Who the f*ck are Socialist Appeal?

[Rob Ray]

I think it's SA who have been putting up Are You A Communist Then Organise (Iirc) large posters and stickers which I've seen all over London and also several smaller towns in the south east.... As someone who appreciates flyposting it's the best effort I've seen from any left group in years

Same in Ipswich, I've seen the bunch of them at demos (student sort of age) and it's genuinely been quite a nice thing to be walking past socialist agit-prop in town, Trot or otherwise. London's so covered in posters it all gets lost most of the time and I forgot how much of a hindbrain-level impact they can make as a territorial statement.

 

[Sweet FA]

They've had stands at quite a few university Fresher's Fairs this year; stickers/posters all over Bristol.

 

[CNT36]

Same in Ipswich, I've seen the bunch of them at demos (student sort of age) and it's genuinely been quite a nice thing to be walking past socialist agit-prop in town, Trot or otherwise. London's so covered in posters it all gets lost most of the time and I forgot how much of a hindbrain-level impact they can make as a territorial statement.

I've seen those posters in Plymouth.

 

[CNT36]

They've had stands at quite a few university Fresher's Fairs this year; stickers/posters all over Bristol.

Now you say it that's probably where the ones I've see have come from. Mention of students on one iirc and appeared in the last month or so.

 

[Sweet FA]

 

[The39thStep]

I think it's SA who have been putting up Are You A Communist Then Organise (Iirc) large posters and stickers which I've seen all over London and also several smaller towns in the south east.... As someone who appreciates flyposting it's the best effort I've seen from any left group in years

Saw an Are you a Communist Sticker in Manchester when I was over

 

[hitmouse]

I think it's SA who have been putting up Are You A Communist Then Organise (Iirc) large posters and stickers which I've seen all over London and also several smaller towns in the south east.... As someone who appreciates flyposting it's the best effort I've seen from any left group in years

Yeah, they're all over the place - my big sister reported that up in Edinburgh some people had taken to covering of the "omm" and "is" bits. From a sectwatching perspective, I think it's notable that for a very long time Trot groups tended to avoid the c-word, whereas SA's current branding goes very heavy on communist, Marx, Lenin, hammer and sickle stuff, which I would tend to interpret as being them competing for the YCL crowd. And good luck to them, I'd guess it's probably at least a slightly less mental organisation for people to end up in than the actual YCL.

 

[nogojones]

The stickers and posters are up round here, but I not seen any SA people in real life yet, but I'm never in town.

You do see quite a bit of SP about. The dull, but fairly inoffensive wing of Trotskyism.

 

[LDC]

View attachment 395682

The stalls in that pic should so merge.

 

[Rob Ray]

Certainly SA seems less prone to paramilitary cosplay and unironic Stalin apologetics than the YCL. I think a lot of the added openness of language may stem from observing a large number of M-L youth being active online and reckoning there's likely to be enough low-hanging fruit to go for when getting started. I don't think they're entirely wrong there either (though it also paints them into a medium-term corner imv).

 

[Karl Masks]

what is the issue with trotskyism, or is it all about Kronstadt

 

[ska invita]

The stalls in that pic should so merge.

Socialist (Socialist) Paintball Appeal

The use of the word appeal does tickle me....pleeeeeease join our sect!!!

 

[Plumdaff]

I think it's SA who have been putting up Are You A Communist Then Organise (Iirc) large posters and stickers which I've seen all over London and also several smaller towns in the south east.... As someone who appreciates flyposting it's the best effort I've seen from any left group in years

Lot of these around Cardiff too

 

[CNT36]

what is the issue with trotskyism, or is it all about Kronstadt

All about that base.

 

[Sweet FA]

I’ve had very posh students trying to palm off their weird and shit rag off on me in town.

Tbf one of the people I chatted to in Bristol a few weeks ago was a bit Kendall Mintcake.



My dad's bought me the Socialist Worker's Party for my birthday!

 

[Rob Ray]

Every youth political tendency is weird and subcultural as hell, tbf, much like youths in general.

But I also spent part of yesterday afternoon talking to an older trade unionist who was despairing at where the next generation of trade unionists was going to come from at the weekend and if some get generated by a weird Trot sect coming down off a Corbyn binge then it's probably better than nowt.

what is the issue with trotskyism, or is it all about Kronstadt

Now that is an interminably long and circular thread in the making.

 

[ska invita]

Sounds like a really impressive flyposting surge then.... Nationwide. Bound to have boosted membership.

Has anyone read any Alan Woods? One thing I know about him was connection/influence on Chavez in Venezuela

 

[Karl Masks]

i'm a member of the socialist party in bristol. I know there's bad blood between us and them (to coin a phrase). It doesn't look good to normies I guess, but the SP are a good bunch. SA probably are as well.

 

[Pickman's model]

i'm a member of the socialist party in bristol. I know there's bad blood between us and them (to coin a phrase). It doesn't look good to normies I guess, but the SP are a good bunch. SA probably are as well.

you've made me feel sorry for the sp

 

[Rob Ray]

Imv there's usually very little point in focusing on the spats between different flavours of leftist in practical terms when in most towns they could probably all fit into the same pub with room to spare. Leave that shit on the table until there's a left worth talking about, I'll happily critique that popular front idea when there's enough people to actually have one.

(Though that does run up against the whole "we want the secretary role" problem on occasion).

 

[Smokeandsteam]

i'm a member of the socialist party in bristol. I know there's bad blood between us and them (to coin a phrase). It doesn't look good to normies I guess, but the SP are a good bunch. SA probably are as well.

You’re in the SP? I assume you’ll be voting TUSC and not Labour at the GE?

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Sounds like a really impressive flyposting surge then.... Nationwide. Bound to have boosted membership.

Has anyone read any Alan Woods? One thing I know about him was connection/influence on Chavez in Venezuela

Yeah, I’ve read loads, including his book on Venezuela. Not recommended. His style is classic turgid, overly verbose, Trotskyist.

What became their membership was ancient when they were in the Militant and then split from it due to their obsession with labourism and entryism.

A few new student members and a jazzy ‘are you a communist’ branding exercise can’t hide their flabby politics as a quick glance at their website demonstrates.

 

[PTK]

Yeah, I’ve read loads, including his book on Venezuela. Not recommended. His style is classic turgid, overly verbose, Trotskyist.

What became their membership was ancient when they were in the Militant and then split from it due to their obsession with labourism and entryism.

A few new student members and a jazzy ‘are you a communist’ branding exercise can’t hide their flabby politics as a quick glance at their website demonstrates.

Alan Woods and Ted Grant wrote a book about the physical sciences in which they state that Ted Grant proved, using dialectical materialism, that the Big Bang model of cosmogenesis was incorrect.

Groups of galaxies are rushing away from each other, the cosmos is filled with microwave radiation that has the same temperature everywhere to one part in one hundred thousand, and the primordial matter consists of about one quarter helium and three quarters hydrogen (with a “seasoning” of deuterium and lithium), but Woods dismisses all this material evidence as contradicting materialism.

 

[cloudyday]

Walked passed a couple of stalls the other day that were setup outside a student fresher gathering. There were about half a dozen over educated embryos talking the usual bollocks and trying to sell their paper. It seemed rather apt that the other stall was the Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

[hitmouse]

Alan Woods and Ted Grant wrote a book about the physical sciences in which they state that Ted Grant proved, using dialectical materialism, that the Big Bang model of cosmogenesis was incorrect.

Groups of galaxies are rushing away from each other, the cosmos is filled with microwave radiation that has the same temperature everywhere to one part in one hundred thousand, and the primordial matter consists of about one quarter helium and three quarters hydrogen (with a “seasoning” of deuterium and lithium), but Woods dismisses all this material evidence as contradicting materialism.

Oh, I would definitely join Socialist Appeal if they can do this:

 

[The39thStep]

what is the issue with trotskyism, or is it all about Kronstadt

Militant, the Socialist Party's predecessor had quite a good membership education strategy. Why has SPEW abandoned that, or is it a Bristol thing?

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Alan Woods and Ted Grant wrote a book about the physical sciences in which they state that Ted Grant proved, using dialectical materialism, that the Big Bang model of cosmogenesis was incorrect.

Groups of galaxies are rushing away from each other, the cosmos is filled with microwave radiation that has the same temperature everywhere to one part in one hundred thousand, and the primordial matter consists of about one quarter helium and three quarters hydrogen (with a “seasoning” of deuterium and lithium), but Woods dismisses all this material evidence as contradicting materialism.

I’ve got that book. I was guilt tripped into buying it when I was a member of the Tendancy. It’s bollocks

 

[Fedayn]

Militant, the Socialist Party's predecessor had quite a good membership education strategy. Why has SPEW abandoned that, or is it a Bristol thing?

It was abandoned, or at least I would say it was. The political education within the old MT/ML/SML was imho, pretty damn good.

 

[danny la rouge]

Now that is an interminably long and circular thread in the making.

I’m pretty sure we had a few of them back in the olden days.

 

[Fedayn]

One thing I noticed this weekend is that SA banners still use the

Every youth political tendency is weird and subcultural as hell, tbf, much like youths in general.

But I also spent part of yesterday afternoon talking to an older trade unionist who was despairing at where the next generation of trade unionists was going to come from at the weekend and if some get generated by a weird Trot sect coming down off a Corbyn binge then it's probably better than nowt.


Now that is an interminably long and circular thread in the making.

very old Militant newspaper strapline 'Marxist voice for Labour and youth'. Takes me back a bit...