Branch News (1962)

Party News from the January 1962 issue of the Socialist Standard

It will be noted from the appeal for funds in this issue that the Party is making an all-out drive to double the circulation of the Socialist Standard—a well worthwhile aim and one that can be achieved by concentrated efforts on the part of Comrades and readers of the Standard. With this in view—if every reader of this month’s issue completed the subscription form for 12 issues and sent the form with 8s. to Head Office —a very big step on the road will be taken. The Literature Committee will be more than happy to report in February that they are overwhelmed with subscription forms.

* * *

Glasgow Branch report well on their November propaganda meetings. The members of the Branch are an enthusiastic group and work well together and achieve first rate results. Apart from the Branch series of lectures, Comrade Donnelly addressed a Trade Union Branch and the Comrades are sending circulars to other Trade Union Branches offering to send a speaker to put the Party case.

* * *

Due to the energy of the W.S.P. of Ireland a visiting speaker, J. D’Arcy, was able to hold a very successful meeting in Belfast on Thursday, December 7th. Despite bad weather conditions sixty people attended the meeting, some Party members travelling many miles to be there. A collection of £5 was taken and 30s. of literature was sold. Approximately one hour before the meeting, the W.S.P. of Ireland had managed to arrange for the speaker to appear on Ulster Television programme and in addition the details of the meeting being broadcast over the T.V. network. It was most useful as it gave us an opportunity to give a definition of Socialism in contrast to the policies of the Labour parties. It was also made clear that Socialism was a wage-less society. A very successful piece of organisation and propaganda carried out by the W.S.P. of Ireland who have in fact made history by getting our case broadcast, however briefly, we hope this will establish a precedent. In addition we were paid £4 4s. 0d. for the privilege. America, Canada television and Radio, now Ulster Television—speed the day when the case for Socialism can be broadcast on National channels at home and abroad.

* * *

Wembley Branch Annual Social was held on December 16th at South Ealing. A goodly collection of members and friends enjoyed an evening of eating, drinking and dancing. “Joe’s Band” provided the music.

The success of their first indoor public meeting has encouraged the branch to plan another for January 22nd, when Comrade Hardy will be the speaker. Full details elsewhere in this issue.

Like other branches, Wembley has a full programme of winter discussions and lectures. All members now regularly get a Newsletter giving all the information. So let’s see you along there to take part. At the time of writing also, a discussion has been arranged with the North Wembley Young Liberals for December 29th. Subject “Immigration”. Should be very interesting.

Wembley has maintained regular S.S. canvasses throughout the year and sales have been climbing gradually. They have now topped twenty dozen per month. Lack of manpower restricts efforts of course. This is where absent comrades can give a hand. Please contact the branch secretary for dates, times, etc, of future canvasses.

Phyllis Howard

Blogger's Note:

I believe "Joe's Band" was a band fronted by the SPGB member, Joe McGuinness. 

SPGB Meetings (1962)

Party News from the January 1962 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1961)

Party News from the February 1961 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

There was a report of the April 'Demonstration for Socialism' rally in the June 1961 issue of the Socialist Standard. Harry Young and Cyril May were the speakers at the meeting, and they spoke to an audience of 400 people.

SPGB Meetings (1960)

Party News from the November 1960 issue of the Socialist Standard

Socialist Party Meetings (2001)

Party News from the November 2001 issue of the Socialist Standard

Edinburgh Branch Day School

Against all war!

Public Meeting and discussion, Saturday 10th November,

Quaker Meeting House, Victoria Terrace, Grassmarket, Edinburgh.

Afghanistan - Another War For Oil? Speaker: Brian Gardner (Edinburgh), 4pm.

From Hitler to bin Laden - how do you defeat terrorism? Speaker: Richard Donnelly (Glasgow), 5pm.

Questions and Discussion.

Capital study group

The next meeting will be held on Saturday, 1 December 2001 4pm, Head Office, 52 Clapham High Street London (nearest tube: Clapham North). For more details, or if you would like to receive minutes or discussion papers,  please write to stuart_commie@yahoo.co.uk, Stuart Watkins, 173 Archway Road, London, N6 5BL. Tbel: 07785 106 XXX.

Rambles

Walk 1: Hampton Court and Bushey parks. Distance 5 miles. Pub stop for lunch. Meeting place: Hampton Court station, Sunday 4 November, 11am.

Walk 2: Cassiobury park, near Watford. Distance 7 miles. Pub stop for lunch. Meeting place: Watford Underground station (Metropolitan line), Sunday 9 December, 11am.

Enfield and Haringey Branch

Real democracy — local to global

Informal discussion. Thursday, 22 November at 8pm. Angel Community Centre, Raynham Road, Edmonton, N18.

Manchester Branch

Peter Kropotkin: Anarchist and Explorer

Monday, 26 November at 8pm, Hare and Hounds, Shadehill, City Centre. 

Speaker: Carl Pinel

London Sunday evening meetings

Lessons of the German Revolution 1918

Sunday, 25 November at 6.30pm, at Head Office, 52 Clapham High Street, nearest tube Clapham North.

Speaker: Bill Martin

London Day School

Revolutionary socialism versus left-wing reformism - an historical account

Saturday, 17 November at Friends House, Euston (just over the road from Euston mainline station), from 10.30 to 4.30, with break for refreshments.

10.30-11 am: Welcome and tea or coffee

11-12.15: Labouring in vain  — a brief history of Labour Party reformism. Speaker: Darren O'Neil.

12.15-1.15: Lunch

1.15-2.30: Leninism in practice — the Russian Revolution. Speaker: Robert Worden.

2.45-4.30: The Socialist Party — a history of no compromise. Speaker: Richard Donnelly.

Blogger's Note:

Bill Martin's talk on the Lessons of the German Revolution 1918 is available as an audio recording on the SPGB's website.

Bromley and Woodside Election Campaigns (1964)

Party News from the October 1964 issue of the Socialist Standard

Socialist Party Summer School (2002)

Party News from the June 2002 issue of the Socialist Standard

Obituary: Bill Ross (2006)

Obituary from the December 2006 issue of the Socialist Standard

Glasgow branch are sad to report the death of our comrade Bill Ross. Bill came across the Socialist Party at an outdoor meeting at the Mound in Edinburgh in the summer of 1965. Within months he had joined Glasgow branch. He was a larger than life figure who had left school at 15 years of age and had been a merchant seaman for many years. When he came in contact with the party he had graduated from Drama College and was already appearing on stage at the Edinburgh Festival. Within a short time Bill was himself speaking for the party both indoors and outdoors including a spell in London when he was working there. Later on when he found the stage too precarious an occupation he worked for many years for the Glasgow Parks Department where he was very active in trade union affairs. Bill was a voracious reader and was especially interested in scientific subjects. He was a good example of the self-taught worker, although having had a very basic academic career he had a wide knowledge of astro-physics and evolution, often giving branch talks on such subjects. He was a warm, friendly human being with a good sense of humour and his speciality was in taking popular songs and re-writing parodies. Thus The Lady is a Tramp became That’s Why the Worker is a Slave and the words of Who Wants to be a Millionaire became – “Have you heard of the SPGB. We want a world without poverty. Well, did you ever. What a swell party this is.” This is a sad time for all his Glasgow comrades but especially so for his wife and beloved comrade Terry. He will be greatly missed.

RD

The Coming Election (1996)

From the June 1996 issue of the Socialist Standard

When the election comes you will be promised the earth. The Tory Party will claim that the "feel good factor” is just around the comer. They are hoping that you forget the last 17 years of broken promises and shattered dreams. The Labour Party are out-Torying the Tories in a bid for your support. Don’t be deceived. They favour the same market system as the Tories, Liberal Democrats, Nationalists and all the other candidates will promise a variety of reforms. Despite their differences they all have this in common—they want to run the buying and selling system. Only the Socialist Party candidates will be standing for a complete transformation of society from capitalism to World Socialism.

Behind all the fine words of the politicians about democracy and freedom is the reality of a system based on production for profit. The rule of capitalism is no profit— no production. That is why we have thousands homeless, and thousands living in substandard housing while building workers are unemployed. That is why we have people living on inadequate diets while farmers are paid not to produce food. That is why we have well over 2 million workers unemployed in this country—banned from producing the goods we all need to live. That is why world-wide the day-to-day experience of millions is one of unemployment, hunger, war, pollution and crime. That is why we must get rid of capitalism and bring about World Socialism.

John Major said he was going to create the classless society and Tony Blair promises a stake-holder society. This is nonsense. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of the population own little or nothing but their ability to work. In order to live we must work. We are the working class. Whether we work as railwaymen or doctors, labourers or university professors, we must work for wages or salaries. A small minority own enough of capital to be able to live without working. They live off the unpaid labour of the majority. This is the capitalist class. This class difference is based on ownership or non-ownership of the factories, the workshops, and all the commercial and transport undertakings. Between these classes, there is a conflict that shows itself in strikes, lock-outs, speed-ups and productivity drives. While the buying and selling system lasts this class division will always form its basis.

The major illusion in politics today is that by voting for one of the reformist parties the present system can be made to run in the interests of the majority. This is a fallacy. In this country over the last 100 years we have had Liberal, Conservative, Labour and Coalition governments. None of them has altered the class basis of society. In other countries they have had Republican, Democrat, Communist and Nationalist governments. Again the profit system has remained intact. Any reforms that have been brought about, such as the National Health Service, have left a two-tier provision—and recent experience has shown even these reforms can be taken away. Capitalism can only work in the interest of the owning class. For the working class a century of reform has proved virtually useless in dealing with social problems.

Socialism would be a world-wide system. It will mean that the earth— everything in it and on it—will be owned in common by the whole population. It is a new system of society where everyone capable of it would work according to their ability and take according to their needs. It is a society based on co-operation, where wealth would be produced solely to satisfy human needs without recourse to the market system with its profits, prices and wages. Inside a socialist system the problems of world hunger, war, poverty and environmental damage would be capable of solution because their cause—world capitalism—would have been abolished. Socialism will be a real democracy, where men and women can decide what will be produced and how society would be organised without the necessity of shareholders, directors or politicians.

No one can give you socialism. We in the Socialist Party do not claim that we can give you it It can only be brought about by a majority understanding it and organising for it. Only you, the working class, can make socialism possible. The choice is yours—another 4 or 5 years of the same or the start to building a better new society?

Richard Donnelly

SPGB Meetings (1961)

Party News from the April 1961 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1966)

Party News from the March 1966 issue of the Socialist Standard

Minimum wages for us – and maximum profits for them (2002)

From the January 2002 issue of the Socialist Standard

When the minimum wage of £3.60 (adult) became law in 1998 many of capitalism’s apologists predicted widespread unemployment and bankruptcies galore. No such disasters occurred. On 10 October the rate was increased to £4.10 and the prophets of doom were once more out in force.

Like all reforms of capitalism the minimum wage legislation leaves intact the basic mechanism wherein a small handful live of the surplus value produced by the working class. However even by comparison with previous capitalist reforms this piece of legislation has proved woefully unsuccessful.

In the two years since it was first introduced the Inland Revenue has had to talk to 16,000 companies about non-compliance with the Act. Peter Grattidge, head of national minimum wage operation at the Revenue, reckons that staff have been paid under the minimum wage level in about 40 per cent of cases. The catering trade is notorious for sharp practices, such as counting tips in calculating minimum wage levels.

A recent example of how this reform works in practice is the swank London hotel The Sanderson. The rates for staying at this hotel vary from £210 per night for a double room to £2,000 a night to stay in the penthouse suite, a sharp contrast to the conditions of the cleaners and porters in the hotel. “From next month the hotel is proposing to switch from a shift system to a rate that will be fixed at £2.15 an hour. And rather than giving a guarantee of 38 hours a week the staff will see the minimum cut to 32 hours. A cut in hours might benefit some staff, but their contract commits them to work 48 hours a week if they are needed.” (Guardian, 24 November)

Richard Donnelly

Real Life Monopoly (2010)

From the January 2010 issue of the Socialist Standard

When we were children around about the time that we were tiring of Ludo and Snakes and Ladders we discovered the board game Monopoly. I can’t remember the details or the rules – something about cards that said such things as “Pass Go, collect £200”, “Go to jail”, “Get out of jail”. In real life it is usually found that going to jail meant the only people to collect money were the lawyers, but whatever the rules were it was good fun building hotels in Park Lane while your opponent was stuck in a hovel in the East End somewhere or off to jail and not collecting £200.

When we grew up of course we quickly learned that the Grosvenor Hotel and a mansion in Park Lane were not for “the likes of us”. Our fate was to be members of the working class who had to work for a wage or a salary and lead an anxious life between weekly or monthly pay cheques. However there are people who wheel and deal in such properties and a recent newspaper article gave some details of these deals.

Two separate properties in Park Lane valued at £5m-£6m, one in Grosvenor Street for £10m and one in Reeves Mews at £25m. The astonishing thing about these desirable residences is that they have been vacant for between five and ten years. According to the empty properties officer for Westminster council Paul Palmer the owners intend to keep them empty for the present.

“There are an estimated 1m empty homes in the UK, and as empty properties officer for Westminster council, Palmer is responsible for about 3,000 of them. Every day he visits some of the ritziest addresses in the capital and does his best to get them lived in again. What makes his job unique is the staggering value of the properties on his books; some of his Mayfair mansions are worth as much as £50m, even in their dilapidated state. … The properties usually aren’t abandoned for reasons which might prompt sympathy. Palmer believes many elusive owners don’t have the slightest intention of bringing them back to life. ‘So often offshore owners have little or no interest in the property as a building it is merely an asset to be traded as they see fit,” he says adding that offshore firms are tricky to track down.’ (Guardian, 17 October)

The article points out that in some cases where property is owned by offshore companies, no UK capital gains tax is payable, and there are cases where the wheeler dealers sell a £1m property after a year for £2m and avoid the 18 percent tax. These traders do not look upon these properties as places to live but as chips in their grown-up game of Monopoly. All of this financial skulduggery goes on against a background of millions of workers living in sub-standard housing, thousands homeless and hundreds even sleeping in the streets around about these empty luxurious mansions.

Compared to the complexities of capitalism socialism is a simple social system. Houses will be built for people to live in, not counters in a horror version of the kids’ board game like we have today. At 21 Upper Grosvenor Street there is a house valued at £25m, it has been empty for more than ten years. Once we establish world socialism it will be occupied immediately by a family at presently homeless. A simple socialist solution to a problem that capitalism finds insoluble.

Richard Donnelly

Letter: "We’ve got better things to do." (2003)

Letter to the Editors from the October 2003 issue of the Socialist Standard

"We’ve got better things to do."

Dear Editors

Regarding the recent dialogue (August Socialist Standard) between the journalist Will Hutton and “RD”, Hutton is clearly wrong to say that socialism has “palpable Christian roots”. Instead socialism and religious thought share (at a psychological level) similar roots – they are both responses to social conditions. Marx’s famous phrase, “the sigh of the oppressed creature” comes to mind.

However we should recognise that the desire for socialism arises not only from the immediate experience of living inside contemporary capitalism. Humans have over the centuries developed abstract ideas or models of justice, fairness and equality from their material experiences. These have been modified through different forms of society and culturally maintained through the years.

Sure, there is much more to socialism than vague ethical notions: socialists have a relatively specific view of society, social change and the alternative to capitalism. But does it really help our cause to go out of our way (as I feel SPGB members sometimes do) to try and deny any continuity – at any level – between our ideas and those of other traditions. We are the Socialist Party (and as such we are right to not permit membership to those with religious views), but we are not The Anti-Religion Party. We’ve got better things to do.

Attacking religion may not necessarily be a waste of time for socialists, but I am more concerned with the general mindset behind this. Of course it is easier to stay secure in a small, ideological (possibly psychological?) bunker. I think it would be healthier however if members more openly recognised that our ideas are sophisticated enough to still allow us to criticise religion at a political level, while at the same time not feel we need to continually begrudge common roots (even with traditions which are nowadays essentially conservative, like religion), without feeling we are somehow compromising our principles.

Brian Gardner, 

Edinburgh Branch

Obituary: Joe Richmond (2006)

Obituary from the October 2006 issue of the Socialist Standard

Joe Richmond died a few months ago. He was a marvellous member. He taught me what little I know about the Materialist Conception of History and he was the best member I ever heard on Engels’s Transformation From Ape To Man. He was a great guy. He was a shipwright on the Clydeside and came across the socialist case from a trade union background (as an apprentice he has been involved in the unofficial – and illegal – 1944 apprentices’ strike). He later became a school teacher. I remember him best as a lecturer at the Glasgow branch rooms in Berkeley Street using fretwork pieces of wood to show how the continents were formed. Years later on television I saw the same thing. He was also an attender at various classes on philosophy at extra-mural Glasgow University courses where he embarrassed the lecturers with his corrections about the works of Hegel, Engels and Marx. After retiring Joe emigrated to Australia to be near his two sons. He rejoined the Socialist Party and kept up his interest in political matters. We have had many great members, he was one of the best. To his wife Anna and his children we extend our sympathies.

Thanks a lot Joe,

Richard Donnelly

SPGB Meetings (1995)

Party News from the September 1995 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1966)

Party News from the September 1966 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Notes:

The January 1967 issue of the Socialist Standard carried a brief report by the SPGB's Propaganda Committee about the Seven Days for Socialism campaign. 

There was a write up of Anne Young's talk, 'My American Journey', in the Hackney Gazette.

There was a write up of Solomon Goldstein's talk, 'The Economics of Capitalism', in the Hackney Gazette.

SPGB Meetings (2009)

Party News from the September 2009 issue of the Socialist Standard

London centenary event (2004)

Party News from the March 2004 issue of the Socialist Standard

This is the Socialist Party's centennial year. A number of events to mark this have been planned for the coming months: meetings in Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham as well as in London, production of a video, publication of a book of selected articles from the Socialist Standard, and special issues of the Socialist Standard in June and September.

A political and social event has been fixed for Saturday 12 June at Regent's College, Regent's Park, in central London (nearest tube: Baker Street).This will be an evening event, from 6pm to midnight, with a buffet meal and background music. There will be a cash bar. Other events are planned for the same weekend, including an outdoor meeting in Hyde Park.

It will be an occasion for members, sympathisers and ex-members from all over the country and from abroad to meet, talk and mark the SPGB's hundred years of political activity for socialism.We expect a big turn-out.

To cover the cost of the meal and the music, we are suggesting a contribution of £20 but hope that those

who can afford it will contribute more so as to cover the cost of those who might not be able to pay the full amount.

If you would like to attend this event please use the form below. Any money sent now will be acknowledged and the tickets forwarded in due course.

Cheques should be made payable to "The Socialist Party of Great Britain" and sent to the Centenary Committee, The Socialist Party of Great Britain, 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UN.

Blogger's Note:

• The Socialism or Your Money Back book, marking the centenary of the SPGB and the Socialist Standard.
• The June 2004 issue of the Socialist Standard, which marked the hundredth anniversary of the SPGB and was a special issue focusing on the history of the Party.
• The September 2004 issue of the Socialist Standard, which marked the hundredth anniversary of the Socialist Standard and was a special issue focusing on the history of the Socialist Standard.
• An audio recording of the centenary meeting, featuring Bill Martin and Dick Donnelly.

SPGB Meetings (1984)

Party News from the August 1984 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

A recording of the SPGB's Birmingham Branch's meeting on 'Terrorism' (speaker: Christine Moss) is available at the following link.