This is it, the last Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly with "1997" on its colourful cover.
While those who do the technical work on the paper each week will have a short break from production, they, and the hundreds of other Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly distributors here and overseas will continue to get copies of this issue out and about during the summer break.
Maybe you are a subscriber and receive the paper regularly. Or maybe you've picked up this copy at a summer festival and haven't yet seen the breadth of news and views covered by Â鶹´«Ã½. Either way, you are aware of the importance of an independent point of view, one that provides a voice for those challenging the distortions of the establishment press.
As this column was being written, it became more likely that we will be going to the polls in a federal election in 1998 over the government's native title legislation. Whether such an election campaign focuses on race or, as Howard emphatically asserts, "on economic issues", it will be even more important next year to keep the voice of social justice strong and widely heard.
To keep this particular left, environmental, feminist, anti-racist, pro-democracy and pro-worker voice strong and effective, good intentions and warm wishes, (though very welcome), are not enough.
We produce a high quality issue of Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly like this one 44 times a year, and we've been doing it for nearly seven years. We have been able to do this only because of the thousands of supporters who have contributed their time, skills and, not least of all, money to the Â鶹´«Ã½ project.
We have almost reached our 1997 Fighting Fund target. With your last-minute help we can get there. Don't let financial difficulties silence this progressive voice. Help it become impossible to ignore. Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly — it's your paper.