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My trawl through Twitter last night has established that the latest on the Corbyn campaign, is the allegation by Tom Watson, the Deputy Leader, that Trotskyists have entered the Labour Party and are twisting the arms of the young people to get them to support Corbyn. In response the #TrotksiteTwist sprang up and made great fun of the allegations. This is a sample @*Antonineone1* <https://twitter.com/Antonineone1> 'Well, I was lookin' everywhere for them gol-darned Reds I got up in the mornin' 'n' looked under my bed Couldn't find 'em' *Pauline Lane* @*Antonineone1* <https://twitter.com/Antonineone1> Pauline Lane Retweeted Heard they've all gone out dancing doing # *TrotskyiteTwist* <https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrotskyiteTwist?src=hash> On a more serious level, Bastani <https://twitter.com/novaramedia> was clinical in his approach to demolishing Watson’s case while the *ARTIST TAXI DRIVER* @*chunkymark* <https://twitter.com/chunkymark> went off the deep end in almost inarticulate rage at the palpable ludicrousness of the claims. All hugely enjoyable and come highly recommended. I myself was forcibly reminded of three things. First and most obviously the great opening of the Communist Manifesto A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries? In a tweet I substituted ‘Trotskyism’ for Communism and you get the idea. The second thought that came to mind was the scene in Petersen’s film Air Force One, where General Radek is being released and the prisoners begin to sing the Internationale. We cut to the Pentagon where there is total dismay and then to the Kremlin where the terrified leader is drinking. Back on board Air Force One the sound is turned up and the President is forced to listen to the voice of revolution. The film is of course standard Hollywood fare, but just for a few minutes Petersen allows the specter of revolution to come on the stage and it is a great moment. My third (& final!) thought was of the passage in Deutscher’s *The Prophet Outcast* where he tells of the French Ambassador’s attempt to dissuade Hitler from aggression because he might end up benefiting Trotsky. Hitler it seems ended up screaming at the very prospect. Trotsky’s own response is very interesting, he said ‘They are haunted by the specter of revolution and they give it a man’s name’ (Deutscher, p. 515). All of which brings me back to Watson and his stupidities. Beneath the silly allegations is the fear of change, the fear of losing control and in a way that represents a fear of revolution. There are no Trotskyists and Watson knows it. But instinctively he has grasped the truths of ontological depth. The surface is at times no guide at all to what the Old Mole of revolutionary change is doing underneath. As things were in Watson’s world they will never be again. And his desperate efforts to preserve the, already vanished, status quo are transparently ridiculous and pathetic, but in his nightmare there lurks the question ‘What rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?’ comradely Gary _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
