Dear friends,

Once again, I am asking people to make a donation to the Society and its Ryerson Fund.

One of the most important contributions of the Society for Socialist Studies to critical and radical research is the support it offers to young academics and others of limited financial means to participate in presenting their work.

Since the cancellation of the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences’ Travel Award program, the Ryerson travel fund is now our only source of support for these travel grants.

We need to raise $5000 per year to maintain our past level of support. All donations made are tax deductible, and while avoiding your full tax bill might sound un-socialist, imagine that every $100 that you donate to the Ryerson Fund, is $100 less for Harper to spend on anti-communist “memorials.”

We also need to raise funds for our website editor and to pay for our keynote speaker this year. This isn’t going to be easy, but I want to make sure that we raise as much money as possible. Someone has even suggested that I write a fundraising letter with the help of places like GoFundMe, so I can really get my message across to the wider audience who I’m appealing too to make these funds possible. I’ll be grateful for any amount that can be donated, as it will make us one step closer to our goal.

The Ryerson Travel Fund was established in memory of Mildred Helfand and Stanley Bréhaut Ryerson, who both animated and inspired socialists and activists for generations. Stanley was a multi-disciplinary Marxist intellectual, first with the Communist Party of Canada, until 1971, and then with the Department of History at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Mildred, who received the Order of Canada in 1997, was an organizer and community-engaged occupational therapist. A number of you have donated to this fund in the past, reflecting Mildred and Stanley’s generosity of spirit, and we are very grateful for your ongoing support.

David Huxtable
Treasurer
Society for Socialist Studies