09.12.2010

Insult to injury

No wool over your eyes here, says Robbie Rix

What’s all the fuss about? Surely these protesting students know that the increase in tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 a year is the “best and fairest possible deal”? Well, that’s what Nick Clegg is saying.

Some of his fellow Liberal Democrats are claiming students will actually be better off, thanks to Vince Cable kindly trebling the ceiling for fees and increasing the average debt from £21,000 to £30,000. Not only are they leaving thousands of current and future students in hock for up to 30 years; to add insult to injury, they are treating them like stupid children who can’t tot up the simplest of sums.

Unlike the desperate and totally discredited Lib Dems, the Weekly Worker does not try to pull the wool over your eyes. Yes, we have a permanent, ongoing ‘deficit’ that is repeatedly brought back into balance only through the donations of our readers and supporters. But we don’t claim that giving us a donation will somehow make you richer. What it will do, though, is help our paper continue to put out its unique, but essential message: only through the creation of a single, united Communist Party can our class resist and defeat the whole range of attacks on students, workers and retired people. What is more, only when it is armed with such a party can it go on to challenge for power.

If you want that message to go out undiminished - indeed if you think it should be amplified - then please contribute to our fighting fund. Last week saw £130 come in through standing orders - special thanks to SM (£40), SD, CG (£20 each) and ST (£15) - and a one-off donation via our website from comrade DG (£10). Then in the post I received an extra £5 from IT, which he included with his resubscription, while a Socialist Resistance comrade was obviously so impressed with the Weekly Worker that he added a pound to his sub!

And I must mention our comrades from the Union of Turkish Progressives, who donated £30 at the December 4 Yürükoğlu Memorial Lecture, addressed by Hillel Ticktin. Finally supporters of our paper in Leeds donated in a way I don’t often write about. They simply transferred £15 directly to our bank account. It’s easy to do via your local branch or even easier if you have an online account. Just make your payment using sort code 30-99-64 (Lloyds TSB) to account 00744310. But please don’t forget to let me know about it!

We need £1,250 any way we can get it, but we start the holiday-shortened month of December with only £161. Help us strike a blow not just against coalition attacks and lies, but for the future society of universal emancipation.