38 Degrees – a campaign for every issue!

March 2024 Forums General discussion 38 Degrees – a campaign for every issue!

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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  • #208632
    rodshaw
    Participant

    I’ve recently been sent emails by the above organisation (38degrees.org.uk) because I signed a petition for the NHS to do more about ME and related illnesses (my daughter being a sufferer). Now they are asking me for donations for the free school meals campaign – so I can “make a difference”. No doubt if I stay on their mailing list other requests will follow. It seems they have campaigns sprouting out of their ears.

    So I sent them this message:

    Free school meals…increased benefits…climate change protests…more money for the NHS…where does it stop?

    Alas, however well-meaning and seemingly urgent they are, it’s obvious that single-issue campaigns can only solve one problem at a time. That is if they succeed. And for every one that is successful, money is usually diverted from some other area of need, meaning that the net result for working-class people as a whole is zero or worse. You can join 1,001 campaigns and when they’ve ended, another 1,001 problems will have sprung up, while the gap between the richest and the poorest continues to increase.

    Instead of going cap in hand for a few crumbs from the table of our lords and masters, why don’t you insist on grabbing the whole cake?

    We invite you to join the only campaign that is relevant to the entire working class – the campaign to end the capitalist system once and for all and establish world-wide common ownership. No political leaders, no class-based society, no national borders, no money to squabble about because in a truly democratic world where resources are held in common, money won’t be needed.

    If you really want to make a difference, join the World Socialist Movement!

    #208633
    PartisanZ
    Participant

    You are going to have to put a spam filter on for them, as facilitating petitions and campaigns is what they are all about.

    • This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by PartisanZ.
    #208635
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Rod’s message has become the a blog post with some little changes to the text.

    https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2020/10/free-school-dinners.html

    #208639
    ALB
    Keymaster

    When we have stood in parliamentary elections we get inundated with emails from their members to our candidate in support of some well-meaning reform. We don’t mind at all since it gives us hundreds of people to reply to putting our case, drawing attention to our website, etc.

    Apparently this is why they call themselves 38 degrees:

    ”38 Degrees takes its name from the angle at which snowflakes come together to form an avalanche.”

    We too are trying to start an avalanche even if we are far from being “snowflakes.”

    Or maybe the socialist revolution will be more like a snowball  than an avalanche, getting bigger and bigger as it rolls along. Who knows?

     

    #208661
    rodshaw
    Participant

    Good on you Alan.

    Of course we always hope our messages will be read and maybe even taken notice of, though I think this organisation is so up itself looking for things to petition about that they are clearly not going to be interested in our bigger picture.

    My hopes were raised slightly when I got another email from them earlier this evening…but it was asking me to sign a petition to stop the introduction of VAT on face masks. Although part of me is tempted to carry on receiving them just for amusement value, overall I think it’s time I unsubscribed!

    I think the snowball analogy is a good one – maybe we’ll become The Rolling Snowball Movement?

    #208905
    james19
    Participant

    There is also, http://www.change.org.

    The world’s platform for change. Unquote

    Who have 420,428,461 people taking action.

    As I posted before on the campaign for free meals for children during the summer holidays post.
    Hardly a vehicle, a gross misuse by Liverpool FC football fans who want the assistant for VAR in their derby match against Everton, sacked!

    Tory MPs out of touch. Lack compassion! Let them eat steak

    • This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by james19.
    • This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by james19.
    • This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by james19.
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