We need your financial support to raise an additional $58,500 to meet our $250,000 fundraising target by Monday 16 December.

This $250,000 fundraising target is an important part of our budget planning for this financial year. It is essential to fund our future and necessary changes.

In all our fundraising we are conscious of one important issue, the preservation of our independence. For that reason, we do not accept advertising. We do not accept funding from governments and their agencies as well as from the fossil fuel and arms industry.

We rely exclusively on donations by the very loyal Pearls and Irritations community.

With Susie no longer with us and I am 90 years old we are putting in place transition arrangements. Our new Editor Catriona Jackson is part of that transition. She will also be the Chief Executive Officer. A new Chair will be announced in the New Year.,

I will remain on the board and continue to write articles.

In these future plans however, we will not be making any changes in the editorial stance that we have pursued over the last 13 years.

The Articles of Association of Pearls and Irritations have been amended to make clear what we stand for in the days and years ahead.

“Pearls and Irritations is an Australian policy journal for the exchange of ideas from a progressive, liberal perspective with an emphasis on peace and justice. We do not aim for “balance”. We have a clear point of view on such issues as climate change, racism, care for the vulnerable, war and relations in our region particularly relations between the United States China and Australia. We are concerned about Australia’s derivative and colonial mentality. We assert the importance Australian sovereignty. We will contest the ceaseless foreign propaganda and influence that Australians are subject to from governments, business and mainstream media particularly in the United States”.

One can never be certain how the future will unfold but our intention is to build on the track record that we have built together over the last 13 years.

We need your financial support to ensure that what we have built together can be continued and grow more influential in the future.

Donations in this campaign are tax deductible through the Australian Cultural Fund, a Commonwealth government agency.

Please donate today.

John Menadue