The return of leftwing cafe culture
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shortcuts/2012/oct/21/return-leftwing-cafe-culture?INTCMP=SRCH
Could this be of interest to the SPGB?
Funnily enough, I saw this too and posted in events and announcements. Imagine if say the SPGB had a property barely visited by non-members on a long busy high street in a major metropolis? Somewhere with high footfall, a shop front, with tables and chairs at ground level and a kitchen. Well … it does.
Actually this has been suggested before and someone put it forward as a "bright idea" in the brainstormig workshop at 52 Clapham High last Saturday. The big obstacle to be overcome would be the find members to make the coffee and sandwiches 6 days a week.What is interesting in the Guardian article is that the Firebox Cafe in Bloomsbury is financed by "Counterfire" which is a breakaway from the SWP by a number of their high-ranking cadres (Chris Bambery, John Rees, Lindsey German). It is rather amusing to see these hard-line Leninists reconvert themselves into Bohemians. But this happened before with "Marxism Today" and "Living Marxism". "Counterfire" is in fact the only Trotskyist group in this country that has made a determined effort to infiltrate the Occupy Movement here.
I believe Stair tried to convince us a few years ago when he was HO Organiser and wished to make the most of the re-furbishments of our premises and he suggested using the Brighton Cowley Club as a template. It indeed has it plus points. Brian J hoped we could also use the HO as a drop-in advice centre since he possesses some personal experience in that. But aside from the demand of commitment from members to staff it, i think the question of security was also raised. Perhaps a Saturday-only coffee/reading shop opening would be a gentle start to test the waters and see if we can expand from there. Maybe have a pot of wholesome soup on offer in addition to coffee/tea. Only take a sandwich board (pardon the pun) at our entrance to advertise and the outlay would be minimal. Aside from the menu, a print-out of our library can be available for those willing to linger and browse our literature. We could also charge a small fee for use of our printing facilities. I am sure informlly we actually do something like this when we have interested visitors, offer a welcome and offer a cup of coffee while chatting
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