Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1091/30935
From The Socialist newspaper, 17 June 2020
Fight for a socialist future!
Pete Mason, Socialist Party finance organiser
More than £500 has been donated to the Socialist Party during Black Lives Matter protests around the country in the last few days. We received £104 from the Stafford protest in the West Midlands, including one donation of £40; £100 from Reading, and £51 in Worcester.
"Thanks for another great meeting!" writes Peggy-Sue from Hackney, sending us £5.
These small, regular donations are a vital part of our fundraising - they help us participate and bring our ideas to the mass protests happening today. We get no backing from big business or wealthy benefactors.
An anonymous donation of £10 which came with the comment: "To put towards the BLM posters." It precisely hit the spot. A Bristol reader writes: "Glad to be of help, let's make it a better world" and donated £15.
But we welcome large donations from working-class people too! Helen Hayes, an 85-year-old, gets a copy of the Socialist each week from Frank Bowen from Wavertree in Liverpool, and donated another £100 this week. Frank says: "She has made several donations of a £100 over the last couple of years", and she is helping to build a socialist future.
Enterprising fundraiser Alexander Brown from Sheffield has sent us a whopping £800 from the sale of Militant T-shirts, including £300 sent earlier in the year.
Donations in memory of Socialist Party national organisers Ken Douglas and Mick Cotter are still arriving and have topped £2,000, with some moving tributes.
A £100 donation to the Mick Cotter memorial arrived from Thessaloniki in Greece.
A donation in memory of Ken Douglas of £50, saluted the "huge contribution" Ken made to the work of the Socialist Party. The contributor added: "He remains simply, one of the nicest people I had ever met."
Also, donations to our special coronavirus finance appeal have reached £32,613. Keep them coming in!
- Visit socialistparty.org.uk/donate or call 020 8988 8777 or make cheques payable to Socialist Party, PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT
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 donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 17 June 2020:
What we think
Which way forward for Black Lives Matter protests?
Oppose racist symbols and the racist system
News
Capitalism = inequality. Fight for socialism!
Black Lives Matter: more youth protests take aim at capitalism
Contact tracing fiasco: You can't believe a word the government tells us
Youth
Youth without a future: fight for jobs and homes - fight for socialism!
Workplace news
Resist relaxation of Sunday trading laws
Debenham's protests: Workers must not pay price of Covid-19
Battle with BT management needed to win real pay rise
Schools
Tories retreat on free school meals
Parents' protests against Welsh schools reopening
Cumbria: Teachers, parents and socialists fight reckless school reopening
Reviews
Tears and anger over the treatment of the Windrush generation
Film: Da 5 Bloods - entertaining but politically constrained
Campaigns and party news
Why we joined the Socialist Party
20 days. One town. Four domestic violence murders.
Lessons from history
Reform or revolt? How was the slave trade abolished?
Scotland
Scotland and coronavirus - a catalogue of government failure
Readers' opinion
Three years on: No justice for Grenfell, no peace from BLM
Two-metre rule under 'review' - Another case of profit before safety
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