alanjjohnstone
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Just to get it off the chest…Was with one member at the bus stop…when will the next bus be along?…Out comes the smart phone, a few clicks…ten minutes he said…he had the app…Even his giant flatscreen TV is connected to the internet and he can surf the web but it is for You Tube and to watch old black and white films on it.Does he visit and post on this forum…go to see what was on our blogs or Twitter or Facebook…nope…He CHOOSES not to become involved.The reason why is what we should be asking ourselves. What has become of the reason and purpose of being and remaining a member of a political party if engaging in politics is too much of a bother and branch meetings are only occasions for a grumble about the world and the latest issue of the Socialist Standard?One ex-cde complains she has no opportunity to express her views and opinions to the Party and its members…She complains on this actual forum and then doesn't post anything more on it, forgoing the opportunity to exchange ideas. (apologies offered if i'm being a bit hasty)No apologies to BrianG, however…never visited this forum for years, eh?…Give yourself a well-deserved slap But welcome back, anyways.
BrianJ, i think the assumption is yours that that HO is not a burden upon the party. It certainly is one financially. It eats up our funds in utility bills and insurance and council costs.It is a burden on the staffing of it. I find it slightly incredulous that we have to make a very special point in announcing when it is actually open. I'm glad we do, Gnome, thanks to your own effort but imagine if Tesco had to put out special notices saying "we're open today"I think it is accepted that it is under-used. And although i may be wrong and i will stand corrected but also that the equipment such as computers and printers and photocopiers it houses is not employed fully as they could be. And we won't get anything too complicated which might require specialist training in its use.But let us get rid of this notion that we should remain in the hi-tech stone-age because some comrades refuse — yes—refuse – to adapt to the arrival of new means of communication. If so, let's turn the Standard into the Beano comic because some members decline to learn a new vocabulary.If necessary branches can run classes and if cost is an issue…with such a low membership we can supply our more destitute members with the tools of the internet. However, BrianJ, it may be right that i am wrong …but giving we are undertaking an investigation of our resources, the absence of any questions on HO and its use seems to be a lapse.But i think we may well have researched for the answer in the past so i would appreciate if a member with better recall can remind us of the facts we already know from previous studies.As for location, it is a red herring.I would support HO if it was being used to its full potential and was actually contributing to its own cost, somehowIn my time, i have discussed No52 often with many different people. Of transforming it into bookshop/cafe/drop-in centre/reading room/resource/advice centre/social and entertainment club. – take your pick – all have been proposed at one time or another.I have favoured the purchase of the right tools to be housed in HO. Equipment that can produce newsletters and pamphlets and leaflets – these printed means of propaganda that some members still think are necessary but or shelves still lack printed material on many vital aspects of the socialist case.Cde Allen i recall, someone who understood the property market very well because it was his business, suggested that we had excess space and could easily modify the building (at a cost albeit) and rent off the more suitable grond/basement floors for a regular income and still use it as our HO.As Gnome correctly points out Clapham High St is no back-street in some provincial back-water but a busy thoroughfare with a high customer foot-fall – highly desirable for commerce as anyone who has visited is well aware of.Nothing ever comes of the debates and discussions over our HO.We improved it for our own comfort yet made it more difficult for out-of-town members to avail themselves of it. HO remains a millstone around our neck and there are cheaper and just as viable other options when we require premises.A three-storey building for a monthly branch meeting that attracts half a dozen branch members…is that a proper use of our bricks and mortar strategy? Come on, comrades. We tried Skype for one or two members for a handful of EC meetings and then it was dropped. I missed the reports and feedback over its use…but i am sure the problem was not with Skype but the lack of commitment to persevere and make feel use of it. Brian G is better acquainted with other software. The choices are wide and varied.A member in Sunderland and Birmingham and Kent and Thailand or Norway and Spain can sit in front of a laptop – nay, even a mobile phone – and conduct an EC meeting. No need to travel..no need for expenses.We have video equipment that can be linked up to the internet and relay the proceedings of conference. We can be streaming conference and public meetings to branches.We could be creating lecture and educational sessions online as Marcos hopes – but they could also be live and interactive.The technology is there for a fully functioning and effective World Socialist Party.How much?Let's get estimates and find out. Let us learn what the possible software and types of equipment is available which are tried and tested and see what is the best for our purpose.Will it save on labour-time and reduce work-loads and increase other types of participation – well, capitalism thinks so. Has it got it wrong?
BrianJ, as someone who talks about positive responses you lapses into negativism in response to the other Brian's post.To solve a problem we have to detect it and describe it before we can determine what the problem is to fix we require group-think. Not one person is i think capable of performing miracles and i am not sure one group of socialists are able to either.It has been said and i don't think it has been refuted but the decline in membership, participation, and activity is not unique to the SPGB but is reflected elsewhere in what use to be called the Impossiblist tradition or the non-market socialist thin red line movement to use John Crump's description of the broader movement.I happen to disagree with BrianG's observation that "…Support for religion, nationalism, racism, and political leadership in general is – albeit slowly – in inexorable decline…", and it is those ideologies that are offering alternatives to socialism which is growing in strength. Reformism in gradualist or radical guises spring up offering already tried and failed policies. But whether BrianG's interpretation or my own is the correct one – we agree on his conclusion …the working class views change as pessimistically as Pvt. Fraser, “there is nothing better”.In fact, if we include those with an interest in environmentalism the prognosis is even more apocalyptic and catastrophic. Indeed on climate change marches "Prepare to meet thy doom" placards would not be amiss.Why in such a political and economic situation so ripe for a receptive audience to the socialist message is our strength not increasing but actually dissipating? That's the real question.If we hold that our political position is the correct one, then the logic leads us to place the fault elsewhere and i have heard fellow members despairing about their fellow-workers and explaining our failure as the rejection of the working class to heed the socialist idea. Others explain our failure simply as inadequate communication and campaigning – that although we are overwhelmed by the capitalist class indoctrination and all is needed is a bit more effort.My understanding of the Marxist dynamic was that it will be a combination of material conditions created by capitalism and the ensuing class struggle and the accompanying ideological education and organisation that would bring about class consciousness. Yet it is simple arithmetic…we have less membership now than when we were founded in relation to population rises.We have to return to our principles and re-consider them or are we condemned to repeating the same strategies, hoping for some miracle that there will be a different outcome…as Einstein said of this process …it's insane. BrianG's contribution did not explicitly offer specific changes bit some are implicit in the consequences. "how do you propose to support all of these suggestions. Members are currently unwilling to step forward and fill the posts of HOO, Gen Sec and Treasurer." you askedIsn't shedding ourselves of the burden of a HO releasing human resources? We keep appealing for and returning to the issue of HO Organisers and keeping the premises open. Isn't transforming into more a web-based party structure, decentralising the Party in the process, lessening the work-load of a few members and spreading and dispersing the load. It may be unpalatable for other members but BrianG did present a way forward.Marcos has also pointed out that there are many in the companion parties and scattered individuals across the globe who can be drawn into activity by the SPGB and companion parties fully metamorphising itself into a one-organisation World Socialist party.I understand, BrianJ your attention is focussed on the immediate task – the questionnaire…and i understand how the organisational structure of the SPGB is seen as a priority…but i have an inkling that it is throwing a life-belt.However, these changes are not going to address the existential questions of how we begin to benefit from the consequences of the political and economic circumstances our class is facing today. We need to return to fundamentals and rather than some contemplation of our navels, enter into a deeper self-examination — and see where it takes us. I don't think we can expect any single person or committee to provide the silver bullet. I don't think it can be accomplished quickly. I am hopeful that the baby-steps we are taking presently will become great strides and giant leaps in the future.I'm not pessimistic. Captain Mainwearing…i'm patient… but against unnecessary procrastination
Segrenomics is a term I came up with to describe what I saw in so many discrete educational periods in [the US] where there was a consistent cycle for plundering funds supposedly for our nation's most vulnerable students and then hoarding those same funds to educate students who were either wealthy, or white and often times … both….Segrenomics explains how high levels of racial and economic segregation become a business strategy for companies providing educational strategies designed for children who are poor. It is a specific form of capitalism that relies on segregation to do its work.http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42789-keeping-us-education-segregated-is-a-highly-profitable-business-for-some
Momentum is attempting to purge anyone who is insufficiently supportive of Jeremy Corbyn … Corbyn supporters now have a majority, are trying to override democratic decisions taken locally when they do not go their way.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/02/labour-faces-subversion-momentum-far-left-roy-hattersley-watford-byelectionRoy Hattersley says Momentum now poses a far more serious threat to Labour than Militant did three decades ago. He says that unless “Real Labour” challenges what he calls “subversion” by far-left forces, democratic socialism could die a slow death.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/02/labours-great-crisis-time-to-fight-back-momentum-jeremy-corbyn
Workampers – people who use motor caravan/RVs to travel around doing seasonal/temporary jobs https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/02/nomadland-living-in-cars-working-amazonAmazon call it the "CamperForce" labor resourceFrom the same article Amazon distribution factories – Fulfillment CentersBack in 2006 my personal blog touched on what was then called in Australia the Grey Nomadshttp://mailstrom.blogspot.com/2006/09/new-old-age-travellers.html
Paula, the purpose for this thread can be for the likes of yourself to share your views and opinions and see if they resonate with others.
Quote:May 5, 2018, marks the 200th birthday of Karl Marx.Plenty of advance notice for ourselves to organise some sort of event, more than a special issue of the Standard, that is, and in addition to any public meetings.Let's put our thinking caps on for something inventive, imaginative and innovative.
Worth a readhttps://jacobinmag.com/2017/12/meghan-markle-prince-harry-royalty-celebrities
Quote:A just world will not only be one where outmoded institutions like the monarchy no longer exist, no matter how glamorous, charming, and well-meaning today’s royals are. It’s also one where we won’t need any more celebrity humanitarians.Chomsky drops in my estimation with his comments on Markle and royalty since Harry's betrothed read his bookhttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/01/meghan-markle-could-shake-up-monarchy-says-noam-chomskyBut the article accrately describes Chomsky as a "one-time anarchist"Markle is planning to take British citizenship but i wonder if she will have to go through the maze of bureaucracy that others do
But a military cop is a military coup.The foreign ministry to Major-General Sibusiso Moyo, Air Marshal Perence Shiri gets lands and agriculture ministry.
It is behind a paywall. The New Scientist on Bitcoinhttps://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631540-500-bitcoin-in-the-balance-the-troublesome-quest-to-reinvent-money/
Whatever the cause, it is proving to be a nuisance for myself using Google Chrome. We don't have the ignore option as Firefox does.Whenever i encountered this pop-up message elsewhere i "returned to safety"…i am sure some traffic will take that option and not visit the site. Quicker the snag is solved, the better.
