16.08.2019

Last lap

Summer offensive 2019

The grand total for this year’s Summer Offensive (the CPGB’s annual fundraising drive) will be announced at the celebratory meal that marks the close of our annual school, the Communist University, on Saturday August 24.

However - and just for the sake of comparison - at the same moment in last year’s fundraising campaign (ie, on the verge of the Communist University 2018), our SO had reached only £16,236 after a “magnificent” week’s intake of £4,092, as the author of the report in the Weekly Worker correctly described it. But this year, after another excellent seven days of fundraising, comrades and friends of our organisation have collectively squeezed £1,408 of new cash out of their beleaguered bank accounts, bumping the running total up to a very robust £22,286.

Of course, a decent chunk of this week’s total is made up of payments comrades have made for that forthcoming CU. As I have previously mentioned in this column, the CU itself generates cash - and not simply through the fees for the sessions, the sale of literature, T-shirts, mugs and badges (or even refreshments in the evenings after the sessions have ended). Our school embodies a democratic and open ethos that is glaringly absent from those of our opponents on the left. It takes ideas seriously, in that debates are given the time and space to be properly aired and minorities with something worthwhile to say are given the space to say it.

Thus, we make new friends and sympathisers at this key event, and that, in turn, translates into financial support - especially as reports of debates and transcriptions, or articles that take the CU discussion further, will often appear in this paper.

So we are in a relatively strong position as we go into the last week (and a bit) of the campaign. But, as I have cautioned all the way through, our £30,000 target is the minimum that we have committed our organisation to achieving. That means there is still £7,764 to claw in before we can pat ourselves on the back for a successful Summer Offensive this year.

The last lap is often the most important, comrades! 

William Sarsfield

Cheques: Make payable to CPGB and send to: BCM Box 928,
London WC1N 3XX.

PayPal: Go to the CPGB website: www.cpgb.org.uk.

Bank transfer: Pay ‘CPGB’
sort code 08-92-99, account 65109991.