Organisation update

March 2024 Forums World Socialist Movement Organisation update

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 244 total)
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  • #85828
    Brian
    Participant

    The Adhoc committee is currently engaged in distributing a survey/questionnaire to the party membership, by email and a postal mailout, with a return date set for 12th December 2017.  Our sincere apologies if we have inadvertedly left any member out of this exercise.

    Already the exercise has picked up on some very valuable lessons learned regarding:  Costs effiency; membership data; cross referencing and double checking the data for mailouts.  And we expect there will be a lot more to follow.

    Once the returns are in the committee members will start the numbers chrunching and then collating and corellating the information to extrapolate where we stand has a party in reference to our strenghts and weaknesses.  This information will be in the hands of the new EC by 19th January 2018 – so they have adequate time to digest its contents and get it dispatched to the Branches a.s.a.p. in time for further discussion in time for Conference.

     

      

    #130477
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Can this survey/questionaire be emailed to myself, if it has not been taken care of.Can the data you cite that has already been collated be placed online at an appropriate place or provided on request to assist in any replies to the committee.

    #130478
    Brian
    Participant
    alanjjohnstone wrote:
    Can this survey/questionaire be emailed to myself, if it has not been taken care of.Can the data you cite that has already been collated be placed online at an appropriate place or provided on request to assist in any replies to the committee.

    Yes you and all the members for who we have an email address will get them tomorrow.  I was hoping to get them out today.  However, due to data protection all emails will be by BCC and has I've found out getting that to work properly is not so easy.  BCC automatically rejects the message if any of the addresses are inaccurate or no longer in use.  So I've been hitting glitches when amending the email addresses. The UK members will also be posted by Royal Mail tomorrow and the overseas members on Wednesday.I have not cited any data. I've only mentioned lessons learned – so far.- and with more to come these will be included in our report.  Being a committee of the EC we can't put anything in the public domain and until the EC has viewed it in February and then informed the Branches of our findings it will remain under wraps until then.However, I will say that the distibution has not been an easy task to complete.The general membership will have to wait until the Conference agenda is published to browse over the findings.  Nevertheless, once the members start digesting the contents I am expecting some comments on the survey/questionnaire to be posted either here or on SPINTCOM . The more feedback we have will mean better efficancy in the future.

    #130479
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Is this only for the  members of the Socialist Party of Great Britain ? 

    #130480
    Brian
    Participant
    Marcos wrote:
    Is this only for the  members of the Socialist Party of Great Britain ? 

    Yes.

    #130481
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    I am sure once the debate on this discussion forum really gets going (rather than the restricted committee questionnaire and conference vote/party poll) it can involve all members of the WSM and the individual views of companion party members will be most welcome and be highly valued.I am sure you will not be left out of the loop, Marcos. One thing we can be assured of, as always with the SPGB…decisions will not be made in secret. 

    #130482
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Brian wrote:
    Marcos wrote:
    Is this only for the  members of the Socialist Party of Great Britain ? 

    Yes.

    That is the root of our problems, therefore, we can not  be called the World Socialist Movement. At the present time,  I do not know where my membership is, I am hanging in the air. I am a real citizen of the world like Eugene Debs used to say.What are we going to do with the members, or ex-members  of others companion parties that are not active at the present time ?  We can have the best articulated socialist theory, but if we do not atract more members, more sympthizers, and we do not fill the vacum that exist around the world, we will not move forward.Like Johnston wrote," political parties like the DSA will fill out that vacum." That question should be part of the questionaire, and it should be discussed in this forum, or the WSM forumSomeone that I knew said: Marx and Engels were two persons only, but their ideas were spread around the world. How was that possible ? The person who said that was a woman, and she was able to found a big organization with several branches and local during very dfficult time  How the Bolsheviks were able to create so many political  parties around the world ? How is possible that the Socialsit Party of Venezuela was able to obtain more than 5   millions of members in a few months ? How is possible that the RCP ( Maoist ) is able to move so many youngs peoples in the USA, and it is  able to have a conference where more than 2000 peoples were present ? How is possible that the SLP had a much better articulated theory and  now is completely dead ? The CPUSA is giving 'socialist" classes in the internet, and they are running a campaign to obtain more members. The WSP is publishing more than ten articles every day covering events from different parts of the world.

    #130483
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Brian wrote:
    BCC automatically rejects the message if any of the addresses are inaccurate or no longer in use. 

    No it doesn't.  I regularly send out mailshots using BCC and I've never experienced the problem you describe.  You need to change your email provider.

    #130484
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Marcos wrote:
    How the Bolsheviks were able to create so many political  parties around the world ? How is possible that the Socialsit Party of Venezuela was able to obtain more than 5   millions of members in a few months ? How is possible that the RCP ( Maoist ) is able to move so many youngs peoples in the USA, and it is  able to have a conference where more than 2000 peoples were present ? How is possible that the SLP had a much better articulated theory and  now is completely dead ? The CPUSA is giving 'socialist" classes in the internet, and they are running a campaign to obtain more members. The WSP is publishing more than ten articles every day covering events from different parts of the world.

    How?  Simple. None of these outfits are socialist, are they?

    #130485
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    I don't think that is Marcos point. I am sure he can explain better but i think he is saying these political groups with as limited resources as the WSM are nevertheless able to produce more activity than we do. And it is activity that bears fruit. If our message is the right one, and i think we all agree that it is, we have to try to understand why it is not resonating with any audience. Why are we not growing when all the material conditions are ripe for a mass socialist party and a more conscious working class?Do we simply blame it all on the workers being incapable of comprehending our case for a variety of diverse reasons? I have heard it said by some members. They (and i won't say who) passively await a miracle in political illumination.  Is just only our lack of communication skills? After a century we still are not able to explain and convince fellow-workers? So does re-organising the party structure address the problem of this failure to interact with our fellow-workers in a way that they will be receptive to our ideas?Raising such questions is not fatalism.We are actually in better shape than many other parties so we can have a greater impact if we know what we are doing. Joseph Dietzgen once said" If a worker wants to take part in the self-emancipation of his class , the basic requirement is that he should cease allowing others to teach him and should set about teaching himself."Shouldn't the Party be providing the tools for this. Text-books and study groups. We fail to offer comprehensive range of pamphlets on the myriad problems of capitalism. Many have surpassed us on the use of instructional videos on You Tube.I keep raising the point that financially we have never been so healthy. We have a choice. Spend or Save? We can use our money in advertising campaigns and perhaps have little results for it if we do not know our target market, to use ad-language.Or we can invest it to pay for the bricks and mortar when the membership is so low to sustain the cost of the Party to maintain nfrastructure. 

    #130486
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    alanjjohnstone wrote:
     One thing we can be assured of, as always with the SPGB…decisions will not be made in secret. 

    Except the decisions of sub committees of the EC?

    #130487
    Brian
    Participant
    Vin wrote:
    alanjjohnstone wrote:
     One thing we can be assured of, as always with the SPGB…decisions will not be made in secret. 

    Except the decisions of sub committees of the EC?

    Can't resist sniping with false allegations and distractions, can you.  Which at this moment in time I can well do without.  So can you do me a favour and let me get on with the job in hand under the party procedures.

    #130488
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Brian wrote:
    Vin wrote:
    alanjjohnstone wrote:
     One thing we can be assured of, as always with the SPGB…decisions will not be made in secret. 

    Except the decisions of sub committees of the EC?

    Can't resist sniping with false allegations and distractions, can you.  Which at this moment in time I can well do without.  So can you do me a favour and let me get on with the job in hand under the party procedures.

    It is a  fact that sub committees make decisions that are not 'in the public domain'. You have said so yourself (see above). Don't  shoot the messengerExplain what is a 'false accusation' or withdraw your personal attack on my integrity.  You just can't leave personal grudges aside can you? You should give yourself a warning.

    #130489
    Brian
    Participant
    Vin wrote:
    Brian wrote:
    Vin wrote:
    alanjjohnstone wrote:
     One thing we can be assured of, as always with the SPGB…decisions will not be made in secret. 

    Except the decisions of sub committees of the EC?

    Can't resist sniping with false allegations and distractions, can you.  Which at this moment in time I can well do without.  So can you do me a favour and let me get on with the job in hand under the party procedures.

    It is a  fact that sub committees make decisions that are not 'in the public domain'. You have said so yourself (see above). Don't  shoot the messengerExplain what is a 'false accusation' or withdraw your personal attack on my integrity.  You just can't leave personal grudges aside can you? You should give yourself a warning.

    The false allegation is your accusation that sub-committees of the EC make "secret" decisions.  Now please let me get on with the job in hand.  And no I don't expect an apology.

    #130490
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Received my survey and returned.I wonder if the conclusions would be different if different questions were asked. But i suppose it is a basic "what" questionnaire and not a "why" which will hopefully come out in later debate.

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