Marxism 2017 – Day 4: Outline

An outline of Dat 4 at #Marxism2017.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this latest addition to my series about Marxism 2017. This post covers day 4 up to the start of the closing rally, which will have a post of its own to close the series. Before that one there will be two others, a big climate change post featuring Ian Angus’ two talks and Suzanne Jeffery’s talk, and a post about Beth Greenhill’s talk on mental health.

THE START OF THE DAY

As I would be returning to King’s Lynn that evening, and Logan Hall is closer to King’s Cross than my accommodation was I took everything with me. As had been the case on Saturday, my first meeting as at Friend’s Meeting House, this time in the Sarah Fell room, so I had both bags with me for that, as the baggage room was in Student Central, where my second, third and fourth meetings of the day were due to be. Therefore I handed in my keys on my way out.

The fob gives access to the entire complex, by way of the reception building, the first of the three larger keys unlocks the particular block in which I was staying, the biggest key opens the flat in which my room was located, and the middle key of the three opens the door to the specific room I was staying in. The CG12 on the metal disc refers to the fact that this room is room 2 in flat 1 on the ground floor of block C.

On my way I photographed a building near my accommodation that had fascinated me:

MEETING 1: CLIMATE CHANGE
AND SCIENCE FICTION

This was very interesting, showing how science fiction writers approach’s track real world events. The first “cli-fi” (a back formation from climate change and science fiction) referred to ice and floods, with fire and warming coming later as apocalypse scenarios. Here are some photographs, which I am presenting as a ’tiled mosaic’ – to view as a gallery left-click (or single finger touch if you have a finger pad like mine):

Note the second book on this list – the first ever to acknowledge the possibility of anthropogenic global warming.

OVER THE RAINBOW: LGBT+ LIBERATION IN THE 21st CENTURY – NICOLA FIELD

This meeting took place in the Malet suite at Student Central, so I was able to deposit my bigger bag in the baggage room which was across the corridor from this room. I picked it up just before heading to the Institute of Education’s Logan Hall for the closing rally. The speaker gave a history of the development of the LGBT+ movement going back to the Stonewall riots, and contrasted the complete commercialisation of the London Pride march (people having to pay to actually march!) with the recent launch of the UK’s 66th pride event, Lancaster Community Pride.

CLIMATE CHANGE AFTERNOON

Both the meetings I attended in the afternoon were in the Malet Suite and both were about climate change, and I am covering both in a separate post. A solitary photo before moving on:

THE CLOSING RALLY

I am giving this and my journey home another post. Suffice to say for the moment that it was an excellent finish to the event.

We Need To Change Our Approach to Driving Offences

Some suggestions regarding driving offences, provoked by a piece in The Guardian.

INTRODUCTION

This post has developed out of a Guardian article that I encountered this morning and that set me thinking about this matter. This is the first of several posts that I shall be putting up today.

THE STORY

The story is about two friends who were hit by a guy driving at 101mph (approx 162.5kph for those who work in metric). One survived and tells this story, the other did not. The cause of this tragedy initially tried to deny his guilt, and was ultimately convicted of causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving. Here is a link to and screenshot of the article:

THIS PARTICULAR CASE

First of all, I draw your attention to what is for the purposes of this post the most important paragraph of the whole article:

I endorse this paragraph 100%. In view of the circumstances of this case (he was racing a mate along an urban road) there could be little justification for imposing other than the maximum sentence, which for manslaughter is life imprisonment. The judge would then have to impose a minimum term of years before the criminal could be released. Additionally, if you have been given a life sentence with a minimum term you are not fully released, you are let out on licence, which means that any subsequent offence however minor sees you back inside.

MOTORING OFFENCES IN GENERAL

Before writing this section I point out that I am a lifelong non-driver, and have never even had so much as a solitary lesson, let alone taking a test. UK courts are consistent in imposing punishments on drivers that are not appropriate for the offence and that are too lenient. Here are some ideas:

Killings committed while at the wheel should be treated every bit as seriously as killings in other circumstances – if there is evidence of intent they should be treated as murder, otherwise as manslaughter.
Actions such as drink driving, serious speeding and using the mobile while at the wheel should result in automatic driving bans as well as other punishments deemed appropriate by the courts
People putting themselves behind the wheel when banned should be treated as an offence as serious as that that incurred the ban in the first place.
Release from a custodial sentence imposed for killing while at the wheel should be accompanied by a warning that if the offender puts themselves behind the wheel again they will be straight back inside.
Drivers banned for a limited term as opposed to permanently should be required to take a driving test to get their licence back and there should be strict limits on how many times they can fail that test before losing their chance to get the licence back.

MORE ABOUT HARRIET BARNSLEY

Harriet Barnsley blogs about her recovery from this horrific incident (given the driver’s behaviour the word accident is not appropriate) at thistooshallpass464, which I urge you to visit. Here is a link to one of her posts.

Marxism 2017: Two Meetings About Disability

Continuing my personal account of #Marxism2017 with two disability themed meetings.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this continuation of my series about Marxism 2017. This post focusses specifically on the two meetings on disability, which took place during the second and fifth slots on the Saturday.

DISABILITY AND RESISTANCE

This meeting was scheduled for room 3E, but when the main lift at Student Central broke down and resisted all efforts to get it working again it was rescheduled for the ground floor. As soon as it was known that the lift was busted the organisers of the festival made it clear that refunds would be available for those who thought they could no longer enjoy the event (there was only one ground floor location remotely suitable for meetings, and three meetings in each session were scheduled for rooms on the 3rd floor, which was inacessible to the physically disabled without the lift working.). Although the ersatz meeting venue was not ideal it was the least bad solution for this meeting.

This meeting was packed full of inspirational stories from various campaigns. As an autistic person I identify particularly strongly with struggles for disability rights. I am a member of group of whom (UK figures – feel free to give me others from elsewhere in the world if you know them) 74% are unemployed, and 85% are under-employed.

Here are some pictures:

Amy advises the panel — Amy, organiser of the festival, speaking to the panel before the meeting started.

HOW CAN DISABLED PEOPLE WIN LIBERATION – RODDY SLORACH

The lift appeared to working again during lunch, but then packed up again and could not be coaxed back to life again, so again we were in the ersatz venue. There was an additional problem this time in that the machines in the cafe outside which we were based were shutting down, creating a lot of background noise. Although 6 hours had elapsed since the end of the panel meeting covered above this meeting felt in many ways like a continuation of the other, with every contribution being inspiring. Although I did not speak myself I was pleased to note that three other autistic people did make contributions. I conclude this post with a few photos:

With two meetings being held facing it I got a good look at this ‘internal mural’.

Marxism 2017 – Day 3: Outline

An outline of day 3 at Marxism 2017, setting the stage for two further posts.

INTRODUCTION

Wel come to this latest post in my series about Marxism 2017. The Saturday at Marxism is always the busiest day of the festival. For this reason I am doing three posts about the day, this one, one that covers the two disability themed meetings I attended and one which will also cover a meeting from Sunday devoted to Ian Angus’ two talks, “Facing the Anthropocene” and “A Redder Shade oif Green”.

THE TIMETABLE

Here to show you the scale of the event is the timetable for thia day:

IS A ROBOT AFTER YOUR JOB? MARTIN UPCHURCH – FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE

For the Saturday we were using venues at three locations, Student Central, The Institute of Education and Friends Meeting House. This meeting took place in the Hilda Clark room, which is on the first floor of Friends Meeting House. The answer to the question in the meeting title is “probably not”. As yet robots still require humans to watch them to ensure gthat they function as they are supposed to, and that is likely to remain the case for some time. Here are some photographs:

It was announced during this meeting that the main lift had failed in Student Central and gthat as yet the engineer had been unable to fix it. Therefore the panel meeting on disability was moved to a ground-floor location because the backup lifts only went up to the first and second floors (duh!). Barring a brief period at lunchtime this main lift did not work again during the rest of the event.

DISABILITY AND RESISTANCE

I will be dealing with this meeting and the last one of the day in a separate post. For the moment here are a picture from the first and a couple of lunchtime pics:

Banner3 — The woman in front of the banner is Paula Peters of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC).

Picnic — The Norwich & East Anglia picnic. A small donation buys you a meal – the guide prices are £3 waged and £1 unwaged, and as someone who is employed part-time I split the difference with £2.

Canary — The canary is the symbol of Norwich City FC, and this specimen can be seen at a fair distance.

HOW THE MEDIA LOST ON JUNE 8TH – IAN TAYLOR (STUDENT CENTRAL)

The mainstream media were virtually unanimous in predicting (and in most cases making it obvious that they wanted) a Tory landslide in the June 8th General Election. The fact that the Tories ended up without a majority at all, and that Labour increased their presence by 30MPs was one in the eye for MSM. Newspapers are losing readers at a vast rate, and readers are increasingly not taking their papers on trust. Since this meeting happened we have seen Theresa May begging for policy ideas (“here is a copy of our manifesto!”), and a Prime Ministers Questions where both leaders were absent, and Emily Thornberry starred for Labour while Damien Green for the Tories managed the less than challenging feat of doing a better job than Theresa would have done. Here are some pictures:

FACING THE ANTHROPOCENE – IAN ANGUS – INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION

I am covering this meeting and Ian Angus’ other meeting which took place a day later in a separate post. For the moment here are a few of the pictures from this one:

Geological timescale updated — The first seven pictures in this section provide the facts that show us tgo be in the Anthropocene.

Marx quote — 150 years on this remains an excellent summary of our responsibilities tro our planet – and one that has been neglected shamefully.

HOW CAN DISABLED PEOPLE WIN LIBERATION? – RODDY SLORACH – SC

My final meeting of the day was back at Student Central, and as with the earlier panel meeting had been relocated due to the faulty lift and the fact that the backup only went as far up as the second floor. As I will be covering this meeting in more detail in another post, suffice to say that it was an inspirational end to the day. Here to end this post is the chair advertising Roddy’s book:

Marxism 2017: Day 2

An account of Day 2 at Marxism 2017.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the next post in my series about Marxism 2017. The event finished with the Closing Rally last night, after which I travelled back to King’s Lynn. I have quite a few more posts to do before this series finishes however.

DAY 2

I was staying in a room in a University hall of residence about a 15 minute walk from the event, which suited me very well. I set off at about 9:20AM (the first meeting session started at 10AM, and I wanted to be early because the meeting I had chosen was likely to be very well attended. I arrived at Student Central at about 9:30 and took the stairs to the third floor as the meeting was scheduled for the Upper Hall (I am old enough to have attended meetings there when it was still called the Badminton Court).

FAKE NEWS: MEDIA, TRUTH AND POWER – SIMON BASKETTER

This was a splendid way to start the day. There was some very entertaining stuff, with serious purpose. The events of June 8th showed everyone who was not already aware that there are limitations to the power of the media – our mass media were universal in predicting (and in most cases wanting) a huge majority for Theresa May and the ~~Self~~Conservatives and of course she ended up with no majority, dickering with the foul bigots of the DUP to hang on to the power. Of course she is now so desperate that she is asking Labour for ideas (Jeremy Corbyn’s response: “I’ll give you a copy of our manifesto”). Here are some photographs to help tell the story:

UCL building — This building caught my eye as I walked past on my way to the event.

Throughthewindow1 — The view through one of the the Upper Hall windows

Food stand — A food stall (London prices are beyond my means – I was not a cjustomer)

Sarah Ensor + Simon Basketter — Chair Sarah (one of the speakers at the meeting on Biodiversity and Species Extinction) and speaker Simon Basketter.

Sarah Ensor opens the meeting — Sarah introduces the meeting

Simon Basketter starts his talk — Simon speaking, careful not obstruct the screen.

MARXISM AND MENTAL HEALTH – BETH GREENHILL

I will be giving this meeting a full post to itself in due course – it deserves it, and I have asked the speaker to email me all her slides, including those she did not get to use because of the importance I attach to this subject. For the moment here are a few pictures:

Display1 — A display on the main staircase at Student Central.

MARXISM, NATURE AND SOCIETY – MARTIN EMPSON

Following the lunch break (picnics are something of a tradition at Marxism festivals, and I participated in the Norwich and East Anglia picnic) I headed to room 3E for this meeting. I would have preferred this talk to have been assigned a bigger room because the topic is so important. It was well attended, as it should have been. There were many outstanding contributions, including from those fighting against fracking (a particularly destructive method of extracting fossil fuels from shale). A woman who was born in Australia and whose father works in mining talked about her arguments with him and how she explains that she does not want people in mining to be jobless – she wants them to have jobs helping the environment, such as developing renewable energy sources etc. Here are some pictures:

IRELAND AND THE RISE OF THE RADICAL LEFT – GERRY CARROLL

Gerry Carroll is one of two members of People Before Profit elected to the Stormont Assembly in the days when that body still functioned. The other was Eamonn McCann. One of Stormont’s less charming features is a register that requires you to state whether you are Nationalist or Unionist – McCann and Carroll both wrote the single word Socialist in this space. People Before Profit are a cross-border organisation and they also boast three members of the Dail (the Irish Republic’s parliament), two of whom, Richard Boyd Barrett and Brid Smith were also at Marxism 2017. Gerry Carroll won his seat in West Belfast – Gerry Adams’ stamping ground. For an avowed non-sectarian to win in the very heartland of Sinn Fein is particularly remarkable. Carroll talked about both his success and that in the Republic. In the Republic much of the radicalism developed around the attempted imposition of water charges (yes – in Europe’s wettest country), but also of course the Republic became the first country in the world to vote in favour of equal marriage.

After Carroll finished his inspiring speech various people in the audience talked further about some of the points he raised, filling out the picture. Here are some pictures…

DID LENIN LEAD TO STALIN? – PADDY NIELSEN

After the second long break of the day it was back up to floor 3, this time room 3B for me. This meeting dealt with one of the more persistent accusations flung at the left (note, until the mid 1990s Socialist Worker retained its masthead stating “Neither Washington nor Moscow but International Socialism”). Nielsen set out the counter arguments excellently. Stalinism was a product of the isolation of the Russian Revolution – it did not spread elsewhere as the revolutionaries hoped, and it was separated from the revolutionary movement by a river of blood. Most of the old Bolshevik leadership who were alive when Stalin took power died at his hands. Here are some pictures:

Marxism 2017: Biodiversity and Species Extinction (Ian Rappel and Sarah Ensor)

Ian Rappel and Sarah Ensor’s meeting on biodiversity and species extinction covered in detail. #Marxism2017

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this post in my series about Marxism 2017. The meeting covered in this post was the second that I attended on day 1 of the festival. Most of the rest of this post will be photographs from that meeting, but before getting to the main meat I have one small thing to do relating to my previous post…

ERRATUM

In the first published version of my post about day 1 I labelled a logo as being from the front of a TEAM t-shirt. It was not, and I have corrected the original post, but I refuse to do the blogging equivalent of sneaking out a correction in 6pt type in the middle of page 27, so here is a picture showing the a TEAM t-shirt:

BIODIVERSITY AND SPECIES EXTINCTION

Of our two speakers, Ian Rappel is a conservation biologist and was looking at the overall picture, while Sarah Ensor, author the blog Herring and Class Struggle, focused on the oceans.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Here are the photos from before the main talks:

P1020696 — The speakers and chair (centre) at the platform

P1020702 — The chair introducing the meeting

PART 1: IAN RAPPEL

P1020706 — Four diverse life forms – sperm whales, ants, duckweed (the smallest of all vascular plants), tardigrades

P1020736 — There will be more on the Anthropocene later in this series, with an account of Ian Angus’ meeting on this subject.

PART 2: SARAH ENSOR

P1020749 — The light relief – a tardigrade.

P1020756 — AS followers of this blog will know I was in northwest Scotland recently, and I saw many signs of fish farms, including in Loch Alsh, as seen from above in this post: https://aspi.blog/2017/06/12/scotland-walking-from-ferry-cottage-to-kyle-of-lochalsh/

CONCLUSION

This was an important meeting, and I welcome the higher profile that nature and ecology are enjoying at this year’s Marxism (I have been to three meetings on the topic already, with another three scheduled for this final day). I cannot say that I enjoyed it, but I am glad that I attended and was glad to note that there were few empty seats.

Marxism 2017 – Day 1

My account of day 1 at Marxism 2017.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this post about the opening day of Marxism 2017 (see @MarxismFestival on twitter). As I write this, we are having our lunch break on Day 3.

GETTING THERE

With the first meeting due to begin at 12:30 on Thursday I opted for the 9:57 train from King’s Lynn. I duly arriuved with time to deposit my larger bag in the designated bag room, get information about the exact details of my accommodation (I was in a hall of residence, just not sure exactly where).

MEETING 1: SARAH BATES ON WHAT SOCIALISM WOULD BE LIKE

This was an excellent start to the festival, addressing the question of what we are for. Sarah provided an excellent lead off, and the discussion that followed was also excellent. Here are some pictures from the early stages of the event:

P1020694 — Simon, chair of this meeting.

MEETING 2: BIODIVERSITY AND SPECIES EXTINCTION – SARAH ENSOR AND IAN RAPPEL

This meeting featured so much in depth information that I shall be devoting a whole post to it. For the moment, here are a couple of pics to whet the appetite:

MEETING 3: ANTISEMITISM, ISLAMOPHOBIA AND THE FAR RIGHT: ROB FERGUSON

An excellent meeting, with the main speaker an anti-Zionist Jew.

P1020766 — Meeting chair and a member of the TEAM – and as a six-time former TEAM member I can tell that they do a marvellous job of running the event and that it is a very demanding one.

THE OPENING RALLY

We had a superb venue for our opening rally, The Light, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road. We also had speakers to match, with people from all sorts of campaigns, such as cleaning workers who had bested the bosses at the London School of Economics, anti-fracking campaigners from Lancashire, speakers from the Justice for Grenfell campaign and campaigners against police brutality. I think everyone left this meeting feeling angered but also uplifted.

P1020773 — The light part of “The Light” – a gigantic skylight.

P1020774 — A close-up of the view through said skylight.

P1020781 — Sarah Bates introducing the opening rally.

AROUND AND ABOUT

I conclude this post with some photos from this part of central London:

P1020784 — The frontage of Warren Street Station

P1020785 — Euston Square, one of the original 1863 stations, now with a hyper-modern surface building.

P1020787 — The moon, darkened to bring out its finest points.

P1020788 — This Church is visible from the Gallery Bar at Student Central.

Marxism 2017

Setting the scene for a series of posts about Marxism 2017.

INTRODUCTION

In approximately two hours I will be off to catch a train to London for Marxism 2017, four days of political meetings. Given the location I will have regular wi-fi access and will blog regularly about the event.

MARXISM 2017

Most of the rest of this post will be taken up with pictures of my timetable, but before I put them up a note – I have ticked the meetings that I definitely intend to go to, and put question marks against those I am considering (if for example there are two in one slot that appeal and I have not yet made a final decision).

Nineteen year old boy kills and tortures at least 15 Laysan albatrosses in Hawaii, wrecks a conservation study. Put him in jail? Yes, please!

A reblog of a story on whyevolutionistrue about the torture and killing of Laysan albatrosses, and the appropriate punishment for the perpetrator thereof.

I am in full agreement with Professor Coyne on this one…

Why Evolution Is True

My answer is “YES!”. An albatross is a sentient creature, if it could “choose” to remain alive or be killed it would take the former, it feels pain, and NYU student Christian Gutierrez, 19, inflicted a lot of pain on those birds living on Oahu:

[Prosecutor] Futa said she is asking for the maximum penalty for Gutierrez because of the cruel nature of the crime against the defenseless albatrosses, who are “peaceful and trusting birds and do not recognize predators.”
Laysan albatrosses are federally and internationally protected seabirds. The adult birds are as large as a human toddler and can live for more than 60 years. They nest on the ground and remain on their nests to protect their eggs and chicks no matter what approaches them.
Investigators say the birds were bludgeoned or hacked to death with a bat, and a machete, and shot with a pellet gun. Some of…

View original post 401 more words

Autism 101

This infographic by Erin Human is really excellent – I urge you to study it and then share it. This is Erin’s work, so if you wish to comment you must do so on the original.

Autism 101

a simple neurodiversity-based explanation
[image of head with brain]

what is autism?

Autism is type of brain wiring (neurological type) that processes information differently than typical brains do.
[image of head with abstract wiring pattern]

This means that autistic thought patterns, sensory perceptions, social interactions, language processing, and emotional regulation all develop differently than those of people who are not autistic.

Modern societies operate in ways that often disadvantage autistic people, which makes autism a developmental disability.

who is autistic?

[image of globe]
About 1-2% of the world’s population is autistic.
Many populations are under-diagnosed, but autistic people are everywhere!

[image of birthday cake]
People of all ages are autistic.
Though people usually talk about autistic children, autistic adults need support too.

[image of three people with varying skin tones and hairstyles]
Autistic people are found across all genders, races, and nationalities.
Boys are diagnosed more often than…

View original post 52 more words

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INTRODUCTION

THE START OF THE DAY

MEETING 1: CLIMATE CHANGE AND SCIENCE FICTION

OVER THE RAINBOW: LGBT+ LIBERATION IN THE 21st CENTURY – NICOLA FIELD

CLIMATE CHANGE AFTERNOON

THE CLOSING RALLY

INTRODUCTION

THE STORY

THIS PARTICULAR CASE

MOTORING OFFENCES IN GENERAL

MORE ABOUT HARRIET BARNSLEY

INTRODUCTION

DISABILITY AND RESISTANCE

HOW CAN DISABLED PEOPLE WIN LIBERATION – RODDY SLORACH

INTRODUCTION

THE TIMETABLE

IS A ROBOT AFTER YOUR JOB? MARTIN UPCHURCH – FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE

DISABILITY AND RESISTANCE

HOW THE MEDIA LOST ON JUNE 8TH – IAN TAYLOR (STUDENT CENTRAL)

FACING THE ANTHROPOCENE – IAN ANGUS – INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION

HOW CAN DISABLED PEOPLE WIN LIBERATION? – RODDY SLORACH – SC

INTRODUCTION

DAY 2

FAKE NEWS: MEDIA, TRUTH AND POWER – SIMON BASKETTER

MARXISM AND MENTAL HEALTH – BETH GREENHILL

MARXISM, NATURE AND SOCIETY – MARTIN EMPSON

IRELAND AND THE RISE OF THE RADICAL LEFT – GERRY CARROLL

DID LENIN LEAD TO STALIN? – PADDY NIELSEN

INTRODUCTION

ERRATUM

BIODIVERSITY AND SPECIES EXTINCTION

THE PRELIMINARIES

PART 1: IAN RAPPEL

PART 2: SARAH ENSOR

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

GETTING THERE

MEETING 1: SARAH BATES ON WHAT SOCIALISM WOULD BE LIKE

MEETING 2: BIODIVERSITY AND SPECIES EXTINCTION – SARAH ENSOR AND IAN RAPPEL

MEETING 3: ANTISEMITISM, ISLAMOPHOBIA AND THE FAR RIGHT: ROB FERGUSON

THE OPENING RALLY

AROUND AND ABOUT

INTRODUCTION

MARXISM 2017

MEETING 1: CLIMATE CHANGE
AND SCIENCE FICTION