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Liberation is not just a newspaper that will report on recent happenings. It is the organ of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. As such, it is an instrument for organization and, ultimately, a tool for liberation.
If we were just planning to report the news, there would be no need for Liberation . The U.S. working class is bombarded with plenty of news on television, on the Internet and in print. These publications are almost all corporate-owned, beholden to their advertisers and owners. They speak to us, the workers, but we rarely get to do the speaking.
Sometimes corporate newspapers tell outright lies. More often, they decline to tell the whole truth—such as, who is profiting from war, why workers cannot get health care and how racism serves the interests of capitalism. They present the news in general, and politics in particular, in a way that leaves the average reader feeling detached, isolated and powerless. The world of politics, it would seem, is something you read and hear about, but never take part in and change.
This method of reporting the news benefits the people who do not desire or need fundamental societal change—the people in power. The worst part is that they call this “balanced” reporting!
On behalf of the editors, the current staff and the future journalists of Liberation , we want to make one thing clear right from the beginning: this newspaper will take sides. But instead of doing the bidding of those in power, we will always side with the world’s oppressed, those fighting back.
The task of our paper is no different than the general task of our Party, which, in the words of Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin, is to “facilitate the political development and political organization of the working class.” Our paper aims not only to expose the innumerable myths of the corporate media, not only to tell the untold stories and struggles of our class, not only to agitate, but also to organize.
Carrying on the tradition of struggle
Our paper is not the first to take up this task in the United States. Around 150 years ago, the abolitionists started as a small minority against the powerful ruling elite. With newspapers like The North Star and The Liberator, abolitionists took bold and increasingly militant action to overthrow slavery. This is our tradition.
When Lenin wrote that the “strength of the revolution lies in the growing class-consciousness of the proletariat,” he repeated a lesson provided by Harriet Tubman: “I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
The modern form of slavery under capitalism binds workers not to any one plantation or to any one boss, but to the wage system and capitalist owners who profit at the expense of our class. This new type of slavery required a new type of abolitionism. At the turn of the 20th century, socialist newspapers calling for the abolition of capitalism began to flourish in this country.
By 1912, there were five English-language and eight foreign-language socialist daily newspapers in the United States. There were another 262 socialist weeklies in English and 36 foreign-language weeklies.
These papers aroused a sense of collective strength, courage, dignity, and class consciousness among the most downtrodden and oppressed. With socialist papers tucked under their arms, workers won militant strikes and launched massive political campaigns. This too is our proud tradition.
Since that time, there have been hundreds of additional publications that have taken up the cause of the working class, the cause of socialism. But despite the courageous efforts of revolutionaries who came before us, capitalist wage slavery continues.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation is serious about organizing for revolutionary change in the United States. We are producing Liberation now so that future generations speak of the word “liberation” as an accomplished fact. Instead of a world ravaged by imperialist war, environmental destruction and deteriorating living standards, the future can be based on solidarity, equality, friendship and cooperation between all peoples.
Until that day comes, Liberation will not be a paper that just sits on newsstands. It will not simply be for passive consumption.
Liberation is designed to be a collective organizer for PSL members, as well as a means of communication between our Party and the working class. Liberation will be distributed door-to-door, on street corners, in subway cars and buses, in prison yards, on campuses, in military barracks and anywhere else we can reach our class.
There are many stories to be told, many myths to be exposed and many struggles to be waged. We want the bright-red logo of Liberation to be at the center of them all.
We hope you enjoy our new paper. We urge you to read it, study it and distribute it wherever you go. Join us in spreading the word of socialism, and get involved with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
