The dark side...

Alex Callinicos complaining on Facebook that he had his invitation to participate in the Historical Materialism conference in Delhi withdrawn at short notice by email, rounded off by saying: 

"This is to say nothing of the personal inconvenience and expense you are exposing me to by withdrawing your invitation a week after you had circulated a programme that included me as chairing one session and speaking at another, and barely a week before I was due to fly to India. This is quite unacceptable in what is meant to be an academic conference, and it is also not how socialists should behave towards one another." 

However one of the Facebook Four quite rightly pointed out: 

"YOU EXPELLED ME BY EMAIL". 

For someone who is a professor - Alex Callinicos is really quite dumb, and it shows where his priorities lie. What really gets his goat is the prospect looming of no more academic conferences.

Oh those historical experiences (as opposed to the non-historical ones)

Anonamember has put his/her (I have a feeling, probably his) tuppence up online, I don't see why I shouldn't. If anybody's upset by this then I apologise... I'd still think this mind you, so there you go.

One of the problems with democracy is everybody’s for it (just as everyone’s against fascism). Any universally recognised good-thing tends to be overlooked as a given. We are all in favour of democracy, but what does that mean, ‘democracy’?

Marxists always point out democracy is not a formal thing, casting a vote, voicing an opinion etc. For example we are all entitled to free-speech. I have the right to free-speech and so does Rupert Murdoch, it’s just Rupert Murdoch is entitled to 40% of Britain’s daily print media.

Democracy, even the limited democracy we have today, is taking a battering. Why? In our society democratic participation requires two things, free time and disposable wealth (intellectual/educational wealth as well as material wealth). Even leaving aside the effects of the current austerity drive, people in Britain now work longer, harder and for less (proportionally) than they did 20-30 years ago as a result of ruling class policy. This has left less room for working class participation in public life. This has inevitable effect not just on big organisations like the Labour Party or the unions, but smaller ones too.

It's all very well being for more democracy, but where do we magic this democracy up from, and for what end? A common request: there should be a regular internal bulletin. This is great, and if it encourages discussion then lets go for it. The only trouble is I have a fairly normal work and home life. I have almost no time to read the preconference bulletins, let alone write a piece should the urge have taken me. I am not alone in this. What's to stop a regular bulletin from simply being a platform for litterateurs?

All this may not be good, but it is true. We are stuck with full-timers (boo! boo!) for the time being.