Update #60

Hello everyone,
Welcome to this week's update on the political happenings in Derby from the Socialist Workers Party!

Branch Meetings

The SWP is a party of activists who know that we need to understand the world to be effective in our actions. Our meetings have a discussion about key issues: economic, political, historical and cultural; as well as planning for events and activities.

Due to the election there will be no meeting this Thursday (7th May 2015).

Last Thursday's discussion on the matchwomen's strike of 1888 was brilliant, and raised some areas of history where comrades felt we could do with some more education, so watch this space for future meetings on related topics!

On Thursday May 14th we will discuss the recent tragedy in the Mediterranean and put it in the context of EU-wide racist anti-migrant policies. Migrant lives matter: stop the slaughter in the Mediterranean. Come on down to the West End Community Centre and join in the debate!

The following week we will have a guest speaker from the SWP Central Committee, to discuss strategy for the left as the dust settles from the general election. Join us to hear our perspectives and discuss your own views on the way forward! Fighting racism and austerity - where next after the elections? Thursday May 21st 7 pm, West End Community Centre.

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Derby Stand Up To UKIP activities

Last Saturday we joined the last pre-election Derby Against UKIP activities, leafleting in the town centre where we got a very positive reception, and followed with a successful leafleting campaign around Alvaston. Comrades have also been busy leafleting Mackworth. When you cast your vote tomorrow, help put UKIP in the electoral dustbin where they belong!

Chesterfield May Day Rally

Monday is International Workers' Day, and the Chesterfield May Day rally is an excellent day out for workers and their families.

Here's the program:

And here's a video of last year's gala!

Can't make our meetings?

If you want to find out more about us, meet some of our comrades, sign up to any of our petitions, find out about campaigns we are involved in, buy our paper or get hold of some of our other literature, why not come along to the campaign stall on Saturdays?

Find us on St Peter's St from 12 pm!

(NB this Saturday there will be no stall due to commitments with Derby Against UKIP. Normal stall place and time next week!)

Update #57

Hello everyone,
Welcome to this week's update on the political happenings in Derby from the Socialist Workers Party!

Branch Meetings

The SWP is a party of activists who know that we need to understand the world to be effective in our actions. Our meetings have a discussion about key issues: economic, political, historical and cultural; as well as planning for events and activities.

We have now uploaded the text of our recent meeting on the Ukraine - link to the post.

After this week's great discussion on the topic of civil rights, which took in everything from the US prison system to discrimination in the UK to identity politics, we are looking forward to our meeting next week on to vote or not to vote? Socialists and elections Thursday 16th April, 7 pm, West End Community Centre.

The following week we take a look at the economic situation 8 years after one of the greatest crises in capitalism became a permanent feature of our lives, with Marxist theory of crisis - The nature of the current long depression. Thursday 23rd April, 7 pm, West End Community Centre.

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Derby Stand Up To UKIP activities

The weekend of 11th - 12th April will be a Stand Up To UKIP weekend of action! There will be two activities on Saturday 11th April. Please come to either if you're brilliant, both if you're amazing!

At 11.00 we will have one of our fortnightly stalls at the Ram statue near the Intu Centre.

At 12.30 we will be doing door-to-door leafleting in the Derwent ward. Meet up at Derwent Community Library.

If you're interested in finding out more, email sutuderby@gmail.com

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Silk Mill Rally

The annual Silk Mill march and rally, which commemorates the struggles of Derby's workers in one of the first industrial strikes the world has ever seen, is approaching. This will be on Saturday April 25th. It is a great opportunity to celebrate working class resistance and organisation, so join the march, organised by the Derby Trades Union Council and with the support of all the trades unions in the city!

Can't make our meetings?

If you want to find out more about us, meet some of our comrades, sign up to any of our petitions, find out about campaigns we are involved in, buy our paper or get hold of some of our other literature, why not come along to the campaign stall on Saturdays?

Find us on St Peter's St from 12 pm!

Weekly Update #51

Hello everyone,
Welcome to weekly update 51, Derby SWP's brief guide to the political week ahead!

Branch Meetings

Our branch meeting on Thursday was a lively one, as we debated the recent massacre in Paris. Our speaker's introduction, Why we are not all Charlie Hebdo, will hopefully be up on the blog soon.

This week we will be discussing a related issue: the ways in which myths about immigration have been created to divide workers one from another with immigration: the myths spread to divide us. We will also have copies of the Socialist Worker pamphlet of the same name on sale at the meeting. In what will be the most racist election year for a long time, this talk will be a crucial weapon in the armoury of socialists and anti-racists. Thursday January 22nd, 7 pm.

The following week we will be marking Holocaust Memorial Day with a talk and discussion around the Holocaust and its causes. The Holocaust reminds socialists, anti-racists, anti-fascists and anyone in favour of equal rights for all of the consequences of allowing fascists and their ideas to become acceptable. Join us for the talk and debate!

Thursday 29th January 7 pm.


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Stand Up To UKIP at Hope Not Hate Meeting

Derby's first Stand Up To UKIP meeting was a great start to the year, well attended and with some good discussion of activities going forward. Here is the lovely new banner that we hope Derby's anti-racists will want to get behind!

The SWP supports the Stand Up To UKIP campaign as a single-issue, broad-front organisation which will seek to challenge UKIP, especially in this election year, to do whatever we can to reduce the UKIP vote.

However, Stand Up To UKIP is not the only group that wants to oppose them, and the broad anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate, which we have worked alongside on previous campaigns, have kindly invited Stand Up To UKIP to speak at their meeting on Monday night. Hopefully the two organisations will work closely together over the coming year.

Anti-Austerity, Anti-Cuts Demonstration

The Derby Trades Council has called a demonstration against the cuts to government spending. All organisations and individuals who want to see an end to austerity are invited.

The date has yet to be finalised: it will either be the next council meeting at the end of January or the budget meeting in March. We will update you as soon as we know.

Can't make our meetings?

If you want to find out more about us, meet some of our comrades, sign up to any of our petitions, find out about campaigns we are involved in, buy our paper or get hold of some of our other literature, why not come along to the campaign stall on Saturdays?

Find us on St Peter's St from 12 pm!

Inaugural Derby Stand Up To UKIP Meeting Announced

The SWP supports the Stand Up To UKIP campaign and the first meeting attempting to set up a branch of the campaign in Derby has been arranged. Please find details below - the more the merrier!

Derby Stand Up To UKIP

Inaugral Meeting

7pm Monday 12^th January

Shaheed Bhagat Singh Welfare Centre, Upper Dale Road, Derby, DE23 8BS

 All welcome so please come along. We will be planning how to campaign against UKIP in Derby in the lead-up to the general and local elections in May and also organising to protest at the UKIP spring conference in Margate on 28^th February.

Founding Statement:

The 2014 European Elections mark a watershed in British politics. UKIP is a right wing, racist,populist party which won over 27% of the vote; a staggering 4,352,051 people voted for them and they beat the three mainstream parties.

UKIP presents itself as an anti establishment party and its leader, Nigel Farage, claims to be ‘a man of the people’. This is a lie. UKIP wants to introduce a flat rate of income tax of 31 per cent that means those on the starting and basic rate, will face huge tax increases. UKIP’s deputy leader called for the privatisation of the NHS.

It has built up its electoral base by both presenting itself as a party opposed to the European Union, but more importantly by spreading poisonous lies and hatred towards migrants and Muslims.

We believe UKIP is a racist party. This may be something Farage and the party’s leadership is quick to deny. But in the run up to the European elections UKIP’s mask slipped. UKIP presents the anti-racist movement
with a major problem – dragging British politics to the right.

UKIP is also a party of bigots, sexists, Islamophobes and homophobes. The rise of UKIP has parallels with other far right and fascist parties, which are growing across Europe. In France the fascist Front National gained the biggest overall vote in the French European Elections. The PVV in the Netherlands, another racist populist party, came third and in Hungary the fascist Jobbik party came second.

UKIP received disproportionate media coverage prior to the elections and any party that received this level of coverage would have benefited at the polls. Although UKIP received a high vote, 65 per cent of the population did not vote. The mainstream political parties must do more to engage these people and not chase the UKIP vote to avoid the danger of racism being normalised in British society.

Now is the time to make a stand against UKIP. The lesson of history is that we need unity against the far right and racism. Stand up to UKIP is an umbrella organization which believes women, trade unions, anti-racists, black, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, other faith communities, LBGT, young people, students and all good people,
must unite and stand up to UKIP, racism and bigotry.

Please join us.

Diane Abbott MP
Len McCluskey – Unite the Union General Secretary
Ken Livingstone – Mayor of London – 2000 – 2008
Owen Jones – Writer and Journalist
Sally Hunt UCU Union General Secretary
Manuel Cortes TSSA Union General Secretary
Ava Vidal Comedian
Gerry Gable – Editor/ Publisher Searchlight Magazine
Hugh Lanning Vice chair, Unite Against Fascism
Lynsey German. Convenor Stop the war coalition
Leon Silver – President of the East London Central synagogue and steering group member, Tower hamlets interfaith forum
Jo Cardwell We Are Waltham Forest
Denis Fernando – Rainbow Coalition Against Racism
Sean Hoyle – President – Wessex Region of RMT Union
Lisa Fletcher – Branch Chair – Unite Community – Portsmouth and District
Jon Woods- President Portsmouth TUC – Chair -Unison Portsmouth City Branch

Post-Conference Update

The SWP conference was held recently. This update shares some of our general perspectives and priorities for 2015 following conference's decisions.

As always there have been ups and downs this year for socialists.

There has been good news - thanks to hard campaigning by the broad anti-fascist organisations (in which our comrades made a significant contribution) Nick Griffin was not re-elected to the European parliament, and the BNP vote collapsed. Defeating fascists is always good news.

Industrially there have been more large-scale national strikes and in some cases the rank and file have been able to push their unions to continue action, such as in the fire service and NHS. Alongside this, movements have continued to show the strength of feeling in the public which opposes austerity, whether through the People's Assembly or support for Russell Brand. More concretely, the recent Unite The Resistance conference was bigger and more confident than previously, full of examples of active trades unionists leading fightbacks in industry and the public services, showing that there is a real core of workers willing to take action and lead it.

However, the revolution isn't imminent. In fact workers look set to be hammered by the ruling class for the foreseeable future, so the order of the day is to build the fightback wherever we can. The challenges are clear:

• The continued electoral and media success of UKIP provides three central challenges.

1. Their racist populism against migrants and use of the EU as a bogeyman will increase the space for hardcore racists like the EDL to spread their poison, and the same applies to the misogyny and homophobia which prominent UKIP members have injected into the public discourse.
2. Their policies are violently anti-working class and if they obtain a significant measure of political power we will see even worse cuts to services and worse working conditions than the Tories, architects of Workfare, have promised. Every victory for UKIP is a challenge to working people.
3. The willingness of the media to give them a spotlight has allowed them to project the most profoundly false and hypocritical image as some kind of 'anti-politics' party, when in fact they represent the most reactionary parts of the establishment. For example in Derby at the moment they have the nerve to front a 'save Moorways' campaign, when their own policies will mean that councils will be completely unable to run even statutory public services, let alone leisure centres. Their flat tax and privatisation stance would simply see Moorways closed or flogged off (more likely the latter), yet they will continue to push this and other equally deceitful campaigns unless they are stopped.

• Building Stand Up To UKIP as a broad anti-UKIP group has to be a big priority. In Derby we hope to start building a serious Stand Up To UKIP campaign early in the new year, and would like to involve as many groups as possible who are opposed to their racism, misogyny and homophobia.
• At the same time the fascist threat has not gone away. We must continue to be active in anti-fascist work and UAF wherever we can. Stand Up to UKIP is not a replacement for UAF as UKIP are not fascists and we must have different tactics to tackle them. Having said this, a strong turnout at the 21st March Stand Up To Racism demonstration in London for the UN's Anti-Racism Day will send a message to both UKIP and the fascist right.
• A credible left electoral presence in May will help to provide an alternative to the racist populism of UKIP and a positive force for change. Unity and alliances across the left nationally must be pursued to achieve this. Any electoral challenges should be serious, not tokenistic, so we need be clear about where such an electoral campaign can be successfully mounted.
• Continuing to build Unite the Resistance will help to build strength and confidence within the organised working class to resist the attacks by the establishment parties and build independent working class action that is the most important force in stopping austerity. Workers are the people who create the wealth and provide the services we need and without them the wealthy cannot rule and the powerful have no power; but workers need to feel their strength and be confident enough not only to fight back but to challenge their union leaders where they are not given a lead.
• We must continue to oppose western intervention and imperialism from any quarter and remain committed to supporting the Stop the War Coalition in the UK and the revolutionary working class abroad. The massive movements that sprang up to defend Gaza show the strength of feeling against war. Bombing ISIS will simply create new problems for the people in these countries and will leave them at the mercy of whichever imperialist force is doing the bombing.
• The referendum in Scotland has shown the appetite for a progressive movement for social change which is exciting for everyone on the left. The decision of Scottish Labour to elect Jim Murphy, a Blairite who represents everything that turned Scottish voters away from Labour, continues to show that there is a real space on the left and the SWP will be part of the efforts to create a united left party that can articulate these progressive demands for change. The SNP is not such a party and it cannot be left to be the receptacle of the hopes of working people.

We believe that these are the right policies to pursue, but the more people we have around us, whether members or simply willing to work with us on one or more of our activities, the stronger we are!

Our first branch meeting in the new year will discuss these decisions and how we can implement them in Derby. Why not come along? An update announcing the meeting time and date will be posted on here shortly, and will also be sent out to our email list and Twitter followers.

See you in the new year comrades!

Weekly Update #44

SWP Weekly Update

Hello comrades,

Welcome to this week's update from the Derby Socialist Workers' Party!

Branch Meetings

This Thursday we have trained to fail: the Tory plan for our kids. Our speaker will argue that the Tory party's educational policies are destined to fail a whole generation of children - and that much of this is not accidental.

7 pm at the West End Community Centre, Thursday September 25th.

Next Thursday our guest speaker will be looking at the recent hugely successful book by Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century. What should socialists think about a book which identifies serious problems within capitalism - but is lapped up by sections of the ruling class?

7 pm at the West End Community Centre, Thursday October 2nd.


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Stand up to UKIP

THIS SATURDAY!
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK YOUR PLACE! 

UKIP is becoming an increasingly-heard presence in the UK political scene. Whilst not an openly fascist organisation like the BNP or EDL, they are an opportunist party with racist policies who only care about the rich, and try to make hay out of the anti-immigrant rhetoric which all the leading parties and much of the press have indulged in for years now.

UKIP represent a real danger, not least in 'normalising' racist anti-immigration ideas, but also in the way in which the media indulge in their posing as some kind of alternative to establishment politics whilst they pursue a virulently ruling-class agenda.

Stand Up To UKIP are organising a national demonstration against this toxic party on September 27th in Doncaster. All anti-racists should support this event - more information is on the Stand Up to UKIP site here.

A coach will be going from Derby, 9.45 am from Full Street.

Book your place now!

Email derbyswp@gmail.com or phone 07742 532 677.

Upcoming Events

We are involved in organising or supporting the following events in the near future, please help out if you can!

• September 28th - Demonstrate outside the Tory Party conference in Birmingham, organised by the TUC. Details here. 
• October 4th - Derby's fledgling Palestine support group has organised a leafleting stall to raise awareness of and support for the Palestinian people on St Peter's St. Volunteers welcome! 
• October 13th - Health workers across England are likely to be on strike. The wider these strikes the more effective they will be, so argue for your colleagues to vote for action and your union to be part of it!
• October 18^th – London TUC: Britain Needs a Pay Rise. National demonstration called to demand pay rises for Britain's workers. Coaches will be organised, we will give you more details as they become available. 
• November 11^th – Derby Quad: (Still) The Enemy Within, powerful film featuring several comrades that gives the miners' view of the 1984-5 strike. 
• November 15^th Unite the Resistance national conference in London.

Also on during September at the Quad is a film which presents a story well-known within the socialist movement but virtually unheard outside: Pride, the story of the Miners' Gay and Lesbian Support Group. Well worth a viewing for all socialists!

Weekly Update #42

SWP Weekly Update

Hello comrades,

Welcome to this week's update from the Derby Socialist Workers' Party!

Branch Meetings

This Thursday we have the socialist case for Scottish independence.

The Scottish referendum has been a subject of intense debate on the left. Some sections of the left believe that it is in the interests of the working class to support the union, while we and some other sections of the left have argued that the referendum opens up a space for a radical alternative.

With the poll only days away, come and join the debate!

7 pm at the West End Community Centre, Thursday September 11th.

Next week we will be discussing the legacy of Western imperialism over the last decade and how we should respond to the unfolding disasters in the MIddle East, with Iraq in chaos - the bitter fruits of Bush and Blair's war.

7 pm at the West End Community Centre, Thursday September 18th.

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Stand up to UKIP

UKIP is becoming an increasingly-heard presence in the UK political scene. Whilst not an openly fascist organisation like the BNP or EDL, they are an opportunist party with racist policies who only care about the rich, and try to make hay out of the anti-immigrant rhetoric which all the leading parties and much of the press have indulged in for years now.

UKIP represent a real danger, not least in 'normalising' racist anti-immigration ideas, but also in the way in which the media indulge in their posing as some kind of alternative to establishment politics whilst they pursue a virulently ruling-class agenda.

Stand Up To UKIP are organising a national demonstration against this toxic party on September 27th in Doncaster. All anti-racists should support this event - more information is on the Stand Up to UKIP site here.

A coach will be going from Derby. Book your place now!
Email derbyswp@gmail.com or phone 07742 532 677.

Upcoming Events

We are involved in organising or supporting the following events in the near future, please help out if you can!

• September 28th - Demonstrate outside the Tory Party conference in Birmingham, organised by the TUC. Details here. 
• October 4th - Derby's fledgling Palestine support group has organised a leafleting stall to raise awareness of and support for the Palestinian people on St Peter's St. Volunteers welcome! 
• October 13th - Health workers across England are likely to be on strike. The wider these strikes the more effective they will be, so argue for your colleagues to vote for action and your union to be part of it!
• October 18^th – London TUC: Britain Needs a Pay Rise. National demonstration called to demand pay rises for Britain's workers. Coaches will be organised, we will give you more details as they become available. 
• November 11^th – Derby Quad: (Still) The Enemy Within, powerful film featuring several comrades that gives the miners' view of the 1984-5 strike. 
• November 15^th Unite the Resistance national conference in London.

Weekly Update #28

Hi everyone, Here's your brief guide to the political week in Derby!
Fraternally,

Derby SWP

Branch Meeting

After last week's large and enthusiastic anti-racist response to Nigel Farage's (late) appearance in Derby we ask:

The threat of UKIP - how can we stop the racists? Thursday 8th May
7 pm West End Community Centre

Mackworth Road
Derby

Public Meeting

There are only two weeks left until our public meeting on

Socialism and the fight for women's liberation

Thursday 15th May

7 pm

West End Community Centre

Mackworth Road
Derby

We are trying to make this as large as possible - please attend if you can and make sure anyone who may be interested is aware!

Marxism 2014

Marxism is the largest festival of its kind in Europe. From 10-14th July in central London there will be more than 160 meetings and events going on. It's a great place to discuss and learn about all areas of politics and Marxist thought and activity.

Timetable now out! (click here)

It was a bit too big to include as an attachment in this email, but it is now up on the website here.

You don't need to be a member of the party to come, but if you're interested in any of the topics, why not come down and see for yourself? It is a unique and amazing event, as any of our comrades who have been can attest! Here's one of last year's talks, to whet your appetites:

Why not join us and thousands of others there? Book your tickets here: http://www.marxismfestival.org.uk/booking.htm

Weekly Update #27

Hello everyone!

There have been quite a few communications this week - apologies. However, we would not want you to be out of touch with your political week, so here we go!

Branch Meetings

This week there will be no branch meeting because of the action at the UKIP meeting (see below).

Our next meeting on 8th May will be The threat of UKIP - How can we stop the racists?

7 pm, West End Community Centre, Mackworth Road (next to Britannia Mill)

Public Meeting

We are building for a larger public meeting on Thursday 15th May - our previously delayed Socialism and the Fight for Women's Liberation.

We want this meeting to be as successful (and large!) as possible. Please publicise this meeting as widely as possible - and use the attached flyer!

UKIP - 'Nigel on Tour'

 

You should have received details already about our response to UKIP. See previous post for details!

There was a very positive reception for this at the Silk Mill march on Saturday, so hopefully there will be a big turnout at the Riverside Centre this Thursday at 6.30 pm - please join us!

Marxism 2014

 

Marxism is the largest festival of its kind in Europe. From 10-14th July in central London there will be more than 160 meetings and events going on. It's a great place to discuss and learn about all areas of politics and Marxist thought and activity.

Timetable now out!

Now up on the website here! You don't need to be a member of the party to come, but if you're interested in any of the topics, why not come down and see for yourself? It is a unique and amazing event, as any of our comrades who have been can attest!

Why not join us there? Find out more and book tickets here: http://www.marxismfestival.org.uk/index.htm

Responding to UKIP

Hi everyone,

In this week's update we mentioned that Nigel Farage of UKIP will be hosting a public meeting on 1st May (next Thursday).

At last night's branch meeting we agreed that we will do the following:

• Because of the way that UKIP present themselves, and are represented in much of the media, many who go may not be fully aware of the racist and elitist policies that UKIP actually have. Our intention will be to try to inform people attending of these policies.
  
• Mass leafleting outside the meeting, using Stand Up To UKIP materials (see attached flyer).
• Working with other groups to make the leafleting as large as possible.

Meet at 6.30 pm at the Riverside Centre in Pride Park (see below)!

Because it will fall on a Thursday there will be NO BRANCH MEETING next week, but the following week's branch meeting will be, fittingly, The Threat of UKIP - How Can We Stop the Racists?

Weekly Update #26

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the lateness of this week's update, I simply haven't been near a computer for several days I'm afraid! However, here's your guide for the very near future!

Branch Meetings

A reminder that this week (i.e. tomorrow!) we have a guest speaker coming to address the branch on the topic of Marxism, Ecology and Fracking. This will be:

 

Thursday 24th April 7 pm, West End Community Centre, Mackworth Road, Derby (near Britannia Mill).

Our meeting on 1st May may be affected by the UKIP visit - see below.

Public Meeting

We are building for a larger public meeting on Thursday 15th May - our previously delayed Socialism and the Fight for Women's Liberation.

We want this meeting to be as successful (and large!) as possible. Please publicise this meeting as widely as possible!

Silk Mill march and rally

The 1834 Silk Mill lockout was a milestone in industrial history, and every year the trades union movement and the left remember the sacrifices made by workers during this landmark dispute. We'll be out on Saturday 26th April - join the march too!

UKIP - 'Nigel on Tour'

 

 Many thanks to the comrade who alerted us about the imminent arrival in Derby of Nigel Farage, leader of the racist and elitist UKIP.

On 1st May they are holding an untitled 'public meeting' in Derby. The SWP will be part of whatever protest can be organised, hopefully by UAF as part of the 'Stand Up to UKIP' campaign - more details here. We have been in contact with the People's Assembly as well and I am sure that they will also be part of any protest.

We will update you as soon as we can with more details!

Marxism 2014

 

 

Marxism is the largest festival of its kind in Europe. From 10-14th July in central London there will be more than 160 meetings and events going on. It's a great place to discuss and learn about all areas of politics and Marxist thought and activity.

New - Timetable now out!

The timetable is now up on the website here! You don't need to be a member of the party to come, but if you're interested in any of the topics, why not come down and see for yourself? It is a unique and amazing event, as any of our comrades who have been can attest!

Why not join us there? Find out more and book tickets here: http://www.marxismfestival.org.uk/index.htm