Everybody has to rise to the challenge

A massive Lifeline Appeal ensured the short-term survival of the paper, but the new chairman of the readers' co-op that owns the paper knows there's a long way to go to secure its future.

Bob Oram's certainly got the CV for the job.

He has been an elected member of the People's Press Printing Society's management committee since 1998 - a year of turmoil when a six-week strike to reinstate sacked editor John Haylett threatened to push the Star over a precipice.

And Oram's read and backed the paper for three decades.

"I started like many, reading the paper at conferences or demonstrations," he recalls.

"It was only in the 1990s at my first Unison conference that Ivan Beavis explained the importance to me of not just being a once-a-year reader.

"Since then I have bought it every day. It's like a coffee in the morning - I do get twitchy if I don't see it.

"It is so much a part of my life now I cannot bear the thought of it not being there."

And it's on the issue of the paper's long-term future that Oram becomes animated.

"That is my biggest driving force!" he says. "I don't want to be the chair in the history books who presided over the decline in our paper."

Oram has served at every level within Unison over the past 20 years and more, but his current role at teachers' union NASUWT sees him travel the length and breadth of the country.

As a principal officer responsible for organising he's back on the front line of the struggle against cuts and privatisation.

He appears to relish the challenge.

"It's not easy and sometimes it does feel a bit like herding cats, organising teachers," he says wryly, smiling. "But I am really proud of my union and the way we constantly stand up for members, for young people and for education.

"What's happening today is the biggest attack on the whole system of education in this country, ever.

"As Chris Keates has said, Gove has created a perfect storm and I really do fear for our children's future when you actually see and understand what this government is doing."

It is these kind of ideologically driven cuts by the right, forced through under the guise of necessary austerity cuts, that drive Oram's determination to secure a bright future for the world's only socialist English-language daily.

It's an outlook undoubtedly forged in part by his political tutor, the late, great Ken Gill.

"With a mentor like Ken Gill it was inevitable I would become active in the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, but Ken also taught me so much about the world and Marxism in general," Oram comments.

Coached in the powerful directness displayed by Gill in his prime, perhaps it's not surprise that the new PPPS chair is so frank about the scale of the challenges facing the Star.

"Technology and systems change so fast it is a struggle for our small paper to keep up, but everybody has to rise to that challenge," he says.

"I want us to always be a daily paper but I also know we must explore all the opportunities that will exist in the future.

"Kindle editions, apps and other electronic mediums are all part of an agenda that will see the Morning Star not only develop readers but survive."

The paper needs hundreds of new daily readers or, says Oram, several thousand new weekly readers a year to break out of its financial straitjacket.

But he has faith in its readers, workers and "invaluable" support from trade union friends to rise to the challenge.

The latter, he says, "understand we are the only paper who will tell the truth about them, promote their stories and defend them in the face of an unrelenting onslaught from capital and the right wing.

"It is also the trade unions' practical help and advice, expertise and assistance that will ensure we not only survive, but prosper.

"Big unions like Unite are fantastic with their support but even the smallest unions like the POA can and do play a vital role. The CWU has just joined the team and their expertise will be invaluable."

The improvements in the paper's production quality in recent years are plain to see.

Oram is full of compliments the staff who have helped bring about such a drastic change.

"I really do think recent improvements make it a high-quality, professional product. On limited resources they all do an excellent job ensuring the 'daily miracle' gets out there.

"Whilst I know our paper, I do want to get to know all the staff better," he says. "I think it is important they get the respect of the whole movement for the work they do and the commitment they show to the paper."

And he sees the readers who own the Morning Star as the third crucial plank in plans to create a paper which is "as relevant for the movement today as it was in the past."

Oram says he wants to listen to and meet the readers to engage them in a plan to make the Morning Star "a vibrant, useful and successful tool for the whole working class movement.

"Our readers are the most loyal and dedicated to any brand, let alone a newspaper, anywhere in the world.

"Companies would die for such support."

So does he encourage readers to invite him to speak at their meetings and events?

"Absolutely," he replies. "I see my role, in fact I see all the management committee, as champions or ambassadors for the paper.

"I want everyone to be out there, promoting and supporting the Star in the community, trade unions, campaigning groups - anywhere, wherever we can."