american insurgents and "unhitched" discussing his belief in communism, his resignation from the socialist workers party and his issues with the political arguments of the late christopher hitchens. this half hour interview starts right now. >> now joining us on book tv in london is author richard seymour. mr. seymour, before we start talking about some of your books, introduce yourself to the audience. tell us about yourself. >> guest: i am a ph.d. student at the london school of economics, so that's what i spend most of my time doing degette i do some writing on the side. i write for the guardian newspaper. i've written a few books on a blog as well. >> host: what is the blog called? the tomb. it is on ideas and it is rescuing from 20th century communism if you like. that's what i spend a lot of time talking about. and it's just basically for the left wing politics. >> host: are you a communist? >> guest: i would describe myself as a socialist because i don't want to be experienced with stalin and dictatorships that were effected in the name of communism, so i wouldn't call myself a communist. >> host

national secretary of the socialist workers party is on the line now from london either charlie thanks be with us so the unions blaming it firmly. at the foot of a stair at sea do you agree with that. i do very much and it's extraordinary that the international monetary fund which is the high priests of neo liberalism who have imposed a stereo t as part of the troika along with the european union and the european central bank across the continent even though they are now turning all spur on that is economic policies are a complete failure and they're causing heart attack for the economy with no growth with unemployment rising and with social chaos caused by these policies and we've seen it in spain an increase where unemployment is twenty seven percent and unemployment for young people is sixty percent it's not quite as bad as that yet in britain but that's the prospect for us and this is a very swift change of policy where the government's not talking about a u. turn what's it going to take that indeed if it doesn't make that you turn as being recommended by the i.m.f. then they don't

. >> host: what is the socialist worker's party? >> guest: the party to which i used to belong until monday. it is an organization that is at the heterodoxin in some ways and works with the stall inist regimes, and, yet, maintaining a revolutionary socialist politics. again, one of the subjects, christopher hitchens, a forerunner of the international socialist before it was the socialist workers party. i stood very much in the same political tradition as him, one of the reasons i decided to write about him. >> host: you mentioned christopher hitchens, and your book "unhitched: the short trial of christopher hitchens," of what do you accuse him? >> guest: i think there's a few things. first of all, i think that in the last ten years of the life when he achieved to the greatest accolades, the greatest celebrity, and probably the most money, he was the least convincing as an intellectual, as a political writer, and, for example, i think that in his writings on religion, he took an essentialist point of view, which is to say that religio

. >> host: finally, richard seymour, you mentioned you have been a member of the socialist workers party but recently resigned. why? >> guest: the leadership of the party handled an allegation in a way that i thought was indefensible and a number of us tried to reverse that and reform the party in ways that would mean such a mistake couldn't happen again. at a certain point we find we are unable to do so or at least we decided we were unable to do so about 70 or so is left. i would expect that others will leave at a later date. all i can say is that the reasons why people have been in the party and the reasons many remain believing that they can reclaim at are probably the same reasons why past generations of intellectuals have been members of the party not because they believed in every single part of orthodoxy that was open to the heterodoxy. i hope i'm wrong and i wish those that stayed in and to reform the party i wish them all well to read some of the most committed and talented people that i've ever known that for me the party is over. if people want to contact you what is the webs

monetary fund with warnings that the belt tightening must be a national secretary of the socialist workers party told us the government needs to rethink its priorities and dragging the country out of the doldrums. it's extraordinary that the international monetary fund which is the high priests of neoliberalism who have imposed a stereotype as part of the troika along with the european union in the european central bank across the continent even though they are now turning osborne that his economic policies are a complete failure and they're causing a heart attack for the economy with no gross with unemployment rising and with social chaos caused by these policies and there are more and more people who are completely fed up with these a stereotype policies which are attacking people's living standards while at the same time at the other pole of society the very very rich grow ever richard the reality is that the attempts to cut the deficit have caused the economy to come to a halt and what we need is to completely change the priorities we need to stop the imperial adventures in afghanistan and t

in its title of any size for the democratic party to the tea party to local tea parties to socialist workers party to the green party, every single such application should have been rejected for 501(c)4 status as a matter of law. >> not a single application for this status, this tax exempt status, was denied. >> and so the real scandal here is not that the applications were delayed but that they were ever approved. once the political media latched onto the paradigm of a scandal, once they've collectively fixed its frame around what they think are the relevant elements of the scandal, it is inescapable from that point forward, that frame. and the media is incapable of processing any new information that can show the political media just how wrong they have been. joining me now, house oversite committee member, democratic congressman eleanor holmes norton, representing district of columbia, and msnbc's joy reed. congressman norton, i can't tell you how much joy you brought to me when i heard you making this distinction about the law says exclusively and the irs misinterpreted it to primarily, and if

none of these things so i think she felt as opposed to say belonging to the i don't know the socialist workers party that somehow she could characterize this or and it would probably be characterized by many of her friends and peers as an unbiased and bipartisan effort for her to be involved in so i think she probably thought she could get away with it whereas if she was on the board of a group seeking to expand social security which is a position most republicans as well as most americans want to see supported you once they're out of the lee it's most americans of all kinds democrats republicans across the board she would probably have to say well that's too far left for me to associate myself so this is the kind of bias we're seeing you know among the very powerful and influential in your article discuss installs relationship to the peterson foundation you point out the following segment on police tactics from a may fifth broadcast of sixty minutes as evidence of stalls reporting bias to check this out. let me ask you something those functions that you are performing that sounds to me like like an

. >> host: finally, richard seymour, you mentioned that you had been a member of the socialist workers party, but recently resigned from that. why? >> guest: the leadership of the party handled app allegation, a serious sexual allegation in a way that i thought was indpefsble, and a number of us tried to reverse that and to reform the party in ways that, in ways that would mean that this such a mistake couldn't happen again. at a certain point, we found we were unable to do so or decided we were unable to do so so about 70 # or so of us left. i would expect that others will leave at a later date. all i can say is that the reasons why people have been in the party and the rbs why so many remain believing they can reclaim it are probably some of the same reasons why past generations of intellectuals k like hitchens, for example, that have. members of the party, not because they believed every single, you know, agreed with every single appointment of orthodoxy, but because the party was his historically open. orthodoxy was not a huge issue. i fear that may not be the case in the future. i hope

. >> there is a relatively easy solution for that which already exists in a lot -- socialist workers partyal election commission extended their exemption from having to disclose. if you are a group that can come forward and say, look, here is the deal. we are so out of favor, we are so subject to harassment, to -- threats to dash threats of violence, intimidation, that -- disclosure of who we are, who our donors are and vendors are, would pose racing to us, will can be -- can be an opt-out procedure. courts recognize thads in other circumstance. >> absolutely. other than that, criticizing people for taking a position in an election is not the same thing as chilling speech. that's just wreg democratic accountability. so it is not the same thing to say i disagree with this person's political spend organize well, that's an interesting message but the fact it is brought to me by a huge powerful interest whose motives i may find suspect make me judge this message differently. >> in a lot of ads are incredibly hateful. you can't look at these ads and say that brought up something i never thought

as a commons workers party i just haven't seen three thousand eight hundred communist working parties working at workers' parties or new young socialists an assembly line or this kind of offer so if it was a organizations on educating people on things that are going on like the affordable care act just two thousand some one pages and twenty thousand pages of regulations i think it's important that we have this important that you are that what we're talking about is organizations that are there trying to educate the public about what is in that bill because the average person doesn't have to sit through and said you guys are not on this we are there that's why you work on everybody not try to educate the public you are trying to educate the public to your particular point of view on it and make sure that it is there that under the first amendment of course you are but are you i should be heard are you excited or your environment agency subsidized by tax. or say they are not profit i'm for i am subsidizing you are not there is no freedom or dollars that are going to that just because our donors you know he had sprayed so he gets so his o