Building the Socialist Party

THE SOCIALIST Party’s special drive for new members this month is going very well. Interest in our ideas and party are reaching new levels each week.

Judy Beishon, Socialist Party membership campaign organiser

Our website has been receiving an average of 100 visits each day over the last month, with 185 being made on one day last week! Applications to join have come into our national office during the last week alone from Hove, Bristol, Hull, Loughborough, Midlothian, Doncaster and Bedford.

Liz, from Bristol, added the following comment to her request to join: “I’ve just turned 18 and so will be voting in this year’s general election. I plan to stand as the Socialist Party candidate in my sixth form elections”. Party members in Bristol have contacted her, and she will be attending their next branch meeting.

On top of these applications, during the last week we have received requests for more information from people in Rugby, Darwen, York, Carlisle, Somerset, Newport, Reigate, Swindon, Taunton, Middlesbrough and Lincoln.

All Socialist Party branches doing regular activity are reporting meeting people who are interested in joining. Lewisham branch has recruited five new members this month from their election canvassing, bringing their total this year so far to eight.

Our Merseyside branch has two new members so far this month, one is a UNISON trade union shop steward, involved in the strike action in Knowsley, and one a Sefton council tenant who met us through our involvement in a local campaign against the council’s housing plans.

A Merseyside student who only joined us three months ago, Michael Brierley, has demonstrated that it doesn’t necessarily take long to become a very effective party member; He was a platform speaker on behalf of our party at a Merseyside Socialist Alliance election rally last week.

Other branches that have done particularly well are Hackney, with three new members this month (two of them being UNISON shop stewards) bringing their total for the year so far to six, and Coventry, who have recruited eight.

Branches in Wales have also done well, with five new members this month so far. They include 17-year-old Nici, in Swansea, who already described herself as a ‘revolutionary Marxist’ before joining, and is now quickly getting involved in Socialist Party meetings and activities.

There is still a week left of our special March recruitment drive, so we urge all readers of The Socialist who are not yet members to consider joining us now, to actively help with the spreading of socialist ideas and building the forces of socialism. You can join here or by e-mailing us on: [email protected].