being intimately involved with the UK left

[shakahislop]

i'm talking about the people that actually do things. that whole world that's probably best illustrated by novara these days. it all seems to be in london. i've bounced off it a bit, vaguely known people who were involved. people who organize events protests etc. get paid by unite to organize hotel cleaners. the kind of people who surprisingly ended up in momentum and being close to power.

anyone been involved in this world? what's it like? it was raining and i watched a lot of novara this weekend. it made me think mostly of how weird it must be one of the faces of that station, what a particular life it must be.

it also made me think, once again, that someone none of these people ever deal with is how offputting they are to people without any money who don't have university degrees and live in london etc etc. the capture of the left by people with much better prospects than those they claim to represent. the difference between being interested intellectually and morally and even libidinally vs fighting your own corner. those two things feel worlds apart emotionally and i think you can see it on their faces.

this girl in the video prompted the thought but its unfair to lay it at her feet, she's one of loads.

 

[sufi]

how intimately?

 

[DannyL]

I agree it's a strange world. It must be doubly so at the moment with things gearing up for a Labour government and people those you're talking about having completely shut themselves out of power and influence. Owen Jones seems particularly apposite here, a few different decisions and he'd be advising on policy in 2025.I guess we'll see who really is willing to climb the greasy pole and negotiate with the Great Satan (Kier Starmer) at some point in the future. On the other side of the great divide, you can see Tory hacks very conscious that their address books are going to be useless in a year's time.

I think the best way to get a sense of this thing is often memoirs and so on - talking of which this is amazing: https://twitter.com/SRSYdiaries - back when the Left did mean something. I'm not up on which memoirs have emerged lately though, I must admit.


I'm sure man like @john eden could chime in with lots of grimy anecdotes from the heydey of anarcho organising and so on but that's a different thing.

 

[DannyL]

On I hope a more interesting note - I don't quite understand the weird interest I have in internal Labour party affairs, its like a fetish - the thing that would interest me, up close, would be how these people relate to politics from an emotional and identity point of view.

Is it being used to bypass other aspects of their emotional life? Meeting quite a few anarchists years ago gave me this impression.

What does an interest in politics and the related activity enable and allow emotionally? These kinda questions come out of my interest in Reich. For Blakey and Bastani, it seems to enable an interesting career, idk what else.

 

[version]

I can't take Novara seriously. There's something ridiculous about the whole setup. The way they pop up on the same current affairs programs as everyone else and partake in the game. The way they carry themselves. The titles of their books. It all strikes me as a collective of hollow media careers, whether they're sincere in their politics or not.

This extends to all political coverage and current affairs content, but Novara ostensibly being on the left makes it seem particularly ridiculous because they have to pretend they're doing something more important.

 

[version]

I bought a few books off Verso recently and had a similar feeling when I saw them selling tote bags and year planners. You can't square positioning yourself as 'radical' whilst also indulging in that kind of lifestyle branding. It's absurd.

They've got a banner on their front page right now that says "Build your radical left theory reading list for the year ahead with 40% off all books... ".

 

[Mr. Tea]

I bought a few books off Verso recently and had a similar feeling when I saw them selling tote bags and year planners. You can't square positioning yourself as 'radical' whilst also indulging in that kind of lifestyle branding. It's absurd.

They've got a banner on their front page right now that says "Build your radical left theory reading list for the year ahead with 40% off all books... ".

They're (literally) sold out:

Literally A Communist Necklace

'Literally A Communist' on an 18-inch chain. Produced in collaboration with our friends at Topple & Burn. Made from high quality surgical steel. Surgical steel is almost always used in body jewellery. It won’t rust, tarnish or irritate. 100% nickel & copper free. Gold/rose gold is 18k plated...

shop.novaramedia.com

I guess they're only 20 quid, so well within the price range of a Goldsmith's student waiting for their next student loan cheque to come in, but all the same.

 

[Clinamenic]

I bought a few books off Verso recently and had a similar feeling when I saw them selling tote bags and year planners. You can't square positioning yourself as 'radical' whilst also indulging in that kind of lifestyle branding. It's absurd.

They've got a banner on their front page right now that says "Build your radical left theory reading list for the year ahead with 40% off all books... ".

All supports this notion of far-left theory being an subculture of academia, epiphenomenal to the society it ostensibly critiques, almost like a well-adjusted fandom for Marxism.

 

[Mr. Tea]

All supports this notion of far-left theory being an subculture of academia, epiphenomenal to the society it ostensibly critiques, almost like a well-adjusted fandom for Marxism.

Links back to the 🧛‍♂️ 's 🏰, doesn't it.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

They're (literally) sold out:

I don't believe they're real communists: there's no way to join an interminable queue for the thing they've inevitably sold out of.

 

[version]

All supports this notion of far-left theory being an subculture of academia, epiphenomenal to the society it ostensibly critiques, almost like a well-adjusted fandom for Marxism.

Something like that. You can be 'into' theory the way others are into gardening or video games. It's a hobby. Remember "Crit Drip"?

 

[Mr. Tea]

Remember "Crit Drip"?

That sounds like something mispronounced.

 

[ghost]

This brings me back to the "Chris Kraus is a landlord, and The Invisible Committee are NIMBYs who have taken the conflict between landowners and capitalists to its ultimate conclusion" thesis

I'll say that the thing helping the US right wing the most over the couple years is that the top academics, the ones who shmooze right and get the sinecures control the left side of academia and the media, and the right is sort of an also-rans league of those who couldn't quite make it in the left institutions. There might be some catholics but really they'd not be serious about it if The Drift would publish them. And frankly, they've got a little more spunk as a result, a little more venom, they care a little more ideas than the left.

 

[ghost]

Something like that. You can be 'into' theory the way others are into gardening or video games. It's a hobby. Remember "Crit Drip"?

Boot Boyz Biz did this better by far. It's still also over but it was much better.

 

[sufi]

 

[shakahislop]

On I hope a more interesting note - I don't quite understand the weird interest I have in internal Labour party affairs, its like a fetish - the thing that would interest me, up close, would be how these people relate to politics from an emotional and identity point of view.

Is it being used to bypass other aspects of their emotional life? Meeting quite a few anarchists years ago gave me this impression.

What does an interest in politics and the related activity enable and allow emotionally? These kinda questions come out of my interest in Reich. For Blakey and Bastani, it seems to enable an interesting career, idk what else.

yeah this is often where the interest lies for me now as well. not saying that political engagement is all total bullshit and that everyone is sick in the head. the emotional level of political engagement is a subject where there's still a something to say i think

 

[sufi]

yeah this is often where the interest lies for me now as well. not saying that political engagement is all total bullshit and that everyone is sick in the head. the emotional level of political engagement is a subject where there's still a something to say i think

I work with lots of folk "on the left", it seems to me like they are keeping their heads down and staying away from the toxic public discourse until the next government arrives, but none of them are bonkers culture warriors - my sense is that they connect to radical leftism precisely as far as it gets before veering off into grandstanding nonsense. But obvs painting them as rabid nutters serves various political purposes.

I'm talking about old school left: unions, activists and campaigners, journalists and so on, who have their own networks and don't have much connection to or need for the likes of Novara

 

[sufi]

I'm talking about old school left: unions, activists and campaigners, journalists and so on, who have their own networks and don't have much connection to or need for the likes of Novara

but they are the ones who "actually do things", rather than spout about hot issues online, on telly, etc

 

[sufi]

but they are the ones who "actually do things", rather than spout about hot issues online, on telly, etc

i wouldnt say i'm "intimately" involved with them though 😼

 

[sufi]

TUC Conference seems to be going well, Sharon Graham and Angela Rayner positioning themselves nicely (& to the left of Starmbot) 👍