Aug. 17, 2012 at 5:34pm with 7 notes
activismauspolaustralian politicsclassgendergeoff gallopjudgementleftpoliticspowerprogressivesvaluesgough whitlam
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Politics is about gaining power as well as using power. It involves that which separates us (gender, class, age, ethnicity) as well as that which unites us as human beings. Reason often battles emotion just as minorities battle majorities and the future competes with the present. It involves loyalty and tribalism as well as objectivity and rationality.

Good politicians understand all of this but are not swept aside by it. It is when each of the tensions is ignored and politics reduced to a technique that we enter troubled waters. There is an important distinction to be made between the techniques that can assist politicians and politics as a technique. Politics requires research into both its ends and means but above all else it requires the capacity to judge and the will to decide in an imperfect world.

— Professor Geoff Gallop, “Why does politics matter?”, 2007 Gough Whitlam Lecture, Sydney University Fabian Society
Jun. 19, 2012 at 3:19pm
friendshipmachiavellialliancesloyaltyfriendspoliticsactivism
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When you make lasting friendships in politics, you build more than temporary, expedient alliances. You create bonds of loyalty and affection that sustain you in your work, engender respect and admiration, and sometimes even arouse passion.
— Nick Pearce, “On friendship in Politics”
Jun. 14, 2012 at 3:54pm with 5 notes
student movementdonald sassoonuniversityactivismcollegecapitalismliberalismleftprogressivesacademiaelitismfar rightlibertarianismmaoismtrotskyitesstalinismindividualismrolling stonescollective actionstategovernmentracismpovertybureacracyarmed forcesprivate sector
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What baffled and still baffles scholars is that, under the cover of a great similarity in behaviour, style, fashion and action, the trend displayed a complex array of contradictory values. Hard-core young Stalinists or Trotskyists went around with long hair and in tight jeans. Maoists enjoyed listening to the Rolling Stones’ ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’. Defence of individualism and distaste for bureaucracy went hand in hand with staunch advocacy of state or collective action against racism and poverty. Avowed libertarians urged withdrawing free speech from supporters of far-right groups. In the name of liberalism, student radicals defended the autonomy of the universities against the encroachment of capitalism, and condemned any funding from private enterprise or government departments connected to the police and the armed forces. At the same time, they criticised the liberal, elitist and allegedly ‘irrelevant’ nature of much academic research, demanded that the universities should no longer be ivory towers and a preserve for the few, and should instead serve society and the people.
— Donald Sassoon, “One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century”, p.389
Jun. 13, 2012 at 3:55pm with 1 note
donald sassoonstudent movementnusactivismuniversitycollegemarxismideologyanti-authoritarianismbureaucracyracismprotestyouthstudentdemocracypoliticsleftprogressives
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It is in the interplay of this twin-faceted phenomenon - an anti-establishment culture with an elitist and avant-garde profile, resting on popular foundations - that the student movement developed. It should not be thought, however, that student activism ever ‘dominated’ the universities, or that student activists were ever in the majority, or that Marxism become the uncontested ideology of the student movement. The single most important strand of the activists’ ideology was a strong anti-authoritarianism. This was accompanied by a dislike of rules and bureaucracy, a suspicion of representative and delegated authority, and a strong sympathy for the oppressed, especially those oppressed by racial discrimination. Apart from such description enunciations, it is difficult to provide an adequate analysis of the phenomenon of student and youth protest.
— Donald Sassoon, “One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century”, p.388
Jun. 11, 2012 at 12:59pm with 10 notes
social democracysocialism1960svietnam warvietcongho chi minhasiamilitarywarpolitical classactivismanti-warmilitary-industrial complexpoliticsforeign policydonald sassoon
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In a paradoxical reversal of roles, the Vietnamese communists represented the triumph of modern individualism against the human automatons deployed by a military-industrial complex. This powerful symbolism, and the objective reality which sustained it, escaped the leaders of European social democracy, yet it captured the imagery of the ‘perplexing sixties’ and its libertarian spirit. By uncritically following the American lead in Asia, the socialist and social democratic parties signalled their refusal to engaged with this problematic. In doing so, they lost contact with a curcial generation. The political price paid remains unknown.
— Donald Sassoon, “One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century”, p.346
May. 11, 2012 at 10:11am with 2 notes
activismfar leftideologyleftpoliticsprogressivesvalueslinksstudent movement
Quick link: Purity leftism

I can say from my own personal experience that this is a very accurate critique of many who self-identify as “left-wing”

May. 3, 2012 at 6:22pm with 2 notes
powerelectionspolitical partiespoliticsleftprogressiveschangeactivism
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The voting system doesn’t answer our preferences or offer meaningful power between elections. The City rules. But people have a responsibility too. If you don’t like the way a party is going, join it and change it. If you don’t feel represented by anyone, stand independent or encourage someone else to. If you don’t like mainstream politics, try changing it in other ways. Yes there are obstacles here too, but how many people who criticise have actually tried?
— Rowenna Davis, “The case against being ‘anti-politics’”, New Statesman, 3 May 2012
Oct. 23, 2011 at 9:03pm with 286 notes
meansendsquotessaul alinskypoliticschangeobjectivityactionactivism
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The men who pile up the heaps of discussion and literature on the ethics of means and ends - which with rare exception is conspicuous for its sterility - rarely write about their own experiences in the perpetual struggle of life and change. They are strangers, moreover, to the burdens and problems of operational responsibility and the unceasing pressure for immediate decisions. They are passionately committed to a mythical objectivity where passions are suspect. They assume a nonexistent situation where men dispassionately and with reason draw and devise means and ends as if studying a navigational chart on land.
— Saul D. Alinsky, “Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.25
Jul. 24, 2011 at 8:55am with 5 notes
aufnorwayosloutoyaiusyinternational union of socialist youthlabour partyalplabor partypoliticsprogressiveleftsocial democracyterrorismextremismcondolencessolidarityactivismfestivalsummercamphuman rightsvaluesdemocracyaustralian politics
We are all AUF activists and Norwegians

There are few words that describe how I feel reading about what happened in Norway at the Labour Youth (AUF) summer camp. Frightening, sickening and horrifying are words that come to mind but it cannot capture how I feel. I never imagined targeted political violence against young social democrats in a Western liberal democracy such as Norway.

It is a tragedy that is being felt beyond Norway. At the moment, I’m on my way to the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) World Festival in Austria. It is a political summer camp, just like the one that the AUF held on Utoya. The AUF is an affiliate to IUSY and were going to have a delegation at the festival. The feeling of absolute shock and disbelief has been widespread amongst others traveling to the festival.

What makes the events in Utoya so upsetting is knowing you share similar beliefs and values with activists in the AUF. Many of them would not be that different to me or many other young members of the ALP. It happened at an event that you would have been at if you were Norwegian. The terrorist attack on the AUF feels like orchestrated violence against all young social democrats and their values. The statement by by IUSY, captured this sentiment:

The attack on AUF is an attack on all of us, our values and principles.

There are still many questions left unanswered and answers may not be known for some time. One thing that we can do though is to give our solidarity and condolences to the AUF. The thoughts of the world are with AUF members and their families. For the moment at least, we are all AUF activists and Norwegians.

(cross posted)