07.07.2022

Big Meeting!

Linda Carr reports on the 2022 CPGB Summer Offensive

This year’s Summer Offensive - the CPGB’s annual fundraising drive, with the target set at £30,000 - is now getting well and truly into its stride.

A team of our comrades will be attending this year’s Durham Miners’ Gala on July 9 - an event dubbed by its organisers “a celebration of community, international solidarity and working class culture”. Covid disrupted the event for the last two years, but, if previous events are anything to go by, more than 200,000 people will pack the Gala field, and the streets of Durham will revel in the sights and sounds of the ‘Big Meeting’, as the event is colloquially dubbed.

Our team in Durham are primarily concentrating on distribution of the Weekly Worker, as well as introductory material for comrades new to CPGB politics. No doubt we will be running a non-stop political merry-go-round, as Gala attendees pitch up to our stall to talk politics, take issue with some formulation in the paper and/or leave their details for further information.

From my personal experience of this inspiring event, you come away from it with two abiding thoughts: first, that you will probably need to sleep for a month (!); and, second, that being immersed in working class politics is a veritable treat, compared with humdrum everyday life. But hopefully we will raise a good sum towards this year’s Summer Offensive.

And remember, comrades - all donations in this period count towards our SO, whether they originate from the standard format of bank transfers, cheques or even via a solidarity tenner after a robust discussion with one of our stallholders or a study of our reading materials.

Comrades who contributed to the SO since last week include JM, KB and PM, who each stumped up £300; additionally, we have received a further £50 contribution from JM and £90 from SM.

Once you add in the numerous smaller sums, the total received this week comes to £1,224, taking the overall figure raised so far to just under £3,000. Not too bad, comrades, but now we need to pick up the pace! Don’t forget that the SO ends on August 20, so, as I write, there are six and a half weeks left to reach the £30K we need.

Linda Carr