15.12.2022

Back next year

Robbie Rix reports on the Weekly Worker fighting fund

This is the final issue this year - we’ll be back on Thursday January 5 2023, so this is the last you’ll hear from me praising or nagging you till then!

Which is a pity from my point of view, because I’m sorry to say that the December fighting fund is not exactly looking healthy right now. With almost half the month gone, we only have £706 in - less than a third of the way to our £2,250 target.

That’s not to say that we didn’t get some very useful contributions over the last seven days. The best of them was the standing order for no less than £70 from comrade PB, while NH (£30), DV (£25), RW (£12) and CC (£10) also made their usual donations in that way. In addition, comrades PM and RL (£50 each) clicked on our PayPal button, as did TB (£25) and JB (£5).

That comes to just £277 for this week, so now we really have to step up the pace if we’re going to get anywhere near what we actually need to keep the Weekly Worker up and running - remember, with 10% inflation, we are paying out a lot more to our printers because of rising ink, paper, labour and transport costs. So, in view of our recent shortfalls, we could really do with going way beyond that £2,250 minimum target.

So please do what you can to see us home. There’s still just about time to send us a cheque, so we get it before the end of the year. Better still, make a bank transfer (account number 00744310, sort code 30-99-64) or use PayPal or your credit card via our website (weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/donate).

Finally, an apology for the last edition. Our printers buggered up the front page and then reprinted. Hence we were rather late. But they failed to notice their mistakes on pages 2 and 3 and worst of all on page 7. The Online Communist Forum box was blacked out apart from the picture. We decided not to get it reprinted, partly because it would mean a full day’s delay. Either way, what really decided it was that by the time the paper plopped through your letterbox, Tony Greenstein would already have spoken.

We very much support the CWU strikes, and all the other strikes too, of course. However, the postal service is for the moment very much slow mail. A combination of Christmas and strike action means what normally takes a day or two, now takes four or five days to deliver.

Online readers won’t have noticed. Frankly, though, a real paper, a printed paper, is always a far more satisfying, more enjoyable experience. That is how papers look and read the best. It is the difference between listening to music on a state of the art hi-fi and a tinny iphone speaker. Well, that’s my considered opinion.

Anyhow, hopefully, our printers will have sorted things out and we’ll be back to our normal high standards with this, the last issue of 2022.

Robbie Rix