On Means of Financing the Party.
- This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Greetings Comrades,
I should have asked this from the EC, and Secretary but since we are all equals here, and as I was told EC and Secretary are mere nominations, I am going to put this set of questions here.
First of all, I beg your pardons for I am putting it bluntly, but my routine may not allow for refined presentation.
The questions, and my reasons of asking:
- How does the party finance itself?
- Would it hear from me suggestions for possible financing means?
- Can we opt for somewhat capitalist modes such selling? I recall Chesham (I hope that’s his name) uploaded a post for selling party badges.
- If party is willing to participate in a project for financing itself, would it please provide me with a rather more transparent means of communication with relevant responsible officials so that we may discuss my ideas in full details?
For an instance consider that we may deliver lectures on mainstream economics, the knowledge of which is of vital importance for interpreting current economic conditions, and the problems therein. Likewise, the knowledge of other mainstream social sciences is equally of vital importance.
The humanist tradition, say Maslow, in psychology provides us with arguments which are accepted by the right wingers as well as left wingers, and if there is an agreement, let me tell you that Maslow, between the lines, is favouring socialist ideals in his theory of motivation. The similar may be true of Christopher Lash’s concept of Culture of Narcissism. The mainstream economics too provide abundant arguments which can be used to oppose capitalist system.
So if we can use the ideas presented or accepted by the right wing to demonstrate that they are wrong, would that not be a USEFUL contribution to the cause we all care for? And for its usefulness can we not ask for some financial patronage from our audience for continuation of work?
So kindly consider my proposal, and respond to my queries.
Regards,
David David.
Shouldn’t this subject be discussed in the World Socialist Movement section here as it essentially concerns internal party affairs?
Hi David
The Party raises money (which it has to since we live in a capitalist world) through a variety of methods – membership dues, donations, legacies and sales. Dues are voluntary and we try to keep the price of stuff we sell – literature and accessories – affordable as possible or to at least cover costs
Meetings are on principle free to all but some events such as the Summer School carry a charge because of the cost of accommodation and food. If you do get the opportunity to get to Summer School or weekend residential events such as that organised by Lancaster branch recently, it will be well worth going
If you have other ideas of raising money to carry out socialist activity then yes of course other members would be interested in hearing about this. You can bring up this ideas here or on SPINTCOM or by circulating branches (see contact details in the Socialist Standard).
To be honest though I dont think money is the big problem. The Party has quite a healthy bank balance at the moment to finance activity, mainly as a result of legacies. I think the big problem is how to encourage more members and sympathisers to become more ACTIVE.
There has been a marked shift in the way people join the SPGB and this has affected the pattern of party activity. Overwhelmingly now it is through the internet that people join. There has been a corresponding decline in physical branch activity.
In my opinion what the SPGB needs to do is two things
- encourage more internet-based activity by members from “reading classes” (there is a facility on this forum which is hardly used at all) through to publicity campaigns (like the “ten minutes a month for socialism” campaign). Everyone new member joining should be assigned a “buddy” to keep in touch with over the internet if not physically. A buddy system will break down the sense of isolation which is so corrosive of party activism.
- develop new innovative ways to encourage physical one to one interactions. Branch meetings, though necessary, are not enough. The Lancaster branch initiative referred to above points to one possible way ahead. Video conferencing is another
There is a lot more I can say on the subject but I would be interested to hear your views…
The SPGB/WSM is an university on socialism but it does not have teachers to educate directly the sympathizers, and new members, sympathizers must educate themselves without the guidance of a member of the Socialist Party or the Companion Party, and then they must answers the questions of the membership application, which means that sympathizer must be ready to join the party instead of being educated by the party.
Most Leninist parties they have study groups, or they have a member which they assign to a new sympathizer and his/her job is to educate that person, and when that person is ready, he/she can be recommended to become a member, sometimes that person go to the house of the sympathizers to educate them, a person who does not know anything about socialism must be educated by a person who has that particular knowledge
The SPGB is mainly an Euro-centrist political organization, and it does not have any policy for recruiting members from others countries, and it does not have any multilingual membership, even more, when a person is not an originally English speaking person they do not help that sympathizer, which means that it is a monolingual organization, it is not even a bilingual organizations, but several Leninists groups they have a different approach, and some of their members try to learn and study several languages, and some of their newspapers and magazines are printed in different languages.
It was shocking for me to read the message of some members who wanted others members to leave without consulting thru the proper channels, or the proper committee, like they can make personal decisions, others organizations they try to keep members instead of asking them to leave, unless they have an internal split
In regard to collecting funds for operations, the SPGB/WSM does not have campaigns to collect money from the workers or the public in order to continue their operations, they depend on the funds or money given by prior members who had money, and those funds can run out, and some companion parties try to receive funds from the SPGB instead of running their own campaign to collect money from the workers or the public.
I have seen some Leninists parties running a goal to collect a certain sum of money and they have reached their goals because the whole membership is involved in that goal, and some take turn to clean the premises, and their book stores, and some members take turn to sell books and magazines, their idea is that socialism-communism is a full time job, it is not a part- time job, and they dedicate their life to their own organization.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.