alanjjohnstone
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Todays New York climate change march is reported on our blog. http://www.socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/change-everything-time-for-fresh-greens.htmlThere are no demands, nor will there be any official speeches and some of the sponsors of it will be the fossil fuel industry and the banks. But Ozy is correct…the environmentalist activists are perhaps the few that are making any attempt to identify and tackle the culprit…capitalism. For sure, they have often been off-target but just how effective have we been in discussing the issues. As a party we do need a campaign strategy for getting our message across.Our resources are insufficient for a full scale attack on cpitalism across the board so we should try and concentrate on those areas where we have a strong case to make and which can be narrowed down so we can focus our resources on it. We have to be associated with eco-socialism, even if some members think the term is superfluous…First, we can get our ecology pamphlet and video a wider circulation… by linking and promoting them on appropriate websites where members can contribute in a comradely manner to online debates, even commercial dvertising on the green media. I have a feeling we are just as invisible on those as we were in the referendum debate. i see no reason whatsoever why we cannot duplicate our socialist case on ecology with further pamphlets and videos on the topic coming to the problem from differnt angles or highlighting different aspects. Along with the environmentalist movement I suggest and its only a suggestion …the so-called "new economics" field is another area where we can offer constructive criticism. Our economic experts should form a working group amongst themselves to challenge academically and theoretically many of the mistaken views of the so-called radical economists and their supposed solutions from monetary and banking reform to co-operatives. This area is even easier to get across our message since it is less websites to aim at, although their influence is far wider. But i fear without PhD and other initials to your name, it will not be received with any real seriousness.or respect. We could sponsor a weekend-long forum for London based supporters of "new" economics, inviting them all to place their case for us to confront, as we did with Positive Money.I keep saying it…we have an unusual window of opportunity because we have sufficient funds to spend on publicity.
i'm not sure recriminations helps, Gnome, to formulate future activity If local branches for various logistic reasons cannot function efficiently then we have to seek out alternatives to substitute and i think we had plenty of prior warning from the lack of activity in the EU elections that neither Glasgow or Edinburgh were capable of a vigourous publicity campaign.Involvement on social media could be increased if physically we are unable to get boots on the ground. Placing old fashion adverts in local press could have been done centrally. A letter writing crusade similar to the relative success we had in the EU elections may have been useful.But regardless i doubt there could have been a lot we could have done to change the vote but more could have been done to make lasting contact with folk on similar wave-length as ourselves on nationalism, etc.
I think the first thing to do is to identify the lessons to be learned and discuss those for the appropriate answers. The risk, as i see it now, is that we simply move on, relegating the referendum experience to water under the bridge and not address the question of why out of 3 and half million votes, 85% of those entitled to cast them, "our" result was just 3,000-plus – do the maths to place our propaganda and presence in perspective.
Done and dusted now.So we have 3,261 rejected ballots compared with nearly 2 million No and bit over 1 and 1/2 mllion Yes. (albeit the Highland region still to declare)But in our favour and against the anarchist argument is the turn-out 84%. Knock off perhaps 5% who have died, who are ill or various last-minute reasons unable to get to the poll since the electoral register was made and that climbs to maybe 90% which i think is unprecedented in UK history where voting is not legally compulsory as in some other nations.When people feel the importance and that their individual vote counts, they participate in the voting process. Apathy disappears and the so-called lumpen-proletariat place their names on the register. So if voting changes anything, they don't abolish it but people engage fully with it. Also neither can we discount the politicalisation of many of the volunteers in the Yes and No campaign that went beyond political party affiliation.Now we face a new wave of promises and reforms for the re-structuring of constitutional decision-making in the UK, which will be nationwide. Another opportunity for us to present our own socialist case that we shouldn't neglect.
Amazing that i don't recall reading the Jackson quote although i have often been recommended to read Soledad Brother.Anymore appropriate apt quotes from it?
Sadly, the Party has missed an opportunity with the Scottish referendum.As been pointed out there has been an increase in political activity across the board. When X-Factor and Scotlands dismal football league may have dominated discussions in the pubs and at work, for the past few months minds have been focused upon politics such as the meaning of nationalism and benefits or otherwise of various reforms. Pundits are expecting a record-breaking turn-out at the polls. On the streets there has been a return of people expressing and displaying their political views with badges and posters in windows.Disappointingly, i have heard a couple of members say they are fed-up and bored with all the fuss over the referendum rather than understanding we should have been seizing an opportunity to engage those people in debate while there exists a receptive mood for political discourse. I fully understand and sympathise with the reasons why we failed to make the most of this opportunity but if the result is yes or no, the moment has now passed and i doubt there will be another chance for a long time to discuss our views with a population who have chosen to on this issue to become political active. I have no confidence that anything has changed and believe disillusionment will lead workers lapsing into apathy once again.If there arises a future referendum on the EU, we should learn from the Scottish one and become much more involved in presenting the third option of spoiling the vote and/or abstention even if it requires sharing a platform with a few of our rivals. Our stickers were our singular success and that should be another thing to learn for future publicity campaigns. Several designs delivering different aspects of our case. Maybe they should supplement (or even surplant) our leaflets.
Having been on the ground, so to speak, for few days now, i found that the main reason for those in the No camp is not really an attachment to the UK because of any British nationalist feelings but a fear of the unknown, a leap into the dark. More than one person has mentioned the uncertainty of pensions but it is this uncertainty at the back of everybodies minds…even many Yes voters. This trepidation about the future is built upon by the No politicians with their talk of no going back, an irreversible decision. This i think is all related to our campaign for socialism, which is an even greater leap of 'faith'.The reformists position is to introduce gradual steps that people can judge the progress…and that is what they have done…rejecting that course because of its failures in the past. If it is the better devil you know that motivates half the population to remain in the UK unless the Yes campaign clearly lay out specific details of bread and butter issues then surely the same will be expected by the population in regards to ourselves. And all we can say is …who knows what the future holds.Sure, i generalise just as we generalise about how socialism will tackle the day to day problems and decisions of the world…and if the SNP's set out promises and policies aren't believed or trusted, why should ours be. We face that credibility gap. Therefore, i think my conclusion is that we must increase our efforts to simply explain just how our new society would organise and provide for all. We have to build that confidence in the capability of people to actually fulfil the ideals without sacrifices being made. I know our speculations will begin vague but as people climb on board, more occupations and professions are reflected in our membership, so the fuller our blueprints will become from their input from their areas of experience and expertise. I have noticed this in the environmentalist movement…but we offer the step forward because we can encapsulate all the separate visions of the future into a grand design – a socialist society…and all the separate building blocks are constructed of concrete foundations of our economic system… which is our advantage over the green radicals. I know i will be shot down by the critics of creating a utopia. I know full well the arguments against projecting the present into a future we cannot forecast. Nevertheless we need to have more flesh on the bones.We have to increase the profile of our Production for Use committees studies and findings and we need to inject more importance and urgency into that committee. We have to offer alternative mechanisms to the market that people can envisage as practicable. We have to detail how aspects of capitalism can easily be adapted and transformed into democratic tools for people in socialism. And how prototypes and experimental models can be made applicable.We have to overcome the conservatism with a small c of workers who indeed fear change and worry about the most basic economic question…keeping their and their families bellies filled under a safe roof. If this is the case in a supposed secure stable society such as Scotland, just think how hundred-fold the problem is in those regions of the world suffering catastrophic misery where they imagine our standard and quality of life is something to aspire towards…relegating socialism to something "unreachable".Anyways something to debate and discuss upon once the referendum is done and dusted.
Listening to you doing well expressing our ideas right now, Adam. Shame we had no SPGB case put over on local radio here.Sheridan and his Solidarity were in alliance with RESPECT and George Galloway and we can see how weak that is because on the referendum they hold diametrically opposing views.
Quote:the outcome of this referendum is irrelevantEC StatementHowever i do have to disagree with the YMS statement that
Quote:We've identified that there is no class issue at hand here, workers neither benefit nor lose from independence.Scottish workers may or may not benefit from independence but a section of the Scottish capitalist class most certainly have something to gain do and some capitalists will almost certainly lose out and once more we have to place the Scottish independence movement in a world-wide context and globally the working class do not benefit from nationalism either Scottish or UK. As YMS concludes…spoiling the ballot and taking no sides should be the working class response
Quote:" pasted this link to a Steve Coleman article on nationalism "Sorry, comrade, that you had to resort to the archives to a now ex-member when our two blogs (SOYMB and Socialist Courier) have been posting contemporary critiques of nationalism and specifically Scottish nationalism and the referendum for the past several months and much more principled and astute from a socialist point of view than Gilligan's (even if i do say so myself) Maybe the neglect of those blogs by members and sympathisers has something to do with their low traffic.
Quote:the party is the tool of the class, not the other way roundi understand your concern, YMS.My approach could be mistaken for substituting the party for the class. However, we aren't replacing the power of our class by party power and acting in its stead. We are merely an educational and advocacy body which more often than not alienates us from the popular view of our class. We don't swing with the opinion polls.We, of course, instruct our fellow workers. Our primary exhortation is to tell them to discover and learn what is their real interests are and frequently through our accumlated wisdom as a political party we speed up that process in that we advise them of these. Often it is a demand, not an instruction or plaintive plea…but something much more passionate and more insistent in that they MUST organise in one world-wide voice to establish a new society, not a perceived better version of the old one for any particular region of the planet. Perhaps we should not give too much consideration to the form of democracy ie referendums and plebiscites and keep our focus upon the content of them.In the Scottish independence i think our response is clear-minded and a class-conscious one to the referendum question, regardless of some periphery benefits to some workers with either option. But as a generalisation i do concede when you said it should be by case by case…It is just that there are two types of questions asked in them ..unimportant ones to the class such as to what you smoke…or more fundamental issues as supporting and allying with our class enemies and strengthening them.
Quote:The member on Facebook who thinks we should "give credit to the 'Yes' campaign" (for Scottish independence) has some serious explaining to do.Not being on Facebook i am not privy to exactly what was said but a look back on this thread will reveal ALB and myself giving credit to the No and the Yes campaigners but maintaining our opposition.
Quote:it's been noted over recent years that we can and will vote according to how we perceive class interests in referendums and plebiscites.I worry that the above statement could be taken ambiguously and we present various individual perspective upon our class interests rather than a collective view of the Party of our class interest. In regards to independence this is very much a class question and the party should be expecting members to offer a class analysis…not of simply what may be in the best benefit for an individual Scot or even the majority of the Scottish people but in relation of our class as a world-wide entity. Our perception of our class interests must be beyond whatever nation or region we happen to be born in. It would be easy enough to contemplate a future government offering referendums on immigration, for instance…and i have encountered some socialists who argue that the native-born workers class interests supercede the global interest of our class.Granted, there maybe some plebisites and referendums that do not involve class interests such as , say, the US states' propositions to legalise the sale of marijuana or whatever. So what i fear is that we go to a place where individual members believe they have a luxury in picking and choosing what they consider to be our "class interests" rather than a party position reflecting the interests of our class in the context of a world socialist movement and not upon a parochial (or even an individualist) policy.I'm sure YMS has no intention of leading us down that path…but a little voice sitting on my shoulder is warning me to be wary of his comment being possibly misinterpreted (as i may have actually done).
Just back from the shops where the Yes, No and the SSP (plus Colin Fox) Yes for an Independent Socialist Scotland. In Edinburgh the Orange Order are out in the streets for a No vote but disowned by the officially No campaign as is the UKIP entry to the debate.A No leafletter said i was the third person that day to say they will not be voting either for or against independence. Maybe we did miss an opportunity to connect with some folk by not having a higher profile in the campaign. Looking back, perhaps we should have made more of a constitutional/democratic fuss over not having the Neither option on the paper to reflect all political opinions.
Quote:"It is true that one thing we couldn't have anticipated then was that there is going to be a big turn-out. Which can't be a bad thing"It is if they are voting for the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.I think YMS may well be leading us to a place we do not want to be…Class interests are class interests…not sections or part of the class…not individual material interests. Class interests must be viewed in global terms, not national or regional terms or occupational/industrial terms. Any plebisites offered have a ruling class purpose.
