New pamphlets?
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alanjjohnstone wrote:"Orders have been very low anyway", JDW, despite you taking the time to digitalise and upload there has been no publicity for these even aiming at members and branches. They should be advertised on our web and in the Standard.
Would you propose this through party channels?
jondwhite wrote:alanjjohnstone wrote:"Orders have been very low anyway", JDW, despite you taking the time to digitalise and upload there has been no publicity for these even aiming at members and branches. They should be advertised on our web and in the Standard.Would you propose this through party channels?
Goes without asking, surely. Any proposals need to be submitted to the new 'revitalised' Publications Committee which will be appointed by the February 2018 Executive Committee.
gnome wrote:Goes without asking, surely. Any proposals need to be submitted to the new 'revitalised' Publications Committee which will be appointed by the February 2018 Executive Committee.You are already the party's full time organiser! You should be nominated for the jobWould you take it?
Vin wrote:gnome wrote:Goes without asking, surely. Any proposals need to be submitted to the new 'revitalised' Publications Committee which will be appointed by the February 2018 Executive Committee.You are already the party's full time organiser! You should be nominated for the jobWould you take it?
No I'm not and no I wouldn't.
Pamphlets had the virtue of flexibility.George Orwell said that they need only be “topical, polemical, and short.”
alanjjohnstone wrote:Pamphlets had the virtue of flexibility.George Orwell said that they need only be “topical, polemical, and short.”Anything that the Socialist Party publish and has published is beneficial for the working class
Next January will be the centenary of Rosa Luxemburg's and Karl Leibnecht's murders.It would be an opportunity to publish a pamphlet offering our analysis of their ideas. We have done quite a number of sympathetic and some critical articles in the Standard.We could address nationalism, war, reformism, Marxian economics and political tactics all in one pamphlet, focussing on those two revolutionaries at a time when interest may have grown in their lives and deaths. Ample preparation time for the pamphlets committee…or they can co-opt a willing member for the task and merely do the proof-reading.
alanjjohnstone wrote:Next January will be the centenary of Rosa Luxemburg's and Karl Leibnecht's murders.It would be an opportunity to publish a pamphlet offering our analysis of their ideas. We have done quite a number of sympathetic and some critical articles in the Standard.We could address nationalism, war, reformism, Marxian economics and political tactics all in one pamphlet, focussing on those two revolutionaries at a time when interest may have grown in their lives and deaths. Ample preparation time for the pamphlets committee…or they can co-opt a willing member for the task and merely do the proof-reading.Would you propose this and the other pamphlets through party channels?
jondwhite wrote:alanjjohnstone wrote:Next January will be the centenary of Rosa Luxemburg's and Karl Leibnecht's murders.It would be an opportunity to publish a pamphlet offering our analysis of their ideas. We have done quite a number of sympathetic and some critical articles in the Standard.We could address nationalism, war, reformism, Marxian economics and political tactics all in one pamphlet, focussing on those two revolutionaries at a time when interest may have grown in their lives and deaths. Ample preparation time for the pamphlets committee…or they can co-opt a willing member for the task and merely do the proof-reading.Would you propose this and the other pamphlets through party channels?
Goes without asking, surely. Any proposals need to be submitted to the new 'reinvigorated' Publications Committee soon be appointed by the new 'reinvigorated' EC.
jondwhite wrote:alanjjohnstone wrote:Next January will be the centenary of Rosa Luxemburg's and Karl Leibnecht's murders.It would be an opportunity to publish a pamphlet offering our analysis of their ideas. We have done quite a number of sympathetic and some critical articles in the Standard.We could address nationalism, war, reformism, Marxian economics and political tactics all in one pamphlet, focussing on those two revolutionaries at a time when interest may have grown in their lives and deaths. Ample preparation time for the pamphlets committee…or they can co-opt a willing member for the task and merely do the proof-reading.Would you propose this and the other pamphlets through party channels?
Perhaps a pamphlet specifically on Rosa Luxemburg and the various aspects of her worldview would do the trick. She certain has a following out there in cyberspace as I have discovered on my forays into various debate forums I think, as I have said before, we need more in the way of intermediate-type pamphlets with a narrower focus and a more detailed treatment of the subject matter. General pamphlets on broad themes such as ecology, war, Marxian economics etc have their place , of course, but they need to be complemented by this more specific and targeted kind of approach in my view. The Party also needs to sigificantly step up the output of pamphlets which has slowed down considerably in recent years. Hopefully we shall shortly begin to see changes in this direction
Edinburgh branch have took the initiative and proposed a pamphlet on Rosa Luxemburg to EC and EC have forwarded onto publications committee.If you want the pamphlets I have produced circulated more widely in the party, you will have to propose it through party channels.
robbo203 wrote:I think, as I have said before, we need more in the way of intermediate-type pamphlets with a narrower focus and a more detailed treatment of the subject matter. General pamphlets on broad themes such as ecology, war, Marxian economics etc have their place , of course, but they need to be complemented by this more specific and targeted kind of approach in my view.If by 'intermediate',' narrow' and 'targeted' you mean topical, then this would be going down the wrong road. A pamphlet, say, on the conflict in Syria would quickly become obsolete upon victory for one side or the other. Syria would be forgotten and the pamphlet of little interest. There is an amusing suggestion in message 3. Now, suppose back in the 1960's the Party had produced a pamphlet called 'Wilson'. I suppose today it would have curiosity value, certainly for those who collect these things, but at the time the Party would have wasted its resources. Topicality is for articles in the Socialist Standard and leaflets. Pamphlets set out the broad socialist arguments dealing with the main features and shortcomings of capitalism. In that way they have, if nothing else, a longer shelf-life.
Rusty Pigfumbler wrote:robbo203 wrote:I think, as I have said before, we need more in the way of intermediate-type pamphlets with a narrower focus and a more detailed treatment of the subject matter. General pamphlets on broad themes such as ecology, war, Marxian economics etc have their place , of course, but they need to be complemented by this more specific and targeted kind of approach in my view.If by 'intermediate',' narrow' and 'targeted' you mean topical, then this would be going down the wrong road. A pamphlet, say, on the conflict in Syria would quickly become obsolete upon victory for one side or the other. Syria would be forgotten and the pamphlet of little interest. There is an amusing suggestion in message 3. Now, suppose back in the 1960's the Party had produced a pamphlet called 'Wilson'. I suppose today it would have curiosity value, certainly for those who collect these things, but at the time the Party would have wasted its resources. Topicality is for articles in the Socialist Standard and leaflets. Pamphlets set out the broad socialist arguments dealing with the main features and shortcomings of capitalism. In that way they have, if nothing else, a longer shelf-life.
Hi Rusty What I have in mind by intermediate type pamphlets could be something to do with a topical subject but it does not necessrily have to be. To cite a random example – we have a general pamphlet on Marxian economics but there might be a case for focussing on a particular aspect of Marxian Economics such as the "transformation problem" or "theories of economic crises" within an intermediate type pamphlet. Similarly, we might have a general pamphlet on the environment or ecology but we might also want specific pamphlets on say , fracking or global warming. The SS covers these topics but the problem with the SS is that, while what it does is absolutely indispensable, there are obvious space and maybe stylistic constraints that prevent a topic being given the kind of detailed comprehensvie treatment it sometimes requires in my opinion, The way party literature is currently organised (in the absence of a theoretical journal at any rate) means that the printed word tends to fall between two stools in that respect – general pamphlets and the SS . I think we need different approaches to plug what to me is an obvious gap in our literature. I say this out of practical experience of engaging with outsiders on various forums I belong to. Often I have referred such people to particular SS articles dealing with particular topics only to get the response that they dont find the article completely satisfactory as it is too generalised in effect (one critic used the term "glib" I recall). So I have to search for other closely related articles in the hope that several such articles might collectively provide the information that the person is looking for. It can be quite a pain in the neck! In any case I dont think intermeidate type pamphlets dealing with a subject of a topical nature is necessarily a problem even if it has as you say, a shorter shelf life…
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