Australia's Green Left Weekly celebrates its 800th issue
Congratulations on reaching the 800th issue. It is not easy these days for independent left journals to sustain themselves, when they are so badly needed. Look forward to hearing about the 1000th.
-- Noam Chomsky, radical US activist, writer and intellectual
As so much of the corporate media becomes a parody of itself, the agents of power not of people, we need the view from ground more than ever and Green Left Weekly more than ever.
-- John Pilger, journalist and documentary maker
For the most up-to-date list of solidarity messages, please visit Green Left Weekly's greetings page.
June 28, 2009 – The need for a radical green and left alternative to the monopolised corporate media is even greater today than when the first issue of Green Left Weekly came out in February 1991. From the outset we knew this non-profit project could survive only with the dedication and support from those inspired by a vision of democratic and ecologically sustainable socialist change.
GLW has generated a dedicated following from socialists, militants and activists throughout the world, as the many heartfelt solidarity messages below prove. (They include well-known figures such as Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and , as well as lesser known but equally important activists in the social change movements in Australia and around the world, and of course some of our subscribers – the backbone of the GLW project.)
In our first issue we said we’d reject any corporate funding because “we are after a better class of investors — those interested in investing in a better world”. GLW is proud to be part of the struggle for a safe climate future — a world free of racism, war and exploitation. We’ll continue this struggle, but to do so we need your ongoing support. Thousands of volunteers have written for, donated to and helped distribute GLW on street corners and at protests over the years, and via the internet throughout the world.
The world today is a dangerous place but global corporate tyranny and environmental degradation and inperialist aggression are being met with growing resistance, most vitally across Latin America led by the Venezuelan, Bolivian and Cuban revolutions. GLW is an important hub of this resistance. This is the fundamental reason why GLW has come this far. But it doesn't explain how we have survived.
GLW was launched at a moment of extreme capitalist triumphalism. Socialism was seen by most people to have failed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The left around the world went into retreat. Many left parties collapsed or were dissolved. Many left activists dropped out of activity through demoralisation or opted for a less radical politics. Some in Australia became part of the problem and joined Australia's alternate party of the corporate rich, the Australian Labor Party. Others settled for the safer and more respectable road of green parliamentarism.
The initiators of GLW — the members of the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the socialist youth organisation Resistance, and a range of independent activists — opted for a different path. We decided to produce a paper that would be a voice for the “left of the greens and the greens of the left”. We recognised that the ecological crisis was part of the crisis of capitalism and that there was no fundamental solution to it in a society which places capitalist profit above social and environmental survival. That insight is becoming more and more accepted as the escalation global warming crisis looms larger and more and more young activists accept that we must change the system to change the climate.
GLW has always sought to be a vehicle to bring the left together, and create an alternative to the two-capitalist-party system. When it was born, GLW was promoting a number of left unity project. Today it is an enthusiastic supporter of the Socialist Alliance, which has gathered to together hundred of socialists from across the left spectrum to fight to build such a vitally needed left political force.
We have a lot of people to thank for GLW's success, especially the many people who have written articles, drawn cartoons, taken photographs, donated money and helped distribute the paper. But two groups have been crucial to GLW's survival: the members of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Resistance and the Socialist Alliance, who have done some of the hardest — and at times tedious — work to ensure that the last 800 issues were produced and distributed.
If there was any doubt about the value of left and green activists continuing to organise in a serious and professional way, GLW's 800th issue should banish it. GLW is proud to be part of the struggle for a safe climate future — a world free of racism, war and exploitation. We’ll continue this struggle, but to do so we need your ongoing support.
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Those of us at Monthly Review would like to reach out our hands in solidarity with our comrades at Green Left Weekly in celebration of its 800th issue. In addition to being Australia’s leading radical paper, the GLW has become a global voice for 21st century socialism: Marxist, ecological, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, feminist, and in solidarity with revolutionary struggles throughout the world.
John Bellamy Foster, Editor, Monthly Review, on behalf of all those at Monthly Review
As so much of the corporate media becomes a parody of itself, the agents of power not of people, we need the view from ground more than ever and Green Left Weekly more than ever.
John Pilger, journalist and documentary maker
Congratulations on reaching the 800th issue. It is not easy these days for independent left journals to sustain themselves, when they are so badly needed. Look forward to hearing about the 1000th.
Noam Chomsky, radical US activist, writer and intellectual
From Caracas, Venezuela, on the occasion of your 800th issue, I would like to send solidarity greetings for the perseverance and loyalty of all of you to the social struggles of the peoples of the world. Your work is recognised across the world, both for its internet-based and hard copy editions. Your journalistic integrity as well as the way in which the articles and reports are written indicates that a better world is possible.
You give representation to the revolutionary struggle in Australia and the rest of the Pacific. Your voice represents a clarion call and dissemination of a struggle without quarter. The work of your comrades reporting from Venezuela on the development of the Bolivarian revolution should be applauded.
Receive a big revolutionary greeting and never tire in the struggle.
Nelson Davila, Venezuela's ambassador to Australia
Dear comrades of the Green Left Weekly,
Congratulations for the 800th edition of such an important weekly publication! We are proud of you and very happy to have it actualizing us about national and international affairs and other transcendental events.
On this occasion we wish to thank you for your solidarity with Cuba and its people. Your frequent support is of great value for us.
With a great fraternal salute!
Consulate General of the Republic of Cuba, Sydney — Australia
In Pakistan, every week, we’ve read Green Left Weekly since 1998 when we came in contact with the DSP. It brings news and views of the progressive and labour movement of Australia and internationally.
The international coverage of GLW is unprecedented. We have learned a lot and many of Labour Party Pakistan international policies are based on the information in GLW. The coverage of Venezuelan events is our sole source of information regarding the ongoing revolutionary processes in the region.
Our congratulations to the staff and comrades associated with GLW on the printing of the 800th edition. A great revolutionary task is fulfilled by the comrades of DSP and GLW by printing the paper regularly.
We also want to congratulate all who stand in the streets and markets of Australian cities to sell the paper regardless of brutal weather conditions.
Farooq Tariq, Labour Party Pakistan spokesperson
We congratulate Green Left Weekly for the publication of your 800th issue! For years GLW has provided readers with news and analysis on the development of people’s struggles in Australia as well as all over the world.
We hope comrades who have worked hard to get GLW for the past 800 issues will continue your great effort to spread the revolutionary messages through every publication of GLW to inspire people to continue our fight against capitalism, imperialism and oppression. Best wishes and keep up the great work!
Choo Chon Kai, central committee member, Socialist Party of Malaysia/Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)
The Partido Lakas ng Masa sends warm and fraternal greetings for the 800th issue of Green Left Weekly. Our comrades are grateful to GLW
for providing the Australian and international left with an eyewitness
account of the launch of this new anti-capitalist, socialist party
project in the Philippines.
This is a continuation of the excellent coverage in GLW of the political developments in the revolutionary movement in the Philippines over several decades. The contributions that GLW makes to the international revolutionary movement are many. On this occasion we would like to especially commend GLW for a non-sectarian reporting of national and international political developments. In this, I think, GLW sets a standard and an extremely important example for the international left.
This non-sectarian approach is reflected in the reporting of small developments and major revolutionary developments, such as Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution. We think that this is an essential element of making GLW the great paper that it is.
We congratulate the dedicated group of revolutionaries who continue to work on the paper today: the editors and the writers, the sales organisers and the sellers and those who raise the funds to keep the paper going.
Launched in 1990, the 800th issue represents just under two decades of revolutionary work. As we mark the 800th issue, we are looking forward to celebrating the 20th anniversary of the paper with you in 2010.
Mabuhay Green Left Weekly!
Reihana Mohideen, for the Executive Committee Partido Lakas ng Masa (Philippines)
We would like to convey our hearty congratulations to Green Left Weekly on the publication of its 800th issue. GLW has become an indispensable resource for analysis of socialist and liberation movements. We look forward to its continuing leadership as new openings appear for rebuilding the socialist movement worldwide.
John Riddell, Socialist Voice co-editor & Suzanne Weiss, Socialist Voice contributing editor, Toronto
Congratulations to Green Left Weekly for a decade and a half of exemplary leftist journalism! Based on my own experience in Indonesia, I don’t think that it’s too much to say that GLW has played an important role in shaping activists into real internationalists.
GLW has presented open-minded yet sharp critical analysis of important issues that instills in its readers a sense of solidarity with the oppressed anywhere in the world. We in PRD regularly discuss what’s in the latest GLW to look for an alternative view outside the dubious and often misleading mainstream media reporting.
In this “battle of ideas” against the prevailing neoliberal world-view, we are constantly in need of leftist literature as a source of discussion and inspiration. GLW has been and still is one of our main references. Thank you for your contribution to our ammunition of ideas, and keep up your good work of spreading the seeds of revolution and internationalism. Itu tidak sia-sia [That is not in vain].
Data Brainanta, Peoples Democratic Party (Indonesia)
What about Green Left Weekly and what is to be done! It should be acknowledged that GLW is one of the strong
and brave progressive media outlets of our era. With its attractive
appearance and high quality content, it continually revitalises
revolutionary agents and actors.
The most important thing is that GLW continually spreads progressive views from the people’s movements as well as raising many of the world’s most fundamental issues. All of this is in order to achieve our primary aspiration, that is true and total democracy, which we, with resolution, call “for a true socialist world!” — this is possible and now is in the process of approaching!
Based on these important factors and remembering that GLW is now approaching its 800th issue, it is appropriate that we give congratulations to GLW for its remarkable achievements during this time and continue the struggle until we achieve victory. For GLW’s activists, continue your monumental work through this remarkable media, continue to cover even more of the progressive ideas and actions of the people’s movement.
Continue to increase the quality of coverage of the fundamental world issues, so that the people’s awareness continues to awaken and lead in the front line of the universal people’s mobilisations, in particular the oppressed people’s mobilisations for a world that is truly just — that is a truly socialist world.
A luta continua!
Mericio Akara, Luta Hamutuk — Timor Leste
I would like send revolutionary greetings to Green Left Weekly on the occasion of your 800th edition. More than ever, as the capitalist system goes deeper into crisis, workers across the world need weapons such as Green Left Weekly, in our fight against the ruling elites.
Here in Venezuela, where the private media have been responsible for attempted coups, and continues to conspire against the people, we know all too well the importance of alternative media. Through your bureau in Caracas, and the delegations of Australians to Venezuela, we know that you are playing an important role in spreading the truth about our revolutionary process.
Thank you for the solidarity you have shown to the Venezuelan revolution, and in particular the Venezuelan working class, who today are at the forefront of the fight for a socialist world.
Stalin Perez Borges, National Coordinating Committee of the Socialist Workers’ Front of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), editor of Marea Socialista — voice of PSUV militants
Congratulations to Green Left Weekly on reaching its 800th edition!
This is a remarkable achievement, and an example for revolutionary socialists everywhere.
I have been a correspondent for GLW at times, writing about politics in the United States, and I hope to continue whenever the editors wish.
In international solidarity and a common anti-imperialist stance,
Barry Sheppard, United States
I congratulate Green Left Weekly on its 800th issue. In an era of increasing concentration of the corporate media, the existence of a vibrant, alternative voice such as GLW is essential. Its coverage of issues, both national and international, is first-class as is its interpretation and analysis of the events on which it reports. I look forward to its 1000th edition.
Sylvia Hale, MLC, Greens member, NSW parliament
Many socialists in the 20th century gave insufficient attention to ecology. Green Left Weekly is to be commended for consistently linking socialist endeavour with environmental struggles and climate change.
Jack Mundey, former NSW president of the Builders Labourer Federation
Congratulations and a hearty ‘thankyou’ to the comrades producing GLW! Not only does GLW keep us in touch with the struggles
for justice and a different society in Australia and elsewhere, but it
also analyses the world around us, which is essential for these
struggles. In particular, the reports from the office of the GLW in Venezuela are invaluable.
Socialist Alliance is privileged to have the regular column ‘Our Common Cause’ in GLW. The paper plays a powerful role in our struggle for socialism. I’m proud to be selling it.
Comradely greetings and Viva GLW!
Bea Bleile, Socialist Alliance national co-convener
We as the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) express our solidarity with Green Left Weekly and express our desire to continue to work with them in highlighting to the world issues that are fundamental to the basic human rights and dignity of human beings.
We express our gratitude to GLW for its accurate and well researched articles detailing the suffering of the Eelam Tamils and their constant desire to be free from state sponsored terrorism and guaranteed their right to self-determination.
GLW has been a beacon of hope to those minorities whose plight is often ignored and/or overlooked by the mainstream media and for this due credit must go to this publication. On behalf of TYO, I would like to congratulate you on reaching this milestone and we encourage you to continue your efforts in reporting down the path less travelled.
Adrian Francis, Tamil Youth Organisation
Congratulations on your 800th issue! I’ve been a loyal supporter and reader of GLW since its very first issue. I find GLW’s
analysis
of world events outstanding. Its coverage of Australian
politics, especially of working-class struggles and the battles of
Aborigines against racism and for full equality, has many parallels to
what working people and national minorities face in the United States.
I look forward to reading GLW each week and urge others to use your excellent website.
Malik Miah,an editor of Against The Current, a US socialist magazine published by Solidarity.
800 issues of Green Left Weekly, that’s impressive. Not so much because of the years gone by (other publications have lived longer), but rather because of the stature of the paper.
People like me in Socialist Worker-New Zealand like GLW. We really like it. Yes, it’s readable. And yes, it’s informative. But it’s more, much more. GLW has that X-factor: a geo-strategic broadness combining internationalist vision, inclusive leftism and eco-social clarity. And that’s what makes it inspirational. So hats off to all the grassroots activists whose true grit has shaped that X-factor.
Socialist Worker-New Zealand comes from a different left tradition than the publishers of GLW. Therefore, according to leftist myths, we’re supposed to keep our distance from each other. What rot! We confront similar ruling elites trashing our people and our ecology. We share similar histories of resistance from below. Along with others on the global left, we represent the face of the future, so long as we combine together for the sake of the future of humanity and our habitat.
Flaxroots Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand are inheritors of a collectivist tradition that bolsters the ethics of socialism. The Maori phrase for “stay strong” is “kia kaha”. So, comrades, I finish with these words: Socialist Worker-New Zealand says kia kaha to a beaut paper!
Grant Morgan, Socialist Worker-New Zealand
Congratulation to Green Left Weekly on its 800th issue. This is an astonishing achievement. GLW blazed a trail internationally in making the ecological crisis central to revolutionary perspectives — something much more controversial 19 years ago than it is now.
And GLW’s main backer, the DSP, also blazed a trail in its understanding of one of Lenin’s key ideas — in the long term, the future of humanity will be settled in Asia. GLW has always paid special attention to the development of the revolutionary movement on that continent.
As world capitalism sinks deeper into crisis, GLW remains an essential resource and reference points for militant socialists in Australia and worldwide.
Phil Hearse, Socialist Resistance, London
For many years, GLW has been for me a lively and
informative window on Asian struggles. Unfortunately, in France and in
Europe, there is little knowledge
of Asia and little sustained solidarity with people struggles in Asia.
To inform and mobilise on these issues is a must. We try our best to do so through the bilingual website of Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF) and the newly launched electronic bulletin of the ‘Asia Group’ of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in France (it is the first time such a bulletin is produced, while there has been one on Africa for long in the LCR).
GLW and Links coverage of Asian issues help us a lot in bringing Asian issues into French activists’ milieu.
Thanks, and continue.
Pierre Rousset, France
Dreams and hopes are magically transformed each week, converted
into a handful of well-written, designed and printed pages. But there
is so much more in each edition! Above all, because often it is
difficult to reconcile these dreams with the petty short-sightedness of
our immediate reality.
The fact is that the most important role of a militant journalist is precisely to be ability to see the light of the future through the daily opacity. For all this, from these far away latitudes, I send my fraternal greetings and encouragement in continuing in this task.
Luis Bilbao, Argentinean author, journalist and revolutionary
Green Left Weekly is an exceptional resource. Your writers and subjects are the most committed and informed people I’ve met.
Many congratulations to Green Left Weekly for its 800th issue! Comrades everywhere outside Australia wonder how you manage consistently to put out a weekly of such high quality on such a small budget.
When in Melbourne earlier this year, I got a good sense of why you are on top of local struggles (like those of Australian construction workers)—- you combine real solidarity work with your journalism. In other words, it is the commitment of those in the Socialist Alliance who are working with GLW that explains a success that is envied elsewhere. May you grow in influence in Australia and continue to be an example outside!
Michael Lebowitz, Marxist economist and author, professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Green Left Weekly is an exceptional resource. Your writers and subjects are the most committed and informed people I’ve met.
Patrick Bond, director of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society in Durban
Revolutionary and internationalist congratulations and maximum respect. What an incredible achievement for GLW to be 800 issues strong, unprecedented for a progressive anti-capitalist weekly paper in a country and world so dominated by the capitalist media and its propaganda.
GLW has not only remained a standard bearer of principled, dedicated and activist journalism and writing but represents that rare kind of publication that links with the real struggles against oppression and injustice of people both in Australia and across the globe. Keep the words coming and the flames burning.
Dale T. McKinley, Johannesburg
We, your friends and comrades of the German party Die Linke send
you, the daring, consistent voice of the Australian radical Left, our
warm congratulations on the publication of your 800th issue.
Anne Quart, International Policy Department, Die Linke, Germany
We congratulate all the comrades from Green Left Weekly
for its 800th issue, which means a important effort in order to inform
the Australian people and create a place for anti-imperialist and
anti-capitalist debate.
As moderator of the Marxism mailing list, I know I speak for everybody on the list in wishing Green Left Weekly continued growth and influence. As a mailing list that aspires to worldwide unity of the left, having the presence of a number of GLW readers and writers makes an enormous difference.”
Louis Proyect
I would like to send my warm wishes to Green Left Weekly on its 800th issue. GLW is the most important weekly paper for greens and socialists on the planet. For those of who are eco-socialist it is particularly valuable; it is a rare example of how the left can work in an open way to build a powerful resource for change.
From the biofuels scandal to the indigenous revolution to the victories of the Latin America left, its all in GLW.
Derek Wall, last principal male speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales
I congratulate Green Left Weekly on their achievement at reaching their 800th edition; in particular GLW have been inspirational for their commitment to combining both green and socialist politics.
They have also been pioneers in web-based publishing, which has provided a model for others to follow, especially inspiring has been GLW’s commitment to covering a diverse range of opinion, reflecting the ability of the left to democratically debate its disagreements, within a framework of shared common goals.
Andy Newman, editor of Socialistunity.com
Socialist Aotearoa would like to congratulate Green Left Weekly
on reaching its 800th issue. For years you have provided radicals in
the Asia Pacific region with invaluable reportage and analysis. Your
comrades in New Zealand will continue to read and contribute avidly!
Joe Carolan, editor, www.socialistaotearoa.org
Many thanks to the tireless workers of Green Left Weekly. I can only wonder at the sacrifice and effort required to reach this milestone of 800 issues. The facts and analysis provided has helped me immensely in understanding this ever changing world.
All the best for the future.
Mike Treen, Unite union, New Zealand
Well done Green Left Weekly! You have over the years espoused the cause of uniting green and left politics in a consistent revolutionary fashion. Your interesting, accessible and topical stories have kept us abreast of developments in Australia and throughout the world.
You have also diligently reached out to many organisations and struggles throughout the world in solidarity, covering stories and sending your newspaper. Your contribution to socialist renewal in the 21st century cannot be questioned. Phambili! (forward!)
Trevor Ngwane, member of Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee and Socialist Group (South Africa)
International Officer of the South African Municipal Workers Union of COSATU South Africa.
Congratulations to all the companeros y companeras at Green Left Weekly for your tremendous efforts to give voice to the silenced and excluded, and to risk exposing injustice and imperial atrocities to ensure the truth prevails.
You are warriors for justice, armed with words and ideas, helping to build a more peaceful and harmonious world community. Without the type of solidarity and commitment to truthful journalism you have clearly demonstrated, the liberated peoples of Latin America today would remain invisible before world opinion.
Thank you for remaining brave and firm despite grave dangers and threats from world powers, and most of all, thank you for standing hand in hand with those who have chosen to fight empire and build social and economic justice. Here’s to 800 more!
Eva Golinger, author of Bush vs Chavez and The Chavez Code
Congratulations on 800 issues and look forward to many more years of fighting for socialism together!
Derrick O'Keefe, editor of Rabble.ca and Seven Oaks
I fully agree with my colleague Noam Chomsky. It is very hard to publish a critical paper in a country where the media market is run by a few corporate oligopolies not only suffocating almost everything in its way but also creating what Al Gore has called “an assault on reason” (2007)
Thomas Klikauer, Coogee, NSW
Greetings to Green Left Weekly! Congratulations on
chalking up your 800th issue. In a world racked by the econcomic and
ecological crises, you have long sought to provide a solution which
recognises the causal links between both crises, by sourcing both
problems to the barbarous economic and political system that is
capitalism. For that future generations will be in your debt.
Gary MacLennan, Marxist academic and activist
Happy Birthday Green Left Weekly. You have always been so green, so left and so weekly. Not like the Herald Sun that isn’t a herald or a sun. Or the Age. Ha! What a joke. I look forward to your 8,000,000th edition.
Rod Quantock, comedian
Stand Fast (Australian veterans and ex-service personnel opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) congratulate Green Left Weekly on having attained its 800th issue milestone. Well done! Keep up the good work!
Gerry Binder, Stand Fast
Heartfelt congratulations from SKA TV and The Union Show to Green Left Weekly
on the publication of the 800th issue! Congratulations to all the
writers and editors whose hard work and dedication make publishing the
paper possible. Slim resources and passion for a better world are the
bedrocks of alternative political media. To maintain production for 18
years is an outstanding achievement.
Debra Weddall, SKA TV manager and The Union Show producer, and all the gang at SKA TV!
Green Left Weekly is the voice for the voiceless people.
Government and the media in general are not giving enough attention to
the social justice issues.
GLW is our platform to get involved so we can write things at the grassroots and feel part of the global response.
Bashir Sawalha, Greens candidate for Lakemba, 2007 NSW elections
Australia, like the rest of the global community, continues to
struggle with the financial crisis. Most Northern governments — most
notably the US — have simply chosen to prop up the existing system by
pouring billions of dollars of public funds into the companies that
have caused the problem in the first case.
Now, more than ever, we need a voice that talks about other possibilities. Green Left Weekly does this. It provides alternative views about other visions and other values. And it supports the struggles which are working towards a world based on meeting people’s needs rather than allowing the powerful to continue to chase profits at the expense of everyone else.
Cam Walker Friends of the Earth
Green Left Weekly is one of the few progressive news outlets that
truly looks at the entire world, offering reporting and analysis that
you can’t fine anywhere else. Each week the editors and writers dig up
stories about social change, corporate exploitation and political
events from every corner of the earth. Their serious dedication to
people’s struggles over the years means that the publication of their
800th issue is really a cause for celebration among readers and
activists all over the globe. And here’s to the next 800 issues of
Green Left Weekly!
Benjamin Dangl, author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia, and the editor of TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events, and UpsideDownWorld.org a website covering activism and politics in Latin America.
Congratulations to all the hard-working progressive voices at Green Left Weekly for producing 800 issues of a consistently informative, challenging, and comprehensive political publication.
Your friends in the US are especially grateful for your solidarity with women and workers worldwide, for your excellent reporting on the anti-war actions of the American union movement and on the struggles of Iraqi workers to gain fundamental workers’ rights and to resist the privatisation of their oil industry.
Long live GLW!
Kathy Black, co-convenor of US Labor Against the War
Congratulations Green Left Weekly! And thankyou for
providing the readership with perspectives independent from the
mainstream media. For tackling those issues that are more often than
not ignored or silenced. For stimulating debate. For connecting the
local and the global.
The paper has always been a great source of information and fact-finding for us, when script-writing our social justice theatre pieces.
We are looking forward to being more inspired and informed by the next 100 issues!
Jepke Goudsmit & Graham Jones, Kinetic Energy Theatre Company, NSW
Green Left Weekly has for 800 issues now and via its invaluable web presence brought free expression, information, analysis and cultural insight to so many of us engaged in struggle here in North America and of course worldwide. Sincere congratulations and solidarity to GLW at 800!Bill Nevins, Nuevo Mexico, US
Only those who know what it is like to each week produce an edition of
a newspaper are able to comprehend what it feels like to reach issue
number 800. And only those who take up the transcendental task of
producing a newspaper that acts as weapon in the hands of activists
would know the place occupied by the accumulated collective and
individual efforts, removed from any profit motive and false prestige,
that goes into every article.
Green Left Weekly has become a reference for all of us around the world who want to get news and analysis from the frontlines of the war between rich and poor. Congratulations on your 800th capsule of rebellion. Keep on giving voice to the voiceless!
Arturo Villanueva, Basque pro-independence left activist facing extradition to Spain in Ireland
The Australia West Papua Association (Sydney) congratulates Green Left Weekly on its 800th issue. GLW has been a great supporter of the West Papuan people, publishing
continuous updates on the situation in West Papua when the mainstream
media have ignored it.
Congratulations and here’s to the next 800 editions.
Joe Collins, AWPA (Sydney)
Revolutionary greetings from Pakistan on Green Left Weekly’s 800th issue! It was back in 1997, I first saw a copy of GLW that had landed in Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) offices. Internet had not become fashionable yet. Hence we would grab every opportunity to quench our thirst, as left activists, for fresh information, analysis and perspectives coming from left in the West.It was also the time we were learning to be more inclusive and increasingly getting repugnant to sectarian practices. GLW proved a great help. For next few years until internet made it easy, GLW was eagerly awaited at LPP offices. Since many comrades could not read English, therefore, we would translate some of the articles to Urdu for the weekly Mazdoor Jeddojuhd (Workers Struggle).
A copy of GLW was kept in record at Lahore-based central office, where three GLW copies were received by post, while another two were posted to Karachi and Hyderabad regional offices.
Meantime, owing to a growing LPP-DSP co-operation, different struggles in Pakistan started making regular headlines in GLW. I myself, besides being a regular GLW reader, became an occasional contributor. A decade on, this personal as well as party relationship has only strengthened.
Of all the alternative media outlets, GLW and the ESSF-website have been most generous to LPP. Not merely LPP, GLW has been devoting space to Pakistan and often the Pakistan coverage in GLW is an example of quality journalism.
However, it is not merely the Pakistan-coverage that interests me or other LPP comrades. From Indonesia and East Timor to Cuba and Venezuela, GLW reports on global events are keenly read in Pakistan like elsewhere in the world. Personally, I eagerly devour the Cultural Dissent.
Seizing the opportunity to mark 800 issues of GLW, on behalf of the LPP, I would like to congratulate GLW staff for bringing an excellent newspaper every week to a wide range of activists worldwide. Hats off to this dedication, commitment and professionalism.
Farooq Sulehria, Labour Party Pakistan member
Congratulations to Green Left Weekly on your 800th issue. Over the past five years, I have found GLW to be an invaluable source of news and information.
Your attention to international political developments in Asia, Latin America and the rest of the world is invaluable, while your coverage of politics and the class struggle in Australia is proving increasingly important for us to learn and draw inspiration from in Canada.
I am now a devoted subscriber to the print edition of GLW and encourage other international readers to do likewise.
Roger Annis, Socialist Voice, Vancouver, Canada
Congratulations on publication of the 800th edition of Green Left Weekly.
It is quite an achievement that you have been able to sustain such a
high quality, comprehensive, reader-friendly vehicle for radical
change.
It is a source of inspiration that on the other side of the world there is a paper that campaigns, as we do, to end the corporate bail-out and to make capital pay for its global economic crisis, that fights for eco-socialism and for the rights of indigenous peoples and oppressed nations, and that demands the immediate withdrawal of our imperialist armed forces from Afghanistan and other occupied lands.
Best wishes for the next 800 editions of GLW!
Barry Weisleder, federal secretary, Socialist Action/Ligue pour l’Action socialiste, Canadian state
Congratulations Green Left Weekly! GLW has been
a consistent voice in the alternate media for a long time, to great
benefit to the community. Refreshingly honest, always courageous, GLW is a voice that a jaded Australia needs to hear for many years to come.
Mark Ptolemy, communications officer, National Union of Workers (NSW branch)
It has become an invaluable source of information in regard to not only world issues, but also our local news and campaigns that always show a total bias towards the truth!
Kerrie Lay, Toongabbie NSW
Congratulations on the printing of your 800th edition of Green Left Weekly. The Tamil community of Sydney would like to take this opportunity to thank you for dutifully providing an independent media source that remains committed to social awareness.Your determination to present the reality of news media and your ability to highlight human and civil rights issues, global peace and environmental sustainability, and democracy and equality has been carried out with unwavering effort for the last 19 years.
Without sacrificing the truth of your stories, you provide a voice to both individuals and their communities in a way that mainstream media will not. From the very beginning, the Tamil community have felt nothing short of gratitude and appreciation for all the contributions that you and your team have provided us with.
GLW has not only provided our community with extensive media coverage on the issue of Tamils, but has constantly delivered genuine support and concern of our plight. Your desire to link issues, campaigns and activist in order to promote a greater change is a selfless and considerate action that has helped us immensely.
Whether it be your attendance at our rallies and demonstrations or your weekly news articles, you have always been there working with our community. Media complicity has played a significant role in the coverage of the Sri Lankan government and their war crimes, but we wholly trust GLW and their honest representation of the reality of the war.
Without your support and media coverage of our protests and political activism, we would not be where we are today.
Thank you and best of luck.
Vasuki Guna, on behalf of the Australian Tamil community
Green Left Weekly has been providing a vital forum for sensible, radical ideas for many years and 800 issues. May there be many, many more!
David Rovics, US-based singer-songwriter
In a media environment where truth gets glossed over in the interests of selling newspapers, Green Left Weekly
remains the persistent voice for global human rights and a sustainable
environment — and Palestine is not forgotten. GLW always manages to
provide the informed coverage that Palestine fails to get in the
mainstream media and there are many of us very grateful for that.
All our thanks to the loyal band of dedicated writers, editorial staff and activists who have kept GLW going for 800 issues: may there be many many more in this unequal world.
Australians for Palestine & Women for Palestine
I try to read a wide range of left-wing and progressive papers and journals, and I can honestly say that Green Left Weekly is the best of them all. No other paper — daily, weekly or monthly — comes close to providing the depth and breadth of the coverage in GLW.I’m very glad indeed to be able to wish GLW many happy returns on the publication of the 800th issue. It is a constant source of reliable information and inspiration.
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
Alex Miller, Scottish Socialist Party member
We would like to send our congratulations and a message of solidarity to Green Left Weekly for reaching the great milestone of 800 issues.
The online version of the paper is read by comrades from the Campsie Branch Scottish Socialist Party and articles from the paper often form the basis for our political discussions. We are looking forward to the next 800 issues and salute all who tirelessly contribute to the publishing of the paper.
Neil Scott
SSP Campsie branch, Scotland www.campsiesocialists.com
Greetings from Free Speech Radio News! FSRN would like to extend its congratulations and well wishes to Green Left Weekly on its 800th edition.
As a grassroots newscast covering U.S. and international stories, FSRN knows all too well the challenges faced by news organizations that operate outside the mainstream.
But the work remains vitally important in these times — reporting the news as it affects real people and real communities, offering alternative viewpoints, and helping to encourage and sustain a more democratic world. Best of luck!
Nathan Moore, Free Speech Radio News,
800 plus congratulations on your 800th. Or better said, “our 800th edition." Why? — because Green Left Weekly
is above all a global and international beacon of solidarity among the
oppressed and exploited whatever their particularities from country to
country.
800 issues – that is a remarkable achievement and warm
congratulations to everyone who has made that possible. These days,
along with many other activists outside Australia, Green Left Weekly is a key source I rely on for an alternative viewpoint on the issues of moment.
Congratulations on reaching your 800th copy. Looking forward to the next 800.
Scottish Socialist Party member
The MurfaxFairdoc newspaper monopoly controls the minds of Ruddites and Turntobulls. Read Green Left Weekly and get the real story.
As a subscriber and a union activist, I would like to congratulate Green Left Weekly on the milestone of 800 issues and would urge all workers to support and to subscribe to GLW.
Gippland Trades and Labour Council secretary, Victoria, Australia
The Indigenous Social Justice Association congratulates Green Left Weekly
on its 800th issue. It is well known that Indigenous issues have been
well and truthfully covered since the first issue and long may that
continue. More strength to you all.
It’s a “jewel” of communication for Australian socialists and ideas
sparkle out of it. To be informed and engaged with comrades with the
courage to act will lead us to the revolutionary change our world
needs.
It’s not religion nor opium but the corporate media that has
become the key stupifier of our age and the main obstacle to public
debate on the alternatives to the neoliberal horror we find ourselves
in.
Tim Anderson, solidarity activist and Sydney University lecturer
Happy 800th issue. Green Left Weekly has tirelessly covered Aboriginal campaigns and the Aboriginal Rights Coalition WA has appreciated the support. I hope GLW remains strong in the fight against capitalist wrongdoing and continues to build the campaign for Aboriginal rights.
Congratulations, Green Left Weekly, on establishing
yourself as a cornerstone of alternative Australian media, both in
print and online. Given the alarming concentration of ownership of
national and international media in the last three decades, your
presence is an invaluable resource assisting the development of
critical thinking and analysis across the country.
John Rice, Ecosocialist Network
Congratulations to Green Left Weekly on its 800th
edition. It is a testament to the hard work and resilience of comrades
in the DSP, Socialist Alliance and Resistance who put together and
distribute the paper. GLW is the only paper in Australia that advocates for the struggles of the radical left and environmental movements.
It is with the greatest pleasure that I congratulate Green Left Weekly in achieving its 800th issue.
The continuous diversity of progressive news and politics over GLW’s
life span is a tribute to the many comrades committed to producing and
distributing an alternative view not found in the commonly known “mass
media” (also known to others as the voice of the capos). Well done and
may GLW be around for many more issues into the future.
Congratulations on your 800th issue. You cover the events the
capitalist media won’t cover properly and, as such, perform a valuable
service to the public.
Congratulations to Green Left Weekly on its 800th
edition — a mighty achievement! Long may you continue to make the
community aware of the need to combine ecological responsibility with
social justice.
Congratulations to Green Left Weekly on producing 800 issues of the paper.
We know how much work goes into producing alternative, independent, dissenting media. GLW,
like 3CR, is run by people power and it’s reassuring to stand
side-by-side in the fight to maintain some space for people before
profit and communities before corporations.
Thanks to Green Left Weekly for supporting the grass roots movement in Zimbabwe against the murderous Mugabe regime.
Green Left Weekly is always there! Support for organised
labour, the disadvantaged and oppressed here and globally is at the
heart of this valuable press. Without pretending to have all the
answers, the paper asks the right questions of us all.
Green Left Weekly has been a refreshing and stimulating change
to the predominantly right-wing news media of this country. Even though
some issues tackled do not get my support, I am challenged to read them
because of the alternative view they present in understanding others
and the issues talked of. Well done GLW!
I understand that it is very hard to keep an anti-system publication like Green Left Weekly going on.
Strong enemies, the fact that to survive implies the use of some of the
system elements and the level of political development in the
Australian working class and its movements make these 800 numbers very
impressive.
An essential element of a healthy democracy is having ready access
to information from progressive sources like the Green Left, rather
than only from the right wing dominated media with a pro-employer bias.
Congratulations and happy birthday to everyone at Green Left Weekly
on reaching this momentous occasion. The effort that you make to
provide the most current and up to date media coverage of issues facing
workers and everyday people in Australia and around the world is to be
commended. You are certainly a valuable source for the Parramatta Your
Rights At Work Group.
1 to 800 and beyond
Congratuations Green Left, those dedicated comrades who have for years worked tirelessly on the paper, and too all who who have sold the paper over the years.
You are the voice of the otherwise voiceless , the inspirer of hope, to all down othwise downtrodden and the scourge to all the corporate thieves.
congratulations
We would wish to add our voice to the deservedly apt avalanche of congratulations for GLW at this point in time. Thus, on behalf of the Working People's Vanguard (monthly newspaper of the All-Nigeria Socialist Alliance), this is saying a hearty, comradely: Viva GLW!
We are inspired by the consistency of the periodical and the role it is playing withing Australia and beyond in a world presently in flux; where issues of the human future and that of our planet's continued existence are threatened by the profit-motive of capital accumulation.
All revolutionary forces, re, green and red-green, need to stand together like never before; marching together to give meaning to the legitimate cry of another world's possibility. That world shall be RED...and GREEN.
Revolutionary regards,
Baba AYE
Best wishes for the 800th issue of Green Left Weekly
Green Left is such a valuable and progressive resource we would never
get through the mainstream media. With a high quality coverage of
the issues at such a hard time, only those who put people before
profit would be able to commit themselves for providing public with
honest account of the events at global and national level.
In solidarity
Solidarity Committee with Iranian Workers-Australia
www.unionkar.com
congrats to all working class heroes in GLW
greeting to all hard working left activist in there that finally reach out 800th issues on alternative media to fight capitalist media in australia. we are reader from indonesia that first had your progresive media from our activist friend. keep the excellent works, and keep struggling !