Last week we received a short letter from a Green Left Weekly reader in Adelaide, accompanied by a donation of $10 for our building maintenance fund. The letter captures, in just a few words, the reality and the spirit that form the basis of a project like Green Left.
Our writer says: "I hope that the invitation to contribute '$100, $300, $500, $1000' will bring a favourable response, but I would like to think that a thousand pensioners (like me) will contribute $10. I hope that many readers will take into account that, with the quality of the contents, half the number of pages would be outstanding value at $2. Best wishes for a very successful appeal."
Because Green Left Weekly is a paper which speaks to and about the exploited and oppressed in our society, the chances are that the big majority of our readers and supporters are poorer rather than richer. This means that donations to the paper of $500 or $1000 are quite rare, although joyfully received.
So our writer is right — it is a steady flow of $10 and $20 contributions which, added together, really keeps the paper going. Like the progressive social movements, the alternative media have always relied on "people power" — lots of ordinary people contributing whatever they can to the collective struggle.
Green Left was born out of, helps strengthen and is strengthened by "people power". Whether you are a pensioner, unemployed, a student or a wage earner, your donation to help keep the paper going — whatever its size — will make a difference.
Green Left Weekly — it's your paper.