Votes for us

Just posted on Revleft 10 minutes ago. One favourable response already.  Danny, you’re in demand…. http://www.revleft.com/vb/spgb-election-interview-t171107/index.html

Divine endorsement!!

  Or better still, Alan, why not consider just scrapping that archaic and ridiculous ban on religion altogether?  Seriously.  Its totally superfluous and redundant and presents just another wholly unnecessary obstacle to the Party growing.  There are more than enough safeguards built into the membership application procedure to ensure that only genuine socialists join the PartyA  religious minded socialist is very likely to lapse from a particular religion – like Catholicism, for instance   – whose social policies are anathema to socialism.  However, he or she is very unlikely to abandon  core beliefs in a god or an afterlife and if this is posited as a condition of membership  and so  will reluctantly decline to apply for membership.  By dropping  the religious ban , the SPGB would thus ironically do far more towards aiding the decline of reactionary religions than by maintaining this ban Sooner or later you guys are going to have to amend this policy anyway. It is not the position of the Party that, later on, when it is a mass Party , it would relax its attitude towards religious applicants.anyway?  Marx took the view , I believe, that banning religious minded individuals from membership of the First International was quite unnecessary – despite his opposition to religion. Why not just ban religious evangelising within the Party rather than religious applicants per se?To be frank,  this issue a constant source of frustration to me and, I can assure you, quite a few  others outside the Party too.  But for this I would probably rejoin on the spot tomorrow and I know of others who would do likewise.  For everything that is sound and good about the SPGB – and overwhelmingly most of what it says I go along with wholeheartedly –  this narrow-minded knee jerk approach to the religion question stands out as embodying and symbolising what is wrong with it.  I am convinced that had this ban not existed, the SPGB would be a vastly bigger  organisation  than it currently is.  People who actually apply to join and reveal they have religious views are only the tiny tip of an iceberg; overwhelmingly most people who learn about the SPGB’s religious ban drift way conpletely and presumably into the orbit of reformist thinking. If revolution is inextricably linked in their minds with an atheistic outlook then they will not abandon their  core religious beliefs for the sake of revolution. So it is not only the grip of of traditional religions on workers thinking that the SPGB ban on religion helps to maintain – but  also that of reformism itselfThis is the point that the Party needs to get its head around.  Tying the fortunes of the socialist cause to the spread of atheism is a foredoomed project and, even then,  there is no guarantee that atheistic ideas  will translate into pro-socialist thin king.  I can personally think of quite a few atheists who are ardent supporters of capitalism.  Perhaps the SPGB ought to also consider refusing atheist applicants! You can,  if you  like,  forward the names of religious people sympathetic to the SPGB , on  to WIC  But the problem with  WIC is that its not a political party.  I would love to be able to fully identify  with and become an active member in, a revolutionary socialist political party.  As things stands, the SPGB is the only realistic possibility on the cards but its daft policy on religion prevents me as a matter of principle from joining it.  Which in so many respects is a crying shame.

Robin, can you point me to the queue of religous belivers that are waiting to join the SPGB?I think you’ll find it only exists in your imagination.

The SPGB takes a non-theistic, materialist approach to things, in particular to society and social change. Religious people believe in the existence of at least one supernatural entity that intervenes in nature and human affairs. Socialists hold that we only live once. Religious people believe in some sort of after-life. Clearly, the two positions are incompatible. We need workers who realise that the way society is structured is the result of people’s actions as they come together to produce the material things they need to exist; nothing more and nothing less. Belief in some supernatural force that steers it all would be counter-productive to say the least. In any event it’s very unlikely that a person who believes in something without evidence would make a good party member anyway. We need people who can critically understand the world and not get led along by con-men with their own agendas.

Smart move, Ed.You can follow the progress of the count here.The count is being done electronically. If you’re that interested the process is explained in this short video.