Donate to the finance appeal
Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer
The Socialist Party is launching an appeal to raise £12,000 to buy a new server for the computer network at our national centre.
Over the last ten years our party has become more and more reliant on information technology (IT). The internet has transformed our ability to communicate and disseminate information quickly throughout our organisation and indeed, across the world. Emails, the party’s website and all the different forms of social media, like Facebook and Twitter, are now vital tools for us in spreading and arguing for socialist ideas.
Lenin, a leader of the Russian Revolution, called the party paper the scaffolding used to build the organisation. The Socialist newspaper today is still an indispensable tool but IT has revolutionised the production of the paper itself and all the Socialist Party publications.
In 2011 we had 56 million hits on the Socialist Party website and the hundreds of videos on the site were accessed more than 80,000 times over the same period. Just these two statistics indicate both the reach that IT gives us and also the potential for future development.
We bought our current server in 2006 and the software it runs will no longer be supported by Microsoft. The computer network at our national centre has also expanded, as our staff has increased, and has now gone beyond the limit that the server was designed to support.
No rich backers
The Socialist Party has no rich backers. Instead of the wealth of big business and the press barons, we rely on the skills, solidarity and sacrifice that workers contribute to building a movement that belongs to them. These are far more valuable to us than all the money and influence of big business.
£12,000 will enable us to purchase the server and related software as well as installing faster cabling. That’s why we are appealing for your support to make a donation to the server appeal.
Can you donate £10, £50 or £100 or more? Every donation, no matter how big or how small is very welcome and will take us nearer to our goal.
You can pay via the Socialist Party website at www.socialistparty.org.uk/donate and mark your donation ‘Server appeal’, or telephone 020 8988 8777.
