South West Branch
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The next meeting of the South West Branch is this coming Saturday, October 12th at the Railway Tavern, Salisbury (Quiet Bar) at 2pm. This is a week earlier than usual to avoid clashing with the Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM). Please let Ray know if you are likely to be able to attend or not. The meeting is important as branch will be discussing the agenda for ADM and electing delegates to it.
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/event/south-west-branch-salisbury-2pm-6/
Minutes of South West Branch meeting held on October 12th 2019 at the Railway Tavern, Salisbury SP2 7RR
Present: Ray Carr, Ann French, Keith Graham, Stephen Harper, Graham Muirhead
Visitor: Veronica ClanchyApologies: Leon Rozanov, John Marter
Election of Chairperson: Stephen Harper was elected to chair the meeting
Reading of Minutes from September Meeting: Minutes were read and accepted as a correct record
Matters Arising:
Facebook Group: Whilst the secretary had still not contacted Mike Tavener on the numbers involved in the Facebook Group, he indicated that the minutes of branch meetings were emailed out to Mike Tavener so that he was aware that we are interested in the Facebook group and could contact the secretary on this issue if he wished. There was then a brief discussion on the various online forums within the party and how easy or difficult it was to participate in them. It was confirmed that to access the Facebook group you had to be a Facebook member and some members were reluctant to take that step. Ann French raised the possibility of creating a membership list for discussion such as opening a Gmail account. The secretary thought that someone else should take on this task so Ann was to look into this.
Correspondence:
We had received via email a letter from the national treasurer Robert Cox re Change of Mandate from Socialist Party of Great Britain, South West Branch. Leon Rozanov and Graham Muirhead were to be added as new signatories. The contact name and mailing address for banking purposes was to be Leon and Robert Cox was to be removed as a signatory. Keith Graham was still the primary contact for banking until these changes were completed and he was at present receiving the bank statements for the branch.
Both Ray Carr and Keith Graham had received an Email from Paddy Shannon (Lancaster Branch) informing them that the branch had nominated them for election to the 2020 EC. This was subject to them accepting the nominations before the next EC meeting on Saturday November 2nd 2019.
Treasurer’s Report:
None as the Treasurer could not be present at the meeting.
Items for Discussion (IFD) at Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) October 19/20th:
Item 8: The party’s approach to protest movements with special reference to anti climate change groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR).
This was put forward by our branch and the nature of our argument was that we needed to be active at such protests to get our ideas across and that this needed a positive approach rather than be seen to be lecturing such groups from the side-lines. Whilst we understood that the article which appeared in the October Socialist Standard was on XR in particular and written from a critical perspective some members voiced the opinion that it was rather negative failing to highlight the positive aspect that XR had helped activate people to action. What we needed to do was to be active at the protest events to put forward a socialist perspective.
Item 11: Edinburgh Branch: Make ADM a preliminary Conference.
Most members felt that the procedures included in this IFD were too heavy and too complex to make sense. If adopted they would make matters bureaucratic, put extra work onto the limited numbers who are active in branches. Some of the proposals would inhibit grass root democracy as motions coming to conference and ADM from branches would be stifled owing to the extra work entailed. In short we were against the measures up for discussion in this item and felt that the current arrangements can be made to work.
Items 12 and 13: West London Branch Agenda Stuffing. Manchester Branch Hijacking conference Agendas.
These, it was felt were the result of the number of motions and IFD put by Lancaster Branch at this year’s conference. However they could surely be dealt with quite easily by either restricting the number of motions and IFD that each branch can put forward or by the compositing of motions which are similar.
Item 14: Manchester Branch. Whither the Declaration of Principles (DOP).
Keith Graham made the point that Lancaster branch were not in contravention of the DOP when moving a motion at conference suggesting that we should make efforts to make contact with like-minded groups such as Anarchists, Libertarian Communists and hold forums rather than debates with such groups. This motion was in-fact passed by a substantial majority. This was the view of all members present.
Item 15: This is the second of our IFD. It concerns an amendment to clause 6 of the DOP.
Our 2 delegates at conference will be Keith Graham and Ray Carr and as Keith opposed this when it came up at the branch Ray Carr has prepared to open on the item at the ADM. Our supporting statement is available on the ADM agenda papers.
Item 16: Manchester Branch. Discontinuing the practice of recording indicative votes.
We all agreed that the indicative votes taken at conference act as guidance for members not either at conference or perhaps not attending branch meetings where conference votes are discussed. Whilst it was felt that the ending of this practice might encourage delegates to take back the view of conference in a more detailed way, the overall view was that the guidance that the recording of indicative votes offered was a good practice and should be continued.
Items 19 and 20: Lancaster Branch. The conduct of members in online discussions. Manchester Branch. Online smears of individuals and charges.
It was felt that as our online forums had a moderator and procedures to deal with abusive behaviour this should be able to deal with problems of this sort. Members on online discussions should also take time to think before replying to posts and make more effort to control their behaviour.
Item 27: Manchester Branch. The party’s historical opposition to Anarchism
We felt the problem with this is that there are so many types of anarchism. It was noted that both anarchism and ourselves advocate a stateless society and so the lines are sometimes blurred especially in the case of class struggle anarchists such as Anarchist Communism.
Item 28: Lancaster Branch. What do we mean by action detrimental?
I did not record any concrete opinions on this item. We seem to have moved on to the following item which does use that term.
Item 29: West London Branch. Comments on resolution from conference 2019 on behalf of Glasgow branch.
Whilst this dealt with two motions from Lancaster at conference on contact with like- minded groups and Feminism we reiterated our view expressed in item 14, namely that the motions put forward by Lancaster branch could not be considered as action detrimental as expressed by the Glasgow statement. In our opinion it does not warrant the heavy language used in the Glasgow statement.
Item 31: West London Branch. Fascism.
We agree with the point being made here but are not sure this needs to be discussed at ADM. The supporting statement reads; “an EC member is on record as saying …” However if it appeared in any publication it should have been picked up by the editors and dealt with then.
Item 32: Lancaster Branch. What is oppression?
On reading the supporting statement we felt that neither the word discrimination nor oppression are adequate to cover the type of acts described in the statement. We did not agree that the word oppression could only apply to acts carried out by the state.
Item 33: Lancaster Branch.
Should the party fund an annual social meeting along the lines of the Yealand weekend?
We felt it would be a good idea to organise an annual social meeting similar to Yealand. However the question is who is going to organise it? The supporting statement also asks; how should it be organised?
End of Items for Discussion
Next meeting – Saturday November 16th:
The landlady present at the October meeting has been given notice of the date.
Notes for members at the meeting.
On item 28 please let me know if we did discuss and come to opinion on this. On item 31 I have slightly amended this as I am not sure this comment on fascism appeared in the Socialist Standard. The supporting statement does read “one EC member is on record as saying…” Please advise if anyone has further information.
Ray Carr
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/event/south-west-branch-salisbury-2pm-5/
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