07.06.2000

Party notes

Summer Offensive 2000

One week after the official launch of this year's Summer Offensive, the pledge total has now gone over £14,000. This figure is almost totally composed of targets set by full members of the organisation. We now need all supporters and sympathisers around the country to dig deep.

We have set a target for £20k to be raised in the months of June and July - the political tasks confronting us mean that we really need to achieve this and go beyond it. We are fully meeting our obligations as a component of the London Socialist Alliance and are encouraging the growth of other alliances around the country. If our aim for 50-plus candidates to challenge Blair is to become a reality, we must start serious grassroots organisation now.

Within the alliances, we are a highly distinctive trend. Our paper is reaching hundreds of new activists, informing them of the true state of the movement, the nature of the political divisions that still divide us and agitating for a unified revolutionary party based on democratic centralism.

None of this comes cheap. We require cash - lots of it.

Communists grab political opportunities with both hands. The positive experience of the LSA has to be generalised around the country. This will offer a tremendous chance for us to spread the influence of our organisation and the Leninist ideas it defends. That demands some bold political activity, imagination and ... money. This organisation has no other sources of income apart from the subs, donation and hard work of its members, supporters and sympathisers. That's you.

Facts about the Summer Offensive:

• The first SO proper was in 1985 (it was preceded by a mini-offensive the year before). We copied the idea from a group of comrades we were very politically close to at the time, the Iscinin Sesi trend of the Communist Party of Turkey. (Reflecting their robust approach to money raising, these comrades referred to their fundraising campaign as an "attack" rather than an "appeal").
• Individual members, supporters and sympathisers of the CPGB set themselves cash targets over the two-month period. For members, there is a set minimum. Other comrades are able to participate at whatever level they can.
• The campaign is a political event, not simply a financial one in the narrower sense of the word. During the SO, we encourage our comrades to turn outwards. While raising money for the Party does involve belt-tightening and self-sacrifice, we also try to make the drive a high point of our annual political itinerary. Every paper, book or pamphlet comrades sell, every badge they make, every donation they get from others goes to their personal target. In this sense, the SO is an annual gauge of the level and intensity of the Party's work.
• To hit their targets, comrades organise street collections with petitions and the paper, they hold socials, and badger friends and relations to stump up for sponsored walks, swims and bicycle rides. Comrades take the opportunity to give up smoking, or to cut back on the booze. The possibilities to raise money are endless.
• The SO ends with a celebration dinner where we announce the final figure and give prizes to mark comrades' achievements.

We urge all comrades to take part in this year's Offensive, at whatever level they can. The situation on the left has become more fluid than it has been for at least a generation. We have the paper, the programme and ideas to ensure that the great opportunity presented to us to overcome sectarianism is not squandered. The lack of money must not hold us back. Send your contributions and pledges in today.