Communist Party of Great Britain © 29 July 2010
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Weekly Worker 828 Thursday July 29 2010

Localist separatism can only produce crazy confusion

Mike Macnair reports on the latest attempt to create a national grouping to the left of Labour

On Saturday July 24 I attended as CGPB delegate a meeting in Rugby organised by Pete McLaren of the micro-Socialist Alliance and Nick Long of Lewisham People Before Profit. The aim of the meeting was to ... Read article

Letters
Religious rights; Against freedom; Here’s an idea; White rights; Big Co-op; Nazi EDL; Double-think;

Peasant socialism and the persistence of polytheism
Jack Conrad continues his survey of Ancient Israel in Supplement II

Rehabilitation failure shows failure of whole prison system
Jon Venables has been sent back inside for two years. He was never given a serious chance of a normal life on the outside, reports Eddie Ford

Why don’t you call yourselves something different?
Maciej Zurowski reports on some interesting exchanges at the 1234 music festival

Coalition threatens Lib Dems with oblivion
The ‘Brokeback’ speech by David Davis casts light on the possible demise of the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 general election, argues James Turley

Ian Tomlinson’s death caused by police kettling
Outrage over non-prosecution of PC Harwood puts establishment on the defensive, notes Jim Gilbert

Liquid research
David Douglass reviews Mike Pentelow and Peter Arkell’s ‘A pub crawl through history: the ultimate boozers’ Who’s who’ Janus, 2010, pp368, £16.99

Learning Russian
Continuing our series marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Mark Fischer looks at how the second Russian Revolution was assessed by ‘The Call’

A tireless internationalist
Chris Strafford looks at the role of Albert Inkpin in the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain

BP, Libya and the national interest
Peter Manson looks at the furore over the release of the ‘Lockerbie bomber’

Halfway mark
Howard Roak calls for a really good week for the SO campaign

click here to download the pdf version of this issue

Halfway mark

Howard Roak calls for a really good week for the SO campaign

Our Summer Offensive - the annual fundraising drive of the party - continues to move along at a very decent pace. This week we reached another milestone with the passing of the halfway mark on the way towards our target of £25k, to be raised by August 14, the last day of our school, Communist University.

In hand, we now have a very sturdy £12,987 - this week saw £1,254 of new money land in the party’s coffers. Special thanks to the comrades who organised the SO’s postal mail-out from the party office - it has already started to reap results, in particular in the form of comrade GD’s generous £120 sent in to sponsor a non-waged comrade at Communist University. Also this week, special mention to comrade CG for his £60, £100 from WD, £176 from PM, a £200 solidarity rate for CU from MM (CU solidarity rate), PB’s £60, a solid £50 from JT and £100 towards his SO target from DI.

A respectable £50 was also raised on the party stall at the 1234 festival in London’s Shoreditch Park. Not exactly our natural audience, but comrades report a decent enough response from most festival-goers - even if we did a rather better trade in Che Guevara badges than copies of the party’s Draft programme (although I’m told a fair number of Weekly Workers were also sold). So a fun day out was had by all, with a few sunburned limbs and a trip down memory lane courtesy of a set from the wondrous Vic Godard and Subway Sect. Great stuff.

Comrades, we need a really good week for the campaign over the coming seven days - Communist University and the end of this year’s campaign looms. I know that extra cash will come in during CU itself, but I would rather have an extra few thousand in the bank before then!

Click here to download a standing order form - regular income is particular important in order to plan ahead. Even £5/month can help!
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