Over the last few months, a series of financial crises have swamped most of the groups working towards the achievement of an alternative society. Some - Ink, 7 Days, Styng, to name but a few - have fallen under the weight of debt, at a time when their existence was moving in much more effective and positive directions. Other groups - BIT, Frendz, Muther Grumble, are some of the many - are just managing to keep head over water, and, hopefully, will manage to survive. Other planned groups have been unable to get off the ground because they have not been able to raise the required capital.

This is the sad and frustrating paradox of groups working towards a society in which money and wealth will cease to exist; they find that their effectiveness is hindered, not only by lack of money, but by the amount of time they have to spend in raising some - time which could be spent so much more positively in other ways. So why not support your local alternate revolutionary groups? Send them money, cig coupons, stamps, food, clothes, paper, stencils etc (we nearly all live below subsistence and every little helps) or help it by volunteering to sell its productions - as more things sold not only means that more people are interacting with the group, which is the most important thing, but also more returns and therefore more money available to produce more - and so the spiral goes up and our chances of achieving positive results increase.

Also, offers of help are often needed by most groups e.g. people willing to organise distribution networks, layout and graphic experts, typists, information gatherers, coffee makers, drivers (especially if they have transport) etc. Revolutions have got to be worked for, not just talked about; and the more people who are willing to work ... well, it's obvious, ain't it.

So far, MG has progressed beyond all expectations (that is, apart from financially). Our info service is getting better and this is being reflected in our Graffiti and Grapevine pages. But we still need a lot more info so if you know of anything, then please tell us.

We are also getting a lot more articles and literature from the groups and individuals active in the area and elsewhere, and because of this, we think the paper is getting more and more interesting and worthwhile. However, a lot of people come into the office and tell us about what is happening somewhere, but, because we don't have the time to follow many of these up, they often remain unpublicised. So we ask anyone who does know about something, to write an article about it, as it then stands much more chance of getting publicity. We are also distributing over a wider area. We've felt this necessary because of an increasing demand for copies from people not living in the north-east and also because we need more sales. But, although MG is being sold outside the north-east, we have no intention of allowing it to become any other than what it is now - the north-east's Other Newspaper - though this wouldn't prevent us from printing anything from other areas which we think would be of relevance or interest to people in the north-east.

Happily, we've managed to get enough money together to get out another 24 page issue - though it looked, for a long time, that we would only be able to afford 20 pages. The extra pages were made possible because of a £50 cheque we received from a guy who liked what we're doing. This donation was really needed and we'd like to thank the guy wot sent it.

Finally, last editorial we asked people with duplicators and typewriters, who were willing to let others use them, to contact us so that we could tell people needing them where the nearest available were. So far, we've only had one reply - an offer of a duplicator and typewriter (see Letters page) - but, hopefully, more will come in (hint). If more equipment became available in the area, for use by groups and individuals, many campaigns to get out publicity and information would be made possible or easier. Groups who find themselves suddenly involved in something, often find themselves hindered by the unavailability of equipment - e.g. Claimants' Unions during strikes. To have to pay for the hire of equipment is often impossible for groups - so please let us know if you have any duplicators, typewriters, or anything else you think other groups would want to use.