Status of World Socialist Party (US)
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Marcos,
As an ex-De Leonist, I would be very much interested in the newsletter you mention. How does one contact them so as to get it? Thanks.
(I have not noticed an active website of that sort, and even the website of that joke of a revived WIIU is no more.)
You can write to them, or to Robert Bills and become part of their contact list. SLP Newsletter, SLP PO Box 218 Mountain View, Ca 94042-0218 socialist@slp.org.
“The solution is simple. Join the socialist party of Great Britain and transfer all the archives and websites to the SPGB. It should have been done 12 years ago”
No thanks.Rather than just write off the WSPUS as “dead”, why not first of all establish who and where the members are? I would have thought that was the obvious first step that the SPGB could do and this matter should really be on the agenda of the next EC meeting. Someone should be tasked to comprehensively report on the status of the Party. The objective should be to resuscitate the victim not administer a lethal injection.
It is quite possible that the problem is more to do with the collapse of the administrative structure and internal communication than the decline of membership (small though it is) – though the former could very well accelerate the latter. It has already been pointed out on this thread that individuals contacting the WSPUS have been turned away for the reason that the organisation lacks the capacity to support the membership. Perhaps what is needed to transfer responsibility for administration to those members who are more motivated and able to take on the task and to restructure the Party.
The Canadian Party should be called in to assist as well.
I just find it incredible that in a country where there is so much potential for socialist growth that we are talking about winding up WSPUS without even investigating the situation on the ground. This is totally sending out the wrong message.
hey! I’m the vegas member that was mentioned at the beginning of this thread. I would’ve responded sooner, but I didn’t join the forums til like a week ago and just decided to start digging through it like an hour ago lol
it sucks that theres no administrative structure for the WSPUS right now, but I don’t think that means it should be formally disbanded. I think we could definitely salvage it, American members cant get involved in international politics hands on anyway. even if we only have a few members spread out across the country, I think the easiest thing to do would be to take stock of who we have and develop some form of a plan to spur growth. the SPGB could handle administrative duties until we establish a larger membership.
I also don’t think it should be re-branded either. we should definitely work to establish it as an official party that can elect candidates for office, because that’s one of the main goals behind socialism anyway, to take control of the state and use it to the advantage of the people rather than the capitalists. but we’ll never do that if we re-brand it as an educational organization, because a party would have to be established at some point anyway. BUT, I DO think that educating the people on what socialism actually is should be priority #1 for the party. maybe some seminars? educational content on youtube/medium? and strictly focus on facts, as close to no emotion as is humanly possible, and obsessively provide water tight sources so that critics have nothing tangible to argue with. we should stand on the principle of transparency vehemently, I like how all the other branches allow non-members to attend the meetings, so we should definitely do that too.
I also doubt that compromising on the religious principle would help us very much. I actually think it might hurt us. the principles are there to make sure were all on the same page and that our only allegiance is to the truth and facts. religion isn’t based on empirical facts, so to compromise and allow religious devotees to be official members would be a contradiction to that. I’d have to read through the other principles again to decide if any of those should be tweaked a little bit(maybe just the wording on the ‘hostility’ clause could be changed, but not the principle itself), but I definitely don’t think the religious one should be touched at all. but I’m just one member, and that decisions up to the entire party at the end of the day.
I’m gung-ho to do anything I can to help get the WSPUS back on track. again, I think step 1 would be to contact all the US members and gather some ideas of what each of us could do in our areas to get more people to join(organize and advertise an informative meeting/seminar/discussion in their area maybe?), then from there just work on getting new members up to speed on their research so they can educate and recruit new members too, and work on legally officiating the party for the polls
it sucks that theres no administrative structure for the WSPUS right now, but I don’t think that means it should be formally disbanded. I think we could definitely salvage it, American members cant get involved in international politics hands on anyway. even if we only have a few members spread out across the country, I think the easiest thing to do would be to take stock of who we have and develop some form of a plan to spur growth. the SPGB could handle administrative duties until we establish a larger membership.
Hi SwamiNetero
I couldn’t agree more with the above statement of yours and in fact have earlier written to the EC precisely about the need to take stock of who and where the US membership is (a list of sympathisers would help too) as a first step in jump starting the WSPUS back into activity. I also suggested that the SPGB set aside funds for a significant advertising campaign in the US, in collaboration with existing members, who could advise on the appropriate publications to place adverts in and assist in the despatch of materials to respondents.
My impression is that there has been collapse of the internal administrative structure of the Party leaving the membership high and dry and terribly isolated. Existing members and ex members need to be directly contacted as a matter of urgency to prevent a haemorrhage of individuals drifting away in disillusionment and the core administrative apparatus reinstated.
I dont know if you are on Facebook but there seem to be one or two active US comrades in the FB group, Genuine Socialism.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2126150080743426/
There is also Stephen’s excellent site here
http://www.whatissocialism.net/
that’s fantastic! please post and update in this thread whenever you get a response, I’d love to do whatever I can to help too, hopefully we can make some headway relatively soon. and yea, im a member of that facebook group already, my names SwamiNetero on everything; and ive dug into that website too, its pretty informative, thanks!
Hi SwamiNetero,
Good to make your acquaintance. I take it you’re in touch with DM who’s also an SPGBer living in Vegas.
Great stuff, Swami. I’m sure that with a bit of enthusiasm and clear thinking about what needs to done we can get WSPUS back on its feet and running again! It would also be very useful to collaborate with the Canadian Party – maybe there are joint endeavours you can get involved in.
On another matter there is a guy from Twin Oaks called Rich who I used to correspond with years ago who was very active in the WSPUS and even did some publishing on its behalf. He could be a very useful contact
I don’t know whose FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/2126150080743426/ is, but since it is has not been made public-access, those of use who are not Facebook users are not able to see any of it whatsoever. Perhaps someone would send them a message suggesting they do so?
I don’t know whose FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/2126150080743426/ is, but since it is has not been made public-access, those of use who are not Facebook users are not able to see any of it whatsoever. Perhaps someone would send them a message suggesting they do so?
Hi ZJW
I think you have to actually join FB in order to access this site. It is public but only public to FB users unfortunately. As far as I can tell Genuine Socialism I administered by a Canadian and an American comrade and is getting more traffic which is good to see…
Robbo-I mean for example —etc, and so forth.I am not a Facebook user, but I can access these. So, that’s what I mean by ‘made public access’.(There’s no doubt a more correct term that’s specific to FB use.)Hi All
At the request of the EC (Feb minutes) I am looking into the situation regarding the WSPUS with a view to helping to revive the organisation. The good news is that I have had several quite enthusiastic responses thus far from my initial enquiries. However, I have a very limited list of members that I know of to work with and I am wondering if there are people here who might know of WSPUS members – even lapsed members – who I could contact.
If you know of anyone in the US who is a member or lapsed member or even a sympathiser, please get in touch with at robbo203@yahoo.co.uk
Cheers
Robin
“If you know of anyone in the US who is a member or lapsed member or even a sympathiser, please get in touch…”
I take it you know of the two comrades in Vegas who both recently joined the SPGB, Robin?
Hi Dave
Yes, as Swami says both were contacted. I have just sent off a further batch of emails to other members this morning whose addresses I have now acquired. Once we have a full list of members in the US, and also sympathisers, we can begin the process of putting everyone in touch with each other. Given the small size of the organisation, and its scattered membership, communication is absolutely vital. I believe there exists some kind of forum on google which has been used for discussion before. This certainly needs to become more prominent and play a role equivalent to SPINTCOM/SPOPEN. The practical assistance of the SPGB will also be absolutely vital in this initial period of revival including possibly managing the processing of new applications for membership for the time being. I am hoping that the Party will be able to assist with a campaign of advertising in selected US journals but we need first to put in place the necessary organisational infrastructure for the distribution of literature and so on, as well as get the website up and running again.
So, all in all, things are looking a bit better than I initially feared There does seem to be the desire amongst comrades in the US to get things moving again. Which is just as well because the potential for growth there is very considerable given recent political developments in that part of the world
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