08.06.2017

Strange publicity

Robbie Rix welcomes a bump in readership, but wants a bump in donations

Last week saw a sudden surge in Weekly Worker online readership - up to 4,243, compared to a mere 2,585 the week before.

It seems clear to me that the explanation for this lies in the publicity coming our way from the final anti-Corbyn scare story before June 8. In 2002 our paper reported on a London demonstration organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, when Corbyn was one of many speakers. We noted the presence of a couple of hundred Al Muhajiroun Islamists amongst approximately 25,000 marchers - little did we realise that their presence was enough to damn Corbyn (and presumably everyone else there as well) as being sympathetic to suicide bombers. It is apparently of no relevance that our report stated: “They ought to have no place on our demonstrations - we must organise to exclude them” (‘Build on success’, May 22 2002).

But let’s be grateful for the publicity - maybe a proportion of those first-time readers will want to come back for more and, you never know, some of them may even donate to our fighting fund!

Speaking of which, our June fund has got off to a good start, with no fewer than 22 comrades supplying us with their usual standing orders, totalling £392. In addition, we received cheques from CT (£50) and VC (£20), while JP added a fiver to his resubscription. And among those 4,243 online readers PM (£15) and MN (£10) decided to click on the PayPal button.

So our June fund starts with £492 towards our £1,750 target. Not bad, but we could do with some of last week’s newcomers showing their appreciation too!