First of all, let me once again begin with a big THANK YOU. Thank you for being loyal, interested, and involved People’s World readers.
You are, you should know, the beneficiaries of outstanding and unique journalism. Unfettered by the need to satisfy the advertisers who prop up the mainstream mass media – including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, cable, and streaming video – People’s World is free to bring you news from a worker’s point of view.
We are also free to bring you national and international news you find nowhere else.
And we on the staff are free to choose our own stories and report them to you wherever the facts, observations, and conclusions take us. Again, you are the beneficiaries.
To cite one obvious example: We called the Trumpite invasion, insurrection, and attempted coup d’état at the U.S. Capitol by that phrase, which we still use, long before anyone else ever did. Now even Donald Trump called it “an insurrection” in a recent offhand remark.
Same general story, different set of facts. The mainstream media has never probed into who paid for that invasion. Some non-profit groups reported bits and pieces, but it went generally ignored—except by People’s World. Would it surprise you that my story for you identified the prime paymaster as a Republican big giver, heir to a fortune derived from a Southern supermarket chain? Or that millions of dollars financed the insurrection?
Or would it surprise you that my colleagues Eric Gordon and Chauncey K. Robinson review plays and movies that challenge set beliefs and preconceived ideas and highlight the cultural contributions of marginalized people—and that the mainstream media ignores?
Or that our Editor-In-Chief, John Wojcik, brings you a combination of working-class street experience, longtime hands-on activism, and a lively knowledge of the real conditions in Europe, especially Eastern Europe? And, when he’s not editing everything else, uses these for your benefit?
Or that Managing Editor CJ Atkins can delve into, and translate for you into readable English, complicated philosophical and financial texts—including a study showing how financial finaglers profited from Israel’s planned massive retaliation against Hamas, and now Gaza, before even the first warplane flew and the first bomb was dropped?
Or that our graphics and website wizard, Blake Skylar, not only finds photos and graphics that dramatically illustrate stories for you, but takes PC in hand on occasion to cover path-breaking environmental news?
Or that Barbara Russum translates our stories into Spanish for our readers, every day? And that Melissa Parks performs a service like no other: Taking the best pieces of the week, editing them, and sending out a print edition to incarcerated people?
Those stories, and many more, illustrate the outstanding and unique journalism People’s World brings to you. But such journalism costs money.
The mainstream media depend on advertisers and subscribers for it. We depend on you. Thus this letter.
To keep your valuable news source going, I’m asking you to donate whatever you can to this fundraising drive. Details on how to do so are on the People’s World website. If you can become a sustainer, with monthly contributions, so much the better. And we’ve added a special aspect:
As you know, from looking at our masthead on the website, People’s World is the successor to the Daily Worker, and as a result, we are celebrating our centennial. Our special aspect is a drive within a drive. We call it “100 for 100” and it is just what it says. You’ll receive special acknowledgment if, in honor of our centennial, you pledge and send a $100 – or more – contribution.
Once again, thank you. As long as you can keep us going, we can keep redeeming our promise to you.
In Solidarity,
Mark Gruenberg
Washington Bureau Chief
People’s World
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
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