Weekly Worker 430 Thursday May 2 2002

Shortfall

ITV Digital finally ended its short life this week. As a consequence more than 1,500 employees will lose their jobs and over 800,000 subscribers are now left with nothing but the free-to-air services - guaranteed “in the short term”. Scores of football clubs have been plunged into crisis and the government’s much heralded ‘digital revolution’ has hit the buffers.

Comrades will be pleased to know that our situation is not quite as perilous. However, April’s fund, to put it mildly, has been rather disappointing. Though comrades TP (Ł25), CP (Ł20), JK (Ł15) and SB (Ł10) did their best to get us within range of our monthly target, their efforts were nowhere near enough. We only managed Ł275 towards the Ł450 required.

Comrades, we need every pound of that total each month just to meet our running costs. Otherwise our ability to respond to keep a weekly schedule will be severely compromised. Why not celebrate May Day and the million who marched in Paris by helping us out in our hour of need? There is no time like the present, so rush your cheques and postal orders to the usual address.

Robbie Rix

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

Weekly Worker 430 is available in pdf format as zipped (2.21MB) or unzipped (2.79MB) files

Number 430

Thursday May 2 2002

The Weekly Worker is available from bookshops across the United Kingdom or can be delivered direct to your door by completing our online subscription form.

1 million march in Paris
Mass demonstrations have been held in just about every city and town in France. Peter Manson reports

Letters
Hamas apologists; Carping; Vota SA; Le Pen; Youth wing; Tom Paine; Updating; Dog attack; SWP crisis

CPGB public forum: Whither France?
Mary Godwin reports on the recent debate between Peter manson of the CPGB, Alan Thornett of Socialist Outlook and Francois Rouleau of Lutte Ouvriere

Nottinghamshire SA: Jubilee v health service
Sam Metcalf reports on a less than friendly meeting of Nottingham comrades

CPGB Teesside: Fighting fascism
Comrades gathered in Middlesbrough to discuss how workers should approach the rise of the far-right. David Hunnam was there

CPGB Northeast: What sort of party?
CPGB national organiser opened the discussion at a meeting of comrades in Newcastle. Martyn Hudson reports on the debate

Revolutionary democracy in Argentina
Ian Donovan replies to Christopher Pike's article on the constituent assembly slogan

Call for SA paper
Three members of the executive have issued a statement calling for a Socialist Alliance journal

SWP Ireland: Heading for disaster
Comrades from the University College Dublin branch of the Socialist Workers Party in Ireland have decided to resign from the organisation. As their statement makes clear, there are plenty of faults in the internal regime and the way the London HQ handles differences with its comrades in the USA, New Zealand and Zimbabwe. However, although Socialist Alternative (Ireland) is surely a symptom of the SWP’s general ill health from a communist viewpoint such micro-splits are wrong. Instead of openly conducting an ideological struggle within the SWP, the comrades chose to openly fight only after they ‘broke away’

Israel/Palestine: Glasgow shows its solidarity
Ronnie Mejka gives a sketch of the recent demonstration in Scotland's proletarian capital

Ideological oasis
James Bull reviews the Pet Shop Boys' Release

Party aggregate: Israel-Palestine
Draft theses submitted to the May 11 2002 CPGB membership aggregate by Darrell Goodliffe and Jack Conrad

Party aggregate: Reformulating what we fight for
Draft theses submitted to the May 11 2002 CPGB membership aggregate

Welsh Socialist Alliance: SWP thought police
Diversity but no unity, laments Cameron Richards