Papers: Weekly Worker: So do we!

Click above to turn pageNo article this time, I'm claiming credit for the cover!

John Bridge wanted to satirise Michael Howard's published statement of conservative values, which included a 'small state'. While Howard's meaning was that state provision and welfare should be cut, John wrote contrasting this aim with the communist opposition to the state itself: Lenin's 'bodies of armed men' whose job it is to maintain minority rule.

On pre-publication nights, the paper's cover was usually the last thing we decided. During the evening, working from a general theme outlined by John and Peter, I would doodle up covers for their consideration while I waited for edited copy to lay out. When I got bored, these would become exotic, and it is probably just as well no-one ever saw the Weekly Worker covers bearing the somewhat oblique "I am a fish", or the possibly over-harsh "Death to Clare Short". Even my more reasonable suggestions were usually shot down.

Presented with this one, John agonised. He knew what I meant, he said, but were we laying ourselves open to deliberate misinterpretation and satire? For once, I was able to talk him round.

This headline clearly tickled someone at the BBC, and their program 'The Daily Politics' used the Weekly Worker cover to introduce their coverage on Howard's statement. They contacted our offices, and National Organiser Mark Fischer and a few others rushed off to be filmed selling the paper. Mark appeared on national television, smooth and professional as always, impishly suggesting that perhaps Howard would like to join the Communist Party.

At this time, I was also looking after the party's website. Each week I reviewed a graph showing how many 'hits' we got. On the day of the broadcast, we received more visits than we would normally get in three months: the graph was automatically scaled, and looked like a flat line a fraction above zero, with a huge spike marking the BBC's programme. That graph woke me up to the difference between having a paper which was well supported by the standards of the left - with thousands of readers - and actually reaching people.

Click here to download Weekly Worker issue 510.

Weekly Worker 510: 8 January 2004

So do we!