Money Free Party

[ALB]

I see from the Minutes of Kent & Sussex branch that they have an agenda item on discussing with this party. And they are a party registered with the Electoral Commission with a "Nicholas Tapping" (well-known on the WSM Forum) as their "Leader". Here's their site:

http://moneyfreeparty.org.uk/viewpage.php?page_id=7

and a video they've produced:

The video does what has been suggested we do — interviewing people in the street. Also, they seem to be more into the ideas of Jacque Fresco than Peter Joseph.

Anyway what do others think of the video and its approach?

[DJP]

I don't think they should have used child labour I found the kids voice irritating and they could have cut it in half by not having the Jacques Fresco clips. I think the short format of our election video was good.

[alanjjohnstone]

One thing i noticed much to the concernation of perhaps our copyright experts – it uses a commercial movie clip as an introduction…and i'll wager they never got permission but are still able to put out their message. A lesson that we shouldn't be too legalistic in any of our own productions. I have always argued that we should never simply limit ourselves to just  one type of video but to build up a collection with different styles and approaches…serious…light-hearted…angry…documentary-mode…general analysis or on specific issues .The easiest and the cheapest is the simple flash animation…as basic as a series of photos with captions and background music. They can be very effective and convenient to post around the web's discussion lists. Perhaps beyond our own expertise but not a student's capability. All we do is create the story-board and out-source. BTW hows the re-editing of the election video getting on…maybe all our short videoes of hustings and tv appearances can be compiled into one. 

[alanjjohnstone]

I just recalled Vin has led the way with flash using John Lennon songs and pictures…perhaps he can provide the link again so we can promote it. 

[Anonymous]

Report received from Richard Osmaston (who stood as mayor for TZM in the city of Nelson in 2013) on the results received for the Money Free Party in recent New Zealand elections.

Quote:

Nelson City Council Mayoral Election – 422 votes.About 2%.Tasman District Council Councillor Election – 704 votes.About 17%.Kaikoura District Council Mayoral Election – 157 votes.About 10%.Porirua City Council Mayoral Election – 342 votes.About 2%.Obviously I was a little disappointed at the numbers. No medals this time. However, I think the bigger picture reveals some very different and much more positive outcomes :In summary :1. Great to be free to continue our journey unhindered2. Massive gains in exposure and experience3. Huge number of new contacts4. Emergence of yet more realisations and detail to add to our picture of a Money Free world.In a bit more detail : Having somehow shoehorned 3 days per week into my busy schedule for campaigning, by not getting the Council job I get to keep those 3 days, purely now for direct RBE activities. 100%. Not diluted by ghastly bureaucratic procedures and obligations. My biggest hurdle to making faster progress towards an RBE world is finding good people who have time. Now at least I have time. The number of new connections and realisations we have made during the elections has been absolutely amazing. We've had so much exposure these last 3 months. I have a huge backlog of really exciting new people and ideas that need to be explored, nurtured and developed. Lots of offers of help too. During my door-to-door campaigning I was initially only expecting to lightly touch on Money Free topics, mainly focusing on 'local issues'. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that most people are totally over those however, and with the opportunity to discuss potential solutions, were very enthusiastic to hear more about Money Free/RBE. So we went much further than I expected to. I had very much misjudged the regular public's appetite for 'out of the box' ideas. There's lots more to come out of this whole episode. It'll take a while to process it all. And I haven't even discussed it with Gordon and Ted yet who both stood for Mayor in Porirua and Kaikoura with the Money Free concept. Very happy with the results. Lots more good stuff to come.

[alanjjohnstone]

Sad that our companion party, the WSP(NZ), has almost disappeared from the political scene.The MFP certainly demonstrates that there is an audience in New Zealand for our message.Is our problem not one of the content but how we transmit our ideas? I recall at one conference Cde, Johnson of Swansea Br. repeatedly regaled us with references to the USP…Unique Selling Point…That we have to discover what is in our publicity and campaigns resonates with our audience and results in a receptive hearing. I think we are still struggling to identify the core elements of our propaganda that offers opportunities for us to build upon. 

[Brian]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

Sad that our companion party, the WSP(NZ), has almost disappeared from the political scene.The MFP certainly demonstrates that there is an audience in New Zealand for our message.Is our problem not one of the content but how we transmit our ideas? I recall at one conference Cde, Johnson of Swansea Br. repeatedly regaled us with references to the USP…Unique Selling Point…That we have to discover what is in our publicity and campaigns resonates with our audience and results in a receptive hearing. I think we are still struggling to identify the core elements of our propaganda that offers opportunities for us to build upon. 

The anecdotal experience from my venture on Quora is suggesting the USP in order of preference are:1. A moneyless society2. The corruption of democracy.3. The cause of war.This seems to suggest that people are slowly but surely coming around to the idea that money is the cause of global problems. The human nature argument rarely shows it's ugly face, but the confusion over the meaning of socialism or communism relentlessly continues unabated.  After 3 months on Quora what I'm finding is the number of views my answers are attracting is way beyond my expectations.  Over 100,000 views, 900 up votes, 29 followers, and endless comments.Just imagine that instead of 3 regular socialist contributors on Quora what an impact 10 would have!

[alanjjohnstone]

Quote:

1. A moneyless society2. The corruption of democracy.3. The cause of war.

I think the Iraq invasion did a tremendous amount to expose that economic reasons and the capture of resources was the main motivating forces involved. I  found i was being lectured on the oil motive by people. But i think the subsequent Middle East proxy wars has somewhat fogged some of people's perceptions and religion has returned once more to the forefront as a major cause. Islam is now viewed as an aggressive instigator.(Israel and Palestine is a war with mixed interpretations, no longer one of secular "Marxist" national liberation fronts but Hamas and Hizbullah) Indeed the corruption of democracy has become a topic of interest for many. From various proposals to electoral reform to the Occupy critique of Wall St and buying political power from corporate financing.But it is a wide-ranging area of discontent from right to left. Have we forgotten the Tea Party?  I often come across the left's industrial democracy/cooperatives alternative being espoused. So what particular hook is there for us to use. Money-free themed societies. Do we go down the road of the singularity proponents and concentrate on technology liberation and robotic abundance? Or stick to the abolition of the market and private property centred argument? So even deciding on the three main areas, we still have to narrow it down even further and develop a strategy to focus upon. Has TZM succeeded in this better than us? Maybe so. Perhaps New Zealand is an exception but they have displaced ourselves there as the main proponents for a money-free world of abundance. But they also displaced anarcho-communist influence too. And if so we need to understand what lessons we can learn from them.It seems it is not the content of the message which is 99% similar but the presentation of the message is where we suffer from.Or am i on the wrong track? 

[Anonymous]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

It seems it is not the content of the message which is 99% similar but the presentation of the message is where we suffer from.Or am i on the wrong track?

I don't think you are on the wrong track.  From my experience two things stand out as off-putting to many (most?) people. 1) Our use of the terms 'socialism' and 'communism' and the connotations they still have.2) Our recognition of the class-based nature of society.Should we cease to use these terms or abandon our analysis of capitalism?  I think not.  But therein lies the dilemma…..

[Brian]

gnome wrote:

alanjjohnstone wrote:

It seems it is not the content of the message which is 99% similar but the presentation of the message is where we suffer from.Or am i on the wrong track?

I don't think you are on the wrong track.  From my experience two things stand out as off-putting to many (most?) people. 1) Our use of the terms 'socialism' and 'communism' and the connotations they still have.2) Our recognition of the class-based nature of society.Should we cease to use these terms or abandon our analysis of capitalism?  I think not.  But therein lies the dilemma…..

It only becomes a dilemma when socialists fail to tune into the Unique Selling Point of the day, be it a moneyless society, corruption, war or any other issue or problem of the current public mindset. Socialism is not for sale as a branding but the image of the essence of socialism is what engages the public mindset.The advent of TZM, MFP, Venus Project despite their adherence to a class based analysis of society exemplify the prospect of a moneyless society is still on the public agenda.    

[Anonymous]

Brian wrote:

The advent of TZM, MFP, Venus Project despite their adherence to a class based analysis of society exemplify the prospect of a moneyless society is still on the public agenda.    

I take it you mean "their 'lack' of adherence to a class based analysis of society".

[Brian]

gnome wrote:

Brian wrote:

The advent of TZM, MFP, Venus Project despite their adherence to a class based analysis of society exemplify the prospect of a moneyless society is still on the public agenda.    

I take it you mean "their 'lack' of adherence to a class based analysis of society".

Yes my mistake.  But to them a class based analysis is so much political baggage and unnecessary to their main message.

[ALB]

One of our leaflets that aroused some interest as something different was the manifesto we put out in the South East Region for the 2014 Euroelections. It read:

Quote:

Make this world oursIn socialism the planet will be like the one you know, but also very different. There is no money. There is no war. There are no rich people. There are no poor people. There are no leaders. All decisions are shared. All responsibilities are shared. Instead of competing to survive, people cooperate to live.This is Earth, under new management. Ours.You now have no bills to pay, no rent, no mortgage, no debts. Everything is free, nothing is for sale, and neither are you. But you want to help, just like others do. There are a hundred things you could do, a thousand more you could train to do.You might have chosen to drive a bus or a train, fix plumbing, coordinate a data network, plough a field, teach a child, organise an event, study engineering, cure a disease, brew beer, rehearse a play. You might choose to work four hours a week, or fourteen or forty. What you do makes everyone better off. That’s your recompense, and it’s better than money. It’s job satisfaction. It’s fulfilment. It’s a life on your own terms, a life worth living. It’s why you make the commitment to work.This is Earth, as it could be in the near future. It won’t be created by the politicians of capitalism. It will created by us, all of us who now produce everything, working together. We can say ‘We want this’. Then we organise to make it happen.Against our combined communications the billionaires can do nothing. Together we can force referendums, elections, votes and take control of nation states. Then abolish property laws and the agencies that enforce them and take control of factories, land, services. It can be democratic, peaceful, and effective. We take control. We take our lives back.This new Earth is not Utopia. There are problems, issues, arguments, accidents, mistakes, false starts or blind alleys. But cooperative management solves the problems as today’s arrogant leaderships never did.If you agree with this you can let others know that this is what you want by voting for the Socialist Party/World Socialist Movement list.

[alanjjohnstone]

Quote:

“Our recognition of the class-based nature of society….Should we cease to use these terms or abandon our analysis of capitalism?  I think not.  But therein lies the dilemma”

This takes us back to the difference between utopian and scientific socialists, doesn't it?.The utopian appeals to the moral and intellectual case of persuading individuals for the need for society change.TZM etcWhile the Marxist argues that capitalism has produced a class whose collective and objective interest is in abolishing its exploitation and so the working class will be the motor of change and in emancipating itself, liberates all others in the process.But how often do we concentrate upon that distinction in our writings?  Don’t we have an editorial policy that discourages too much theoretical analysis in the Socialist Standard?How often do we qualify the class struggle aspect of it advancing workers towards socialism with a caveat that it is not an automatic nor deterministic process? That, in addition to just only material conditions driving history, there is also the ideological one, the battle of ideas of convincing fellow-workers.And don’t we make use of the literary tactics of the utopians in presenting our case, by emotive depictions of capitalist dark misery and sunny blue-sky prediction of the socialist world.Our main video (Kids Stuff) effectively avoided the terms but not the analysis. Some ex-members of the Party have re-written a critique of capitalism and promoted its alternative without recourse to the traditional Marxian/socialist language.Language evolves with usage. Words constantly change their meanings.Do we spend our energy rehabilitating certain terms from their abuse? Or do we move on as many others have by either dropping what is considered an outmoded and redundant style of language and simply re-invent socialism in a new garb.Either option involves explaining what we really mean when we describe how we see present-day society and what we want to replace it and how we wish to do it. We cannot avoid the laborious task of education. Does changing our presentation by dropping those aspects of our case that have become prejudicial make things easier. Or will it have no effect on our communication. 

[Subhaditya]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

Do we spend our energy rehabilitating certain terms from their abuse? Or do we move on as many others have by either dropping what is considered an outmoded and redundant style of language and simply re-invent socialism in a new garb.Either option involves explaining what we really mean when we describe how we see present-day society and what we want to replace it and how we wish to do it. We cannot avoid the laborious task of education. 

In my humble opinion I think 're-invent socialism in a new garb' might provide better results… once you have a 'convert' you can always let him/her know this is what 'socialism' has always stood for and how the master class has done a good job of twisting its meaning.This is what I do… and people start talking about 'practicality of this new good idea' this  'newage dream' lol…. they have no idea I am talking about socialism…

[Author]

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