14) PV FUND DRIVE - WE NEED $50,000 TO STAY IN PRINT

            With this issue, People’s Voice launches our annual Press Fund Drive for $50,000. Just like our predecessors going back to 1922 - The Worker, the Canadian Tribune, the Pacific Tribune, and other publications over the decades - PV relies entirely on direct support from our readers.

            That puts us in a difficult position. As costs for mailing and printing go up, our subscription prices cover only a shrinking portion of the overall cost of publishing twenty issues a year. But raising subscription rates inevitably means that some readers would no longer be able to afford the paper. The most important part of the solution is to dramatically increase our total subscriber base, reaching out to thousands of people across Canada who would appreciate receiving a revolutionary socialist newspaper in their mailboxes. We encourage every reader to ask friends and co-workers to subscribe. Subscription forms are available on request, and you can also use the box on page 12.

            The other way to cover our costs, of course, is through a variety of fundraising strategies. Every year, PV supporters host special events in cities and towns across the country, and some bring in revenue through street sales and other tactics. Every dollar raised through these activities is highly appreciated! In coming issues, we will highlight such local initiatives. The value of the May Day greetings in our May 1 issue also counts towards our target - by getting your union local or solidarity group to place a greeting, you can make a big contribution to a successful 2016 Press Fund drive.

            The biggest single source for the $50,000 we need to continue publishing remains the direct mail appeal, which goes out to current and recently lapsed subscribers in the last week of February. When the appeal arrives in your mailbox, please try to respond quickly. Since our main fundraising takes place during the first half of each year, our bank account is always low by the time the Fund Drive starts, but the bills never stop arriving.

            This year, to encourage generous early returns on the mail appeal, we are offering a special incentive. Readers who contribute a minimum of $300 by March 31 will receive a mix CD of revolutionary songs selected by members of our Editorial Board. Those who donate $500 or more by March 31 will get the CD, plus their choice of two posters. In honour of this year’s 80^th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, the first poster features Dolores Ibarruri, the famed “La Pasionaria” who rallied the Republican forces against Franco’s fascists. The second is Karl Marx, whose career as a crusading newspaper editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung began on October 15, 1842.

            As always, readers who contribute $1000 to the Fund Drive at any time will receive a lifetime subscription.

            This year People’s Voice also faces new political challenges. For the past decade, we worked tirelessly to educate and mobilize working people against the most far-right, anti-equality government in recent Canadian history. Now that the Harper Conservatives are in the dumpster, hopefully never to return, the political terrain has shifted. The new Liberal government in Ottawa made some progressive promises on social and equality issues to win a majority, but Justin Trudeau and his cabinet must be pressured relentlessly to fulfill those pledges.

            From our point of view, however, the new government does not represent a fundamental change on basic economic questions. Despite a shift towards some stimulus spending, the Liberals remain a government of big business, dedicated to protecting the ability of the corporations to squeeze maximum profits from the exploitation of workers. The Liberals have already signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the latest deal to strengthen corporate powers at the expense of trade unions, farmers, indigenous peoples, and national sovereignty. On foreign policy, the Liberals have halted Canada’s bombing role in Iraq and Syria, but the “military mission” has been expanded, and the $15 billion sale of armoured vehicles to the despotic and misogynist Saudi regime is going ahead.

            In the coming issues, People’s Voice will use our pages to raise awareness around the struggles for working class rights, indigenous sovereignty, women’s equality, environmental justice, and world peace. Uniquely among the alternative media in Canada, we will go beyond critiques of capitalism, to present the strong argument for a socialist future.

            We hope you agree that the working class needs a print publication to campaign for these causes. In our next issue, we will also report on efforts to expand the PV presence on the internet, a crucial arena in the clash of politics in the 21^st century.

(The above article is from the March 1-15, 2016, 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.)