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From Labor Action, Vol. 10 No. 17, 29 April 1946, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The drive for 5,000 new subscribers and readers of Labor Action, which comes to such a successful conclusion on May 1, constitutes for us a very special event on this May Day. While extending our May Day greetings to all the toiling and struggling peoples of the world, I want in this column to greet our more than 5,000 new readers and to welcome them into the growing army of Labor Action enthusiasts.
When the members of the Workers Party were out during the last three months selling trial subscriptions to Labor Action, they were primarily interested in getting you to read our paper – and selling you a sub was our means of bringing you Labor Action each week. It is our hope that your acquaintance with Labor Action and the Workers Party has only BEGUN with your purchase of that sub, and that in the coming weeks you will find out more about what we stand for?
Labor Action and the Workers Party during the six years of their existence have fought consistently and steadfastly on the side of the working class against the capitalist class. On this point we have never hedged – we have never posed as “impartial” in this great struggle between the oppressed and the oppressor.
But Labor Action and the Workers Party have done far more than express sympathy for one side as against the other. We have by means of the printed word and active participation in the building and strengthening of labor’s organization, put forward programs, policies and proposals which were best calculated to achieve victory of our class. In presenting these, we have at all times indicated that the successful struggle of the working class will lead to the victory of socialism – and that we of Labor Action and the Workers Party are revolutionary socialists.
These policies were not culled out of the air nor are they the result of contemplation by a group of armchair philosophers. They come right out of the actual class struggle in which the members of the Workers Party participate, and from our deep conviction that these are the policies which will permit the working class to achieve its aims – immediate and ultimate. We put forward these policies for the purpose of having them supported and adopted by the working class in general – and by you, the readers of Labor Action, in particular.
We do not expect you to accept our ideas on our say-so. We do not believe that just because something appears in print it must be accepted as gospel truth. That is a concept which the capitalist press tries to inculcate in our minds. Labor Action, on the contrary, urges its readers to examine what we have to say, to examine it critically, and to accept our point of view only on the basis of conviction. We want the opportunity to discuss with our readers THEIR ideas on how the working class can best wage its fight for a decent life, and we want you to express these ideas in the columns of Labor Action. We want you to feel that Labor Action is YOUR paper in every sense of the word – that you not only subscribe to it, read it and give it to your friends, but that you also utilize its columns for the purpose of discussing with us and other workers what you propose as the answer to the many problems which come up in the labor movement and the world generally.
To make room for our readers’ contributions, your contributions, Labor Action is to be expanded to an eight-pager. In the added space there will be a section devoted to discussion with and among the readers and subscribers of Labor Action of the program and policies of the Workers Party and of other organizations. We especially invite our new readers to participate in this discussion and to feel free to express their views and impressions.
On this May Day, which is also the sixth anniversary of the founding of Labor Action, in renewing our pledge to carry on the fight against capitalist oppression and exploitation, we extend our best socialist greetings to the new readers of Labor Action in the hope that many will join us soon in the active fight for socialism, the hope of humanity.
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Last updated: 20 January 2019