We get it. You don’t like sports. Who cares. I think there’s validity to sport and I enjoy watching and playing many of them. Has capitalism ruined everything the common person holds dear in most sports? Yes. I literally wrote an article about it.
But sport itself isn’t inherently bad and being like “herp derp sportsball” makes you sound like a basement dweller incel who wants to shoot up their school because they think jocks get all the girls instead of the kind gentlesirs who study the blade.
A lot of people are only exposed to sport as a tv show and a product, but most sports have roots that go back hundreds of years, are very influenced by working class history and local teams are often at the heart of communities (although many have been stolen and turned into just another generator of capital).
Sports have also been an arena for the class struggle - aristocrats and workers battling it out over who should be allowed to play and control different games at different time, “amateurs vs professionals” (i.e. those who were wealthy enough to be able to fund their sporting career as a hobby vs talented workers who needed to be paid to play) was a controversy in sports for decades. Even today there are many teams run and owned by fans in some sports, and the struggle between workers who have been watching their teams for decades (even through multiple generations of families) vs their indifferent capitalist owners is ongoing.
Also playing sports is fun and you will make friends and get healthy.
Read up on sport in 20th century socialist states, it was treated with massive investment and athletes were awarded high honour, it was tied in to public health (along with often being integrated with making people fit enough to serve in the army to defend against all the capitalist countries wanting to invade you for trying to not be capitalist). Even in capitalist countries today grassroots sport is one of the only real community/social circles people have that isn’t tied to working for a capitalist.
Hey since you’re posting on the ACP website, can you give me the lowdown on what’s going on with them and the CPA?
I heard the latter was pro-China and the one to go for, so hit me with the ACPill.
As I’ve heard the CPA is totally ossified and dominated by a few old heads, the ACP split happened because younger more active members were being actively blocked from enacting programs and generally trying to do anything except tail the ALP and get in bed with Australia’s pathetically liberal union movement. Sounds like it’s a real personality cult/clique type organisation around the older members who’ve been around forever. At one point one of said older members literally CALLED THE COPS ON ANOTHER PARTY MEMBER leading to COPS BEING INVITED INTO THE PARTY HQ.
The CPA is definitely more involved with the unions because they have all the connections and have existed for longer, ACP is younger as a party and in terms of membership so hasn’t had time to build to that level. But are doing more on the ground and in terms of social programs. ACP would accuse the CPA of blindly toeing the lines in Australia’s unions which are almost useless and completely controlled by the Labor party. Not to say ACP members aren’t active in their unions but always with an eye on challenging leadership and radicalising other workers as opposed to trying to occupy higher office just for the sake of being able to say they’re part of the union movement.
It should also be pointed out that technically neither are the “original” CPA which was taken over and destroyed by eurocomms in the 70s and in the 90s rolled up, and had all its hard earned assets stolen and became the SEARCH Foundation which is literally just a liberal think tank (powerful members include Sally McManus and Lee Rhiannon to give you an idea of of the ideological bent of that terrible organisation).
The China stuff is much more secondary to the split as I see it, the ACP has a more nuanced take that I wouldn’t describe as “China bad”, just points out some of the more capitalist parts of the Chinese economy and the struggle of workers in China. It’s not a Maoist take or anything. As I see it the split was way more about the tailism of the unions/ALP and the factionalism in the CPA.
Thanks for the explainer. I’ll check both out.
Buzzy that the older org would have a more pro China line. It’s usually the older folks that get dogmatic on that point.
If CPA is focusing on union ties and anti—war campaigns, what’s ACP up to?
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Hey, I literally joined Hexbear because i felt like I had to give a perspective from someone involved in the CPA.
So for background, I'm a provisional member of the CPA and have been involved with them for about two months now.
Demographically speaking most people are 20 somethings, then we have our branch leader who is probably early 30's at the most. The only older people are one 71 year old labour lawyer and a 50 something Marxist academic who teaches marxism at a university in China. We are also fairly evenly split between men and women with one enby.
OP's criticism of the CPA's involvement of the unions is nonsensical imo. They seem to be implying that when the CPA does entryism into unions its bad but when the ACP does it, it's good. As if CPA members aren't also trying to radicalise their unions. Also, I dont think i've heard anyone even mention labor in passing let alone "tail" them. In regards to the accusation that its a personality cult dominated by a few old people, the guy who started ACP was literally the former general secretary of the CPA. He got kicked out because he wanted to act outside the party's democratic centralist framework. That to me sounds like the CPA wasn't a personality cult but that he wanted to make it one.
Having said all that, that actual reason I joined the CPA is because when i was researching which one to join, I came across accusations that some of the young people the former general secretary brought with him from the CPA had some terfy viewpoints and more broadly that they had a "post-left" outlook. It should be noted that I could not verify this but as a trans woman there is no way i'm joining an org where that is even suspected.
I'm tired from work so I will stop there, but If you have questions about the CPA feel free to ask.
Thanks for joining to give the CPA perspective. This split sounds really messy, but also fairly interpersonal rather than strictly principled.
I messaged CPA on Twitter a few days back without much luck. What’s the easiest way of getting in touch with them?
I think i have the email of the person who is directly involved in recruitment, would you like me to DM it to you?
Yeah hit me.