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Note: Some platforms warn you about “active content” that could access your computer. If you don’t trust me not to give your computer a virus, you can browse this website without allowing the active content. The only difference is that the buttons below would not be highlighted when the cursor moves over them.
For help on translating my web pages from English into other languages, click here.
I have encountered a lot of internet censorship over the years. Sometimes important pages fail to load, which most people assume is a random glitch due to a temporary connection problem, perhaps due to a website being down, or maybe they think there is a link to a page that does not exist. At one point, I found out from website statistics that nobody outside Europe and North America could access my main pages on this website (but some of those could access my music/musical poetry files). I therefore created an Indian mirror of this website containing the same files which eased the problem. If you get an internet error on one site, I suggest you try the other. You may also prefer the Indian mirror due to there being no publicly viewable statistics for that site. My main website address is www.socialiststeve.me.uk and the Indian mirror is www.socialiststeve.in.
I wrote a new Foundation for Proportional Representation-based Socialism newsletter in November 2009, in preparation for important events discussing the way forward for the left in the run-up to the UK general election. It concentrates on how socialism should work (with sections on nationalising the banks and using already spent bailout money to avoid the need for cuts, socialist carbon trading to tackle global warming, exposing the Labour Alternative Vote con-trick that is not proportional and arguments on immigration to counter the BNP) with a final section supporting the call for a new anti-capitalist party. You can download it in Micro$oft Word format or PDF format suitable for Adobe Acrobat, and distribute copies if you wish.
In October 2009, the Guardian newspaper published a series of reports about police surveillance of thousands of so-called domestic extremists, of whom I am undoubtedly one as a revolutionary socialist, and many of whom have no criminal record or been charged of any offence. The use of this term strongly suggests that the powers that be will use legislation primarily used against Islamic fundamentalists against us too, and indeed such powers have already been used against animal rights activists. I couldn't find the diagram published in the newspaper of the control structure used against us, so as a resource for activists understanding our enemies, I have scanned it in and placed it (together with the text of a message I wrote publicising the Guardian revelations) in a file you can read in HTML format (suitable for browsing) or as a Micro$oft document (suitable for printing).
I wrote the third version of my New Good Intentions Manifesto in September 2009, providing a socialist analysis of society in terms of the struggles between people who have predominantly good or predominantly bad intentions (and indeed people with different bad agendas). Although I argue against a Marxist class-based analysis, my position is now closer to Marxism than previously, which should encourage them to unite with me in the struggle for socialism. This is the main document describing my political philosphy, and it, more than any other I have written, is the one I particularly encourage you to read, if you want to understand how and why the world and people in organisations on it behave. Click here to read The New Good Intentions Manifesto, or download it in PDF format, suitable for printing using Adobe Acrobat and distribution.
I wrote a short document called “Towards a Theory of Everything” in May 2009, suggesting how quantum mechanics (describing the very small) and relativity theory (describing the very large) can be unified taking the free will decisions of individuals into account. Karl Marx’s collaborator Friedrich Engels (who I believe was an agent of big business) dabbled in physics too and this document contains my proof that Marxist analyses are flawed, providing a scientific justification for my religious views! Click here to view the document, or download it in Rich Text Format or Micro$oft Word format suitable for printing/distribution.
I wrote a message in September 2009 urging socialists to call for the nationalisation of all the banks, with compensation only to pension schemes, and then the running of them democratically from below with most control in the hands of borrowers and savers. After the huge bailout of the banks (£1.3 trillion at the time of writing), nationalisation would allow access to funds that would remove the need for the huge cuts in public services that all three major parties are planning and/or tax rises (probably also planned but not yet revealed). You can read this message (and perhaps debate its contents) by clicking here.
I attended Marxism 2009, organised by the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP), in early July. The SWP have issued an open letter to the left calling for a united force (specifically socialist in a form put on the internet but not in their paper) to contest the next UK general election, and participants in the No2EU electoral bloc wish to continue under a different name to stand in that election. In response, I am calling for a democratic revolutionary socialist party (perhaps as part of a broader federation preparing to stand in the next UK general election, ideally with that name) advocating both proportional representation (PR) and participatory democracy (as advocated by Marxists, involving some degree of workers’ control of industry). Adding PR to a Marxist programme would make it popular, so that Marxists shouldn’t feel the need to hide it from voters by pretending to be reformists as they have tended to do in the past. I strongly supported the establishment of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), a broad socialist party led mainly by revolutionaries; indeed, I was the only speaker from England or Wales in a debate at the 1998 European School of the CWI to support moves by Scottish Militant Labour to establish that party. However, I wanted the views of revolutionaries in it to be reflected more and there to be more emphasis on grass-roots activities like direct action, when it concentrated on proceedings at the Scottish parliament. The SSP was reasonably successful in proving socialism can be popular, and the legacy of the SSP winning over 15% of the vote in Glasgow at the 2003 Scottish parliamentary elections is not entirely lost despite the implosion in the party and split, and loss of all the parliamentary seats, in the wake of the Tommy Sheridan defamation trial. However, in the current economic circumstances where staying within the confines of capitalism would entail massive spending cuts and/or tax rises, which will inevitably plunge us back into recession sooner or later (meaning we are in a double dip recession although Labour looks as though it will try to postpone the inevitable by continuing borrowing heavily), a party advocating a thorough sudden change of society (a revolution whether or not that word is used but I would welcome its explicit use in the name of the party) is likely to be taken more seriously than one opposing cuts and demanding more public spending, without saying where the money would come from. Also, electoral results are not the only reason for standing but to put ideas across to a wide audience and build a party capable of challenging for power. At Marxism, I handed out copies of a new Foundation for PR-based Socialism newsletter (which you can download in Micro$oft Word or PDF formats) proposing this (including a review of a critique of the SWP by the Socialist Party general secretary Peter Taaffe and a letter on reconciling PR with Marxism) and discussed strategy at that event. Previous documents on strategy on this website are inevitably out-of-date; I intend to write a new document on that soon and move old documents to an archive. In the meantime, I recommend reading the section on strategic implications at the end of my New Good Intentions Manifesto. You may also like to read an out-of-date document I wrote on strategy on the 15th of September 2008, with a preamble written on the 30th of Ocbtober that year, by clicking here. If you wish to debate strategy on-line or follow the discussion, visit the Foundation for PR-based Socialism discussion forum.
I was in a band called Red Day, based in Glasgow (Scotland), until I moved to Manchester in September 2008 (but we may do some further recordings when I revisit Glasgow). I have put recordings of some of our songs, including 9/11 Inside Job, on-line so they can be listened to or downloaded free of charge from the Red Day website or one of my social networking sites (see below). [You can read more of my views about 9/11 in the message on BBC Conspiracy Files: 9/11 and Princess Diana or go to the 9/11 Conspiracy Theories bulletin board on my Revolutionary Platform Network forum.] I re-formed my Manchester-based band Galaxia in October, but Jonny who did two further recordings with me (including Things Can Only Get Bitter) no longer wants to be involved, so I want to form a completely new band. Contact me (preferably by phoning 07725 735255 or emailing revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk) if you are interested in getting involved.
I strongly suspect that global warming is not primarily caused by mankind (although I am not as convinced of this as I used to be). Whether it is or not, the global warming theory is used for divide-and-rule purposes (with ordinary working and middle class people blaming each other for consuming too much energy) and to try to limit aspirations in underdeveloped countries. The technology already exists to provide us with cheap renewable energy if the political will exists; a Guardian article says that the European Union is considering concentrated solar power plants in the Saharan desert, like one that has already been built in Spain, to meet all Europe’s energy needs. The electricity could be transmitted via high voltage direct current cables, that only lose 3% every 1,000km. Visit the Global Warming bulletin board on my Revolutionary Platform Network forum to read more of my views and articles from the media, or to discuss this vitally important issue.
If we do win the struggle for better societies around the world, as I am confident we will sooner or later, there will be lot of suffering in the meantime and the resulting form of society is still to be determined. I advocate a form of socialism based on proportional representation (via my Foundation for PR-based Socialism – see below or that virtual organisation’s website). However, capitalist solutions to the world’s problems may be achievable– by measures like forcing rich people to pay their fare share of tax and by developing cheap renewable forms of energy. When well-intentioned people get the upper hand in society as a whole, there would probably be a massive increase in donations to charity from those of us who are more fortunate, and Bill Gates has already indicated that he will give up all his wealth in this way (but whether he lives up to that pledge remains to be seen). I set up the Ethical Capitalism Network to argue for revolutionary change to a more ethical capitalist world, perhaps as a step towards socialism in particular countries or internationally. More important to me than whether we have capitalism or socialism is allowing people to democratically choose what form of society we wish to live in. If a political party comes to power via some sort of insurrection, it must receive a democratic mandate afterwards (and not cling on to power via “workers’ militias” as many Marxists argue for).
Food prices are rising rapidly, particularly for the staple diets relied on in poor countries. They soared 40% from June 2007 to February 2008, and then a further 20% in just three weeks, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations agency responsible for distributing aid donated by governments around the world, which is demanding extra money from governments to avoid rationing aid. This has triggered demonstrations and riots in many countries, plus strike waves (including in China). The New Labour government in the UK is trying to restrict public sector pay rises to just above 2% (with the supposed level of inflation at 3.8% in July though real inflation is much higher), and is trying to get public sector workers to accept three-year pay deals since it knows inflation is rising rapidly. Banks in the UK have tried to make working and middle class people pay for the crisis by increasing interest rates (or not passing on rate cuts by the Bank of England). In the USA, most mortgages are fixed rate for their entire term, so big rises in inflation will cause a massive crisis for banks; the problem is far worse than just with “subprime” mortgages sold to people with poor credit records. Read my document The food crisis and financial meltdown, an edited version of which was published on the letters page of The Herald (one of the two Scottish broadsheet newspapers), for my analysis of these crises.
In early November 2007, I wrote and distributed two documents analysing the problems in the world’s stock markets, Financial meltdown soon – prepare for revolution and Barclays Bank will go bankrupt! On two occasions, shortly after I sent out messages about Barclays’ problems, their shares fell by about 10%. I suggested that an international run on Barclays Bank was under way, with depositors and investors withdrawing funds worried that it will go bankrupt. The collapse of a bank as big as Barclays could well trigger a massive panic on the world’s stock markets, leading to some sort of meltdown that could only be stopped by closing the markets. The announcement of £7 billion profits appeared to show that Barclays had weathered the storm, but its shares have fallen again since the announcement to their lowest point for ten years, so investors clearly don’t believe the figures. HSBC have announced £17 billion losses due to the credit crunch, and there has been speculation that Barclays have resorted to getting funding from sovereign wealth funds in the Far East and Middle East rather than asking existing shareholders for more money via a rights issue, to avoid revealing the true extent of their losses. The people who run sovereign wealth funds may be more influenced by political considerations than purely financial ones, and this may save Barclays from going under. There may be intervention by the British government/Bank of England; New Labour would be desperate to avoid another Northern Rock, but their proposed legislation to protect savers further has yet to be passed and the Tories have said they will not step in to save failing banks. For more of my analysis, visit my Banks & Building Societies page or the Economics bulletin board on my Revolutionary Platform Network forum.
An ongoing project of mine is my autobiography, Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist revolution will never happen?, which will remain free to download or browse on-line even if I eventually get a commercial publisher (that I do not envisage happening this side of an ethical and perhaps socialist revolution). You can read what I have written so far by clicking here.
I seemed to have worked out that the person who is almost certainly my main ally in the world, Priya Reddy (also known as warcry) of War Cry Cinema, was a political prisoner in a psychiatric institution in the USA which she has compared to the Auschwitz concentration camp. She finally emailed me to let me know that it is not true, which is wonderful news! For more information, visit her web page on this website. I publicised what I thought was her situation through some musical poetry I recorded in December 2007. I have done new recordings of You’re A Rebel and On My Own with my new band Red Day and put those recordings on top of the musical poetry MP3 files to correct this false information about her; this is particularly important since internet censorship restricts people in some countries (including China) from accessing web pages on this site. Note that people in some countries cannot access this website at all, but may be able to access my Revolutionary Platform Network Forum (probably because censors cannot work out whether accessing it will have positive or negative political repercussions), and should be able to access my pages on social networking websites (see below).
My main ally from a Marxist perspective (although his views may now have shifted somewhat) is probably Murray Smith, one of the leaders of the LCR in France which has established itself as the leading far left party and has an initiative for a revolutionary anti-capitalist party. Visit my Murray Smith page for more details.
In January 2007, I set up a virtual organisation called the Foundation for PR-based Socialism to argue for a form of socialism based on proportional representation by single transferable vote, consisting of a website: www.PRsocialism.org and the ‘PRsocialism’ discussion forum. I intended it to be an international conspiratorial organisation that infiltrates political parties and other important organisations in society, as well as having a public face including newsletters, but it hasn’t yet done anything conspiratorial. I have much more recently set up “causes” called Proportional Representation-based Socialism at Facebook and MySpace (click here to visit the cause on Facebook or visit my personal pages on those social networking sites listed below).
I set up a website in May 2006, called the Revolutionary Platform Network, complete with a web-based forum with many bulletin boards. I am now using the Forthcoming Events board on the forum to publicise meetings and demonstrations that I think socialists may be interested in attending, and I would like other people to post details of events there too. You can also find editions of my newsletter Revolutionary Platform News on that website, for browsing and in PDF and Micro$oft Word formats suitable for printing and distributing. The second edition of the newsletter discussed the split in the Scottish Socialist Party (with Tommy Sheridan setting up Solidarity). I recently rejoined the Labour Party, which is in a severe crisis; I think it extremely unlikely that Labour can be transformed significantly to the left (but it is important to try), and instead expect some sort of sizeable split-off party to be formed, linking up with non-aligned socialists and those in parties to the left of Labour – this is the only realistic prospect of preventing the Tories from winning the next general election (which will take place in 2010 at the latest). I have set up a Revolutionary Platform of Labour discussion group and plan to set up a website for it soon.
You can read the manifesto which I produced for the 2005 general election on-line or download it. For details, click here.
My main political email address, that I check more often than my other addresses, is now revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk. You can also contact me on my mobile phone (cellphone) on 07725 735255 (+44 7725 735255 from outside the UK). I would particularly like to hear from people who I have known in the past and lost touch with, but comments from others may also be welcome.
The following is a list of my pages, and the pages of my bands, on other social networking sites:
The following is a list of my websites, plus links that you can click on to view extremely detailed statistics about accesses to them (including how many hits each page receives, which other websites people are accessing the site from and search engine information). [Note that there is a bug in the stats-gathering program, which causes hits on the final day of each month (except for those very early in the day) to be missed. Note also that I have noticed that some of my accesses to my own websites have not been counted (sometimes getting the country wrong but also not counting any accesses on days I know I have), so take them with a pinch of salt...]
