Save the Socialist Standard

Those who contributed to the first issue of the Socialist Standard 83 years ago shared an excitement and optimism difficult to conceive 1,000 uninterrupted issues on. As their high hopes dissolved in face of gruesome reality, they did what socialists have done ever since: propagated the case for a free society at every opportunity and by any means, usually with scant success. The journal’s vigour and survival through numerous testing times is testimony both to the soundness of our principles and analysis of capitalism’s operation, as well as a tribute to the dedication of individuals. That said, self congratulation would be both inappropriate and deluding, given that the subject for which we exist appears as remote as ever. The Standard has been the product of voluntary effort by hundreds of socialists with widely differing opinions about the best way to present the Party’s case. This has helped to mitigate a constant difficulty: we have had to be both a topical commen

We urge delegates to vote against the following motion at 2017 Conference from 10:30 on 29-30 April (item scheduled for Sunday 30 April) and for members and supporters to attend 52 Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UN and/or express their opposition by e-mail to spgb@worldsocialism.org  for the attention of the chair calling for ‘every new issue of the Socialist Standard to continue to be printed and distributed each month as usual’. “That the print Standard be discontinued from January 2018 and the online Standard become the Party’s official journal.” “ We are aware that this is likely to be an unpopular motion in some quarters, however socialists are nothing if not realists, and will recognise the grim inevitability of a resolution like this. Print sales are in terminal decline right across the news media, and we have been carrying the print Standard for years at a subsidy of around £1,000 per issue. Whether we can afford it now or in the future is beside the point.

The  Socialist Standard  is a monthly  socia list  newspaper published without interruption since 1904 by the  Socialist Party of Great Britain . The newspaper is written in a simple, direct style and focuses mainly on socialist advocacy and  Mar xian  analysis of current events, particularly those affecting the  United Ki ngdom . It was placed on a secret list of papers and magazines banned for export during  World War I , for its call for workers to refuse to fight for their countries and instead join the class war. In 1915 it published an article written by a member of the Bolshevik party calling for a socialist solution to the war. In 1918, however, the paper voiced the first doubts of the SPGB regarding the  Bolshevik Revolution  in Russia. In the 1930s it drew on the reports from  S pain  to produce articles on the looming menace of aerial warfare. During  World W ar II  the magazine evaded the censor largely by produ