Sunday, November 3, 2013

Co-operative Socialism - The Option for Wellness - by Teusday!


Dear friends

Chris Furston-Davis, my fellow-member of Occupy London's Economics Working Group writes:

> How depressing to prick up ears to the world service shortly before 4.00
> am in the hope of hearing at least hint reason/common sense/wisdom/lateral
> thinking from 3 supposedly intelligent 'economists' discussing economic
> cycles as a sideshow to the Festival of Ideas at Cambridge.
>


Greetings from the London Borough of Bromley where moves are afoot to have the HG Wells Labour club listed as a Heritage building (or some such).

As to Oxbridge and capitalism . . . need we be surprised: the 2% pay the 10% to lie to the rest of us - the 88%.

But do we believe their lies . . . of course, we never did - this is a politically- and economically-literate, historically-aware society.  The people know that the Con-dems are beating us up on behalf of the 2% and their praetorian guard, the 10%.

They/we also know that, although weakened, the New Labour hi-jack of true Labour is only a hijack, but only that.

We who are democratic socialist and true co-operators -

(in the legacy of George Lansbury, Michael Foot, Tony Benn, John McDonnell, Kelvin Hopkins, Barbara Castle, Bessie Braddock, Alf Morris, Dennis Skinner, Nye Bevan, et al, et al, the cultivation of sensibility by HG Wells, etc)

 - a progressive movement of democratic co-operative socialism don't give up.

Of course, we, too, in Occupy have been hijacked by the 'We are the 99%' slogan (see the 2;10:88% analysis above) and various attempts to have us follow an Oxbridge line of leftist Keynesian (capitalism + the veneer of kindness = the Welfare State) - a view that Keynes himself saw as time limited (see the papers' section of www.interestfreemoney.org for a quote from his 'Essays in Persuasion': a 'Letter to our Grandchildren', I think).

Better that we speak plainly:

 - for a Wellness Society (that is axiomatically eco-logical and equalitarian)
 - based on the (evolving)ICA Statement on Co-operative Values and Principles
 - Principle Seven foremost (the Statement is also logged in that papers' section of www.interestfreemoney.org).

Chris finishes by writing:

>
> Let's hope Cambridge students take a leaf from Manchester and Edinburgh.
>

And my beloved UCL even before that, I hope!

By Tuesday?!

Off to Meeting!

john

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