29.06.2011

Hitting the big numbers

Mark Fischer will be delighted with any commitment to donate regularly

“Why hasn’t anyone chased me for a regular financial contribution?” PS wonders in a message to me this week. Despite being “not so despicably rich, as my bank balance would prove”, the comrade - an ex-member of the CPGB - is keen to contribute to the paper, which she reads online (along with 12,568 others last week, by the way). Notwithstanding her criticisms of the details of the party’s current strategic orientation, PS feels the need to show her appreciation for the Weekly Worker, the tangible manifestation of the political work of that organisation and the way the party ‘comes alive’ for the vast majority of the comrades in our quite substantial periphery, of course.

LC, another ex-member, wrote in response to a mailing of our occasional e-bulletin, Notes for action. He admits that he has “been meaning to subscribe to the paper for ages. It’s just getting round to it. I will do it immediately and post today.” That’s the sort of response we want to our comradely cajoling! An instant ‘yes’ and a promise of a standing order in the next day’s post! (So, LC. You’ve now been ‘name’-checked in this column. As you well know, this amounts to a solemn pact in our culture. Renege and the CPGB’s ‘Taffia’ - fellow Welshman Ben Lewis and myself - will come round and make you an offer you can’t understand, in the immortal words of John Cooper Clarke).

The drive for an expanded base of regular financial donations to this paper is the core component of this year’s Summer Offensive, our annual fundraising drive. In addition, comrades are planning other initiatives to raise cash either directly for the CPGB or for political organisations and campaigns we are centrally involved in. The SO is a gauge of the intensity of the work of party members in a wide variety of fields - amongst students, in the anti-war and Iranian solidarity movements, left cultural initiatives like the new Red Mist website (see last week’s paper). We don’t take a narrow approach.

You can help with this work. We need comrades to pitch in to build this year’s cricket match between the Labour Representation Committee and Hands Off the People of Iran. (This has been an annual humiliation for our Labour comrades so far - Hopi activists confidently predict another long day at the office for the LRC in 2011. Here’s hoping ...). There are CPGB stalls to be staffed at some music festivals, pints of beer to be pulled for the Workers Beer Company at others; film screenings to be organised in support of Iranian director Jafar Panahi; solidarity music gigs for Workers Fund Iran to build and an international contingent of comrades running the recent Berlin marathon for the same cause.

How could you help? Quite apart from any direct physical support you could offer, you could advertise these events on your blog/website if you have one - and/or nag friends/comrades to do the same (we can supply banners and technical support). You could contact local trade union branches or progressive organisations and campaigns for support and direct affiliation in the case of Hopi, for example. (Or organise a front-room solidarity screening of a Panahi film, as groups of Hopi supporters have - a guide will be available on Hopi’s website soon for ideas on this sort of ‘cottage industry’ solidarity work).

CPGB comrades have been getting on the phone for personal follow-ups to the blunderbuss SO mailings that have been coming from the party office over the past week or so. One initial criticism that has been made about both our comrades’ individual approach as well as some of this written material is that is talks down what we should be able to achieve. Perhaps we have unconsciously bought into a culture of low expectations when it comes to comrades’ commitment, their appreciation of the role of the Weekly Worker, their partisan identification with the project of re-establishing genuine Marxism as the hegemonic politics of the entire workers’ movement - and this is even before they start haggling about how much pain their standing order is going to entail.

So instead let’s talk some big numbers this week, comrades. We are delighted with any commitment you can make to regularly donate to the Weekly Worker - that’s a given. The fact that the vast majority of comrades who read us are hard-pressed working class people - again, a given. However, in this week’s column, I want to emphasise that neither are we embarrassed by large - nay, huge - regular donations. There are no lower limits, comrades; and trust me when I write, there are no upper limits either.

The new standing orders we have received this week, however, all fall in the former category - three £5 commitments from comrades JC, TP and DL. In the case of DL it was a £5 increase - he modestly raised his existing monthly donation from £15 to £20 without even telling us! The extra regular income that has come in for the Weekly Worker since the start of the SO already stands at £74 a month.

In terms of hard cash this week has seen £734 come in towards our target of £25,000. We’re over £5k, comrades, after just two weeks - outstanding work.

Fill in a standing order form, donate via our website, or send cheques payable to Weekly Worker.