Andrew asks that comrades consider beating their donations from last year, explaining "Last year I greatly valued your contributions coming in as £1 per mile or pledges of £20, £30 or more. We are all victims of the politics of austerity, and the best way to rectify this is to provide a clear alternative."

Please text pledges for his 12 mile event on a modified bike to 07505 021 601.

Wakefield and Pontefract

Member John Gill spoke to a meeting of 25 people on the anniversary of the Featherstone Massacre.

The event on 7 September commemorated 121 years since troops fired live rounds at workers to crush a six-week miners' strike.

John recounted the fateful events when miners at Ackton Hall Colliery in Featherstone took the strike action in 1893. Their tyrannical employer, Samuel Cunliffe-Lister, was the same person who owned the Manningham Mills in Bradford.

As workers successfully blocked the moving of coal supplies on 7 September, troops were called to 'maintain order'. After clearing the site and reading the Riot Act, 16 were wounded when soldiers shot into the crowd with live ammunition.

Heavy rain stopped those gathered visiting the site of the massacre. However a dry spell allowed us to visit the graves of the two workers who died from their wounds, James Duggan and James Gibbs.

Independent Labour Party ex-MP Robert Cunninghame-Graham's comment on the shooting adorns the fireplace of a local pub. "Revolutions are not made with rosewater."

The Independent Labour Party made the case a cause célèbre. Labour Party founder Keir Hardie also visited.

For those wanting to know the outcome of the campaign for justice for those miners - why not come and join next year's (hopefully sunnier) commemoration? Or get a copy of the forthcoming pamphlet which John is writing about this struggle as well as the Kinsley Evictions, which were was pivotal for the development of the Independent Labour Party in the area.

Iain Dalton

Nottingham

We supported the Nottingham Pensioners' Action Group rally for the NHS on Saturday 14 September.

Pensioners are particularly aware of the attacks on the health service, both as regular users and because many still remember a time when the NHS did not exist.

A hospital bed was brought to the scene and wheeled around the market square.

Clear support existed for our policies: kicking out the privateers, and healthcare free at the point of need.

There was very little trust in Labour, with some remarking that "it's not the party it used to be years ago".

We hope to see Nottingham's pensioners out in force again, and look forward to supporting them further.

Geraint Thomas

Southampton

Management has given up trying to move members Mike and Jane from the entrance of Southampton General Hospital.

Their stall on 10 September sold multiple copies of the Socialist and raised £20 fighting fund.

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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.

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.