SPGB Meetings (1965)

Party News from the September 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

Harold Barlow's obituary appeared in the April 1972 issue of the Socialist Standard.

SPGB Meetings (1953)

Party News from the October 1953 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

During his first spell in the SPGB, Robert Barlrop's pen-name/party name was 'R. Coster'. 

'R. Coster' was speaking on the Kinsey Report at Head Office on the 25th October, 1953. The front page article in this month's Standard was by 'Coster'/Barltrop on the Kinsey Report.

SPGB Meetings (1963)

Party News from the October 1963 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

'W. Walters' - speaking on the General Strike - at the Paddington and Marylebone Branch of the SPGB would have been a typo. That was Bill Waters.

SPGB Meetings (1975)

Party News from the October 1975 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

The advertised mass meeting for November listed above had the following speakers: Dom Zucconi, Robert Barltrop and Cyril May.

SPGB Meetings (1947)

Party News from the September 1947 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1975)

Party News from the March 1975 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1962)

Party News from the March 1962 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Notes:

As per usual when posting old meetings from old Standards, I don't have enough space in the label section of the blog to list all the speakers and all the branches, so I have to play favourites. My bad.

It's interesting to note that two of the meetings advertised feature speakers who were not originally from the UK. All too often during this period  - and before and after, to be frank - the SPGB were accused of simply being a British and its Commonwealth/former Empire phenomenon. Lewisham Branch featured a meeting on Tito's Yugoslavia, where the speaker was Remy Starc, who I believe was Slovenian, and Paddington Branch featured a meeting on the Italian working-class movement where the speaker was 'Beppe'. Unfortunately I don't have any further information about this speaker. That meeting would have been especially interesting to me, 'cos it was only a couple of years after Visconti's film, 'Rocco and His Brothers'.

On the subject of films, I notice that both Birth of a Nation and October are listed on the meetings page. I'm guessing this refers to the Griffin and Eisenstein's films. The film, The German Story, which was shown at the SPGB's Wembley Branch was a 1956 East German film which was banned in West Germany because of its subject matter.

Adding some background to some of the SPGB speakers featured in the March 1962 Socialist Standard, listed below are links to a number of their obituaries. Yep, grim I know:

• Aug 1995: Edgar Hardcastle (E. Hardy)
• Jun 1976: Gilbert McClatchie ('Gilmac')
• Nov 2003: Cyril May (C. May)
• Feb 1996: Harry Young (H. Young)
• Apr 1982: Tony Mulheron (T. A. Mulheron)
• Oct 2006: Joe Richmond (J. Richmond)
• Jun 2008: Robert Russell (R. Russell)

SPGB Meetings (1961)

Party News from the February 1961 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

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

SPGB Meetings (1986)

Party News from the December 1986 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Notes:

• First mention of the SPGB Canterbury Group on the blog. 
• As there's an advert for issue 6 of the World Socialist journal included, here's a link to its contents that are currently on the blog. At the time of writing, the issue is only partially uploaded on the blog. Another thing to add to my to-do list.
• Conservative Families Campaign speaker, Graham Webster-Gardiner, was linked to the notorious Monday Club. He was the Conservative Party's parliamentary candidate in Newport East at the 1987 General Election.

The Pleasure Tendency

Their name piqued my interest so I asked about the group, the Pleasure Tendency, over at Urban75. Someone was good enough to provide the following reply:

"I'd known one them slightly when they lived in London. I dimly recall encountering the group in the context of the ill-fated Intercom project.

Don't remember a journal (although it was a long time ago). Just some pamphlets/leaflets. Think I may still have some stuff by them but not confidant I could easily put my hands on it. One text was called "Theses Against Cynicism". There's a blog post here 'adapted from it' whatever that means. Their pamphlet 'The Subversive Past' is online here. There's a leaflet by them at archive.org.

I understand some of them became involved in producing the journal 'Here and Now' (first produced in Glasgow and also involved in Intercom). (Libcom archive). There are articles by them (issue 2 for example) and issues were produced in Leeds.

ETA: at the Sparrows Nest archive there are also online copies of three more pamphlets:

- 'Life and it's replacement with a dull reflection of itself'

- 'Desire-value and the Pleasure Tendency'

- 'Return of the moral subject'

So that's all of the pamphlets that I remember seeing."

SPGB Meetings (1966)

Party News from the November 1966 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1984)

Party News from the November 1984 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

A recording of one of the meetings from the Islington Branch Weekend Educational Conference on Working For Socialism is available in the audio section of the SPGB website. Click on the following link for more information:

How to organise a branch 

Islington Branch meeting

Date: 9th December 1984

Speaker: Clifford Slapper

SPGB Meetings (1988)

Party News from the October 1988 issue of the Socialist Standard

Click on the image to enlarge.

SPGB Meetings (1964)

Party News from the October 1964 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1952)

Party News from the October 1952 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

Just a wee reminder that in the 40s and 50s Robert Barltrop wrote and spoke under the party name of 'R. Coster'. Those meetings he did for Leyton Branch on literary figures such as Orwell, Lawrence and Tressell look interesting. 

SPGB Meetings (1966)

 Party News from the October 1966 issue of the Socialist Standard

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.

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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.

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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 (1953)

Party News from the June 1953 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1965)

Party News from the May 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Notes:

Sam Orner and Len Fenton were both longstanding members of the World Socialist Party of the United States, who were obviously paying a fraternal visit to the comrades in Britain. For more background on them both, their obituaries give some flavour of their contribution to the cause:

• Sam Orner (October 1973 Socialist Standard)
• Len Fenton (World Socialist Review #21)

SPGB Meetings (1974)

Party News from the March 1974 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

There is actually an audio recording of the advertised Annual Conference meeting, featuring Hardcastle and Barltrop, available on SPGB website. Though I believe there are earlier recordings of SPGB meetings out there . . . somewhere, this is the earliest recording on the website. Enjoy!

SPGB Meetings (1948)

Party News from the December 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

With regards to the Bethnal Green meetings listed, 'R. Coster' was  Robert Barltrop's 'party name' during his period of membership from 1945 until 1960. Joyce Millen's obituary appeared in the March 1984 issue of the Socialist Standard.