General Election 2017 campaign
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The EC decided yesterday to contest three seats:
Islington North
Battersea
Swansea West
The following manifesto was adopted for the two London seats:
Quote:YOUR LIFE, YOUR WORLD.
ARE YOU READY FOR AN UPGRADE?
Across the world the market system, capitalism, holds centre stage. Its cruelties and iniquities are too numerous to count, yet almost everybody imagines it is here for good, and for our general good, and that it represents the last stage in human development, in fact, that it is the 'end of history'. All one can do is to press for minor reforms, for no major change is deemed possible or even desirable.
In the wings, however, a new society is waiting. It is not supposed to exist, but it is there just the same, the next stage of history, the one that comes after capitalism. It stands impatiently in the shadows as the world grinds on regardless. This society is different in one basic respect from all that has gone before – it is based not on material scarcity but on abundance.
Global abundance of material resources is a new concept for most people, yet the practical obstacles are disappearing fast, and have already disappeared in the case of food, shelter, water and energy. In a world of abundance, why bother to buy and sell? Why bother to have wars over buying and selling? Why bother to have hierarchies of rich people making poor people's lives a misery? Why bother with 'cheap' options like pollution? Why bother with money, that carrot we wear ourselves out chasing? In an abundance, the only issues need be: how to put our collective resources to best use, and how to make the decisions fairly and in a way which involves everyone.
This social upgrade – which we call World Socialism – is a revolutionary advancement for the human species which will make 21st century capitalism look like the Dark Ages, yet the debate is not yet out in the open. Hardly anyone dares conceive of a society after capitalism, so powerful is its hold on the collective mind. But we dare.
The Socialist Party is like no other political party in Britain. First, because it doesn't want power for itself. In the new society we advocate, there will be no power structures anyway and our organisation would cease to exist. Second, because we have no leaders or followers and think instead that collective decision-making – democracy – is the only suitable way to operate a free society. Do you know of any other organisation that can say this? We doubt it.
So what's the catch? The catch is, we will not lead you and we can't do all the work for you. You have to be your own leader, else democracy is meaningless. So if you're prepared to stand up for yourself, don't wait for other people to do it first – get in touch with us and help out. Capitalism is doing everything it can to destroy the idea of World Socialism before it can get off the ground. All that has to happen, for it to succeed, is for you to do nothing.
To signal that you want this, vote for the SOCIALIST CANDIDATE, [BILL MARTIN/DANNY LAMBERT], and then come and join us, not to mend the current system but to build a movement strong enough to end it.
Swansea branch will have their own manifesto.
alanjjohnstone wrote:What will be the name we will be contesting the seats under?Same as last time, "The Socialist Party (GB)" in the two London seats and "The Socialist Party of Great Britain" in Swansea. They invoked the confusion clause last time as TUSC was also standing.TUSC won't be standing this time but backing Labour, but us using the same as last time can be justified on the grounds of being consistent.
imposs1904 wrote:Out of curiousity, why Battersea and not Vauxhall?Because, under the proposals to reduce the number of MPs to 600, parts of Vauxhall (including the part where Head Office is situated) and parts of Battersea will probably become a new constituency and we want to introduce ourselves to those in Battersea (which is part of the borough of Wandsworth). Also, the workers of Vauxhall have benefitted from the free postal distribution of our leaflets on many occasions, including only two years ago, which workers in Battersea never have. But, don't worry, we are not abandoning Lambeth. We'll be back there for the London Borough elections next year.
Here is the Swansea manifesto:
Quote:BREXIT: DOES IT MATTER?That’s the important question – says Brian Johnson,The Socialist Party of Great Britain candidate, Swansea WestWill BREXIT – whether hard or soft – do anything to solve the problems people in this country are suffering from – job insecurity, inequality, poverty, crime, poor healthcare? The answer has to be ‘no’. And the reason is that these problems don’t come from particular constitutional arrangements. They come from the way society is organised – production for profit and ownership of the vast majority of the wealth by a tiny minority of people: the global system of capitalism. The other partiesThis is the system all other political parties exist to administer. They have different ideas on how that system can best be maintained, but all agree it must be retained.Many of their supporters have good intentions but are unaware that, in campaigning for these, they are helping to maintain this built-in system of minority privilege. So, however different Corbyn’s policies may seem from May’s, they offer no alternative to the present way of running society.No matter how well-meaning politicians may be they can’t control that system – it controls them. The best any government can do is try to ride its storms.So what's the alternative?We propose an alternative based on ownership of capital and market forces that currently exists in the UK, Europe and worldwide. This alternative is a society of common ownership that we call socialism.Not ‘socialism’ as you may understand it. Not the type of dictatorship that collapsed in Russia and elsewhere – which were forms of state capitalism in fact. Not any of the schemes for state control advocated by some in the Labour Party.For us socialism means something completely different and something much better. We are talking about:a world community without states or frontiers based on participatory democracya society without buying and selling where everyone has access to what they require to satisfy their needs, without the rationing system that is moneya society where people use the earth’s abundant resources rationally and sustainably, and contribute their knowledge, skills and experience freely to produce what is neededTo sum up:If you don't like present-day society – with or without Brexit.If you’re fed up with the way so many people are forced to live – hanging on for dear life to a job that gives little satisfaction and doing it just for the moneyIf you are sick of seeing grinding poverty alongside obscene wealthIf you are sick of the Earth being abused by corporations who don’t care about the future or the environmentIf you think the root cause of most problems is the market system and the governments that maintain that system. . . then you’re thinking like we are.What can you do?The new society is one without leaders just as it is one without owners and wage-slaves. It is a wholly democratic society, one which can only be achieved when you – and enough like-minded people – join together to bring it about peacefully and democratically. If you agree with this, you will want to cast your vote for our candidate. In voting for Brian Johnson, the Socialist Party of Great Britain candidate, you will be voting for the socialism you – and we – stand for.ALB wrote:Here is the Swansea manifesto:Quote:BREXIT: DOES IT MATTER?That’s the important question – says Brian Johnson,The Socialist Party of Great Britain candidate, Swansea WestWill BREXIT – whether hard or soft – do anything to solve the problems people in this country are suffering from – job insecurity, inequality, poverty, crime, poor healthcare? The answer has to be ‘no’. And the reason is that these problems don’t come from particular constitutional arrangements. They come from the way society is organised – production for profit and ownership of the vast majority of the wealth by a tiny minority of people: the global system of capitalism. The other partiesThis is the system all other political parties exist to administer. They have different ideas on how that system can best be maintained, but all agree it must be retained.Many of their supporters have good intentions but are unaware that, in campaigning for these, they are helping to maintain this built-in system of minority privilege. So, however different Corbyn’s policies may seem from May’s, they offer no alternative to the present way of running society.No matter how well-meaning politicians may be they can’t control that system – it controls them. The best any government can do is try to ride its storms.So what's the alternative?We propose an alternative based on ownership of capital and market forces that currently exists in the UK, Europe and worldwide. This alternative is a society of common ownership that we call socialism.Not ‘socialism’ as you may understand it. Not the type of dictatorship that collapsed in Russia and elsewhere – which were forms of state capitalism in fact. Not any of the schemes for state control advocated by some in the Labour Party.For us socialism means something completely different and something much better. We are talking about:a world community without states or frontiers based on participatory democracya society without buying and selling where everyone has access to what they require to satisfy their needs, without the rationing system that is moneya society where people use the earth’s abundant resources rationally and sustainably, and contribute their knowledge, skills and experience freely to produce what is neededTo sum up:If you don't like present-day society – with or without Brexit.If you’re fed up with the way so many people are forced to live – hanging on for dear life to a job that gives little satisfaction and doing it just for the moneyIf you are sick of seeing grinding poverty alongside obscene wealthIf you are sick of the Earth being abused by corporations who don’t care about the future or the environmentIf you think the root cause of most problems is the market system and the governments that maintain that system. . . then you’re thinking like we are.What can you do?The new society is one without leaders just as it is one without owners and wage-slaves. It is a wholly democratic society, one which can only be achieved when you – and enough like-minded people – join together to bring it about peacefully and democratically. If you agree with this, you will want to cast your vote for our candidate. In voting for Brian Johnson, the Socialist Party of Great Britain candidate, you will be voting for the socialism you – and we – stand for.in my opinion that is one of the best pieces of introductory Socialist literature I have read. Genuinely, congratulations to the comrade/s who put that together.
Tim Kilgallon wrote:So what's the alternative?We propose an alternative based on ownership of capital and market forces that currently exists in the UK, Europe and worldwide. This alternative is a society of common ownership that we call socialism.It is a good manifesto but there seems to be a mistake here…
That's a coincidence. I was just about to correct it and inform the branch. Can be corrected by inserting after "an alternative" the words "to the society". Can't correct the original post as the "edit" facility has disappeared. Don't know why.
Jo Coburn will be interviewing one of our General Election candidates, Danny Lambert, on the BBC2 Daily Politics show this coming Friday, 12 May at around 12.45pm.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08qfs9b
Updated election video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScJyrOPT5Dg&feature=youtu.beThe Party needs additional volunteers both during the election campaign and afterwards at its premises in South London. If you think you can assist in any way please PM me.
Two separate references to us (The Socialist Party off Great Britain) within the space of a minute around 5.43pm on tonight's PM programme (BBC RADIO 4).First, comparing our opposition to Corbyn with that of Socialist Party's (SPEW – aka Militant Tendency) support, and second, the confusion caused by us sometimes referring to ourselves as simply 'The Socialist Party'.
Yes, here from about 43:10 into the programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08p5l7mIain Watson from the BBC is probably referring to a couple of tweets sent to him yesterday here https://twitter.com/OfficialSPGB/status/861902611435356161 and here https://twitter.com/OfficialSPGB/status/861902981716946944Max
gnome wrote:the confusion caused by us sometimes referring to ourselves as simply 'The Socialist Party'.That's not what causes the confusion. It's the other way round. It's the Militant Tendency sometimes calling itself the 'Socialist Party' that causes the confusion.
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