University Challenge Meetings (1995)

Party News from the November 1995 issue of the Socialist Standard

Socialist Party to stand five candidates (1996)

Party News from the September 1996 issue of the Socialist Standard

In the coming General Election the Socialist Party will be putting up five candidates, the highest number yet in a parliamentary election. Two will be standing in Scotland, two in the North East and one in London.

The seats and candidates are

Glasgow Kelvin:      Vic Vanni.

Livingston:               Matt Culbert.

Jarrow:                     John Bissett.

Easington:                Steve Colborn.

London Vauxhall:    Richard Headicar.

Around 40,000 election addresses will be distributed by the Post Office in each of the five constituencies, but this will only be during the election which must take place sometime before May next year.

In the meantime preparatory work has started, with meetings, literature stalls and leaflet distribution in the constituencies. If you want to help with this, or want further information about the socialist campaign, the contact persons for the constituencies are:

• Glasgow: Vic Vanni, Flat A, 26 Baker Street, Glasgow G41 3YE. Phone:0141-xxx xxxx.
• Livingston: Matt Culbert, 53 Falcon Brae, Ladywell, West Lothian, EH54 6UW. Phone: 01506-xxx xxx.
• Jarrow and Easington: John Bissett, 10 Scarborough Parade, Hebbum, Tyne & Wear NE31 2AL. Phone: 0191-xxx xxxx, or Harland Wear, Telephone 0191 xxx xxxx 
• London: Gareth Thomas, 185c Northcote Road, London SW11 6QF. Phone: 0171-xxx xxxx.

If you are not living in any of these areas but still want to help the Socialist election campaign one way to do so is to make a contribution to the Election Fund. The amount in the fund at the moment is £4,656, not much compared to what the pro-capitalist parties will have to spend. The more money we have the more effectively can we make the voice of socialism heard.

Cheques (made payable to “The Socialist Party of Great Britain”) should be sent to: Election Fund, 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UN.

Party News and Election Results (2003)

Party News from the June 2003 issue of the Socialist Standard

Local Elections

The Socialist Party contested 3 seats in the local elections in May, all in the North East. The results were:

South Tyneside Borough Council, Primrose Ward:

Labour 1658, Conservative 594, Socialist 316.

Easington District Council, Deneside Ward (3 councillors):

Labour 527, 492 and 479; Socialist 242.

Seaham Town Council, Deneside Ward (5 councillors):

Labour 390, 386, 372, 367 and 333; Socialist 216.

Leaflet distribution:

Over the past six months Socialist Party members have distributed some 50,000 leaflets at demonstrations and other events. The response has been up on recent years, perhaps reflecting a modest revival of political interest.

If any Socialist Standard reader would like leaflets for distribution in their area, write to Campaigns Dept, 52 Clapham High St, London SW4 7UN.

Blogger's Note:

The SPGB candidates are not named in the party news but my educated guess is that it was John Bissett in South Tyneside and Steve Colborn in Deneside.

Of those 50,000 leaflets mentioned above, I distributed a fair few.

Obituary: Carol Taylor (2008)

Obituary from the December 2008 issue of the Socialist Standard

It was with sadness that we learned in mid-October of the death of Carol Taylor, and at a relatively young age. Carol will be best remembered for her work on the now popular socialist film Capitalism and Other Kids Stuff, on which she worked as director and editor.

Though no longer formally a member, she had no actual disagreement with the Party case. She was always a fervent defender of the socialist cause and an ardent critic of capitalism, always keen to expose the insanity of the profit system in whatever way she could. On the discussion forum she attached to the initial Socialist TV website she created specifically to promote Kids Stuff she spent hours a day articulately defending the socialist case against our detractors who left messages, and there was a fair few.

Carol can be heard introducing the first ever film we did together here, a short film introducing the Socialist Party and actually put together within an hour.

I worked with her on a few films, including one on the “G8” meeting filmed up in Scotland a few years ago, and we spent a lot of time together collecting stock footage we felt we could use on future socialist films. I fondly remember the many encounters we had with the police who tried to stop us filming around London, often under threat of arrest, particularly the day we tried to get footage of HRH and entourage during the State opening of Parliament and the angry argument Carol gave to the police who came to escort us away from the area and, indeed, the way she cleverly managed to blag us media passes to get on to the press wagon at Teeside Airport when George Bush came for his £1 million fish supper in Tony Blair’s north eastern constituency.

I’m please to have known Carol closely and will remember her as quite a magnanimous person, warm and affectionate, loathing injustice, deceit and fraud and ever ready to speak out against it.

John Bissett

SPGB October Events (2024)

Party News from the October 2024 issue of the Socialist Standard

Our general discussion meetings are held on Zoom. To connect to a meeting, enter https://zoom.us/wc/join/7421974305 in your browser. Then follow instructions on screen and wait to be admitted to the meeting.

*Update*

Tonight's SPGB Zoom Meeting.

"Lenin: Anti-Tsarist revolutionary who succeeded or revolutionary socialist who failed?"

Speaker Adam Buick

4th October 7.30pm (Greenwich Mean Time)

#Socialism #Lenin  #SPGB

To join the meeting click https://zoom.us/j/7421974305

Socialist Election results (1997)

Party News from the May 1997 issue of the Socialist Standard

The 5 Socialist Party candidates polled a total of 1359 votes.

The individual results were:

• Easington 503
• Glasgow Kelvin 102
• Jarrow 444
• Livingston 213
• Vauxhall 97

Regional Assembly – careerist scam (2004)

From the November 2004 issue of the Socialist Standard

As leaflets promoting the benefits of an Elected Regional Assembly drop through our letter boxes it is time for workers to ponder just what is on offer.

    

Firstly, this constitutional reform is of no real benefit or relevance to us. It leaves our lives and the problems the profit system causes completely unchanged. Exploitation via the wages system continues. Unemployment continues as does every ill that plagues society. As far as solving real problems is concerned constitutional reform is just a useless irrelevancy. Labour only wants to bring in such reforms to maintain their reforming image. They wish to give an illusion of change – and such change they know will not coming into conflict with profits.

    

You may ask, if elected assemblies bring power nearer to the people, how can socialists be against this? Socialists are indeed in favour of democracy and socialism will be a fully democratic society, but full democracy is not possible under capitalism. Supporters of capitalism – Labour, Tories and Liberals included – always mean only political democracy, since economic democracy, where people would democratically run the places in which they work, is out of the question under capitalism, based as it is on the workplace being owned and controlled by and for the benefit of a privileged minority.

    

You can have the most democratic constitution imaginable but this will not make any difference to the fact that profits have to come before meeting needs under capitalism.

    

Secondly, a regional assembly will get almost all of its money from central government and the only “power” it will have will be to rearrange slightly how the limited amount of funds it will be given is to be spent. In other words, it will have no more real power than existing borough or city councils.

    

A local regional assembly will thus be part of the administrative arm of central government and its members no more than elected civil servants spending central government money. All we are being offered is another layer of elected bureaucrats – another trough for the professional politicians to get their snouts into, but of no significance to ordinary people.

    

If our rulers want to reform the machinery of capitalist government, that’s up to them. But spare us the pretence that it is some great extension of democracy.

    

As far as socialists are concerned, we are always grateful for any opportunity to contest control of the apparatus of government, even if that opportunity is handed out by the government as a careerist scam intended for its supporters. We have no preferences over the electoral systems, though we would use whatever access they gave us to these assemblies to provide a platform to shout about the interests of the working class.

    

The clearest message, though, from the government’s plans, is that power remains firmly at the centre, and that the elected bodies are only there to provide information flow in order to allocate resources effectively. The golden rule applies in politics – them as have the gold rule. So long as the purse strings are retained centrally, there is no possibility of the policies of these assemblies being anything other than the pale shadows of central government’s. Socialists look forward, instead, to having, within a socialist society, genuine, democratic freedom of association, where communities govern themselves through their own efforts; forming groupings where they need, rather than being stifled by sham-bureaucratic democracy engineered from above.

– statement put out by North-East branch of the Socialist Party for the 4 November referendum.

SPGB Meetings (1995)

Party News from the October 1995 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

There was a report of the October 25th debate with the Alliance for Workers' Liberty (Socialist Organiser) in the December 1995 issue of the Socialist Standard. As I mentioned previously I actually attended this debate. I remember it got rather heated and acrimonious, with both the audience members and the speakers getting a bit arsey. When they debated again in early '97 there was definitely some bad feeling left over from the previous debate on both sides.

Socialist election result (2001)

Party News from the July 2001 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Socialist Party contested one seat in the General Election, Jarrow. The result was:

Hepburn (Lab) 22, 777; Selby (LD) 5,182; Wood (Con) 5,056; Badger (UKiP) 716; Le Blond (Ind) 391; Bissett (Soc) 357.

The turnout at 54.6% was 14.2% down on 1997.

So in fact the abstentions — 28,000 — outnumbered the votes of the winning candidate.

SPGB Meetings (1981)

Party News from the May 1981 issue of the Socialist Standard

Party News (2000)

Party News from the June 2000 issue of the Socialist Standard

Annual Conference

The Annual Conference of the Socialist Party took place in London over Easter. A resolution was carried denouncing the Labour government’s Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Bill currently going through Parliament as it “introduces state regulation of the finances of political parties and bans donations from those it labels ‘foreigners’. As a democratic working class organisation we assert our right to manage our internal affairs, including our finances, free from state interference, and to accept donations from our fellow workers and socialists in any part of the world". Other resolutions were carried in favour of taking steps towards putting the World Socialist Movement on to a more structured basis, helping to establish a journal for Socialists in Africa, choosing by lot the person required by the Registration of Political Parties Act to be registered as “leader", and to reply to the question on “race” in the 2001 Census by answering “member of the human race”. A resolution to abstain from contesting national elections for the time being was defeated by 52 votes to 64.

Elections

The Socialist Party stood no candidates for the London Mayor and assembly elections in May. Members did, however, distribute 10,000 leaflets pointing out that those who wanted socialism could register this by writing “World Socialism” across their ballot paper. A Trotskyists United list, dominated by the SWP and calling itself the "London Socialist Alliance", obtained 1.6 percent of the party list votes but did better (2.9 per cent) in the individual constituencies, where it didn’t face opposition from the Scarglll Labour Party. Both the LSA and SLP were standing on a vote-catching reform programme. One incident worth recording is that when an SP member pointed out in a letter to the Guardian (1 May) that the LSA wasn’t standing for socialism as its progmmme implied the continued existence of the wages system, a leading SWP member (Derek Howl) replied the next day stating that “only a tiny proportion of the world’s workers are yet ready to subscribe to the abolition of wages. For most, the abolition of wages would mean starvation". Comment is superfluous.

The Socialist Party did stand a candidate for the Primrose ward of South Tyneside Council. The result was: Labour 998, Conservative 438, Socialist 184.

Mayday

Socialist Party members distributed leaflets at the various trade union and “anti-capitalist" events on Mayday in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle and Bristol. In London, before the violence broke out, a Party speaker was able to make use of a loudspeaker system, set up by the organisers to allow people to express their views, to put over the case for a classless, stateless, moneyless world of common ownership, democratic control and production for use not profit. This confirmed a front page article in a spoof edition of the free paper Metro called Maybe which imagined street meetings taking place all over Britain at which “some even proposed a stateless, moneyless society where goods were produced not to make profits but simply because people needed them".

Summer School 2000

The Socialism of William Morris. Birmingham: Fircroft College, Selly Oak July 7-9. Six lectures followed by discussion: 

Friday, 7pm-9pm. Who was William Morris? Edwin Walters.

Saturday, 10am-12 noon. The Utopian Tradition. Steve Coleman

Saturday 2pm-4pm Morris and the Romantic Movement. Ron Cook.

Saturday 7pm-9pm The Stateless Society. Richard Headicar.

Sunday 10am-12 noon ‘A Dream of John Ball’ Adam Buick.

Sunday July 2pm-4pm From ‘Nowhere’ to Somewhere. Stan Parker and Paddy Shannon.

Attendance at all lectures is free. Accommodation and all meals £85. Programme and full details from Ron Cook, 11 Dagger Lane, West Bromwich B71 4BT. Ini: 0121 553 1712.

Party activity during the summer months (1999)

Party News from the September 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard

Socialist Party members were active leafleting various events, including the Durham Miners’ Gala and the Tolpuddle Martyrs memorial. We reproduce below the texts of the leaflets distributed in July at the two events.

Message for the 1999 Durham Miners’ Gala.

The Durham Miners’ Gala is an integral part of the working-class tradition and history in the North East in general, and County Durham in particular. Although there is now only one working colliery in the North East coalfield, the gala’s pre-eminence as a working-class gathering remains. The crowds may have diminished from its heyday but other things have not changed. The continued attendance of those state-capitalists in socialist clothing, the Labour Party, is still galling.

 Offering much, but delivering nothing. They claim to be socialists but are indistinguishable from the Tories, Liberals and the rest.

 Labour, it should be remembered, between 1964-69 closed 233 pits around the country, and have never been backward in coming forward when it comes to using the full weight of the state against the working class.

 Using troops and the police to break strikes is merely one example. Ask yourself this: for all of the hundreds of billions of pounds-worth of coal which has been extracted from North East mines, with the concomitant cost in terms of tens of thousands of workers still suffering, what has been the reward?

Have miners lived lives of fulfilment, free from stress and anxiety? Free from worry over our and our children’s futures? The answer must be an unequivocal NO!

The wealth represented by coal has been pillaged by a tiny few, for their enrichment. The private coal owners at first, then on behalf of the capitalist class as a whole through state-capitalist nationalisation in latter years and now back to private owners today.

 In all of these periods, even during the spell of nationalisation (which was state capitalism, not socialism) the reward has been poverty, degradation and insecurity. The people who worked and died, and are still dying, to extract the coal, have had scant reward for their toil. The people who have suffered, and who still suffer, react to this by continuing to allow the tricksters of the left to con them.

Blair and his cronies are only the latest edition.

 The solution however is quite simple! It is a solution which is shown quite plainly on the banner of Murton pit itself, reproduced on the front of this leaflet: “Production for use, not profit”

 This is precisely what the Socialist Party advocates and has done since 1904. Socialism: nothing more, nothing less. The common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing the things we need to live. Where we all have equal access to the means of life.

A demand echoed by the above slogan. Only we, as a united working class, can bring this about and if you would like to know more about these ideas, why not get in touch: our address is contained in this leaflet.

Message for the 1999 Tolpuddle Martyrs Rally.

Tolpuddle Martyrs If gathering together to remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs means anything then it is surely not simply a question of just remembering but of also trying to change things for the better. This is precisely what those six Dorset farm labourers were trying to do 165 years ago.

 There will be many messages put forward today. The trade union and Labour Party leaders will tell us how far we have come since 1834. How much things have changed for the better, how fortunate we are to have a Labour government and how if we are patient and leave it to them things will improve still further.

 Our message is different. Much has changed since the nineteenth century and in some respects things have improved. These improvements have been brought about by people organising themselves and not by leaders.

 However the fundamental problems that faced people around 1834, such as poverty, homelessness, unemployment and so on are still with us today.

 If these problems are considered in the light of the wealth that is created today in comparison with over 150 years ago and if we look at things on a world-wide scale then we have made little headway.

 There is still an enormous growing gap between rich and poor. We still face these problems because one fundamental thing has not changed, namely, the nature of the society we live in. As in the last century we live in a social system where the prime motivation for producing goods and services for profit.

 What has changed is that more than ever we live in a global economy dominated by giant corporations. Many of these corporations have more economic power than some countries.

 We are not pleading with the heads of corporations that dominate the world today to behave a little kinder. We are not asking politicians to attempt to control the corporations. We are not saying let us run this system because we can run it more humanely.

 The present system is operating the only way it can, profits first, human needs second and the politicians have as much chance of controlling it as a two-year-old has of stopping a runaway horse.

Our message is that we need a complete change. At present, the instruments needed to produce and distribute the things we need, are owned by a minority, around 5 percent of the population.

 Our alternative is a system of common ownership and democratic control. Goods and services could then be produced directly for use thus ending the situation where production is geared to the profit motive.

This change cannot be handed down by leaders but will be brought about by a majority acting democratically and fully conscious of what they are doing. Since this society can only function on a global scale, the movement that brings it about will have to be organised on a world-wide basis.

If you are here today because you feel a fundamental change in the way society is organised is needed then you owe it to yourself to find out more about the only political movement which seeks FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE.

Party News: Euro-election results (1999)

Party News from the August 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard

The details for the two constituencies we also contested at the last general election were:

Easington: Turnout 17.24%. Labour 6,690. Conservative 1,541. Lib-Dem 800. UKIP 794. Green 451. SLP 177. BNP 125. Socialist Party 96. Pro-Euro Conservative 57. Natural Law 21.

Jarrow: Turnout 19.7%. Labour 6,484. Conservative 2,660. Lib-Dem 1,718. UKIP 787. Green 471. BNP 163. SLP 134. Socialist Party 106. Pro-Euro Conservative 65. Natural Law 38.

Election Results (1999)

Party News from the July 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard

In the elections to the Scottish parliament on 6 May the Socialist Party lists obtained 388 votes in the Lothians Region and 309 in Glasgow.

In local elections held the same day in England, the result in Primrose ward of South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council was: Perry (Lab) 1169, Armstrong (Con) 314, Bissett (Soc) 138. In the Deneside ward of Eastington District Council (three councillors) the result was: Peadon (Lab) 569, Lee (Lab) 558¸ Crowley (Lab) 534, Colborn (Soc) 163.

The election to the European Parliament in the North East Electoral Region on 10 June, where we put forward a 4-person list, was easily won by the abstentionists, the option chosen by over 80 percent of the electorate. The result, amongst the 19.6 percent who voted was: Labour 162,573, Conservative 105,573, LibDem 52,070 UKIP 34,063, Green Party 18,184, SLP 4,511, BNP 3505, ProEuro Conservative Party 2926, Socialist Party 1510, NLP 826.

Euro-elections (1999)

Party News from the June 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Socialist Party is standing a list in the June 10 elections to the European Parliament in the North East electoral region. Standing for capitalism are the three parliamentary parties, the Greens, the UK Independence Party and the Scargill Labour Party (the last two both campaigning on a platform of British withdrawal from the Common Market), the Pro-Euro Conservative Party, the BNP and the commercial organisation selling meditation courses known as the “Natural Law Party”.

The four-person Socialist Party list is: John Bissett, Steve Colborn, Stephen Davison and Andy Pitts.

Elections in North East England (1999)

Party News from the May 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard 

We are standing two candidates in the 6 May local elections in the North East, in Primrose ward of South Tyneside Metropolitan Council and in Deneside ward of Easington District and Seaham Town councils. Further details from the North East Branch Secretary.

The North East branch will also be contesting the European elections on 10 June. A full list will be presented in the 4-member North East Election Region. The Socialist list is: John Bissett, Steve Colborn, Stephen Davidson, Andy Pitts. It is planned to have over a million leaflets distributed to households in the area.

Party News (1999)

Party News from the January 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard

Election Result

The result of the by-election on 17 December in the Quay ward of South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council: Abbot (Lib-Dem) 669; Nellist (Lab) 452; Cole (Con) 42; Bissett (Socialist) 39.

Party News (1998)

Party News from the December 1998 issue of the Socialist Standard

Denmark

On 21 October our comrade Graham Taylor represented the World Socialist f Movement in a debate in Aarhus against the “Internationale Socialister”, the Danish equivalent of the British SWP. The debate, in Danish, was mainly about why we did not regard the Russian revolution as a socialist revolution. On 4 November a lecture on Marxism in the same city attended by 90 people provided an opportunity for the case for socialism to be presented from the floor. A number of new contacts have been made and the local press has expressed an interest.

North East

Despite the shadow boxing between Labour and the Tory Lords over the election system for next June's Euro-elections, the North East branch is going ahead with plans to present a 4 person list for the North East regional constituency.

To date, on two separate occasions, a branch member has been a panellist on BBC Radio Tyneside's discussion and phone in programme "The Zoo" (their title) where they were able to put and answer questions on the socialist case.

Meanwhile, another vacancy has arisen on South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council, in Quay ward, Hebburn. The by-election is taking place on 17 December. The Socialist Party candidate is John Bissett. A meeting challenging the other candidates—Labour, Lib-Dem and Tory—has been organised at the Community Centre, Hebburn, at 8pm on Tuesday 15 December.

Party News (1998)

Party News from the September 1998 issue of the Socialist Standard

Council by-election

Due to the death of a councillor a by-election is being held in the Bede Ward of South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council on 3 September. The Socialist Party is standing a candidate. Offers of help and further information: North East branch.

Summer School

Over 40 people attended the Socialist Party’s residential summer school on “Marxism Revisited" in Birmingham at the beginning of July. Audio and/or video tapes of the five talks are available for sale. Details from:Tapes Department. (See box on p.18.)

Autumn Delegate Meeting

The Socialist Party's 95th Autumn Delegate Meeting will take place on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October, from 10.15am to 6pm both days, at our Head Office. 52 Clapham High Street. London SW4 (nearest Tube: Clapham North). As with all our meetings, this conference of branch delegates to review the work of the executive committee and plan activity for 1999, is open to the public.

Correction

For those who wondering what Owen did at the end of SC’s article “Minor Distractions on the Road to Freedom" in last month’s Socialist Standard the answer is that he done us proud. Our apologies for this omission due to a computer error at our printers.

Party News (1998)

Party News from the June 1998 issue of the Socialist Standard

The results in the three wards in which the Socialist Party stood in the May local elections were:

South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council—Primrose ward

Scorer (Lab) 1155, Smith (LD) 220, Armstrong (Con) 181, Bissett (Soc) 104.

Manchester City Council—Levenshulme ward

Whitemore (LD) 1550, McGregor (Lab) 771, Davies (Con) 148, Garratt (SLP) 104, Chislett (Green) 81, Pitts (Soc) 32 .

London Borough of Camden—Brunswick ward

Weekes (Lab) 653, Cousins (Lab) 601, Avery (Con) 443, Norman (Con) 376, Jones (LD) 286, Whitley (Green) 258, Parker (Soc) 58.

London Referendum

The Labour government has claimed public endorsement of their undemocratic proposal to have a directly-elected mayor for London who will have all the power, reducing an elected assembly to the status of a chat show. The actual results were:

Non-voters: 327,897 (65.4%), Yes: 1,230,715 (24.6%), No: 478,413 (9.5%), Rejected (spoiled and invalid papers): 26,188 (0.5%)

It would be nice to think that the unusually high number of rejected votes was due to people writing “Socialism” across the ballot paper, but most were probably blank votes.

 

No, thank you.

Last year two Labour MEPs, Hugh Kerr and Ken Coates, were expelled from the Labour Party for being too reformist. They are seeking support to get re-elected in opposition to Labour and feel that they may have a good chance since these elections will be held under a proportional representation system. In January a group calling itself the Green left issued a statement calling on “all radical and environmentally minded people-organisations to consult on the possibility of a green, democratic and pluralist alternative for the 1999 European elections and beyond. We ask the Green Parties of England, Wales & Scotland, the English Socialist Alliances, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Labour Party and all other Green Left Affiliates to respond positively to our consultation.”

At its meeting in May our Executive Committee adopted the following reply:

“The Socialist Party’s only aim is socialism as a society of common ownership and democratic control with production for use not profit. Because we hold that the best way to further the cause of socialism is to campaign for socialism and socialism alone—’to make Socialists’, as William Morris put it—we have always refused to ally ourselves with organisations which campaign for reforms to be achieved within the context of capitalism. We do not see that the introduction of proportional representation is a valid reason for abandoning this principled stance.

On these grounds, therefore, we decline your invitation to talks with a view to presenting joint candidates in the next European elections.

We shall, in all probability, be standing our own candidates in these elections, in opposition both to candidates who openly support capitalism and to those who are standing on a platform of reforms to be achieved within capitalism.”