Funny stories about the SWP

[Mr. Tea]

Re. the Fresher's Fair thing - I guess you could have fun asking to speak to the Anarchy Society's president, the Anti-Capitalism sociery's treasurer etc....

 

[slim jenkins]

I used to date a girl who was in the SWP (London). Would love to get back in touch with her so if any of you were members during the mid-to-late 80s could you PM me, please? You just might still be in touch with her.

She used to say that abstract art was frowned upon???!!!

I met a few of her comrades in the pub...they thought the miner's strike was the start of The Revolution, naturally.

 

[martin]

Man, you lot should have come down to the Lewisham 77 day at Goldsmiths - you'd have seen a whole gallery of SWP freaks down there.

 

[Bettysnake]

Funny sad

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=1051

"The following article by Mark Steel was written for the SWP’s Pre-conference Internal Bulletin (IB). It has now appeared on the Urban 75 site, so I reproduce it here. I would not have published it without Mark’s permission before it had entered the public domain."

"When I joined the SWP in 1978 I was instantly impressed by so many aspects of its ideas and methods. But one of the most decisive sides to its character was its honesty. We were proud of what we could achieve and what we could influence, but wary of the exaggerations. In particular, Tony Cliff exhibited an almost impudent scepticism towards any stories that appeared too glorious to be true. But one result of this outlook was that every success reported, no matter how apparently tiny, was genuine and a source of enormous pride."

"How desperately we need a return to that honesty today. For by whatever criteria you wish to use, our party has shrunk to a shadow of the size it was even a few years ago. In many areas where the SWP once represented a chaotic pump of activity that connected with all that was vibrant, energetic and rebellious in the city, now the meetings are tiny, bereft of anyone under forty and attended out of duty. Not many years ago, in most towns you were never far from a line of hastily slapped-up Socialist Worker posters, so they were almost an accepted part of any city centre, and there must be people who supposed the council was obliged to ensure they stayed up, on grounds of maintaining local heritage. But you’d have to conduct a diligent search now to find anything of the sort."

 

[bassnation]

I just asked my wife why they got together - she said "because he was an idiot".

jeez, i wish all women had that criteria for the ideal man.

 

[crackerjack]

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=1051

"The following article by Mark Steel was written for the SWP’s Pre-conference Internal Bulletin (IB). It has now appeared on the Urban 75 site, so I reproduce it here. I would not have published it without Mark’s permission before it had entered the public domain."

"When I joined the SWP in 1978 I was instantly impressed by so many aspects of its ideas and methods. But one of the most decisive sides to its character was its honesty. We were proud of what we could achieve and what we could influence, but wary of the exaggerations. In particular, Tony Cliff exhibited an almost impudent scepticism towards any stories that appeared too glorious to be true. But one result of this outlook was that every success reported, no matter how apparently tiny, was genuine and a source of enormous pride."

"How desperately we need a return to that honesty today. For by whatever criteria you wish to use, our party has shrunk to a shadow of the size it was even a few years ago. In many areas where the SWP once represented a chaotic pump of activity that connected with all that was vibrant, energetic and rebellious in the city, now the meetings are tiny, bereft of anyone under forty and attended out of duty. Not many years ago, in most towns you were never far from a line of hastily slapped-up Socialist Worker posters, so they were almost an accepted part of any city centre, and there must be people who supposed the council was obliged to ensure they stayed up, on grounds of maintaining local heritage. But you’d have to conduct a diligent search now to find anything of the sort."

You missed the best bit, where he's complaining about their failure to set up stalls at his gigs, as invited.

(My personal low point in trying to address this problem came after a weekend in which I did two nights in Central London, where again no Socialist Worker stall or paper sellers were present despite 600 people attending each night. So I asked a Central committee member how he squared this with his claim we were rapidly growing. And he replied “It just goes to show there’s so much going on these days we can’t cover everything.”)

 

[john eden]

It's pretty cool that there are now two "Respect - The Unity Coalition"s, and both have national conferences on the same day, in London.

They should both do magzines called "SMILE".

 

[crackerjack]

It's pretty cool that there are now two "Respect - The Unity Coalition"s, and both have national conferences on the same day, in London.

They should both do magzines called "SMILE".

Are they gonna go to court to fight for ownership, a la Bucks Fizz and numerous other divorced pop bands?

We all know Galloway just loves dem lawyers, but how do SWP feel about the capitalist legal system?

 

[john eden]

Are they gonna go to court to fight for ownership, a la Bucks Fizz and numerous other divorced pop bands?

We all know Galloway just loves dem lawyers, but how do SWP feel about the capitalist legal system?

It might come to that, but it depends on if there is any mileage left in the brand, really. I expect the two conferences will be a good indicator of the prospective memberships and the "future". It is entirely possible that the SWP-"RESPECT" conference will consist entirely of SWP members, in which case you have to ask if it is worth having two names for the same thing.