Left Unity.org / People’s Assembly
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We are not alone!Apparently, Respect lacks any leader, just like ourselves…or so it seems on the surface http://www.theguardian.com/global/the-northerner/2013/oct/28/georgegalloway-respect-party About Galloway being named leader Respect explains "Every party is required by the E[lectoral] C[ommission] to have a 'leader', whether they like it or not."
I wouldn't count RESPECT as a socialist organisation it was a cobbled together opportunist organisation which juggled a wide range of competing factions which inevitably would tear themselves apart as it seems to be happening with the recent resignation of five Bradford councillors. Respect was never a leaderless party in fact each faction saw itself as it's leader. Problem was that such leadership is hidden from public view and even from their own members view.On leaderless parties I'd be interested in seeing how they operate in practice. It seems to me that every organisation develops some form of leadership the trick is to ensure that the leadership is transparent, accountable and that members are politically developed to become confident in both theory and being able to apply that theory effectively to encourage wider sections of the working class to be critical and independent and conscious of our own material interests.
"On leaderless parties I'd be interested in seeing how they operate in practice." Look no further than here. The history of the SPGB demonstrates that no matter how popular a member maybe as a speaker, how erudite he or she may be as a writer, theorist or Marxist scholar, the party has always remained controlled by its members and no clique has dominated it. The evidence is in the numerous party conferences and polls that have gone against these "leaders" ideas and proposals whenever a controversy arises. Perhaps that may be a weakness of the party…purposefully knocking members off their pedestals when they appear to have any party or public prominence. "the trick is to ensure that the leadership … are politically developed" This is one of the purposes of the knowledge test , so that once signed up as a member, a newcomer has the same input as any long-serving member. No probationary period, no hierarchy, just the same one vote on every question. We certainly cannot effectively field election candidates but we are capable of the token gesture. http://www.socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2013/10/vote-for-revolution.html
admice wrote:I thought you were a party, just without enough members to run candidates?Actually we do run candidates, not many true but on a regular basis. See:http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
Can't see any of the left splinters becoming anything other than a front for a respective small organisation that has little influence within the wider working class. Seems that even the idea of socialism for the working class has become increasingly mkarginalised during the last thirty years or so.Would be interested in finding out a bit more of the SPGB.
A couple of questions to start of with.Does the SPGB branches become involed in campaigns such as keeping open hospitals, schools etc? On the website I've come across local election campaigns in London that have stood as candidates and looked at the election material. I have no problem with socialists standing in elections as the programme is a socialist programme and that if a councillor is elected then there would be no compromise in voting for any cuts of any description. The reason I say councillor is that there is more of a chance of a socialist councillor rather than an MP.What do branches do?
The SPGB have regularly fielded candidates in the Deneside ward, Seaham, over the last 15 years and have polled well over 100 votes each time.Purely down to the effort local members put in over the years in Seaham. Public meetings, over 1000 letters in the local Rag, on a wide variety of topics, a poster campaign, in which members in the Seaham Br, put up over 400 posters. Continually talking to local people about Socialism, not to mention the thousands of leaflets delivered to homes in this area.Building up a presence, which still persists today. Steve Colborn.
The job of Socialists, is to spread the idea that society can be organised in a way other than Capitalism. A way that puts the interests of "all" mankind first, not just that of a few social parasites.If a Socialist Party were to get involved in every reform movement, not only would it leave Capitalism basically intact, (there is always another Capitalist reform issue around the corner) but it would so dilute the time Socialists give, to actually fighting for and talking about, Socialism, as to make the real reason for the existence of The Socialist Party and it's message, no more than a side issue. Steve Colborn
Dave wrote:A couple of questions to start of with.Does the SPGB branches become involed in campaigns such as keeping open hospitals, schools etc?No, but not because we are against what such campaigns are trying to do but because we say that the job of a socialist party is to concentrate on campaigning for socialism. So, we don't try to hi-jack such campaigns as some groups do, but leave it to organisations formed by those concerned, especially the unions to organise the campaign as they think best.I don't know if this leaflet was one you saw on our website. It's to do with a campaign to stop parts of a hospital being closed:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/world-socialist-movement/whittington-hospitalWhen we stand in elections we stand just for socialism and only seek the votes of those who want socialism. We don't promise or advocate reforms to capitalism. Which is why, unfortunately, we don't get many votes.
Dave wrote:What do branches do?Public meetings, street sales, stalls at events, leafletting and speaking from the floor at other meetings, writing to the local press, contesting elections (some branches), all aimed at spreading socialist ideas.
Whenever I have stood as an SPGB candidate, the first thing I said, whether in letters to the press re my candidature, in the manifesto, or face to face was, we only want your vote, if you understand and agree with the aims of the SPGB, ie, getting Socialism. Cuts out all the bullshit dont you think?After all, As a member of the SPGB, I was not a member of the, "I'll push any issue that will get me votes party"! Steve Colborn.
I attended hundred of those so called Left unity, Joint Committees, United Front, National Congress, International Congress, Annual Meetings, and they never worked. At the end the results were to obtain less unity and more disagreements, and more splits A Chieftan will take some of the members of others organizations and form a new one, ( his own church ) and the disagreement were based on minors details. The central issue of those organizations is that Leninism is the core of the problem, and they can not question that, not even the ICC and its tendendies have tried to that, and they are not going to recognize that state capitalism began in Russia in 1917, not in 1930, or 1959 I used to know one fo those ML organization, they eliminated from their program the conceptions of Stalin, Mao and Enver Hoxha, but when they questioned Leninism the whole organization fell apart, and the whole membership left in stampede.
A problem I have with Left Unity, Peoples assembly is that they are increasingly relying on left celebs to boost large meetings and then call this a success. Where are the local based groups? Nowhere to be seen. Now to me socialism has to be the conscious self emancipation of the working class against the capitalist class. This self emancipation has to somehow facilitate the mass activity of workers not only by voting every five years or so but the continual expression of working class interests through some form of workers organisations where political decisions are hammered out democratically and then implemented.What I like about the SPGB is the emphasis on winning workers to socialism and to an understanding what socialism will mean.
The WSM/SPGB is one of the most democratic political organization that I have met. What we learn at the WSM/The Socialist Party in one day, maybe it will take a decade to learn on a ML group. All the knowledge is concentrated in the hands of the members of the Central Committee, they are the elite. We do not have any secrets, everything is open, we do not have any kind of conspiracy
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