14) KICKING OFF OUR 2014 FUND DRIVE
A message from the People's Voice Editorial Board
Here's a snap quiz. Ready? Give a "true or false" answer to the following statements: The Harper Conservatives are the party best qualified to handle the big economic challenges facing Canada; the Maduro dictatorship in Venezuela should be replaced by a democratically elected government; the most significant issue for the working people of Toronto is Rob Ford's substance abuse.
If you answered "yes" to any of these ridiculous statements, you may be suffering a common ailment: overexposure to the corporate media. This disease has been known to leave victims unable to understand the world around them. Fortunately, there is an inexpensive cure. Regular reading of the working class press is the best antidote to the "brain freeze" caused by uncritical consumption of right‑wing newspapers and electronic media. And it's so easy! For just $30 a year, a unionized public employee will deliver People's Voice to your door... or at least to the nearest super mailbox, if we don't stop the attack on Canada Post.
But we can't keep publishing without your support. The Canada Post "restructuring" is just the latest hurdle faced by independent print publications. The steep increases in mailing rates will add several thousand dollars a year to our expenses, affecting us just as negatively as other small companies across the country.
For this calendar year, we will keep our subscription rates at the current levels. Obviously, that will have to change, but first, we hope to expand our paid subscription base.
As always, we must rely on our annual Press Fund Drive for about half of our overall budget. With this issue, the Drive for $50,000 is officially underway.
Among the many progressive publications, radio shows and social media in this country, People's Voice is truly unique, carrying forward a 92‑year tradition of revolutionary journalism. For over nine decades, PV and our predecessors have analysed events from a working class perspective, to help build the labour and people's movements for equality, peace, labour rights, expanded democracy, sovereignty and much more. We are Canada's leading socialist newspaper, reaching out to every corner of the country.
You can see this in the International Women's Day issue in your hands right now. This 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.
Unlike the mainstream corporate media, we want our readers to hear directly from activists in the people's movements. We extend full solidarity with their actions, helping to educate Canadians about the issues at stake.
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. We 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 to simply "stop making things worse." Our view is that while the bosses 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 2014 PV Press Fund Drive. If you agree that Canada needs a working class, socialist newspaper, please help us to keep publishing.
As a special incentive, we are repeating last year's project to raise extra funds. A generous friend has again offered to contribute a further $100, for each donation of at least $300 received by March 31. For example, if we get forty such donations by March 31, our benefactor will add a cheque for another $4000. This amount is not part of our provincial quotas, but it will be used to purchase a badly‑needed new computer for our editor, and to expand our web and social media presence.
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, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist 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.)