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Copy of a letter to a professor about our need for people to work with us
If you ever meet anyone who has the faintest recollection of meeting any of us, or who expressed the faintest interest, please let them know that we are very keen on getting people to come and visit, so that they may get to know about our need for people, and what advantages we might be able to provide to anyone who came to work, on a provisional or permanent long term basis. It is only by coming themselves on a short-term basis that they can get to know about our position realistically, and even if this does not lead to their ever wishing to come permanently, at least they would be in a position to tell other people about our shortage of manpower.
It is not possible to run even the smallest academic institution with fewer than a hundred people, so we basically have at least 96 vacancies. This is a bitter joke which I have been making for several decades now.
Even as a preliminary minimal organisation, attempting to publish a trickle of books and give seminars on a regular basis to let people know that we are still here and in need of support, despite the heavy censorship, we need a minimum of ten or twelve people. So even on that basis we are short of about eight people, and it should not be overlooked that those who are here now are exhausted by chronic overwork and adversity.
Of course, in expressing our need for people I have to make it plain that I am aware that there is no motivation to which I can appeal, since everyone knows, not only that there is no moral injunction to do anything to help people in our position, but that we are what modern society exists to destroy and they would be breaking a moral principle by letting us have any advantage at all in the form of useful work, on however small a scale, or financial support, on however small a scale. On the other hand, it is virtuous to obstruct us, slander us and pull the rug out whenever possible.
It is very difficult for anyone here to have any social contacts because it is only too obvious that what we need is people to do some work, and the social contacts refuse insultingly, while very often making it plain that they are prepared to do similar work, often for little or no pay, for social organisations which they consider acceptable, so it is clear that their refusal to work for us is because they know we are beyond the pale.
I suppose you don't know (or could not bring yourself to mention us to) any European students or academics who might like to spend a year working for an academic organisation, now situated in the pleasant surroundings of Cuddesdon, near Oxford, and improving their English in contact with academic people.
Celia Green
July 2005
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