SA Office bulletin
Thursday 6 June
Capitalising on our election success
Recruitment
It remains very important to continue to seek to capitalise on our election success, even where we were not standing in the local elections. This means ensuring we have approached all our contacts and supporters with an invitation to become a member of the Socialist Alliance. We urgently need more subs paying members to match our clear potential to have thousands of members across England. If you do not have the national membership form, please email the office and we will send you some.
Monthly meetings
The Socialist Alliance needs regular local monthly meetings to ensure we maximise participation of our members in comradely political discussion and democratic decision-making. Regular meetings will preferably be held on the same day and at the same place every month and you will need a steering group to build the meeting and to ensure we are achieving basic levels of organisation. Where meetings are properly advertised with a serious political and organisational content, they have been very successful. National Executive members may be available to speak at your meeting. Please contact the national office.
Newsletters
The national executive also urges local SAs to produce a newsletter in the aftermath of the local elections covering our election success but also picking up on more recent political issues and helping to mobilise for some of the events listed below, such as the asylum seekers demo, our trade union activists meeting etc and advertising the monthly meeting. Greater Manchester Socialist Alliance now produces a regular newsletter which has been much praised. It can be accessed at Ideally we should go back with a newsletter or at least a leaflet to all the households we leafleted in the elections.
By-elections and mayoral elections
We are currently standing in by-elections in Luton and Tower Hamlets in London. If you can offer help, please contact the national office. It will be worth keeping a close eye on notices about by-elections going up in the Town Hall-if you're not on or in the council, they don't go out of their way to let you know when a by-election is being called. If you learn of a by-election in your area, let the national office know. We want to give you as much help as we can and you will anyway need authorisation from the national nominating office. We are also looking to stand candidates in mayoral elections coming up in October. Hackney SA has already decided in principle to stand a candidate and we hope there will be candidates in Bedford and Mansfield as well. Again if there is going to be a mayoral election in your area, let us know.
Profile
We are now building on a number of fronts nationally-around the debate on the political fund in the trade unions and in defence of Mark Serwotka, for the European Social Forum in Florence in November, around a number of national demonstrations and looking forward to local elections in 2003 and local, London-wide and European elections in 2004. To consolidate and expand the bases we currently have across the country, it's very important the SA keeps up a continuous profile. This means getting involved in supporting local protests and campaigns, writing to the local papers and ensuring we always have SA leaflets or newsletters for distribution at meetings, demos, etc we attend. For national events we always need volunteers to help with leafleting etc. Please contact the national office if you can help with any of the events listed below.
Website
The website, www.socialistalliance.net, is now regularly updated and we are also trying to improve it as a resource for local SAs. National leaflets we have produced recently are now available either on the home page or in the resources section.
Dates for the diary
(if there are events we've accidentally missed out, please let us know asap)
6 June: India-Pakistan emergency-public meeting, 7.30pm, Conway Hall, London. If you want to organise a meeting around this topic locally, please contact the national office which will try to help with speakers.
8 June: National Executive meeting, Birmingham
8/9 June: World Development Movement conference, Institute of Education (Sat from 2.45pm), Bedford Way, and SOAS (Sun from 11am), Russell Square, London. Email lara@wdm.org.uk for booking info etc. Help needed for leafleting.
11 June: National fire fighters demonstration over pay, 12 noon, Malet Street, London. 8,000 fire fighters are expected. The SA will have leaflets and placards for distribution. Help needed.
15 June: North regional demo in support of the Palestinians, Manchester, assemble 10.30am, Whitworth Park, Wilmslow Road, Manchester-march to city centre.
19 June: Rally to defend Mark Serwotka, 7pm, Friends House, Euston Road, London (opposite Euston station).
21/22 June: Anti-capitalist demos at EU summit, Seville, Spain-for transport details etc, please contact Globalise Resistance - office@resist.org.uk
22 June: National demo to 'Stop the War on Asylum Seekers', 12 noon, Malet Street, London. SA national leaflet on asylum seekers available from the office or the website.
29 June: SA trade union activists meeting, entrance £5, 12noon to 4pm, South Camden Community School, Charrington Street, London, nearest tube Euston.
13 July: National Executive meeting, London
7 Sept: SA National Council, one delegate per affiliated local SA, 11am, Birmingham, venue tba.
28 Sept: National Stop the War demo, London
September/October: SA national conference open to all members on Europe, exact date, venue and other detail tba.
7/10 November: European Social Forum, Florence.
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Contact the SA office by phone on 020 7609 2999 or by email
