Speech notes

Public speaking: some guidelines

Public speaking: some guidelines You can drop some of these rules when you become practised and confident at public speaking. 1. Keep it brief. Limit yourself strictly to two or three points. The most common failing is trying to say too much. 2. Even if it is just a speech or question from the floor in a public meeting, write down what your two or three points are. If it is a prepared speech, write it out; memorise it as far as you can, but have your notes to refer to. 3. Decide in advance, and write down, what the final sentence of your speech will be. 4. If you tend to put lots of "you know"...

Introduction to the AWL

Notes of a speech introducing the AWL made by Sacha Ismail to a student group on 15/01/04. 1. The first, basic thing the AWL stands for is the idea of socialists being organised. We believe that individual socialists, no matter how right their politics or good their intentions, can never be as effective as an organised, educated, activist socialist group. We also believe that the last hundred years have seen many historical situations in which socialism was possible - and that the absence of effective socialist organisation has meant dozens of missed opportunities. 2. As I'm sure you know...

Is "cultural difference" an excuse for sexism?

There was a discussion at Workers' Liberty's 'Ideas for Freedom' discussion weekend in 2006 about 'The Left and Cultural Relativism'. The two speakers were Janine Booth and Peter Tatchell. These are the notes from Janine's contribution. AWL is a socialist organisation. We are part of ‘the left’. For us, that means we unequivocally support women’s rights, freedom and equality. Similarly, we unequivocally oppose racism and homophobia. For us, it is quite straightforward – no socialism without liberation, no liberation without socialism. We oppose oppression and bigotry wherever it comes from...

Constance Markievicz: a life

These are biographical notes on the 'Red Countess', Constance Markievicz, prepared for the London Socialist Feminist Discussion Group on 10 October. Also attached are two one-page files giving a timeline of her life. Constance Georgine Gore-Booth was born on 4 February 1868 at Buckingham Gate in London, the elder daughter of Arctic explorer and adventurer Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet, and Lady Georgina née Hill. Sir Henry was an Anglo-Irish landowner, and the family lived on the estate of Lissadell in the north of County Sligo in the West of Ireland. Unlike other landlords, he was...

Israel/Palestine: Speaking for Solidarity not Boycott

This is the speech I gave proposing the resolution on Solidarity With Israeli And Palestinian Workers at RMT's Annual General Meeting 2008 - followed by my reply to points made in the debate. ===== Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people is terrible. This year, we have seen Israel blockade and bomb the Gaza strip, killing innocent Palestinians and blighting the lives of everyone who lives there. In February, Israeli F16 jets fired 3 heavy rockets that completely destroyed the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions’ ‘folk house’ – a building that administered union-organised...

Discussing the first two Labour governments

When introducing a discussion at our AWL branch meeting on the first and second Labour governments, I found it useful to tell the story, then ask people to discuss some questions. The 'timeline' and discussion questions are listed below, and are attached as Word documents for use as handouts. ===== THE FIRST AND SECOND LABOUR GOVERNMENTS – TIMELINE 1918: Representation of the Peoples Act 14 December 1918: General Election – coalition government led by Lloyd George wins a landslide; Labour gains 21.5% of the votes but only 57 seats. 1919: Labour makes big gains in local government elections...

Islamic Feminism

I’m going to give a quick definition and overview of Islamic feminism in this lead off (which hopefully the reading should already have given you.) I’m then going to try to position the emergence of what has come to be known in Islamic feminism within a wider political context, which is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this topic. Finally I’ll raise some questions which might help us to consider how we, as socialist feminists, might think about/ relate to Islamic feminism. First of all its necessary to just reiterate the distinction between Muslim feminists - women who either come from...

The Unhappy Marriage of Socialism and Feminism?

Notes from AWL dayschool on socialist feminism, April 2007 What is socialist-feminism? The basic and defining arguments of socialist-feminism are: • Sexual difference, gender roles and the sexism and oppression of women that arises from them are not biological or inevitable, but socially constructed and rooted in the structures of society. • The oppression experienced by women in our society is particular to and rooted within capitalism. Class and sex oppression are intertwined and interdependent, and therefore the liberation of women and the emancipation of the working class must take place...

Che Guevara: the politics behind the icon

Who was Che Guevara? Ernesto Guevara was born in 1928 to middle class parents in Argentina. He studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires and after qualifying as a doctor travelled through Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia and Venezuela in 1953 – recorded in his Motorcycle Diaries. In 1954 Guevara was in Guatemala when a CIA-backed coup overthrew the reforming Arbenz government, which turned him towards political activity. In 1954, he moved to Mexico City, where he met Fidel Castro and joined the July 26 Movement. It was at this time he acquired the nickname Che, meaning mate. In 1956...

Is "cultural difference" an excuse for sexism?

There was a discussion at Workers' Liberty's 'Ideas for Freedom' discussion weekend about 'The Left and Cultural Relativism'. The two speakers were Janine Booth and Peter Tatchell. These are the notes from Janine's contribution. AWL is a socialist organisation. We are part of ‘the left’. For us, that means we unequivocally support women’s rights, freedom and equality. Similarly, we unequivocally oppose racism and homophobia. For us, it is quite straightforward – no socialism without liberation, no liberation without socialism. We oppose oppression and bigotry wherever it comes from. For some...

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