Party News Briefs (1953)

Party News from the November 1953 issue of the Socialist Standard

Provincial Propaganda Tour. During the first two weeks in August two Comrades, D’Arcy and May visited Nottingham and held very successful meetings, the weather was good and the utmost benefit was taken of this. It has greatly stimulated the work of this new Branch who are doing first class propaganda in the district. Fourteen meetings in all were held—Literature  sales £4 and collection £7.  

Indoor meetings are arranged to take place at the Co-op. Halls, Nottingham, on Sundays, 1st and 22nd  November, at 7 p.m.

 

Comrade Coster visited Manchester during the last two weeks in August, the weather was not very good, but excellent lunch-hour meetings were held in addition to evening indoor and outdoor meetings.

* * *

Annual Delegate Meeting. This was quite uneventful this year and the numbers of visitors was rather less than usual. It is hoped to make arrangements for the Delegate meeting to be held later in the year in future, as it does appear that early in September many members are still taking annual holidays.

* * *

St. Pancras Town Hall Meeting, held on Sunday evening, October 4th, was quite successful, literature sales were good and collection of £15 taken; the meeting generally was interesting and well attended.

* * *

Bloomsbury Branch held a propaganda meeting at Conway Hall on Friday, 16th October. A further meeting at the same hall will be held on Friday, November 13th, at 7.30 p.m.

* * *

Swansea Branch are having good results from the work done by its members. Comrade D’Arcy debated with a representative of the local Welsh Nationalists in October.

The Branch is trying to arrange a series of meetings at local Miners' Institutes in South Wales.

* * *

North Paddington. The Party will contest this constituency at the forthcoming by-election. Help from Party members will be needed in addition to donations, however large or small. Offers of assistance should be made to the Parliamentary Committee and cash sent to the Treasurer at Head Office, 52, Clapham High Street. S.W.4.

* * *

Ealing Branch. The drive to increase Socialist Standard sales continues to make good progress. The number disposed of during September was 27 dozen. On the first Sunday in October, five members of the Branch, breaking new ground on a big housing estate in North Ealing, sold 53 copies, the highest so far in one “outing.” Only four roads were covered. Sales through newsagents are being maintained, and two of them now display the poster advertising the Socialist Standard.

The Branch has two debates actually on the stocks and another one (with a Labour M.P.) in the offing. The first with the Finance Editor of the Sunday Chronicle will take place in the Fulham Town Hall on Wednesday, 11th November, and the second will be in the Ealing Town Hall on Thursday, 10th December. Our opponent on this occasion will be a representative of the Crusade for World Government.

The Branch’s own Education Class has begun and will continue every Wednesday evening through November (11th excepted, see above) in the usual Branch meeting room. All these sessions will deal with aspects of capitalist economics. Every Branch member should have received a special circular about these classes and should make every effort to attend them. If this series proves successful, a further series—on history—will be arranged for the early part of the New Year.

The Branch is at present getting through a vast amount of work, and all members are asked to rally round and help spread the burden on to more shoulders.

Phyllis Howard

Blogger's Note:

Details about the St. Pancras Town Hall Meeting at the following link.

SPGB Meetings (1962)

Party News from the August 1962 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1965)

Party News from the March 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1956)

Party News from the October 1956 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

Background to Joe Thomas and the Workers' League is available at the following link.

Party News Briefs (1953)

Party News from the August 1953 issue of the Socialist Standard

Delegate Meeting. The Annual Delegate Meeting will be held at Conway Hall. Red Lion Square, London, on Saturday and Sunday, 5th and 6th September. Commencing each day at 11 a.m. A Social and Dance will be held in the Large Conway Hall on the Saturday evening from 7.30 until 11 p.m. Tickets for the dance can be obtained from the Social Committee at Head Office or from Branch Secretaries.

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Provincial Tour. A London speaker, Com. Coster, is going to Manchester during the third and fourth weeks in August to assist the Branch in its Summer propaganda. It is hoped that Ashton under Lyme and other Lancashire towns will be visited during this fortnight.

Comrades D’Arcy and May will be visiting the Nottingham area for two weeks during August.

#    #    #    #

Canada. Comrade Luff of Victoria B.C. has collected £5 10s. and sent it to Head Office to help Party Funds. This is greatly appreciated especially as our Canadian Comrades have their local propaganda to finance.

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Correction. In the July issue of the Socialist Standard a reference was made to the Mitcham Discussion Group. The impression given was that this was a Party Group. This is not so, but it is a debating Society which Comrade Turner addressed on behalf of the Party.

#    #    #    #

Internal Party Journal. With next month’s issue of Forum one year of publication will have been completed. During the summer months there has been a slight reduction in sales, probably because some members are not in regular contact with their branches.

If you have missed some of the earlier issues, you are invited to place a regular order, either with your branch literature secretary or by postal subscription through Head Office (6 months 3s. 9d., 12 months 7s. 6d.). Forum needs to be read regularly if the significance of references to past articles is not to be lost.

#    #    #    #

Ealing Branch

Ealing Branch is at present engaged in a further drive to increase the sales of the Socialist Standard. A special Branch committee has been formed and good progress is already reported. New areas are being tried for door-to-door canvassing, and extra efforts are being made to extend the number of shops selling the Standard. Apart from the shops already supplied, the Branch Committee has succeeded in getting a further twelve to give the paper a trial run. Total Branch sales of the Standard are now up to 24 dozen per month.

The Branch has now approved a report from its Propaganda Committee suggesting that it run its own education classes during the next winter season. Starting in October, it is proposed to run weekly classes on economics, and a further series on history is planned for the period after Christmas. Further details will be announced later.

Phyllis Howard

SPGB Meetings (1962)

Party News from the July 1962 issue of the Socialist Standard

Party News Briefs (1958)

Party News from the June 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard

May Day, 1958. Party activities in London, Glasgow and Nottingham had the best results for many years and it is most heartening. The weather was good, which is a helpful factor, but even with weather in our favour, it is essential that members should organise to get te best results. This they did, and although full details have not been collected, we do know that thirty-five members in Hyde Park sold at least 200 Socialist Standards and ten shillings' worth of pamphlets. An evening meeting at Denison House was also successful, but full details are not yet to hand. Nottingham. Members from London added to the efforts of the local members and held most successful meetings; literature sales amounted to nearly £3. Glasgow. Comrade D’Arcy, from London, joined forces with the Glasgow members, and outdoor meetings and one indoor meeting resulted in the sale of over £4 worth of literature, and collections amounted to £7 10s. 0d. At all the meetings the audiences were attentive and asked good questions.

Wickford. Branch reports that successful sales of the Socialist Standard have resulted from the Branch members canvassing in the Basildon New Town area of Essex.

Glasgow’s May Day Meeting. Glasgow City and Kelvingrove Branches turned up in full strength at Queens Park Recreation Grounds for their afternoon meeting. Twenty-one members sold nearly £4 worth of Socialist literature while Comrade James D'Arcy addressed an appreciative audience of two hundred, in opposition to the Glasgow Trades Council, whose representative, Mr. Hugh Gaitskell—addressing a somewhat thicker audience—explained how the Tory Party were to blame for the impoverished condition of the British working class.

The Party's May Day venture was well organised and the opening shots were fired when six members distributed 1,500 leaflets, from door to door, advertising the Sunday evening meeting. Later, in the wee small hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings, the streets of Glasgow received a face-lift of whitewash in the shape of adverts for the meetings. In the evening the finishing touches were put to the May Day campaign when Comrades Higgins, Richmond and D'Arcy put the Socialist case to seventy enthusiastic members of the working class assembled in the St Andrew's Halls.

The total collections and donations from both meetings more than covered all expenses. Full details of the literature sales are not yet to hand, but it is expected these will be better than they have been for many years.

During the afternoon, while our members were swarming over the Queens Park selling Standards, some members took the opportunity to expose to a small group of workers the anti-working class activities of the Communist Party. A few members of the Paisley Branch of the Communist Party were so incensed by the Socialist analysis that they rashly challenged the S.P.G.B. to debate and, needless to say, their challenge was accepted. We are writing to the Paisley Branch and can only hope that the “Foreign Office” of the U.S.S.R. will come out of their funk-holes long enough to be opposed by a Socialist speaker.

After the success of May Day members of both branches are looking forward to an excellent hearing during the summer months.

Comrade Russell, who lives in Manchester, is greatly assisting in the disposal of back numbers of the Socialist Standard. His work takes him travelling constantly over an area stretching from Yorkshire to London, and over to Wales. During these trips he takes the opportunity of leaving our journal in prominent places and has had many interesting discussions with fellow travellers on trains, buses, and in station waiting rooms. He travels over the same ground, mainly in a weekly cycle, and maintains his “distribution” constantly. As he so modestly says, perhaps the constant effort on these lines may bear some much-wanted fruit. Well said, indeed, and perhaps other members similarly placed might like to try their hands at this method of propaganda.

Bristol. Meetings will be held at Durdham Downs on Sundays at 3 p.m. Will members and sympathisers make every effort to attend and assist Comrade Flowers and other members of Bristol Group ?

Fulham and Chelsea Branch report that they are holding regular and interesting Branch meetings and discussions on the first and third Thursdays in each month.

As an experiment, the Branch Organiser has arranged a number of meetings and discussions with the aid of special L.P. records. The first record, “Shuttle and Cage,” which includes a very dramatic ballad about the Gresford mining disaster of 1934, and a number of English, Irish. Welsh and Scottish industrial folk songs, sung by Ewan MacColl, gave rise to much interesting discussion. Further recordings made by Alan Lomax deal with the life of the American negro.

Since the advertisement of these discussions, the Branch Organiser has received a number of letters (including one from Comrade Rab of America) enquiring about the records used; or making suggestions of other recordings that might benefit Party discussion Groups and Branches. A reader in Glasgow suggests that the recording “Old Man Atom,” by Guy Carawan, which deals with nuclear weapons, would be of interest to Socialists. He also mentions “Jack Elliott’s "Woody Guthrie’s Blues," which contains, along with four other titles, the ‘1913 Massacre’ and 'The Ludlow Massacre,’ both songs of the murders of early Trade Unionists in America.”

At Easter a number of members of the Branch went to Aldermaston, and helped with the distribution of the leaflet, “Nuclear War,” and sold Party literature on the march. On Sunday, April 13th, six members of the Branch, along with over forty other members of the Party, distributed “Nuclear War” leaflets, and sold Party literature (one member of the Branch sold 16 “Socialist Party and War” pamphlets!) at the Labour Party and T.U.C. meeting in Trafalgar Square.

On Thursday, May 1st, members of the Branch collaborated with Paddington Branch members in holding a meeting at Earls Court. And, during the summer months, Branch members will be collaborating with Paddington Branch in running outdoor meetings at Earls Court on Thursday and Friday evenings. All readers of the Socialist Standard are welcome to come. Meetings commence at 8 p.m.

The Overseas Secretary asks all members who have overseas' contacts to send the names and addresses of these contacts, together with any other information about contacts, to the Overseas Secretary, c/o H. O., 52, Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4.

The Overseas Secretary would also be pleased to hear from readers of the Socialist Standard abroad.

Comrade Ivy Groves. It is a sad duty to have to report the sudden death at the age of 50 years, of Ivy Groves, who had a heart attack on Sunday, May 4th. The not so very young members will well remember her as a loyal Comrade who. although not a writer or a speaker for the Party, was always ready with a smile and much energy, to help in any way. Until the last few years, when owing to domestic circumstances when it was not possible to be around so much, she regularly attended branch meetings and Head Office. It was 25 years ago when Comrade Ivy Groves joined the Chiswick Branch which via Wembley Branch became Ealing Branch. Latterly, when living in South London she transferred to Camberwell Branch. Many Comrades well know that her help and thoughtfulness greatly assisted Clifford Groves in his work for the Party as a propagandist, E. C. Member and General Secretary for many years.

Hackney Branch. Hackney Branch consider that the election campaign in the Bethnal Green division was extremely successful, in fact, far more successful than we had hoped.

The votes cast for the three candidates were 356, 333. and 306, indicating in some small degree, the growth of Socialist ideas within the constituency.

During the campaign 24,000 election manifestoes were distributed (one to each home in the constituency), together with several thousand leaflets advertising meetings some “Introducing the S.P.G.B.” and a number of free copies of the Socialist Standard. Apart from this canvassing of the Socialist Standard continued, and about 24 dozen copies were sold.

The support given by other branches was extremely encouraging, a number of members attending from Islington, Wood Green, Paddington, Lewisham, Woolwich and West Ham branches. Branches also assisted with financial support.

Attempts were made to hold a number of outdoor meetings, but these were not successful due to the very bad weather. The three school meetings were also poorly attended, probably for the same reason.

We do not claim to have made the best possible use of the election, but we have acquired considerable experience in the campaign which will be an invaluable help on future occasions. We hope that the result of the campaign will encourage other branches to contest local elections in their own area. A good opportunity will arise next year when London Borough Councils are due to be elected.

Phyllis Howard

Blogger's Notes:

• The obituary for Ivy Groves has appeared elsewhere on the blog.
• Despite my best efforts I can't find out the identity of the three Hackney Branch members who were the local election candidates in 1958. They are never mentioned by name in the Standard. I could make an educated guess  . . . but I won't. Hackney Branch actually contested the Bethnal Green parliamentary constituency the following year at the General Election. Jack Read was the party candidate on that occasion. Anecdotes about that campaign are aplenty in Barltrop's 'The Monument'. 
• Unfortunately, there were quite a few typos in the Fulham and Chelsea Branch report. Musician names misspelt all other the place. I did try to provide YouTube links for the songs mentioned in the report, but I can't guarantee that they are the actual versions referred to. Ramblin' Jack Elliott singing Woody Guthrie's songs is especially recommended.

Branch News (1963)

Party News from the June 1963 issue of the Socialist Standard

With the usual optimism of Socialists, last month was an extra special one, with a larger supply of the special edition of the Socialist Standard—20 pages dealing mainly with the subject of Housing. The weather on May Day was not helpful, but despite this much was done.

On May 1st an indoor meeting was held at Caxton Hall, London. The audience numbered over 100 and a large percentage of the audience were non-members. Literature sales amounted to nearly £3 and a collection of £13 4s. was made.

On May 5th, Sunday, there was the usual meeting in Hyde Park. It was a modest success. Members rallied well to the meeting despite the very cold winds. Next year the Propaganda Committee will ensure a better speaking position. This year we were restricted by the rebuilding that has been going on at Hyde Park.

Many literature sellers met during the morning and despite heavy competition from other organisations sold over 300 Socialist Standards and many pamphlets throughout the day.

Nottingham. Two London speakers held meetings during the week-end. The meetings were well supported by Nottingham members and six dozen Standards were sold.

Glasgow. Comrade Baldwin from London joined the Branch activity and although the Saturday arrangements for an outdoor meeting had to be called off due to heavy rain, fifteen or so Comrades descended on the City Square to sell Socialist literature.

During the Sunday afternoon procession 4 dozen S.S. were sold, and at the outdoor meeting afterwards a collection of 27/6 was taken and 3 dozen Standards disposed of. The evening indoor meeting drew an audience of 65 including 20 Party members. A collection of £4 was taken and much literature sold.

The May Day propaganda meetings were part of the great work that Glasgow members have been carrying on since they decided to contest the Municipal election, held in May. Our comrades are most enthusiastic and energetic and are constantly seeking ways and means of furthering the Socialist case. Their immediate aim is to contest Municipal elections in every Ward in the city, this apart from their wish to contest Parliamentary elections.

Lewisham Branch report that from October 1962 to March 1963 they held a total of 21 lectures and 6 meetings. These were held at the Co-op. Hall (their branch meeting place) and the Lewisham Town Hall. Literature sales amounted to £5 and collections £35. The meetings were most successful and much experience in organising successful propaganda has been gained. Four applications for membership of the Party have been made. The Branch is hoping to organise regular outdoor meetings during the summer at Blackheath and Ladywell Fields. In addition to this work, the Branch members have been helping the Bromley Group which is also holding meetings from time to time among other activities.

World Socialist Party of Ireland. From this month the Standard will be the official journal of both Socialist Parties. As soon as it can be arranged, regular articles and news items will be sent from Ireland and incorporated each month. The Belfast Branch held May Day meetings on Sunday, May 5th and it is hoped to have a full report of these next month.

A comrade living in Cornwall is spending much time in travelling the county selling Party literature. The results are astounding and anyone visiting Cornwall, or living there, should have no difficulty in purchasing Socialist Standards and Party pamphlets. It is hoped to give a list of the towns visited by this Comrade next month when a full report of his activities is available.

The third of the inter-branch (Bloomsbury, Ealing, Paddington) "Any Questions” meetings was held at Conway Hall on May 13th. These meetings have proved most successful They give a good opportunity for members and visitors to ask questions on matters that concern them. The questions have ranged widely and have been most stimulating to all. The atmosphere is, or certainly appears to be, less formal than normal propaganda meetings and in addition to a panel of three members answering points, ample scope for discussion is also given. It is hoped to continue these meetings and it would seem that for Party Groups the idea is a very good one and should be given serious consideration by organisers of these.

Phyllis Howard

Party News Briefs (1955)

Party News from the June 1955 issue of the Socialist Standard

Ealing Branch. The special May campaign to increase the sales of the S.S. has got off to an exceptionally fine start. At the time of writing (the middle of the month) over 35 dozen copies have been sold, and everybody is confident that the target of 50 dozen will be more than realised before the end of the month. The regular canvassers have been heartened by the support of members new to this form of activity, who in turn have been agreeably surprised by the results obtained. The Branch Literature Committee are confident that there is no reason why these figures should not be further increased; all that is required is a steadily increasing number of members prepared to canvass. It is as easy for the Committee to organise a canvass with a dozen members, as it is to organise a party of six—and even more stimulating!

Approval of the Branch’s scheme to distribute back copies of the S.S. has been given by the E.C., and several hundred have already been disposed of in this way. Members unable to canvass are asked to get in touch with the Branch Literature Secretary and offer their help in this form of literature activity.

The first of the Branch’s propaganda excursions takes place on Sunday, 5th June, when two cars will be taking members to Southsea. Other meetings will follow in the course of the season.

Finally, will all members note that outdoor meetings will be held, weather permitting, every Saturday afternoon, at Ealing Green. Please give your support, if you can.

* * *

Bradford Branch say that their canvassing drive at Dewsbury is still going strong. They report that they sell four to five dozen Standards each month (not three dozen as mentioned in April) and of the former, three dozen Standards are sold to regular readers.

* * *

May Day arrangements in London and the Provinces were hampered through the very bad weather. In London the Hyde Park meetings were cancelled but despite this, there was a good audience in the evening at Conway Hall, where Comrades May and Coster gave very interesting talks on May Day and aims and objects of die Party.

Reports are not in from Glasgow, but we understand that very good evening meetings were held there.

Nottingham Branch report that Comrades Keys and Warlow addressed about 250 workers on Market Square on the Saturday before May Day, the meeting lasted from 7 to 10 p.m. On the Sunday morning the “Nottingham Labour Day Demonstration” was held, although it was raining heavily. Our speakers attempted to hold a meeting but the rain forced them to abandon it. A good meeting, however, was held for about an hour, between heavy rain showers, in the afternoon. About 10s. worth of literature was sold during the two days. Branch members find that Market Square is a good station for propaganda meetings and they are aware of sympathetic interest from the audience.

* * *

Swansea Branch has not been in a position to hold any propaganda meetings during the last four months, but their activities have been directed in writing to the Press —letters stating the Party’s Object have appeared in the South Wales Evening Post, Llanelly Star, Neath Guardian, Western Mail and Swansea Voice. An attempt is also being made to advertise the Party’s literature in the Swansea Voice.

Phyllis Howard

SPGB Meetings (1954)

Party News from the November 1954 issue of the Socialist Standard

Party News Briefs (1954)

Party News from the November 1954 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Delegate Meeting is being held at Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road (Near Victoria Station) on Saturday and Sunday, November 6th and 7th, commencing each day at 10.30 a.m. Social at Head Office on the Saturday evening from 7.30 p.m.

Hampstead Branch have changed the day and time of their outdoor meetings at the Whitestone Pond, Hampstead Heath. During the winter months the day will be Sunday and the time 11 a.m. Their previous meeting time—Friday evening—has been discontinued until next summer.

Glasgow. The City and Kelvingrove Branches are jointly running a series of meetings on Sunday evenings at the Central Hall, Bath Street, at 7.30. (Doors open at 7 p.m.) The first meeting is to be held on November 7th. Full details of this and other meetings appear under “Meeting Notices” in this issue.

Islington Branch are holding a Social and Dance at the Winchester Hotel, Archway Road, Highgate, on Saturday, 27th November. Admission Free. Members are assured of a happy evening.

Nottingham Branch has arranged a series of lectures by London speakers. Full details of current dates under “Meeting Notices.” Good work is being done in the comparatively new branch and the meetings will no doubt meet with success.

Camberwell Branch has consistently held meetings at two outdoor stations, East St., Southwark, and Rushcroft Road, Brixton. The results at East St. (our all the year round meeting place) have varied taken over a long period, owing to opposition meetings ranging from good meetings with Lit. Sales around 8/- and collections of 4/- to small meetings with only three or four Standards sold. Recently signs of a revival were shown when Comrade Gloss, of America, spoke. The audience was large and 8/6 worth of literature was sold. From then on and with the arrival of the Anniversary S.S. things have moved upwards. Our main set-back at this station has been the pre-occupation of the workers with the current problems of British Capitalism.

Our Rushcroft Rd. meeting has maintained a fairly high level of interest, although this is only a summer season station, literature sales average 2/4.

Largely arising from a visit of an Ealing Comrade we started a canvassing drive in June, this year, and we have found this also very worthwhile. It has the advantage of personal contact. Since we began about 20 new readers a month have been found and with fluctuations our present increased readership stands at 85.

The address of the Branch and time of meetings is on the back of this journal. We extend the usual Socialist welcome to all non-members and are always eager to hold discussions on matters of interest to them.

Phyllis Howard

SPGB Meetings (1954)

Party News from the October 1954 issue of the Socialist Standard

Letter: Power (1960)

Letter to the Editors from the October 1960 issue of the Socialist Standard

Power

I am nineteen years old and I am interested in Socialism as a political train of thought. Two years ago while on holiday in Nottingham I attended an open air meeting organised by your Party. When questions were asked by members of the public each was answered satisfactorily except one. I would therefore be most grateful if you could answer this question for me.

In the planning of a socialist society some individual or individuals are necessary to plan this society, i.e., these people will be in superior position to the common workers, whose job it would be to fulfil the plan laid down for them. How would the society protect the common worker from being oppressed by this intelligentsia, who would certainly use their high position for their own selfish ends, turning a new formed socialist society back to the class ridden capitalist society? The crux of my question being how can man's selfish bid for power be retarded while still giving a man with greater brain power the incentive to work wholeheartedly not only for the good of himself but for the good of the whole society.

I hope you are willing to accept that the “I'm alright Jack’’ attitude is very prevalent throughout the world today, in all types of worker.

I hope you get the meaning of my question which I regard as a most important one. I would also be most grateful if you would send me a copy of your paper, the Socialist Standard.

D. G. G.

Fareham Hants.

Reply:

Our correspondent postulates the existence of Socialism without taking into account the conditions which are necessary to bring it into being. Socialism will be the work of the great majority of mankind, who will consciously establish it because they think it in their interests to do so. It will not be the responsibility of any minority, whether they are planners or somebody else. Because of this, the work of

Socialism's planners will conform to the Socialist desires of the rest of society and will be designed within the framework of the Socialist community.

Those people who under Socialism are responsible for planning production, transport, and so on, will not be in “ a superior position." For in a world where the production and distribution of wealth is a social procedure, every individual depends upon the rest of society for his welfare and existence. This will be the strength behind society's determination to have a privilege-free world. Social pretensions will be powerless against it—and they will have no validity, when everybody has equally free access to the world's wealth.

This, too, will be the incentive to work wholeheartedly in a Socialist society. Capitalism, with its anarchic and acquisitive nature, fosters the narrowly selfish attitude to which our correspondent refers. Free from the necessity to strive for social superiority and from the many other restrictions of capitalism, mankind will be able to give of their best. They will do so in the knowledge—and with the intention—that the wealth of the world belongs to the world's people, without distinction of any kind. When society wants that, nothing can prevent them having it or, when they have it, take it away from them.

Editorial Committee. 

Party News Briefs (1958)

Party News from the September 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard

Outdoor Propaganda. When the reports are all to hand, it is hoped that they will make good reading for the propaganda work done in London and the Provinces during the summer, despite the very poor weather. A brief report of the Nottingham visit by the Central Organiser which was presented for the Delegate Meeting shows that excellent work was done and that the members in Nottingham have put in some good ground work.

* * * *

Camberwell Branch now meets on Mondays at Head Office—usual time, 8 p.m.

* * * *

Delegate Meetings this year will be held at Head Office on Saturday and Sunday, October 4th and 5th. A notice of times is shown elsewhere in this issue.

* * * *

Sunday Film Shows will again be given at Head Office in October and a programme of the first series will be given in tho October Standard.

* * * *

Bloomsbury Branch. Another reminder that on the first Thursday in each month from September 4th discussions will be held at 8.30 p.m. at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.1. The first will be on Crises and the discussion will be opened by Comrade Hardy. On October 2nd Gilmac will speak on “Can the Military get Control?'’

Chelsea and Fulham Branch. During the spring and summer the branch have held a number of very successful discussions with the aid of L.P. records. A number of queries and suggestions have been received and on one occasion the Branch was visited by a member of the Socialist Party of New Zealand. For the autumn and up to Christmas the Branch will be holding a series of educational lectures. These will be held on alternate Thursdays to Branch, nights; so that the lectures and discussions will not be encumbered by branch business. All readers of the Socialist Standard living in the district will be more than welcome.

Phyllis Howard

Party News Briefs (1958)

Party News from the July 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard

Summer Provincial Propaganda. It is pleasing to note that extensive arrangements have been made by the Propaganda Committee, Central Organiser and the Provincial Branches and Groups for speakers from London to visit the Provinces this Summer. Comrade James went to Nottingham in June for two weeks and held eight meetings each week in Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester and Bradford. From July 14th to 19th, Comrade Baldwin is going to Swansea to hold meetings there and in Newport. Comrade Harris of Newport will be available to help and throughout the Summer he will be helping the Comrades who are visiting the area for week-end meetings. Comrades D'Arcy, Grant and May will be doing these meetings, including visits to Bristol, where Comrade Flowers and the Group there are having good meetings on Durdham Downs. The period they hope to cover is from June 8th to July 13th. During August Comrade Young is touring in his vintage caravan and visiting Nottingham, Birmingham. Edinburgh and Dundee, to name some of the towns in his itinerary. An ambitious programme, all round, and no doubt it will prove as successful as the earlier Provincial tours.

* * *

Bloomsbury Branch will hold discussions on the first Thursday in each month, commencing September 4th. when Comrade Hardy opens the series with a discussion on Crises. Fuller details will be given in the August Standard. As in the past, no Branch meetings will be held during August by Bloomsbury Branch as Conway Hall closes for that month.

* * *

Outdoor Propaganda in London. A list of outdoor meetings is given on another page of this issue and Comrades are urged to note the time and places of meetings and give their support wherever possible.

* * *

Comrade Friend of Winnipeg is returning home after a holiday in Britain, and a Social evening was arranged for Comrades to meet him once again at Head Office on Friday, June 13th. Members at home wish him a good journey back to Winnipeg and express their pleasure that he was able to have such a holiday and to re-new contact with Party members in Britain.

Phyllis Howard

Socialism or Social Catholicism (1959)

Party News from the July 1959 issue of the Socialist Standard

Debate between SPGB and Roman Catholic Church

It is an extraordinary event for a representative of the Roman Catholic Church to debate in public with a Socialist. On Sunday, 10th May, however, Father Bernard Rickett, headmaster of the West Bridgeford Roman Catholic School, Notts, received the Bishop’s permission to do so. Representing the Catholic attitude he debated the subject, "Socialism or Social Catholicism?” with the Socialist Party’s speaker, R. Coster. The debate was attended by an audience of 78 on a sweltering afternoon at the Co-op. Educational Centre, Nottingham.

R. Coster

Opening the debate for the Socialist Party, R. Coster defined its scope in terms of a Catholic writer’s phrase “ human life and happiness,” and said at once it was impossible to consider the question unless one dealt with the great problems which stood in the way of life and happiness for the great majority of humanity. War and its terrible weapons; insecurity and fear, and the recurrence of economic crises; poverty and its consequences in bad housing, a great deal of disease, crime and unhappiness; the overwhelming lack of satisfaction of people in the present-day world that produced appalling figures for mental and nervous disorders: these were the impediments to human life and happiness, and these were what had to be dealt with.

The Socialist case was that all these problems were consequences of the Capitalist organization of society. Capitalism was founded on the ownership of the means of living by a class; it meant that all productive activity was carried on solely for the motive of sale at a profit, that this commercial motivation dominated all relationships in society. It meant also that the non-owning class, the great majority, must be exploited and always more or less poor; and that the interests of these two classes were therefore irreconcilably opposed.

But Capitalism meant as well the conflicts between rival capitalist groups which led inevitably to war. It meant that from time to time, unpredictably and uncontrollably, there were crises and all the suffering which depressions brought. Parties and governments, and philosophers and religious leaders too, had been powerless to prevent these things because Capitalism’s antagonistic relations arising from division of interests over property caused them. The Socialist case, therefore, was for the abolition of this system. What was wanted was a new basis for society— the ownership by everybody of all the means of living, so that poverty, conflict and all the other barriers to decent life and happiness could no longer exist.

Could Catholicism solve all, or any, of these problems? There was no point of contact between Catholicism and Socialism; the speaker pointed to Catholic reiterations that the two were antagonistic and that private property was a natural right. The Church stood not only for Capitalism, but for a Capitalism so authoritarian that its criticisms of the Russian dictatorship could largely be applied to itself. By its defence of Capitalism, the Church acquiesced in the system which was the source of the problems.

Catholics talked about improving workers’ conditions, but the living standards their Popes advocated were those of “frugal and well-behaved” workers; the rate of emigration from Ireland was no advertisement for Catholic society On the war question, Catholic authorities were as divided and helpless as any Capitalist politicians—some opposed to nuclear weapons, some ready to justify them. The remedies for crises and exploitation advocated were childish: classes could not harmonize even at Popes’ bidding, in a class-divided society, and the proposals to “lift barriers” on trade and production showed incomprehension of how Capitalism worked.

Social Catholicism had no case. The only case was for Socialism, which aimed at establishing conditions in which the problems could not arise and human life and happiness could flourish.

Father Rickett

Father Rickett, in his opening speech, said he was not an expert on economic and social matters; he must treat the questions raised as a theologian who had studied history. He expressed appreciation of the Socialist Party as the only organization professing Socialism which was logical in its arguments. The trouble with the Socialist case was that its logic, though impeccable, rested on a false premise. Its view of man's nature was incomplete and therefore incorrect. Man lived in society, but he had been created for a supernatural destiny, and the idea of Socialism was incompatible with this divine nature. Man did not live by bread alone—he had been created not for temporal but for eternal happiness, though that did not mean he had to be miserable in this world.

Man was a selfish brute, imperfect by nature, and no solution could be valid which ignored his original sin.

Catholic sociology started from the need for him to reform his own character, to curb his selfishness and be content with his station in life. Disease, work and suffering were the lot of the human race. Capitalism was largely beyond the control of the Church, which indeed was not concerned with temporal things except insofar as they related to man's salvation.

Nevertheless, Popes had strongly denounced the excesses of Capitalism and laid down for those living in it what were God's will and moral laws. Social living was the will of God. The reverse of the Class-struggle doctrine was true; capital and labour were complementary—each needed the other, and our higher standards of living today were due to large-scale enterprise and the brains and invested capital behind it. It was quite wrong to claim that the product should belong to the labourer. The Church tried to see that there was an equitable share, and laid down rules of justice for employers and employees. The employer had duties to his workmen, and the worker also must recognise moral laws in his behaviour towards the employer.

What must be sought was charity, in its sense of brotherly love and mutual support. The Catholic Church had advocated the formation of Guilds like those which existed in former times, and in these there would be not class conflict but class collaboration. Class hatred, and hatred of any kind, could never produce anything constructive.

R. Coster 

R. Coster, in reply, summarised Father Rickett's argument as that, first, man must consider his life in relation to a life hereafter, and second, that man was innately bad, and that these two conditions put the Socialist case out of court

He submitted that the argument was, in fact, complete irrelevant to the matter under discussion. We were talking about human life and happiness, and it was useless to make the supernatural a basis for argument to people who were not aware of it. The proposal that human society was divinely instituted was superfluous and meaningless; human society was a fact—man organized socially for survival, and had he not done so there would have been no man. '

Were all the things said of man's “brutal, selfish” nature true? Nothing of the kind was known historically of human nature. The only thing known was that human nature continually altered. So did valuations of it: what was brutal and selfish in one age was heroic in another, and the Catholic Church itself had undergone this kind of societal conditioning.

Did the Church want a better world? The speaker read from a Papal Encyclical which said the world could not be better, that claims to the contrary were “lying promises.” But what were the effects of the Church's laying down laws of social justice? One Encyclical had stated the duties of employers towards their employees, and Catholic employers had conspired to prevent their workpeople learning what was said in it. And this in fact underlined what Socialists said—that a class must obey, not its religious ideals, but its interests as a class.

Socialists agreed that men did not live by bread alone. The quality of living was what made happiness. But first, man's material needs must be satisfied. The conditions must be created in which man could know the enjoyment of living; that was the aim of Socialism.

Father Rickett

Father Rickett, replying, spoke of the tyranny which Socialism would impose. It meant that we should lose our freedom. No one could understand human nature unless he contemplated the Crucifixion; it was an aberration of mind to put it aside. Society without God was an unrealizable Utopia. There could be and there was happiness in our world: nothing was more lovely to behold than a little Catholic home with its many children.

It was not mere egalitarian distribution that mattered. The Church wanted to see men make the best of the existing order, and within that order better distribution had been obtained. The Church had encouraged workers to organize in trade unions and stand up to Capital. On the question of the great problems, obviously insecurity and injustice were parts of the natural order. War was hateful and the Church would never support it—but it must be realized that some things were worse than war.

What had been said about Catholic employers was true, but they would suffer in eternity for it; their action was an instance of original sin. The Church's mission was to see that life as it was organized here below was not incompatible with the destiny of man. Nowhere had working people a better friend than the Catholic Church.

Father Rickett 

After a short period in which questions were asked and contributions to discussion made by members of the audience. Father Rickett made his summing-up speech. He said that the Catholic Church was much misunderstood by people; one either loved it or hated it. The idea of the classless society was unreal. It had never been depicted, and could only be achieved if we were all angels. Marx's arguments left much unexplained : heaven help us, the speaker said, if the right of property were not safeguarded. This right was precious to all of us in our daily lives, in our homes and in preserving our possessions. It protected the small man trying to advance his business or his career. Capitalism would pass away and some other social order replace it, but the Church would remain.

R. Coster 

R. Coster, concluding for the Socialist Party, said that Father Rickett had completely evaded the issue of the debate.

The questions put had not been answered. It was claimed that the Catholic Church stood aside from politics; in fact, the Church’s record showed a great deal of political activity not advantageous to working people. To say that Socialism would take away freedom was untrue and, for the Church, unfortunate; the Concordat between Spain and the Church, for example, had stripped the Spanish worker of every kind of freedom. As for happiness, the “lovely” Catholic home was frequently a squalid, overcrowded place. As for war being hateful, in this century Catholic authorities had repeatedly advocated the suppression of heresies by violence.

The whole conception of property as a right was mistaken. The capitalist class had known no right but might: by force and every other means they had secured their ownership, and established the legal and moral titles—the “ right ”—to it afterwards. At no point had Father Rickett shown why Socialism was “unrealizable.” All that was needed for its realization was understanding, and this was the enemy of Catholicism. Cardinal Manning had once said: “ I do not have to think for myself. The Pope does my thinking for me." But Socialism had everything to offer of human life and happiness, and to think for oneself was to hold the key to it.

Freddie James

Blogger's Note:

As mentioned previously on the blog, 'R. Coster' was the pen-name/party-name of Robert Barltrop during his first period of membership of the SPGB. When Barltrop rejoined the SPGB in the 1970s, he opted to use his own name when writing and speaking for the Party.

Barltrop, in fact, briefly mentions this debate in The Monument — his unofficial history of the SPGB — when he states that Father Bernard Rickett was ". . .  the best of all the speakers I met in debate . . ."

Party News Briefs (1956)

Party News from the April 1956 issue of the Socialist Standard

May Day. In order that members are well acquainted with the arrangements made for Sunday, May 6th, here is a brief resume of the proposed activities in London, Glasgow, and Nottingham. In Hyde Park, the usual trolley will be set up by three o’clock, and speakers will take turns in running the propaganda. Members should note that it helps the meeting to start more promptly if it is well supported by members. The Trades Union processions will be taking place and it is being planned that our members sell literature along the route. The procession will lead to Trafalgar Square where other parties will be holding meetings. Therefore, apart from selling literature along the route, we need a good number of members to circulate among the crowds at Trafalgar Square with the literature. In view of the fact that Ealing Branch has circularised London Branches in an endeavour to greatly increase the Socialist Standard sales, for May, this is an additional appeal to help to achieve this aim. Will Comrades willing to assist, please contact (personally, or by letter), the Propaganda Committee at Head Office. The sooner we have a list of willing Comrades the sooner and better we can make arrangements.

Glasgow (City and Kelvingrove Branches) are holding their May Day Rally on the afternoon of May 6th at Queen's Park Recreation Ground and at St Andrew’s Halls, Berkeley Street from 7.30 pm. Several speakers will be on. the platform.

Nottingham Branch are holding a Mass Rally in the Market Square on the same day (May 6th) at 3 p.m. Speakers: J. Garnham, J. Keys and F. Warlow.

London. At Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, WlC.l, a Rally will be held after the propaganda meeting in Hyde Park. The meeting commences at 7.30 p.m., the title “ POLITICAL MATURITY AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALISM.” Speakers: R. Coster and W. Read. Although every effort will be made to advertise this London meeting, as there arc restrictions at the moment regarding printing, it is essential that members and sympathisers pass on the details of this meeting as widely as possible, in order that we have a really good attendance. So please note the details and PASS THE WORD ALONG!

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A Meeting was held at Conway Hall on Monday, March 12th. Comrades Bryan and May spoke on "Departing Empires—the Socialist attitude.” Although the attendance at the meeting was small, mainly due, we feel sure to being unable to advertise as usual, the audience was very interested and good questions were put to the speakers.

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There is good news from Camberwell Branch again. Apart from having kept open-air meetings going throughout the winter at East Street, Walworth, the branch has vigorously extended canvassing the Socialist Standard. In the first two months of the year, as a result of one of the meeting stations being closed, the sales of the Socialist Standard usually fall to eight dozen. For the two months this year, however, 22 dozen were sold in the same period. The Branch would like to assure the Ealing Branch Comrades of their enthusiastic and practical support for their proposed May drive to really put the Socialist Standard into working-class hands on a large scale. The Branch is more than confident that in May they will more than double the average monthly sale of 10 dozen copies, and maintain it at the highest possible level. Meetings are held each Wednesday at Camberwell Green at 8 p.m.

The Branch holds its meetings on Thursday at the “Artichoke,” just past Camberwell Green,1, at 8 p.m. The room is comfortable. All are welcome.

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Swansea Group, though having lost members through transference to another branch have kept the Party before the reading public by constant letters to the Press on various topics. One Member's letter was given prominence on the billposters of the Swansea Voice, the public being shocked with glaring head lines, i.e., Swansea Man wants to do away with Money!

Challenges have been issued to various organisations and including a reverend gentleman who conducts a class on the "Art of Public Speaking.” This expert, needless to say, refused to test his skill against a Socialist speaker. The Llanelly branch of the Conservative Party has also refused to debate with us.

Swansea hope to be able to hold more open-air meetings during the coming summer, and are in contact from Comrades from London with this in view.

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Outdoor Meetings. With the arrival of spring, the number of outdoor meetings held will increase and details of the additional meetings, are given under the list of outdoor meetings advertised in this issue. Make a note please and attend as many as possible—good support for meetings stimulates speakers, helps to sell more literature and so helps along the work of the Party which is to propagate SOCIALISM.

Phyllis Howard

SPGB Meetings (1958)

Party News from the October 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1965)

Party News from the July 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Gospel According to St Tony (1998)

Harry Enfield as the Reverend Blair.

TV Review from the December 1998 issue of the Socialist Standard

There must be an age-old adage in the comedy profession—satire will never die so long as we’ve got politicians. If the last Tory administration provided more grist to the satirical mill than anyone thought possible, New Labour is fast emerging as a more than worthy substitute for it. It was surprising then that last month one of Britain’s most gifted satirists, Harry Enfield, should have chosen the Conservative Party for his most recent attack on Britain’s most disreputable profession.

Norman Ormal was a composite money-grubbing, greasy-pole climbing Tory MP surrounded by a menagerie of fellow low-lifes, also played by Enfield. The character based on Alan Clark was toe-curlingly gruesome, and thereby eminently lifelike. But there seemed little point in such a programme beyond showcasing Enfield’s mimicry skills. There is, to gloriously mix metaphors, no point in flogging a dead parrot.

Rather more promising is Enfield’s part in the televising of Private Eye’s St Albion’s Parish News, its excoriation of the evangelical wing of New Labour, replete with Tony Blair as vicar. There is something slightly disturbing about Blair, and Private Eye have probably got nearer to identifying it than anyone else. He is just too nice. Not in an abstract sense (nobody can really be too nice), but too nice given his dubious “values” and incredible manipulation skills. The “nice” public image clearly doesn’t marry with the other elements of his persona. Someone who genuinely smiles and gleams and brings light into the eyes of pensioners when he goes on a town centre walkabout doesn’t then turn round and cut single mothers’ benefit. Someone who can speak so movingly about peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland doesn’t then agree to send British planes over to the Gulf to bomb the living daylights out of tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children—at least not usually if they are genuine. But then again, religion can play funny tricks on the mind.

Roaring with Rory

The hardest-hitting satirical show on TV is still fronted by Rory Bremner (C4, Sundays), and thankfully he has not been tempted to spare New Labour’s blushes. Rory Bremner has a talent most of us can only wish for, and he hasn’t misused it. Exposing the last bunch of Tory slimeballs and greasers must have been a pleasure for him.

The previous occasion this column mentioned Rory Bremner it was to express the wish that his programme wouldn’t soft-pedal on New Labour. It hasn’t. Bremner too has captured the phoney-Tony evangelical spirit of the Prime Minister. And the double-standards that go along with it. And while his impressions and caricatures provide a wonderful lampoon of the virtual reality world which is New Labour, John Bird and John Fortune have stuck to their task of ripping apart the hypocrisy that lies at the very heart of this project, of exposing the people with a Mission and with Vision whose only mission is to keep themselves in the luxury to which they are now accustomed and whose vision is distorted by a crazy virtual-reality headset called “the market”. Bird and Fortune make stark for all to see what was once the preserve of socialists—there is no fundamental difference between the Conservative and Labour parties. Indeed, there is little if anything between them taking into account the factors they themselves think are important and distinguishing. Nothing could have illustrated this more than the sight of a Labour minister explaining why the government is thinking of putting the Royal Flight—which carries ministers, the royals and other dignitaries across the globe—out to private tender. And then for Francis Maude, Tory Shadow Chancellor, to appear on the TV news denouncing it as a disgraceful waste of a national asset. Virtual reality headsets—you got ’em!

Speaking of which the most marvellous moment of all on Rory Bremner each week is the appearance of the virtual reality Peter Mandelson, replete with 1940s’ BBC radio announcer voice. Catch it if you can. The scariest thing, though, is that somehow it seems more genuine, and somehow human, than the real thing.

Dave Perrin

Blogger's Note:

It's probably been mentioned before on the blog but John Bird was briefly a member of the Nottingham Branch of the SPGB before *cough* going up to Cambridge University in the 1950s. One of those 'Is it really true?' stories is that Harry Enfield, when he was an undergraduate student at York University, wrote his thesis on the SPGB under the tutelage of ex-SPGB member, the late John Crump.