Parish Councils

[alanjjohnstone]

 England has 10,000 parish councils and about half are not party political.

I looked up wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parish_councils_in_England

But i would be interested in learning more from members who have direct experience they can share.

Should the Party perhaps begin to focus more on them when it comes to contesting elections? If at this stage our aim is political education isn't a good place to begin is at the start…the lowest level?

If elected and when it comes to elections, it may well be our best chance at the present time, would we be drawn into the swamp of reformism…and perhaps the most mundane of them — where to put park benches and litter bins but maybe other responsibilities that we might highlight more the socialist future link – local allotments and playing fields…the sharing of the commons

Can we perhaps suggest that their role and administrative powers will be expanded and enhanced by the establishment of socialism? 

I think we could go beyond the usual Leftist approach to local politics but i'd like to hear what other member know and think.

[robbo203]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

 If elected and when it comes to elections, it may well be our best chance at the present time, would we be drawn into the swamp of reformism…and perhaps the most mundane of them — where to put park benches and litter bins but maybe other responsibilities that we might highlight more the socialist future link – local allotments and playing fields…the sharing of the commons

 Would this really amount to reformism though?  Not that I am suggesting a socialist party should stand on any other ticket than establishing a socialist society.  But reformism to me signifies an attempt to modify the  workings or behaviour of capitalism as a socio economic system.  It is more to do with the economic policies of the central state than where  to locate a litter bin in your local Parish. I dont think it is being "reformist" to suggest that the bin might be better placed outside the local comprehensive school so the kids having an illicit ciggie can drop their butts in it

[jondwhite]

Choosing where to put a litter bin is activity – but it sounds like a bit of a stretch to call it 'political activity'. That is, I suppose, unless 'all power to the parish councils' ever catches on.

[ALB]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

Should the Party perhaps begin to focus more on them when it comes to contesting elections? If at this stage our aim is political education isn't a good place to begin is at the start…the lowest level?

No, not a good idea. For a number of reasons. Rather the opposite: focus on elections to national parliaments which are real contests for power. True, at the moment we contest elections mainly to publicise the case for socialism but parish councils? They have very limited powers (bus shelters, footpaths, allotments, where to place litter bins). This isn't even reformism. Its sub-reformism. Nothing wrong with it but, since we socialists are so few, we should leave that work to others while we spend our time concentrating on spread the idea of socialism. There are plenty of non-socialists who can make good parish councillors (better than we could).Actually, the Party has contested parish council elections on a couple of occasions. Seaham Town Council has the legal status of a parish council and we stood a candidate for it in 2003 and 2007 but only because there were district council elections on the same day covering the same area. Here is the result for Deneside Ward in 2003. There were 5 candidates for the 6 councillors, 5 from the Labour Party and one from us. The result was: Labour 390, 386, 372, 367 and 333 (all elected) Socialist 216. But what on Earth would comrade Steve Colborn have done if he had been elected?I believe the Monster Raving Loony Party is pursuing the policy Alan is floating, with mixed success:http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/news/crime/safe-dumped-in-bizarre-fly-tipping-incident-1-6800947http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/7633008._Loony__row_over_parish_vacancy/.

[alanjjohnstone]

Sorry, formatting failed and edit failed

[alanjjohnstone]

Quote:

the policy Alan is floating

  Yes this is all i am doing. Putting forward something for us to think about and discuss, and for developing into party policy, it must be something that is much fully raised at EC/Annual Conference/ADM and , of course, at the branches. As i have said on other threads, we should be more interested in practical questions than esoteric debating points on abstract theory. Some might say this is still all hypothetical so just as abstract but ALB conceded we had a good chance of getting elected.  I have already acknowledged my very limited understanding of such things as parish councils and suggested other members have much more insight of them to add to this thread. YMS is very interested in electoral procedures and applications.   ALB accepts that there is a possibility of electoral success and that was without a more active Party-wide participation. So i presumed correctly that our chances of being elected are better and with success comes publicity but my worry is the responsibility, and not just with the exercise of what some now say is not "reformism", so i stand corrected.   It will be a test of our rule-book where the local branch will have the task of directing our parish councillor. And would this be trial and error practice for the the future, indicating issues on how we apply this rule in the real world, no matter how small a world.   However, i think ALB is on slippery ground about where real power lies. Local authorities do not possess the same powers as national government and the supra-national EU Parliament has only recommendatory powers yet we engage in those.   Since we have to do our own leafletting for local authority elections, perhaps being smaller wards for parish councils, we could ensure saturation coverage.  Isn't our very limited street stalls having some success in keeping our Party visible? Couldn't our parish council campaign promote the local indoor and outdoor forum/ general assembly type of canvassing which has always been our strong point…face to face interaction with audiences.  Don't we have more access to the pages and web-pages of the local press than the mass media?  And an important element in our case is to do with creating a democratic structure that will be based upon a modified and adapted version of the existing model and surely we could expand on that link and build upon it.  The downside i think may well be that as a political party we will be viewed as entryists parachuting into a local situation where as ALB says, other activists are more informed and better equipped. But didn't we have a member (JB) who did have that qualification?   Once more referring to our rule book we have no prohibition of members taking up trade union positions as individuals but for political positions he or she can only do so as declared members of the SPGB. If we choose that parish councils are not a medium we seek to use as a Party, then are we by default saying members can stand as parish councillors as individuals and not as SPGB candidates? Party historians can tell me what our position was when there were direct elections to school boards and guardians of the poor and district health boards etc.  Let's engage in debate within the Party and with our not-so-limited resources actually perhaps experiment in a project regards parish councils. What have we actually got to lose by such a venture, compared with what we can actually gain.   But it all comes down to the availability and will of members so better now, than to wait until later.  

[jondwhite]

I just remembered a couple of organisations who sort of touched on these issuesthe Independent Working Class Association and to a lesser extent the Black Panthershttps://web.stanford.edu/group/blackpanthers/programs.shtml

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