Book Review from the September 2020 issue of the Socialist Standard
Mapping the English Left Through Film by Ian Parker (Folrose. 2020.)
Older readers may remember an amusing pamphlet from the 1980s called As Soon as This Pub Closes . . . which was a wry (and largely accurate) commentary about the main groups on the British far left. This short book from Trotskyist Ian Parker attempts to do a similar thing, but with the twist that the various groups and parties are deconstructed in relation to a film that is claimed encapsulates their methods and objectives.
In fairness it’s a neat idea, but it’s difficult not to come to the conclusion that it might have been better done by someone else – someone who can a) write well and b) who has rather fewer axes to grind. It is subtitled ‘25 uneasy pieces’ and this is a more rounded and accurate description than perhaps the author intended. The sloppy production hasn’t helped matters either.
There seems to be a sneaking admiration for the Trotskyist-Feminists of Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (RS21) but all others get short shrift, including naturally enough, ourselves in the SPGB, ideologically ‘mapped’ through the film Lars and the Real Girl (2007). The discussion of the SPGB seems largely to have been adapted from points made from our entry in Wikipedia, and claims we have a particular vision of socialism that we cling to like a doll.
It also claims we have a ‘dwindling membership’. It’s difficult to see where this comes from (perhaps it’s just wishful thinking) but nevertheless the 25 chapters are said to be ordered in sequence according to the author’s personal perceptions of the organisational size and influence of the parties and groups concerned. This sort of approach is always asking for trouble. Indeed, it’s not clear why on that basis Socialist Appeal appear several chapters before the Socialist Party of England and Wales (SPEW), as the latter – effectively the parent organisation – is obviously several times the size and prominence of the former, whatever else we might think of them.
The SPGB is once again derided as the ‘Small Party of Good Boys’ (yes, the book is that funny) and, while you’d never know from this text, is actually larger than all the left-of-Labour groups listed aside from the SWP, SPEW and CPB. So the fact we appear in the ‘running order’ behind the likes of Workers Power, the RCG and the somewhat mysterious Plan C probably says rather more about the author than it does about us. In particular, the obsession Trotskyists everywhere seem to have with leadership cults, would-be leaders and manipulators of the masses.
Talking of which, it is also telling that while the small band of relentless media whores from Spiked achieve prominence (presumably because of their regular appearances on the Sky Newspaper reviews defending whatever contrarian ideas are in vogue this week) there is no mention anywhere of the recent significant interest in Fully Automated Luxury Communism. But then again FALC is without doubt nearer to the SPGB’s view of socialism than anything else presented here, and that would be to open up a veritable Pandora’s Box (1929) for the latter-day followers of old Leon.
DAP
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