Pierre Lambert's funeral

A video of lambert's funeral is at this site

Mike

THE HISTORY OF CERMTRI

THE HISTORY OF CERMTRI


Having to suffer repression from three directions – the bourgeoisie, fascism and Stalinism – for more than fifty years of the labour
movement's history, Trotskyist and other revolutionary militant activists have always had to hide and sometimes even destroy part or all of
their archives.

Often, when those archives fell into the hands of reaction or the Stalinists, they were either pulped or hidden away. There is therefore the
risk that whole portions of the history of Trotskyism, of the world's revolutionary vanguard, could be missing.
Starting from this realisation, and being concerned to set down and develop the collective memory of the revolutionary vanguard, a small
team of militant activists decided in 1976 to prepare to set up the Centre for Study and Research on the International Trotskyist and
Revolutionary Movements (CERMTRI in French). They began to make enquiries, search, write, collect, and then classify and make an
inventory of the collection.

To the collections of archives and documents entrusted to the CERMTRI by the OCI (Organisation Communiste Internationaliste) came to
be added collections passed on by old militant activists who had often played or who were still playing an important role in the Trotskyist
and revolutionary movement, such as Jean Rous, Fred Zeller, Biline, Demaziere, Gérard Bloch, Louis Eemans and many others.
The CERMTRI's founding meeting took place on 26 November 1977, at which a 21-member Board of Directors was elected.

As stipulated in Article 3 of the Board's declaration dated 21 April 1978, “the CERMTRI is an association whose aim is to gather together
all documents dealing with the history of workers' movements, especially those dealing with the activity of the Trotskyist and revolutionary
organisations, and to place those documents at the public's disposal under conditions that will allow and facilitate research and study,
whilst at the same time ensuring the best possible conservation of the archival collections entrusted to it”.

Since those early years, the CERMTRI has therefore collected together archives, documents and publications of the workers' revolutionary
movement, and especially those of the Trotskyist movement since the days of the Left Opposition.
·It currently puts at the disposal of activists, historians and researchers
– over 22,000 books and pamphlets
– thousands of documents and newspapers

– the Cahiers du CERMTRI, a quarterly publication featuring unpublished texts or rare historical documents

·It publishes the Cahiers du movement ouvrier, a history review
·It organises conferences at its premises on subjects concerning the history of the labour movement.


THE CERMTRI HAS PUT TOGETHER
A UNIQUE COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL ARCHIVES

If you are a researcher, academic or labour activist, you will find important historical documents at the CERMTRI.


By entering your email address at the place indicated in our home page, you will be kept informed of the CERMTRI's activities and
initiatives, and you will begin receiving the CERMTRI's news bulletin from the next issue onwards.


CERMTRI
28 rue des Petites Ecuries - 75010 PARIS
Open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 1.30 pm to 6.00 pm
Telephone: +33 1 44 83 00 00 email: cermtri@wanadoo.fr

To all labour movement activists throughout the world

A Blog worth looking at

I know that the great guru of British trotskyism, Phil Hearse, will not thank me for this but I can thoroughly recommend his blog/website:

http://www.marxsite.com

Mikey

Pierre Lambert is dead

Pierre Lambert, leader of the Fourth International, has died.
Lambert died yesterday and it is, of course, a great loss to the memory of world Trotskyism.

see
http://www.lepoint.fr/content/france/article?id=218894

Little Cub

Happy New Year

Happy new year to all my readers...

Mikey

Ripley--bookshop cat in San Francisco

Danny Davin

Danny and Luci

we are back...full of baby pictures

We are back in the blogosphere and will be publishing pics of the mighty Danny shortly.

Mikey

Danny ready for home

Big Dan and his dad

Daniel Patrick Ross Calvert Davin

This is the first piccy on the internet of my son Daniel.
welcome to the world of blogging.
He was born at 4.29 on 4th May and discharged from the Whittington the next day. Sadly he was readmitted on Friday 11th and is still there.

We hope he and his mum, Luci--my partner--will be out soon.

Mikey

Going down for a while

Friends, followers and foes

I am going to be not blogging for a few days due to the fact that my mum has been admitted to the hospital in Kings Lynn.

Poor old mum is in her mid seventies and lives on a nasty estate called the North Lynn estate in Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

When things like this happen, you understand that my feud with the Mickster is frankly nothing in comparison! I guess even the bear is human!

I am sure that Micky is surveying this blog and if he wants to phone me or e-mail me he is welcome to do so.

So I shall be off to Lynn for a while.

Mikey

Leadership of Islington UNISON hold Officers meeting

Here is the first picture of the leading officers of Islington UNISON following our recent retreat. This was held at the Branch Davidian Church of Christ Apostolic, Lower Salt Lake City, Utah!

We held many discussions, including how to assume better false identities in public.

Mikey

By Any Other Name--wow!

Loyal friends and followers!

I discover that the mighty Micky H of Scandal fax infamy has posted a whole long piece just about little old me and my political past...some of which is wrong, but only I know which bits and if Micky does then I must have talked in my sleep when he slept with me!

Wow, I didn't know I was that intriguing! And he got at 5.01 to write it...

Mikey

Socialism does not spring from atomic ruins

Ah! The following piece of utter drivel met my eye as I perused the net looking for Micky H!
It is so mad it is beyond reality.

Enjoy the madness that is POSADAS

On the inevitability of the war.
J POSADAS

6th april 1978

The Soviet Review of the Italian Embassy, USSR OGGI (‘USSR TODAY’), says that “the ideologists of Trotskyism want a socialism built upon the atomic ruins”. This is not so. The comrades are mistaken. What we have said is that the war is inevitable; and that capitalism is going to launch it. We have also said that socialism will be built, in spite of the capitalist war. This is so, because socialism is a necessity of the development of human history, of science and of the economy; and above all, it is a necessity of human intelligence at the centre of which there is the function of the working class.

The atomic war is going to signify much death, hundreds of millions of dead people. But what it will only manage to destroy, however, is the material expression of progress and not the capacity nor the intelligence which have determined progress itself. This capacity and intelligence will remain. Capitalism is going to destroy people, buildings and machines; but not human capacity, human experience and human security. This is acquired!

Socialism does not spring from atomic ruins. This is not the way to interpret. The way to interpret is that it is capitalism that makes wars! It is not as if we had wanted the war. It is capitalism that does. Capitalism is going to resort to the war before being crushed because it has the means at its disposal. If capitalism was never to launch the war, all the better! For our part, we would be disposed to wait another 30 years for socialism in these conditions. But capitalism does not have any other option in history but to make it. War is part and parcel of private property. The same applies to the dispute between capitalists through economic competition. It is the same thing as the war which the capitalists make amongst themselves in their commercial, financial and armed competitions.

As for us, we do not want the atomic war; neither atomic, nor any other! The war is the consequence of the capitalist system. What we do in this matter is to interpret. We interpret this in the same way as we interpret things facing us like competition, unemployment and inflation; or what they call ‘overproduction’ - whilst the people have nothing to eat. Each one of these ills is the consequence of the capitalist market; each one is its own kind of antagonism with society ranging from ordinary competition between the capitalists to their resorting to war. It is enough to read history to see that the most outstanding activity private property has ever conducted, is war, war and war.
Therefore, it is not correct to say that we want to construct socialism on the atomic ruins. We have interpreted that the capitalists are going to make the war and cause very big destructions in human lives and resources; and that, in spite of them making the war, we will construct socialism. This is so because socialism is already a conquest of the consciousness of humanity and of its intelligence. There is not a person in any remote part of the world today in the Islands of Oceania, in remote places in Africa or in countries of Asia or Europe, who does not know what socialism is.

There is already in humanity, the certainty that the economy is not a mystery, that property plays no role in history and that intelligence is the product of the development of human relations on the basis of the economy; there is the knowledge that, once science has developed beyond a certain point, it surpasses the economy and allows the development of an objective kind of intelligence; and that when the proletariat became ruling class, it could not do it by generating new social classes but by liberating the whole of humanity. This is what the proletariat had to do, both to liberate itself as a class, and for itself to progress as a class. The instrument representative of the progress of history is the proletariat. These are historic considerations these Soviet comrades have not taken account of.

We are not giving here the précis of some political resolution. We are simply making analyses and drawing conclusions about the process of history. Quite apart from this, a glance suffices to realise that almost half of the capitalist riches go to war preparations. And not just only for military expenditures but everything that means war, like counter revolution, secret services and polices. It is some 40% of the riches in the capitalist world.

J POSADAS
6th April 1978

Imaginary Friends - and enemies - in the blog world

I understand that some anonymous bloggers have been seen in the vicinity. Surely this is where they belong? (That’s a link to Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends for those whose computers may take an age to load it)

I often watch this show on the Cartoon Network with my young son and it is far more fun than most anonymous blogs I have read…

On a more serious note, let’s have open debate in the movement and let’s (please) not pretend that any of us have to be afraid of any others.

Those who won’t reveal their identity refuse to do so because they are not who they pretend to be. (Which means that when they hint at who they are, they are only winding up their readers Mike!!)

A Reply to Micky "H" --in a VERY personal capacity

Micky H, the infamous anonymous blogger who spends his/her time attacking what they term the "vermin left" ( what he means are good, consistent and combative socialists who will not sell UNISON members and their interests down the river for the Kings shilling unlike some I might mention) has posted another anonymous attack on the Islington branch.
Whilst I am a leading officer of the said branch, I am writing these thoughts at home--at 6.29-- in my capacity as Mikey Calvert, not as Assistant Secretary of Islington UNISON


Micky "the anonymous for fear of retribution" H writes the following:

"The vermin left use this approach quite a lot, as though listing a whole bunch of lefty losers is going to influence anyone other than...other lefty losers. For example, the list of 'supporters' carried on the publicity for the Fighting (and losing) Unions conference held last year. Not much use to anyone other than those drawing up a trot hit-list, I'd imagine.

But what to make of all this 'in a personal capacity' (often abbreviated to 'pc') business? You know - where someone puts their name to a statement and then adds their title in the organisation, and it is followed by the disclaimer 'in a personal capacity'.

A bit like this lot below who have collectivised their personal capacities to hitch themselves to John '22' McDonnell's wagon:

"The following branch officers of Islington UNISON (in a personal capacity) would like to welcome and support your candidacy for Labour Leader and believe your policies and practices reflect not only our branches policy but also UNISON national policy.

Fiona Monkman, Branch Chair
Jane Doolan, Branch Secretary
Andrew Berry, Deputy Branch Secretary
Mike Calvert, Assistant Branch Secretary
Fred LePlat, Vice Chair
Keith Facey, Young Members Officer
Cliffe Obaseki, Black Members Convenor
Pam Woods, Labour Link Officer
Rosemary Plummer, Education and Schools Convenor
Denise Facey, Homes for Islington (ALMO) Convenor"

Clearly they need to state their roles in UNISON as otherwise who the flying ferret would have a clue who they were outside of the heated confines of the membership of UNISON United Lunatics?

And, in a way, that makes my point. They can't say they are doing it in an official capacity as it would be against UNISON's rules. So what do they do? They drag UNISON's name in as a kind of crutch for their identity, abusing our good name to cover their shame with a figleaf of credibility.

How about next time they leave UNISON out of it? They could always list their political parties and/or 'currents' instead.

But then we all know what kind of credibility that would muster!"

Well, Micky, the fact that you use the word credibility in the same breath as signing something anonymously is a little bit rich. Here are a number of points to correct your lies and distortions, written from home as Mikey, not in work time!

1. At least we--the officers named below-- all sign things we believe in, in our own names (whether we use the tagline Personal capacity or not) and will not hide behind pseudonymous anonymity!

2. We do not hide behind misogynistic attacks on female comrades as you do with Marsha-Jane. I am sure that she can defend herself and her own political integrity, but, we do not attack people anonymously! We are NOT snakes in the grass like you!

3. The majority of the people you have listed are not affiliated to any political group whatsoever, other than maybe the Labour Party. There is no secret that I support Workers Action, to my knowledge so does Andrew. I will concede there are not many of us and not much in the way of Action either,but hey ho!

There is no secret that Fred supports the Socialist Resistance current,and no secret that Pam Woods is a supporter of Socialist Appeal.

BUT...

4. Fiona, Jane, Keith Facey, Cliffe Obaseki, Rosemary Plummer, and Denise Facey, are not politically organised. Keith, Denise and Rosemary--I am sure that won't mind this-are salt of the earth working class Islington: not like you, some jumped up middle class interloper claiming that you once made the turn to industry--Fiona is a UUL supporter I(she may have once been in an organised political current but I don't think she is now) and some of the others may have been supported by the UL in Regional elections, but some haven't: so what?

5. Where does your "inside info" come from? It certainly seems like you have access to the UNISON membership lists. As I said before, if you do then naughty naughty! Do you?

5. I suggest that you keep taking the Tegretol mate! Me, myself and I have much better things to do than sparring with you.

MikeyBear

In a very personal capacity