The first issue of Respect’s monthly paper is ready. It’s back from the printers and will be on sale at the climate change demonstration this coming Saturday. For the benefit of those of you who won’t be fortunate enough to spend a day shuffling through central London in the rain I’ll be putting up the…
The first issue of Respect’s monthly paper is ready. It’s back from the printers and will be on sale at the climate change demonstration this coming Saturday.
Technorati Tags: Respect, British politics
Excellent! Good work, comrades!
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Liam, Has Socialism formally been dropped now? peace, justice, equality are the masthead slogans, is there no room for anything else.
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It look good and I hope there is a subsciption facility for members in Scotland and overseas
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Martin,
You’ll be glad to hear that “socialism” appears on every page inside the paper.
But are peace, justice and equality really so bad? Doesn’t the demand for “peace” have an anti-capitalist dynamic?
Wishing you all bread, peace and land during the holiday season
Duncan.
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Who is the intended audience for this paper?
There do seem to be a lot of papers.
As of January, I’ll have an address. I’m grateful for that, but this does mean I’m an excuse down when refusing to take out a Socialist Worker postal subscription.
I mean my question without malice. It’s difficult to get people who aren’t already supporters of a campaign, group, or party to buy a paper produced for or by that campaign, group, or party.
The only periodical I’ve ever sold en masse is the Big Issue, and in these incidences I never cared whether the damned thing ever got read. I certainly never read it myself, and I was well aware that many (although not all) of my sales were motivated by solidarity with my situation rather than interest in the magazine.
And I believe a large proportion of Socialist Worker readers are SWP memgers or at least supporters. The Morning Star’s presence on independent and commercial newspaper stands, libraries, and shops (even in bloody Tescos), however, gets a left-wing rag into the field of vision of a wider audience, and I know is read by left-leaning workers outside of the bubble – surely a good thing.
I don’t know any more what is a good way of getting socialist ideas over to people who aren’t already engaged with something or other (the vast majority of people aren’t).
I don’t think we’ve exploited the internet channel effectively to this effect. Left-wing internet activity seems to have much more widely used by us to attack and argue with each other than effectively to persuade the masses of our ideas.
Is there any new ideas about the best way of campaigning? I know a great many people think very little of socialists when it comes to engaging the mass of the population.
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I apologise for the second comment and in advance for quoting myself.
I know a great many people think very little of socialists when it comes to engaging the mass of the population.
People think very little of most political parties and activists of all persuasions in this, and actually in most, respects.
My emphasis on socialists in the above was misplaced. Liberals and Conservatives are I am sure equally crap. I just don’t care about them, hence my misplace emphasis.
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Duncan: “Doesn’t the demand for peace have an anti-capitalist dynamic?” -possibly, but not nescessarily a socialist one.
Nothing particularly wrong with peace, equality and justice as slogans -aren’t they what the lib-dems used in the last election though? They are just very vague and open to many interpretations.
I look forward to reading the paper -but why is socialism confined to the inside pages only?
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one fundamental problem with socialists is that we lack any substance. Why do I say this? well one simple reason is we confine and limit our socialism and are obsessed with the word ‘socialism’ being pasted all over ourselves and everything we touch. It is not enough to say or campaign against privatisation without resorting pasting the word socialism on our foreheads! this is why the socialism of the past will never come to power. we need be more creative and intelligent about how we sell our ideas.
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I dunno who you’ve been talking to, aicon, but no one I’m involved with politically thinks like that.
Indeed, one of the conversations we were all having recently was about how to use the language that real people use, rather than forcing people to fit our own definitions: That people call live and think as socialists without ever using the word “socialist”.
There are a few ultra-left people, in all political groups, who can’t resist it – but they’re few and far between. You see them in blog sometimes snorting and saying “The Respect banner only says ‘peace, equality and justice’? what about socialism? HUH?”, as if anyone other than the left ever actually talks about those three things.
Saying that, I think your comment was a bit confused, making the claim that there is some “socialism of the past” – it indicates that maybe you too are stuck with definitions, cos the very essence of socialist thought is that it evolves and adapts all the time.
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Liam redux 
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