Deconstructing The Socialist Party
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SP, i think Matt was saying that the break-down in communications with a member may not have been the party's fault and certainly not intended or part of of approach to out-the-way members, rather than being merely dismissive. Simple thing of not informing the party of a change of address , or not renewing a re-direction of mail with the post office will result in a break-down. I have no idea if the ex-comrades mail was returned as not known or moved away but i am sure HO would responded to unopened returned mailIt takes two to talk. He, however, reminds us that we spend a lot of resources and expend a lot of energy in maintaining contact. Often several letters are sent out to inactive members by Central Branch. Branches go out of their way to maintain some sort of contact with out of the way members, at least talking for Edinburgh, Matt's branch) and Glasgow (his ex-branch). The party is frequently criticised for keeping "phantom" members on its books. If you recall, one branch lapsed a elderly member who suffered seriously from senile dementia and this led to quite an ado and resulted in a change of procedure in such cases.BTW, Matt, your picture looks nothing like you, not near enough grumpy enough
Read the complete post from Northall and it does not say exactly as implied by the above.One has an"ex member", in the loosest association of the term, having a "dig". Whoopty do for him but still inconsequential waffle. Moreover, if the total letter had been reproduced, it would have shown just how irrelevant his views were and how out of context, the above post is.Stebe Colborn.
I found the request to leave from a North East member in the EC minutes, and as promised here it is.I think I might owe an appology for bringing this up. At the time I read into it that she felt isolated from the party, but now on reading it again I'm not so sure as to the reason for her wanting to leave the party. Sorry Matt. Whatever you may think of me, my intention is not to deliberately piss anybody off, or make enemies."i. E-mail from Cde M Gosling (5 January) resigning from the PartyDear Comrade, I am writing to terminate my membership from The SocialistParty. I am in my 60s and haven't received socialist standards for along time. Whilst I will never abandon my socialist beliefs I do notwant to receive correspondence from Clapham High Street if only to savepaper. I apologise I can't supply membership details. I used to attendthe North East branch meetings occasionally but that was a long timeago. My father, John Toomey of Sunderland was very active in the 60s and70s but he passed away in 1986. It was through him that I discoveredsocialism. Good luck for the future.Yours for socialismMargaret GoslingCde Margaret Gosling is a member of the North East branch, which iscurrently not holding branch meetings. Therefore, the branch is unableto process her resignation.Both Cde R Cox and P Shannon suggested writing to Cde M Gosling, askingif she would remain a member if we desisted from sending Partycorrespondence to her. Cde P Shannon also suggested that we offer tosend the Socialist Standard to her.Motion 8– Buick and Whitehead moved the General Secretary prepare aForm F, and consult with Comrade Margaret Gosling . Carried: 8-1-0."
SocialistPunk wrote:How has the Socialist Party and WSM companions embraced such powerful, democratic decision making tools?How could digital communication be harnessed to make The Socialist Party and WSM, more democratically inclusive?I know the party has spintcom and spopen, but we would all agree that they are not very user friendly and therefore under used.This forum is a lot better and I congratulate whoever was responsible for its emergence. I would suggest a forum along these lines for branches and members to discuss ADM, Annual Conference and EC items, and whatever else is going on in the party.Perhaps designated areas for each branch. This may result in input from members unable to attend meetings and their opinions could be taken into account at the next ‘physical’ branch meeting.If we got such a thing up and running it would leave this forum for propaganda, theory etcI offer my services to any new venture.
Vin Maratty wrote:Perhaps designated areas for each branch. This may result in input from members unable to attend meetings and their opinions could be taken into account at the next ‘physical’ branch meeting.See http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/groupsThough the take up has not been great…
Forgot about that onebut I was thinking more in the style of this main forum, DJP. The area you refer to is not very user friendly, not as good as this one, anyway.Perhaps try bringing it up to date making it more visible to the public/workers so they can see the party's democracy at work.That too may result in poor uptake, I accept that, but we have to keep trying.
Neither do I. It is an open goal as far as that is concerned.It never was a problem. Though I'd need subtitles to hear it. :-)By the time we do this we will be overtaken by the next best thing which will be personal devices around the necks of E.C. members. Everything will be recordable, our conversations with our neighbours etc. Look how smart phones have taken off, yet I still don't have one.I think what we are discussing is already old hat, as better technology is presently steaming ahead and will come on stream in, 'I hope' affordable packets.
Matt wrote:Neither do I.It is an open goal as far as that is concerned.It never was a problem.Though I'd need subtitles to hear it.
By the time we do this we will be overtaken by the next best thing which will be personal devices around the necks of E.C. members.Everything will be recordable ,our conversations with our neighbours etc.Look how smart phones have taken off,yet I still don't have one.I think what we are discussing is already old hat ,as better technology is presently steaming ahead and will come on stream in,' I hope' affordable packets.So what happened to the party getting to grips with the "old Hat" when it was a new hat?
The email lists are extremely user friendly, if email is set up to send and receive from your email program in your own computer and are well used.There are 111 members registered, most of whom receive email posts from spintcom .Similarly spopen has 118 members and again most receive email or a digest of emails.The WSM Forum has 1306 members. I don't have details for how many receive emails as opposed to accessing via the web but I suspect it will be similar to our other examples.As far as email lists go this is excellent.I am a member of a number of lists such as Hacklabs and Linux Users Group etc. and we use the Yahoo lists with similar results. My local LUG experimented with other lists sofware but returned ot using the Yahoo lists as they were a consistently better performance experience. (Fewer lost posts and delays etc.)Most members are just happy to receive regular updates and a small hard core post regularly, but most remain in the background as it suits them to do so.The web side of the lists isn't as user friendly as this website, especially recently, but that is no big problem as the email lists are not being accessed in the main by the vast majority through the Yahoo website setup, but through their personal PC mailboxes.Comparisons of the lists with the website here, are not helpful, as they do different jobs, with different expectations and outcomes.
See my warnings on the WSM forum about Skype, especially if they ARE owned by Microsoft (didn't catch that buy news).
Don't forget also the useful function of the Party's Meetup group, which now has 124 members, in keeping people informed about activities. http://www.meetup.com/The-Socialist-Party-of-Great-Britain/
What about a forum between 'World Socialist Movement' and 'Website Technical' titled 'SPGB Branches and Committees', placing the party's democratic process where it belongs in the 'shop front' so to speak – after all the SPGB is unique in it's democratic organisation.Of course it should be members only but viewable by all. If I am not mistaken this would be a first (as was the SPGB in '04).
I think what Vin suggests sounds like a good idea. This site is a flagship site for the party and it's probably a lot more visible than the other ones. Possibly a perfect way to show off the SPGB democratic credentials.How about it, is it possible?
SocialistPunk wrote:I think what Vin suggests sounds like a good idea. This site is a flagship site for the party and it's probably a lot more visible than the other ones. Possibly a perfect way to show off the SPGB democratic credentials.How about it, is it possible?Yes it is possible. That is if the membership decide further transparency of the party decision making process is required.
Brian wrote:Yes it is possible. That is if the membership decide further transparency of the party decision making process is required.Surely the party believes, and always has believed, in the fullest transparency? Would a formal decision be required?
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