Party News Briefs (1949)

Party News from the August 1949 issue of the Socialist Standard

A Week-end Summer School has been arranged to be held on Saturday and Sunday, September 17th and 18th. The school will be at Tree Tops Holiday Camp, Farley Green, near Guildford in Surrey. Those who know this area will be aware that it is as pleasant a district as one can find in the county.

Arrangements are also in hand for private coach transport between London and the camp. The charge for accommodation and meals at the camp will be 18s. a head, the coach transport will be extra. The camp offers pleasant accommodation in chalets, individual, double and triple and it has a variety of attractions such as a swimming pool, tennis courts, pleasant walks, etc.

It is intended to arrange for a two o’clock departure from London on the Saturday afternoon. There will be no lectures on the Saturday, but a social evening is being organised. Two lectures are arranged for the Sunday, and it is hoped to be able to hold them outdoors on the lawns. The school will disband after supper on Sunday evening. Accommodation is very limited so those who are anxious to attend should get in touch with the Social Committee or the Central Organiser at once. In order to be assured of accommodation we suggest that intending visitors should send a cash deposit. It will help the organiser to conclude the arrangements.

St. Pancras Branch is holding some very successful meetings at mid-day on Sundays on the Broad Walk in Regents Park, London. On Whit Monday the branch held a marathon meeting at this spot, lasting from noon until 9.30 p.m. It has been decided to continue these marathons, with relays of speakers on Sundays throughout the season. Members can enjoy the amenities of the park whilst engaged in Socialist activity.

Lunch Hour Meetings in London are encouraging. Meetings at Lincoln's Inn Fields on Tuesdays and Fridays are always a well attended success. Tower Hill on Thursday and Finsbury Pavement on Wednesday are now on an organised footing. The propaganda committee has obtained the services of two additional speakers for mid-day meetings and is trying to work the meetings on a rota basis. It is intended, if possible, to extend the activity to include other places, such as, we believe, Leather Lane on Mondays.

Provincial Propaganda is being extended. The central organiser with the propaganda committee are arranging for speakers to visit various provincial towns, where a branch or a group of members can render assistance, throughout the summer season.

Central Branch Representation at Annual Conferences has been engaging the attention of the Executive Committee. Acting on a resolution passed at the last Annual Conference, the E.C. has agreed to a scheme whereby Central Branch members will each receive, before the Annual Conference, a ballot paper bearing all the resolutions and amendments that are embodied in the Conference Final Agenda. They can then vote “for” or “against” each item and the voting at the Conference will be on the basis of one vote for each ten, or part of ten, votes cast either “for” or “against.” Thus, if 68 Central branch members vote in favour of a certain resolution and 33 vote against it, the voting accepted on behalf of Central Branch at the Conference will be seven votes “for” and four votes “against.” This proposal will be placed before the Autumn delegate meeting.

Dublin Branch of the S.P. of Ireland has commenced a series of outdoor meetings in that city. At the first meeting, a comrade who had never mounted an outdoor platform before, a Dublin busman, spoke for 25 minutes and attracted an audience of between 400 and 500 workers. Despite interruptions about Cardinal Mindszentsy and Moscow he spoke for much longer than his colleagues anticipated. When the official speaker mounted the platform, the heckling became more persistent. Those in front of the platform who had been interrupting on the religious angle now made it apparent that they were carrying out an organised attempt to break up the meeting. They kept up a continual shout about religion and Moscow until our comrades had to appeal to the one of the two “guards” who were present. But the police merely smiled and shrugged their shoulders. This gave the interrupters encouragement and the cries became louder. The speaker continued in a good voice and a number of supporters and members of radical organisations who were present voiced their protests at the interruptions. The meeting had, by this time, grown in numbers to between 600 and 700 and, one of our Dublin comrades writes, “by now the atmosphere was like that of a Fascist meeting down at Ridley Road—only worse.” The Catholic Actionists, who were the instigators of the disturbance, then started to sing their well known hymn, “Faith of my Fathers.” This is the hymn that they sang a year ago when they attacked the headquarters of the Communist Party of Ireland. “But this time it didn’t have the desired effect the singers thought—nobody joined in.” As the police still took no notice the Catholic Actionists became bolder and threatened the speaker, making a move towards the platform. The speaker defied them and nobody accepted his challenge to try to put him off the platform. But at this point the police decided that the meeting should close as a breach of the peace was being committed. The police said that they knew that the meeting had been reported to Police Headquarters and that it was within constitutional rights, but if they left for re-inforcements the platform might be rushed and considerable trouble caused. So the meeting closed. Our Irish comrades are taking steps to try to prevent a recurrence of the disturbances, but they are determined not to surrender their meetings to the religious fanatics. One thing pleases them considerably. That is, that the organised interrupters got no support from the rest of the audience. They anticipate that more than 90 per cent. of the audience disagreed with the Socialist case, “but they wanted to listen to the speaker.” A letter just arrived from the Dublin Branch literature secretary orders an additional quantity of Socialist Standards in preparation for the next outdoor meeting.

All members of the Socialist Party of Ireland wish to convey their thanks to the S.P.G.B. for the valuable assistance given them, “without which the task of forming our Party would have been much more difficult.” “We would like workers everywhere to learn of this splendid example of Socialist co-operation.”

The S.P.I, is preparing a manifesto. It will be completed in the very near future.

The Socialist Party of Canada writes: “Though the Dominion Elections are due this month (June) we find ourselves unable to conduct an extensive campaign and as a result of financial deficiencies we are issuing only 5,000 copies of a leaflet.”

Visits from Overseas Comrades—During July and August we are anticipating meeting a number of comrades and friends who will be visiting this country from Africa, America, Canada and different parts of Europe. We extend a comradely welcome to them all.

W. Waters