The Socialist Party’s National Committee (NC) met on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 January.
The first discussion, on political developments in Britain and worldwide, was introduced by the party’s general secretary Peter Taaffe.
2009 saw some important workplace disputes, including construction worker strikes, factory occupations, the postal workers’ dispute and local public sector action involving bin workers and fire fighters among others. Bigger and more frequent workplace and political struggles are likely during the next few years.
Saturday ended with a discussion on the potential work of the new Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition during the 2010 general election.
The Sunday discussion on building the Socialist Party showed that there has been a big increase in the number of people interested in socialist ideas during the last 12 months.
While this resulted in record numbers of people joining the Socialist Party, this could just be a foretaste of many more people joining the party in the near future. A NC statement on the methods and opportunities for building the Socialist Party was agreed.
The meeting ended with a report from the international executive committee of the Committee for a Workers’ International, which had met in December.
The NC is elected by the Socialists Party’s national congress and has representatives from every region in England and Wales. Socialist Party branches should arrange to have a detailed meeting report from a NC member in their region.
