Fighting fund: £45k at the halfway stage - help us smash our target!

Help fund the fightback, photo taxrebate.org.uk/CC (Click to enlarge)

Pete Mason, Socialist Party finance organiser

The Black Lives Matter protests gather young people looking for far-reaching solutions to the problems they face, and donations to the Socialist Party from these protests include £33 raised during the Port Talbot protest, £50 in Leeds, and in London, £154.26 in Hackney, £40 North London and £10 from a Waltham Forest campaign stall.

Susanne sent us £30 with the message: "I would like to donate to making more posters".

That's precisely why we appeal for money - without it we could not put out socialist ideas on these protests, with the weekly production of posters, leaflets, newspapers and placards.

Donations, large and small, are very welcome. During this period of lockdown our local branch Zoom meetings are hugely appreciated by members and those interested in joining our party, and we always appeal for - and receive - many donations from these meetings.

These include Liz, who gave £2, Joe and Julie gave £3 each, Oliver £5 and special thanks go to John Hoare, who donated £50.

Our special coronavirus appeal was launched to ensure the Socialist Party can keep campaigning despite the lockdown. The appeal has helped our fighting fund to reach £45,505 so far, which is a marvellous total as we approach the half way mark for this campaign.

The special appeal has now received 515 payments, and it is clear that many more members and supporters will donate to it when they are asked. We have recently received several £100 donations, including from John Dolan for whom £100 is the equivalent of a day's pay.

Finally, Socialist Party members in the Unison public sector union held a Zoom 'not the conference fringe meeting' at the time that conference was due to take place (had it not been cancelled by the union leadership).

Donations from this meeting pledged over £585, with special mention to Paul Couchman who paid £100.

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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.