25.07.2007

Menshevik barbecue

Howard Roak reports on the latest developments in our two-month fundraising campaign

First, an apology. My column did not appear last week due to a technical glitch with our computers - basically, our office email account would not talk to its Weekly Worker equivalent. Thus my article scampered away into the ether. I like to think of it living somewhere out there, perhaps in a parallel universe, mayhap featured in a carbon copy Weekly Worker. You know it's a mathematical certainty, comrades "¦

So what have the past two weeks of the SO brought us? It's good news, our readers will be pleased to hear. We have had a solid boost of almost £3,000, with CPGB comrades stumping up a chunky £1,000 at our aggregate on July 14 and subsequently comrades DI (£600), TB (£200), PK (£100), JB (£50) SD (£20) and MF (£160) headed the pack with a flurry of donations to the campaign. On top of that, supporters and Weekly Worker readers chipped in another £600-plus, including just under £100 via our website (we had 42,601 online readers last week, by the way). All this brings the total thus far to £10,930.

Not bad, not bad at all. We normally have a quickening of the pace of SOs in the second halves, so to have bitten well over a third out of our total as we head into the second month (our minimum target is £25k) is very encouraging. Particularly so as we have a number of events in the offing that should both add to party coffers and increase our political profile.

First and foremost is the Communist University, of course. This is shaping up as one of our best for a number of years, with an excellent range of speakers and pre-event registrations up. And so are the costs, naturally enough. In particular, we want to ensure that a number of younger, financially-challenged comrades are able to attend and play a full part in the week - even if that means we have to subsidise them.

Something like 40% of comrades who have so far signed up are under 25 years old and a good number of these are students rather than young workers. So, quite apart from the costs of the venue, the speakers' expenses, publicity for the event and buying in provisions for our August 17 celebration meal to mark the end of the Summer Offensive, we need the support of comrades to ensure a full participation of those who want to attend this important party event.

Of course, once it gets going, the CU will pay for itself - what with sales of tickets, donations at the event, sales of books, food and drink. But you can make sure that we don't have to scrimp in terms of its preparation by donating now.

Second, there is talk from some of our comrades in the Communist Party of Turkey of organising a barbecue to support this year's Offensive, perhaps during the Communist University itself. We are still haggling about the exact date for this, but I do hope it can be sorted out. It will bring back some good memories.

In particular, I recall a balmy summer's evening back in the early 80s when myself and other young comrades of The Leninist tendency of the CPGB spent an exhausting time helping out our Communist Party of Turkey comrades in a community festival they had organised in London's Newington Green. We were humping tins and plates of food between the stalls and a small shop on the square where they were being stored and prepared. On one trip, we were directed into the dark basement of the shop to collect meat for a barbecue busily smoking away on the green.

We picked up some trays heaped with meat cuts then turned back to the stairs. Halfway up, the comrade I was with stopped and grinned at the small gaggle of CPT comrades hacking away at a huge side of pig in the corner, complete with head. "Is that one of your Mensheviks?" he asked. (The CPT in those days was also factionally divided between left and right).

The meat cleavers stopped in mid-air and terrible silence descended. A barely audible, sibilant voice leaked out of the gloom: "How many people know you are here?" asked one of the comrades gently, slipping into the light with a disarmingly friendly smile. And a meat cleaver, we both noted.

We will keep comrades informed of progress with this latest barbecue and other events to support the campaign. Keep an eye on our website, adverts in this paper and/or sign up to receive our weekly e-bulletin, Notes for Action.