Copy of Letter sent to Socialist Party leadership following a plea for members to increase their subs

Comrades,

Question? Am I the only one who finds the recent increase request for our

"subsappeal2011" too much to stomach ?

And in addition, is anyone else considering quitting the party, for seemingly adding to the financial squeeze orchestrated by the current government, I know I am.

The request to increase members subs to enable a monthly target of £4,000, is being explained as a need by the party to "step up" its campaigning for June 30th strikes.

Mention (in the request letter) is made of the 80,000 leaflets and 5,000 placards etc which came to the grand total of £8,000 for the March 26th campaign. And more is needed !!

The letter then gets down to nitty-gritty with, what I consider an ill-advised and crass attempt to "shame" members into increasing their monthly subs, by highlighting (amongst others) the fact that even some unemployed members have been generous enough to increase their subs, and a few "minted" individuals, have agreed to join the farcically named "100 club" thereby paying £100 per month !!

No one is knocking the above mentioned efforts, but given the current "economic climate" with individuals and households being strangled financially, this "appeal" takes some beating !

With frozen wages, rising costs of living, redundancies and the recent hike in domestic fuel prices, (covered and commented upon with such anger by our party and its paper), comrades then see that the leadership have the audacity to ask us to part with even more of our hard earned money.

Does the leadership grasp the fact, that a few months ago there was a similar request ?

I am sure, I speak for the majority of comrades, who, when setting up their membership standing orders, thought long and hard about just how much could they reasonably afford, and having made that decision, welcome this begging letter, with as much enthusiasm as a Nato air-strike on a civilian target.

We all know that we are rapidly approaching the "big one" June 30th and the mass strike.

Maybe some comrades will be asking, that given the large amount of wonga spent on March 26th materials, Could some of these be re-used/re-cycled for the 30th ? One would sincerely hope that the materials in question were not tailored solely for that action, as this would constitute a brand of short-sightedness of epic proportions, "I mean, eight grand for materials that can only be used in one event" I did not realise Socialists were a "one gig a year" party?

Is our shortfall from a specific source? maybe a drop in the number of papers being sold ?

If that is the case, then our hard working comrades are, technically not really to blame, I mean, you can't force a member of Joe Public to buy a paper, they are probably thinking about making savings like the rest of us should be.

If this is true, then the leadership is asking the members to stump-up dosh to cover a shortfall that was not of their making in the first place ..... ?!!??

Hang on a minute, doesn't this sound all a bit too familiar ??

One must also remember, That dissent does not constitute disloyalty, and in such spirit of freedom of speech, The Socialist, I hope, will put a copy of this letter in its paper.

Comradely, but Disillusioned,  (Chairman) Wrexham Socialist Branch, N. Wales.