At the beginning of February, we launched a subscription campaign for our newspapers La Riposte socialiste and Fightback. Our goal was to get 350 new subscribers. We are happy to report that we have reached that goal!
This campaign was an opportunity to emphasize the importance of the revolutionary press. The ruling ideas in a given society are the ideas of the ruling class, as Marx said. The capitalists control the mass media, and use them to defend their interests, against the interests of the workers. You only have to look at the flood of articles attacking the strike of the PSAC workers last month to see this. The labour movement must have its own newspapers and communication platforms to defend itself against the lies and slander of the bosses.
This is all the more true in this period of capitalist crisis. The deeper the system sinks into turmoil, unable to solve any of the urgent problems affecting working people—housing crisis, exploding cost of living, breakdown of the health care system, climate crisis, etc.—the more the mainstream media intensify their efforts to distract working people with all sorts of backward ideas and bogus debates.
The working class must arm itself with the revolutionary ideas that can change the world—that is, the ideas of Marxism—in order to be able to defend itself against the assaults of the bourgeois press. This is what we are trying to do with our newspapers.
But as in all matters, the working class can only rely on its own strength. That’s why we at La Riposte socialiste and Fightback are so insistent on the need to produce a revolutionary newspaper, not only in digital form, but also in print—to be able to distribute it on our own, in the streets, in the movements, on campuses and in the workplace.
We cannot rely on social media platforms as the ruling class tightens its control over them, limiting the spread of revolutionary ideas and encouraging far-right ideas. That’s why it’s also important for us to expand our subscriber base—workers and youth who receive our ideas directly in their mailboxes and inboxes.
Each of these new subscribers helps us to develop the revolutionary newspaper. For example, among these 350 new subscribers, more than 100 of you have chosen to become solidarity subscribers, that is, to support us financially by making monthly donations of $5, $10, $20, $50 or more. It is this kind of financial support that recently allowed us to open a new office in Edmonton. Thanks to your donations, we are expanding our presence across Canada, allowing us to produce timely and quality analysis on not only national, but also local issues.
And as we know, money always comes with strings attached. By depending financially only on our members and supporters, we ensure that we can remain independent, accountable only to them.
Admittedly, our undertaking is still modest. We have a long way to go before we can aspire to compete with the big bourgeois media. But we follow Trotsky’s advice: “Whatever you do, set yourself an objective, even a very modest one, but strive to achieve it. Then elaborate a short- or long-term plan and apply it without weakening, with an iron hand. It is the only way to advance and for the whole organization to make progress.”
And indeed, year after year, we are moving forward, building the revolutionary organization that workers need to overthrow this sick and rotten system. Last year we increased the frequency of publication of our now bi-monthly Fightback newspaper, and this year we added four more pages of theory. Further, this campaign has raised our subscriber base to three times what it was at the start of the pandemic in 2020. As a result, we have also reached the milestone of 1,000 subscribers to Fightback, and are closing in on 400 subscribers to La Riposte socialiste!
The success of this subscription campaign is an important step forward, but we need your help to go further. In particular, with each new subscriber, we move closer to achieving a weekly and eventually daily print run, as well as our goal of making La Riposte socialiste/Fightback the go-to source of news and analysis for workers in Quebec and Canada. Each new subscriber represents an advance in the spread and authority of Marxist ideas, and a strengthening of the forces of revolution.
Thank you to everyone who participated and subscribed! This campaign is just the beginning. We are just getting started in our efforts to build a revolutionary organization. If you agree with our ideas and want to help us overthrow capitalism, help us by subscribing today!
