May Day Greetings 2017

May Day Greetings 2017   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

James Ivens, May Day greetings campaign organiser

The May Day greetings deadline for reduced rates is coming: Friday 30 March. Help us get those greetings in! The struggle for socialism needs the Socialist. The Socialist needs funding.

Striking university workers arriving at their central London demonstration smiled seeing Socialist sellers on 14 March. Our front page – ‘Determined UCU strikers: we’re out to win‘.

Our coverage is written by strikers themselves. Our strategy – both industrial and political – isn’t just about solidarity, but advance.

How can we link up the struggles? How can we beat not just the uni bosses – but the whole boss class?

These questions exercised workers and students in France 50 years ago too. The false analysis and methods of their official leaders ran a revolutionary general strike onto the rocks. Ideas matter.

Corbyn, Brexit, Catalonia, Trump – capitalism is once more preparing for battles over its continued existence. May Day greetings help finance and publicise the paper that fights to get it right.

Here’s how you can help.

  • Union branches, committees and trades councils need urgent contact. They have deadlines for agendas. Propose a motion, or send an appeal for the ‘correspondence’ business item
  • Workplaces can send group greetings from supporters. Use our May Day greetings sign-up sheet
  • We want community campaigns to send greetings too. Make sure you invite yours
  • Student groups in schools, colleges and universities – if you can’t get funding, we’ll place your greeting for a whip-round

Let us know what you’re planning. And please get in touch if you want resources or support: [email protected]. Prices and other details are at socialistparty.org.uk/mayday.

We are proud to have received greetings already from – among others – the Birkenhead bus workers. We backed their solid strike which won a raise in December. Now they’re backing us.

Socialist Party members have targets for their regions and some trade union groups. And we want everyone who supports socialist ideas to show their solidarity on our pages. The final deadline is 11 April.

Let’s make 2018 another record-breaker. Let’s get those greetings in.