Help socialist ideas spread this election: donate!

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

Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer

Socialist Party members and supporters raised a record £42,445 at the Socialism 2019 rally on 2 November. This was a fantastic result, and showed determination to ensure we have the resources we need to produce campaigning leaflets, posters, placards and other materials as we go into the general election.

After less than six weeks, we have already hit the fighting fund target for this quarter, and also beaten the annual target of £120,000. But we can't stop now!

We have a chance to go into 2020 having surpassed the record for the most fighting fund raised in a single year. This currently stands at £143,500 in 2017. But we can beat that if all the pledges from the Socialism appeal are paid in, and we have a determined push over the next seven weeks.

The general election itself gives us opportunities to hold extra campaigning stalls. Weekday lunchtime stalls will attract workers on their break. Workplace sales, and bus and rail station sales, will be good chances to sell the Socialist and raise fighting fund, by asking for the solidarity price of £2, or simply for a donation. You can increase that by getting an iZettle or other mobile card reader.

In the run-up to Christmas, branches will be planning parties and fundraising events. In London, a Christmas bake-off is planned. Other ideas might be raffling a Christmas hamper to which branch members contribute a single item each if they can.

In this period of political turmoil, the Socialist and Socialism Today, our website and all our other material, shine like beacons through the fog of Brexit - giving a way forward for the working class and a strategy to break the political paralysis at the top.

Finance is vital to ensure our ideas reach as wide an audience as possible. This election is a great opportunity to build support for socialist ideas, and show how a socialist programme could change our lives.

Can you help? If you didn't manage to get to the Socialism rally, and haven't yet been able to donate to the appeal, or you are reading the Socialist for the first time, please consider making a donation to help us achieve our target.

You can donate at socialistparty.org.uk/donate, or by phoning 020 8988 8777.

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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.