SINCE our union’s conference last year, the Morning Star has given a voice to our members on the picket line up and down the country, including teachers resisting forced academisation in Wembley and Brent last April, teachers in 32 sixth form colleges striking for fair pay in November, and teachers taking a stand against victimisation of their union rep in Sheffield in January.

Our union policy has been projected in the pages of the Morning Star on a number of occasions every month in the last year. A sweeping summary of issues covered includes: standing up to austerity, free school meals, SEND funding, supply agencies, Palestine solidarity, lower pay for black people at leadership level, school cuts, teacher shortages, support staff shortages and academies.

What other daily newspaper would print the truth about all these issues, consistently, and through the voices of our members?

What other daily newspaper would our general secretary be given an open platform to make his case about the crisis in education and the political role of unions?

And what other daily newspaper would fully support our ongoing pay campaign?

When it matters, the Morning Star is there to give our members a voice. Perhaps this is partly why more and more of our members are becoming readers and supporters.

Emma Thornton, secretary of NEU Newcastle District, says “When our members took strike action last year to defend their pensions at Dame Allan schools in Newcastle, the Morning Star was the only national newspaper to report it. This led to some discussion about the role of the Morning Star at our district meetings and we are now taking out a subscription offer for our members.”

The Morning Star has always been a friend of the trade union movement but it has never been a commercial venture. It has always relied on its readers and supporters. A daily newspaper that projects workers’ struggles through the voices of workers and their trade unions is a precious resource and we can’t take it for granted. Read it. Buy it. Share it. Is the mantra.

And your trade union branch can do their bit to build readership too — they can take out a special offer that is exclusive to trade union branches where they can pay £550 for 10 premium subscriptions which can be given out to their members.

A premium subscription provides you with online access to the full PDF edition of the paper every day, as well as back copies and unlimited website access. This is a generous offer that is strengthening bonds between the trade union movement at the grassroots level and its only daily ally in the national press.

As you read your copy of the Morning Star at this year’s conference, take a moment to reflect on the issues being discussed and debated here that have already appeared as a matter of routine in the pages of the Morning Star since our last conference.

Think about the support that the Morning Star will give to our union over the course of the next year and whether you want to write something to be published in it yourself — because you can. And when you report back to your branches and districts, ask them to take out a subscription offer to build readership among members.

Become a reader and supporter. We need it and it needs us.

Ron Brown is an NEU workplace rep and North East Morning Star Readers’ and Supporters’ Group organiser.