Link to this page: https://secure.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1082/30605
From The Socialist newspaper, 15 April 2020
Final push for May Day greetings: Fund independent workers' media for socialist corona response
- Deadline extended to 23 April
James Ivens, the Socialist May Day greetings organiser
We need you to support the Socialist by sending May Day greetings. You now have a full extra week to do it. There is no other consistent, independent voice for workers and for socialism during the pandemic.
The extended deadline for pledges is Thursday 23 April - payment can come later. Please do your best to make a pledge by the deadline. However, if you need more time to agree a donation, please get in touch and we'll discuss an exception.
From day one, the Socialist warned that cuts and privatisation had left the NHS and public services unready. Our frontline reports from workers across sectors have given the hard truth behind the government's propaganda promises.
In the face of the capitalists' shortages and criminal missteps, we've proposed ways for the working class to fight to overcome them. In fact, nowhere has produced demands as clear and thorough as our workers' charter.
Meanwhile, some trade union leaders are trying to 'park' the defence of their members' interests or suspend operations just when they're most needed. The right has recaptured the leadership of Labour.
But workers are still fighting, because they have to. The Socialist carries the latest on walkouts, workplace struggle, and the campaign for combative unions.
The government is waging a propaganda war to deflect from its responsibility for the crisis. Even many 'left' media outlets fell in line behind the bosses and Tories on multiple issues. But the Socialist has carried on the fight.
To maintain that independent voice for the truth and working-class interests, we need finance. It goes without saying that the big advertisers won't touch us, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Our funding comes from the workers' movement. May Day greetings are a vital part of that.
Can your trade union branch, community campaign, workplace colleagues, trade union council or student society send us a donation and short message of solidarity? We publish these each year on International Workers' Day to help fund the socialist press.
Dozens of groups in the workers' movement have already pledged May Day money. Unite Community NW/11500 Lancashire branch has even donated £100 to the Socialist, on top of buying a quarter-page greeting for May Day.
Branch secretary and treasurer Jim Leigh said: "We hope this will go a little way in helping the Socialist newspaper navigate through this crisis." Could your union branch do the same?
Even just a one-off payment for a May Day greeting is valuable and wanted. We will accept any amount of money from any genuine group of workers.
No matter how violent the winds that rise to batter the movement back, workers have no choice but to press on. The Socialist will too. We are your paper. Keep us going: send May Day greetings.
- For prices, sizes and to book your greeting, visit socialistparty.org.uk/mayday
- For help or resources including sign-up sheets and model motions, email [email protected]
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 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.
- 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 15 April 2020:
Coronavirus news
MPs get £10k each for lockdown expenses - where's ours?
Dispatches from the front: NHS staff say give us PPE, not medals!
Johnson's hospitalisation: a tale of two treatments
Big pharma's profiteering holds back drug supply
Lockdown increases domestic violence calls - Tory money a drop in the ocean
NHS nurse: we're not wasting PPE - the Tories don't value us
Rapacious capitalism and the spread of coronavirus
What we think
Exit strategy? PPE and mass testing and workers' control of workplace safety
Fight back against the corona propaganda war
Transport
London Transport workers fighting private companies and TfL to secure health and safety
Workplace news
Unite opposes all cuts to domestic violence services
Passport workers forced back to offices as Home Office shirks its duty of care
Collectively demanding safe warehouse working conditions
Usdaw shop workers' union activists meet via Zoom
Coronavirus workplace news in brief
Labour
Sabotage - the inner workings of Labour's political machine exposed
Campaigns
Plymouth students discuss rent strike
Final push for May Day greetings
Socialist Party coronavirus crisis finance appeal
Join an online Socialist Party meeting during lockdown
The Socialist Party and socialist ideas are growing
Lessons from history
How the catastrophe of WW1 sparked revolution
Readers' opinion
Going viral: Socialist comments on the corona crisis
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