Bijou Drains
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ALB wrote:Did I hear right. Is he going to marry Miss Marple?
He’s not getting married to Miss Marple, silly begger. He’s getting married to Angela Merkle.
During the Big Strike, they had some strange ideas which seemed at times to be close the the Union of Democratic Mineworkers. In the North East the were given the title the Ray Chadburn Party.. Their paper "the next step" was nick named "the Last Stop"We debated them in Newcastle at the Tyneside Cinema in June '87, with Steve Coleman representing the Party. From recollection I recall feeling embarrased for the poor sucker put up by the RCP.The debate is on the wikipedia site and is referenced as tape no 6 in the tapes library. If a link was available it would be great to see if my recollections are correct.
gnome wrote:Just as an update, there have been about 45,000 impressions (number of times the ad has been displayed), 420 views (watching 30 secs is counted as a view), and 41 earned views (another video on our Youtube Channel being watched by someone who has viewed the ad).The average cost-per-view is at £0.05, with about £20 spent so far. There is a small increase in traffic to the site, as per Analytics, but nothing to confirm that it's a direct result of the spend.Although the results aren't huge at the moment it is promising, considering the very small cost.
alanjjohnstone wrote: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 was only pulling your leg, Alan. I know you are anything but the stereotypical East of Scotland, Calvinist ifluenced, doom monger I paint you as. I expect all of those years watching Hearts/Hibs/Feranti Thistle (delete as appropriate) have left you a cheery arsed delight to be with
gnome wrote:Sorry to bring all you far-flung 'advisers' back to reality but none of you seemingly has any idea about the difficulties the party is presently facing. The handful (literally) of comrades, some, no doubt, "aging (sic) and stagnant", who are currently undertaking the administration of the party had a mammoth task identifying the email addresses of existing members (we only presently have around 220 valid email addresses) let alone contemplate including those who have left "going back say, 10 years". Those without email addresses will have had their survey sent to them by post.It was the membership of the SPGB which overwhelmingly passed, at its 2017 Conference, a motion to conduct a survey of its membership with the Executive Committee empowered to agree the precise terms of reference. Ex-members were (rightly) not included and neither were Companion Parties. Once the findings of the survey have been collated, others will have access to it, as has already been stated, and will be welcome to comment on it should they choose.Hi GnomeI wasn't having a pop, I meant stagnant in terms of size. As I have suggested previously perhaps working in a way that allows regional members to take on more of the task currently being undertaken by members in the South East would be a way forward. I had put my name forward for the EC last year, but consideration of the time involved in travelling back and forward to London once a month (which would probably require an over night stop on occasions, made me realise that at this point in my life (with work and family commitments) that this would not be possible. This does not mean that I, and very probably others in the regional branches and central branch, would not be willing to take on tasks for the party if possible.It is clear that if it is a mammoth task even to identify email addresses of party members, etc. that the administrative side of the party is in a bit of disarray. This is not a criticism of the members who have taken on these tasks, they have striven to complete them, however it seems obvious to me that we need professional admin help. I know that in my area getting hold of a admin specialist on a self employed basis to carry out these tasks would not be difficult. This would then release party members from the admin tasks, which a professionally qualified worker would do more effectively and efficiently than a lay person could do, and allow party members energies to be used more usefully to carry out the task of spreading socialist ideas, which only socialists can do.
J Surman wrote:I'd like to inject a little positive here. It's easy to understand the frustration from some contributors when things appear to be stagnant or moving backwards even but there are already some new angles to be explored offered on this thread and with the survey yet to be completed there will surely be other relevant suggestions or areas for discussion.There are several of us here from far flung parts both in the UK and the rest of the world but I'm not sure the frustration is increased by that. As gnome pointed out earlier it has not been possible to fill all posts. Let's give those comrades who are doing necessary work, in whatever area, recognition for the time they put in with their best efforts along with holding down a job and trying to fit in 'having a life.'Perhaps we can consider that while we all tread different paths we seek the same destination.FOR SOCIALISM.I concur, the comrades putting work into this project need our support in the work they are doing. That is not to say that they are above criticism, however we need to recognise that the survey is a start point, a consultation exercise in an attempt to find out the general views of party members, it is not a vote nor does it have any binding status within the party.I know cde Johnstone (aka pte Frazer) may disagree with me, however I do think there are some very positive developments ion the party at the moment. If you look at it from a brief SWOT analysis perspective:Strengths – We have an unbroken history of organising for Socialism for the last 113 years with all of the strength that brings in terms of a back catalogue of incredible articles, theoretical strength, legitimacy. I would say, unlike many other organisations we don't have skeletons in the closet about past positions, etc. etc. We are also a party with a great deal of material strength, we have money, a valuable property, equipment, etc.Weaknesses- We have an aging and stagnant membership, we have a slow moving decision making process for the party that has its basis, as Brian points out in 19th Century Trades Union organisation and also, I would argue has processes developed to ensure that a similar situation as arose in the SDF, does not arise in the SPGB. Hopefully we are in the process of renewing these decision making processes and that can impact on membership.Opportunities – Capitalism is one of our main opportunities, it provides us with fertile ground for socialist ideas. The announcement of 20 years of wage stagnation, the housing crises, the threat of war, starvation, foodbanks, homelessness, the destruction of public services, the suppression of the trades union movement, the apparent awakening of younger people to the problems we face, etc. etc. are all of our opportunities.Threats – To me the major threat is inactivity, if we don't get out there and put our case across in whatever way we can, we will not make progress. If we sit and wait for the working class to come to us, we're stuffed. The internet is one way, however I am a firm believer that the traditional methods, public meetings, debates, paper sales, etc. are productive in ways that the internet is not. One of the main reasons for the Corbyn phenomenon was the public meetings held all over the country. We had a speaker at a debate at the Durham University Union last year and there were over 150 attendees.
gnome wrote:theneilkirk wrote:alanjjohnstone wrote:We are actually in better shape than many other parties so we can have a greater impact if we know what we are doing.I agree. It feels like much more should be possible now than actually seems to be occurring.
alanjjohnstone wrote:Shouldn't the Party be providing the tools for this.I think there needs to be an overall 'Project Socialism', which engages, educates, and provides a practical plan for getting from now to Socialism.There is also a need for organisational agility to be able to respond to the dynamic nature of societal trends.
It all comes down to the commitment and competence of our membership and, sad to say, we are currently lacking both. A party which hasn't been able to fill the post of General Secretary for several years, is likely to be without a Treasurer or Assistant Treasurer for the coming year and can only muster three 'full-time' and two 'part-time' nominees for the ten member 2018 Executive Committee cannot be said, by any stretch of the imagination, to be in good shape. That other parties may be worse off is no consolation. And, to boot, neither Marie nor I have received our surveys either!
Personally I think the green shoots of receovery are starting to emerge. This year's EC have been far more imaginative and pro active than the ECs of recent years, we have seen the develpment of a range of different ideas about the way the party should organise and other kinds of initiatives, such as the inclusion of leaflets in newspapers.I do however agree that the mechanisms of the party need to be more responsive and dynamic. I think part ofo the problem lies with the way the party decision making aparatus was originally set up, which hasn't essentially changed since that time. Because of the experiences within the SDF a heavy emp[hasis was placed on democratic oversight of every action oft he party, so as to avoid a similar userping of poweer as had occured in that organisation. The difference is now, that with changes in communication and information technology, oversight of party activity, by party members is practically instant. what that means to me is that we can develop more situations where individual sub committees are trusted "just to get on with it", without having to report back to the EC, as their activities and outcomes are continually observable. So instead of the EC proscribing what each committe can do and when they can do it, we begin trusting fellow socialisits to o whatever it is they are attemptig to do, until they provie that they don't deserve the trust.THe other thing I think needs to change is to move away fromt he concept of centralising everything to Clapham High Street. We need to look urgently at ways in which activities can be devolved out to the regions. I have suggested a yearly rotation of the EC between the South and the North, but if the EC met every other month int he North, that might make it easier for Northeren based memebrs to consider standing for the EC. Just to take my own situation as an example, travelling to Clapham from Newcastle would take roughly 4 – 4.5 hours, to Central Manchester that would be 2 hours, to Leeds, just over an hour. Why can't some fo the functions of the Party be set up to make them more readily doable from outside London?
ALB wrote:Just listened to the news on BBC Radio 4 and an interview with Michael Gove, the minister responsible for this sort of thing, and my interpretation was right — there was no vote that animals have no feelings, just a vote not to include something from the Treaty of Lisbon into the EU withdrawal bill. Gove complained that he had been misinterpreted but that was his own fault as he was playing Brexist politics. He didn't want it included because it was EU legislation and wanted to pass UK legislation saying the same thing.That doesn't necessarily prove that Michael Gove is a sentient being. Perhaps some form of painful experiment could be arranged to investigate the matter?
gnome wrote:alanjjohnstone wrote:Received my survey and returned.Still waiting for mine. However, received the ballot paper for 2018 Party Officers and EC members – no nominations for General Secretary, Treasurer or Assistant Treasurer, only one nomination each for Auditor and Trustee and only five nominations for the Executive Committee, including two members who will only be able to attend half the meetings!
just a thought, perhaps it would be an idea to have EC meetings in the North or in Scotland one year, followed by the meetings being held in the South or in London the following year. At least that way the members of the party in the North or in Scotland would be able to contribute or participate at least half of the time. Let’s face it Clapham s not the most accessible place in the U.K.
ALB wrote:Why wasn't he called Ernesto Lynch?Spanish naming conventions usually combine paternal and maternal names.
Young Master Smeet wrote:I thought we were relegated to the swamp in the 1990's?I get a bit twitchy when people use the word relegation
ALB wrote:The ICC said that, because the SPGB had opposed WWI and initially had not been as hostile to the new regime as we later became, we were still part of the "proletarian milieu".Thank god for that, I was so worried I was not a part of the "Proetarian Milieu", at last I can get some sleep at night!!Thank you ICC, you're my heroes
Vin wrote:alanjjohnstone wrote:Surely, someone else within the Party can answer him?As individual members and as a party we have to decide the most productive use of our time and resources. Most workers are not interested in a debate between The Judean People's Front and the Peoples Front of Judea. It's just my personal opinion I have developed of late. The more we argue with lefties, the more we are associated with them.
I couldn’t agree more. Although we need to provide an alternative to the “Dave Sparts”, The difficultly is that we risk guilt by association. That’s not to say we shouldn’t take them on, but that we need to be careful not to magnify the disputes on the Weakly Working letters page into something that really matters in the ongoing class struggle.
