20.04.2005

Half a million hits

Mary Godwin outlines the issues at the April CPGB aggregate

Last week the total number of hits on the CPGB website passed half a million since we started counting exactly five years ago. Today we get an average of 14,000 hits a week - a figure that has been increasing week on week (only a year back the average was nearer 8,000). Comrade Mark Fischer informed CPGB members of these statistics during his talk on the party's financial situation during the April aggregate of members and supporters. There is a large audience for our ideas, even if some of it is likely to be hostile, he said. For example, 1,310 people had already downloaded the pdf version of Jack Conrad's book Remaking Europe. These readers do not pay for the book of course, but, although we always need more money - including to pay for the publication of future books, such as the forthcoming one on religion - there are no plans to charge for access to books or other items on our website. Often our political opponents imagine they have got one over on us by accessing our paper without paying for it, but we are glad that our ideas will at least be registering with them. As comrades have said before in reply to suggestions that we should introduce an online subscription for access to our paper and other material, the chance to win people to communism is more valuable than any income we would generate by charging for access to our website. Communist ideas are powerful because they are true, and we want to spread them as widely as possible. Comrade Fischer explained how party finances have been squeezed by the changes in the print industry, which means that our printshop can no longer make a profit. It is natural for ambitious organisations to live slightly beyond their means, he said, and the party needs to reinvigorate its business activity to finance future work. At present just about all the money received in the form of dues, donations, book sales and Weekly Worker subscriptions is used up on printing, rates, rents and other day-to-day expenses, leaving next to nothing for important party actions. Comrade Fischer described the imminent move to more accessible offices and a new printshop, which, coincidentally, should reduce some of these costs. He emphasised that the party will keep its own print machine, even if it can no longer make a profit. Owning our own equipment, and thus being able to print whatever we want, is an essential prerequisite of political independence. Financial independence is just as important. Parties calling themselves 'communist' in the past and present have become dependent on subsidies from states and other organisations, and have become political prostitutes - Gerry Healy's Workers Revolutionary Party and the 'official' New Communist Party spring to mind. The CPGB retains its financial and thus political independence through the hard work and self-sacrifice of its members. In this context, comrade Fischer announced that the 2005 Summer Offensive will cover two months from the beginning of June. It is a period of intense fundraising, which should ideally be in the form of political work rather than simply doing overtime or reducing personal expenditure. The collective target for the Offensive is set at £30,000. Comrade Fischer emphasised that fundraising should be a collective task, and should be on the agenda of every meeting of every party cell. Despite the left's overall decline, this year's Summer Offensive should be a good one. There is a large periphery of sympathisers around the organisation, and members will be encouraged to contact them and ask them to contribute, as part of the process of drawing them closer to the CPGB. There are also plans to revamp the website, with prominence given to the Summer Offensive and how readers can take part. Comrade Fischer's opening was followed by a short debate, in which several comrade suggested new ways of raising money. Comrade Mc Shane observed that in recent years the Summer Offensive has often got off to a slow start, and she proposed that several launch meetings should be held - not just in London but around the country. This idea was welcomed, with comrades from Sheffield suggesting holding a launch on June 8 to coincide with a G8 event in Sheffield, which will provide an excellent opportunity for both political intervention and fundraising. Briefings on the Summer Offensive, with suggestions on methods which have worked in previous years, will be sent to members in the near future, comrade Fischer concluded. The goals of the Summer Offensive are to activate the membership, draw in the periphery and, not least, safeguard the party's financial and thus political independence. The aggregate also included a discussion of the general election, continuing the debate at previous aggregates about our criteria for deciding which candidates to critically support. Comrade John Bridge explained once again the thinking behind the CPGB policy of supporting working class candidates who are against the occupation of Iraq and in favour of immediate withdrawal of troops. In the Labour Party the question of Iraq is crucial, and in Respect the retreat from class needs to be brought to the fore. Our intervention is designed to dramatise the contradictions in both, in order to draw attention to the importance of building the communist alternative. A small minority of members at the aggregate continued to argue for a policy of supporting all Respect candidates on the basis of its platform rather than the individual. Others claimed we were wrong to offer support to all Respect candidates in the European elections last year, but leading comrades, including John Bridge and Peter Manson, argued that as conditions evolve our tactics must also change. Even the best of the candidates we will support are in one way or another opportunist and if any are elected it will be crucial to continue to criticise them, and use any opportunity that arises for principled communist intervention.