The Virtual Stoa

Otto Bauer, Austro-Marxist, born 5 September 1881, died 5 July 1938.

From the North-West Evening Mail:

The Party in Westmorland and Lonsdale is embarking on the task of choosing a prospective parliamentary candidate in a bid to win back the marginal seat at the next opportunity.They believe former MP Tim Collins will not put himself forward to stand again in the seat which covers most of the South Lakeland area…

My goodness.

Mansoor Hekmat, founder of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran, born 4 June 1951, died 4 July 2002. There’s a tribute here an obituary here, and an archive of some of his writing here.

I’m writing from Paris, where I’ll be spending most of July.

By pure coincidence (yes, really), I travelled out here on the first day of the Tour de France, and I’ll be at the Gare du Nord to catch my train home while the riders are busy circling the Champs Elysées at its very end, and in between, I’ll be reading a lot of copies of L’Equipe.

There is an internet connection where I’m staying (as well as a magnificent panoramic view of the centre of the town from this 13th-floor apartment, which I’m told will provide splendid views of Bastille Day fireworks), but it’s a slow dial-up, and I suspect I’ll be doing and thinking about other things, so expect light-to-non-existent postings at the VS, and go and read other people’s pages instead.

If any Virtual Stoa reader would like to get hold of a pretty extensive run of the fine US leftwing journal Monthly Review (Paul Sweezy et al eds.), please email me. The period covered is 1969-1994 or so, with a couple of missing years along the way. All issues in good condition, virtually unmarked, except for library stamps and “cancelled” stamps on the covers, or just inside, that kind of thing. Around 250 issues in all.

(Why do I have this? The university’s been getting rid of duplicate runs of journals in the social sciences as it amalgamates some of its library holdings; I put in a request for the old copies of MR, and they ended up sending me both duplicate sets by mistake. If I return the ones I don’t need, they’ll just be put on the skip. So I thought I’d try and get rid of them this way.)

(If you’re the lucky reicipient, then it’s up to you to arrange collection from me, which may not be possible any time soon, as I’m leaving the country tomorrow morning, and won’t be back until 24 July. So be patient.)

UPDATE [3.30pm]: Freebie offer over. They’ve been claimed.

Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwean nationalist, born 1918, died 1 July 1999.

Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist, born 30 May 1814, died 1 July 1876. Archives here and here.

Ed Harriman’s piece in the new LRB on how the occupying authorities in Iraq are behaving like the prudent stewards of the country’s resources that we all expected them to be.