Fighting fund record smashed again!

Fighting fund helps pay for leaflets and other campaigning material photo Samantha Smith (Click to enlarge)

Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer

Socialist Party members raised a magnificent Ł30,772 between July and September, breaking the record for this period of the year. The quarterly fighting fund target had been increased to Ł30,000 at the beginning of July, a challenging total but one that we were determined to reach.

Liverpool branch raised the highest total of Ł2,677 followed by Wirral, two of the four branches that raised over Ł1,000, from a combination of campaigning stalls, asking supporters for a donation to help our work and fundraising.

The Socialist Party has no rich backers, the fighting fund is vital to help maintain our profile and ensure our ideas and analysis reach as wide an audience as possible.

Resolute

Our members were resolute that nothing would stop them from hitting the new target and came up with many and varied ways to supplement the day-to-day campaigning stalls, including running marathons, giving up chocolate, car boot sales, curry nights, baking birthday cakes and selling plants at local festivals.

At the same time the weekly sales of the Socialist also hit a five-year high. There were big sales at Jeremy Corbyn's election rallies, as those attending agreed with our demand to kick out the Blairites and let socialists join, and on hundreds of local protests and demonstrations.

First time readers of the Socialist also took advantage of the new direct debit facility on our website (www.socialistparty.org.uk/subscribe) to make sure that they get their copy every week.

Trevor Hall, a new member in Cornwall, guaranteed that his branch smashed its fighting fund and paper targets, by taking the Socialist on tour and selling in towns around the county and finding new audiences for socialist ideas.

Could you, like Trevor, become a seller of the Socialist? You don't have to be a member, contact us to arrange a supply of papers on a sale or return basis. Or can you help by raising funds for us or making a one-off or regular donation to the fighting fund?

Donate to the Socialist Party

Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.

Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.

We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to click here to donate to our Fighting Fund.