This is the 900th issue of Green Left Weekly. We are very confident that we will get to the 1000th issue and beyond. We know we can continue to be the most-read environmental and left campaigning newspaper and website in Australia.
The fact that we reach this milestone amid a still-growing global movement of occupations against the tyranny of the world’s richest 1% goes some way to explaining our confidence.
This movement began with the occupation of Wall Street, which was in turn inspired by the mass tent city occupations in Spain and the democratic revolt that has been sweeping through the Arab world.
Now there are more than 1000 occupations going on around the world. And more are planned.
These movements have a profound and powerful message: the world’s 99% need to assert democratic control of society and refashion it so the fruits of our common labour, and our planet’s resources, are shared fairly and managed in an ecologically sustainable way.
The occupy movement has succeeded only because this message resonates strongly with billions of people. Five centuries of capitalism has concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a tiny minority — on a scale never seen before in all history. Now most people know this is not sustainable.
Will this broad sentiment translate into the sustained, broad-based action needed to turn our common aspirations for change into real change? Will the broad sympathy for the occupy movement remain mostly passive or will it become active? We will find out over the next weeks.
But GLW won’t be simply waiting to find out. We will be campaigning in the streets, in the communities, campuses, schools and workplaces for people to join the occupy movement, to take part in whatever way they can.
At critical political moments like these, a people-powered media project like Green Left Weekly really comes into its own. GLW’s website is already one of the most-read political websites in Australia. But when the occupy movement came to Australia on October 15, our web readership more than doubled.
On October 21, when the police violently attacked the Occupy Melbourne camp, GLW set up a live blog to report on the unfolding events and thousands turned to this blog for the latest news.
A people-powered project like GLW depends totally on ordinary people’s support to keep going. We need your help to survive.
Donate online today to the Green Left fighting fund. Direct deposits can be made to Greenleft, Commonwealth Bank, BSB 062-006, Account No. 00901992. Otherwise, send a cheque or money order to PO Box 515, Broadway NSW 2007, or phone the toll-free line 1800 634 206 (within Australia).