Which Political Party Do You Support (If Any) (UK)

[Dahut]

Which political party do you support in the UK or don't you support anyone?

[Dahut]

I can't edit the poll to add a 'none' option. Has anyone got any idea if I can?

[RedZezz]

I guess "other" can also be "none".

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

none.

[Quail]

Other - none.

[Red Future]

I put "communist party" so I can critically support all the far left

[bailey_187]

other - bnp

[fishontuesday]

I am From the United States and I support the Socialist Party of America.

[durhamleft]

British People's Party- Bailey you're not a proper nationalist if you support the BNP you pathetic pub racist.

[Kamos]

British People's Party- Bailey you're not a proper nationalist if you support the BNP you pathetic pub racist.

I don't think he was serious. Admittedly, over here it is unwise to be sarcastic about such matters - people have gotten restricted for next to nothing before.

[Rooster]

Sarcasm doesn't transcend international borders well.

[Tim Finnegan]

None, but only because the British left ranges from unsatisfactory to complete jokes, not because I am in principle opposed to party organisations.

[Dumb]

International Socialist Group (Scotland), because my best friend and Mentor in Communism is in it.

EDIT: In other words, in terms of political principles and effectives, the UK Left merits a collective "Eh." But I support my friends.

[comradeRed:)]

I support the Communist party of Canada

[Zanthorus]

I support the only 'party' that any of us should support in any country - the party in the broad historical sense.

[dernier combat]

fuck. conservatives was already taken. how can I be edgy and alternative on revleft now?

[dernier combat]

I support the only 'party' that any of us should support in any country - the party in the broad historical sense.
question: What exactly is the party in the broad, historical sense?
Is it a mass of self-organised, militant workers fighting for their mutual class interests? Am I even close?

[Nolan]

conservative party

[Aspiring Humanist]

Rent is too damn high

[Leftie]

We vote Labour as the lesser of three evils seeing as there is no leftist candidate in my constituency. But I voted CPB as its the party I follow most closely.

[Zanthorus]

question: What exactly is the party in the broad, historical sense?
Is it a mass of self-organised, militant workers fighting for their mutual class interests? Am I even close?

You are basically correct. Marx didn't actually have an elaborated theory of the 'historical party' as such, the passages of his work that touch on the subject are due to the very loose sense in which the word 'party' was often used in the 19th century prior to the rise of modern electoral machines to refer to any broadly concieved interest group. The loose way in which Marx uses the word 'party' in these instances however does touch on parts of his theoretical work which are integral to his project rather than just passing remarks. The only place Marx actually explicitly refers to the 'party in the broad historical sense' which I'm aware of his February 1860 letter (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1860/letters/60_02_29.htm) to Freiligrath. The context is him denying his involvement in any kind of organised socialist/communist group since 1852, since after the disbanding of the Communist League he and Engels had refused all the offers put to them to join some effort to rebuild the revolutionary movement. Elsewhere he discussed the Paris Commune and the June insurrection of 1848 as the acts of 'our party'.

The underlying thread is Marx's critique of utopian theories which build fantastic images of a future reality and seek to impose their visions on the world through propaganda work. This leads logically to the idea that the important 'party' is the party constituted by the 'conscious' socialists organised in the paticular sect of their preference. Marx on the contrary was keen to emphasise that he did not seek to impose anything on the world, but merely show the world what it was already fighting for. The important 'party' for Marx was the party constituted by workers' defending their own interests, more specifically we could say that the 'party' for Marx is a class union as opposed to the trades unions which only defend the interests of workers in a paticular trade. I personally think we could point to the Soviet movement of 1917 or the factory group movement associated with the KAPD - the Allgemeine Arbeiter Unionen Deutschlands (I believe Dauvé in his book on the Communist Left in Germany had also used 'class union' to refer to the AAUD, though I can't remember if he linked it to the idea of the party) - as examples of 'the party' in a much more accurate sense than we could point to, say, the Communist Party of Great Britain at any point in it's existence, and especially all of the laughably miniscule sect organisations which constitute the modern 'left'.

[Sam_b]

Well I'm a member of the ISG Scotland but we're more of an organisation.

[bricolage]

The underlying thread is Marx's critique of utopian theories which build fantastic images of a future reality and seek to impose their visions on the world through propaganda work. This leads logically to the idea that the important 'party' is the party constituted by the 'conscious' socialists organised in the paticular sect of their preference. Marx on the contrary was keen to emphasise that he did not seek to impose anything on the world, but merely show the world what it was already fighting for. The important 'party' for Marx was the party constituted by workers' defending their own interests, more specifically we could say that the 'party' for Marx is a class union as opposed to the trades unions which only defend the interests of workers in a paticular trade. I personally think we could point to the Soviet movement of 1917 or the factory group movement associated with the KAPD - the Allgemeine Arbeiter Unionen Deutschlands (I believe Dauvé in his book on the Communist Left in Germany had also used 'class union' to refer to the AAUD, though I can't remember if he linked it to the idea of the party) - as examples of 'the party' in a much more accurate sense than we could point to, say, the Communist Party of Great Britain at any point in it's existence, and especially all of the laughably miniscule sect organisations which constitute the modern 'left'.
fuck yeah

[Rusty Shackleford]

Monster Raving Loony Party

[progressive_lefty]

I'm not a UK citizen but I chose the Greens, just like I would choose them for Australia.

[Property Is Robbery]

BNP :cool:

[ZeroNowhere]

I'm not a UK citizen but I chose the Greens, just like I would choose them for Australia.

BNP :cool:Come on, guys, enough with the jokes. This is not Chit-Chat.

[Q]

Which Socialist Party (SPEW, SPGB) and which Communist Party (CPB, CPGB, CPGB-ML, CPB-ML, RCG, NCP, RCPB-ML) are meant in the poll?

Fuller list of leftwing groups and parties in the UK (http://eng.anarchopedia.org/List_of_Left-Wing_Parties_in_the_United_Kingdom).

[Tim Finnegan]

Which Socialist Party (SPEW, SPGB) and which Communist Party (CPB, CPGB, CPGB-ML, CPB-ML, RCG, NCP, RCPB-ML) are meant in the poll?
For the latter, I'd guess that it's the CPB, given that they're the only one that contests elections . The CPGB play more of a passive role in the left ("provisional central committee" and all that), while the rest are a bunch of utter irrelevances, the CPGB-ML being the only one that any one will likely recognise, and that only because they are [I]hilarious.