Auxiliary Statements

Waaaaay back many episodes ago, dear listener, your meek and humble podcast hosts watched a movie from Errol Morris all about that evil idiot Robert McNamara. Well here we are today watching another Errol Morris movie but this time all about Donald Rumsfeld and let's just say...this is one evil SOB. In this episode we ask what role those unelected civil servants play in politics, how they manage to stay around so long, and just what it means to find evil distilled in one smarmy, Ivy League, conniving little man. Buckle up because this one gets heated. Watching: "The Unknown Known" (2013) from Errol Morris.

Holy guacamole the lads are at it again. This book continues to impress as we dive into the second part of our Fundamental Principles reading series - this time covering a spectrum of topics ranging from why everyone left of the councilists are idiots to how we would consume life's necessities and luxuries under communism to why accounting and equal "wages" are absolute fundamentals. Not sure what else to say here other than that your portly and faithful podcast hosts have continued to have their eager minds blown. Let's go. This one's a good 'un. Reading - Chapters 5-11 of "Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution" by the Group of International Communists (1930?).

This week, self professed Marxists on the internet Jack and Dan do that rarest of things, they read some actual Marx! As an appendix to their continuing engagement with the very excellent text ‘The Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution’, the lads took a look at Karl Marx’s withering and often times pedantic commentary on the 1875 founding programmatic document of the German Social Democratic Party; published posthumously in 1891 by Engels as ‘Critique of the Gotha Program’. Jack and Dan discover what a total loser Ferdinand Lassalle was, discuss further labour time credits as a potential replacement for wages, learn about Marx’s views on the states as well as the two fold nature of the transition to Communism, and also find out that child labour is apparently a good thing now…? All whilst slowly melting in an attic. Reading: Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program (1875/1891)

Yeah yeah this one SOUNDS boring but what if I told you we'll be covering...labor time calculation??? Alright that may also sound boring but if we want to be calling ourselves commies and running around calling for an end to capitalism we've got to have an idea of HOW our new world will function. And gosh darn it that is exactly what these people did with this here book. Ever wonder how production/distribution will operate without exploitation? What would an economy look like without coercion? Well it's all covered in this dang book and let me say...it's waaaaaay more simple than you might think. As our councilist friends would say...ABOLISH WAGE LABOR - WORK IS THE MEASURE OF CONSUMPTION! This book effing rocks. Reading - Chapters 1-4 of "Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution" by the Group of International Communists (1930?).

This week the fellas interview.....a former member of parliament?? Boy how'd they con their way into that one. You read that right folks, this week we sat down to talk to Thelma Walker, a one time UK Member of Parliament who, after Corbyn had his so-called "whip" removed, had the guts to do what some of us couldn't...leave the Labour Party. But Thelma's career didn't stop there! She recently sat as a candidate for Hartlepool's by-election under the socialist Northern Independence Party and is working hard to build a small party coalition of democratic socialists to rival Labour. Will the North ever get out from under Westminster's boot? How can we deal with centrist Labourite trolls? Where does the North start? All these questions and more are answered here by the incredible and inspiring Thelma Walker! Woo hoo! Follow Thelma on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Thelma_DWalker Follow Thelma and Tom's podcast here (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED): https://twitter.com/thettllpodcast?lang=en WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE: shorturl.at/gmyNU

In our newest installment of the beloved "everyone is an idiot except me" reading series, we bring you a rushed and perhaps cursory analysis of the CLASSIC Hal Draper joint "The Two Souls of Socialism." Are anarchists as bad as Hitler? Are the Fabians just Stalinists? Is William Morris our F R E A K I N G king?? Some of them sure, yes and hell yes are the answers to those questions posed by Draper as your frowzy and unkempt podcast hosts tackle the dichotomy of Socialism From Above VS Socialism From Below. Also we try and figure out what socialism actually is. Reading: "The Two Souls of Socialism" (1966) by Hal Draper.

Here we are folks, another arbitrary milestone, episode 30! As it’s another episode with a zero at the end you know what that means, another high energy low effort clip show. The boys are oh so proud of their little show and want to take this opportunity to take stock. Where is the podcast going, where did it come form, is it coming or going? No one really can say. Topics for discussion include, current Labour Party woes and whether the party can ever serve socialism, the possibility of a future split with Auxiliary Statements patron saint Ralph Miliband, the ever present questions of reform vs revolution and spontaneity vs organisation, and finally whether it would be outrageous to have hope. Jack and Dan have faith in our glorious socialist future, and you dear listener have their love and gratitude as ever.

Wait a minute, you're telling me America was founded by the same syphilitic capitalists who ruined England?? This week the boys dust off some Foner to take a look at the role of labor in the founding of these here United States. Was the War of Independence a fully bourgeois revolution? Or did labor power and class struggle have something to do with it? Methinks they did. Reading: Chapters 1-3 of "History of the Labor Movement of the United States" (1947) by Philip S Foner.

Well folks, we’ve been teasing it long enough…today your large beautiful boys are reading THE BOOK. In an attempt to answer the questions “What is a conspiracy theory?”, “What happened to all the Nazis?” and “How did we get into this mess?” Dan and Jack are taking a look at The Devil’s Chessboard - a “biography” of the early CIA. Everyone has that friend on the left that’s a little bit too into conspiracy theories (cough, jack, cough), but this week, your lionhearted podcast hosts are going to separate the wheat from the chaff and find out what’s crazy, and what’s not so crazy. Can this history be any use to us on the left? Is everything bad in the world simply CIA? Is Dan CIA? Is Jack CIA? Are YOU CIA? Don’t be so sure. So join us in the first part of this journey as we tell you all about how the robber barons of the early 20th century managed to survive and indeed thrive in the post-wwi world. This one goes long. Strap in. Reading: The Devil’s Chessboard (2015), David Talbot

Jack and Dan are at it again, dishing up some more bonus capital content. Things take a literary and all around fantastical turn in this section; expect phantoms, illusions, necromancy, and who knows, maybe a wizard or two? Oh won’t Jack be thrilled. The lads delve into the world of commodity fetishism, the essential ideology that supports and makes possible the capitalist commodity economy. A form of economy whereby the only relationships that truly matter are those that exist between things and where meaningful economic relations between humans are rendered impossible as a result. Reading: Capital Vol.1, Part 1. Commodities and Money, Chapter 1. Commodities, Section 4. The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof.