Socialism and Liberation magazine is changing

Socialism and Liberation, the monthly magazine of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, will begin publishing on a quarterly basis effective immediately. This change accompanies an exciting new development—the PSL’s launching of a biweekly newspaper, Liberation, in June.

When the PSL was formed in June 2004, we set out on the task of building a revolutionary working-class party in the United States. Our existence is based on the perspective that a revolutionary party will grow in the struggles against all the challenges facing our class: imperialist war; racism, sexism, anti-LGBT oppression, and anti-immigrant violence; growing poverty; police brutality; and all the rest.

Socialism and Liberation magazine was launched in July 2004 with the goal of providing a revolutionary analysis of all these problems. That means, first and foremost, showing that these problems can be overcome—and providing a way forward to overcoming them.

Over the course of the last three years, we have carefully followed the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq, the Iraqi resistance to the war, and the questions facing the U.S. anti-war movement—a movement in which our party is deeply involved. We have again and again pointed out the dangers of opportunism and accommodation to imperialist politicians, which has been a consistent issue in the broad U.S. movement for social change.

We have documented the emerging struggle for immigrant rights in the United States, again as active participants in that movement. We have pointed out the importance of this dynamic struggle for the U.S. labor movement and for U.S. workers in general.

Many pages of the magazine have been devoted to the problems of the Black liberation struggle, as well as all the movements of oppressed nationalities within the United States. By analyzing historical struggles as well as the struggles unfolding today, we have aimed to provide the tools to build militant, anti-racist and internationalist solidarity among workers of all nationalities with the liberation movements.

Many of the writers for Socialism and Liberation magazine are activists building solidarity with the Cuban revolution and the unfolding Venezuelan revolution. These revolutions deserve our support, not just because they are targets of U.S. imperialism. They provide living examples for workers in the United States and around the world that “another world is possible”—and that socialist revolution opens the door to that other world.

Most important, though, Socialism and Liberation magazine has been an important way for the PSL to speak to our class, the working class. PSL members work hard to get the magazine into the hands of working people on picket lines and demonstrations, on street corners, in bookstores and on subways. Our party’s perspective has been that the growth of a revolutionary movement in the United States depends on multiplying the ranks of revolutionaries. The magazine has been a tool to reach new activists and workers who want to build for a socialist United States.

That perspective has led to significant growth for the PSL. Over the last several months, hundreds of people have attended conferences and workshops on socialism across the country—in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Chicago. New groups are working with the PSL in Miami and New Haven, Conn.

While the party has grown in our first three years, it has made the demands of reaching more people with timely news and analysis more pressing. Partly to address these demands, the PSL launched the website pslweb.org in July 2006 specifically focused on providing the news and analysis that activists, organizers and revolutionaries can use on a day-to-day basis in talking to friends and coworkers.

Since the launch of pslweb.org, the website’s editorial staff, technical staff and writers have succeeded in posting new articles twice a week. This has not only widened the number of people that the PSL is able to reach. It has also expanded the range of issues that we have been able to address—including some issues that fall outside the scope of a monthly magazine format.

The launch of Liberation as a biweekly newspaper is another step in this direction of reaching a wider layer of people with an analysis of the immediate concerns of the day. Much of the material will be from pslweb.org. Having a newspaper, though, will allow activists to reach out to workers where they are—in the streets, on the job, at campuses and high schools around the country.

The editorial, production and distribution staff of Socialism and Liberation will be critical to making the new newspaper a success. We also look forward to using a quarterly magazine format as a chance to deal with the theoretical and historical issues facing the working class movement in a more in-depth way.

Socialism and Liberation subscribers can look forward to continue receiving the quarterly magazine beginning in September 2007. The same number of issues in outstanding subscriptions will be fulfilled.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is excited about the growth of our publications. We hope you will share the sense of excitement as you read Liberation newspaper, pslweb.org, and the new quarterly Socialism and Liberation magazine. It is an excellent first step toward becoming involved with the PSL and being part of the movement for revolutionary change.