SPGB Meetings (1950)

Party News from the August 1950 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings and News (1950)

Party News from the July 1950 issue of the Socialist Standard

Party News Briefs (1956)

Party News from the September 1956 issue of the Socialist Standard

Provincial Propaganda. Speakers have been visiting the provinces during July and August and it is hoped that good results will be reported from Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Nottingham. Bristol group has had success on Durdham Downs (a pre-war regular speaking spot). There has been difficulty over selling literature there but our comrades have taken the matter up in the local Press. Their letter has been published giving the full name of the Party. Meetings with audiences of 200-300 have been held.

• • •

Literature Sales. Comrades are still energetic on the various canvasses being organised by Ealing and Camberwell Branches. This work is particularly good as owing to the bad weather, our outdoor propaganda must have suffered and in consequence the sale of literature at meetings has not been as well as expected.

• • •

From Wellington, New Zealand, we have received news of the death of an old comrade, Con Killeen. The Overseas Secretary of the Wellington Branch writes: "He died in his sleep on the 9th April 1956, aged 78 years. He was a member of the old New Zealand Marxian Association. Con could always be depended upon to help in Party work, very seldom was he absent from EC meetings. He did not suffer a long illness. According to reports he was reading until 12 p.m. on the night he died."

• • •

From High Wycombe we also learn that Comrade Gibson died recently. Comrade Gibson had been a member since 1920, a speaker in his younger days, and although moving around, always joined his nearest branch. He will be particularly remembered by members of the old North London Branch.

Phyllis Howard

SPGB Outdoor Meetings (1952)

Party News from the August 1952 issue of the Socialist Standard

Party Notes. (1913)

Party News from the April 1913 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Ninth Annual Conference of the Party was held at the Fairfax Halls, Harringay, London, N. on Friday and Saturday, the 21st and 22nd March. A good muster of delegates and a large attendance of Party members took great interest in the proceedings. The report of the Executive Committee on the work of the previous year was unanimously adopted. This report dealt with the increasing activities of the Party, and showed the necessity for more propagandists to cope with the ever-growing demand for our gospel.

Our official organ, the Socialist Standard, was shown to have weathered the storm, to have attained a steady circulation, and to have been put at last on the satisfactory basis of “paying its way.” Thus persistent effort in this important direction has been rewarded with complete victory.

The Party was shown to be both numerically and financially stronger than ever in its history, while it goes without saying that the propaganda of the year has been carried on in the same uncompromising spirit as heretofore.

We go on refreshed, and with renewed enthusiasm, after a most successful Conference, determined that at our next we shall have even greater progress to report and greater successes to congratulate ourselves upon.

* * *

In connection with the Conference, and in accordance with our usual custom, a reunion of Members and Friends was held on Good Friday evening. A most enjoyable time for all concerned resulted in the securing of some £10 to assist in the good work.

* * *

With the advent of spring and, let us hope, better weather, propaganda meetings must be organised everywhere and all the time. The Lecture List (back page) must be extended all along the line. Our missionaries must be sent into the Provinces far and near to carry our message to the unenlightened of our class, and every member of our Party must be got to realise that SOCIALISM MEANS WORK FOR ALL.

* * *

Socialists in the Tower Hamlets Division desirous of becoming members of the S.P.G.B. should communicate with A. Jacobs, 78, Eric Street, Mile End, E., with a view to organising a branch in the district.

High Wycombe (Bucks). Propaganda meetings will be resumed here at the Fountain on April 12th and 13th, and will be continued every alternate week-end during the summer. Local Socialists willing to assist should communicate with R. W. Gardner, 23, Abercrombie Avenue, High Wycombe, who is arranging the formation of a branch.

* * *

Party members, and particularly propagandists, who expect to have any holidays during the year, should not fail to communicate with our Organiser at the Head Office before deciding where to spend them. He is the chap who finds work for idle hands to do.

O.

Party News Briefs (1951)

Party News from the July 1951 issue of the Socialist Standard

Bloomsbury Branch which is meeting on July 13th and 27th (Fridays) is arranging a series of discussions after branch business when the Autumn session commences. These discussions will be held every Thursday at the Branch room (North Room, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square) on and after September 6th. The discussions which will all be opened by Branch members, are dealing with subjects of political and social interest over the last hundred years.

Ealing Branch trip to Southsea on June 3rd was a success both from the social and (more important) propaganda viewpoints. In brilliant sunshine, Comrades Thorburn and Bryan held forth to a large crowd for over two. hours. There were some excellent questions and discussion, and literature sales were most encouraging. What a pity there is no group or branch in this area to carry out regular activity. Two more trips to the same spot are planned for July 15th and August 26th.

Bad weather has hampered the usual outdoor propaganda at Ealing and Richmond. Those meetings which have been held, however, have been generally good, with a marked improvement in the standard of questions and discussions over previous years. Audiences are somewhat smaller but show much greater interest than in the past.

Edgware Branch has changed its Branch meeting place to “The Blue Danube Cafe,” 153, Finchley Road, Hampstead. (Between Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road, Met. Station). The name of the Branch is being altered to “Hampstead” and members and sympathisers are invited to attend the Branch meetings which are held every Thursday evening at 7.30 p.m. Outdoor meetings are held every Sunday morning at 11.30 at Whitestone Pond, Hampstead Heath.

Hackney Branch would like members and sympathisers to note that their branch meeting on July 12th will be held at 8 p.m. at Bethnal Green Library instead of Bethnal Green Town Hall.

High Wycombe Branch report that good meetings are being held at their new station, Frogmore, High Wycombe. Literature is selling well, and the speakers sent by the Propaganda Committee have created lively local interest in the Party’s case.

The Week-End Summer School was held at “Treetops,” Farley Green, Surrey, on Saturday and Sunday, June 9th and 10th. Eighty members and friends and eight children attended and had a very enjoyable time. A lecture on “Production and Overproduction” was given on the Sunday morning and on Sunday afternoon an open discussion on Trade Unions was held. This time the attendance was amply sufficient to cover the cost of the week-end, without calling upon Party Funds. It is hoped that arrangements will be made for another visit to “Treetops” in September.

Phyllis Howard

Obituary: J. E. Roe (1972)

Obituary from the August 1972 issue of the Socialist Standard

Last month we heard with deep regret of the death of one of the Party's oldest members, Comrade Jonathan Roe of High Wycombe. He joined more than sixty-six years ago. Before the 1914-18 war he was a regular speaker in London, and he was one of the candidates in the first election campaign contested by the Party in 1906. The election was for the Battersea Borough Council, and the results for his ward were Blewett 57, Roe 49, Witcher 45.

Later he moved to High Wycombe, and for many years carried on an unwavering courageous struggle to give the Socialist Party of Great Britain a footing there. In 1950 he was successful in getting a small branch formed, and for a time Party speakers went regularly to the town to hold outdoor meetings. Eventually the Branch had to close down, but “Johnny” continued his socialist work with as much determination as ever.

Occasionally he contributed short articles to the Socialist Standard, and he was a persistent letter-writer advocating Socialism to his local paper and other journals. One of his pet opponents was the late William Connors, “Cassandra” of the Daily Mirror, who lived in the same locality; and the signature “J. E. Roe” was well known on the correspondence pages of left-wing papers.

Until recent years he attended Party Conferences, and never lost his zest—at the time of his death he was sending Party literature to 17 contacts in the High Wycombe area. With his vehement manner and sharp eye went immense friendliness and dry humour. He was delighted to hear from or be visited by members. The writer has a special recollection of putting a letter to the Islington Branch Secretary and a letter to Jonathan in each other’s envelopes. The result was a short note from High Wycombe: “What's this? Dear Phyllis? I advise you to pull yourself together, comrade.”

With his passing another of the remaining links with the Socialist Party’s early days has been broken, and a stalwart member lost. Jonathan Roe’s lifetime of work will not be forgotten, nor affection for him diminish.

Phyllis Howard