alanjjohnstone
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Indeed every member should be urged to return this survey ASAP, as you say. See my message #15It will also be an excellent measure of our membership numbers…those willing to be counted.
I think we all understand our problem of too much work on too few shoulders. It is not just a national organisational issue but i am sure every branch locally suffers similarly and may well explain their lack of activity.One solution would be bringing those "far-flung" members within the Party and WSM closer.The blog knows only too well that such a suggestion is easier said than accomplished (as we have made our own overtures to coax more involvement from around the world) which is a bit of a quandary because computers should have ended political isolation. I think this is a concern that has to be addressed and as now been explained, this review was not set up wide enough to include looking at things from a WSM level – a weakness of the original conference motion.And it must be something the SPGB and the Companion Parties return to – how to make the WSM a more unified and identifiable entity – the base of world socialism.There is no need for rancour or animousity in this debate but the risk of offending comrades feelings shouldn't discourage criticism.
Robbo, my only concern with formally involving ex-members is that some may well be antagonistic to ourselves after leaving and their feedback may well be biased and in fact poisoned.I know it does not refer to yourself and a few others who remain comradely, but it could include Socialist Studies members and a few other individuals who is now on a political trajectory well away from the SPGB goals.Plus on a practical level, would our contact details still be up to date.This thread on this forum should be sufficient for the moment for those ex- and non-members to contribute.
Tim, i may well be a pessimist (i prefer to consider it realism) but i am also a very patient person…I've waited this long so i can wait a bit longer to see how things develop, as i recommended in a previous post. We can learn from our mistakes…but we have to know what have been the mistakes to rectify them.
I think Marcos, Robbo and others like myself can exercise a bit of patience and see what comes of this exercise before we engage in any rancorous debate.
I, myself, consider this initiative to be the first step in a long journey and hopefully, in time we become better equipped and we will be joined by those in the companion parties to extend the range of the exchanges.
For the time being, this discussion thread will just have to do.
Observations and comments from WSM members and ex-members and non-members will be most welcomed and those involved in producing a report would be wise to take them into consideration.
I got the same message using google chrome.
This definitely discourages traffic so is there something that can be done?Not the fault of folk like him…it's all those bleeding breeders, according to his big bruvver.https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/875180/Prince-William-overpopulation-tusk-kate-middleton-pregnant
As people know i have been pushing for a conference dedicated to re-appraising the Party and its functions for quite sometime. Yet, an emergency conference on what, is my first thought. i think we have to have a conference agenda develop from a rigourous online/branch exchange. And this was the part missing from the survey/questionnaire…No questions asking what members perceive as our weakness and how they can be addressed.We have to pin-point what is missing/lacking from our Party because progress has not just stalled but we are suffering a regression despite a host of advantages such as a healthy cash reserve and the ability to devote that to subsidising many other resources.If Tim detects the green shoots of recovery, i hope it is true. But we have to place things in perspective and we are not experiencing any growth in the Party but a contraction and for the time being, despite the attacks upon it, the working class are not offering any coordinated or even coherent defence or resistance against the capitalist class. In many parts of the World our fellow-workers have actually adopted the positions of the ruling class.From YMS post…and he can correct me if i am wrong -…but it appears he is asking simply for a conference focused on organisational structure. Isn't that as the saying goes, re-arranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic? I fear our malaise which is reflected in many other organisations is far deeper than simply the way we are organised as a Party. A conference is there to bring forth discussion and debate on differences and hopefully to resolve or at least clarify them for the Party membership to have the final say on. I don't think there will be a magic bullet and to be honest, i don't think we can achieve it without incorporating cooperation from our rivals in what is called the Thin Red Line and that won't happen either, if they do not also re-prioritise their own politics and maeet us half-way. But i do know that our political positions cannot be reconciled until we or them reach out in comradeship. And i know some members will not consider various political groups worthy of the term comrade and i know other groups have their own hostility clause.
Dragging up old messages when situations were still not clear is not very constructive. Why not post my apologies which were immediately sent when the position was clarified that only ex-Cde Colborn was involved in what i still consider to be contempt for Party rules and our membership.
What are the core ideas of socialism? Isaac Rab of the WSPUS wrote that the minimum to be a socialist a person simply needs to realise that: 1. Capitalism can no longer be administered or reformed in the interest of the working class or of society. 2. Capitalism is incapable of eliminating poverty, wars, crises, etc. 3. Socialism can solve the social problems confronting society today, since the material conditions are ripe for socialism, save the lack of a socialist majority. Capitalism cannot be reformed or administered in the interest of the working class or of society; Capitalism, as a social system, is in the interest of the ruling class (albeit that capitalism, historically, is an essential stage of social evolution); Socialism is the solution to the social problems and irreconcilable contradictions of capitalism; Socialism cannot be rammed down the workers’ throats against their wishes; The socialist victory is dependant upon the fervor and enthusiasm of the determined, conscious socialist majority; To establish socialism the workers must first gain control of the powers of government through their political organization. It is the recognition that the state is the central organ of power in the hands of the capitalist class. These are the characteristics of a socialist.I am asking myself what are the benefits and what are the disadvantages in proscribing members who hold beliefs that are beyond those Rab categorized. We reach out to all workers and we understand the power of ideologies that dominate our thinking…So we try to convince workers to reject nationalism, patriotism and religion as divisive concepts to hold.But we look to people to accept community and social solidarity.Can sometimes people with religion promote those? Just throwing out there to see where it bounces
Received my survey and returned.I wonder if the conclusions would be different if different questions were asked. But i suppose it is a basic "what" questionnaire and not a "why" which will hopefully come out in later debate.
I keep asking myself, how we can make use of this Christian history for our benefit. We have less reluctance to use anthropology of "primitive communism" (a term i have increasing aversion to…what is so primitive about it ) to promote the case for socialism but when we discover communist aspirations within religion , we appear to be hesitant. Not just Christianity but also the Sangha communities in Buddhism and the theologians may direct us to other elements.I wonder if it may be a reason that a few socialists associated with us joined the church, by recognising a similarity?
I don't think that is Marcos point. I am sure he can explain better but i think he is saying these political groups with as limited resources as the WSM are nevertheless able to produce more activity than we do. And it is activity that bears fruit. If our message is the right one, and i think we all agree that it is, we have to try to understand why it is not resonating with any audience. Why are we not growing when all the material conditions are ripe for a mass socialist party and a more conscious working class?Do we simply blame it all on the workers being incapable of comprehending our case for a variety of diverse reasons? I have heard it said by some members. They (and i won't say who) passively await a miracle in political illumination. Is just only our lack of communication skills? After a century we still are not able to explain and convince fellow-workers? So does re-organising the party structure address the problem of this failure to interact with our fellow-workers in a way that they will be receptive to our ideas?Raising such questions is not fatalism.We are actually in better shape than many other parties so we can have a greater impact if we know what we are doing. Joseph Dietzgen once said" If a worker wants to take part in the self-emancipation of his class , the basic requirement is that he should cease allowing others to teach him and should set about teaching himself."Shouldn't the Party be providing the tools for this. Text-books and study groups. We fail to offer comprehensive range of pamphlets on the myriad problems of capitalism. Many have surpassed us on the use of instructional videos on You Tube.I keep raising the point that financially we have never been so healthy. We have a choice. Spend or Save? We can use our money in advertising campaigns and perhaps have little results for it if we do not know our target market, to use ad-language.Or we can invest it to pay for the bricks and mortar when the membership is so low to sustain the cost of the Party to maintain nfrastructure.
Quote:The most sofisticated palace coup was JFK assassinationMarcos, don't get me started. I'm convinced that a deluded and delusional "Marxist" carried out the assassination on his own without any help or assistance. Whereas, the JFK conspiracy distracts from genuine ones such as the FBI Cointelpro where many Black Panthers were all systematical killed. The Church committee confirms the Warren Commission so it is discredited even though it confirms and exposes many other conspiracies committed by the US Government.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
