20.07.2011

Cracking pace

Mark Fischer updates us on the role of zombie Nazis, new gazebos and shithouse rats in this year's CPGB fundraising drive

Word reaches my ears this week of two “games parties” that are being organised to raise funds for the Weekly Worker. Now before the more luridly minded of you start to feverishly text for the details of the date and venue, I’m assured that these will actually consist of a bunch of our more geekily inclined (ie, generally young, generally male) comrades sitting in a room, humpbacked over computer consoles, blowing the heads off rampaging zombie Nazis and assorted other nasties. The ‘party’ bit is justified by the fact that they will also have cans of lager in their hands (the comrades, that is, rather than the reanimated and slightly crumbly fascists, of course).

This is certainly the most innovative means to raise funds for our paper so far and congratulations to comrade BL for organising it. The fight to provide a far more secure financial foundation for the Weekly Worker is a central component of this year’s Summer Offensive, our annual two-month-long fundraising drive (which ends this year on August 20, the last day of our party school, the Communist University) and certainly seems to have inspired comrades to generally up their game. The last week has seen a stonking £2,526 come in, bringing our running total to £12,510. This really is a cracking pace - normally around this point in the campaign we suffer a quiet period before a relatively frenetic rush in the lead-up to and during the Communist University itself.

The first to be mentioned in dispatches this week is comrade MM for a magnificent £960 one-off donation. Not content with that, he has upped his regular £70 per month standing order to the paper by £5! Many, many thanks comrade. Our new comrade EL adds another greatly appreciated £20 to the same pot, while SP has increased his regular contribution by an extra £3 a month. Greatly appreciated, comrades. So, our fight for an extra £300 a month minimum for the Worker was rewarded with £28 this week, taking the new regular commitments to £193 a month - again, greatly encouraging.

And a special mention must go to comrades MZ and EM, who forked out £50 to buy a new party gazebo after they oversaw the mutilation of one at the end of a festival in east London. Your conscientiousness does you credit, comrades!

The urgency of the fight to spread the reach and influence of this paper should be apparent to all of you who read it on a regular basis (last week 10,956 did so via our website, by the way). The ugly, corrupt farce that is the Murdoch/News of the World scandal unfolds remorselessly. Apart from the personal venality or the main actors - they have “the morality of shithouse rats”, a close relation of mine has observed - it throws an interesting light on the political legitimacy of the ruling elite. Certainly, from my personal experience, people have responded with a quite visceral anger to the revelations - but have actually drawn politically cynical and abstentionist conclusions from the affair. It should be the job of a rationally organised Marxist left to harness the anger felt by masses of people, and direct it in a manner that will change things - ie, a manner informed by a rational and radical programme. The Marxists should be acting as Marxists, in other words.

The Weekly Worker holds the left to account for its lack of ambition, its dismally unsuccessful ‘get rich quick’ opportunist ruses, its operative contempt for the class it is meant to serve, its stubborn refusal - thus far - to walk the walk and act as Marxists. The voice of this paper needs to ring out louder and clearer in the coming years of harsh struggle for our class. To that end we look to you, our readers, not the nationalisation of the media by the capitalist state, or some other such bureaucratic panacea.

We know there are plenty of you out there that agree with that - so let’s hear from you!