10.01.2013

Fighting fund: Hefty support

Robbie Rix is pleased to see comrades starting the first fighting fund of the year with a bang

Both the end of December and the beginning of January have seen substantial donations to the Weekly Worker.

Readers may recall that in my final column of 2012 I bemoaned the fact that by December 20 we had only £803 towards the £1,500 we need each month. But several comrades answered my appeal, with the result that, despite the holidays, no less than £678 came in, leaving us just a few pounds below target at £1,481.

Among those deserving special mention are comrade TG for his £200 cheque and comrade AN for his £20 PayPal donation. AN said he was “very moved” by John Bridge’s obituary for comrade James May (‘Rebel with the megaphone voice’, December 14). Others who donated via PayPal were DT, SW and RP, while standing orders came in to the tune of £427 and RS added a fiver to his subscription cheque.

Those PayPal donors were among the thousands who read us online since the last issue three weeks ago. Our website has actually recorded more visits over the last seven days than in the week following the pre-Christmas edition - 16,347, as opposed to 12,156 (in between, over the holidays themselves, there were 8,093 web readers). So what caused the sudden rise last week despite the absence of a new Weekly Worker? Could it be something to do with our online coverage of the rebellion in the Socialist Workers Party before and during its conference?

Anyway, comrades are continuing to show their appreciation this month. We received two hefty £50 donations via PayPal (thank you, comrades EJ and EW), plus a £60 cheque from GT. And standing orders came to £367 altogether. Which leaves our January fighting fund total standing at £577 after 10 days - ahead of the asking rate.

Don’t forget, we need the full £1,500 just to meet our running costs. So let’s make sure we make up for last month’s shortfall and start 2013 as we mean to continue.