(An Outline for CSE Branches) by Peter Sedgwick
local Centres should rely in the first place on their own nearby resources as regards the provision of lecturers and speakers. The aim should be to deal in topics that are of local interest to a labour movenent audience; we should envisage people attending and participating because the topic. engages them rather than because a particular "name" is on the platform. National or other well-known lecturers can best be used for week-end schools. Left Clubs of a few years ago probably tended to wear out speakers by inviting then long distances to audiences that could not be summoned. At some point a decision will have to be made as to how far the local Centre should organise gatherings of its ow (classes mder its own auspices, schools, meetings) and how far try to join with the gatherings of other organisations (speakers to TU branches, co-ops, etc.) If the latter, then as far as possible a consecutive series of attendances should be arranged, preferably with the sawe speaker, otherwise rapport will not be established properly, and contact will be lost. The suggestions that follow will apply in the main whether or not they are pursued at special CSB meetings. The main areas that scem to be worth covering are: industrial topics with a social/political implication; local labour history; local civic issues with a denocratic or welfare content. It may be possible to introduce sophisticated political topics; by "sophisticated" is meant anything outside the personal life-experience of most workers, and ¢.g. Vietnam is in this sense a sophisticated issue. If you can manage this without landing up with the selfsaae committed Left as you started with, good luck. If a trade union or co~op requests a speaker on a political issue of this sort, you should be equipped to cope. Here are some suggestions for dealing with the mre limited but more direct topic. 1) Industrial/Social Cuestions
Examples: Incomes Policy; the Apprenticeship System; Industrial Safety; Contracts and Rule-books; Industrial Unionism at Home and Abroad; Pensions and Benefits; Noise; Monotony and Vigilance in Industry; Redundancy Payments; Dispute Procedures; Work Study - for whom ?; Automation and the Workers; Shop Stewards Yesterday and To~day; The Working Week; Overtime and the Family; Disablement and Retraining; Health Risks in the Working Class; Wage labour and Capital; The Law and the Profits; Workers and the Lew; the State and the Bosses; Mergers and Takeovers; the Effects of Night Work; Mental and Manual Labour; Trade Union Dewcracy; the Drive to Rationalise Industry; the Right to Strike; the Cost of Living - Index and Reality; White Collar Trade Unionism; the Stock Exchange and Industrial Finance. In addition, functions can be organised around the problems of particular local industries. A local shop~steward and a Socialist social=scientist could make a good combination here; e.g. Men and Rails (covering the situation of railway workers, the role of railways in society, the failure of bureau~ cratic~capitalist nationalisation). Meetings can be held simply on a theme like: Car Workers Speak for Themselves; the discussion can be tape-recorded and edited for possible publication. Policy reports (like the Hull Anti- Devlin Report) can be produced; they will take time, but once there, form the basis for militant educational activity. to be contirmed/ BERT WYNN: As we went to pross we heard of the untimely death of Bert Wynn, one of our sponsors, We will publish an appreciation next week,