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  • Whatever Happened to the Revolutionary Left #3: From Workerism to Broke, 1945-1985 (Part Three: Collapse of the SWP and Decline of the Far Left)

    Whatever Happened to the Revolutionary Left #3: From Workerism to Broke, 1945-1985 (Part Three: Collapse of the SWP and Decline of the Far Left)
    2025/04/13
    The Bloom had GoneOur generation’s illusions are lived ones.John GameHow the right appropriated what were once left wing causes – ‘no forever wars’ for ‘anti war’, ‘anti-globalism’ for opposition to neo-liberal globalisation and hostility to ‘elites’ for hostility to capitalism – is what led some on the left to believe that even in a period of unprecedented right wing reaction this was still their era. This ignores two things. Firstly, that the terminological shifts matter and have real content. ‘No Forever wars’ ‘globalism’ and ‘the elite’ stand for a conspiratorial worldviews as much as what they claim to stand against. Parochialism, ‘multi-cult’ and hatred of all liberal and progressive values at home and abroad are the real content of this stuff and they are at least as popular with the right’s base as the more left-wing concerns they appear to shadow. There is much that needs to be re-thought after a few decades where analysis was replaced with a strange doctrine of eternal return where every battle was treated as the occasion for the resurrection of old socialist slogans. A strange form of idealism where idealism was dressed up as materialism in an endless nostalgia for yesteryear’s battles, which eventually replaced the present in our own minds.Fans of the dialectic might enjoy the irony of a defeat for neo-liberal globalisation being the greatest defeat for the left and progressive values seen since the 1930s, where hope lies with the stock exchange putting some manners on right-wing politicians. But perhaps these dialectical paradoxes point to the completely false perspectives we’ve carried around for more than three decades. The power of the past hangs like a nightmare on the brain. And this was particularly true of older collectives of intellectuals on the left. The tragedy is that you need collectives and collaboration to work out new forms of politics. Today, there is almost nothing like that that doesn’t simply consist of repetition or self-affirmation.In some ways, this is the material basis for the revival of campism. All through the noughties as we built opposition to war and Islamophobia, UKIP was growing. The infiltration of the left by reactionary discourse was the blurring of distinctions between right-wing forms of isolationism and left internationalism, which happened because people overestimated their own influence and vastly underestimated the growth of KIPper discourse. This was seen clearly with the increasing difficulties in even being able to mobilise against the EDL effectively. By the next decade Stop the Wars’ talking points on Ukraine to Syria were almost indistinguishable from the right’s weird mix of conspiracy theory and parochialism. This is the real story. George Galloway was only the clearest example of this degeneration.John Game, 2025-04.Now what is happening around the Greenham Common women is tokenism. You can’t just say they are feminists, or separatists. That is not the real reason for their actions. We have to ask why tokens come to the front. Tokens come to the centre when there are not any real forces to solve the problem… Tokenism is at the centre of the downturn here. The trouble is it does a fantastic amount of damage.Tony Cliff, ‘Building in the Downturn’, speech to SWP National Committee, 1983.The Collapse of the SWP and Decline of the Far LeftJohn and Andy discuss the growth of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the 1980s, the party's response to the miners' strike defeat, and the shift in international perspective from "Neither Washington nor Moscow" to a more anti-American stance. They also reflected on the history of the revolutionary left in Britain, the aftermath of 9/11, the formation of the Respect party, and the legacy of the Russian Revolution. They discuss the history and internal dynamics of the SWP, the economic and social transformations in India during the 1980s and 1990s, and the rise of right-wing populism in India.The discussion concludes with John and Andy reflecting on their past involvement with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and their current views on Marxism and the legacy of the Russian Revolution. John expresses his belief that the Bolshevik revolution was disastrous for the left, as it severed the connection between communism and democracy. He argues that the repression began almost immediately after the revolution, contrary to common narratives. Both John and Andy acknowledge the need for a more nuanced and critical understanding of socialist history, particularly regarding the Soviet Union and its impact on Eastern Europe. They suggest that the traditional Marxist framework is no longer adequate for addressing contemporary issues like environmentalism.The End of the Miners’ StrikeSWP's Growth and Political ShiftsJohn and Andy discuss the growth of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the 1980s despite the grim political climate. They explore themes like the ...
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    1 時間 21 分
  • Whatever Happened to the Revolutionary Left #2: From Workerism to Broke, 1945-1985 (Part Two: Ouverism and the Rise of the New Left)

    Whatever Happened to the Revolutionary Left #2: From Workerism to Broke, 1945-1985 (Part Two: Ouverism and the Rise of the New Left)
    2025/03/30
    Revolutionary Left's Rise 1945-1985 OverviewJohn and Andy discuss the rise of the revolutionary left from 1945 to 1985. They start by examining the situation at the end of World War II, including the positions of Social Democrats and the Communist Party. They cover the emergence of the New Left from its post-war origins through significant developments in the 1960s. The discussion will provide context on key groups and figures, touching on the influence of the Russian Revolution. They explain how leftist movements expanded beyond a small niche during this 40-year period.Russian Revolution's Impact on Leftist GroupsThe discussion focuses on the historical context and impact of the Russian Revolution, particularly its influence on the revolutionary left in the post-World War II era. John explains the appeal of Bolshevism and its role in shaping the political landscape of Europe, emphasizing how it became a powerful myth that attracted various political forces. Andy adds that this ‘structure of feeling’ around the Russian Revolution is crucial for understanding the collective career of the revolutionary left in the post-war years, as it became a central point of reference for different leftist groups, including Trotskyists and the Communist Party, even when they disagreed with each other.Trotsky's Post-War Predictions and Their ImpactJohn and Andy discuss the aftermath of World War II and its impact on various political movements. They focus on how Trotsky's predictions about post-war events were largely incorrect, leading to a crisis among Trotskyists. The Labour Party in Britain implemented significant social reforms, which was unexpected and challenging for far-left groups to explain. The Communist Party, despite some growth, suffered ideological setbacks, while mainstream reformist forces gained strength. The discussion highlights the difficulties faced by Trotskyists in adapting their theories to the new realities of the post-war world, including the expansion of the Soviet Empire and the absence of a capitalist crisis or revolutionary wave.1950s Leftist Thought and 1956John and Andy discuss the development of leftist thought in the 1950s, highlighting three key factors: new forms of worker struggle, the impact of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and anti-colonial movements. They emphasize the significance of 1956 as a turning point for the revolutionary left, particularly in how it led to a reevaluation of Trotskyist perspectives on the Soviet Union. Andy introduces Tony Cliff's State Capitalist analysis of Russia as a fundamental break from Trotskyism, leading to new ways of understanding international relations. John adds context about the intellectual climate of the time, discussing the concept of ‘anti-anti-communism’ and how certain leftist positions, such as neutrality in the Korean War, were considered extremely controversial.Post-War Britain's Working-Class MilitancyThe discussion covers the social and economic changes in post-war Britain, focusing on the rise of working-class militancy and confidence from the 1950s to the 1970s. John and Andy highlight the impact of consumer society, technological advancements, and cultural shifts on working-class consciousness and activism. They note the paradoxical effect of these changes, which both diluted and strengthened working-class identity. The conversation then moves to the decline of this militancy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in the miners' strike of 1984-85. They describe this strike as a turning point and the last major struggle of the traditional workers' movement, marking the end of an era in British labor history.Far Left in Britain's EvolutionThe discussion covers the history and evolution of the far left in Britain from the 1950s through the 1980s. John provides a generational overview, highlighting key periods like the 1950s rebuilding of socialist traditions, the rise of CND in the early 1960s, the impact of 1968 and student movements, the workplace focus of the 1970s, and the miners' strike of the 1980s. He emphasizes how each period shaped leftist thought and activism, noting both achievements and challenges. The conversation touches on the transformative impact of events like the miners' strike on participants and the broader left, as well as the eventual decline and loss that followed. John and Andy reflect on the complexities of analyzing this history and the difficulties in reconciling past beliefs with current understanding.–––––… the first and, up to now, the only total revolution against total bureaucratic capitalism, [a system that in] its purest, most extreme form has been realized in Russia, China, and the other countries presently masquerading as socialist.Cornelius Castoriadis, on the Hungarian uprising, 1956.Tony Judt: Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945“Khrushchev’s secret speech, once it leaked out in the West, had marked the end of a certain Communist faith. But it also ...
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    1 時間 2 分
  • Whatever Happened to the Revolutionary Left #1: From Workerism to Broke, 1945-1985 (Part One: General Introduction)

    Whatever Happened to the Revolutionary Left #1: From Workerism to Broke, 1945-1985 (Part One: General Introduction)
    2025/03/19

    Trotsky once spoke of a raincoat that had holes in it. It was a perfect raincoat, he said - as long as it doesn’t rain. With the far left’s confused non-response to Trump’s fascism (when they aren’t simply congratulating him on pwning the liberals, and after spending a lot of energy denying he was a fascist to start with), hasn’t the revolutionary left as a whole turned out to be such a raincoat?

    Topics discussed: Introductions; The SWP (Socialist Workers Party) and SWSS (Socialist Workers Student Society) in 1984; the miners’ strike; the revolutionary left in the 70s and 80s; a busted flush; the end of ouverism / workerism after the miners’ strike; East London IS (International Socialists), stewards and activists; York University; the social basis of Libertarian Communism in the postwar militancy; Mark Fisher vs the last generation to get a whiff of workers organisation; anarchists against the miners; state capitalism and Polish builders; Solidarnosc; Leninism vs the counterculture; Castoriadis (Socialisme ou Barbarie), Mike Kidron, Nigel Harris and Alasdair Macintyre (Socialist Review Group and International Socialists), Italian Autonomism breaking out of the ideology of Trotskyism; social justice in sectarian Ireland, segregated US, the Vietnam war; the Communist Historians Group and the utopianism of the countercultural left; Trotskyist disappointment after 1989 and the Colour Revolutions; How the SWP decided to become Trotskyist; conspiratorial, underground Marxism vs. Marxist (and post-Marxist!) rethinking; ‘Shock Doctrine’ Marxism, ‘No Logo’ and the rise of ‘anti-imperialist’ campism; defending the center / in defense of liberal modernity.



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    1 時間 21 分
  • Phil Smith's Eco-Eerie & Occupy's Haunted Generation

    Phil Smith's Eco-Eerie & Occupy's Haunted Generation
    2024/12/21

    A new book from Phil Smith offers a chance to consider Mark Fisher's hauntological legacy and the politics of life lived without a future, among the remains of the past.

    Phil Smith, Albion’s Eco-Eerie: TV and Movies of the Haunted Generation, Shrewsbury: Temporal Boundary Press, 2024.

    Mark Fisher (1968-2017) founded Zero Books, Repeater Books and the k-punk blog. He was the author of Capitalist Realism and Ghosts of My Life, and taught at Goldsmiths, University of London.

    Culture has lost the ability to grasp the presentMark Fisher

    If we gift them the past we create a cushion or pillow for their emotions and consequently, we can control them better.Eldon Tyrell, Blade Runner.

    Perhaps a better hour may at some time strike even for the clever fellows: one in which they may demand, instead of prepared material ready to be switched on, the improvisatory displacement of things.Adorno

    Podcast Discussion Summary »

    TLDR: A discussion about the details of Phil’s book quickly turns into a reappraisal of the work of Mark Fisher and his kin (Zero Books, Repeater Books, Nina Power, Nick Land, Simon Reynolds, David Stubbs, et al.) and their ideas about hauntology and the Ghost of Marx.

    Films reviewed in the book include: Night of the Demon, The Company of Wolves, Fireball XL5, Quatermass and the Pit, O Lucky Man!, Children of the Stones, Whistle and I'll Come to You, Hellraiser, Hellbound.

    It is a bold book that takes the weaving path of blood, trauma and sensuality away from Folk Horror and fashionable 'hauntology' into new, enchanted spaces. Digging up and doubling down on messy ideas and demon lovers that exist not to elevate us to transcendence but to immerse us in the mud of grotty instinct.Stephen Volk, author of The Dark Masters Trilogy and Ghostwatch



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    1 時間 4 分
  • I Hear You’re a Hindu Now, Father: On Blake’s Religion

    I Hear You’re a Hindu Now, Father: On Blake’s Religion
    2024/10/10

    It is acceptable these days to describe Blake as a Taoist, a Pagan, a Buddhist or an atheist... anything but a Christian. The Traveller and his guest, Mark Vernon argue that this is a big mistake: "Blake... did not claim to be a mystic, and did not use the word. He claimed to be a visionary, an enthusiast, and a Christian, and defined the terms carefully. I have read, and now am reading in newspapers, statements of literary critics and those who call themselves "atheistic theologians" to the effect that Blake had no god but man. People who are not atheists are usually willing to leave to God such important judgments about others. On this subject, as on other statements about himself, Blake seems clear enough. He said always and passionately that he was a Christian, and I know only One who has a better right to an opinion on that subject." Bo Lindberg



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    1 時間 23 分
  • Spectral Promises: Electronic Music 1970-1990

    Spectral Promises: Electronic Music 1970-1990
    2024/09/30

    Planned as a long Q&A session between Andy and long-time Traveller podcast co-host, Conor Kostick, that discussion raised so many questions and went on for so long that it seemed best to postpone airing the issues on the podcast. For this episode we excerpted Andy’s intro to the discussion, touching on his own experience listening to and making electronic music.

    Starting with Wendy Carlos and Popcorn, (yes, it’s Hot Butter by Popcorn, not Popcorn by Hot Butter… Andy got that wrong throughout) passing through Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Throbbing Gristle and Nurse With Wound, Andy argues that the technology is generally used lazily and to little effect, compared to the enormity of, eg., the work of Iancu Dumitrescu.

    The gist of Andy’s argument is that all the things he found interesting in the distorted timbres and extremities of electronic rock and industrial music are used with overwhelming effect in the music of the Romanian Spectral composer, Iancu Dumitrescu, whose music runs throughout the show, along with samples from David Bowie, Throbbing Gristle, the Tim Hodgkinson / Ken Hyder collaboration, KSpace, and Andy Wilson’s own recorded archives.

    Along the way, Andy discusses the combined and uneven development of electronic music, with huge increases in the expressive power of the tools available to musicians still lagrely unexplored by most musicians. Yes, Andy is complaining about the music young people make today. Conor thought so, and he might be right.

    Andy also tells stories about visiting abandoned quarries on a military base to record foxes with Chris Watson of Cabaret Voltaire, Cod that burp (off the Galapagos Islands, not Japan) at hissing cockroaches, Chris Carter’s Gristleizer, Bourbonese Qualk’s Simon Crab buying Throbbing Gristle’s Korg MS20, comparisons between buying tickets for Oasis and dumping grain in the Pacific, seagull reverb, the Nagra tape recorder, BBC Radiophonics, ‘Dada, Futurism, Industrial Music’, Wendy Carlos, hand-cranked ring modulators, The Aphex Twin and the Supercollider user group, Steve Stapleton bunking off at Faust’s Wumme and Kurt Graupner’s Faust Machines, computerised shamanic improv, John Lennon’s tape experiments, SoundRaider, time division multiplexing, nature recording with David Attenborough, the pleasures of dentistry under general anaesthetics, and more besides.

    Criminally, I didn’t get around to talking about how the sound of King Iwah and the Upsetters’ Give Me Power, produced by Lee Perry in 1972, set the scene for everything that followed. I can only apologise and drop this video here.

    Traveller Music Tech



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    57 分
  • Blake, Castoriadis and the Social Imaginary

    Blake, Castoriadis and the Social Imaginary
    2024/08/25

    Blake saw imagination as the ‘body of Christ’, as divine: imagination is what will build Golgonooza, his New Jerusalem. Some readers of Blake interpret this imagination as merely the power that drives the artist to make inspired art. It is far more than this in Blake. The imagination is tasked with building God’s Kingdom itself. But what can this mean?

    Cornelius Castoriadis (1922-1997) was a child of the post-war revolutionary movement. He led the group Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism), which split to the left of French Trotskyism and was active from 1948-1966. Castoriadis eventually rejected Marxism, based on his belief in the power of the collective social imaginary to create social forms (languages, institutions, social relations), symbolic artefacts and entire societies. Could this social imaginary, able to create ex nihilo and overturn all categories, be the divine body of the imagination Blake envisioned?

    In this podcast, Andy Wilson talks to Joe Ruffell about Castoriadis and the imagination, taking in topics including;

    * Castoriadis’s political history and his development beyond Marxismthe role of imagination in Blake

    * Castoriadis’s account of the history of the concept of the radical (esemplastic) imagination from Aristotle to Heidegger and beyond

    * Castoriadis and Primary Narcissism

    * State Capitalist groups to the left of Trotskyism in the New Left

    * worker’s power against Lenin and Taylorism

    * the later Castoriadis’s idea of the interregnum, and of the power of the imagination to entrap and beguile

    * Castoriadis’s ecological and anti-oppression politics

    * Castoriadis and imagination against Marxism

    * the debate between Castoriadis and Alasdair MacIntyre (the latter speaking for the International Socialists before becoming a Catholic Aristotelian)

    * democracy in the Greek polis and elsewhere

    * the curse of the imagination

    Does the radical duality of Castoriadis’s imagination – its power both to liberate and enslave, and the slippery dialectics between those states – resemble in any way the arrangements in Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell?



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    51 分
  • Timothy Morton's Hell Throwing a Wrench of 'What the F**k' into the Machinery

    Timothy Morton's Hell Throwing a Wrench of 'What the F**k' into the Machinery
    2024/05/23

    The Traveller in the Evening talks to Timothy Morton about Tim's new book Hell, their personal journeys towards Christianity; the role of aesthetics in theory; the war against The Holy Spirit and Žižek's blindness to the latter; charisma; Speculative Realism as an attack on theory; ‘French feminism’; the impact of music on their lives; the trouble with Marxists pirouetting like Jerry Falwell… and Falwell’s demonic level of aggression toward Desmond Tutu; doing peyote with your mum; The Sex Pistols tearing a hole in the curtain of reality on the Bill Grundy Show; transpersonal boundary-violating sensations of extreme benevolence; Bjork as a 'soul-opener'; René Girard channelling Alice Through the Looking Glass; Marx's meanness, the role of wonderment in theory; Terry Eagleton giving Marx a leg up; being a happy scapegoat and cheerful assassin; Luce Irigaray and the Sokal hoax; and the influence of childhood trauma on their views.

    “Aggressively expressed contempt is absolutely the wonderment killer.”

    "I've been calling them Right Club recently, like Fight Club. The first rule of Right Club is you never mention Right Club... and the second rule of Right Club is that you never mention Right Club. And as soon as you call them out, like we actually were in a church, this is a church with some Hegel, with a sort of stained glass window of Marx, and you are all like crusading inquisition people. They get so mad, you know? And the first time I ever said I'm not quite sure anymore about the concept of critique, I got killed in public for three days by people who had to perform a ritual sacrifice on me. And incidentally, by the way, I love Theodore Adorno."

    “The sense of beauty that even beetles and perhaps flowers… share has nothing to do with being a 'biologically female' body: this is a trans theory of beauty, as a matter of fact. I'm going to say that again: the default theory of sexual selection consists of a trans theory of beauty. Far from 'essentializing' or 'biologizing' art, what this means is that beetles and flowers also make art: 'art history' can't possibly stop at human beings or even primates. And that art is profoundly queer and indeed trans. Think about it. Those female ducks and butterflies simply can't be the only lifeforms with a sense of beauty. The non-cloning part of our biosphere, the way it appears, from flowers to wallpaper to disco balls to iridescent beetles, is a reflection of queer desire without a goal.

    Thel created Earth.

    So Thel is a figure for theory, throwing a wrench of 'what the f**k?' into the machinery. And therefore Thel is a figure for 'life,' but not the procreative, goal-directed life of parents and daughters. Wonderment is the 'feel' of theory, and wonderment is without a goal. The fact that consciousness can wonder is perhaps another flower, another 'meaningless' life, meaningless in the sense of not having a telos or point. And what is esoteric religion aside from asserting what Kant asserts about beauty, a meaningful lack of meaning?”

    Timothy Morton

    Timothy Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University. They have collaborated with Björk, Laurie Anderson, Jennifer Walshe, Hrafnhildur Arnadottir, Sabrina Scott, Adam McKay, Jeff Bridges, Justin Guariglia, Olafur Eliasson, and Pharrell Williams. Morton co-wrote and appeared in Living in the Future’s Past, a 2018 film about global warming with Jeff Bridges, and is the author of Ecology without Nature (2007), The Ecological Thought (2010), Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (2013), Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence (2016), Humankind: Solidarity with Nonhuman People (2017), Being Ecological (2018), ten other books and 250 essays on philosophy, ecology, literature, music, art, architecture, design and food.



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    1 時間 9 分