West Midlands Socialist Party Regional Meeting

Yes, that's right, another post on another meeting. Casual readers could be forgiven for thinking I don't do anything but sit in meetings and rush home to blog about them. And those readers would be right ;)

Today's meeting in the shining metropolis of Birmingham was the first Saturday regional get together of West Midland Socialist Party members for aeons. Comrades from around the region descended upon New Street in the morning and cleaned up in papers sold and money raised. Then it was onto the famous United Services Club, Brumland's slightly pokey answer to the capital's Conway Hall and Friends Meeting House.

The assembled came to listen to H, up from the centre, on the organisational challenges facing the party. The second session, on the party paper, its role and how we sell it will be visited in part II of this post tomorrow.

Before she got into the meat of the matter H put our party in political and economic context - the mainstream political monolith around neo-liberal policies, the sporadic but constant attacks on the working class, growth fuelled by debt and so on. H noted these had not provoked mass action by the class because of the drip-drip character of assaults and the inability and unwillingness of most union leaderships to take a lead in opposing them. The struggles against the NHS cuts are typical of this. It seems Unison in particular is hell bent on protecting New Labour, regardless of the cost to its members. In the absence of this lead, generally speaking the class's capacity to think itself as such, recognise its interests and self-organise in pursuit of them remains at historic lows.

This has meant in many ways our party has had to substitute itself for the campaigns that in previous periods would have developed spontaneously. For example, in many parts of the country groups protesting against NHS cuts would not have come into existence if it were not for the lead our party has taken in setting them up. This was certainly the case in Stoke. Unfortunately this has meant our eye has been taken off the organisational ball somewhat. Paper sales, monies raised, cadre development have proceeded well this past year but recruitment and retention has remained more or less at the same level.

The situation cannot continue. A recruitment campaign will be launched at congress in two weeks time (targets subject to the vote). This is not a bureaucratic quick-fix, it means honestly looking at the strengths and weaknesses of our branches, our ways of working, but emphatically not standing back from what we already do. We do pick up members from this activity but this is a by-product of the work, it is not something we consciously set out to do. Therefore we need to be prepared to ask more often, and have a division of labour in place to make the most of the contacts we're in touch with.

Turning to the calibre of members recruited over the last couple of years, H noted many who are coming to us are not raw, but already consider themselves to be socialists and at times repeated visits to discuss matters may be necessary to win these contacts to the organisation. Also on this theme recruiting young people needs to be a pivotal concern - the young are more likely to join and remain members. To borrow H's phrase, if a branch is entirely composed of comrades in their 60s even then youth work needs to be a priority. Her final point was the patient quiet work we do now, recruiting here and there, building our strength in unions and workplaces, will stand us in good stead when mass movements do erupt.

The meeting opened to contributions from the floor. TN argued that the period dating from the collapse of Stalinism has been difficult and our organisation has shrunk, but the organisation itself was maintained and to an extent the party's analysis of the period helped insulate the cadre. Now, with the labour movement in a decrepit state the job facing our party is going out and creating our audience. We should remember why we joined and use these experiences to inform our recruitment practices.

L, as a comparatively new member talked about how discussions and chats were crucial in bringing her to the party. G added that the branch meeting shouldn't necessarily be the first point of contact someone new has with the party - the idea of coming into a room full of strangers tends not to be the most inviting prospect for some. Returning to a theme touched on by other contributors, he admitted the campaigning ground work we do now does put pressures on the organisation but today's spadework means we won't have to organise "everything" in the future, as activists beyond our ranks are developed and the class finds its feet again.

Very often socialists who've been burned by their experience with "the sects" claim they put the narrow interests of the group before the broader interests of the class. I'm sure helpful readers will point out occasions when they think Militant/SP are guilty of this. But now, in 2007, being a member and recruiting to our organisation is to take part in the task of rebuilding the labour movement, and therefore the potential of our class to act. In this case at least, we "have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole".