Devon Socialist Party - For the millions not the millionaires

Website for the Socialist Party in Devon. We have members across the county who campaign on issues including Save our NHS, anti-housing privatisation, low pay no way and against the racist and divisive BNP. This blog is here to pass on news and events in Devon and nationally that will be of interest to members and other socialists, campaigners and trade unionists in Devon. Please contact us at socialistpartydevon@gmail.com if you have any questions, queries, suggestions or news.

Forthcoming events

Every Saturday - Noon - 2pm - Bedford Square, Exeter - Socialist Party stall - Campaigning and there for discussion. We also have a range of literature ranging from this weeks 'The Socialist' to this month's 'Socialism Today', as well as books on Marxism, history, science, and international issues.

Every Tuesday - 7.30pm - Exeter branch meeting - email us for venue details - Organisational matters and planning ahead as well as discussion and debate.

Monday 19th January - Friday 13th February - USDAW Presidential election - Socialist Party member Robbie Segal is standing, and campaigning for a campaigning, democratic union. See www.robbiesegal.org for more details.

Tuesday 10th February - 7.00pm - North Devon Socialist Party branch meeting - G2 room, Barnstaple Library - Discussion of organisational issues, and debate on Darwin and evolution, introduced by JL.

Wednesday 11th February - 7.00pm - Fight For Jobs public meeting - Exeter Community Centre, St Davids Hill, Exeter - Called by Devon Socialist Party and Exeter Socialist Students, this meeting will be a chance to discuss the current economic crisis and how workers and youth can organise to protect jobs and living standards.

A more extensive calendar of events over 2009 will follow at the bottom of the page.

Tuesday 17 June 2008

Save our Post Offices - progress so far

Names are being added to the online petition we have set up (here) as well as to our paper petitions. Petioning had been going on in Exeter, with a special 'Save our Post Offices stall in Exeter High Street on Saturday and around the residential area near to the Post Office threatened in Pinhoe Road. If you want to sign the online petition, but are having problems (many people have been unable to sign it) please email the campaign at sopodevon@gmail.com. Already many have signed it, including former Postmaster General and Labour MP Tony Benn. And we've only really just started!

It is clear that there is a great deal of anger at the plans, and we stick to our central demand that none of the Post Offices close and that the council takes them over and sees them continue as Post Offices. It seems that they will not do this for the majority of the threatened Post Offices. We need therefore to keep up the pressure on them. If you would like to get involved with the campaign, email us either at socialistpartydevon@gmail.com or sopodevon@gmail.com

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What We Stand For

The Socialist Party fights for socialist change - a democratic society run for the needs of all and not the profits of a few. We also fight, in our day-to-day campaigning, for every possible improvement for working-class people.

As capitalism dominates the globe, the struggle for genuine socialism must be international.

The Socialist Party is part of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), a democratic, socialist international that organises in over 40 countries.

Our demands include:

Work & Income

Trade union struggle to increase the minimum wage to £8 an hour without exemptions as an immediate step towards £10 an hour. For an annual increase in the minimum wage linked to average earnings.

All workers, including part-timers, temps, casual and migrant workers to have trade union rates of pay, employment protection, and sickness and holiday rights from day one of employment.

An immediate 50% increase in the state retirement pension, as a step towards a living pension. Reinstate the link with average earnings now.

Reject 'Welfare to Work'. For the right to decent benefits, education, training, or a job, without compulsion.

Scrap the anti-trade union laws! For fighting trade unions, democratically controlled by their members. Full-time union officials to be regularly elected and receive no more than a worker's wage.

A maximum 35-hour week with no loss of pay.

Public services

No to privatisation and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Renationalise all privatised utilities and services, with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need.

Fully fund all services and run them under accountable, democratic committees that include representatives of service workers and users.

Free, publicly run, good quality education, available to all at any age. Abolish university tuition fees now and introduce a living grant. No to academies!

A socialist NHS to provide for everyone's health needs - free at the point of use and under democratic control. Kick out private contractors!

Keep council housing publicly-owned. For a massive building programme of publicly-owned housing, on an environmentally sustainable basis, to provide good quality homes with low rents.

Environment

Major research and investment into replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy and into ending the problems of early obsolescence and unrecycled waste.

Public ownership of the energy generating industries. No to nuclear power. No to Trident.

A democratically planned, low fare, publicly-owned transport system, as part of an overall plan against environmental pollution.

Rights

Oppose discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, disability, sexuality, age, and all other forms of prejudice.

Repeal all laws that trample over civil liberties. For the right to protest! End police harassment.

Defend abortion rights. For a woman's right to choose when and whether to have children.

For the right to asylum. No to racist immigration laws.

New workers' party

For a new mass workers' party drawing together workers, young people and activists from workplace, community, environmental and anti-war campaigns, to provide a fighting, political alternative to the pro-big business parties.

Trade unions to disaffiliate from the Labour Party now and aid the building of a new workers' party!

Socialism and Internationalism

No to imperialist wars and occupations. Withdraw the troops immediately from Iraq and Afghanistan!

Tax the super-rich! For a socialist government to take into public ownership the top 150 companies and banks that dominate the British economy, and run them under democratic working-class control and management. Compensation to be paid only on the basis of proven need.

A democratic socialist plan of production based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people, and in a way that safeguards the environment

No to the bosses' neo-liberal European Union! For a socialist Europe and a socialist world!

Events calendar 2009

Saturday 10th January - 12.30pm - National demonstration against slaughter in Gaza - Starts at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, London. March to Israeli embassy, High St, Kensington, London.

Tuesday 13th January - 7.00pm - North Devon Socialist Party branch meeting - Venue TBC - Discussion of organisational issues, as well as debate on the topic of 'Internationalism and the role of the Committee for a Workers' International' introduced by DL.

Monday 19th January - Friday 13th February - USDAW Presidential election - Socialist Party member Robbie Segal is standing, and campaigning for a campaigning, democratic union. See www.robbiesegal.org for more details.

Tuesday 10th February - 7.00pm - North Devon Socialist Party branch meeting - G2 room, Barnstaple Library - Discussion of organisational issues, and debate on Darwin and evolution, introduced by JL.

Wednesday 11th February - 7.00pm - Fight For Jobs public meeting - Exeter Community Centre, St Davids Hill, Exeter - Called by Devon Socialist Party and Exeter Socialist Students, this meeting will be a chance to discuss the current economic crisis and how workers and youth can organise to protect jobs and living standards.

Saturday 14th February - 12-4pm - Car industry in crisis national meeting - The Birmingham and Midland Institute, Margaret Street, Birmingham - Organised by the National Shop Stewards Network. Please encourage your union to sponsor this meeting and send delegates (£5 per delegate or visitor). See also www.shopstewards.net or PO Box 58262, London N1P 1ET.

Thursday 2nd - Saturday 4th April - London - March for Jobs - Organised by Youth Fight for Jobs (for more details see www.youthfightforjobs.com)

Saturday 7th - Sunday 8th November - London - Socialism 2009