Alan Woods speaks at a meeting in London

[workingclasslass]

Its great to hear an intelligent voice amidst all the nonsense these days ,keep up the good work Mr Woods .

S - Glasgow

[TerrySleeper]

A thick skull to protect a brain. You wouldn't need a skull at all.

The offer of the reading list still stands, by the way. That you DO need.

[TerrySleeper]

Thought I'd revisit this.

Still bullshit.

[redjordi]

@TerrySleeper I can see your skull is as thick as it was a year ago, why did you feel the need to revisit the video?

[redjordi]

"I can send you a reading list if you give me your e-mail address."

hahhahahaha, you really got some cheek, on reflection, maybe you should go back to sleep, for another 100 years, and then wake up in socialism ;-)

[TerrySleeper]

"Wake up in socialism"? So, it's going to happen, then . . . it's inevitable?!

Back-to-basics for you, sonny. Do some reading.

[TerrySleeper]

You really need to read-up on Marx and Engels.

Start with something easy - Wage Labour & Capital, or the Manifesto. Then go on to something a little more difficult - The Grundisse, say.

Then, and only then, should you move on to Lenin and Trotsky. It's a mistake to go "backwards" in time with these guys.

I can send you a reading list if you give me your e-mail address.

Best Wishes,

T.

[TerrySleeper]

When talking about the downfall of capitalism, the writings of Marx & Engels are spattered with the word "inevitable" - see AJP Taylor's introduction to the Penguin edition of the Communist Manifesto. Later writers hedged their bets. I repeat: the inevitable rarely happens in real-life.

You need to pay closer attention to what Marx said. Or, to quote Trotsky, from a founding document of the RSL (Militant Tendency): "Young People, Study Politics!"

Go on - study it!

[redjordi]

thanks for the advice (and for considering me young), but Marx never talk about the "inevitable downfall" of capitalism, only about the inevitability of capitalism reaching its limits and the need for the proletariat to overthrow it.

Terry, you seem to have awoken from a long winter sleep, but if you look around you, you will recognise what you see: capitalism in crisis

[redjordi]

It is very ironic that you talk about the resilience of the capitalist system precisely now. However, I challenge you to find a single instance in which Trotsky, Grant or Woods have talked about the "inevitable collapse of the capitalist system". If you knew anything about Marxism you would know that capitalism will not collapse on its own, it has to be revolutionarily overthrown. Wake up, sleeper!

[TerrySleeper]

You have misunderstood the point. In the Transitional Program - which you really ought to read! - Trotsky thought that capitalism was "over-ripe" & "somewhat rotten" & was about to fall over. It didnt. It boomed. He was wrong. Period.

[redjordi]

maybe you should read Transitional Programme. Here's what Trotsky said: "The objective prerequisites for the proletarian revolution have not only ripened; they have begun to get somewhat rotten. Without a socialist revolution, in the next historical period at that, a catastrophe threatens the whole culture of mankind. The turn is now to the proletariat, i.e., chiefly to its revolutionary vanguard. The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership."

[redjordi]

That means, he said that the conditions for revolution were over-ripe, and that failing revolution there would be world war, a very accurate description, I would say. He added that the crisis of humanity was the crisis of its revolutionary leadership. That was not solved and therefore the capitalist system got a new lease of life (after a bloody world war). You also made a very ignorant comment on ice-picks, a nice way to settle ideological disputes, isn't it?

[TerrySleeper]

What ideological dispute? Trotsky - like his epigones, Grant, Cliff, Healy, Taffe, Woods, etc. - all predicted an "inevitable" collapse of capitalism which hasn't happened. Ex cathedra statements in human affairs are, like Trotskyist sectlets, doomed. "The inveitable rarely happens in real life" (A.J.P. Taylor). The system has been immensely stronger and more resilient than any Marxist dare to imagine. To posit this as a "crisis of leadership" is to over-simplify to the point of absurdity.

[TerrySleeper]

Ill-digested, Mickey Mouse philosophy and politics. Marx must be turning in his grave. (Trotsky would be, too, if he hadn't been cremated).

[redjordi]

"in the first decade of the 21st century the capitalist system is at an absolute impasse", I'd say this is even more relevant today than when he said it in April 2007, so, what are "Mickey Mouse" politics Terry? you better go back to sleep ;-)

[TerrySleeper]

Trotsky himself said the same thing in the Transitional Program of the 1930s ;capitalism then experienced the biggest boom in its history! Ted Grant repeated Trotsky's "perspectives" parrot-like until his death, and still the system did not collapse! Ramon Mercador did Trotsky a big favour - it's a mercy that Trotsky copped for the ice-pick when he did; going on living, and seeing one after another of his "predictions" fail to materialise, would have broken his Bolshevik heart. That's life!

[redjordi]

Sorry, I thought what collapsed was Stalinism, as Trotsky said, the vengeance of history is more powerful than any general secretary ... back to sleep "Sleeper"

[gonzopera324]

Red solute to IMT and alan

[TheMasses101]

Long live the International MARXIST TENDENCY! Educate yourselves comrades, we ought to learn to defend and expand our socialist movement as eloquently as woods and other comrades. Check out John Peterson's recent interview. video part 2 is great!! Peterson is the head of the Hands off Venezuela Campaign.

[Nitenichiryu]

Long live the IMT

[Naztrovje]

Beautiful speech comrade

[youthof17]

Viva la rivoluzione mondiale!