11.3.16
Dear friends, supporters and passing strangers,
I hate to scaremonger, but it’s Day 5 of my quarterly fundraiser, and, although 14 supporters have been so kind as to donate over $1000 (£700) to support my work on Guantánamo for the next three months, that’s just $75 (£55) a week, which isn’t enough to live on. So I’m still $2400 (£1700) short of my target, and won’t be able to continue working as I do unless I can make a significant dent in that shortfall.
Those of you who follow my work know that most of what I do is entirely reader-supported, and involves a whole range of activities — research, writing, campaigning, media interviews and public speaking — as well as the hosting fees and maintenance costs associated with running a website.
I’m still trying to raise just $200 (£140) a week for the next three months, which, I think, isn’t a huge amount for all that I do — the 45-50 articles I write every quarter, for example, plus the extensive social media promotion, responding to emails and media requests, and generally being someone prepared to talk about Guantánamo at the drop of a hat. I know this isn’t unique for writers, but it’s worth bearing in mind that, in many walks of life, no one would regularly work for nothing, whereas many writers — and other creative people — are routinely expected to do so.
So if you can make a donation, any amount will be gratefully received, whether it’s $25, $100 or $500 — or any amount in any other currency (£15, £50 or £250, for example). PayPal will convert any currency you pay into dollars, which I chose as my main currency because the majority of my supporters are in the US.
If you can help out at all, please click on the “Donate” button above to donate via PayPal (and I should add that you don’t need to be a PayPal member to use PayPal). You can also make a recurring payment on a monthly basis by ticking the box marked, “Make This Recurring (Monthly),” and if you are able to do so, it would be very much appreciated.
Readers can pay via PayPal from anywhere in the world, but if you’re in the UK and want to help without using PayPal, you can send me a cheque (address here — scroll down to the bottom of the page), and if you’re not a PayPal user and want to send cash from anywhere else in the world, that’s also an option. Please note, however, that foreign checks are no longer accepted at UK banks — only electronic transfers. Do, however, contact me if you’d like to support me by paying directly into my account.
As always, thanks for your interest in my work, which is greatly appreciated. And if you’re interested in other ways you can support me, you can always buy my books The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration & Subversion, or my band The Four Fathers’ album ‘Love and War,’ available on CD or as a download (and see here for the video of me singing “Song for Shaker Aamer” from which the photo at the top of this article was taken).
Andy Worthington
London
March 11, 2016
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer, film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose debut album, ‘Love and War,’ is available for download or on CD via Bandcamp — also see here). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (and the Countdown to Close Guantánamo initiative, launched in January 2016), the co-director of We Stand With Shaker, which called for the release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison (finally freed on October 30, 2015), and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press in the US, and available from Amazon, including a Kindle edition — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).
To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to Andy’s RSS feed — and he can also be found on Facebook (and here), Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Also see the six-part definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, and The Complete Guantánamo Files, an ongoing, 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011. Also see the definitive Guantánamo habeas list, the full military commissions list, and the chronological list of all Andy’s articles.
Please also consider joining the Close Guantánamo campaign.
Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker, singer/songwriter (The Four Fathers).
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4 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted this on Facebook, I wrote:
It’s Day 5 of my quarterly fundraiser, and I’m still desperately in need of more donations – $2400 (£1700) in total – to enable to me to continue writing and campaigning full-time for the closure of Guantanamo as I’ve been doing for the last ten years. That’s just $200 (£140) a week – not a huge amount, I hope, for all the research, writing, campaigning, media interviews and public speaking I do, as well as the hosting fees and maintenance costs associated with running a website. Please help if you can!
...on March 11th, 2016 at 9:10 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Laura Lance wrote:
I donated a small contribution to recur each month. I know that helps with budgeting. Thank you, Andy, for your work, and thank you for giving us all the opportunity to be a tangible part of your efforts through these donations.
...on March 11th, 2016 at 10:39 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thank you, Laura. That really is very kind of you.
...on March 11th, 2016 at 10:40 pm
Andy Worthington says...
As of March 17, I’m still trying to raise $1450 (£1000) to support my work over the next three months. My thanks to the 30 supporters who have made donations. Particularly welcome are sustainers, who make regular monthly donations. On the PayPal page, just tick the box marked, “Make This Recurring (Monthly),” and enter the amount you can donate every month.
...on March 17th, 2016 at 1:02 pm