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Those behind the recent coup in the National Clarion Cycling Club (Keir Hardies cycling club jettisons socialism, 14 June) have, like so many others nowadays, misunderstood the concept of inclusion, treating it like a mantra to be trotted out without actually thinking. Inclusion can only be invoked in order to remove irrelevant obstacles to joining an organisation.

For almost all organisations, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and many other attributes are irrelevant, so they should not be an obstacle. Not so when it comes to political leanings in the context of an overtly political cycling club. One might as well try to persuade the Spurs supporters club to admit a card-carrying Arsenal fan. Those who are so unaware of the current political situation as to think socialism irrelevant should do the decent thing, leave the Clarion and form their own club, to which they would then be free to invite whoever they wish.Jim GrozierBrighton & Hove Clarion Cycling Club

Many years ago, I joined the National Clarion Cycling Club because it was a socialist organisation. I didnt expect to talk about the theories of Marx and Engels while out on club runs, or have lengthy discussions on dialectical materialism at the weekly club night. What I did expect, and I was not disappointed, was a comradeship of cyclists who were interested in their fellow human beings and whose behaviour, based on the principles they held, would provide something far more meaningful than a mere love of cycling.

The Clarion Cycling Club and the wider Clarion movement helped to make history. In the days when the working classes were overworked and underpaid, Clarion men and women were in the forefront of those who expounded the theories for a new way of life and who helped to bring about the material benefits we enjoy today. They dared to dream of a new society, a socialist society.

I was secretary of the National Clarion Cycling Club for three years until 2006, when I helped to set up a new organisation, the National Clarion Cycling Club 1895, to protect the founders commitment to combine the pleasures of cycling with the propaganda of socialism. The Clarion ideal that socialism is the hope of the world has survived for more than 125 years and the link between cycling and socialism will, for some at least, remain unbroken.Charles JepsonSecretary, National Clarion CC 1895

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Clarion call from cyclists to carry on the fight for socialism on two wheels - The Guardian

Cyclings radical traditions are part of Britains social history. Recalling her teenage years in the 1890s, the great suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst wrote beautifully about the band of carefree lefties with whom she rode out of Manchester each weekend. Criss-crossing rural Lancashire and Cheshire, her cycling club was one of many associated with the Clarion, a popular socialist weekly newspaper. The more earnest socialists of the time saw this crowd as ideological dilettantes, too keen on having a good time. And their trips do seem to have been rather fun.

While there was some political evangelism and propagandising, good fellowship was the main object of the exercise: At our journeys end, Pankhurst wrote in a 1931 edition of the Clarion, was always an enormous shilling tea, in which phenomenal quantities of bread and butter and tinned fruit disappeared, then a walk round and frequently afterwards a brief sing-song. A favourite anthem was a marching song written by the utopian socialist Edward Carpenter. England, arise! The long, long night is over resounded outside many rural pubs on Sunday afternoons. How many regulars were converted to the cause is not clear.

Though the Clarion paper has long gone, some of the cycling clubs still thrive. But after 126 years on the road, a dispiriting schism looms. As the Guardian reported this week, the National Clarion Cycling Club AGM has passed a motion to remove a divisive reference in its constitution to socialism. The amended version will instead express a commitment to fairness, equality, inclusion and diversity. The Saddleworth Clarion Club in Greater Manchester has threatened to start a breakaway organisation in protest.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with the new formulation. But it seems sad to lose the literal connection to such a rich past. The Clarion clubs represented a very different, non-doctrinaire and eclectic strand of the early British socialist movement. They were, as the young Pankhurst discovered, a happy haven for the new woman of the Victorian era, who got on her bike seeking greater independence, adventure and fun. They were also a Sunday release for the factory worker, relishing clean air away from the smoke and grime of the mill towns and sprawling cities. For many Clarionettes, socialism was simply another word for idealised fellowship.

The primary function of a constitution is to define the basic principles and laws of an organisation. But in unusual cases such as this, language is also a document of origins; a testimony to the perspectives, associations and hopes of previous generations. The National Clarion Cycling Club has said that local branches are free to write their own constitutions, retaining the reference to socialism. Hopefully some of them will do that, in honour of those cycling choirs that belted out England, arise! with such gusto.

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The Guardian view on socialism and cycling: fellow travellers - The Guardian

THANKFUL FOR CHANGES TO INTERSECTIONThank you, Tyler Morning Telegraph, for your reporting such happy news for this old lady!

Rep. Matt Schaefer doesnt make empty promises, he works for us in this district.

This dangerous (Chapel Hill) intersection will soon become safer for so many. My sister-in-law bought four acres on 64E that extended up Wolfe Lane from a Mrs. Craft. She bought two acres from my sister-in-law and built our home. We saw so many wrecks and also Mrs. Craft was killed at this intersection. I was always afraid school buses making this turn would be hit by an 18-wheeler or tanker.

Thank you, Matt Schaefer for your word and concern.

FUTURE UNDER SB7 ONE WITHOUT DEMOCRACYThe old adage/bumper sticker, If you are not OUTRAGED, you are NOT PAYING ATTENTION is right on target today (Monday).

The Texas Legislature was blocked from passing SB7 on the last day of the legislative session when enough legislators walked out leaving less than the quorum necessary to vote. SB7 is authored by Sen. Bryan Hughes of our East Texas Senate district. Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to revive SB7 in the special session he will call soon.

The most egregious provision of this bill allows elections to be overturned by state officials when there is just a suggestion of voting fraud. Proof is not necessary. This means election results can be nullified and local election officials no longer have power to certify results if they are challenged. When we, the people, lose this power of the vote, we lose our democracy. There are autocrats and their henchmen ready to step in and take control.

Is this the future you want for yourself and your children? Look to Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela if you want a glimpse into our potential future.

If this terrifies you, speak out. Contact Gov. Abbott, State Sen. Bryan Hughes, State Representative Max Schaefer to voice your strong opposition to this Bill.

CREEPING SOCIALISM IN U.S.In 2020-21, the forces of socialism have taken over in parts of our country. More so in the Blue States than in the Red States. Texas is somewhat independent of this assent to Marxist ideology, especially among long-term Texans.

We worry a lot about the thousands of emigrants from Blue States will they bring their Blue tax and spend attitudes with them as they settle into our Texas culture? Over time, will they change our state from Red to Purple to Blue? Will they vote for more give-a-way programs for the poor and oppressed? And will they change our state into an immigrant haven, with increased costs for welfare, education and health care?

A positive amongst this gloom is the Hispanic tendency to hold conservative views on most political topics. They tend more often to be pro-life, pro-family, pro-religion and economically conservative. The majority still vote democrat, but that is changing, with the leftward swing of the Democrat Party. In order to keep Texas Red, we must educate our African American and Hispanic neighbors, including Blue State emigrants, on the advantages of acting and voting conservative. This is my call to action.

Texans: Lets choose freedom over socialism!

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Letters to the Editor: Reader write in on intersection, SB7, socialism - Tyler Morning Telegraph

Students on the campus of Columbia University, 2009 (Mike Segar/Reuters)

Statist politicians get a lot of zealous support for their plans for an economic reset from young Americans. Many teachers and professors view themselves as change agents who need to inculcate socialist notions into the minds of their students. Theyve been alarmingly successful.

In todays Martin Center article, Professor Fabio Rojas argues that it is time to start teaching about the dismal record of socialism. Students hear a lot of Marx and his ideas, but very few ever hear any analysis.

Rojas writes, In many courses, you will find Marxist theory as a sort of taken-for-granted way of analyzing the social world. The anthology I use for my own courses, LemertsSocial Theory: Classic and Multicultural Readings, presents about 50 pages of Marxs writings and some from Engels, but not a single selection offering a critical examination of Marxist ideas. At best, Marxs ideas might be critiqued as not going far enough, or for focusing too much on class exploitation and not enough on other forms of repression.

That, Rojas contends, must change. Marxism should be studied, but studied in full not just a rainbows-and-unicorns depiction. A full study would entail an understanding of how socialism ruins spontaneous economic coordination and about the bad results where it has been imposed.

Rojas states, It is important to convey to students that the extreme dangers of socialism are ever-present. There is no better example than Venezuela, the Latin American nation that adopted socialist policies in the 2010s during the presidencies of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro.

Rojas explains how he teaches his students the warts and all truth about socialism.

I want students to understand social theories, like Marxism, in ways that their proponents would admit is faithful, but, at the same time, not let people off the hook. As with any series of policy proposals, we have to ask hard questions and give serious attention to implementations, whether it be the Leninist Soviet state of the 1920s or the Venezuelan government of the 2020s, he concludes.

Now all we need are faculty who know enough about this subject to teach it properly and for them to be allowed to do so. There arent many of them and the academic world is a minefield for those who dare to speak the truth about leftist ideas.

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Shouldnt Students Understand the Failures of Socialism? - National Review

After the invite went viral on social media on May 8, the wedding drew a lot of attention.

A couple named Socialism and Mamta Banerjee tied the knot on June 13 in Tamil Nadus Salem district, after their wedding invite recently went viral on social media. The wedding was held in the presence of Communism and Leninism, who were the brothers of the groom. Since the invite went viral on social media on May 8, what was supposed to be a small event, drew a lot of attention from people everywhere and the media. A Mohan (52) is the father of the three brothers, and is currently the Salem district secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI). He had previously contested on a Peoples Welfare Alliance ticket from Veerapandi constituency in the 2016 Assembly elections.

According to reports, he made the decision to name his sons after the ideologies he supports, namely, Communism, who is the first son working as a lawyer and Leninism and Socialism who are the second and third sons respectively, and together run a silver anklet manufacturing unit. Though Mamta Banerjee, now married to Socialism, is a distant relative and lived in the same village, the union between the two was unpredictable even for the family as Mamtas family members are Congress supporters (West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee began her political career with the Congress party). Mohan shared with the media that he has been active in politics since he was an 18-year-old. He had worked in CPI alongside his father and grandfather in the party, planned protests and eventually chose to become a full time member of the party.

I was deeply disturbed when people said Communism is dead after the Soviet Union was divided into many countries. Although at the time, I was unmarried, I decided to name my children to reflect my admiration for the ideologies I hold dear, said Mohan. Speaking to TNM, he further said, I am not surprised that my children followed in my footsteps. They have been involved with party work and have admired the political ideologies since an early age. Despite their professions, they continue to be my strong hands in party work living up to their names.

When asked about the attention that the family has received from people, Mohan said, Since the invite went viral, I must have received over 500 calls. Now I get close to 150 calls per day. I get calls from Dubai and other places wishing the couple over their marriage. Although we are still surprised by the turn of events, my daughter-in-law is particularly elated. We are happy for the wishes.

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Socialism and Mamta Banerjee marry in TN, Communism and Leninism attend - The News Minute