Dearest comrades and friends:

Wow, what a roller-coaster it’s been. But we are happy to announce that the Fightback PledgeMe campaign successfully raised $1340 in pledges – more than enough to go ahead with our mission to become a trans-Tasman website and magazine of the radical activist Left. 23 comrades contributed, with pledges ranging from a welcome $5 to a staggering $200.

The financial question is a political one, and the fundraiser was not simply about whether we could play our website and printing bills, or fund contributors to our projected Accessibility issue. The question was: is there enough support out there for Fightback to keep doing what we have been doing? We are very, very pleased that the answer was Yes.

There will, of course, be some changes in how we work. Given the relatively small numbers of people prepared to pay money for a printed magazine, Fightback will now shift mainly to an online and EPUB/PDF format, with printed issues available for libraries, institutions, and people who just like things on paper and are prepared to pay. We will be contacting all our existing subscribers to gauge their preferences.

Fightback supporters in Aotearoa and in Australia – and around the world – will now start getting organised for our first issue of 2018, on Fascism and Anti-Fascism. We hope to have a call for submissions and a deadline out by the end of this week.

Lastly, for those who wanted to contribute but came in late – Fightback is looking into activating a Patreon so you can support us regularly.

Once again, thank you all so much. The struggle continues.

In solidarity,

Daphne Lawless

Fightback co-ordinating editor (Aotearoa-based)

Dear comrades and friends:

We are coming down to the wire. Nothing more than NINETY (90) dollars remain between Fightback continuing to exist as a source for trans-Tasman radical and activist ideas and analysis… and ceasing to exist altogether.

Please don’t think that the existing Fightback crew will be able to make up the balance ourselves. Honestly – we’ve already committed our meager resources. And expecting activism and political analysis to self-fund is … well, frankly, one of the reasons why so much activism and political analysis is poor quality these days. We can’t afford to be “cheapskates” when the future of our movement, or possibly the planet itself, is on the line.

There are only two ways we can get over the line from here:

1. Any or all our existing donors could just go the extra mile, increase their existing pledge. We could probably whip up some last minute digital award for anyone who did so… and if you all did so by only $5, that would do it!
2. We need some of you comrades out there who haven’t pledged yet to DO IT. NOW. Maybe you were waiting for payday? Maybe you were hoping we could reach the target without you? It doesn’t matter. You have six days to do so or there is no more Fightback. Even just $5 will get us more than 5% of the way there.

Hopefully, next time you hear from me is the celebratory post when we reach target. The alternative is… well, too horrid to think about right now. It would suck, immeasurably so, to get so close and fail.

Yours in solidarity and in hope,

Daphne Lawless

Fightback coordinating editor (Aotearoa)

PLEDGE, OR INCREASE YOUR PLEDGE, HERE: https://pledgeme.co.nz/projects/5580-fightback-becomes-a-trans-tasman-socialist-website-and-magazine