stalinist arthur scargill will no longer have his lush london pad paid for...

[ed miliband]

by the national union of miners.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20303797

34k a year.

is it a problem unique to the british left that so many of this sort are "in charge"? galloway, sheridan, hatton (in the past), all wannabe-demagogues with egos the size of the old ussr.

[blake 3:17]

I don't think it's unique to the British Left -- there's similar stuff here in unions.

I am generally sympathetic to those you are criticizing, so probably have a different take. Movements, and especially dissident movement, require charismatic leaders.

And the ideological space made by New Labour has allowed a number of parts of its Old Left to assume that space that's been abanadoned.

[ed miliband]

actually yeah, it was dumb for me to ask if it was a problem unique to the british left - of course not - i just wanted to namedrop some people whose politics and behaviour i dislike, who are all of a similar character.

[hetz]

Stalinists everywhere...

[Zealot]

actually yeah, it was dumb for me to ask if it was a problem unique to the british left - of course not - i just wanted to namedrop some people whose politics and behaviour i dislike, who are all of a similar character.

You just wanted another excuse to whine about the evils of Stalinism.

[ed miliband]

You just wanted another excuse to whine about the evils of Stalinism.

of course, which is why two of the people i named are/were trotskyists, and galloway is some weird anti-imperialist-social-conservative-social-democrat (who has sympathies that would go down nicely with some of the m-ls on here).

and contrary to the idea so popular amongst those who uphold stalin on here, that because ultraleft-anarcho-trots talk about "stalinism" it mustn't be a real thing, but a pigment of their sectarian imagination -- scargill's socialist labour party's links to the stalin society are well-known. i'm not slandering him.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

of course, which is why two of the people i named are/were trotskyists, and galloway is some weird anti-imperialist-social-conservative-social-democrat (who has sympathies that would go down nicely with some of the m-ls on here).

and contrary to the idea so popular amongst those who uphold stalin on here, that because ultraleft-anarcho-trots talk about "stalinism" it mustn't be a real thing, but a pigment of their sectarian imagination -- scargill's socialist labour party's links to the stalin society are well-known. i'm not slandering him.

No, It's because there is no such thing as Stalinism, as in, there is Marxist-Leninism and there is Anti-Revisionism that simply hates Khrushchev more than Stalin

[LeonJWilliams]

This is another unfortunate situation for the left in the UK.

Whether or not the contract did entitle him to a home for life or not I feel is not really the issue. When you hold such a role as he did it should be done to help other people and not about what you can get out of it.

These kind of incidents give the left a bad name, sure the right behave this way too but they at least don't pretend to care about other people.

[blake 3:17]

This is stuff is really difficult. There are very basic and contradictory democratic concerns about wages for elected officials, public servants, and trade unionists. The most basic dilemma is one between overpaying people and rewarding opportunism openly, not paying people enough and forcing opportunism and corruption, or leaving those positions to the independently wealthy.

What I don't get about Tommy Sheridan is why he lied.

I know a few people who've suddenly become MPs or high flying unionists, and the sudden rush of money is very disorienting. The only article I can think of on the subject from a personal perspective is a chapter in Judy Rebick's Imagine Democracy where she talks about going from 25 or 30K a year to 100K and getting totally screwed up in the process.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I picked a yelling match with George Galloway one time, because he denied the existence of colonialism in Canada. It escalated to the point that he accused me of being incapable of organizing outside of my parents' basement (ironically, I had organized alongside the folk hosting this particular event for years), and I said maybe his perspectives reflected his vantage point from bourgie summer home in Spain. Good times.

Anyway, yeah, Judy Rebick is totally screwed up. LOL.