02.04.1998

Honest and open

Katrina Haynes reports on the Weekly Worker fighting fund

New Labour is cracking down even further on debate within its own ranks. Dissent, no matter how mild will not be tolerated. Language - ie, thought - must be monitored. The price for another New Labour government is eternal gagging and muffling.

So it transpires from memos sent from Alastair Campbell, the official Downing Street spokesman, to Frank Field and Harriet Harman. These memos “remind” them that even senior ministers are not allowed to give interviews to the media without Blair and Campbell’s clearance. The latter has also attacked Radio Four for allowing the ‘Murdoch-Blair-Prodi’ scandal to dominate its World At One programme on Monday. The BBC should concentrate on the “real issues”, complained Campbell - which means joyously telling us how “the government is doing things on crime, on jobs, health and education, that matter to real people, and modernising a whole range of ways Britain is governed”.

Unlike New Labour or the Tories, the CPGB does not believe in the suppression of free speech. We defend your right to say what you want - no matter how ‘undiplomatic’ or ‘unparliamentary’ it might be. The Weekly Worker has forged a reputation for uncompromising honesty and openness as part of its struggle for human liberation and communism. We call a spade a spade and encourage our readers, sympathisers, supporters and members to do the same.

For this we need your continual financial support. We have no rich patrons like Rupert Murdoch, or advertisers - only you. Special thanks this week to AA from Edinburgh (£15), PS from Coventry (£15) and GH from Exeter (£30). Last month’s total came to £493, just £7 short of our target. Good effort comrades, but try that tiny bit harder next month.

If your copy of the Weekly Worker was a bit late, do not panic. London postal workers staged a one-day strike last Thursday and, of course, we did not cross the picket line. Victory to the postal workers!

Katrina Haynes