Bijou Drains
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I was talking to a small businessman from Northern Ireland last week and for him this was the dream solution, as part of the UK they would have access to all (if any) trade deals that the UK have as well as having free access to the UK, they would also in effect be part of the EU for trade purposes. It would make Northern Ireland a very attractive part of the world to set up manufacturing plants in.
The names of all EC members are in the minutes of the EC meetings, which are published on this forum on a monthly basis.
Here is a link to the last EC minutes:
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/topic/july-2019-ec-minutes/
all meetings of the EC are open to the public, as are all SPGB and WSM meetings. We have no secret meetings or have any business which is not available to all party members. As Robbo states some members take on pseudo names on the forum and elsewhere because of personal and employment issues.
Hope that helps.
By the way whatever happened to Bill Valinas (read surname backwards)
It’s not just a possibility it happens all of the time. I remember back in the day there was a comrade from Iran who had come to similar conclusions as us and I believe had even got himself to Hyde Park Corner and was putting forward Socialist Ideas, completely oblivious to ourselves.
“A book festival is being held in Wigtown between 27 September and 6 October 2019 and K&S branch have booked a pitch at the festival when 3 or 4 of its members will be running a Party stall during the first few days of the event. ”
Dave – What dates are you planning to run the stall on?
It might be possible for me to get across from Newcastle depending upon timing. Just to check it is Wigtown, not Wigton?
Jeez Alan, I didn’t realise that things were so draconian. Not that I’m seriously suggesting it, but would the same be true for you in the Republic of Ireland, I’m applying for my passport as a plan B now that Boris Gump is in charge.
Adam, my original suggestion was to do both a political and or practical weekend. If it’s not really worthwhile doing a practical why not try and arrange a political weekend in London. I remember a comrade from the Irish party in the 80s or 90s putting forward the idea that we could be a big party in a small area (perhaps Nigel McCullogh). The idea being that we pick one ward in one constituency and make sure we stand at every election, local, national and European (well you never know) and concentrate propaganda activity in that area. To an extent we are doing that already in parts of the South. If we could organise a biennial activity weekend based in a specific area, perhaps it would help boost recognition in that area. Depending on the take up it could range from leafleting or holding a meeting in the area, through to activities such as the ones Alan is suggesting.
How organised and far reaching it was would depend on how many people wanted to do it.
I take on board what your saying about doing it in the North, however personally having a HO to base ourselves in in London is a big help and to be honest it is as cheap and as quick to get to London for me as it would be to get to Manchester (you try a three hour journey on a Northern Rail Pacer train with one toilet and no food trolley, it’s grim up North)
Alan to put both sides of the story, I think that unfortunately a great deal of the day to day running of the party falls to the comrades in the South East area, which perversely means that the area with the most opportunity for initiatives like the one you suggest, tend to fall to comrades who already have their hands full. I can understand why it might be a bit irritating to these comrades to have suggestions for even more work.
In a way that was what I was trying to do something about by suggesting we have a weekend of activity organised for regional members to come to London and do something to take the burden away from the South East based members. Perhaps we could incorporate the idea of Local History events into it.
I also wonder why we need to get the EC involved in organising such a thing, and thinking about it this might be part of our problem. What’s to stop a like minded group turning up at head office, and just getting on with doing things for the party? If five of us, for instance, coordinated with the premises committee and came down to London and tidied up the back yard at HO, or washed all the windows, or whatever, why do we need to bother the EC? I’m sure they have got better things to discuss than that. Perhaps part of the problem is we are waiting for some committee to do things, rather than just get on with doing it.
To set the ball rolling, I’ve booked in time to come down to HO on the weekend Friday 31st Jan to Sunday 2nd Feb. I’ll sort out my own travel and hotels, I’ll see if I can get a couple of other sympathisers I know of and perhaps a NE based comrade or two to come down that weekend. Perhaps, like the Lancaster Social Weekend comrades from that neck of the woods would come down to HO, if there was something constructive to do and a bit of socialising as well.
If Dave or any others in the South East can come up with suggestions about what can be usefully done, put it on here, I’m happy to do anything but eat vegan food.
As to the idea of us being a one man and his dog party, Alan, apparently the dog had to be put down last week. 🙁
Schekn I don’t want to discourage your Socialist activity and your work with our movement, but I do need to question you (in a comradely way) when you make statements like ” I can imagine that the less educated people are going to be more stubborn and so harder to convince.”
I learned my Socialism from socialists like Bobby Gleghorn, John Toomey, Kevin Lennon, Davey Adamson, the Maratty brothers, Harley Weirs, etc. You can look these names on line and you will find no academic citations, they were/are colliers, shipyard workers, etc. not part of any intellectual elite. Just ordinary workers who believed a better way of living was possible for people of their class.
Going back to an earlier theme that “we are not ordinary people”. I would disagree and also agree. In many years of working with people in often distressing and difficult situations, I have never met anyone who is ordinary, similarly in my social and family life I cannot remember anyone who, when you scratch below the surface, is in any way ordinary. In that sense we are all ordinary, in as much that none of us is ordinary.
Similarly when putting the case forward for socialism most people I have discussed it with can understand the concepts and a large number agree with our conclusions. The problem is, and it is a big problem, that because of the very small numbers of socialists, socialism doesn’t seem likely to happen any time soon and so to lots of people it does not seem like something they would devote time, money and effort to. I would estimate that of people I know, who I have discussed the party case with, I could name about 40 people who would vote for a Socialist candidate if they thought there was a realistic chance of that candidate being elected. I’m sure other members could do similarly.
I suppose what makes us “not ordinary” is not that we are some imaginary “top 10%” but that we are all to some extent optimistic about change (even you Alan!)
No one is arguing that the planet is not in crisis, what I am saying is that linking it population growth is erroneous, even if population was to fall be say 20% and we continued with the current industrial practices, driven by the profit system, that crisis would still be reached, perhaps at a slightly later date, but reached all the same.
To return to your point I fully understand what you are focusing on here, your view is that effectively with regards to groups like ER we should become more approachable and say, “yes, the environment is in danger, and profit-based economic system is to blame. Let’s work together to change it.” Actually this is precisely the approach I see Socialists take all of the time. Not just with environmental groups but with other single issue groups fighting issues like poverty, racism, war, etc. It’s also the approach we take to Trades Unions, etc. We engage in debate and discussion with these groups. However we must remain opposed (hostile if you like) to the dangerous conclusions that organisations like ER have come to, which is that the situation is solvable under capitalism, in the same way that we opposed CND’s view that war and nuclear weapons could be abolished under capitalism.
