17.01.2019

Rigorous debate

“You’re not afraid of having your views challenged, are you?” notes JF, commenting on recent exchanges - not least over Russia 1917 - carried in the Weekly Worker.

You’re dead right, comrade. It’s not for nothing that every issue carries the description, “A paper of Marxist polemic and Marxist unity”, at the top of the front page one. And the two - polemic and unity - are linked. It’s through rigorous debate that we arrive at the truth - the basis of our programme, upon which the Marxist party must necessarily be based.

But JF knows that and very much appreciates what we’re doing. Which is why he wrote a cheque for £20 for our January fighting fund. Of all the left papers, “Only the Weekly Worker carries such open and honest debate,” he says.

Other appreciative readers this week include PB - who handed over £60 in cash to our editor at last weekend’s London Communist Forum - and new subscriber GB: after receiving his first copy of our paper, he was so impressed (not least by the stamps on the envelope!), he went online to donate £25 via PayPal.

Another PayPal donor was DB (£7), while four comrades paid their monthly standing orders - thanks to BK, SP, TR and KB, who between them contributed no less than £335! Finally a total of £12 was donated to the Weekly Worker at the January 12 People’s Assembly demonstration.

All that means our running total increased by £459 over the last seven days, taking it to £864. But that’s a little bit below par actually - we need £1,750 and we’re just over halfway through the month. So if there are any more appreciative readers out there, you know what to do!