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Contact us now, get organised, and get active! "without reason" and chained A new scientific elite grew to theorise this treatment. One of the first "disorders" they diagnosed wasd "draptomania" symptoms were "slaves running away from their plantations. The "cure" was "putting an iron collar round their ¡ Your bank , Bank Address ¡ Your name. Deviants , Your bank sorting code Since then other "deviants" such as single parents, • Your account number. sexually abused women and ¡ Your address ...... political activists have been thrown into the regimented institutions called "asylums". ¡ Post code..
Until the 1960s the American Psychiatric Association called homosexuality a "psychosexual disorder". Psychiatry was often used to "normalise" women who were difficult wives, flirted, Sign refused sex, or were deemed Date, to have too strong a sex drive;
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day of..... (moath) 1995 and therafter every By me in willing. .. in words) on the h maill counterSocialist Outlook Summer School in sunny Aberystwyth Join us - August 23 to 28 1995 - on the glorious Welsh coast
THIS YEAR'S school will be our second at Aberystwyth, with tremendous views overlooking Cardigan Bay.
The town is a popular traditional resort, with a beach and promenade, a funicular railway and hilltop panorama, 45 pubs, shops and entertainment.
This year the school is a day longer, offering six days of discussion, debate, entertainment and relaxation.
Participants enjoy individual en-suite rooms, a free swimming poll and sports facilities, a bar, and exclusive use of a large all-day lounge.
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supporters, and those sympathetic to our ideas. Socialist Outlook welcomes readers' letters on any subject. Write to 'Feedback', PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. Letters over 300 words will be cut. IN HIS letter, Joe Nairn [SO 84] takes issue with Enzo Traverso's assertion that some of the 'amoral' Bolshevik actions 'foster the rise of Stalinism'.
Against this, Joe re-iterates the position that it was the material conditions which gave rise to both Stalinism and the clampdown by the Bolsheviks.
As a marxist, I cannot deny this, but human beings and the role they play in history is part of the material conditions.
The monopoly of government by a single party, the growing amalgamation of state and party machines and, especially, the ban on factions at the 10th Congress [of the Bolshevik party] meant that there was no check on the excesses of the incipient bureaucracy. This nurtured the growth of Stalinism.
The military supression of the Kronstadt mutiny might have been a necessity: but was the massacre which followed equally necessary? Three months after the defeat of the uprising, sailors were still being taken out of prison and shot on the spot. Was this necessary for the defence of the revolution?
No party can be trusted to exercise the Dictatorship of the Proletariat' without adequate safeguards. This could spected only be the task of democratically elected Soviets. The history of the Bolshevik Party's decline and eventual destruction by Stalin surely proves tion. this true.
Charlie van Gelderen, Cambridge. JOE NAIRN'S letter on Enzo Traverso [SO 84] touches some key questions of socialist democracy.
It's useful to draw out Joe's point about the leadership of the 1979-1990 government in Nicaragua. Joe is mistaken to suggest that the Sandinistas did not fight the Contras. In fact the Sandinistas fought the The all-in fee for the school has been pegged at just £110 (waged) and £45 (unwaged) for the full six days. We advise all comrades to come for the whole school, and that is the cheapest way to stay: but for any who can only negotiate shorter holidays a sliding scale of charges will apply: Four nights £85/£42, three nights £70/£35, two nights £50/£25, single night £25/£15. Your deposit of just £35 (waged) or £15 (unwaged) secures your place. Make cheques to payable to 'Socialist Outlook Summer School', and send to PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. The first fifty bookings go into a mystery draw for a very special prize. Book today!
JUNE Sat 10 MARCH for Justice for Brian Drummond assemble 12 noon The Pond Clapham Common march to Kennington Park SE11 Details: 0171 733 7790. RMT demonstration: End war against the US-backed in- poverty wages: cut the hours surgent forces very hard. not the wages Meet 1pm But the general question re- York Way Kings Cross rally mains: could the leadership of 2pm Friends' Meeting House a socialist democracy advo- Euston Rd with Rodney Bickcate freedom of speech to erstaff, Carol Regan, Jimmy those it considered to have Knapp, Dennis Skinner, Arcounter-revolutionary politithur Scargill, Bill Morris. cal positions but who reSat 17 the workers' democracy in practice? SOCIALIST Policies for a LaIt is an important question bour Government One-day - one which will certainly be conference sponsored by posed after the British revolu- Defend Clause 4 Defend SoThe authoritarian and cialism and Tribune sectarian tradition of the Brit- 11.30am - 4.30pm Carrs ish left means that it is occa- Lane Community Hall Birsionally posed in the workers' mingham (0171) 733 3403. and students' organisations. What democratic rights could members of the Fourth International be given, for instance, by those ultra-left critics who hold that we have adopted counter-revolutionary political positions?
Oddly, Joe says Traverso's book compliments religion. Traverso draws some original conclusions from the survival of Jewish identity. But wasn't Marx just as "complimentary' Name. - calling religion the cry of the oppressed masses, while still Address... advocating socialism?
Duncan Chapel Post Code....... London N4 COURSES AND SESSIONS Include: Post-war marxism; party, class and social movements; developments in popular culture; ecology; socialism after the fall of the wall; women and the revolutionary party; the popular 'introduction to Marxism' sories; Latin America; Bolshevik history; in-depth course on the State; women revolutionaries; Revolutions - Germany, Russia, Vietnam and China; the Fourth International; racism in world war two; Gramsci; the National Question.
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• Other amount € | Name(s) Address. Tel:.......... • send me a creche booking form Return to PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. WHAT'S HAPPENING Sat 24 NATIONAL day of action against immigration detentions and deportations at Campsfield, Harmondsworth, Haslar, Rochester, Winson Green, Holloway, Doncaster Ring (0171) 837 1450, (01865) 724452 or (0171) 713 7907 for details. Weds 28 BIRMINGHAM Socialist Outlook and Liberation! public meeting: State Racism and Fortress Europe Speaker: Bala Kumar 7.30pm Queens Tavern Essex Road. Thurs 29 LEEDS Socialist Outlook public meeting Unions & Labour with speaker Glen Voris. JULY Sat 3 NOTTS Welfare State demo: 0115 9626298.
Subscribe to Socialist Outlooki Socialist Outlook draws together the finest analysis of the trades unions and Labour Party with unequaled international coverage from Fourth International supporters in fifty countries worldwide. Your subscription also Includes Liberation!, our youth quarterly, and the occasional review, Send your cheque for €17 (one year) £9 (six months) to "Socalist Outlook Fund' PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. Libraries: £50 airmall worldwide. Overseas surface rate $22. Airmail: £38 far east, £30 rest of the world. ... Tel:. Send to 'Socialist Outlook Fund', PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU _rooms) for nights! Post Code Thurs 7-Sat 9 SOCIALISM beyond the market: CSE conference Newcastle. Sat 9 SOCIALIST OUTLOOK CRIMINAL Justice after the Bill a day conference sponsored by the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. 9.30am - 4pm Camden Town Hall opposite St Pancras BR. £3/£10 from 20-21 Tooks Court EC4. Sat 15 SMTUC conference: 'New' Labour and the Unions 10.30am-5pm South Camden Community School, NW1 tickets £5/£3 from 3 Blades House SE11 5TW. Fri 22 - Fri 29 INTERNATIONAL Youth Camp in southern France. Send £35 deposit to 'Liberation Publishing Association', PO Box 1109, N4.
socialist
Bolsheviks and Soviets
Reactionary freedoms?
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 85, June 10 1995, Page 15 iBooking Form