Well done to Alan. If he was to write this up in his own inimitable
style I am sure it would make for a powerful wee article for the
Standard - all the more so coming from a non-member. Talking of which,
I assume he has been offered and declined a Form "A"?
B

-----Original Message-----
From: NewsFromNowhere@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewsFromNowhere@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Matt Culbert
Sent: 11 June 2009 23:42
To: NewsFromNowhere@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewsFromNowhere] Report back on Socialist Appeal Public
Meeting

Edinburgh - Workers MPs on Workers' Wages: Dump the Greedy Bankers MPs
Thursday, 11 June 2009, 19:30 - 21:30

Socialist Appeal Public Meeting

Workers MPs on Workers' Wages
Dump the Greedy Bankers MPs

Thursday, 11th June,2009
7.30pm to 9.30pm

Alan Ramsay,our sympathiser from West Lothian, went along to this.His
report to me,by telephone, is.

...... that there were 3 at the top table and 12,including himself
present.He allowed the two speakers to put their case without
interuption. The first was a young chap and he didn't wish to intimidate
him but,when they were finished after a few ramblings and meanderings
round the room,Alan decided to refocus on the topic as he had done some
preparation for this (see below) and challenge on some items which were
raised, namely the "Nationalisation of Banks" and a" fair days wage for
a fair days work".

He castigated the main speaker on describing himself as a Marxist,and
questioned why he was in the Labour party ,quoting "Anthony Wedgewood
Benn", "the Labour Party was never socialist", asked why any worker
should support a party which was anti-working class,had done what the
BNP was advocating, calling upon workers in the early hours of the
morning and forcibly repatriating them on the grounds of failed asylum
applications.

He ridiculed the workers wage for MP's ,comparing what had happened with
the SSP in the Scottish parliament ,breaking down the figures so that
even after giving half their earnings to the Party SSP mebers were
making way in excess of what workers of Alans aquaintance made.

He explained quoting Marx how wages were,"the cost of maintaining a
worker so that he or she can arrive in a condition to work each day" the
chair tried to stop him but he refused to desist as he explained, he,"
had not interupted or been disruptive while anyone else spoke" and he
was ,"entitled to have his say ".he explained that as a worker who had
left school at an early age of 15 with little formal education and
worked as a government employee,in a nationalisd industry,mining ,it
made no difference, who the boss was, he had been screwed by the system
and could understand that the case for socialism,entailed the abolition
of the wages system.

Why, he asked,"Are these so called socialists and marxists afraid to
spell this out to workers",did they think they were too stupid? In his
concluding remarks the main speaker said he would advocate screwing the
employer for what they could get and Alan interjecting this time, that
this was no solution for getting rid of capitalism.We must abolish the
wages system.

He didn't mention SPGB or The WSM as he is not a member.

The meeting was wound up at 9.00 pm
Below is the working notes Alan had for preparation.

At the conclusion of "Value, Price and Profit", Karl Marx wrote of the
working class that:"Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's
wage for a fair day's work!' they ought to inscribe on their banner the
revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wages system!'"The question,
What is the minimum wage for survival?, is only another way of asking:
What is the cost of labour-power?, or, What is the cost of maintaining a
worker so that he or she can arrive in a condition to work each day?It
is a bourgeois question. Hence, when this question of minimum wage, or
poverty datum line, or living wage is raised, the bourgeoisie is only
too delighted to take the lead in the discussion. Reformists in the
ranks of the proletariat are apt to amplify the hubbub, to the exclusion
of clear revolutionary thought.We are fortunate that there are
revolutionaries within the working class who are, like Karl Marx
himself, bold enough to think of the abolition of the wages system.
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________

Fraternally Matt




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