Green Left fund off to a great start
By Michael Compton
SYDNEY — The Green Left Weekly 1993 fund drive got off to a marvellous start at the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance Activist-Education conference, when $49,000 was pledged at a rally by supporters of the paper.
This year's target remains the same as for 1992: $100,000. Thanks to the generous support of readers, last year's target was surpassed, a total of $104,000 being raised.
Editor Allen Myers told participants that a continued increase in circulation and steady financial support could make it possible to expand the paper. "We have far more material being submitted than can be included in the usual 24 pages.
"If William Shakespeare were writing for Green Left Weekly and submitted his famous soliloquy from Hamlet, it would probably appear as 'To be or not?', such is the shortage of space", Myers joked.
Speakers from Resistance and the DSP described their experiences in selling the paper, which ranged from the inspirational to the comic.
Emma Webb told how Resistance sellers in Adelaide have managed to foil attempts to prevent the paper being sold at that city's shopping malls by officious security personnel (we're not telling how). Members of the public have leapt to the sellers' defence, Webb said, remonstrating with the security guards in favour of free speech.
Frank Noakes, one of Green Left's overseas correspondents, told of the wonderful reception the paper receives from all who see it in Europe, and of the appreciation expressed for the paper's role in international networking. Many, particularly in eastern Europe, found the paper an invaluable source of information; they often translated and reproduced articles for broader distribution.
Noakes reported that there was nothing quite like Green Left Weekly in the English-speaking world and the project was marvelled at by activists in other countries.
"Green Left is one way we can play an internationalist role from here in Australia; the paper's existence matters", Noakes said.