Answers to correspondents

The Pay of Party Officials.

Several correspondents in recent months have asked what is the pay of the editors of the Socialist Standard and other Party Officials. The position is that, so far, the whole of the Party’s work (apart from Head Office cleaning and caretaking), secretarial, editorial, organising, speaking, etc., has been done by volunteers, without any pay at all. As the Party’s activities grow, it will cease to be possible to have certain kinds of work done by volunteers in their spare time, although the bulk of the work will always be done in this way. The fact that the S.P.G.B’s financial resources are at present meagre has the effect of preventing us from undertaking those extensions of our activities which would necessitate having full-time organisers and other officials.

ED. COMM.

The Qualification of “S.S.” Writers.

Other correspondents have asked for information about the identity of the writers of articles published in the Socialist Standard, their qualifications to deal with certain subjects, and other similar information. The principal answer to all such inquiries is that the articles published in the SICIALIST STANDARD carry their justification with them. They put forward certain arguments which the reader is expected to examine for himself, and to accept only if he finds them logical and in accordance with the facts. No attempt is made to secure the reader’s agreement with a point of view merely on the ground that the writer is an “authority,” although it is the claim of the S.P.G.B. that its declarations concerning Socialism, whether on the platform or in print, are the result of serious study, and are in that sense authoritative. For what it is worth we may point out that among the regular contributors to the Socialist Standard are half a dozen writers who have university training and degrees. They are not, for that reason, any better exponents of the Socialist case than other writers who have not that kind of distinction. Having qualified in some special branch of study, they may be expected to be particularly fitted to deal with aspects of Socialism touching thereon, but in that they are no different from other writers and speakers of the Party who have specialised in various directions. In the S.P.G.B. every effort is made to secure accuracy as regards statements of fact, and to secure that all written and spoken statements of the Socialist case shall be in accordance with the teachings of science.

ED. COMM.

(Socialist Standard, June 1934)