Wherever workers enter struggle, the Socialist is there, photo by Mary Finch

Wherever workers enter struggle, the Socialist is there, photo by Mary Finch   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Ian Pattison, the Socialist editorial team

The Socialist will reach a milestone next month. The 1,000th issue of our paper.

In that time we’ve consistently supported workers’ struggles and community campaigns. From the enormous movement against Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq in 2003, to the public sector strikes and demos in 2011 and the battle to save the NHS today.

We put forward a socialist alternative to the world financial crash of 2008 and the decade of crisis and austerity that has followed since. Eleven years of economic crisis, almost a decade of Tory austerity and huge enthusiasm for Jeremy Corbyn mean that today the need for a socialist paper has never been clearer since the launch of the Socialist in 1997.

Can you help us mark this milestone? On Saturday 23 June we are having a drive for 1,000 extra sales of issue 1000. Can your branch involve extra people, keep the campaign stall going for longer than usual or have more activites in more places?

You don’t have to be a member of the Socialist Party to sell the Socialist. One person recently donated to our building fund to aid our search for new premises before we face eviction.

She encouraged her Twitter followers and Facebook friends to do the same, because “round near me they have been instrumental in saving a women’s refuge and hospital wards, organising demos and standing up to Tory austerity”.

Can you or your branch sell 20-30 copies more than usual of that issue? Can you add some extra sales throughout the week of the 1,000th issue – try the local college, bus and rail stations and workplaces.

If those paper sales go well, can you keep them going beyond issue 1000? And don’t forget to ask for the solidarity price of £2 – every extra pound helps us sustain a socialist paper which is an independent voice for the working class.

And to help the Socialist and get it delivered to your door each week, why not subscribe?

If you take out a direct debit subscription, you get to choose from a range of free books. While we’re celebrating the anniversary of the May 1968 revolutionary events in France this includes ‘May 1968: Month of Revolution’ by Clare Doyle.