robert.cox
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Hello TimRegarding your post #216 regarding “a set of guidelines for the production of party Videos”, I for one think that is a great idea.The EC can agree it, they should check it is compliant with any rules or conference decisions etc.If you have not heard back from the acting Gen. Sec. I can assure you that you are a member (currently the only member) of the AVC. There is a link to list of officers and committee members put out now and then on SPINTCOM (Files section).As for funding for advice (or anything else), the EC would have to agree this. Most Committees (see their terms of reference), should have reported to the EC by now on its plans and financial requirements for 2017, which then go in the EC report to ADM. But don’t worry about that, the EC can deal with it later on an ad-hock basis. However, committees have the authority to make a one –off payment up to £250 without EC authorisation.Actually if you have time its not too late to submit a report to the EC (for ADM). Basically you could repeat what you said on the forum post, and if you have any more information (like on costs or any progress) you could add that too. If you get it up to Head Office at least a couple of days before the EC on 1st October (mark it Urgent – EC/ADM report) it could get submitted as a late report to ADM.Another reason your idea is welcome is that all committees in the Outreach and Products Dept. should provide a ‘how to’ manual and job description (obviously to keep a historic memory and help new/prospective committee members), so this would go towards that. It could also go on SPINTCOM files and be available for all members/Branches to access (see for example the Media Comittee folder there). If you are able to get your finished guidelines ready in time for the 5th November EC, it would be best if you can submit it to the Assistant Gen Sec (who does the agenda) by the Sunday before the meeting, to make sure it gets on the EC agenda. If you are in a hurry to get it adopted, you may find it useful to share a draft in advance with an EC member (as well as on the Forum?), in case there are any obvious questions or technical issues they are likely to refer back to you for further information.Hope this helps (from one EC member who does visit The Forum). NB I am assuming you have login access to SPINTCOM files and have the committee TOR’s etc.
Thanks for making the Media Committee aware of this letter. It was good that it came apparently from a member of the public with no axe to grind.I don't suppose anything will come of it, but we submitted a follow-up letter. This is appended below, with a PS offering an interview with the SPGB. We also sent this offer direct to the politics dept. of The Guardian. I expect we will try issuing a widespread media statement on Corbyn once they have got bored interviewing Peter Taaffe.One issue we have in the Media Committee is we don't have time to read every significant newspaper, magazine and news website (and one of us spends much time overseas anyway). We are planning a mailshot to Party members for volunteers ('Media Watch') to help with this. Any offers in the meantime would be welcome (including The Guardian).Rob Cox, SPGB Media CommitteeHere is the letter we sent:"Thanks to Bob Allaway for spotting (Letters 13 August) that your earlier front page story may have caused readers to confuse The Socialist Party (GB) with the Trotskyite ‘Socialist’ party (SPEW).At least you took the trouble to give their full name in a side bar. Better than BBC TV, who broadcast an interview with SPEW during the campaign for the May 2016 elections, with no explanation given of which “Socialist Party” was represented. As we were standing in areas of well over 1 million voters (and hold the right to stand as The Socialist Party), we of course complained.From their response, the BBC appears to expect that because an item is not directly related to an election, viewers will draw a distinction between the content of a political programme on that basis. We think it’s like expecting a casual viewer of ‘Crimewatch’ to observe the rules of a Juror after doing so. But maybe the BBC also thinks all their viewers read ‘The Guardian’?Yours sincerely…Media Dept, The Socialist Party of Great BritainPS Your editorial staff may wish to request an interview with the SPGB, to find out why no members of Britain’s second-oldest political Party will be seeking to ‘enter’ the Labour Party, and why we do not believe that either Jeremy Corbyn or any other ‘leader’ can deliver genuine change that can truly benefit the majority of people."
Please note that in the event of the Guildhall pub being very busy this afternoon, we may re-locate to Kipps bar (no band on today). Its on the corner of the Old High Street about 30 seconds walk back towards the town centre and well visible from the Guildhall if you look downhill from the left hand side of the esuablishment Regards
London (GLA) Election Campaign – The Socialist Party News ReleaseThe Media Committee issued this press release to London-wide print and broadcast media this morning, and to some other publications. The text was subject to consultation with stake-holders.Please keep an eye out for any coverage and let us know what you see.SPGB MEDIA COMMITTEESocialists say ‘stop voting for capitalism’The Greater London Assembly elections on May 5th will give over a million Londoners a chance to vote for more than just a “glorified talking shop”, according to The Socialist Party which launched its campaign for three of the London super-constituencies yesterday.“The Assembly is about managing the costs of inequality. We say stop electing people who just run London for the benefit of the rich. We want to see wealth and power owned and controlled by everyone”, said Kevin Parkin, Socialist candidate for Lambeth and Southwark.Joining him were fellow candidates, Bill Martin (North East London) and Adam Buick (South West London), who said “democracy should mean all have an equal say in running things, but today we don’t. Socialism will make us free from bosses, loan sharks and landlords. We will be able to produce wealth to meet the needs of all the people, not just a few.”
Vin, I don't think the IC mislead the EC on this matter at all. It was actually brought to my attention by another member before I saw the report to the EC, and I looked at the Twitter site using a link I was sent by email and it wasn't obvious to me who was running it.Anyway its resolved now.YFS
VinI am sorry but I think you are mistaken in your view that the EC instructed you to take down this Twittter account. It is true that the Internet Committee raised the matter with the EC, as it was not clear who was running the Twitter account and for any visitor, whether this was or was not the 'official' SPGB or WSM Twitter site.What the EC actually decided is shown below. As it happened, before the Internet Committee had got round to carrying out the EC request, the introduction to the Twitter account had been amended and it is now clear that it is a Branch site, which of course resolves the matter (as will be evident when the minutes of this months EC appear).Just risking going "off-topic", I am sorry you feel the need to resign from the Party. Assuming you do not reconsider, its a shame at a time when your Branch had such a good turn-out for its last meeting, got a ex-member to rejoin, and has nominated a second person to serve on a Party sub-committee. Extract of minutes, February 2016 EC meeting:"Email from Internet Committee regarding a Twitter account (@world_socialism).MOTION 14: The EC authorises the Internet Committee to contact the owner of the accountand request that they specify that the account is not officially endorsed by the party"Regards
Thanks for pointing this out. I missed this when I copied the text into the post.The error may have been corrected before it was sent out. It was shared pre-release within the Committee but the error was not commented on, so we have a quality assurance problem to address.Media Committee
WORKSHOP HELD AT HEAD OFFICE – 25 OCTOBER 2015 The EC agreed at its last meeting that in order to encourage further consideration of the issues raised, this report be made available to Branches and others interested.Report to the EC:WORKSHOP HELD AT HEAD OFFICE – 25 OCTOBER 2015 SUBJECT: ‘KEY MESSAGES AND A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY’The workshop agenda was in three main parts covering:Our StrategyKey MessagesA Communication StrategyThe first item really was to clarify an issue that arose in an SPGB forum thread called ‘Communication Strategy’: whether it was the role of the Party to encourage others to become socialists or rather just to provide a vehicle for them to join if they agree without case. It quickly emerged that the latter view was not held among the workshop attendees. I am afraid I allowed the discussion to go on to communication strategy before a discussion on key messages. However, when we got more onto that territory it didn’t appear that Comrades had brought worked-out suggestions along with them, so spending more time discussing ideas for what they could be may not have been that useful. Therefore the session was mainly a brain-storm on communication methods (rather than communication strategy), but some useful ideas did emerge.Here are some of the points/suggestions made and discussed. I have grouped these in themes.1) ObstaclesThe Party has an “effectiveness” problem – but is it our fault in failing to communicate or the fault of the working class in not hearing?Suggested that the working class suffers from an inertia which we need to break throughThere are too many other more interesting things to distract workers from hearing usMost workers have a too short term focusThe ‘S’ word problem: Prejudices and misconceptionsSuggestions that the Party can be too academic, needs to be less ‘wordy’ and is ‘dated’Candidate Hustings meetings etc: Problem when answering specific questions of just falling back onto saying that socialism will provide a solution (i.e. to every question).2) Doing Things DifferentlyWe need to get to know the audienceFamiliarise people with our caseTry using t-shirts, posters stickers – rather than just leaflets [others suggested this had been tried before]Going on Demos with placards was suggested (though also suggested that we have too few members to do this effectively – counter-suggested maybe just two members with a larger banner could have more impact)New terms of communication were now around – we need to use themNew communication methods – dittoQuality not quantity?Try using less words on leaflets etc [others suggested the leaflets we put out were not too long and besides there needs to be enough content to be able to explain our message]Leaflets: Suggested that we could try just putting the Object on a leaflet (obviously with contact details too)We have to find methods to engage workers in discussionHow to raise socialist consciousnessfocus groups: Could we use them to find out how best to get our message over and convince peoplePlace Survey/feedback forms in pamphletsTarget local issues in different versions of leaflets (but keep same key messages)In Elections, try different versions of leaflets (but keep same key messages)Bigger range of leaflets in general?We can learn from Corbyn (Corbynistas?)More use of A-board outside Head Office. Does that need planning permission – ask the EC to apply?2) What we say/Key MessagesNeed to relate our messages to persons livesDo we/should we try not to use ‘S’ wordUse the team “Real Socialism” instead?Against capitalism, not against Corbyn as a personSome things [e.g. UK steel industry crisis] are more illustrative of capitalisms problemsSay “Vote for the Socialist Party”Say “a vote for the SP is a vote for socialism”Candidate Hustings meetings etc: When answering specific questions rather than just saying that socialism will provide a solution, we need to say things that won’t lose the audience (especially when there is little time to develop an argument) – like why tax is not a working class issue – but that will still answer the question but move people towards our way of thinkingTalk about democracyTalk about putting people in chargeYou can also find a PDF copy at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/spintcom/files/ADM/ADM_2015/YFSRob Cox – EC Member
ComradesI might have found the website for the wrong event, but if not even though the conference is in October there is a deadline of 31st January 2016 to submit proposals.YFS
Thanks to jondwhite for his post [#14]. I took the minutes and omitted to include this item. I thought I had forgotten something.Yes this was discussed at the EC meeting. In fact I raised it, so should have remembered!I have drafted this amendment to the November EC minutes [they are not official until adopted]:OTHER BUSINESS. Exhibition: ‘Socialist Opposition to the First World War’ (Marx Memorial Library). The Acting General Secretary had confirmed no invite has been received for the launch event, advertised for 08/11/2015. It was suggested that the EC authorise a complaint if it is found the SPGB is not covered appropriately. Another suggested that given the allegiances of the organisers, no coverage was likely. Cde Scholey to attend and report back on the content of the exhibition.YFS
Socialist Party press release regarding Paris terrorist attacksIssued: 15th November 2015Paris, Friday the 13th, November 2015. Yet another atrocity in the name of religion. A deliberate attempt to kill as many innocent people as possible, at a pop concert, an international football match, and at random in the streets. Of course there was a political motive behind it. It was as President Hollande said, an act of war.The ‘Islamic State’, which governs parts of Syria and Iraq, to which the perpetrators owed allegiance and on whose behalf they carried out the atrocity, is at war with various ordinary capitalist states – Syria, Iraq, the United States, Russia, Britain and, of course, France, as well as others.Deliberately targeting civilians is against the Geneva Convention but not, apparently, against sharia law nor (if you are on the winning side) againstrealpolitik, as Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima and Nagasaki show. Once a war starts in the end anything goes because, if a state loses, then even the life of its rulers is at stake, let alone their position as rulers or the economic interests of its capitalists.We are dealing, then, with a war atrocity, and wars arise from capitalism. They occur when, in the competition between states for sources of raw material, trade routes, markets, investment outlets and strategic points and areas to protect and acquire these, the rulers of a capitalist state feel that their ‘vital interests’ are at stake and that they have more to lose by not going to war.In the Middle East what’s at stake is who controls its oil resources and the routes by which the oil reaches the rest of the world. The US and its allies (‘the West’) have been determined to control this and largely do, but this control has always been challenged by local elites. During the Cold War period these used secular nationalism to win mass support, but in 1979 Iran set a new trend, which has since become dominant, by exploiting religion instead. So, anti-Western feeling there, expressing the interests of local elites, now takes the form of militant Islam.In 2002 President George W Bush denounced Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an ‘axis of evil’. The US State Department quickly added Cuba, Libya and Syria. These all became targets for ‘regime change’. The first to undergo this was Iraq, then Libya, with disastrous results in both cases. Syria was to be the third. This attempt has had an even worse result. Playing the Sunni Muslim card, financed and armed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has created a monster that has taken the already extreme version of Islam imposed in Saudi Arabia to an even further extreme, wanting to go back to the 8thcentury and employing the barbarous methods of that time to get there.The reaction in France to the atrocity has been to treat it as an attack on the ‘French nation’ whereas it was more accurately an attack on the French state. The result has been a reinforcement of French nationalism of the mistaken 'sacred union' between workers and the ruling class there. Yet atrocities committed in the name of the nationalism of so-called ‘nation-states’ are less than those of religion only because these have not been around for so long.The anarchist Bakunin raised the slogan ‘Neither God, nor Master’. Adapting it as our response to the Paris atrocity: Neither God, nor State, but Humanity.SPGB Media Committee
ComradesDoes anyone have any evidence that the Party has been "ignored… and neglected" by the MML?Unless we have asked the organisers what content there is on the SPGB, I don't think we can actually complain, until someone has seen the exhibition.Just complaining about not being invited to the launch event would be taking it a bit far, as its been advertised several times in the Morning Star and with no entry criteria.YFS
Regarding the previous post, please would any Comrades planing to turn up for the stall tomorrow look for The Parade in Canterbury. The photo is taken outside Folkestone Town Hall.
