Weekly Worker 614 Thursday March 2 2006 Subscribe to the Weekly Worker

Special appeal
Unrealistic target?

The drive for more standing orders to our paper has so far fallen well short of target, reports Mark Fischer

We have been very sluggish in the campaign, launched in this paper on December 8 of last year, to raise an extra £1,000 per month in standing orders from our members, supporters and also - crucially - from the hundreds of comrades who read us every week with some degree of sympathy. By the time I give a report to the aggregate of CPGB members planned for mid-March, I estimate we will have expanded our regular income by just over £200 per month from such sources - not a disaster by any means, but well short of what we should/could have achieved.

On the positive side, this drive has actually helped produce a number of little spurts of one-off donations. Always welcome, of course, and many thanks to those comrades who have been prompted in this period to contribute. But - as we emphasised when the campaign was launched - regular, predictable income is key.

There have been three reasons why we have been so slow in getting into the swing of the appeal. It coincided with the inertia of the Christmas break, a painfully time-consuming office move and a series of minor technical hiccups in the newly established centre that hampered the work and - again - took up large chunks of leading comrades’ time.

We have to be critical of our organisation, however. CPGB comrades’ leisurely tempo in contacting people on our periphery underlines the fact that - however favourably we compare to the rest of the revolutionary left in so many areas - we are sometimes almost criminally neglectful of our own infrastructure, of recruitment and of fundraising beyond our own immediate ranks.

In truth, though, we were probably unrealistic in aiming to raise an extra £1,000-worth of standing orders in such a short period of campaigning - the disruption caused by our move notwithstanding. Our annual two-month fundraising drive - the Summer Offensive - has over the past few years revealed the need to inculcate a far more structured culture of day-to-day fundraising, we concluded last year. No comrade could seriously claim that this has been achieved.

An essential element of this structured culture must be the confidence of our comrades to turn outwards to solicit donations, not simply rely on themselves and their work. Clearly, this is still deficient.

The task remains, however, comrades - we do actually need an extra £1,000 per month coming into the Party’s coffers to avoid financial problems further down the line. We didn’t get it. Clearly, the fight to achieve it must continue and expand. And it is important to emphasise that must not be perceived of by our own people as another ‘heroic push’ à la Summer Offensive.

When we hit the magic £1k figure - as I am confident we will - the routine of regularly approaching comrades to stump up cash for the indispensable work of this paper must continue as an organic part of the activity of the political collective that shoulders the main responsibility for sustaining it - CPGB members, candidates and closer supporters.

Party centre will be organising follow-up mail-outs (including to those comrades who have promised money, but have so far failed to sign on the dotted line!), delegating comrades to contact these potential donors again and reporting our progress in the paper.

Readers are urged not to wait to be asked, but to take advantage of the relevant forms on our website. Similarly we would ask our own comrades not to wait for readers to take the initiative themselves.

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