25.08.2016

Proving our worth

Peter Manson reports on the success of the Summer Offensive

The CPGB’s annual fundraising drive, our Summer Offensive, proved to be an outstanding success this year. Our £30,000 target was exceeded by well over £1,000, the final total being £31,546.

The SO finished on August 12, when, as usual, we marked the end of our Communist University summer school with a celebration meal, attended by around three dozen comrades. It was announced that three CPGB stalwarts between them had raised over £8,000, while a returning supporter, comrade VP, donated a fantastic £2,000.

Altogether, more than 100 comrades donated sums ranging from a tenner to four-figure sums, and during the last few days of CU, several came up to the mark with their individual contributions, including MM with £100 - a sum also donated collectively by the three Dutch comrades who attended the school. Then there was £150 from NR, £50 from KB, £40 from TC and £30 from CG - the latter also providing some enjoyable and stimulating entertainment after the celebration meal in the shape of political songs to his own guitar accompaniment.

Let me point out also that after the SO had officially finished the usual donations were still coming in to the Weekly Worker - £230 from SK, £75 from MM, £50 from RB, £30 from TR, £20 from KB and £10 from DJ were amongst the latest.

So how is it that our paper and our organisation continues to attract such financial support from so many selfless supporters? Well, the answer is not difficult to work out. It is very much connected to our strategic aim and the method of achieving it. We openly campaign for a single Marxist party, uniting Marxists on the basis of genuine democratic centralism. Such a party would openly debate its differences, while acting as one in support of democratically agreed decisions - freedom of debate, unity in action.

We practise this method in the here and now, as everyone can see by picking up a copy of our paper. Open debate is featured not only in our letters pages, but in the articles we publish - how else can we get to the truth? In other words, we practise what we preach and this is very much appreciated by those supporters. In their eyes we have been proving our worth - both through our weekly paper and our annual Communist University. It is this that ensured that our 2016 Summer Offensive was such a success.