WSP(India) EC Minutes June 2016

[Socialist Party Head Office]

 

WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY (INDIA)

257 Baghajatin ‘E’ Block (East), Kolkata – 700086

Tel: 2425-0208 / 7378 (ISD: 091, STD: 033)

E-mail: wspindia@hotmail.com; Website: http://www.worldsocialistpartyindia.org

 

MINUTES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING NO. 164

Head Office, Sunday, June 12, 2016: Called to order: 6:55 PM

 

Note: This EC meeting was deferred from 05-06-2016 to this day for Comrade Pradip Singha’s professional engagement.

 

Present (EC Members): Sumitra Mondal, Harisadhan Ghosh, Binay Sarkar, Pradip Singha

 

Absent: None

 

Attendee: Raghunarayan Chaudhury

 

Election: Chairperson: Sumitra Mondal on motion of Binay Sarkar and Harisadhan Ghosh; Minutes Writer: Pradip Singha

 

EC Minutes No. 163 was read and confirmed on motion of Binay Sarkar and Pradip Singha

 

Membership Application: None

 

Correspondence: Please note that any comments in square brackets “[]” are comments from the General Secretary.

 

Inward:

– SPGB Minutes of the 5^th Meeting of the 113^th Executive Committee, 7^th May 2016.

– Academia.edu: Total 29 emails – May: 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13 -2, 15 – 2, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 – 2, 22, 29, 30 – 3, June: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 – 2, 8 communicating viewers from some 33 countries and analytics.

– Economic & Political Weekly (edit@epw.in), Mumbai:

Flag for follow up. Start by Monday, June 06, 2016. Due by Monday, June 06, 2016.

 

Dear  Binay Sarkar

Ref. No: 14041

This is to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your article, "(wl
1514) – Critique of Paresh Chattopadhyay’s “Twentieth Century
Socialism”" to Economic & Political Weekly.

If you have any questions, please contact us. Thank you for considering this
journal as a venue for your work.

Yours faithfully,
EPW Editorial Team
Economic & Political Weekly

Please see our Notes for Contributors at
http://www.epw.in/notes-contributors.html for guidelines on time taken for a
decision on special articles/research papers submitted for publication.
Economic & Political Weekly
http://www.epw.in

 

– Dr. Biswajit Roy (biswajit.its@gamil.com), Ranaghat, Nadia, W.B., INDIA, intending to publish the “Critique …” in their bilingual quarterly research journal – BOHUVASH.

– Faridabad Majdoor Samachar April 2016 copy received.

 

Outbound: Responses as required to incoming correspondence.

 

MSC: To receive and file incoming and to endorse outgoing correspondence.

 

Matters Arising:

 

HISTORY OF ECONOMICS pamphlet: We are yet to arrange for wherewithal for printing 1000 copies. Comrades have agreed to contribute 1000 rupees each.

 

SPGB Minutes, 7^th May 2016:

5. FORMS ‘A’ AND ‘F’

(1) Form ‘A’ i.r.o. Gorachand Paramanik (see also item 2 (e) (vi) Motion 5 of April EC minutes)

MOTION 16. (McLelland and Skelly) “That the Form ‘A’ be accepted. Carried 6 – 0 – 2

 

vi. Correspondence concerning the WSP (India): Application of GP (India).

Motion 5: “The EC agrees that Rule 3 does not apply in the case of GP. We request the Acting General Secretary to send a Form A to GP.” (Scholey/ Browne) Division (Browne). For: Scholey, Thomas, Browne, Foster, McLellan, Skelly. Against: Cox. Abstain: Craggs. Carried 6-1-1.

 

Once again read into the WSPI position (May 1, 2016 EC Minutes) on the question as follows:

“The SPGB Rule 3 states:

“A member shall not belong to more than one Branch at the same time. A member may transfer to another Branch, including Central Branch where deemed appropriate by the EC, and provided a clear record be furnished by their last Branch. A member leaving Great Britain will only be permitted to retain his/her membership if there is not a Companion Party or Group in the country in which he/she is taking up residence. An Overseas group be established for members joining from other countries until they can form Companion Parties of their own.”

• How could the SPGB EC reconcile the two meaningfully contradictory positions as above anyway?

• How could they offer membership to a person from India, a citizen and resident of India where there is a Companion Party of the World Socialist Movement? What’s wrong with the World Socialist Party (India)? Isn’t it a derogatory case of intimidation?

• Our political perspective is to replace capitalism by socialism peacefully and democratically by applying suffrage in elections.

• Thus the task of all socialists in all counties is to educate and organize their fellow workers towards seizure of political powers state-wise and worldwide more or less simultaneously. How would then a party member of a different country who is a citizen of another country accomplish this key task by opposing the already existing Companion Party there?

• Above all the person concerned here has unilaterally, motivationally and savagely attacked the WSP (I). How could he be considered for membership by another Companion Party of the WSM? Will he go to vote in Great Britain?

• Will any Companion Party accept any similar move by the WSP (I) offering membership to a worker and citizen of another country where there is a Companion Party?

 

MSC: That we urge on our Companion Parties of the WSM to ask the SPGB Executive Committee to drop this degrading move against the WSP (I).”

 

• Further observations:

1. This very divided and one-sided stand of the SPGB EC violates the principles of equality and fraternity among the WSM constituents.

2. The decision goes against their own initial inquiry regarding GP”s citizenship. What was its purpose?

3. This actually boils down to instigating factionalism in India by offering membership to a citizen and resident of India completely ignoring the existence of a Companion Party here and that too to a person who has abruptly, aggressively and dishonestly severed his relationship with the WSPI?

 

MSC: That the WSPI cannot accept this humiliation inflicted by the SPGB EC move; hence the Party cannot but contest it.

 

Reports of Executives and Committees:

Advancement of the Movement:

[B,Sarkar and P. Singha are going on posting and interacting on Facebook timelines. Harisadhan Ghosh is writing letters and articles in Bengali which are being published in various Kolkata based Bengali dailies.]

 

Academia.edu

Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. The company's mission is to accelerate the world's research.

 

They are now displaying some 33 papers and 11 drafts 15 books (actually 15 chapters of a book) and 3 teaching documents uploaded by BS.

 

⃰ We see this fast growing (from 36,882,115 academics on May 1, 2016 to 38,545,894 today) platform very useful for uploading and propagating world socialist ideas. So our comrades should make use of this platform.

The World Socialist Party (India)_Discussion Forum and the website: http://www.worldsocialistpartyindia.org are attracting new contacts.

Facebook: Forum membership stands at 1,864

Sunday Discussion: Every Sunday in the evening we meet to read and discuss Marxism, Leninism, Political Economy, Economics and other selected subjects.

Literature: Party literature distribution is going on

 

Socialist Standard: May and June 2016 packets arrived.

 

Unfinished Business: None

 

New Business: None

 

Financial Report:

Collection of Dues:

Financial Report: May 2016: (Rupees)

Income: 830.00

Expenditure: 1,483.00

Deficit: 653.00

Deficit BF: 18,516.00

Net Deficit: 19,169.00

Membership Subscription & Donation: Included in “Income” above.

MSC: To accept the financial report and to receive donations with thanks.

 

Next EC Meeting: Head Office, Sunday, July 3, 2016, 5 PM

 

Meeting Adjourned at 8:25 PM.

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