A Fresh Look at the Role of the Communist Press

Based on a Jan. 2001 opening to the CPUSA National Board

The Communist press has a long and proud history. Its philosophy, to paraphrase Marx, is "journalists write about the world, the point is to change it." Communist journalists, like John Reed, revolutionized journalism itself. By reporting, not on the sidelines as some "objective" reporter, a corporate media-illusion, but by taking the side of the workers and oppressed.

The media and the class struggle have changed dramatically since the days of Reed and so the purpose of this article is to take a look at whether or not we are measuring up to today's challenges. The following is intended to get ideas flowing on building the communist press in the present-day working class and people's battles.

The People's Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo is the present form of the Communist Party's newspaper. Predecessors include the Daily World, People's World, La Voz del Pueblo, People's Daily World and the famous The Worker, The Daily Worker and Sunday Worker. There have been local editions of these newspapers as well, including DuSable edition or individual state pages.

The PWW/Mundo is an important vehicle in the present struggle against the ultra-right and monopoly corporations. It's a tool for the working class movement in the fight to defend and expand democracy, especially free speech, in this period of mega-media mergers and corporate, ultra-right domination of the press.

Communist Parties around the world have a great tradition of groundbreaking journalism that educates, informs, exposes and organizes. Vladimir Lenin argued for an all-Russia Communist newspaper instead of a number of local and irregularly-produced newsletters. Lenin wrote,

"Working class consciousness cannot be genuine political consciousness unless the workers are trained to respond to all cases of tyranny, oppression, violence and abuse, no matter what class is affected - unless they are trained, moreover, to respond from a Social-Democratic [communist] point of view and no other. The consciousness of the working masses cannot be genuine class-consciousness, unless the workers learn, from concrete and above all from topical, political fact and events to observe every other social class in all the manifestations of its intellectual, ethical and political life; unless they learn to apply in practice the materialist analysis and the materialist estimate of all aspects of the life and activity of all classes, strata and groups of the population."

Communist journalists have to find the class struggle lessons in all parts of life. Not in a forced or mechanical way, but from life's developments itself. Our main premise as Marxists is the class struggle is the motor force of history, so we should be able to find it in news and all of life's developments.

The PWW/Nuestro Mundo Today

The Communist press has a lot of resources and accomplishments. It has an established labor reporting record. In many ways the PWW stands on the shoulders of a giant - The Daily Worker - a name and tradition we should strive to live up to.

The paper has a good record on important campaigns and issues - like the fight against racism and for equality, public education, peace and solidarity issues, regular health care and economic columns, reporting people's history, women's equality, the environment, student and senior issues. We have made some progress reporting on gay and lesbian issues too.

Nuestro Mundo is a great part of the paper. The PWW/Mundo may be one of the few bilingual progressive national weekly newspapers. And that's an important accomplishment.

The PWW and Mundo are grassroots, organizing tools with a national, grassroots distribution, fundraising, organizing and stringer network. The national aspect of paper is appreciated around country - especially in smaller, less urban areas.

The PWW/Mundo does a good job covering "coalition partners'" view point. This is an important aspect to our work since the corporate-dominated media does not do this in a consistent way. It often times distorts or ignores the labor and people's leaders, for their own ruling class aims. So it is important for the working class movement for progress to have a newspaper that is friendly to their goals and consistently on their side. We go to demonstrations, call organizations on the phone, check their websites, attend their press conferences all in an effort to get out the broad working class movement's point of view.

This wasn't highlighted any better than when Tim Wheeler, PWW editor, went to Florida and reported on events there. Tim got the voters' point of view at a time when every other mass media source ignored it.

Let me just mention some areas where we have to improve. All areas - political, ideological and organizational - of the PWW/Mundo would be served well by a fresh, updated look.

Improving writing

Art Shields, a great reporter for the communist and labor press, wrote and exposed the conditions workers and oppressed people are forced to live under. He went to the heart of struggles, always exposing the company or the government or the systemic nature of exploitation and oppression, from the experiences themselves. But we can't do all of that in one story. Too often PWW stories try to cover all the political and ideological bases.

The PWW has to be a political and ideological tool not only for Party members, but for the movement at large. Our stories have to be the kind where they are clipped and hung up, used in a public agitational way, by grassroots, community and labor activists and leaders or everyday readers. That means we have to do coverage of events and issues that are on people's minds, including culture, sports, science and human interest stories.

That is hard political work. Staying on top of major news stories, covering national and international developments, keeping abreast of the major campaigns and issues affecting labor, women, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, American Indians, and other coalition partners. Doing research and footwork, getting to your story, conducting interviews, and thinking of the important questions. Being bold. The PWW has to have the attitude of competing with the corporate press. They may use their deep pockets but the communist press has to use working class-know how to get a story and build left-center unity with all kinds of media organizations and people.

There are many parts of putting together and improving a newspaper, from writing to editing to layout to photos to distribution. But the most important by far is political attitude and writing. The PWW has to bring to light the main political emphasis and balance, developed collectively by the Communist Party.

There are aspects to strengthen in the writing. We need to improve our current writing as well as gather new writers - Communists and non-Communists. A well-known reader of the paper once said the PWW writes like everyone agrees with it. That's not what people want from our newspaper.

We have to improve the militant tone in our articles, not through sloganeering, but through exposing better the viewpoint of the corporations and the ultra right. Articles can be too repetitive, too strident and not looking into a wider experience to find stories. Reporting has to be realistic, not exaggerated.

We have to be willing to go to the belly of the beast, so to speak, going to the boss during a strike, to government officials and demand answers to our questions. That's one way we can break exclusive stories.

For example, the PWW's "sister" TV show, "Changing America" (the PWW is to "Changing America" as The Washington Post is to MSNBC) went to the stockholder's news conference during the Newport News strike and got the CEO to admit on tape that the Navy was indeed strike-breaking. That, according to the USWA, was a turning point in their negotiations and helped to win the strike.

We have to provide this kind of information to the movement. It heightens our militancy. It exposes the ruthlessness of the ruling class. This will make us better writers and a better newspaper. Lenin also wrote about that:

"What we ask of a newspaper is not so much 'petty' exposures, as exposures of the major typical evils of factory life, exposures based on especially striking facts and capable, therefore of arousing the interest of all workers and all leaders of the movement, of really enriching their knowledge, broadening their outlook and serving as a starting-point for awakening new districts and workers..."

The quality of writing and the increase in circulation are linked. If we provide the information needed in the broad working class and democratic movements the paper will want to be read and circulated.

The daily online

Launching a daily online is critical for our newspaper. If we want to make a break-through in circulation, the daily online can play an important role. It's not the only thing, by any means, which can increase circulation, but it can and will play an important role. Accepting credit card payments online by itself will be a breakthrough in fundraising and subscriptions.

A daily online also forces us to view ourselves in a different way. The new technology forces us to reach out more and develop coalition partners in a new way. Like all developments in the means of production, the Internet and technology don't just affect the Party, they affect all of society. And I think it's important to look at the direction corporate media is taking.

In American Journalism Review's article, "Get Big or Get Out," the writer tackled the issues of Internet journalism and media alliances. She started out by describing a daily schedule of The Washington Post and MSNBC.com where these two competitive bastions of corporate journalism are forced to cooperate on story distribution.

The author uncovers that media organizations are being forced into these alliances because of the Internet revolution. Their budget constraints mean they can't hire the staff people to keep their competitive edge. She says, "News organizations are forced to form media alliances just to keep up."

"Probably, we've just seen the beginning of media alliances," says one site manager in the article. "The idea seems to make sense for companies to partner in new ways they never thought they would because of the Internet. The Internet has changed the equation. It's changed our view of the universe."

Well - that's a surprise to hear dog-eat-dog capitalists talking about partnering! If they are doing it for their own class aims, why can't the left and alternative media? In fact there are some attempts in the independent media to do just that. The development of the Independent Media Centers around globalization actions and other progressive, media-savvy organizations are taking steps to form media alliances.

The development of our own daily online can help tremendously in this movement. We don't have to wait for the daily online to relate and contribute to these developments. But a daily online could take it to a new level. With the outlook of building a broad working-class-led center-left coalition we can help build alliances and bridges to the labor press, the Black press, Spanish-language press, student and community press, etc.

Online work makes it possible for the PWW's articles to be reprinted far and wide, not just by the independent media. Indeed, even corporate-owned newspapers, especially in smaller markets who rely on AP solely, may take advantage of the PWW's articles, especially if it's in a context of a progressive rival to AP.

With a renewed approach like that it helps us strive for a broader approach on coverage and in general helps sharpen our political thinking.

Our online daily has to host links to as many progressive or community/labor-based press sites as possible. We have to have links to the organizations we feature in our stories and the online has to give people the opportunity to take action as well.

Dynamics between the Communist Party and its press

There has to be a special relationship between the Party as an institution and the PWW. This seems common sense, yet during different times in the communist movement's history there have been wide gaps in our respective work.

There has always been a tendency in the communist movement to separate the paper from Party. Lenin even wrote on this. He argued in establishing Iskra that "to contrast paper work" of a political newspaper to "live political work in the localities is plainly ridiculous."

Yet building the communist press is essential to building the Communist Party. "The mere function of distributing a newspaper would help establish actual contacts. Organizational work would immediately acquire much greater scope," Lenin argued.

One gap is the description of the paper. There were debates, years ago, whether or not the PWW was the Communist Party's newspaper or the newspaper for the broader movement. The editorial board concluded the paper is both. There may be some contradictions, but they aren't irreconcilable. The Party's interests are the interests of the working class and socialist movement and therefore that's whose interests we serve in our editorial line. We can do both - maintain the broad, working class line of the Party, and be consistent with our coalition partners.

Yet this gap exists in the Party and we have to figure out how to close it. The gap may exist more in our collective minds than in the movement's minds. To people outside of the Party, the PWW is seen as the voice of the Party. Yet in the Party and at the paper, that may not be seen as clearly.

In writing weekly editorials there is a lot of responsibility when you view it as the Party's line. The editorial board has to take responsibility in knowing the collective discussions unfolding in the Party on the topic or consulting the various collectives that may deal with the issue at hand. Newspapers play an important role in American life. And our newspaper has to reflect that as well. The PWW should be and is similar as every other newspaper but with our own editorial line and emphasis.

In the long run the newspaper serves its class interests. Yet as American newspaper tradition has it even corporate newspapers may print a letter to the editor or even an op-ed which may not be their editorial line. And so too for the PWW. We don't just print stories which are statements of Party policy. Many PWW authors are not communists. And it's important to have that balance. There is a lot of room for discussion, especially letters to the editor, pieces which may fall in a grey area. That is how discussions and conversations are built.

The editorial board has to have content standards. Our editorial standards have to reject slander whether directed against the Party or the broader working class movement, nothing derogatory towards working class people, or allies. Nothing racist, anti-immigrant or anti-Semitic. Nothing derogatory towards women, gay and lesbian people, youth, seniors, the disabled. Nothing which would glorify ruling class ideas.

But if you read a column or letter that may be a bit provocative, then write and respond to it. That's the kind of newspaper we have to have. One that invites conversations, discussion and even debate. This is important for our newspaper. The letters and the op-ed pages should be seen as more flexible avenues to take up "sticky questions" which are being discussed in the broad left and working class movement. There are many opinions on sticky questions and not always one single answer.

How the Party as an organization is covered in PWW is an issue we should explore. Generally, Party coverage comes in a few ways: either articles by party leaders, articles of Party events or Party statements. We may have to experiment with other forms. As with all experiments, we are bound to make mistakes or provoke healthy discussion on the topic. But if we want to make the Party more natural, more transparent in the working class movement for democracy, then we have to improve the quality and thoughtfulness of the coverage.

The PWW is a vehicle to "get in the mix," on the content side as well as the distribution side. But we can have all the best content in the world, but if it doesn't get read or distributed who cares? What kind of impact will we really make?

The link between Marxism, the Party and its press to disseminate widely and expand people's understanding of their own situation as a class is key to any kind of party building. We have to dramatically increase the circulation of our press. Outside of some key initiatives, we haven't had a circulation drive in years.

One important initiative which we should build on was before the elections and afterwards the PWW was sent to the largest 2,200 trade union locals in the country. This is significant in a number of ways. One it's a targeted campaign to build the PWW circulation to the section of the movement that we want to have a base in. Secondly it was done in a way that's done all the time for magazines and newspapers. You get some sample copies and then you are asked to subscribe. We should consider building on this method to include elected officials, civil rights organizations, women's groups and all organizations involved in the broad democratic movement. How many people do you know and work with that should read the PWW but haven't been asked to subscribe?

In Minnesota they have one of the biggest distributions in the country. They drop it at laundromats, bookstores, campuses and coffee shops around the area, so the comrades distribute about 1,600 weekly. That was a method they developed and fits their situation. They have developed a wide-readership in this method. Maybe it won't fit other areas but this is one example.

The circualation drive can be tied to a political initiative, expanding free speech, for example. Getting the PWW to places it has never been before is a way to expand free speech. In many smaller, less urban areas this is a big issue. In upstate New York, one student started distributing the paper on his campus. The campus officials clamped down on him and he turned it into a free speech campaign, garnering media attention and wide support for freedom of expression. The campus backed off its censorship and now the PWW is allowed there.

In today's struggles marked by corporate mergers and their domination of news and information, which is increasingly aiding and abetting the ultraright and the Bush administration's agenda, The People's Weekly World is a voice for the movements of the working class, the racially and nationally oppressed, women and other forces for social change. The communist press can play an important role in the struggles to defend and expand working class free speech rights while continuing the legacy of revolutionary journalism. And to paraphrase Lenin - all of which we urgently have to get done.