Young Master Smeet
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Quote:We are aware, of course, that we lost an unique opportunity of indulging in heroics. We shall be told, perhaps, that we ought to have gone on in defiance of the powers that be till we went down in a blaze of fireworks. Our view, however, was the sane one dictated by our avowed principles. We have always held that the supreme power is in the hands of those who control the political machine. The most we could hope for by going on was to prove that contention. But it is not for us to prove our contentions by acting in opposition to them.There was no question of fighting for Socialism or Socialist principles. The Regulations were not, as far as we could judge, in the nature of anti-Socialist legislation. They were merely the precautions ordinarily resorted to by countries embroiled in a serious war. For this very reason we had nothing to gain by running counter to the Regulations, for just as the temper of the working class is, at the moment, such as to prevent them benefiting from our propaganda, so it would prevent them learning anything from our victimisation or martyrdom. Clearly, then, it was our tactics to place ourselves in such a position that only by the Regulations being strained to the point where they would become obviously anti-Socialist could we fall victims to them. These tactics demanded, in view of the risk of having our spoken words twisted and distorted in the Courts, that we suspend propaganda meetings for the time, and confine our activities to such forms of propaganda as would secure us from any attack that did not reveal the deliberate intention of our opponents to crush us under the cloak of the present situation.
I'd suggest we'd do the same again…
I wonder how Jenny Sutton got that vote in Tottenham, is she well known up there? 3% is pretty well done.
Whilst its true we're against 'British values' I think it would be a tough sell to ban a political party that's been in existence since 1904, and was never proscribed in that time. Also, our commitment to the use of the ballot box gives us significant protection (although we are against Parliamentary democracy). Technically, we've been in breech of previous laws. I've stood in Hyde Park inciting hatred of religion, but never been arrested yet…
I think the problem may be that warnings are buried down th thread and not seen: you may recall our correspondence when I received what, appeared to me at least, two warnings in the same thread overnight.
Rule 23 wrote:A Special Conference shall be called on a requisition signed by six Branches in good standing being sent to the Executive Committee.Per previous discussion on this question, it would appear that provisions for a special conference are unclear: how long the lead in and call for agenda items would take, etc. I would expect the requisition would have to contain the agenda, but it would still take about two months to get 6 branchess to sign, a further month to mandate delegates, etc. so ADM looks a better prospect for raising issues.
Vin, it's not a conference, it's a meeting of the Outreach dept. I copied you in with a copy of my suggested election activity form, so filling that in and sending it in to the meeting would help, along with any comments you want the meeting to consider. The meeting will report to the EC, and doubtless the results of these discussions will be relayed to ADM and then to conference, where, yes, you will be able to take it up via your branch.I have suggested that HO makes sure it has a proper speaker phone so people can join such meetings via phone call (better yet would be conference calling). Last time someone tried to Skype to an outreach meeting it went SNAFU.
This chimes with my experience, more of after hustings discussions with some people who liked what I said, but who were going to vote Labour for immediate practical reasons (of course, I was facing Jeremy Corbyn, and several times, when I followed huim, had little to say, because he was able to advance the same sorts of arguments and alaysis as us (much different to Emily thornberry) — except one opccaision, where we were asked to pick a song that defines our campaign: I choose "Imagine" (not my own choice, but I know the party well enough) and he said that would have been his choice as well.A couple of times I used the 'People's front of Judea' joke when attacking the various factions of the capitalist party on the platform. We need to spike that one early. I'l also add that the Tory candidate was astounded when I accused the other parties of offering the moon on a stick, when I'm talking about abolishing the wages system. He must have missed the opart of the earlier hustings where I accused the otehr parties of being hopeless utopians.
Oh, apparently TUSC are challenging the result, although can't see how. Surely they had an agent there at least to see the votes counted?
You're right, I must have been confusing him with someone else.Anyway, his book is available here:https://archive.org/details/capitalismandsla033027mbp
I believe a useful book on this subject is Eric Williams' (one of the leaders of Grenada the US deposed) 'Capitalism and slavery' he makes an interesting point that slavery was in part because there were no or few people in the newly colonised spaces, so capture and enslavement was the only way to populate and make them productive (for the owners).Of course, slavery was a key component of primary accumulation, literally seizing wealth in the form of humans.This is very useful:https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/When Britain 'abolished' slavery, the owners were compensated, so we have a real snapshot of what the scale of slavery was, and how widespread and valuable it was.So, on a quick look we have this entry:https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/28811And, look their firm is still in business:http://www.johnsmith.co.uk/about-john-smiths
Vin,yes, I think there was an EC resolution that members of that group were welcome to join the party. Sometime in 2001, I believe.
http://www.medway.gov.uk/PDF/Rainham_North_declaration_of_result_Locals_2015.pdfMust. Not. Laugh.Oh, go on then.Bwahahahahaha!!!!!
Actually labour is currently up in votes, 1.4%, their problem is the Tories have gone up (from a lead) by 0.8% — interestingly, I think the final result is within the extreme ends of the margin of error for polls…
