Re: change comes to PWW
Is there a better paper than the People’s Weekly World? Is there a better group of journalists than PWW writers? A better source for news analysis, commentary, features, opinion pieces? Is there a paper more consistently on the side of the working class and peoples’ struggles? Is there a more attractive paper than the People’s Weekly World?
It breaks my heart that the PWW is forced by this blood-sucking economy to make these changes. For I think that the coming loss of our print edition is a profoundly sad event.
At the same time I welcome the technological advances that have allowed the PWW to reach thousands of new readers across the country and around the world with fresh, new writing every day. The fact that the PWW is now a daily source of Marxist news and information is a tremendous achievement and should be celebrated! I certainly hope that everyone in progressive movements in the U.S. has pww.org for their homepage and subscribes to the PWW e-mail news alerts. How can you possibly function otherwise?
We are living under an economic and social system that savagely attacks literacy and our national treasures: public education and public libraries. When slaves wanted to learn to read, a dangerous undertaking, they set up schools to teach reading. The history of the independent press in our country contains stories of presses being smashed and editors killed. I know that during the scoundrel times of the 1950s the Daily Worker was forced to shut down for several years. Later the New York office of the Daily World was bombed. But now it seems we have been nickeled and dimed to death.
I think that when our working class really wants something, we get it. When workers want to have a print edition of the Paper, nothing will stop them. And I know there are people of all ages — even under the age of 30 — who read books and newspapers and zines and graphic novels. I welcome all who are interested in sustaining the PWW, plugged and unplugged, to send in stories, letters opinion pieces, photos, cartoons, videos, poetry, songs, money and ideas that keep the flame alive.
Barbara Carpenter
Chicago
Having read PWW (and its predecessor) for more than 30 years, I was sorry to learn of your decision to terminate publication of the print edition. Holding a newspaper in your hand is a very different experience than reading text on a computer screen. Over the week that the paper was current, I’d bring it to work, to lunch, and even to the laundromat, where I’d read it — cover to cover — at my leisure. When done, I’d pass it along to fellow travelers who always appreciated the gesture.
But, like records and photographs, newspapers have become a victim of new technologies and tough economics. It’s the harsh reality of our times, and one we’ll regrettably have to live with. Good luck with your new electronic venture.
Michael Kaplan
Knoxville TN
While I am thrilled that the PWW will soon return to a daily, it is with great sadness that I read that it will no longer appear in print form. I recognize that it probably was an inevitable transition, and one which will surely help the paper’s finances and diffusion. I do hope, though, that the PWW continues to format stories as they would appear in the print edition of the paper. For example, maybe the PWW staff could send out a PDF’ed mini-paper, of 3-4 pages, every morning, that readers could print out and bring to work that day. While certainly more difficult than sending out a list of links to stories on the PWW website, I believe that a formatted paper that readers could print up on their own would be a much more effective way to build the Party, and much more pleasurable to read.
Matt Murtagh
Brooklyn NY
I have just read your statement on the success of the People’s World Weekly. I look forward to your daily service, as I have been enjoying the weekly service for some time. It is with a smile on my face that I write this, as I couldn’t be happier with your news.
May there be even more to come!
M.L. Hopp
I write in response to your notice that the PWW will go electronic and cease hard copy production on January 1, 2010. In that announcement you stated that anyone having no access to e-mail or the web should call you to talk about a means of continuing to be able to read fighting stories of progress and change.
As you can see by my address I am a prisoner at Oregon State Penitentiary. I’ve no access to the web or e-mail. I would like to be included in any efforts to reach non-web comrades.
Please do not forget me. Live free or die!
Brian McCarvil
Salem OR
Editor’s note: We are working hard to continue sending a hard-copy of our new downloadable edition to prisoners.
I have received a couple dozen calls so far from subscribers who have no access and want to sign up for the new weekly format come January. I’d like to finish taking names by September 1. So please call (773) 446-9920 x201 if you are a subscriber and have no ability to get online.
If you’d like to make sure a current prisoner subscriber can continue receiving our weekly edition, please make a donation today, www.pww.org/support.
Sudoku not necessary
Thanks for sending The World, always thoroughly read, then passed on for others to read a shining ray of TRUTH amidst all the mainstream half-truths and outright lies. Thanks!
Congratulations on your website. And showing on the printed World all that the website contains that the printed version could not possible contain. Good job!
However I’d disagree on the page corner devoted to Sudokus. I am a fan — hooked on them completely and beyond hope. But we can get them anywhere: all the Texas newspapers have them. For which reason I’d suggest that precious space on the printed World be devoted to other matters such as political cartoons that used to appear in the World. Or something more useful to the struggle for socialism.
Only a suggestion. You could put on the website.
Ana Lucia Gelabert
Gatesville TX
Good question
Where in the constitution does it say that the vice president should run the CIA? Oh that’s right, there is nothing about the Central Intelligence Agency in the constitution. Does that mean that the CIA is unconstitutional?
Chuck Mann
Greensboro NC
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