SWP party notes
. | 11.02.2004 21:18 | Social Struggles
Socialist Workers Party
PARTY NOTES
PO Box 82, London E3 3LH
Tel: 020 7538 5821 Fax: 020 7538 4672 E-mail:
Enquiries@swp.org.uk
2 February, 2004
* The NUJ & Bectu have called a day of protest on Thursday 5 February 12-2pm at BBC TV Centre in White City & at BBC stations around the country in support of BBC independence organised by the NUJ and BECTU.
These protests will take place from Aberdeen to Taunton, from Swansea to Lowestoft. Last Thursday we got a great reception at every BBC studio we got to & our leaflet went down well.
Blair's Worst Nightmare
Tony Blair wakes every morning fresh from a nightmare. He dreams that someone - Lord Hutton for instance - comes along to banish the nightmare of Iraq. Blair celebrates but then it all goes terribly wrong as he finds himself sinking once more into the morass created by the war.
But as Blair rouses his senses it slowly dawns on him that the nightmare is in fact the reality.
Perhaps he watched Jonathan Dimblebey's programme on ITV yesterday where a poll of 42,000 viewers showed 91% thought Hutton was a whitewash.
Perhaps he heard Peter Hain still claiming WMD would be found just as Bush announces an inquiry into American intelligence on the matter.
Across Britain people have reacted with complete anger to the Hutton Inquiry. It is a whitewash too far.
BBC staff gave it the best answer by walking out.
Millions of people are asking what does democracy mean in Britain today.
Many more watching Labour MPs vote through university fees & Lord Hutton come to the rescue of Blair will draw the conclusion that we need an alternative to New Labour at the June elections.
If, as looks likely, New Labour kicks out the RMT after their special conference this week it will create a wave of revulsion across the unions. Already the FBU leadership feel the union conference will vote to democratise the political fund.
We need to pile on the nightmare for Blair:
Organise StW Public Meetings in the build up to the 20 March demo in London
Build Respect: Within 4/5 weeks we need Conventions to select the Euro & GLA candidates
Fan the industrial revolt: strikes are growing. We need strong rank & file organisation to prevent things like the calling off of the DWP strike by Janice Goodrich & Stella Dennis & more SW workplace sales.
Get Respect In Place
We cannot just drop Stop the War, Unite & everything else & go rushing off to just build Respect. That will be the death of things.
Rather we should be helping initiate StW meetings in every possible locality over Hutton and/or civil liberties. There is likely to be a demonstration in London on 20 March as part of the global day of action endorsed by the WSF against the occupation of Iraq.
Respect is, naturally, separate from StW, Unite & so on because they involve people who will vote Green, New Labour, Plaid Cymru etc. But at the same time if it is not built alongside these things it will be divorced from the activists who helped launch it.
The Respect Executive agreed that it should hold Conventions across England to choose the Euro & GLA candidates.
These cannot just be rallies with 5 minutes popped on the end to agree a candidate.
Firstly, the candidates have to look like the movement. For instance we need lots of women candidates, young people, Asian & black candidates etc. A trade union activist or local socialist is not necessarily the best candidate. Some thought needs to go into this now.
Secondly, the Convention needs to bring together the building blocks of Respect - trade unionists, anti-war activists, Muslims, pensioners, housing activists, students etc.
So a Convention requires not a huge platform of 'star' speakers but representatives from each of these groups. Each can speak for 5 minutes interspersed with discussion from the floor.
What will be crucial is how far we tap into the local networks that exist. Very quickly we want Respect candidates doing meetings in pensioners clubs, trade union branches, tenants associations, Mosques etc.
To prepare that we need to get visiting to build the Conventions.
We Are A Small Part Of All This But...
The SWP is far from being the sum total of the burgeoning movement. We are, thankfully, a small minority.
But strong local SWP organisation helps in getting things organised & provides much needed ideological debate.
We need to be pushing out in terms of building the SWP in every possible locality.
Take the elections in London. We desperately need SWP Branches/Forums in places like Hendon, Fulham, Romford etc. Without that things will be much harder in April & June.
The wonderful thing is that it has never been easier to build.
2 or 3 SWP comrades can help build a StW meeting where they live, work or study. Other activists will pile in if someone gets things started.
2 or 3 SWP comrades can build a Marxist Form up quickly through a bit of flyposting, leafleting & a mailing
Every workplace sale gets results.
Neither do we need to rely on the usual suspects. Since the National Meeting at the start of month we have seen old, revitalised members coming together with new members in an exciting, dynamic mix.
People respond if they think the SWP is relevant - if it is involved in building StW & Respect, if it is working round the civil service or the BBC protests etc.
But effective local SWP organisation means something else. We can plan & discuss what the priorities are. Naturally some comrades will be immersed in particular areas of work but if they are not tied into the wider picture they will develop narrow vision.
Branch meetings means we can organise to fight on every front.
The SWP needs to push out into new areas, new workplaces & new colleges urgently.
We Can Grow Quickly
The SWP is growing but it requires us taking time to talk to people. Of course some people will join straight away but many others who have been active will want to discuss things through.
Marxist Forums Get Better & Better
17 people came to the Ladbroke Grove MF on Women's Liberation Today - 7 were non-members, 1 a new member. 2 Afro-Caribbean women came from the posters, 1 a TGWU shop steward. 10 people spoke in a great discussion. Everytime people talked about class (not of course reducing it simply to male, manual trade unionists) it got nods.
19 people came to the Clapton MF on Che Guevara - 9 non-members & 2 new members.
13 students came to the Goldsmiths College Forum on John Coltrane. 2 students joined the SWP. This is an important breakthrough into another major London University.
Because of snow the speaker could not get to the Coventry Forum courtesy of Virgin Trains but despite the weather things went ahead as Penny reports:
'The Forum was successful with 10 people (5 non-members). I wanted to let you know the composition because for me it exemplifies what is happening.
We had three out of 7 of the non SWP members we took to the Convention: A brand new Coventry Uni student popped up at the Respect Rally on Friday, signed up for the Convention, loved it and came to the Forum. He's an Afghani Muslim living in halls. An 81 year old STW activist who is very enthusiastic about building Respect came and a STWC activist who wants Respect to work but is dubious we will succeed in Coventry. We also had an asylum seeker (Shaheen, who sewed his face up last summer) and a new member of the party who came to the convention.'
'Dave did the talk and it was a good night despite the weather.'
13 people came to the Central Bristol MF on The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx. 8 were non-members: 4 FE students & 4 University students who came from leafleting the college.
16 people, 4 non-members, came to the Portsmouth Forum on How Awkward Are The Awkward Squad?
The Imperial College MF had 10 people at it - 3 non-members.
6 came to the Newham Council MF.
When The State Declared War On The Workers
We are encouraging every area to have Marxist Forums on 20 Years Since the Miners Strike - When the State Declared War on the Workers.
In the big cities these should be city wide super Forums. Afterwards you could show a video of the strike.
In the former mining areas we are trying to set up Forums in places like Ollerton, South Elmshall, Deal etc.
We have produced a poster that is available from the SWP National Office.
SW Sales Growing
Wednesday: 3 papers were sold at Hackney Council housing office plus 1 at Hackney job centre.
Thursday: 15 papers were sold to staff who walked out at BBC TV centre.
In South London 12 papers were sold at the Home Office in Croydon & 7 at 9 Elms post office.
In Central London 7 SWs were sold at the Home Office in Westminster; 5 at the Central Law Courts plus 2 at both Melton St DSS & to the Treasurery Solicitors.
4 papers were sold at Walthamstow Jobs Centre & 3 at Sheffield's Hartshead Sq DWP. In Hackney 3 papers were sold at both Millfields refuse depot & Morning Lane social services offices.
Nottingham comrades sold 3 at Parliament St civil service office & 1 at Watercourt DWP.
In Kilburn 3 papers were sold at the Jobs Centre & 2 at the Post Office.
Friday: 23 papers were sold at the BBC TV Centre in White City & 6 at BBC Bush House.
An incredible 202 papers were sold at Tottenham Court Rd tube in the evening.
17 SWs were sold on a protest at BBC Radio Norfolk.
8 papers were sold at Mount Pleasant post office & 3 at N15 post office.
Sheffield workplace sales included 8 at Bailey Court DWP, 2 at both Moorfoot Home Office & the Crown Court with 1 sold at Brightside PO.
In East London 3 papers were sold at both Romford PO & East London Mail Centre.
Hackney workplace sales included 13 at Clapton bus garage, 3 at both Keltan House council tax office & Millfields refuse depot plus 2 at both Brook Rd PO & Homerton Hospital.
68 were sold at Bayswater tube, 50 at Highbury tube, 27 at New Cross Gate tube, 17 at Bromley South station & 14 at Ealing Broadway.
Saturday: 107 SWs were sold in Sheffield city centre, 103 in Manchester's Market St,
In London 41 papers were sold in Hackney's Mare St, 34 in Covent Garden, 31 in Ealing, 30 in Lewisham & 29 in Holloway.
Sunday: 17 papers were sold in Bromley town centre.
Unite London Launch
The London Unite launch rally/event is on Wed 25/2 at the Astoria in Charing Cross Rd featuring Asher D, So Solid Crew, actors, poets etc. We need to see this rally as part of building Unite. Sign up people & invite them to the rally. We need to poster leaflet London
When the Nazis tried to march in East London they were seen off by the local Asian youth & trade union members. The NF were told by the police to get back on the train for their own safety. The rally fitted the mood.
Follow On From Mumbai
3 people who expressed interest in the IST met up with a comrade in Delhi for a 5 hour meeting on state capitalism, the permanent arms economy, the Russia Revolution & much more! They were all 25 years old & fed up with the existing Indian left. They are in the process of setting up a discussion group at their university.
Another discussion group is being set up in Candigarh.
War On Want Conference On Privatisation, Power & Poverty
Susan George, Trevor Ngwane, Hilary Benn plus speakers from El Salvador, Colombia, Bolivia & Sri Lanka will speak on Saturday 28/2, 1.00-17.30, LSE.
New Socialist Review
The new issue of Socialist Review is a must for every activist. John Molyneux argues for the necessity of the Respect coalition, Michael Rosen proposes his vision for education, we print Paul Foot's popular talk from the Marx 2004 dayschool, Martin Smith interviews Denys Baptiste, Anne Ashford rebuts Kilroy with the achievements of Arab civilisation, Solomon Hughes analyses the Hutton whitewash and much more.
The Review will come with this week's papers.
We are launching a fantastic limited edition offer for new subscribers. The first 100 will get a free copy of Denys Baptiste's jazz CD Let Freedom Ring! (£15.99 in the shops), which is inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. This is a great incentive to sign up new and non-members for subscriptions, and therefore to strengthen the influence of our politics within the movement. Flyers will come with this week's papers - make use of them!
Bookmarks News
Coming out in March from Bookmarks to mark the 20th anniversary of the miners' strike: Striking Back, the story of the Great Miners' Strike of 1984-85 through photographs and words. Read about the struggle that involved over 150,000 workers, mass flying pickets, police violence, and over 11,000 arrests. The book will be launched at rallies in Sheffield and London with Paul Foot, speakers from the NUM and women against pit closures.
National committee: due to lack of space we can only bring a limited range in our bookstall. If there any titles you particularly want phone Bookmarks by Friday 12 noon.
PARTY NOTES
PO Box 82, London E3 3LH
Tel: 020 7538 5821 Fax: 020 7538 4672 E-mail:
Enquiries@swp.org.uk 2 February, 2004
* The NUJ & Bectu have called a day of protest on Thursday 5 February 12-2pm at BBC TV Centre in White City & at BBC stations around the country in support of BBC independence organised by the NUJ and BECTU.
These protests will take place from Aberdeen to Taunton, from Swansea to Lowestoft. Last Thursday we got a great reception at every BBC studio we got to & our leaflet went down well.
Blair's Worst Nightmare
Tony Blair wakes every morning fresh from a nightmare. He dreams that someone - Lord Hutton for instance - comes along to banish the nightmare of Iraq. Blair celebrates but then it all goes terribly wrong as he finds himself sinking once more into the morass created by the war.
But as Blair rouses his senses it slowly dawns on him that the nightmare is in fact the reality.
Perhaps he watched Jonathan Dimblebey's programme on ITV yesterday where a poll of 42,000 viewers showed 91% thought Hutton was a whitewash.
Perhaps he heard Peter Hain still claiming WMD would be found just as Bush announces an inquiry into American intelligence on the matter.
Across Britain people have reacted with complete anger to the Hutton Inquiry. It is a whitewash too far.
BBC staff gave it the best answer by walking out.
Millions of people are asking what does democracy mean in Britain today.
Many more watching Labour MPs vote through university fees & Lord Hutton come to the rescue of Blair will draw the conclusion that we need an alternative to New Labour at the June elections.
If, as looks likely, New Labour kicks out the RMT after their special conference this week it will create a wave of revulsion across the unions. Already the FBU leadership feel the union conference will vote to democratise the political fund.
We need to pile on the nightmare for Blair:
Organise StW Public Meetings in the build up to the 20 March demo in London
Build Respect: Within 4/5 weeks we need Conventions to select the Euro & GLA candidates
Fan the industrial revolt: strikes are growing. We need strong rank & file organisation to prevent things like the calling off of the DWP strike by Janice Goodrich & Stella Dennis & more SW workplace sales.
Get Respect In Place
We cannot just drop Stop the War, Unite & everything else & go rushing off to just build Respect. That will be the death of things.
Rather we should be helping initiate StW meetings in every possible locality over Hutton and/or civil liberties. There is likely to be a demonstration in London on 20 March as part of the global day of action endorsed by the WSF against the occupation of Iraq.
Respect is, naturally, separate from StW, Unite & so on because they involve people who will vote Green, New Labour, Plaid Cymru etc. But at the same time if it is not built alongside these things it will be divorced from the activists who helped launch it.
The Respect Executive agreed that it should hold Conventions across England to choose the Euro & GLA candidates.
These cannot just be rallies with 5 minutes popped on the end to agree a candidate.
Firstly, the candidates have to look like the movement. For instance we need lots of women candidates, young people, Asian & black candidates etc. A trade union activist or local socialist is not necessarily the best candidate. Some thought needs to go into this now.
Secondly, the Convention needs to bring together the building blocks of Respect - trade unionists, anti-war activists, Muslims, pensioners, housing activists, students etc.
So a Convention requires not a huge platform of 'star' speakers but representatives from each of these groups. Each can speak for 5 minutes interspersed with discussion from the floor.
What will be crucial is how far we tap into the local networks that exist. Very quickly we want Respect candidates doing meetings in pensioners clubs, trade union branches, tenants associations, Mosques etc.
To prepare that we need to get visiting to build the Conventions.
We Are A Small Part Of All This But...
The SWP is far from being the sum total of the burgeoning movement. We are, thankfully, a small minority.
But strong local SWP organisation helps in getting things organised & provides much needed ideological debate.
We need to be pushing out in terms of building the SWP in every possible locality.
Take the elections in London. We desperately need SWP Branches/Forums in places like Hendon, Fulham, Romford etc. Without that things will be much harder in April & June.
The wonderful thing is that it has never been easier to build.
2 or 3 SWP comrades can help build a StW meeting where they live, work or study. Other activists will pile in if someone gets things started.
2 or 3 SWP comrades can build a Marxist Form up quickly through a bit of flyposting, leafleting & a mailing
Every workplace sale gets results.
Neither do we need to rely on the usual suspects. Since the National Meeting at the start of month we have seen old, revitalised members coming together with new members in an exciting, dynamic mix.
People respond if they think the SWP is relevant - if it is involved in building StW & Respect, if it is working round the civil service or the BBC protests etc.
But effective local SWP organisation means something else. We can plan & discuss what the priorities are. Naturally some comrades will be immersed in particular areas of work but if they are not tied into the wider picture they will develop narrow vision.
Branch meetings means we can organise to fight on every front.
The SWP needs to push out into new areas, new workplaces & new colleges urgently.
We Can Grow Quickly
The SWP is growing but it requires us taking time to talk to people. Of course some people will join straight away but many others who have been active will want to discuss things through.
Marxist Forums Get Better & Better
17 people came to the Ladbroke Grove MF on Women's Liberation Today - 7 were non-members, 1 a new member. 2 Afro-Caribbean women came from the posters, 1 a TGWU shop steward. 10 people spoke in a great discussion. Everytime people talked about class (not of course reducing it simply to male, manual trade unionists) it got nods.
19 people came to the Clapton MF on Che Guevara - 9 non-members & 2 new members.
13 students came to the Goldsmiths College Forum on John Coltrane. 2 students joined the SWP. This is an important breakthrough into another major London University.
Because of snow the speaker could not get to the Coventry Forum courtesy of Virgin Trains but despite the weather things went ahead as Penny reports:
'The Forum was successful with 10 people (5 non-members). I wanted to let you know the composition because for me it exemplifies what is happening.
We had three out of 7 of the non SWP members we took to the Convention: A brand new Coventry Uni student popped up at the Respect Rally on Friday, signed up for the Convention, loved it and came to the Forum. He's an Afghani Muslim living in halls. An 81 year old STW activist who is very enthusiastic about building Respect came and a STWC activist who wants Respect to work but is dubious we will succeed in Coventry. We also had an asylum seeker (Shaheen, who sewed his face up last summer) and a new member of the party who came to the convention.'
'Dave did the talk and it was a good night despite the weather.'
13 people came to the Central Bristol MF on The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx. 8 were non-members: 4 FE students & 4 University students who came from leafleting the college.
16 people, 4 non-members, came to the Portsmouth Forum on How Awkward Are The Awkward Squad?
The Imperial College MF had 10 people at it - 3 non-members.
6 came to the Newham Council MF.
When The State Declared War On The Workers
We are encouraging every area to have Marxist Forums on 20 Years Since the Miners Strike - When the State Declared War on the Workers.
In the big cities these should be city wide super Forums. Afterwards you could show a video of the strike.
In the former mining areas we are trying to set up Forums in places like Ollerton, South Elmshall, Deal etc.
We have produced a poster that is available from the SWP National Office.
SW Sales Growing
Wednesday: 3 papers were sold at Hackney Council housing office plus 1 at Hackney job centre.
Thursday: 15 papers were sold to staff who walked out at BBC TV centre.
In South London 12 papers were sold at the Home Office in Croydon & 7 at 9 Elms post office.
In Central London 7 SWs were sold at the Home Office in Westminster; 5 at the Central Law Courts plus 2 at both Melton St DSS & to the Treasurery Solicitors.
4 papers were sold at Walthamstow Jobs Centre & 3 at Sheffield's Hartshead Sq DWP. In Hackney 3 papers were sold at both Millfields refuse depot & Morning Lane social services offices.
Nottingham comrades sold 3 at Parliament St civil service office & 1 at Watercourt DWP.
In Kilburn 3 papers were sold at the Jobs Centre & 2 at the Post Office.
Friday: 23 papers were sold at the BBC TV Centre in White City & 6 at BBC Bush House.
An incredible 202 papers were sold at Tottenham Court Rd tube in the evening.
17 SWs were sold on a protest at BBC Radio Norfolk.
8 papers were sold at Mount Pleasant post office & 3 at N15 post office.
Sheffield workplace sales included 8 at Bailey Court DWP, 2 at both Moorfoot Home Office & the Crown Court with 1 sold at Brightside PO.
In East London 3 papers were sold at both Romford PO & East London Mail Centre.
Hackney workplace sales included 13 at Clapton bus garage, 3 at both Keltan House council tax office & Millfields refuse depot plus 2 at both Brook Rd PO & Homerton Hospital.
68 were sold at Bayswater tube, 50 at Highbury tube, 27 at New Cross Gate tube, 17 at Bromley South station & 14 at Ealing Broadway.
Saturday: 107 SWs were sold in Sheffield city centre, 103 in Manchester's Market St,
In London 41 papers were sold in Hackney's Mare St, 34 in Covent Garden, 31 in Ealing, 30 in Lewisham & 29 in Holloway.
Sunday: 17 papers were sold in Bromley town centre.
Unite London Launch
The London Unite launch rally/event is on Wed 25/2 at the Astoria in Charing Cross Rd featuring Asher D, So Solid Crew, actors, poets etc. We need to see this rally as part of building Unite. Sign up people & invite them to the rally. We need to poster leaflet London
When the Nazis tried to march in East London they were seen off by the local Asian youth & trade union members. The NF were told by the police to get back on the train for their own safety. The rally fitted the mood.
Follow On From Mumbai
3 people who expressed interest in the IST met up with a comrade in Delhi for a 5 hour meeting on state capitalism, the permanent arms economy, the Russia Revolution & much more! They were all 25 years old & fed up with the existing Indian left. They are in the process of setting up a discussion group at their university.
Another discussion group is being set up in Candigarh.
War On Want Conference On Privatisation, Power & Poverty
Susan George, Trevor Ngwane, Hilary Benn plus speakers from El Salvador, Colombia, Bolivia & Sri Lanka will speak on Saturday 28/2, 1.00-17.30, LSE.
New Socialist Review
The new issue of Socialist Review is a must for every activist. John Molyneux argues for the necessity of the Respect coalition, Michael Rosen proposes his vision for education, we print Paul Foot's popular talk from the Marx 2004 dayschool, Martin Smith interviews Denys Baptiste, Anne Ashford rebuts Kilroy with the achievements of Arab civilisation, Solomon Hughes analyses the Hutton whitewash and much more.
The Review will come with this week's papers.
We are launching a fantastic limited edition offer for new subscribers. The first 100 will get a free copy of Denys Baptiste's jazz CD Let Freedom Ring! (£15.99 in the shops), which is inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. This is a great incentive to sign up new and non-members for subscriptions, and therefore to strengthen the influence of our politics within the movement. Flyers will come with this week's papers - make use of them!
Bookmarks News
Coming out in March from Bookmarks to mark the 20th anniversary of the miners' strike: Striking Back, the story of the Great Miners' Strike of 1984-85 through photographs and words. Read about the struggle that involved over 150,000 workers, mass flying pickets, police violence, and over 11,000 arrests. The book will be launched at rallies in Sheffield and London with Paul Foot, speakers from the NUM and women against pit closures.
National committee: due to lack of space we can only bring a limited range in our bookstall. If there any titles you particularly want phone Bookmarks by Friday 12 noon.
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