Building the campaign

Campaign for a New Workers’ Party

Building the campaign

The officers elected at the Campaign for a New Workers’ Party (CNWP)
conference had their first meeting on Friday 21 April. On the agenda
were the organisational tasks contained in the resolutions passed by
those at the conference and other matters such as finance and press.

Fiona Pashazadeh CNWP national treasurer

The conference had agreed to establish affiliation to the CNWP and a
list of local and national organisations to be approached was agreed by
the officers present at the meeting. It is important to raise finance
for the campaign in order to produce new and up-to-date publicity
material, book venues for meetings and pay other associated costs.

Supporters should think about any local community/campaigning
organisations or trade union branches that could be asked to affiliate
or make donations. If there are any such organisations in your area,
please send the details to the contact address below.

One of the main action points to come from the conference resolutions
was the proposed speaking tour to take place in May. This will be a good
opportunity to organise regional launch meetings, drawing in potential
and existing supporters, as well as discussing how to develop the
campaign locally.

Every area needs to start planning now, looking for a suitable date
and venue and thinking about speakers. Ideally, a local committee of
supporters could come together to organise and plan the details. The
signatories to the declaration will be split into regions and
distributed to local groups in order to help build for these meetings.

It was also agreed that signatories with public positions in trade
union branches and community or campaign organisations would be
contacted and asked to invite a CNWP speaker to their meetings.

The campaign is looking to have fringe meetings at as many trade
union conferences as possible and a number of dates and venues have
already been confirmed. The officers have agreed to contact the trade
union broad lefts to try to avoid any meeting clashes. Respect have
already been contacted with the planned dates.

Any press coverage for the campaign is valuable and supporters should
be aiming to get letters and articles into local and national papers.
Trade union members should also attempt to get coverage in relevant
union publications. It was agreed that the CNWP website would be further
developed and other internet options would be investigated.

We have a target of getting at least 5,000 signatories to the
declaration by the end of 2006 – it is vital that there is a strong
drive on this from all supporters of the campaign. The DWP strike on 2-3
May will be an opportunity to discuss the need for a new workers’ party
with those on picket lines and at meetings and rallies – make sure you
visit with copies of the declaration and ask workers to sign.

The total number of signatories is now over 1,600 – every signatory
should be encouraged to get two or three others to sign up over the next
few months to ensure that we are well on the way to meeting the target
and building the campaign into a significant force.

You can get in touch with the CNWP by emailing [email protected] or by
writing to CNWP, PO Box 858, London E11 1YG