The CIA and the US left
The US Central Intelligence Agency will shortly declassify hundreds of documents detailing illegal activities from the 1950s to 1970s. OK, that makes the revelations anything from three to five decades after the events. But even disclosures on this delayed time scale may prove rather more frank than anything we would conceivably be allowed to know [...]
Shamelessly nicked Trot joke for May Day II
An old revolutionary walks across the Brooklyn Bridge one day, and he sees man of a similar age standing on the edge, about to jump. He runs over and says: “Stop. Don’t do it.” “Why shouldn’t I?” he asked. “Well, there’s so much to live for!” “I’m just so depressed, I’ve been a communist all [...]
Shamelessly nicked Trot joke for May Day
Why did the Trotskyist cross the road? Three punchlines on this one: (1) The Trotskyist didn’t cross the road. Those are Stalinists you see on the other side of the road, and centrists gathering at the curb and thinking about crossing. No genuine Trotskyist would ever attempt to cross the yellow class line in the [...]
Socialist Workers Party: international perspectives
The latest international perspectives document from the Socialist Workers’ Party has been published on a French Trot online forum. It’s mostly pretty unexceptionable stuff, though I reckon predictions of a possible US invasion of Iran will prove wide of the mark, if only on grounds of imperial overstretch. Probably of most interest to the wider [...]
John Lennon and the International Marxist Group
American academic Jon Wiener has spent years campaigning for the release of FBI files on rock singer John Lennon – pictured – and has finally secured the release of the final ten documents. The US government has insisted for decades that disclosure would constitute a threat to national security and could prompt ‘diplomatic, economic and [...]
Trotskyist chat-up lines, part two
After the huge success of Saturday’s post on Trot chat-up lines – inspired in large measure by a drinking session with the Stroppies, it should be said – it turns out that earlier this year the libertarian communists over at libcom.org.uk were thinking along similar lines. Here’s some of the best cheesy gags that contemporary [...]
Top ten Trotskyist chat-up lines
Now that I don’t need chat-up lines anymore, I am happy to share the secrets of past successes with younger leftie bloggers. Please note that what follows is objectively non-sexist and designed to be adapted from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her gender of choice. (10) You mean you share my [...]
The future of Trotskyism
The official slogan of Dave’s Part is ‘ex-punk, ex-Trot … unchanged attitude problem’. The words are trying to make a point in a lighthearted fashion. But they are trying to make a point, nonetheless. I am indeed an ex-Trot. I still believe in socialism from below. I still believe that Marxism is the only coherent [...]
Gerry Downing joins the blogosphere
Another Trot blog has seen the light of day this week. International Trotskyism is brought to you by Gerry Downing, described in the current Weekly Worker as ‘a comrade from the Workers Revolutionary Party tradition who is currently unattached’. After the WRP split into nine factions – count ‘em, nine – in the mid-eighties, Gerry [...]
Just who are the International Trotskyist Labor Tendency?
I like to think I am an expert on the geneology of obscure Trotskyist splinter groups. But I have recently come across the website of the International Trotskyist Labor Tendency, and I have to admit that this time, I am utterly, utterly stumped. The slogan of this outfit is ‘For world revolution and a 5th [...]
