No complacency
Howard Roake addresses how we fund our priorities
With only two weeks to go in our annual fundraising drive, our running total currently stands at £13,570. That is well short of our £25,000 target. Comrades, I am getting slightly worried.
Let me emphasise once more that this is not money that will sit in our bank account, earning interest. Quite the opposite. We have some ambitious - and urgent - plans for this money.
The ongoing redesign of our website takes first priority after the damage done by a malicious hacker. We are aware that many people on the left rely on the extensive Weekly Worker archive in their political activities - whether because they want to remind themselves of the latest Socialist Workers Party change of line or because they want to reread the wide-ranging debate on the Middle East that featured in our publication at the beginning of the year. This is why we will be spending some serious money on making sure the full website is online again soon - and that it will be secure.
We are also planning to publish second editions of Jack Conrad’s book Fantastic reality and Mike Macnair’s pamphlet Revolutionary strategy. Because of our limited website, these are now not even available in an online format. Another urgent task, therefore.
Then there is our new office, which urgently needs to be equipped with at least two new computers. In the next few months, we will have a number of younger comrades working there on a part-time basis. This is excellent for the organisation - but will come with added costs: we need more and better equipment for these comrades to work on and we’ll undoubtedly incur more expenses arising from their work.
Consequently, there’s no room for complacency. We really need to hit our target of £25,000. True, last year almost £12,000 came in during the last two weeks of the Summer Offensive. Most of this money was received during Communist University and if we achieve the same again this year, we’ll be right on target.
Looking at the excellent list of speakers and topics this year (details on cpgb.wordpress.com), I am confident that we will be able to draw in record numbers of visitors. There is only a very small number of rooms available now and some comrades have already opted to share. So if you’re planning to stay overnight, don’t wait any longer - book up now!
There will be a number of themes running through CU. We’ll be hearing a range of speakers on the Middle East (amongst them Moshé Machover and Yassamine Mather). Critique editor Hillel Ticktin will be leading three sessions on the ‘Crisis of capitalism’, while Boris Kagarlitsky will be taking a closer look at the current situation in Russia.
The third theme, ‘Party and programme’, is perhaps the most crucial of them all. Seven sessions will deal with this question in one form or another: Permanent Revolution will present an opening ‘On unity’; there will be a roundtable discussion on ‘Capitalism’s crisis - how should we organise?’; and the CPGB’s Jack Conrad will recall the launch of the Leninist faction of the CPGB 30 years ago and introduce the debate around the redrafting of our Draft programme.
We are particularly pleased to have Canadian author and academic Lars T Lih with us for the whole week. He will be giving a number of openings. In his excellent book Lenin rediscovered: ‘What is to be done?’ in context, comrade Lih has, for example, outlined how Lenin argued against the kind of confessional sects that dominate the international left today.
His openings will undoubtedly provide us with important ammunition in our struggle for a united, democratic, revolutionary working class party - ie, a Communist Party.
Thanks to all the comrades who are supporting us in this fight. In the last seven days, we have received an excellent £1,668.
Three of our 11,030 online readers sent a donation via PayPal - thanks to EG for his £100 (despite living on another continent), long-standing supporter AR for £20 and new sympathiser OR for his £2.50. Also thanks to comrade GD who sent us an excellent £150 in the post, TB for her £100 and old trooper TM for another big donation of £400.
