The publication on the Tuesday before the G& of an 8-page tabloid newspaper for Respect has potentially broken the logjam of progress on the issue of the viability and desirability of a regular national publication.
The small working party struck off by Respect's National Council to investigate the practicalities of a newspa per - myself, National Secretary John Rees and Elaine Graham-Leigh - agreed Immediately that the priority was to get a trial run into print In time for the biggest protest gathering of the summer.
The most affordable and doable format was an 8-page tabloid, and in a series of Sunday afternoon meetings we agreed a provisional list of contents, and a deadline for design and production to ensure it could be distributed across the country in advance of the Edinburgh demonstrations.
One unanswered question (which had not been asked directly) was how well this Idea would package is just go down with ten years - a Respect branches, yearly payment but a ring-round than half the equivaleni from the National current Chelsea FC Office revealed a lot players wage bill, of enthusiasm from many areas, with copies available at on cat and dog food. consumers E120 for 1,000 and £50 per additional 1,000.
The first print run reached 25,000 despite the fact that many London branches appeared unaware that it was available, and all the reports are that has gone down well with demonstrators and Respect members alike.
This leaves open the question of whether and how often more issues should be produced, and how far Respect should go further and organise a distribution that will Include smaller numbers to its many
hundreds or even thousands of Individual members and supporters scattered in areas outside of the main branches. My suggestion has been a subscription arrangement, offering a bundle of 5 copies for a flat rate sub of say £2.50 per issue, with larger bulk bundies being offered to branches for distribution on the same system as this trial Issue. It would even be possible to put a cover price on the paper, so that any branches which wished to do so could sell them and recoup their costs, while others could choose to order enough for mass distribution. But if the financial and practical questions have been at least partially answered, the political challenge of developing a regular functioning editorial board that can draw in articles, news and information from the many and • G8 finance ministers agreed on June 11 to write off 540 billion in debt - less than a quarter of the cost of invading Irag. • The British share of the debt relief E530 million over
to less or 3% of the likely cost of introducing iD cards • The US share of the debt relief scheme is $1.5 billion over ten years: US
spend over S11 billion annually • British arms exports to Africa have soared towards the E1 bilion mark since 2000, including sales of arms to sore of the world's poorest countries.
varied campaigns and issues supported by Respect around the country remains to be tackled. The National Council on July 16 will have the opportunity to decide the next steps: it seems unlikely that many will wish to revert to the previous situation In which Respect has been the biggest left organisation with no public voice of Its own in print.