I think something which is important to establish is what kind of periodical this is going to be. What kind of periodical we build this up to be must be based on the audience we want to reach. What audience is this? Well, as socialists the answer is simple. The working-class. This extends to the entire working class, not just the left leaning, or socialist segment. As A Revolutionary Tool, pointed out, the "left" as it is commonly defined today, is not necessarily less anti-communist than the "right." Assuming that we agree on this target audience, than the next step is determining the content. The contents of our periodical must not be alienating to any segment of the working class, and should reflect a workers perspective on world affairs. Explicit references to socialism or communism will shut out most of the working-class, as its members have been conditioned to believe that socialism is evil, and capitalism is just. Rather than focus on throwing buzzwords like these at our audience, we should focus on framing world events in an anti-establishment, and pro-worker manner. This means covering strikes and Nat Lib struggles as justified, and explaining how the actions of the capitalists provoked these conflicts. This means covering the wealth gap in the United States as the phenomenon of inheritance and exploitation. This means covering the elections in the context of the parties financiers. Overall the mission of spreading class conscioussness is best accomplished in this periodical through making it thoroughly pro-worker and harshly "anti-estsblishment" but not as explicitly socialist. I know that there are those who say "we should not hide our politics" but that is not what we're doing. We're presenting our politics in a digestable form to the workers who have been taught to fear the words socialism and communism.
Overall the mission of spreading class conscioussness is best accomplished in this periodical through making it thoroughly pro-worker and harshly "anti-estsblishment" but not as explicitly socialist. I know that there are those who say "we should not hide our politics" but that is not what we're doing. We're presenting our politics in a digestable form to the workers who have been taught to fear the words socialism and communism. Well said, comrade! We're not writing a left-wing newspaper just to preach to the choir. Liberals, progressives, moderates, centrists, and all sort of other every-day working class folks are the kind of people that we're trying to reach. If we come across as "too" socialist and make it over-the-top, it's going to turn off the non-socialists that we're trying to reach.
I completely agree. We should keep from using socialist terminology. Instead we should explain ourself in a down-to-earth tone that will not be too unfamiliar to those who have never read anything but the establishment press.
This was how I had envisioned it to a large degree. Subtlety and using words that are easy to understand are essential. Usage of Socialist terms should be limited and at times even outright avoided; especially while we are starting out and while we are the only writers. As the other non-revleft writers begin to add more articles we can turn up the volume on our articles to start introducing more radical ideas into the articles. It needs to be a slow introduction and a gradual transition. I hate to put limitations in place but we need to avoid complicated terminology and terms that inflame unreasonable passions against articles that would otherwise be well received. We will inject some outright Marxist articles from time to time once we begin to gather more leftwing/mainstream articles and writers because we can claim that this is just our commitment to free speech and that the writers are not affiliated with our site but freely and independently submit articles to us for submission. We own the moral high ground on that issue(free press) and we can defend this position.
Yes Comrades, We must make use of our words! We can take a Marxist message and present it in a form accessible to our Comrades. This way I feel will be most useful to ourselves and the whole periodical
wonderful! a great idea
In deed, I suggest we make a rule for no explicit communist rhetoric in our media until it is no longer necessary to prevent non-leftists from fleeing at the sound of things they have been hardwired to fear.
In deed, I suggest we make a rule for no explicit communist rhetoric in our media until it is no longer necessary to prevent non-leftists from fleeing at the sound of things they have been hardwired to fear. Yes good idea.
In deed, I suggest we make a rule for no explicit communist rhetoric in our media until it is no longer necessary to prevent non-leftists from fleeing at the sound of things they have been hardwired to fear. I agree as well. It needs to be toned down at first. We need to recruit some mainstream left wing writers to mix in and then we can start to introduce more terms and words that will get across our message. It must be introduced in a timely and gradual manner so that it doesn't hurt our ability to reach the workers who have not yet arrived at a high level of class consciousness.
In deed, I suggest we make a rule for no explicit communist rhetoric in our media until it is no longer necessary to prevent non-leftists from fleeing at the sound of things they have been hardwired to fear. Couldn't have put it any better myself.
