The
Socialist
Party Of Great Britain
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Capitalism in Crisis:1.00 -
2.15pm 2009: The Year of Economic Crisis. 2.15 -
3.30pm The Environment in Meltdown? 3.30 -
3.45pm
Tea break 3.45 -
5pm Can
Socialism Solve the problems? All details here |
REPORT OF ORGANISER ON JOINT GLASGOW/EDINBURGH DAY SCHOOL Saturday 9 May 1pm to 5pm Maryhill Community Central Halls (Restaurant) 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow There was a total attendance of 19 made up of Glasgow branch members 10, Edinburgh branch members 2, Manchester branch members 2, Lancaster branch member 1 and 4 non-members. This was a very disappointing attendance
considering that we had distributed 100 free SS at both the Edinburgh
and Glasgow May day demos and given out another 200 or so leaflets
advertising the event. We had also posted out leaflets to all members
and sympathisers. The financial details are as follows:- Hall rent £60.00, Refreshments £5.00, Print cost £11.00, Postage £12.00, Collection £97.10, Literature sales £16.50. We had on display two excellent banners - One attached to the literature table the other on the window blinds. We must thank Comrade Alan Johnstone for providing these from India. They will be a valuable propaganda tool in the future. Despite the poor attendance the school itself was a lively affair with lots of discussion and questions. We must especially thank Comrade Paul Bennett of Manchester branch for coming up and giving an excellent talk. In the evening we had a social at Comrade Terry Ross's home with about 12 members and sympathisers in attendance. As usual Terry provide a first class buffet meal with refreshments. R.Donnelly, Organiser |
January, 2009
PUBLIC
DEBATE
Hillhead Public Library
at 3pm
on
Saturday 24 January
Hillel Ticktin agreed to a
public debate with the SPGB entitled "Did Trotsky Point The Way To Socialism ?" and
Adam Buick was our
representative.
Public Debate Report
Glasgow branch organised a public debate with Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique and Comrade Adam Buick of West London branch. The subject was Did Trotsky Point The Way To Socialism?.
It was held in the Hillhead Public Library, Byres Road, Glasgow on Saturday 24 January from 3pm to 5pm. The chairman was Richard Donnelly of Glasgow branch. There was an audience of 32, 19 members and 13 non-members.
Ticktin opened for 15 minutes, Buick replied for 15 minutes, Ticktin then spoke for 10 minutes and Buick replied for 10 minutes. There was just under an hour for questions and discussion and then Buick wound up for 5 minutes, followed by Ticktin for 5 minutes. The debate was filmed but we will have to see if the footage is useable or not.
Ticktin agreed that socialism is a moneyless, propertyless society and that socialism was not possible in one country. Nevertheless he agreed with Trotsky's adherence to leadership and scorned the notion of the SPGB that socialism could come through the ballot box. The main contention of the debate became that of leadership, with Ticktin and his supporters insisting that leadership was essential. Several SPGB members in the audience at discussion time pointed out that if we desired a society without divisions how could we split people up between leaders and led.These are only my own recollections of the event for further details please consult the website.
Members seemed to agree it had been a worthwhile activity and although our opponent got the worst of it he is to be congratulated in at least having the courage to debate with us, something that in recent years most leftwingers have run away from. It may be worthwhile to challenge other organisers to debate. Perhaps the Green Party or some special issue organisations may be willing to take part in a public debate.
Costs were Hall Rent £36.80 Speakers expenses £120.00. Collection £104.00.Literature sales £9.50.
R.Donnelly,
Branch Organiser
More parts of this debate here
>
Thursday, June 19, 2008
REPORT FROM SOCIALIST DISCUSSION GROUP
At our discussion group last night, among the many subjects raised were parties posing as socialist. Here are some of the comments from members last night.
The Scottish Socialist Party is lucky that there isn’t a political equivalent of the Trades Description Act or they could be prosecuted for fraudulently describing what they are trying to sell as “socialism”.Historically, socialism was generally seen as a worldwide system of common ownership and democratic control in which the watchword would be “From each according to ability, to each according to need”. It would mean the end of the wages system along with money, buying and selling and the capital/labour relationship.This has been watered down over the years until even Tony Blair calls himself a socialist. Compare what socialism originally meant with the SSP’s programme of reforms of the capitalist system. The difference between Blair and the SSP is only in the detail – both are all for patching-up capitalism but cannot agree on how this should be done.
The example of the attempt of the present Scottish government, to curtail the present provisions of the bus pass for pensioners and SSP policy of free transport for all of Scotland, prompted this retort from one of the members
Reformist political parties in opposition always claim how much better everything would be if only they were in power and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is no exception.One of their policy documents tells us they would provide free public transport and that this, on it’s own, would bring fabulous benefits in just about every area of life.Everything would be better: the NHS, the environment, the economy, business efficiency, productivity, road safety, more tourists, etc. On top of all this there would be savings of many millions, even billions, of pounds, giving us all more spending power as well as big savings for businesses.And how is all this to be achieved? By two old leftist illusions; taxing the rich and nationalisation (disguised as public or social ownership). Apparently, nationalisation would be more efficient and cheaper, despite the evidence of past experience, and taxing the rich must mean that we’ll still have them. The source of their riches is the surplus value wrung from the working class but the SSP seem not to have noticed this.We are grateful that the word “socialism” isn’t mentioned once in this document because its contents have nothing whatever to do with socialism. The SSP’s aim is really just the same as all the other reformist parties – they try to solve capitalism’s problems by merely re-organising it. If all their proposed reforms were adopted – nationalisation, the multitude of changes in the tax system, defence budget cuts, etc., we’d still be living in a money-driven, buying and selling economy, still working for wages and salaries, still insecure, being hired and fired, in short, in capitalism.Free transport for all can really only be achieved in a worldwide, moneyless, production for use society in which ALL goods and services would be freely available to everyone. That’s what genuine socialists campaign for and what the SSP NEVER does.
Report back
'Learning Since 1968.... To the
Present'
The Radical Independent Bookfair on
Saturday, 23 August
Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow
Angela
McClanahan (worker in higher education): Welcomed and introduced the
session and discussion of the romanticisation of student
experience in 1968. This was followed by Benjamin Franks (worker in
higher education) and Gordon Asher (student and worker in higher
education) giving other slants on the subject. The recent media reports
on the 40th anniversary of the student protests of 1968
recalled students’ discontent with class inequalities, civil
rights and
the increasing bureaucratic control of education. In 2008, in the grip
of neoliberalism, recession, temporary contracts, job losses and
increasing emphasis on ‘employability’ in education, it has
been
reported that today’s students no longer want to change society
or the
education system, but instead just want their education to enable them
to get good enough jobs so they can pay their rent. These ideas were
refuted by the speakers and the problems imposed on the students/
teachers, loan debts etc. plus the resistance from the powers that be,
that were responded to continually. On the subject of 1968, the view
was expressed that student protest aided the ending of the Vietnamese
war and played a great part in what could be a revolutionary change to
some of the taboos of previous time. They were not saying there was a
revolution in1968 but it was considered a possible missed opportunity.
In the
discussion that followed, I tried to make the point that the TUC in
1968 was celebrating their centenary and in the contents of the book
produced by the TUC, it was evident that they considered the progress
of being consulted and advising the government was the mark of the
progress being made by the representatives of millions of workers, so
what is meant by a revolution? The question was not discussed, other
points were made and then we had a break.
At
approx. 3pm with the chair Angela McClanahan and Christian Garland
(author and activist) he spoke about the events of
1968 for about 10/15 minutes. Vic Vanni then spoke for about 15
minutes. He outlined the events in Paris, how they had achieved little
and how some of the leaders had made a good career move out of it - one
becoming the French PM.
The forum
was then joined by the two earlier speakers Benjamin Franks (worker in
higher education), Gordon Asher (student and worker in higher
education). The discussion quickly turned into SPGB versus the rest.
The SPGB's opponents may have had different ideas but they seemed
united in their support of protest on single issues and poured scorn on
the lack of progress of the SPGB's position. They didn't seem to
realise that despite all this special single issue action the problems
of poverty, exploitation, hunger and war still existed. Comrades
Donnelly and I made contributions to the discussion but as with Comrade
Vanni we met with this reformist opposition.
There was
an audience of about 20 and we distributed copies of the May SS article
"1968, the revolution that failed". There were also free copies of the
SS on display with many of our recent leaflets.
On
reflection the 4 members that attended thought that we hadn't got
through to the audience, but that it was better than watching men
running around a track on TV as most workers were doing that afternoon.
Our comrade from Carlisle had been torn between attending the Book Fair
in Glasgow or the literature stand at Edinburgh, he had chosen Glasgow
but thought he had probably made the wrong choice.
For those comrades who asked that Vic go easy with them, he did just that, but if pointing out that some reforms may have some advantages to workers but they are not being given for workers’ benefit, and they don’t like it! Well, what do you do?
possible issue of free copies at such events as
Tolpuddle and May Day." Is possibly an item we could submit.
Yours fraternally,
Branch Secretary