The list of topics for talks will be decided at a quarterly meeting. Those with the most support should then be undertaken by members with the time and ability to give an introductory talk. However, we must be able to react to what is going on around us and be prepared to drop what is on the educational discussion agenda for a discussion on a current event. It shall be the responsibility of the branch secretary to ensure that each member gives a talk at least twice per year. This is to ensure that everyone develops the necessary skills and confidence.
Talks will be presented at branch meetings, and subsequently published in the IB. Periodically, instead of the talk being given by one member, four members will be delegated to research an agreed topic, and each will deliver a short lead-off from their own view-point (rather than an agreed view between the four). If there are more than twelve present, the meeting will consider breaking into two or more groups for discussion, to ensure a greater flow of ideas and debate.
The internal discussions shall be collated together, and Education folders, containing articles on specific folders should be developed and maintained. This would be a resource which WSM members could draw on and add to as time goes by. At least we should have folders on Imperialism, Women's Oppression, Economics, and Racism. A 'Further Reading' List should be drawn up. This should list books that are both a good read and useful in developing our political education.
We need to develop a coherent internal education programme. This breaks down into a number of areas as follows
1) Basic stuff we all need to know to argue positions. We should be aiming for the situation where all members can write an article for WS or present a basic talk on any policy area.
2) A knowledge of the arguments and theories of both conservative parties and the left so that we can demonstrate our differenced with them and the superiority of Anarchist communism. This includes Leninism, reformism, left republicanism etc.
3) A knowledge of the arguments surrounding various "single issue" or minority campaigns. For example what the different strands of feminism represent, their good and bad points etc.
4) A historical knowledge of periods of major international struggle. Particularly Spain 1936 and Russia 1917-21. These need to be developed to considerable depth.
5) A good enough economic understanding to be able to discuss and analyse economic theories like imperialism, state capitalism, downturn etc.
6) A knowledge of past industrial and community struggle in Ireland and England so we can argue tactics in the light of past experience in campaigns.
Most of this we have to a certain extent already. We need to adopt a planned approach overall and to make sure all the members are taking part in the debate, not just some of us.
For this there are a number of things we can do. These include
1.There are areas where we are very weak on e.g. economics. These need to be identified and tackled as an organisation one by one. I would suggest we start with economics and the issues surrounding it, aim to have one branch meeting/month in connection with this and after a number of months have a dayschool to consolidate what we have learnt. Obviously this can be combined with 1) above.
2. There are areas where little anarchist work has been done which puts forward a useful anarchist perspective. One such area is womens oppression/liberation. These should be tacked by a couple of members who would co-ordinated reading/branch meetings with the aim of adding to the anarchist theory through pamphlets/articles in WS. The importance here is in co-ordinating this work within the organisation rather then going off and doing it as individuals.
3. The areas where we all need knowledge on can be dealt with be getting individuals to research an area and report back through the IB and branch meetings.
4. From time to time we should select one other current of left though, present material on it in the IB and do a branch meeting on it. These arguments need not even have anything we might agree with in them eg degenerate workers state analysis. The purpose is to equip each member with the necessary confidence and knowledge to argue against other left ideas and groups. This is no academic exercise, but vital to our ability to argue our ideas.
5. People who are close and have expressed an interest in joining can be asked along to all branch meetings except those in week 3.
This paper is out of date - see the new WSM site for the more recent version