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Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Socialism 2008: Rally



Saturday night at Socialism is probably the biggest night of the year for the Socialist Party. Speakers are drawn from the four corners of the CWI to address the hundreds of comrades present. It was difficult for me to make a decent estimate of numbers, but somewhere between 500 and 600 is probably right. And there were clearly more attendees this year than last - a sign that Stoke branch is not the only one enjoying a growth spurt.

I was going to write a lengthy report on who said what, but there seems little point now the official version has appeared. And even better each of the speeches were filmed, which you can view on the same page too.

As ever, the rally ended in the traditional way with a rousing rendition of the proper version of The Internationale. Depressingly, nearly all the English language versions on Youtube are reproductions of the sacrilegious Billy Bragg version. So could we please, please film it next year and post it up?

Edited to add: More videos here, this time from the CNWP rally that closed the weekend. (Hat tip to The Revolution Decides).
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5 comments:

  1. ModernityBlog16 November 2008 at 21:27

    Phil,

    good piece on Obama, but really the SP should take modern media seriously, whilst the video I saw was a LOT better than some efforts, it wasn't good enough

    the sound was iffy and the SP should aim to provide MP3 (audio) as well as video

    video is bigger, takes time to download and not as easy to pass around, MP3s have the benefit of being simpler and can be listen to via a cheap player, not a PC.

    stripping out the audio is a trivial process, but it needs to be improved as the quality of the sound was poor (the use of extra sound sources would help)

    if the SP is really serious, then a small amount of work (that's all it is) is required and it should NOT be left to "techy" member, a political decision needs to be made to put quality video, audio and other material on-line

    also, has the SP got a YouTube channel yet?

    the SP needs to think anew, out of the tired 1930s model of propaganda that dogs much of the British Left, aim for a world-wide audience

    ReplyDelete
  2. Phil16 November 2008 at 22:29

    Mod, you're preaching to the converted here! I was going to ask our local NC member to raise it at the next national committee meeting, and I'm pretty sure it will be raised at conference this year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ModernityBlog16 November 2008 at 23:51

    have you got that YouTube channel yet?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous17 November 2008 at 11:37

    http://uk.youtube.com/user/TheSocialistParty

    there you go!

    ReplyDelete
  5. ModernityBlog17 November 2008 at 13:58

    adam,

    great stuff, could you possibly arrange for the BACKGROUND of that page to be "tidied" up?

    tiled backgrounds make it hard for those with poor sight to navigate and are very distracting

    the SP should aim for simplified designs which make it EASY for people to access their material

    bearing in mind that a lot of Internet users might not have English as a first language and might not be "able bodied" so the SP needs to design with accessibility in mind, there are plenty of web guides to such design tactics, it is not difficult.

    ReplyDelete

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