Auxiliary Statements

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.

This week our rotund podcast hosts kick back, watch a movie, and try to answer that question that has been haunting humanity since the early-1940s: was Robert McNamara cringe? The answer is yes. So strap in as the lads take a look at documentary-guy Errol Morris' 2003 classic "The Fog of War". The movie profiles McNamara as he goes from common Irishman to rare Irishman in his long career as war criminal and professional Numbers Guy. If only he had been born in a baseball town...he may have invented sabermetrics five decades early instead of using his gifts to kill as many people as possible. Makes you wonder about Szymborski..... Watching: "The Fog of War" by Errol Morris (2003).

This week Jack and Dan trade one big M Marxist for another, Milliband is out, Mattick is in. It’s quite a stark reversal, from a strategy of revolutionary reformism to one of spontaneous action by the workers and their primary organisational arm, the workers council. That’s right, Council Communism is on the docket for this weeks show and if we know one thing by now the lads always stand ready to be wooed by yet another camp of communists. Mattick’s critique of the reformist left is withering as he calls for not the revival of the old and moribund workers movement but an entirely new one. Is this an ultra-left podcast now? Reading: Paul Mattick, Council Communism (1939)

Be prepared to raise a glass and shed a tear this week as Jack and Dan part ways with their guiding light, their north star, Auxiliary Statements God Emperor, Ralph Miliband. That’s right, your dogged and persistent hosts have finally dusted off their worn and tattered copies of Marxism and Politics for one final time. This week, a discussion of Marxist strategy as the question is asked whether capitalism can be overthrown by reform within the bounds of constitutional legality or by resorting to revolutionary insurrection. We get from Miliband what we’ve come to expect, a lay of the land account provided in the form of a comprehensive historical overview of the various debates, as well as that rarest of things, an honest to god opinion from the patriarch as He tells us what He actually thinks! Reading: Ralph Miliband, Marxism and Politics Chapter. 6, Reform and Revolution (1977).

I think we all knew this was the logical conclusion of the last few episodes. The lads are at it again, with Jack well on his way to becoming a primitivist and Dan doing all he can to keep things on the level (no pun intended). In this episode your begrimed hosts discuss England's most radical moment - the occupation of St. George's Hill by Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers in 1649. However! Dan and Jack quickly realize they read two completely different texts! Jack read arch-revisionist Eduard Bernstein and Dan read proud Yorkshireman Christopher Hill. The outcome? A pretty good conversation tbh. NOTE: THIS PODCAST DOES NOT ENDORSE DIGGING. ALL DIGGING SHOULD BE REPORTED TO THE NO-TILL AUTHORITIES Reading: "The Law of Freedom in a Platform", Gerrard Winstanley (1652). "Cromwell and Communism", Chapter IX - The “True” Levellers and Their Practical Communism, & Chapter X - The Communistic Utopia of Gerrard Winstanley, Eduard Bernstein, (1930). "The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution", Chapter 7 - Levellers and True Levellers, Christopher Hill, (1972).