Re 'oof. (1921)

Editorial from the August 1921 issue of the Socialist Standard

On another page we present an acknowledgment list of contributions to our £1,000 Fund. As it is some months since we published our last list it will be seen that the stream, like the Thames, has run pretty low. To some extent this is accounted for by the general depression in working-class circles, and on the other hand we should probably meet with greater success if we resorted more to "boosting."  Well, we may say, without any beating about the bush, that things financial are assuming a sufficiently grave aspect now to make ''boosting" an imperative necessity. Seventeen years of existence, with a constantly expanding volume of work has added so greatly to our needs, in order to enable the work of the Party to be carried out, that our maintenance is a very expensive affair. These expenses are more than likely to be considerably increased almost at once, and this increase, at all events, MUST be met.

We have said nothing about the call for an extension of our propaganda. There is urgent need in this direction also but our poverty is so pronounced at the moment that we cannot find sufficient optimism to encourage us to look for any margin, however generous may be the response to this appeal, for new work in field of propaganda. Nevertheless the need is there and it must not forgotten even for one moment.

To put the thing is a nut-shell, and with candour, the Party has struck a bad patch, and is faced with a serious situation. Many comrades find themselves quite unable to make their accustomed contributions to the funds owing to unemployment. It therefore becomes urgently necessary for those who are not in this unfortunate plight, and to whom Socialism is an aspiration, whether they be comrades of the Party or friends and sypathisers outside, to redouble their efforts for the only thing that matters, to give all that they possibly can to help the only Socialist party in this country to tide over the difficult times which have fallen upon it.

Though we print this note, this warning, in all seriousness, we do so in no mood of pessimism. Our work is going forward and is bearing as encouraging fruit as it has ever done. In the things that are most solidly important—the making of new members, the discovery of new writers, and so on—the Party is flourishing. We are poorer because the working class is poorer. It is harder to get dues ; it is harder to get donations ; it is harder to get good collections ; it is harder to sell the "S.S.": but this is only because so many are out of employment, and not at all because we are losing ground.

This period of difficulty, of course, will pass, but meanwhile it behoves all who possibly can do so to do more than they have been doing, and every one of us to put forth every effort to "keep the red flag flying here."