All Organisations subcategories:
Committee for a Workers International
Nationalist and National Liberation
Pro capitalist and Imperialist
Left and radical keywords:
International Socialist Resistance (54)
Revolutionary Communist League (1)
Socialist Peoples Party (Denmark) (1)
Socialist Party
Highlight keywords |
Print this article
Search site for keywords: The Socialist - Socialist - Socialist Party - Council
Socialist sellers
Marx is back. And this time he's got a card reader!
Marx is back! (Click to enlarge)
If Karl Marx were alive today, I'm certain he'd have a card reader.
One of the best ways to build the Socialist Party is for people to buy our publications and read what we say.
But this approach has become a little harder with the amount of people who no longer use cash. To overcome this problem I purchased a card reader for £18 in September 2018.
The purchase of that card reader has made a very significant increase in the amount of copies of the Socialist we sell and the fighting fund raised for the Socialist Party too.
Since Sept 2018 I've taken 435 payments on the card reader, totalling £1,111.
Not all of this is from sales of the Socialist. And not all are my sales.
The Socialist Party uses it when we're campaigning in Waltham Forest. Other members often send people over to me to make a payment - to buy the Socialist or make a donation.
Some of the £1,111 is also room money or socialist book sales. But that just shows how valuable the card reader is.
Since the start of January this year, I've sold 142 copies of the Socialist, 60 of those on the card reader.
I ask if people would like to pay solidarity price for the Socialist, to help support what we do, and around half say yes. Mostly £2, but also £3, £5, and a few times £10. I've raised £69 selling the Socialist at solidarity price this year.
Martin Reynolds, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
Martin also told us about the response the Socialist Party got on our latest campaign stall:
Waltham Forest: People are no longer ashamed to say they are poor - and being made poorer by the greedy landlords
We appealed to young people to step forward and sign our petition for rent control and council housing. A 19 year old stopped and said to me:
"I work in a hotel in Waterloo. It takes me an hour to get to work.
"I live at home with my mum. I want to leave home. I want my independence. I want to live in my community.
"I spend ten hours a day working and travelling. I don't want to have to move out and have to travel further and far longer just to find somewhere cheaper to live."
I asked if he would like to join our fight for rent control and council housing and he said: "yes what can I do?"
I said you can start by speaking into our microphone and telling everyone what you just told me. And to my surprise, he did. That took courage. I could never have done that at his age.
I left home at his age. I did it because wages as a factory worker allowed me to. And there was also lots of council housing. But that's all changed.
We use our open mic to let workers tell us about the crap they have to deal with.
The Socialist Party was overwhelmed, with people telling us they are being driven further into poverty and signing our petition. A number of people said they were glad we were there.
They cannot afford the rent. It seems people are no longer afraid or ashamed to tell us they are poor and being made poorer by the greedy landlords. 22 of them bought a copy of the Socialist.
Housing is an explosive issue. In the words of our open mic speaker "this has to end".
Basingstoke: NHS - Workers are angry they've been lied to
Our campaign stall was very busy with lots of debate on 22 February. There's a lot of anger about the hospital that was promised by our Tory MP Maria Miller before the election. Now we can read in our local paper that was all a lie.
Basingstoke Council is cutting £5 million from services, which have already been decimated by ten years of cuts.
Two libraries will close. Council tax is going up.
Hampshire Council is cutting £80 million which will hit Basingstoke social care and school budgets.
We are campaigning to stop the cuts and organising a public meeting on Wednesday 18 March.
Mayola Demmenie
- Public meeting: Organise, fight, resist. 7.30pm, Melrose Community Centre, Abbey Road, RG24 9ES
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.
LATEST POSTS
12 May Stop Israeli state brutality
 |
9 May Post-election meetings
15 May Birmingham Socialist Party: How can we fight for socialist change and a new workers' party?
17 May Oxfordshire & Aylesbury Socialist Party: The role of the state
18 May Bristol North Socialist Party: Liverpool - history of socialist struggle
CONTACT US
Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777
Email: [email protected]
Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206
Regional Socialist Party organisers:
Eastern: 079 8202 1969
East Mids: 077 3797 8057
London: 075 4018 9052
North East: 078 4114 4890
North West 079 5437 6096
South West: 077 5979 6478
Southern: 078 3368 1910
Wales: 079 3539 1947
West Mids: 024 7655 5620
Yorkshire: 078 0983 9793
ABOUT US
ARCHIVE
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999