13) A VERY SPECIAL 2013 FUND DRIVE

A message from the People's Voice Editorial Board

            With this issue of People's Voice, our annual Press Fund Drive is officially underway. We're changing things up a bit this year, but the basic story remains the same: working people in Canada still need our own media, as an alternative to the corporate-owned "weapons of mass distraction."

            Among the many progressive publications, radio shows and social media in this country, People's Voice is truly unique, with our 90-plus years of revolutionary journalism. Over those decades, PV and our predecessor newspapers featured a variety of names, mastheads and writing styles. But we have consistently analysed events from a working class perspective, using our pages to promote the labour and people's movements for equality, peace, labour rights, expanded democracy, sovereignty and much more.

            The copy in your hands is a good example. Our annual International Women's Day issue gives particular attention to pay equity, reproductive rights, freedom from violence, and other important demands of the women's movement. As always, we link these critical struggles with the need to build wide unity of all working class people - organized and unorganized, across genders, in all nations within the Canadian state and around the world. The fight for gender and national equality is a crucial element of the working class movement for full emancipation from capitalist exploitation, racism, sexism, and oppression.

            Our pages are filled with the voices of people and movements engaged in these struggles. Unlike the mainstream corporate media, we want our readers to hear directly from activists in the Occupy actions, the Quebec student strike, and the Idle No More movement. And unlike the big dailies and TV networks, we extend full solidarity with their actions, helping to educate other working people about the issues at stake.

            At the same time, we present our own outlook on these developments. Like the Canadian and Pacific Tribunes before PV, we stand with our sisters and brothers on every picket line and every fight for social justice, and we also call for an end to capitalist rule, for working class political power and an economy owned collectively by the people, not private capitalists. We urge the defeat of right-wing governments such as the Harper Tories, but we will never be satisfied with strategies to simply "stop making things worse." Our view is that while the bosses of this world cannot exist without workers to generate profits, workers have no need for capitalists. In fact, the world would be much better off without capitalist exploiters and imperialist war-makers.

            For all these reasons, we appeal to readers to dig deep when you receive your mail appeal for the 2013 PV Press Fund Drive. If you agree that Canada needs a genuine, revolutionary working class newspaper, please help us to keep publishing.

            As a special incentive, we are announcing a one-time project to raise extra funds. A generous friend of PV has offered to contribute a further $100, for each donation of at least $300 received by the end of March. For example, if we get thirty such donations by March 31, our benefactor will add a cheque for another $3000. This amount is not part of our provincial quotas, but it will be used to improve our equipment and to expand our web and social media presence.

            These extra funds will also help to carry out another important project. We have invited a prominent solidarity and women's activist associated with our sister publication in Britain, the Morning Star (the world's only daily socialist newspaper), for some events in early June. Your prompt and generous contributions will help us bring Liz Payne to Canada, to speak on the impact of the Cameron Conservative government's policies upon women in that country. Since the Harper Tories present Cameron's Britain as a model for their neoliberal attacks, comrade Payne's events will help raise awareness of the need for a much stronger working class fightback here in Canada.

            Starting with our next issue, we will report on the initial progress of the Fund Drive. Thank you in advance for your solidarity!

(The above article is from the March 1-15, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)