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Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 925

Mairead said about Walter Scott "Due to his spying, men were executed" and commented "Hell mend him".

You may be interested to know, Mairead, that the author of "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" agreed with you about Walter Scott's final destination. As well as writing those novels, Mark Twain was a prolific writer on culture and current affairs. He wrote an essay in which he claimed that Walter Scott was largely responsible for the American Civil War. Bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but Mark Twain made out quite a good case for the prosecution against Walter. Scott was extremely widely read in the South, where plantation owners influenced by his books developed notions of themselves as Scottish warrior aristocracy whose "honour" was in some obscure way impugned by any attempts to improve the lot of their black slaves.

RadgeJougal · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject:

Aventinian · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 3:24 pm Post subject:

mairead · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:40 pm Post subject:

Neither is being a traitor to your countrymen.
'Armed', aye, a few had guns but most of them were armed with picks and shovels and anything else they could make.
You haven't a clue what life was like in those times and yes I know all about Peterloo.
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I fear not hell, nor English strife,
For Scotland, I will give my life

jimtrot · No Longer a Wean Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 62

Tam o' Shanter. Especially the following couplet:

Ah, Tam. Ah, Tam ye'll get yer farin
In Hell they'll roast ye like a herrin.
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Not Brit - 'S Albannach a tha mise.

The cause of Labour is the cause of Scotland and the cause of Scotland is the cause of Labour - apologies to James Connolly

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 925

In 1936, George Orwell (real name Eric Blair, Orwell was his pen-name) was a corporal in the militia of the Partido Obreras Unitas Marxistas, the Workers Party of Marxist Unity. Despite its name, this party, in its origins, was neither Stalinist nor Trotskyist. The POUM was allied with the anarchists in opposing both the fascists and the scheming of the Communist Party (acting under orders from Joseph Stalin) to set up a dictatorship. Corporal Blair was badly wounded fighting against the fascists, and, while recovering from that wound, he played an active part in the POUM’s opposition to the Communist Party takeover in Barcelona. He subsequently became a wanted man and had to go on the run, and was lucky to get out of Spain alive. He later used these experiences in his books “Homage To Catalonia”, “Animal Farm”, and “1984”. While some on the so-called “left” have been critical of George Orwell, members of the POUM have all along been consistent in seeing him as a good and loyal comrade with a fine insight into how Stalinism operated. Jim Trot, who posts on here, uses the symbol of the POUM, perhaps because of seeking to claim some sort of identity with these views.

Jim Trot has now answered the question “What’s your favourite Burns poem?” by saying "Tam o' Shanter. Especially the following couplet:

Ah, Tam. Ah, Tam ye'll get yer farin
In Hell they'll roast ye like a herring"

Hmmm......

Somehow, I get the feeling that isn't JimTrot's favourite on purely poetical grounds, but as an expression of his views on a current political and legal case. So, not much Marxist Workers Unity there, then.

jimtrot · No Longer a Wean Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 62

I agree with everything you say about the POUM, Dave and most of what you said about Orwell re his loyalty to the workers, the POUM and his opposition to Stalinism but in reading his writings, you must agree that he never quite shook off his bourgeois background. For example in one of the essays in Shooting an Elephant, I think it is, he waxes lyrical about the essential decency of the English middle classes. Well, anyone who lived through the Thatcher years would see through that crap.

As for Tam o Shanter, I can assure I think it is probably one of the finest and funniest poems ever written on the subject of human weakness and fallibility and you can always find a snippet to quote for any situation. for example:

But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white-then melts for ever;
Or like the Borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the Rainbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm.

As for me claiming identity with the POUM, well that's a bit over the top but the history of the resistance of the people of Catalunya to Franco and Fascism has been an inspiration for me throughout my adult life.

Regarding Workers unity, that was shattered in Scotland about 18 months ago because of the weakness, fallibility, arrogance and stupidity of a man I once greatly admired.
_________________
Not Brit - 'S Albannach a tha mise.

The cause of Labour is the cause of Scotland and the cause of Scotland is the cause of Labour - apologies to James Connolly

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 925

A fig for those by law protected !
Liberty's a glorious feast !
Courts for cowards were erected,
Churches built to please the priest.

jimtrot · No Longer a Wean Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 62

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 925

Jimtrot wrote

"Dave Coull wrote

A fig for those by law protected !
Liberty's a glorious feast !
Courts for cowards were erected,
Churches built to please the priest."

Tae tell the truth, it wisnae me, it was Rabbie Burns.........

Fedayn · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:03 am Post subject: