Regional Difference

Trots are the ones who are loud, unashamedly declaring whether truthfully or not; 'we won this campaign', 'we are the only serious group' etc. Open to correction on this, but anarchists and libertarian socialists tend not to do this.

I'm pretty sure the SPGB has a Birmingham Branch that has open branch meetings. It certainly did a couple of years ago. You could get in touch with them and find out.

There is also the Midlands Discussion Forum which is attended by people influenced by Anarchism, Council Communism, Left Communism and Impossiblism - sometimes members of the SPGB even come - (as well as other tendencies I guess). Our next meeting is in Birmingham in December. You'd be most welcome.

I have some anarchist mates who are from the Midlands but live elsewhere and they say it's always been like that but they don't know why.

Solfed now has a local in Nottingham actually.

Nugget of history: Walsall is north of West Bromwich and east of Wolverhampton.

Deakin, Joseph Thomas 1858-1937

A short biography of Joe Deakin, anarchist ensnared in the Walsall bomb plot provocation.

http://libcom.org/history/deakin-joseph-thomas-1858-1937

SPGB
West Midlands Regional branch
Contact: Vincent Otter
Tel: 01242 675357
Email: [email protected]

East Midlands
Gareth Whitley
Email: [email protected]

We also hold annual weekend school in Birmingham that encourages visitors.

I guess there are regional differences, especially when there is a low membership and it is dependent upon awareness from local participation and presence.

For the SPGB we have a particular problem that our one-time forte, the outdoor meeting, has disappeared and hence some believe the Party also disappeared. Another issue for us is our low profile at demonstrations and protests where we attend but not participate and certainly not try to usurp as our own. The few Socialist Standard sellers or the leaflets we distribute don't bring us too much attention. We also have a habit of overlooking some protests and are not as demo-groupie inclined as some even smaller and insignificant groups...yes, i'm looking at those Sparts.

I find my anarchist friends may well have the more colourful banners but they seldom try to leaflet to explain their case.

But i'm guessing the internet and social media is of even more importance for us all now. And i think we might be letting ourselves down with our low level of engagement and lack of imagination.

But i possess no solutions...just like us all, i think, i get that vague nagging feeling that we are missing something that we can't place our finger on...

jondwhite

Trots are the ones who are loud, unashamedly declaring whether truthfully or not; 'we won this campaign', 'we are the only serious group' etc. Open to correction on this, but anarchists and libertarian socialists tend not to do this.

It's like when the SWP claim 'we stopped the BNP' with the implication means them when they were protesting outside the disastrous appearance on Question Time or dobbing in antifa at protests.

Its the same for every group really, in my area its Labour and SPEW, even when the CPGB was still around and the SWP were still fairly big they never had any presence here. And the thing about the SPEW is that they attract a lot of disaffected Labour party folks and ex-SWPers, because they make a very big show of being "THE Socialist party". That ensures growth but the membership isn't exactly committed.

Indeed the founders and most of the prominent members of the local SPEW were in the Labour party first, either as part of Militant or disaffected youth members. And a few of them have made several attempts to get back into the Labour party over the years.

I find claiming to be 'THE' organisation, with the implication of exclusivity on any ideas, to be sectarian and something that deserves more challenging especially coming from groups who claim any criticism of themselves is sectarian.

Jon, you probably know that it is a failing that some members of the Socialist Party share. They like to use the capital T in The Socialist Party but i think they also share the habit of capitalising of Socialism, Class Struggle etc.

I don't think the SPGB case is that socialist ideas can only arise from the (one) party (teaching) to the class. By contrast, this does appear to the SWP case.

Could anywhere be described as an "anarchist stronghold"?

...

Could anywhere be described as an "anarchist stronghold"?

Certainly not in the UK. I wouldn't even particularly say there are any socialist strongholds. Sure, some places which maybe have more left-wing activism in it in general (East London, for instance, maybe Lewisham.. I'm sure there are others) but nothing I would call a 'stronghold', especially compared to certain areas in Europe (like Exarchia in Athens).. I guess it depends on your definition tho..

I'd say socialist and anarchist groups are both largely irrelevant in most areas while there are odd patches, both geographical and industrial (i.e. rail industry) with a higher density of left-wingers than others. The only parts of the country where I'd say anarchists compete with socialists on a more-or-less equal footing (tho my knowledge is limited) would be Brighton and East London.

Even then tho, it's still an equality in terms of a radical left largely detached from the wider working class..

Digital, the West Midlands has been relatively lean, anarchist wise, from as far back as the I can remember. There were fairly fluid anarchist groups at the University of Warwick from about 1982 and they were certainly active during the mid-80s (Miner's strike). The Coventry Anarchist Group was active roughly 1984-1988 and involved locals and students from the Polytechnic. There was, towards the end of that period, a small Anarchist Communist Federation (ACF) group in the city and a group at Warwick Uni called Organise! around 1989/1990 that was ACF in all but name. Birmingham/Wolverhampton had a modest AF presence in the mid-late 90s.
Earlier (70s) there had been a small but active Solidarity (libertarian socialist) group (I worked with a couple of them in the late 80s) and even Big Flame had a presence - I remember them handing out leaflets at my dole as late as 1983...
In the same period Birmingham was also not particularly busy, although it had a lot more going on than Coventry! There was an active Class War group and various projects going on.
Since then, a pretty large IWW Branch has emerged in Birmingham and I think there's a SolFed local? Coventry, as far as I am aware, has not developed any notable groups although there are a few wobblies knocking about and the odd anarchist no doubt.
Why, given the size of these cities and their massive working class communities, they have been relatively quiet, is a good question. As a previous poster suggested, there are a lot of anarchists from the Midlands...

Oh, and Coventry, or Coventry South East CLP was a stronghold of Militant (a Trotskyist party in the Labour Party) in the 80s and had Socialist Party Councillors after their expulsion. Coventry, with three Labour MPs is now a little 'red' island in a blue sea. But 'stronghold' of socialism....hmmm.

God knows why but there were various 'Little Moscows' in Britain, tiny areas who supported the CPGB in the North East, Rhondda Valley, Wales and Fife, Scotland.

jondwhite

God knows why but there were various 'Little Moscows' in Britain, tiny areas who supported the CPGB in the North East, Rhondda Valley, Wales and Fife, Scotland.

That isn't much of a mystery most of those footholds were built on the back of CPGB cells in the trade unions for the major local industries. Ship builders for the north east and most of Scotland, and mining in Wales etc.

Reputation-wise anarchists don't have the reputation of manipulative cause-stealing, but it sometimes takes a bit of getting over the reputation for being wide-eyed ideologues.

The SPGB Scottish branches blog has posted a few bits and pieces which might be of some interest

Fife anarchism
http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2012/10/fife-anarchism.html

UMS - CP miners union
http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2012/05/red-union.html

The next Midlands Discussion Forum will be in Birmingham at the Woodman pub, New Canal St, Birmingham B5 5LG, on the 17th December.

Not sure at the moment what time it starts, but when I know I'll put the info up here.

Sorry, yeah, it's 2pm. But I'm not sure we know what the subject is yet.

We're definitely discussing the question 'does the Russian Revolution have any relevance today?'