Does the socialist vanguard of the proletariat really need to publish a newspaper or would they be better served building an online presence to mobilize the masses? Putting it another way, are socialist newspaper publishers immune to the decline affecting the bourgeois capitalist printed media industry?
At Shiraz Socialist, they make a compelling case for the left to ditch the old ways:
A standard method for recruitment, one that has remained unchanged since prior to the Russian Revolution in 1917, is that of publishing a newspaper and selling it. The acceptance for the need of the newspaper to spread ideas about the party and the revolution is unquestioned. The party is as wedded to the newspaper as a heroin addict to a syringe. Arguably more so: heroin addicts have been known to break their addiction.
Despite the fact that sales of national newspapers have been in a substantial decline, AWL have made the flabbergasting decision to increase the frequency of distribution.
Over the last week, as per the usual tradition, the news media are doing their reflective segments on the year during those days between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The personalities and pundits ask pensively what kind of a year we’ve had and what lies ahead.
The practice stretches back a long way. I have a copy of The Province newspaper published on December 31, 1937. New Year's Eve fell on a Friday that year and the newspaper cost 10 cents. The front page’s headline is “Britain and France Guardians Against Conflict”. Europe was on the brink of war, watching nervously the aggressive and unabashed expansion of fascist movements in Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan.
The article’s author, a one Pertinax, noted as a “Famous French Commentator on World Affairs” opens with the following musings on the now yellowed pages:
With the New Year’s almost here, let us pause for a moment for an accounting. In what condition do we find the world today? What progress toward peace or war has been made during the last twelve months?
One of the most outstanding tendencies we must note
As Julian Assange secures $1.5 million in book deals, supposedly to help pay his legal fees to fight the sexual assault charges against him in Sweden, Wikileaks has brought a major blow to the prospects for democracy in Zimbabwe, a country that has been on a painfully slow climb towards democratic government under the drawn out tyranny of Robert Mugabe. Like other tyrants, Wikileaks plays right into the sinister agenda of a clinging dictator like Mugabe, as detailed by Christopher Albon today in The Atlantic:
The topic of the meeting was the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by a collection of western countries, including the U.S. and E.U. Tsvangirai told the western officials that, while there had been some progress in the last year, Mugabe and his supporters were dragging their feet on delivering political reforms. To overcome this, he said that the sanctions on Zimbabwe "must be kept in place" to induce Mugabe into giving up some political power. The prime minister openly admitted the incongruity between his private support for the sanctions and his public statements in opposition. If his political adversaries knew Tsvangirai secretly supported the sanctions, deeply unpopular with Zimbabweans, they would have a powerful
It’s as curious as it is concerning that the London Review of Books should be considered staple reading for anyone wishing to get anywhere in intellectual or academic circles, but with its almost 50,000 per edition readership making it Europe’s most widely circulated literary magazine, it undoubtably has become just that. However radical the publication’s rhetoric it is of course quite entitled to write whatever it likes, that’s something I don’t think anyone would want to see taken away.
What I object to however is that I or indeed anyone else in the country should be having to bankroll this kind extremism through their taxes. Research recently undertaken by Just Journalism has exposed that throughout its 30 year long history the London Review of Books has been funded by uncomprehendibly generous levels of public money.
Just Journalism has exposed that starting in 1981, shortly after its establishment, the London Review of Books has received no less than £767,679 from the Arts Council England, all public money. Money that rather than going towards public services well and truly...More >>
Today is International Human Rights Day, but it feels like there is little to celebrate. The will of the world's most authoritarian and fascist regimes is prevailing at the UN in one incident after another in a process that is decimating the original spirit of the UN's establishment, which was to protect and further human rights, not to cripple and erode them.
Last week the UN General Assembly approved a revised resolution on extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions with the removal of a specific reference to sexual orientation as an unacceptable reason for executions, after several Arab and African countries banded together in a bid to have the reference removed. Consequently, the United Nations, the world body mandated to uphold the universalism of human rights, opted not to defend the rights of human beings not to be murdered by their governments on account of their sexual orientation.
And now, the UN "Human Rights" Council (the saddest joke of the decade) is considering a draft resolution on “combating defamation of religions” sponsored by a derisive Morocco on behalf...More >>
The United Nations, the body founded in the wake of the Holocaust and the horrific consequences of unchecked fascism, has once again signalled just how far off its foundation it's slid over the last 60 years. In a resolution on extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions, a specific reference to sexual orientation has been dropped from the list of unjustified reasons for executions, after several Arab and African countries banded together in a bid to have the reference removed.
In effect, the United Nations, the world body mandated to uphold the universalism of human rights, will not be defending the rights of human beings not to be murdered by their governments on account of their sexual preferences-- not even on paper this time.
The amendment to remove "sexual orientation" was put forward by Mali and Morocco and hailed by African and Islamic member states, changing the wording of the 2008 resolution which explicitly mentioned sexual orientation. Thus, in 2010, we have a resolution that is weaker than its predecessor: it's regress instead of progress in the develoment of international...More >>
While the fate of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran, who narrowly escaped being stoned to death earlier this year, still hangs in the balance, another gruesome Islamo-fascist punishment is on the verge of being carried out in Pakistan. Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old field worker and member of Pakistan's much persecuted Christian minority, was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Yes, blasphemy. In 2010.
Asia Bibi has been in jail for the past year and a half, since she was accused of insulting the Muslim prophet "after she got into a heated argument with Muslim co-workers who refused to drink from a bucket of water she had touched" according to The Freethinker.
She remains in prison, though an appeal to the country's president may mean she will get a stay of execution. Still, she could face a lengthy imprisonment and would be in grave danger of being killed by freelancing fanatics, furious that she was not executed by the government. Following threats, her family is now in hiding, in fear of their lives, according to a recent update on the case.
There were plenty of head scratching results following Tuesday’s election, but the outcome of the Colorado governor’s race provides the most significant reason to despair. Tom Tancredo, ex-Republican and all around nutcase, received 36.7 percent of the electorates support running on the openly theocratic Constitution Party’s ticket. The party has been the home to right-wing candidates too extreme for the Republican base, but this is the first time I have seen one of their candidates receive significant support from the voters and the conservative establishment. Sarah Palin, in an attempt to earn a world record for the most candidates endorsed in an election cycle, publicly backed Tancredo. The reasons to detest Palin and her bit were plentiful, but her willingness to endorse a candidate running with a political party as abhorrent as Tancredo’s is astonishing.
As the Taliban now run shadow governments in all but one of Afghanistan’s provinces (the Panjshir) amounting to a government-in-waiting, and one by one NATO governments announce their withdrawal dates, there is a glum resolve here among many aid workers that one day very soon the government we may be dealing with in Kabul will be a Taliban one. And so some are starting to seek engagement with the Taliban now, hoping they might be more accommodating than the miserable years of 1996-2001, when the overwhelming majority of organizations fled, and those who stayed, worked within bizarre and frustrating restrictions, many of which barred aid to women and girls. Overall, the restrictions and the fickle and unpredictable behaviour of the host government then meant aid simply could not reach all of the most vulnerable, and many lives were lost as a result.
With the possibility that the Taliban will return to power in whole or in part, humanitarian and social justice organizations are being counseled in some cases to be “neutral” towards the Taliban.
Does the socialist vanguard of the proletariat really need to publish a newspaper or would they be better served building an online presence to mobilize the masses? Putting it another way, are socialist newspaper publishers immune to the decline affecting the bourgeois capitalist printed media industry?
Over the last week, as per the usual tradition, the news media are doing their reflective segments on the year during those days between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The personalities and pundits ask pensively what kind of a year we’ve had and what lies ahead.
It’s as curious as it is concerning that the London Review of Books should be considered staple reading for anyone wishing to get anywhere in intellectual or academic circles, but with its almost 50,000 per edition readership making it Europe’s most widely circulated literary magazine, it undoubtably has become just that. However radical the publication’s rhetoric it is of course quite entitled to write whatever it likes, that’s something I don’t think anyone would want to see taken away. 
The United Nations, the body founded in the wake of the Holocaust and the horrific consequences of unchecked fascism, has once again signalled just how far off its foundation it's slid over the last 60 years. In a resolution on extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions, a specific reference to sexual orientation has been dropped from the list of unjustified reasons for executions, after several Arab and African countries banded together in a bid to have the reference removed.
gruesome Islamo-fascist punishment is on the verge of being carried out in Pakistan. Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old field worker and member of Pakistan's much persecuted Christian minority, was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Yes, blasphemy. In 2010.
Our allies and independent voices continue to report from the front lines. This war grinds on.
There were plenty of head scratching results following Tuesday’s election, but the outcome of the Colorado governor’s race provides the most significant reason to despair. 
As the Taliban now run shadow governments in all but one of Afghanistan’s provinces (the Panjshir) amounting to a government-in-waiting, and one by one NATO governments announce their withdrawal dates, there is a glum resolve here among many aid workers that one day very soon the government we may be dealing with in Kabul will be a Taliban one. And so some are starting to seek engagement with the Taliban now, hoping they might be more accommodating than the miserable years of 1996-2001, when the overwhelming majority of organizations fled, and those who stayed, worked within bizarre and frustrating restrictions, many of which barred aid to women and girls. Overall, the restrictions and the fickle and unpredictable behaviour of the host government then meant aid simply could not reach all of the most vulnerable, and many lives were lost as a result.
