Why have the left in this country never prioritised social activities etc?

[nino_savatte]

its a fairly obvious paragraph.

You are a consumer.

I might rightly or wrongly think that you are a mc consumer.

That being the case you will consume more than those you accuse of 'comfort consumerism', ie wc/uc people

Your carbon footprint will be bigger.

Your foot is in your mouth.

Hence carbon footprint in your mouth

Arse licking friends ...feeling threatend.....

I have to admit you do make me laugh sometimes, rarely but sometimes

Are you addressing me? Because you haven't quoted my post...but then, like butchersapron, that sort of thing is probably too good for you.

All you seem capable of doing is posting up screeds like this. But then, you don't seem to have the brainpower to actually think about this for yourself. For you, it's all insults.

You don't make me laugh. I pity you. I pity you for not being able to read posts properly and I pity you for having such a narrow mind.

 

[The Black Hand]

Yes. In the 30s the Left had a real basis in the working class. And i think that as the Left since the 60s turned towards Liberalism,they moved further and further away from the working class.

Nowadays what passes for Social Centres tend to be drop ins for middle class drop outs.

If you look at the infrastructure of any religion no matter how small,they all seem to have much more in the way of bricks and mortar than the Left.

And having places that you own and control is a good thing in my opinion.

To be honest, if you read about class conflict and class war in the period, for example mass resistance to the means test officials and police raids on estates in Liverpool, there has always been the division between the political groups and working class resistance.

In history leftists unfortunately tend to paint a b/w view of social conditions, like the left was the working class in the 1930s. It may have been more so, but it wasn't absolutely true everywhere and at all times in the 1930s.

 

[Fruitloop]

m/c people emit more CO2?

 

[chilango]

Thre are NO left pubs/clubs in this country to m knowledge. Why?? The Workers Beer Company has a couple of pubs in south london but i hear they are pretty yuppy .. and the WBC does not have a good rep. There are a few @ places like the breadford 1in12 and Brightons Cowley Club
.

There used to be a few years back, maybe they're still there:

the Red Rose Club in Bolton

and a "Marxist Club" in the Rhondda Valley

 

[durruti02]

pleased to see that i am wrong that there are NO clubs .. people came up with a good few .. though not enough .. i think niksativas last post was really good/interesting .. will reply in full later

 

[nino_savatte]

m/c people emit more CO2?

Whatever next? The aristos are really lizards from the planet Zod?

 

[Steve Booth]

Different sorts of clubs

the OP has it arse over tit. The 'left' did organise a lot of social activities decades ago. From cycling clubs to the Workers Educational Association. What happened to them? the state took over most of their functions (eg education for all) and increasing atomisation broke down existing communities and the social activities that took place therein. there are still a few remaining examples of such clubs, but they're few and far between, and wont be magicked back by wishful thinking and the odd book launch or whatever. Where they do seem to be partly successful as new ventures is in helping to organise those excluded from 'mainstream' society, teaching migrants 'without recourse to public funds' english etc.

I'm not sure when this was (pre WW1? - 1920s?) but there used to be a newspaper called the 'Clarion' who organised cycle clubs. I understand that even after the paper disappeared, people still went cycling with these clubs, even after 1945.

The ILP organised theatre groups in the 1920s 1930s and I believe they were one way in which they increased their membership.

The Left Book Club in the 1930s organised discussion groups.

I think there might be an assumption in some of the posts here that Left social clubs are like ordinary pubs but with the politics tacked on, but perhaps people don't want that, but are looking for something else.