many Communists and Social Democrats have adopted and distorted Gramsci’s insights into hegemony and propaganda. I have no further notes on this item.
Philately
I need to sell my stamp collection, here are my notes. Continue reading “Philately”
Magna Carta
As part of my English revolution reading, prompted by Arden’s Left Handed Liberty, I took a look at Magna Carta itself, what did it codify/concede? How relevant is it today? Here are my notes. … Continue reading “Magna Carta”
When did Capitalism start?
I have been doing some reading recently on what I considered pre-capitalist history much of which I tried to put in a class struggle context, basically about the coming of the bourgeoisie. I always felt that Capitalism came into being at the end of the 17th century but others challanged this and since I can no longer rely on my schooling, here are some subsequent notes, mainly important dates between 1773 and 1844. … Continue reading “When did Capitalism start?”
Early (English) revolutionary spirit
I am playing a game of inverse “would I lie to you” each weekend. We don’t have so many rules as the TV shows; I was considering doing one on English Revolts, but decided not to; but made some interesting discoveries, which for me reinforces the need for a debate on English History teaching. I was also motivated to discover the truth about the Battle of Deptford Bridge. Here are the links I found, with a little bit of commentry. … Continue reading “Early (English) revolutionary spirit”
The Levellers
The Leveller’s and the mutinies. Curious as to whether there’s a battle to propose to Class Wargames, as a result of further thinking beyond my comments here.. It seems there was. Here are my notes. Continue reading “The Levellers”
Class War 1939-1945
I was pointed at this review of, Chris Bambery’s book The Second World War: A Marxist History (2014) which takes a different from normal view of the politics of the second world war; the story where the people’s of the last democracies in Europe united with the United States to fight its fascist blight. This blog article looks at the US financial contribution to the Allied war effort, the Tory Party, even Churchill’s, ambivalence in fighting fascism, and US Capitalism’s contribution to the fascist victory in Spain. The review is more comprehensive and the book would seem to be even more so. For more here, see below/overleaf. … Continue reading “Class War 1939-1945”
Mexico
Mexico has a sad and long history, having finished Class Wargames, I am looking to pick up, “Mexico, a brief history”. Here are my other notes & links … Continue reading “Mexico”
Class Wargames & the ECW
I have been/am still reading Richard Barbrook’s book, “Class Wargames”. Among its many fascinating themes is his study of the collapse of democratic military forces into dictatorship.He name checks Napoleon, Toussaint Louverture & the Russian Revolution. I wonder why he didn’t start earlier with the English Civil War, it would seem to me to be another failure of a democratic military. To him, Guy Debord’s “Game of War” is critically important, partly because of the way it abstracts large elements of military conflict, but they adopted different rules, using miniatures for both the Haitian and Russian Civil War scenarios. How easy would it be to find or adapt some ECW rules? Here are my notes … Continue reading “Class Wargames & the ECW”
Labour and Language
Introduction
This is a suspended/abandoned project.
Harold Wilson
Neil Kinnock
Tony Blair
- Tony Blair (Wikipedia)
- his own words, a youtube video
Links
- British Library Microforms index, includes a collection called “Archives of the British Labour Party. Speeches and Press Statements of the Labour Party.”
- The Labour Party’s youtube user page
- Labour History Archive at the People’s History Museum
- Hansard
- An interesting pen picture from the BBC, called Party Backgrounds
- Labour moves against Militant, from you tube, a news article reporting Labour’s NEC’s decision to ‘investigate’ Liverpool Labour party with a view to expelling the Militant.
- Party Political April 1992 from youtube, of course. There is also a PPB dated March 1992