Does My Party Look Big In This?

Christ, look at the cornucopia of SPGB meetings on the back page of the January 1986 issue of the Socialist Standard? And it only goes up to M on that page!

You just know that there would have been shedload* of meetings in Prestonpans that month as well. Maybe a four part lecture series on 'Marx and the Reification of McCowans Highland Toffee: a reply to the Falkirk School'. What else were you going to do in Prestonpans on a wintry January night back in 1986?

Looking at that page from 1986 in the here and now of 2007 is the impossibilist equivalent of that scene from 'Stardust Memories'. You know the scene where Woody Allen takes time out from ripping off paying cinematic homage to Ingmar Bergman to ripping off pay cinematic homage to Fellini? The only difference is that, in comparison to any SPGB meeting I've ever attended, there appears to be a decent gender balance in the carriage Woody is sitting in . . . oh, that and they look younger and happier as well.

And who was that who was listed to speak at a Forum of the Islington Branch of the SPGB on the 13th February of that year? The Research Officer of the South Wales NUM? Whatever happened to him? Wanker.

*"shedloads of meetings": Back in '86, on the first, second and fourth Monday of the month the Prestonpans SPGB study group would meet here between 1830-2000 for their discussion meetings, but had to meet here on the third Monday in the month because the Prestonpans & Humbie Nicky Campbell Appreciation Society had already pre-booked their preferred venue.