From time to time someone asks us: “Why do you charge for your paper? That’s not very socialist.”
It should be obvious that, in a capitalist world where everything costs money, it’s expensive to produce a newspaper — but the point is easy to forget when it comes to the broader day-to-day functioning of a socialist organisation. Without money, we cannot do what we need to do.
The AWL is growing. We now publish Solidarity weekly, setting up new branches and expanding all areas of our activity. If we are going to continue this, we also need to expand our sources of funds. That’s why we’re launching an appeal to raise £20,000 by the end of August. A donation from you, or a regular standing order, will help.
We need money to:
1. Continue publishing Solidarity as a weekly;
2. Establish a fund for publishing high quality books and pamphlets, starting with a book on the politics of Antonio Gramsci;
3. Improve our website;
4. Organise events such as our socialist feminist conference last November, our New Unionism dayschool next month, and our Ideas for Freedom summer school;
5. Organise study courses to educate a new layer of Marxist thinkers and activists, particularly among young people;
6. Build on our work as one of the main forces fighting for rank-and-file democracy and control in the labour movement, and against the accommodation of much of the left to the trade union bureaucracy;
7. Build on the development of a broad, democratic student movement against fees and cuts, in which our role has been irreplaceable;
8. Pay the rent on and finance the staffing of our office to make all of the above and more possible.
We have no big money backers. We rely on contributions from workers and students like you! So please consider:
*Taking out a monthly standing order to the AWL. There is a form at workersliberty.org/resources. (Even a few pounds a month really does help.)
* Making a donation. You can send it to us at the address below (cheques payable to “AWL”) or do it online at workersliberty.org/donate.
* Organising a fundraising event.
* Taking copies of Solidarity to sell at your workplace, university/college or campaign group.
* Getting in touch to discuss joining the AWL.
For more information on any of the above, contact us: tel. 07796 690 874 / email awl@workersliberty.org / AWL, 20E Tower Workshops, 58 Riley Road, SE1 3DG.
Total raised so far: £3,930.
Donations include £65 from Traven, £200 from Rosie, £25 from Matthew, £500 from Jean and a very generous £3,000 from Dan.
We also raised £140 at the London AWL Christmas social.
This is a great start, let’s build on it!