10 Minutes for Socialism

October 2024 Forums General discussion 10 Minutes for Socialism

Viewing 8 posts - 16 through 23 (of 23 total)
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  • #189077
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    “…Given the choice of posting out to members and sympathisers a magazine full of high quality Socialist articles and news about the party or producing a few badges with necessarily limited information on them, I am pretty sure which way the majority of members would vote…”

    Bijou, I simply can’t let you get away with that comment. The alternative I suggested was not cheap badges, as well you know.

    I propose an E-zine.

    The online Socialist Standard, which is the version that most read, can transition to one.

    And I need no reminding that what I advocate leaves me in a minority of one within the Party. Being a socialist I am well accustomed to holding a contrarian view, unpopular with others. And I am not hesitant to state my opinions.

    Time itself will prove who is right but I cannot believe any member can deny the current trend and the lack of any counteracting policies, albeit, you have made a serious attempt at one and I hope it is enthusiastically taken up and it is the beginning of the reversal of fortunes for the Party..

    #189092
    robbo203
    Participant

    Alan  Its became a habit to talk of the declining fortunes of the Party (Ive done it myself) but are we so certain this is the case.  I might be wrong but at least in terms of membership I have the impression that the Party is very slowly growing in size over the last one or two years = almost all of course via the internet

     

    Can someone confirm that this is the case or not?

    #189094
    PartisanZ
    Participant

    Some comrades already do a lot of propaganda activity out of sight and  unseen by the general membership.

    There is Ian Rae, Brian Johnson, Robin Cox and Richard Field on Quora for example countering misinformation about what socialism is and is not.

    We just haven’t recruited enough young blood to engage in a more visual and active mode out in the streets yet.

    When we do we will have to suggest a bit more activity to keep them interested as we rely on them volunteering without too much cajoling.

    We say on our site for instance

    “The more of you who join the Socialist Party the more we will be able to get our ideas across, the more experiences we will be able to draw on and greater will be the new ideas for building the movement which you will be able to bring to us.

    The Socialist Party is an organization of equals. There is no leader and there are no followers. So, if you are going to join we want you to be sure that you agree fully with what we stand for and that we are satisfied that you understand the case for socialism”.

    But we do not really stress the active participation in propaganda bit.

    When there were more of us and we met at branches and outdoor meetings it seemed different then, but there was a significant group who did sweet nothing I could see,

    This could be judgemental and misleading though.

    But some of us who were more pro-active then, are finding it hard just getting to the local shops now.

    #189107
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Less than a third of our membership took part in the last Party poll and even taking into consideration that some of us like myself slipped through the net, does that sound like a healthy virile party to you, Robbo?

    Most members decline to participate even as armchair revolutionaries, which to-day, as Matt explains, sitting with lap-top, has a vital role for activism and no longer need be disparaged.

    We are acquiring new members but as you say, it is through the internet. So let us play to our strengths and concentrate activity where we have a degree of success – on the web.

    But I will add very many caveats to that, in that we very much do require a physical presence, as well. I have never suggested we do not campaign in elections. The very opposite in fact.

    I keep urging we up our profile at protests and demonstrations and keep proposing ways to make our voice heard.

    What drew Zeitgeist Movement to our attention? Their banner to abolish money on a march.

    Too often, my criticisms are treated in isolation to the wider approach I’v talked about in the past.

    How often have I proposed the re-structuring of the WSM into a more unified entity where we exercise E-democracy to administer it and make decisions

    How often have I suggested that we conduct a thorough re-evaluation of the Party through a dedicated conference involving not just the companion parties but with sympathisers and (dare I say it) willing fellow-travelers from the Thin Red Line.

    Robbo, you too with the Guildford Road adapting the party’s path saw a need for a different way of doing things.

    At branch meetings I remember Matt often upbraiding me for my almost neo-Leninist compulsion to get members doing stuff, forgetting the individual personal circumstances of members. He kept reminding me that what makes us different is that we are a voluntarist political party. We do what we do. Nobody makes us. He has again said the same here in his post.

    But even when doing the very minimum is an option, many members do not do anything. DaveC rightly tells us, the burden within the Party is placed on too few members shoulders.  We need to adjust how we operate to lighten the load.

    I think there is psychological reasons in the dropping interest from members in the Party. Many have lost  confidence that the Party is growing and we see that branches struggle to achieve quorums or engage in any activity. Branches were very much always a social focus for members. Hopefully, Lancaster’s experiment will be taken up by other branches to host similar events. Bijou’s idea is also a trial I welcome. The downside is that they are not local activity that can be carried out daily or weekly or even monthly. People need constructive things to do to feel useful.

    And most definitely the deadly fatalism is that members do not see the prospect of socialism itself becoming a reality in the near future, and that is despite all the pre-conditions for it falling into place, not just the material for potential abundance but also ideological – and I refer to the withering away of religious beliefs (at least in the developed world), the wider acceptance of those from other “races”, the end of daily discrimination for those with different sexuality, the continual extension of women’s “rights.” We witness school-kids becoming politicalized enough to strike for their ideas, urging workers to join them.

    But equally we still sadly face the continued strength of negative ideas, such as nationalism and following populist leaders and their policies of palliatives

    The SPGB can never rest on its laurels until our message is absorbed and accepted by the majority of our fellow-workers. Rather than tear ourselves apart with internal disputes, we need to discern our inner-strengths.

    #189117
    Brian
    Participant

    Bijou’s idea is also a trial I welcome. The downside is that they are not local activity that can be carried out daily or weekly or even monthly. People need constructive things to do to feel useful.

    I could not agree with you more for it echoes my feelings on ‘Positive Socialist Activity’.

    I get my weekly buzz by talking about the need for socialism to fellow members of the working class for a couple of hours on the street stall in Cardiff.  Every week we hand out and sell party literature and have conversations with people from all over the globe.  Admittedly, nobody has joined the party as yet but what the heck more people are being connected to socialism through this activity than ever.

    The point is through such activity we are reaching out to the workers and not expecting them to come to us.  Further, we are talking with them and not at them – which is picked up from attending a public meeting.

    #189119
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    “Admittedly, nobody has joined the party…”

    Increasing the name recognition and offering our vision for contemplation is in itself valuable…people will join the dots themselves in due course each time reality matches the theory.

    I found it promising that we began to engage in discussion forums with some of  our opponents rather than adversarial formal debates. Comradely criticism is always more welcome than hostility, to refer back to something Rubychard rose in another post.

    #189199
    admice
    Participant

    O, please tell me you all do have tables or hand out pamphlets, etc. at events (like Earth Day, but that don’t limit it to environmental groups) like farmers markets, street fairs, book fairs. Simple, cheap. Or march with a banner in like, gay pride parades, etc. Several groups I’m involved with do it.

     

    And stop arguing so much with each other, children. 🙂

    #189217
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Dave wrote :

    We don’t have our own machine but even if we did we haven’t the members, especially with the expertise, to make them, or the inclination, “to hand out free, along with the red SPGB flag to carry”.

    We struggle to find enough members to dispatch the Standard each month.

    Pure pie in the sky.

     

    And some members want others members to resign. This party can’t even afford to lose one member. It takes years to recruit one member

Viewing 8 posts - 16 through 23 (of 23 total)
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