Interesting article

[RedGeorge]

What do you make of this:

Scottish Herald (http://www.sundayherald.com/55706)

An interesting read, but I have to disagree with about 99% of it. And anyway, most of this kind of philosophy (if you can even call it that) is used by New Labour wankers in order to justify the selling of their souls to capitalism.

[Just Dave]

Couldn't read past the part were he started defending Thatcher. Seemed a total wanker though. Especially the part about council homes.

[YKTMX]

An ex-Stalinist who's decided that seeling his soul can get him a column in a Sunday broadsheet.

How original.

I actually live in the area of Glasgow (Possilpark) which he moans about. What a wanker, I'm sending him an email.

[YKTMX]

Dear Professor McNair,

I read your article in the Sunday Herald this morning (21 May). I have to say I didn't think much of it, but as someone who's lived in Possilpark their entire life and also happens to be a socialist, I thought perhaps I might give you my own impressions on what Possilpark needs.

You've read the textbooks and surveyed the appropriate data, and you're right to say that Possilpark is "crime ridden" and "deprived". Have you ever lived in Possilpark? Have you ever spoken with someone who lives in Possilpark? I presume not.

The recent history of the North of Glasgow isn't the history of too much "paternalistic socialism". It wasn't "socialism" that destroyed the local workplaces and industries, or introduced heroin, or let the housing stock decay. It wasn't socialist society that engendered many of Possilpark's young people with a sense of extreme alienation and hopelessness. It wasn't "socialists" who decided that we could spend billions on nuclear weapons and foreign wars but not on our communities.

The recent "regeneration" is welcome. The new houses and the new shops are a good addition to the area. But it will be for nothing if the people here don't have access to stable, well-paid employment. If the sense of community and togetherness, destroyed by your beloved free-market capitalism, is to return, then it's going to take more than a new paint job.

Your apostasy with regards to Stalinism is rather less interesting. I have no doubt that the middle class readership of the Sunday Herald will lap up your disavowal of socialism and embrace of the market economy. Your "revelations" about the glory of global capital are as banal as they are clichéd.

You talk about Latin America briefly (Ever been to Cuba or Venezuela?). You seem to be missing the rather obvious point that the people of L.A have voted in left, anti-capitalist leaders precisely because capitalism hasn't worked for them. They've had decades and decades of the capitalist military dictatorships and it's led them nowhere, except deeper into poverty and servitude. I found your anger at their failure to "get it" rather funny. Just as you warn everybody about socialism, a whole continent embraces it! That's got to be annoying.

The people in Caracas, like the people in my community, don't need more capitalism; we've had enough of it. What we need is a society in which the needs of people are not subservient to the pursuit of profit. In which the wealth that is created by our labour is reinvested for the better of everyone. Where people feel that they have a stake in society. We need Socialism.

No doubt, as you slide closer and closer into your comfortable middle class middle age, you will become even more certain about the glories of Capital. That is your duty.

Many of us, from Scotland to Caracas, still fight for a better world. I doubt your passing from the scene of the battle will prove either memorable or significant.

Callum



Haha, sent him this!

I'll post any reply.

[Just Dave]

Well done comrade. I might send him something myself.

[The Grey Blur]

That is legendary YKTMX

I can imagine his reply now, "You are young and foolish..." :rolleyes:

[Ander]

I doubt that he will reply.

[Wanted Man]

"I doubt your passing from the scene of the battle will prove either memorable or significant."

Owned.

[YKTMX]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21 2006, 02:46 PM
I doubt that he will reply.
You'd be surprised. They usually do.

I mean, he's a sociology professor - he's probably got plenty of spare time on his hands.

[ComradeOm]

Excellent letter YKTMX. I doubt his reply, if it comes, will containanything but more senseless drivel though.

[Kurt Crover]

Excellent comrade YKTMX! Post his reply if he does will you? I can imagine it.. "You youth of today, you have no idea..."

[Connolly]

Fantastic letter comrade!

His response should be a laugh :lol:

[Xiao Banfa]

What a shitty platitudinal unreasoned article from traitor mcNair.

Big ups to you comrade!

[RebelDog]

YKTMX that letter is great. If you don't get a reply then at least you know he's got no answer. McNair is just another of the 'if you can't beat them, join them' mob. He thinks the answer is not to continue fighting but to embrace the market with all your love. He is cockooned in the small bubble that is his world and his material wealth. He can look around at his 5 bedroom house, big garden, petrol hungry 4x4 and his fridge full of Marks and Spencer ready meals and think all is well with the world and the system.

This part from the article;
This Thursday will see the official launch of the Euston Manifesto, an online network dedicated to “the renewal of progressive politics”. It parts company with the old left’s anti-capitalist, anti-globalisation, anti-American sloganising and its tolerance of dictators such as Castro. It supports democracy and human rights for everyone, and refuses to accept cultural difference as an excuse for their absence. It calls terrorism “terrorism”, and supports freedom of thought and lifestyle.

What utter and total bullshit and I have a funny feeling he knows it. This article is really describing what capitalist globalisation has done for Brian McNair. The above quote serves as notice that he has no idea about capitalist globalisation and has no idea how this could be sold to the working class. He has some kind of belief that private investment brings with it human rights. Why can't democratic ownership be proposed if we are talking about 'rights'. While neo-liberalism wages war against the human race does he believe we can bring more freedom through 'positive thinking'. Heres some positive thinking Mr McNair; I really, really, really believe it is your ideology that is doomed, not ours.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

Good letter.


Excellent comrade

This remind me of a) either a carneval, or b) a Soviet B-movie from the 50's. I don't know which one.

[Louis Pio]

Cool letter YKTMX
I think you can find these people in most of Europe. "academic marxists" calling themselves everything from maoist to hoxaite to trotskyist who now feel the need to "cleanse" themselves. A thing usually common to all of them are that they never had any direct involvement in the workers movement but only viewed it form their "ivory tower".
It's funny how former "revolutionaries" can become the most reactionary :D

[piet11111]

Originally posted by Permanent [email protected] 21 2006, 01:56 PM
That is legendary YKTMX

I can imagine his reply now, "You are young and foolish..." :rolleyes:
dang i get those reply's all the time ;)

but still its fun to see reply's like that as it serves like a confirmation that im right.

[Kurt Crover]

no reply then? Oh well, it proves he is such an idiot he has no reply.

[Dreckt]

I guess many people these days just sides with all kinds of politics just because they think they are young and ignorant or something, or just pissed on the system. Then, when they get older, they go "back" to capitalism because that is "normal" for them.

[YKTMX]

Still no reply.

I don't think it's coming.

What a wanker. :)

I know people who go to Strath U, I'll them to slip the letter under his office door. :lol:

[Reuben]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25 2006, 01:40 PM
Still no reply.

I don't think it's coming.

What a wanker. :)

I know people who go to Strath U, I'll them to slip the letter under his office door. :lol:
what a wanker - a fucking excelent letter though: maybe he isnt used to being thoroughly rinsed by someone without a PHD