01.03.2012

Work aid

Robbie Rix is pleased to see more donations and standing orders, keep it up comrades, he says.

There’s been a lot in the news this week about people working without pay for their own good. I’m talking about the government’s latest ‘work experience’ scheme, of course, whereby youngsters have the privilege of stacking shelves, mopping floors and so on for a couple of months before going back to sitting at home. But their life experience will have been enriched as a result. Won’t it?

Funnily enough, we at the Weekly Worker know quite a bit about voluntary, unpaid work. It’s what we do to get the paper out each week. And you know what? For us it is rewarding. And inspiring. It involves putting out the same, consistent message - the need for Marxist unity within a single, democratic-centralist party - but it’s not dull and tedious at all. Especially when our readers respond - both by joining in the debate and by sending in the money we need to continue with that work.

And that is what readers have done this last month. After the disappointment of January, when we fell short of our new £1,500 monthly target, February has seen us break through that barrier with a total of £1,605. Not quite enough to make up for last month’s shortfall, but very pleasing all the same.

Among the contributions over the last seven days were two hefty cheques of £60 (from TG) and £50 (RG), plus three PayPal donations via our website from PO (£30), GF (£20) and FT (£10). (Strangely, our online readership suffered a sharp drop last week, to 18,098 - more than 6,000 down on the week before. Don’t ask me why.) And standing orders added a further £148 in all.

Anyway, thanks to all for making February’s fighting fund a success. Now for March. Anyone fancy aiding our work and sharing our experience?