Time is ripe

Well, we managed to raise the full £400 for September, plus a bit more, but I am hardly over the moon with excitement. After our flying start, I had hoped to eat into the summer shortfall, amounting to £160. Our final total was £423, leaving us still struggling to find an extra £137.

However, I was pleased to be shown a letter from a new CPGB supporter, comrade RC, in which he imagines the not-too-distant future, when a mass Communist Party enjoys the support of millions. In the comrade's mind's eye, as well as the enlarged 20-page Weekly Worker, there is the Daily Worker and the Monthly Communist, being produced in expansive, fully equipped offices.

"We shall get our new offices when we get the funds, and we will get the funds when we get the members," writes RC. "Stop waiting for the time to be ripe and instead come and help ripen it." Well spoken, comrade.

However, our immediate pressing task is to achieve £400 each and every month. To that end, donations from IJ, LH, and RD, together with JB and a small gift from Dave, an Afa supporter, have helped to get our October fund off to a good start. We have £65.

Robbie Rix

Ask for a bankers order form, or send cheques, payable to Weekly Worker, BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX

Number 354

Thursday October 5 2000

Positive step   —   Jim Blackstock considers last weekend's conference of the Socialist Alliance network

Globalise this?   —   Mark Fischer assesses Prague S26

Coventry by numbers   —   Jack Conrad explains CPGB tactics in light of the goal of democratic centralism and a minimum-maximum programme

Socialist Alliances roundup   —   Marcus Larsen, Darrell Goodliffe, Anne Murphy, and Peter Manson report

Letters   —   Immigration; Oppose Abbott; Left mistakes; Stalin debate

Confusing workers   —   SSP summary of the August 8 meeting it held with the SWP on SWP members joining the SSP

Campaign to defend democracy   —   SSP members organise to fight back

Serbia on the brink   —   Ian Donovan berates leftists who think Milosevic is some sort of 'anti-imperialist'

Arthur's hundred seats   —   Simon Harvey of the SLP