03.06.1999

Summer Offensive: halfway stage

The first month of the 16th Summer Offensive - our intense two-month period of fundraising work - has flashed by. Campaigning around our electoral challenge in London and the North West has taken up the time of many comrades. In that sense, we have been busy spending money rather than raising it.

We anticipated this being a problem. As we wrote in the Weekly Worker (April 29), our intervention has cost us “£10,000 in deposits alone, before we even start to think about running any sort of campaign”. The total so far stands at just over £5,000 towards our £25,000 target. Clearly, the pace of the offensive has to be dramatically stepped up after the June 10 election has come and gone. In the meantime, despite their already full agendas, cell secretaries must ensure that Centre is kept fully updated on the progress of individual members, that the figures we hold in the national office are accurate and that money is fed in promptly.

Our Party aggregate in mid-June will take a major item on this year’s SO. It is important that all secretaries timetable discussions in the cells before this so that individual problems and ideas for money raising can be aired. Comrades, we need to make this SO one of our most successful, despite the pressure of work crowding in on us. Let’s all ensure we knuckle down to it very soon.

Ian Mahoney