Campaign for a New Workers' Party

Building the campaign

The officers elected at the Campaign for a New Workers' Party (CNWP) conference had their first meeting on Friday 21 April. On the agenda were the organisational tasks contained in the resolutions passed by those at the conference and other matters such as finance and press.

Fiona Pashazadeh CNWP national treasurer

The conference had agreed to establish affiliation to the CNWP and a list of local and national organisations to be approached was agreed by the officers present at the meeting. It is important to raise finance for the campaign in order to produce new and up-to-date publicity material, book venues for meetings and pay other associated costs.

Supporters should think about any local community/campaigning organisations or trade union branches that could be asked to affiliate or make donations. If there are any such organisations in your area, please send the details to the contact address below.

One of the main action points to come from the conference resolutions was the proposed speaking tour to take place in May. This will be a good opportunity to organise regional launch meetings, drawing in potential and existing supporters, as well as discussing how to develop the campaign locally.

Every area needs to start planning now, looking for a suitable date and venue and thinking about speakers. Ideally, a local committee of supporters could come together to organise and plan the details. The signatories to the declaration will be split into regions and distributed to local groups in order to help build for these meetings.

It was also agreed that signatories with public positions in trade union branches and community or campaign organisations would be contacted and asked to invite a CNWP speaker to their meetings.

The campaign is looking to have fringe meetings at as many trade union conferences as possible and a number of dates and venues have already been confirmed. The officers have agreed to contact the trade union broad lefts to try to avoid any meeting clashes. Respect have already been contacted with the planned dates.

Any press coverage for the campaign is valuable and supporters should be aiming to get letters and articles into local and national papers. Trade union members should also attempt to get coverage in relevant union publications. It was agreed that the CNWP website would be further developed and other internet options would be investigated.

We have a target of getting at least 5,000 signatories to the declaration by the end of 2006 - it is vital that there is a strong drive on this from all supporters of the campaign. The DWP strike on 2-3 May will be an opportunity to discuss the need for a new workers' party with those on picket lines and at meetings and rallies - make sure you visit with copies of the declaration and ask workers to sign.

The total number of signatories is now over 1,600 - every signatory should be encouraged to get two or three others to sign up over the next few months to ensure that we are well on the way to meeting the target and building the campaign into a significant force.