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Weekly Worker 531 Thursday June 3 2004
 |
click on the logo to find out more about the Summer Offensive |
Our 20th Summer
Offensive has got off to a bit of a slow start. As opposed to previous years,
we did not organise an official SO launch - instead, we asked comrades to
use the last two weekends before the 'super Thursday' elections to go out
and campaign for Respect and the Scottish Socialist Party.Last Saturday, for example, comrades in north London first covered the Communist Party of Britain's annual conference in Wood Green. They sold half a dozen copies of the Weekly Worker and gave out Respect leaflets to the 50 or so delegates. Afterwards, they set up a party stall near Wood Green tube station, where they sold another 10 copies of the Weekly Worker and made a couple of good new contacts. Our petition, 'Troops out of Iraq', was willingly signed and many badges were sold. Result: £32 raised in just under an hour.
At the next party aggregate on June 19, party members from across Britain will be able to give us not only their pledges, but also report on any problems they have encountered raising money. We have always stressed that the SO is a measure of our collective political impact - we do not expect comrades to shoulder the burden by themselves. Party cells and committees should up their collective political work and help those comrades who find it difficult to meet their personal target. Every paper and party pamphlet sold, every new subscription won and every donation received will count towards comrades' individual totals.
We estimate that by the end of the week, we will have received pledges
for around £22,000 from members and close supporters. That still
leaves us £8,000 short though. That is where Weekly Worker readers
and friends come in. The Summer Offensive is the time where you really
can show your appreciation for our paper.
Unlike the typically anodyne and dishonest publications of the old sectarian
left, the Weekly Worker speaks fearlessly. Our tried and tested method
is open polemic - be it on the question of Respect, the European Social
Forum or trade union struggles. As a result, our paper is hated with a
passion by those with something to hide. However, it is also widely read
and just as widely believed.
All manner of tales have been concocted about the source of our finances.
Bizarrely, when we launched our first journal, The Leninist, in 1981,
certain influential 'official communists' claimed we were bankrolled by
the German Democratic Republic. Later Arthur Scargill alleged that we
were in the pay of the Communist Party of Turkey - untrue, but at least
not characteristically irrational. In more recent times we have been confidently
informed that we are financed by the owner of a dry-cleaning chain (where
we presumably launder our money …).
Such stories - and stories they are - say everything about the mindset
of those who invent or circulate them. Clearly they have no conception
whatsoever of raising substantial finances and maintaining a well produced
weekly paper without first selling oneself.
There is in fact no secret about it. We get nothing from the CIA, nor
Arab reactionaries, nor rich laundry owners. We rely entirely on partisans
of the working class - CPGB members and supporters, Weekly Worker print
and e-readers.
Tina Becker
What you can do:
- Take out a standing order to the party. If you have one already, can you increase it? Regular income is extremely important to the party, as it allows us to plan ahead.
- Alternatively, you can make a credit or debit card donation via the PayPal facility on the website.
- Do you subscribe to the Weekly Worker? If not, this is the ideal time to do so - it reads so much better in hard copy than on a tiny computer screen …
- Set up a CPGB stall with comrades in the area. Email us at tina@cpgb.org.uk and we will send you materials and get you in touch with other comrades.
- Check out our newly launched site, www.londonbookclub.co.uk, where you can buy a range of second-hand books that have been donated by comrades to the Summer Offensive. You can even order new books - a percentage goes to the party.
- Buy bulk orders of badges on www.campaignbadges.co.uk
and sell them on.
