alanjjohnstone
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Quote:Alan, if you dont like the Standard and/or don't read it or don't rate it, absolutley fine, but don't try and block others doing what they choose to do to propagate Socialist ideas.
Tim, are you trying to prohibit me from expressing my opinion on a motion that is to be put to the forth-coming annual conference of the Party and are you trying to silence me on this thread because you disagree with my contrary view to your own by creating a strawman argument, by accusing me of something i have not done? I will have a vote in the eventual party poll, the same as every other member, and i will abide by that result…which, if you haven't noticed, i have twice suggested will not pass, this time around. I don't think you take much heed of what people actually write because if you did you would have seen my emphasis is on the lack of information being presented by BOTH sides for a proper debate and discussion to take place. We have statements that are challengeable and that is exactly what i intend to do if i feel they are not accurate. We have a member who works in the libraries questioning the worth of providing them any longer with free copies. Are we to ignore his informed insider knowledge? In no way am i trying to block what people do and you know only too well that i have defended some in the Party who have chosen their own way to propagate socialist ideas, from the provision of promotional items that others called trashy to uploading video to e-publishing party material as an individual.Once more you may be unaware that before Robbo suggested let a 1000 flowers bloom on this thread, i was being attacked for saying the exact same thing by the member of Lancaster Br but i don't let past disputes cloud my judgement.Once again a search of this list will show that i have been fairly consistent in my views for the party. Not only do i wish a webzine…i have also argued for a virtual political party with our premises sold and our activity centred on a WSM-Skype connected organisation. But i have no intention of blocking others from disagreeing with me. Nor will i be imposing such a form of structure on the unwilling majority but forgive me for possessing ideas about socialist organisation and activity that does not conform with your own
And a very well qualified caveat included, Tim.
Quote:although very much appreciated by me personally who often makes use of the materialAnd that was not just flattery or an underhand complimentAnything with a Scottish connection is immediately re-posted on Socialist Courier and many older articles are copied and pasted and re-worded to give it a modern tone then used on the blogs to bring them back to life again.
Once more let's discuss actual real trendsA quick google produced thishttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170221005686/en/Growing-Adoption-e-Books-Boost-Global-Content-Publishing“The share of the digital publishing segment is likely to grow during the forecast period because of the growing popularity of e-reading devices globally and increased adoption of digital platforms in several educational institutions,” says Ujjwal Doshi, a lead media and entertainment services research experthttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/21/independent-bookshops-campaign"independent bookshops gracing British high streets has fallen below 1,000 – a third fewer than nine years ago, amid cut-throat competition from supermarkets, Amazon and ebooks.""the future of our bookshops – and therefore the health of the publishing industry and reading itself – is at risk." Tim Godfray, chief executive of the Bookseller Association.Come back to me when WSSmiths are interested in putting the Standard on their shelves. We tried before using the commercial outlets and that type of retailer is simply not interested. (Morning Star is probably the only one that has had a fair measure of success.) Who would take us back to the days where we put our soap-box on a street corner and ignore the internet? But adapt we do…Instead, we do lit stalls and what are the best sellers…the Standard or something from our selection of pamphlets?
ALB, as anecdotal evidence very interesting. But i am sure his daughter in Edinburgh could be getting more fruitful knowledge from becoming an Edinburgh branch member or attendee than reading back-copies of the StandardIndeed, i think it is important that the Socialist Standard archives and records should be easily available…hence my consternation that for going on 14 or 15 years, we have been unable to fulfil our programme of getting the Standard archives fully online and now rely on the contributions of an WSPUS member to fill up some gaps, although very much appreciated by me personally who often makes use of the material, it is a bit haphazard since it is based on his whimsical choice of what to scan and upload.
Badly-timed i accept as a useful description of the resolution. i think it may well be premature as a conference item when we struggle for clear information.But an absurd motion is simply insulting fellow members of your own organisation, particularly since it arose from the branch that had the Standard's ex-lay-out team in it, who i think we can say are not at all uninformed or out of touch with the Standard's production and its influences.
Quote:If everyone already has access to the internet on their phone in the pocket, you have to ask why online publications haven't already replaced printed publications? Why do printed publications still exist and advertisers still buy adverts in them?Good question, JWD, whereupon i reply why is the biggest corporations with the largest advertising incomes Google, Facebook, Twitter etc etc. The days of Hearst is past and the days of Murdoch is numbered. The press barons have been replaced by Zuckerman and other social media CEOs. The press all have online versions of their papers which are increasingly reducing their print-run and hard-copy circulation and as i said in another post, using various methods of pay-walls for revenue.A look at the American progressive/liberal outlets demonstrates it is the online ones that have high volume traffic figures. And perhaps one day we can aspire to a Democracy Now tv channel. As you are a member who has promoted much more written material then i suggest we can hand out many more pamphlets. I have already proposed that we attend and distribute more leaflets/newssheets/special printed issues of the Standard at political occasions and where we have the opportunity.
"Even the proposers of this absurd motion"Tim, as i posted, we should not be using such perjorative words. It isn't absurd but a reasonable viewpoint that others may well disagree with. Claims and counter-claims are being made about the influence of both mediums and what is needed is what i have asked for – those in the respective committees, the SS and the Internet, begin to tell us the facts. Just what is the coverage of our circulation for the print standard and what could our audience be for a possible e-zine with all the bells?It is being argued by you that the print Standard is reaching "many people who do not have access to or the ability to use the internet" and by "restricting ourselves to the internet" but who has actually proposed such a policy that we all become armchair activists in front of a key-board – (even those are redundant – it's all touch screen now) As world socialists many, many, many more fellow-workers and potential members are not receiving or having the Standard available to them and, imho, we should be reaching out to them the best we can at the least cost. As i mentioned to Robbo, there appears to a silence on the other item for conference – moving on from a branch based party to a nationally centred organisation with all the ramifications of restricting our contacts with other workers and being seen as throwing in the towel as you suggest your concerns are with an e-zine/webzine being made our priority. This well-known Private Frazer is trying his utmost to reverse the pessimistic prognosis i hold of the Party's future and becoming much more effective on the web is one such strategy which is well suited to incorporate our new ventures such as whiteboard animations.
Thanks for this Gnome.What is needed is more facts and information, so we can have a fully informed debate. I think it is vital for us to try and answer the "Who knows?" What is the total print-run?What is the SS postage separate from our general postage How many paid subscribers do we possessHow many institutions such as libraries get free copies (and can we determine if they are on display to be read)What are the branch bulk ordersWhat are the companion parties bulk orders.How many copies do the individual branches actually sell?How many does an individual member pass on to a fellow-worker?I can talk from being a branch lit sec that our branch subsidised our monthly order of a couple of dozen of Standards. We stocked the local "radical" bookshop with 5 or 6 issues for free and only very rarely did they sell them all. Just a few friends and sympathisers bought or were given a copy. Over the months we acquired a substantial amount of unsold excess Standards which were then distributed free at political events. What we must find out from the Internet Committee is how many "unique" visitors do we have to the online Standard, rather than just the Party website.How long are they staying on the website so to judge that they are indeed reading articles rather than using google search and then very quickly clicking on to the next website.What is the global geographical traffic sources and audience of the Online StandardHow many online comments are placed compared with letters to the editors (very few for either is my initial impression)I'm sure others can think of the questions they seek an answer from both the existing SS editors and the Internet folk and they should be posting their queries here and now. But just to briefly address your "we should keep any and every option open and not place all our eggs in one basket." We should not confuse or conflate an online digital version of the Standard with an e-zine. We are currently almost solely focused on the print edition with our resources going to that and have stopped short of expanding and enhancing the Standard into a fully fledged webzine.As i said in my initial post, i do not expect this Lancaster motion to succeed, but the issue ain't going away with one defeat and we need to know and understand fully what are the facts and what is at stake. Let's not simply let our hearts rule our heads as many have done on this thread by declaring those sympathetic to change are crack-pots, crazy, thoughtless, acting detrimental to the Party (and i, myself, should be reproached for describing those defending the Standard as dinosaurs so apologies for that.)We'll be returning to this topic next year or the year after so let's have answers for the "who knows' and understand what the ins and outs are for both sides of the argument.
With the May local elections in between, we can perhaps expand their scope by building upon and linking them, using them as dry runs, so to speak…our local council candidates becoming parliamentary candidates and election agents for the later general election
JDW, my point was that an important element in the SWP's Socialist Worker was explained in a Socialist Standard article on leadership, referring to how the Trots use paper selling as "credential indicators" for new members. Again, come back to me when you see Chris Harman on the streets selling his party's paper. At least, i can safely say i have seen our EC members and Socialist Standard editors putting their "money" where their mouths are and actually selling the SS.As for his article written in 1984 before the advent of the internet, his evidence goes back to the early 19th C.And for all its historical interest and worth, scarcely an up-to-date analysis for even the 80s when magazines were just emerging from the days of the hand-cranked duplicator.
Quote:The net cost of printing the Standard in 2014 (the most recent figures I can lay my hands on readily) was about £1500Could you expand on this information.I note this it is net sum – so what are the sales figures that produce this.And is the sales figures Paul paying Peter ie the branches and members under-writing the cost than the actual "many workers who don't read the Standard online because they don't have online access and quite possibly choose not to have it." going out to buy each month's issue.2016 conference report for 2015 states that the cost of the Standard was £10,452 and i don't believe this includes the postage (But i stand to be corrected).
http://www.alternet.org/world/trumps-missile-attack-syria-justified-fabricated-intelligenceAn article that re-iterates that we still are in the dark concerning basic facts of the chemical attack. Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
Quote:"The Syrian government may well be responsible for the attack, or others may have been involved,” she said. “But without an independent, international investigation, we simply don't know. That means the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) [an international body with 192 member countries] must be given a full and complete and open mandate to follow all leads and report fully.” “Similarly, we have reports from Turkey that autopsies on some of the bodies indicated the gas was sarin; reportedly OPCW and/or U.N. scientists were present,” Bennis continued. “But the reports come only from the official Turkish medical/forensic authorities. Again, without a full and thorough independent investigation, all of the unknowns remain just that.”Theodore Postol, a professor of Science, Technology, and International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Quote:“I’m saying that a so-called White House intelligence report issued on April 11 is totally inconsistent with the claims it’s making. I’m not so much saying that I know what happened, because actually I don’t. What I do know is that this report was, to be blunt, fabricated without the intelligence methodologies that it claims to have used. Because I have data that I have been poring over… for example, there’s video data of this crater that they allege was the source of an air attack, an air munitions. It was not an air munition. You could see that very easily. So the issue is that the White House issued a false intelligence report and the reasons [why] I don’t know,” Postol said. “But one possibility is they are trying to cover up their tracks because they didn’t know what was going on and they attacked a foreign power. And that is not good.”http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-election-fraud-prosecutions-cps-election-campaign-result-overturn-battle-bus-a7689801.html14 police forces have sent files to the Crown Prosecution Service relating to the Tory 2015 ‘battle bus’ scheme, which it has been alleged led to Tory candidates breaking strict spending limits on elections.The CPS is currently reviewing the evidence and considering whether to charge the MPs with breaking the election spending limits, which are put in place to prevent those with wealthy backers from gaining an unfair advantage during general elections.Channel 4 News reported on Tuesday evening that the CPS is considering prosecution against over 30 individuals with regards to 2015 election expenses. Police forces who have sent files to the CPS relating to the spending allegations include Avon & Somerset, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon & Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Lincolnshire, the Metropolitan, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and West Yorkshire.Two dozen Conservatives are understood to be under investigation over claims that they did not include battle bus spending in their local campaign returns. The Electoral Commission is also investigating the allegations in parallel to the police. The allegations centre on whether spending on hotels for visiting activists and certain campaign material was incorrectly registered as national spending rather than locally – potentially illegitimately taking advantage of a higher spending ceiling.
The always insightful war correspondent Robert Fisk on the hypocrisy and double standards of tears for some beautiful children and absolutely none for others. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-suicide-attack-refugee-buses-trump-only-cares-sunni-children-a7687066.html
