Bijou Drains
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I think the word you are overlooking in my statement is the word “just” as in “not just”, i.e. do this as well.
I think what Dave is saying, and he might correct me on this, is that we should not be getting a badge press for HO when we struggle to get the Standard posted out. Given the choice of posting out to members and sympathisers a magazine full of high quality Socialist articles and news about the party or producing a few badges with necessarily limited information on them, I am pretty sure which way the majority of members would vote.
As to badges, I don’t wish to comment on the fashion sense of the average Scot, the kilt does that for me. 😉
We are all agreed that we need to get some activity going in the Party. The apparent success of the recent social event in Lancaster was a demonstration of that.
HO is a tremendous resource for the party. As you say it has a history which could be used to publicise what is going on there. However to me, and London based members can correct me on this if I am wrong, the London/SE based membership is overwhelmed with the current work load and adding more is not going to improve morale.
I would love to be able to go to HO once a week and help out, but it would involve a 600 mile round trip and God knows what in rail costs.
A more feasible way for regional members to help out with HO would be to have set times for us to turn up mob handed and get some graft done.
I don’t think it is for us to decide what those involved should be doing, rather it should be decided upon by those involved, with guidance given by the London based comrades and party committees who have a knowledge of what will work on their patch.
There are also, as far as I can tell, a number of inactive members and ex members in the London area, who might be motivated to get involved if there was something planned on this basis.
Alan – Although you regularly call for more organised activity, your response when I suggest a format for more organised activity, which can utilise the support of regional members, is to go off on a tangent about your own personal hobby horse of badges and flags. I cannot for the life of me see what the use of having a group of non socialists walking around with SPGB flags would be. If any one came up to them and asked them what the flag meant, what would they answer? As to badges, the trend for wearing badges to publicise a political viewpoint went out with punk rock. Nowadays the sight of someone wearing sloganised badges is a sign either of a nutter or a train spotter.
You also stated that I am of the view that we should not attend large events, which part of the statement: “I’m not saying we shouldn’t have a presence at such events, but that in addition to this we need to plan in proper activity for the party which is run on our own agenda and which will fit into our own electoral strategy.” were you reading??
My proposal was a simple, low cost suggestion. We identify two weekends for comrades to gather around the head office area. One in the winter to undertake practical work at HO and one in the summer to look at what propaganda events we can undertake in the area of HO, as an aid to electoral activity in that area.
To move the suggestion along, can I suggest that we look at the weekend of 1st and 2nd February 2020 as a weekend to do work in HO?
“I can go for that. And if, as you suggest we centre activities around HO, it could be seen as an Open Day with free stuff to give away, a movie night, a Street Party by the Socialist Party.”
There are all kinds of things we could do, we could blitz a whole constituency with leaflets, we could do street stalls, like you say, a movie night, get the caterers in a put on a buffet, get a one off licence and open a bar up, etc. and if none of that works try something else the following years. In effect this is what momentum have been doing on a bigger scale and it appears to have worked so far for them.
“The party’s most fruitful periods has always been when it was part of a larger broader social-cultural movement.”
and what fruitful period was that???
I think there is very little evidence to back such a broad and sweeping statement.
“I would suggest that your proposal should coincide any party get-together with some national protest or demonstration and there are usually a number that we can target. ”
I would suggest the opposite, what we need to do is go out and create our own activity, not just hook ourselves on to the coat tails of whatever is the latest trend on the left. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have a presence at such events, but that in addition to this we need to plan in proper activity for the party which is run on our own agenda and which will fit into our own electoral strategy. We might not be a big party, but we can be a big party, for a short space of time, in a small area. If we chose the area around HO, that would fir in with where we are likely to stand candidates at coming elections. Do that every year over a five year election cycle and that creates the impression of a big party in a small area. We could plan out in advance what dates we want to use for the weekend and get high profile debates or meetings organised in that time.
I also think that the idea of a group of comrades coming together in the January period over a weekend and working in head office, in accordance with what the premises committee see as priorities (whether that be painting, decorating, cleaning, fixing, etc.) would give a greater sense of belonging to members based out in the regions.
Genuine story
In 1985 I was seeing a lassie who was studying at Oxford. I was visiting her in Oxford for the first time, it was on a Monday night in March (I have a feeling I had been at a Islington Branch get together over the weekend before).
On this particular Monday night I was out in Oxford having a few sherbets with said Lassie, when reports came in that the Bullingdon Club were causing trouble at a pub up the road.
My initial reaction was to get stuck in. It has to be said that along with most of the NE Branch at the time, I was fairly handy in pub car park. Sadly being in lurve, I was persuaded that it was better to walk away from a possible fight by the lassie in question.
Got to say I have regretted missing the chance to chin Boris and Cameron for many a year. Not even a happy ending, she ditched me for a politics student from Birmingham. 🙁 🙁
Sadly, in my family, you wouldn’t have to travel 500 miles to find a cousin who’s a chimpanzee, I’ve got several just like that, who live in Byker.
My sister did the family DNA thing, and to nobody’s great surprise, I come from a long line of work shy scum, who amounted to nothing. Glad to say, I’m keeping up the family tradition.
Payment in dollars does in effect impact on trade, trading in dollars makes purchase of US goods easier for oil rich countries trying to spend their cash. Also many Sovereign Wealth Funds are happy to invest their funds in US government bonds, which keeps interest rates on US bonds at lower rates. US debt is now at about $33 trillion, if that was to cost them even 0.1% more in interest, that’s a lot of money.
Iran fully rejoining the world oil market would weaken the economic position of Saudi Arabia and would possibly re ignite the debate about oil trading in dollars. The current moves between the EU and Russia to trade using the INSTEX system are outlined here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_in_Support_of_Trade_Exchanges
https://www.ft.com/content/3aa3e7ee-a8b7-11e9-984c-fac8325aaa04
The dollar has served as the world’s reserve currency since the end of WW2 the impact of this on the US economy is that effectively it has acted as a kind of subsidy to the U.S. government and to American business. Foreign governments and central banks are more likely to buy U.S. government debt, which allows the U.S. government to borrow infrastructure money with a lower interest rate.
Saddam Hussein was trying to move to a system of using the Euro to trade oil, which clearly didn’t buy him any favours in Washington
Seems strange that Trumps should imply that those who complain about should return to “the totally broken and crime-infested places from which the came from”, considering how much he complained about what was going on in the USA before he was President and the fact that the Wikipedia entry on his mother states:
” Mary Anne MacLeod was born in a Pebble dash Croft house owned by her father since 1895 in Tong on the Isle of Lewis. Local Historians and genealogists have described properties in this community at the time as “indescribably filthy” and characterised by “human wretchedness”.
Presumably because of its electronic format it would make a fairly obvious target for anyone trying to destabilise currencies and or effectively forge large amounts of money. Although I’m sure the good people at Facebook will assure us that the encryption system is beyond hacking, there is always a smarter geek just around the corner, or tucked away in North Korea.
Interesting to see what governmental responses are to this in terms of money laundering. There have been raids on Bureaux de Changes across the UK this week and currency exchange is reported as being a key weakness in combating money laundering.
It would seem that this service would be one which might be targeted by money launderers. Of course Facebook wouldn’t wish to profit from any of this, Facebook has such a strong ethical base to its operation, with Nick Clegg as head of global affairs, who could doubt their honesty and reliability?
” the first money in the world that is not backed by a sovereign or a sovereign state”
The author clearly has not read up on the history of money, merchant backed promissory notes in 11th Century China, being just on example of money that wasn’t backed by the sovereign or the state,
