Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer
Socialist Party members are launching a ‘collectathon’ fundraising fortnight from 1 to 15 December. They will be making an extra effort in the run-up to Christmas to ensure that the Socialist Party smashes its fighting fund target of £25,000.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has just produced a report showing that austerity could continue for most of this decade, with a further £11 billion of cuts likely on top of the extra £8 billion benefit cuts already put forward by Con-Dem Chancellor George Osborne.
The Tax Justice Network estimates that there is £13.5 TRILLION in untaxed private wealth lying in tax havens around the world. This money could pay off the deficits many times over.
Down with the tax-dodging rich and their idle wealth! These resources could help transform peoples’ lives across the world but we need to democratically own and control this wealth, planning production to meet peoples’ needs.
Socialist ideas are critical to this transformation but as important are the funds to spread them as widely as possible through the pages of the Socialist, through leaflets and pamphlets and by the campaigning of our members.
Money crucial
Our fighting fund enables us to have a visible presence on demonstrations and protests, such as the 20 October TUC demo where we even had a marquee and stage in Hyde Park! As well as stalls, gazebos and banners on the route of the march we also produced 80,000 leaflets and 5,000 placards calling on the TUC to name the day for a 24-hour general strike against austerity.
The Socialist Party is at the heart of the fightback against austerity. Our strategy for fighting the cuts and building an alternative is having a greater and greater echo.
Our role in the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) points the way to building a new mass workers’ party that can begin to challenge the pro-cuts consensus of the three main capitalist parties.
Above all else the Socialist Party has a crucial role in raising socialist ideas and showing there is an alternative to endless austerity.
We haven’t the colossal resources that the super-rich have hidden away, we rely solely on the support of ordinary people. Can you assist us in this struggle? Can you make a donation to take us nearer to our goal? Phone 020 8988 8777, go to www.socialistparty.org.uk/donate or use the form below.
