robbo203
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Considering the fertile ground that is now emerging in the US, is it not appropriate for us to support the party their and in Canada by organising a speaking tour, as Steve Coleman and Harry Young did (I think it was in the 70’s).
Bijou
At the EC’s request in February, I have been carrying out quite an intensive investigation into the state of the American Party these past few weeks. A number of developments have occurred in the interim which are promising. I am due to write up a comprehensive report hopefully in time for Conference…
Apropos your specific proposal, one of the ideas being discussed is that of holding a weekend residential summer school, along the lines of the UK Summer school, jointly run by the Canadian and American parties and alternating each year between Canada and the US. Like the SPGB Summer School this could be themed and one of two big names could be invited to draw people in . SPGB speakers could also be invited to do some of the sessions . Possibly they could go on to give talks elsewhere.
There is however a problem which is particularly acute in the US , in that the membership, apart from being small, is extremely dispersed There are no clusters of members anywhere. Canada at least has a branch in Toronto but in the US there are only two tiny clusters of 2 members each – Las Vegas and Chicago – that I know of. Everywhere else is just isolated individuals. Its difficult to organise a successful meeting with just 1 or even 2 members in the area
This is why WSPUS needs to reorganise itself on a quite different kind basis to the SPGB Branch/EC model. That is what it is currently doing. Hopefully this new organisational model could be adopted in other parts of the world where new socialist parties are in the early stage of development and finding their feet.
So it would perhaps be somewhat problematic arranging a US speaking tour in quite the sense you might have in mind – that is organised public meetings – though I dont rule it our completely. Possibly a more productive approach would be for local members to arrange interviews on local radio stations. But, as I suggest, this would be supplementary to the idea of attending, and giving a talk at, the proposed North American Summer school which itself could be heavily publicised in selected journals and newspapers throughout North America.
But you are right. The potential for growth in the US is enormous. A reorganised and reinvigorated WSPUS will be much better positioned to tap into this potential and to grow rapidly. As more and bigger clusters of members appear on the scene the opportunities will expand for implementing the kind of idea you have in mind
Meantime, there are a number of American “progressive” websites which permit comments on their articles and something members could avail themselves of by posting links to the WSPUS so to build name recognition. Not much but every little helps.
Do you have a list of these websites Alan so I can pass on the details to the US comrades?
Just to mention that things are happening over in the US regarding the Party there. A lot of background work is being put in to make things happen. Clearly, an organisation with a highly dispersed and low membership has to reorganise on another basis to accommodate the circumstances it finds itself in and there seems to be a desire to do just this and to get things moving again. What will emerge from this is a different kind of organisation and I am hoping, this month, the membership will start making hard decisions about what kind of organisation this will be as well as start assigning people to specific tasks.
I will be submitting a detailed report to the EC later this month and making recommendations as to how the SPGB can assist the reinvigoration of the WSPUS. Watch this space.
And Dave is right…too many members can’t be arsed to contribute to this forum and if the trend continues, there will be a very good case to shut it down entirely before it becomes an embarrassment of posters talking to themselves….as it sometimes already appears. …echo of an empty room….
Alan, nooooooooo!
Please dont think like that. There are far more people that follow this forum than you apparently imagine. There are a great many visitors here just lurking. Some who only occasionally contribute, like myself, still read and enjoy the posts. This should be reassuring to posters. They are being read despite appearances
The forum is a great asset. Yes it could do with more people contributing but dont underestimate its reach….
Yes it sounds very sensible what you suggest, Neill. We do need to simplify and streamline the to make it more user friendly but within that simplified structure also additional features. For instance this forum could benefit from having a PM facility
The WSPUS has two websites in Facebook which must be updated too. I do not know why they have two websites, probably both should be combined into one, or eliminate one of them.
Do you have links to these Marcos? I cant locate them
I believe that work will begin on updating the WSPUS website. Things are beginning to happen again over in the US and we are gradually putting people in contact with each other
That’s excellent Neil. Maybe this should become a standard feature of this site. Of course, the actual distribution of membership is wider than this but in some parts of the world it is probably unwise to be too public about your socialist affiliations
Family violence is a political crisis. More women are killed in family violence than in acts of domestic terrorism
Yes this is true. Here in Spain there s a constant stream of news items about women being murdered or horribly raped somewhere in Spain. In the latter case there was a huge publicity over a recent rape that occurred during the famous (or infamous) Pamplona bull run which, I think, highlight a certain connection with a macho streak in contemporary Spain as elsewhere (although in some respects Spain is more advanced and progressive than in most other countries, including in Europe). There is also the drip effect of the sexualisation of advertising and the like that occurs everywhere.
I am not quite sure what we socialists can do about this other than give voice to our strong opposition to these things. We are not in the business of advising capitalist governments on how they should spend their state budgets but we emphatically are in the business of changing values and changing ideas.
One encouraging sign, at least in Spain, is that protests against violence against women do not just involve women. A great many of the protestors are men. Sexism is a scourge like racism or national chauvinism. It separates workers from workers and needs to be combatted with all the might at our disposal
So, it sounds like as a Party we should continue to publish and print propaganda, not much else, with the aim of educating the working class, but not persuading them of anything.
And is this working? How do we measure our success? Member numbers? Voters?Neil, I think it is a mistake to think that the future of the socialist movement is entirely in our hands. It is not. There are external factors beyond our control that have a profound influence on that. Why for example did the SPGB grow to a membership of over 1000 shortly after the war? It was because of the wider cultural shift in society at the time that made workers more amenable to socialist ideas.
More than anything else – and I keep on and on and on about this – what keep us small is, above all, the MERE FACT that we are small. Its what I call the “small party syndrome”. This can only be overcome if and when we reach a tipping point and a tipping point is certainly reachable.
There are certain things we need to do to put out own house in order to reach that tipping point sooner rather than later but, as I say, it is NOT entirely down to us. The future is not written in stone. It is entirely possible that developments taking shape in the world today could come together and give this movement a leg-up the likes of which we have never seen before in our entire history.
Never give up hope. Its not the awesome task of turning millions of workers into socialists that we should concern ourselves with from our standpoint as a small organisation; that will of its own accord as a matter of momentum. What should concern us now is clawing our way up to that tipping point when the “small party syndrome” that has impeded our growth for so long will start to vanish and the very growth of our movement will invite more growth. Its called a positive feedback loop and that’s what we should be aiming for in the short term
There is a new tendency trying to indicate that Donald trump is a socialist , and that he is more socialist than the others socialists, which is totally absurd,
Could you possibly give some examples of this tendency? What or who is behind it? Anarcho-capitalists
Also what is the Economic Update you refer to? Is this Richard Wolff’s work?
Marcos whatever your dealings with WSPUS or SPC the past is the past . Lets move on and look to the future without rancour – that can only demoralise comrades. There is a new set of circumstances we are dealing with. Lets embrace the opportunity this presents
Thanks Marcos – this is all very useful information you have provided . Do you have the names and email address of the publications you refer to?
Also , are you in touch with the members in Vegas? I have just been messaging Dan (Mullin) who has indicated they will be looking around for some office space in Vegas which could serve as literature distribution hub for the western part of the US (with presumably Boston servicing the East), They are also going to introduce themselves to the members in Chicago where there have been some promising developments…
The only progressive media would be Radio Pacifica. Podcast. Democracy now and economic update
That’s useful to know Marcos, Do you think there is a possibility we could get a look-in as far as these organisations are concerned?
Also, and very importantly, can you possibly compile a list of journals and publications in the US that are likely to allow us to place an advert in them. I know one or two myself like the Jacobin magazine although it would probably not allow advertising by political parties but there must be loads of other magazines that would
I hope this is where the Party can make a positive contribution and offer supportive financial assistance to subsidize this school, not just with the accommodation and meal costs but equally important also towards the travel expenses to get there.
Yes indeed Alan, The SPGB could also offer one or two speakers to contribute to the series of talks along with local comrades or indeed even ex members (one has already offered to give a talk!) and maybe also some big names like Andrew Kliman or Paresh Chattopadhyay who are based in the US and Canada respectively.
I have suggested that Chicago could be the location of the first of these annual weekend schools (with perhaps Toronto in the following year) since this is one of the main hubs of potential socialist activity and there are active members there. The event could be widely advertised in the alternative press throughout the US and Canada and could include, along with talks, film shows, workshops, a social event (I have already located two members there who are musicians!) and a time for generally networking and developing bonds of solidarity
This could be a fantastic opportunity to really get things moving both in the US and Canada. You have really to THINK BIG if you want to make any real progress and be prepared to take risks, The alternative is to just limp along in the same old way we have tended to do for far too long, not really getting anywhere except smaller and weaker.
The good news is that I an beginning to sense a change in mood at least in the US. I hope this is the start of a cultural revolution than will take the movement, not just in the US but elsewhere too, much further than we have hitherto dared to hope was possible.
Being positive and optimistic brings its own results and we beginning to see the truth of this.
