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Left Hook Fund Drive on Our First Anniversary
-The Editors
Dear Left Hook readers,
This December marks the first full year of online publication for Left Hook. When we first began work on this journal, our goal was to fill a major void on the American Left by providing a space for leftist youth to discuss the struggles and concerns of our generation. For the past year, we have strived hard to fulfill this goal; to make the journal an open, engaging space for young American leftists to express their ideas, offer their analyses, share their ideas, and discuss and debate the pressing political and social issues of our time.
Against the backdrop of an emboldened US imperialism, with increasing dangers and tragedies unfolding both domestically and abroad, we have tried to equip our readers with a better, clearer understanding of our world, offering political commentary, ground reports, interviews, cultural pieces, and reviews relevant to our struggles. With this all-sided effort, Left Hook has committed itself to a presenting bold, unapologetic stand in favor of justice and equality, strongly opposing the immoral and disastrous war in Iraq, relentlessly exposing the brutal nature of Israeli colonialism, taking a principled stand against the two-party fiasco during the elections, highlighting important union struggles and initiatives, among many other causes.
In the past few months we have also made a concerted effort to improve the journal. Instead of updating once a week or week and a half, we now consistently update the site with new material once every three or four days. We have not only included more content, but more original content, relying less on reprints and more on exclusives and youth contributions. Furthermore, we recently upgraded the journal's look, putting a forth a completely redesigned and cleaner-looking website. We have also started new projects, including the Left Hook War Blog, GI Briefings, and an essay contest, with several other initiatives planned and under way.
The result has been a steady increase in participation and readership: in July, we received 7,708 visits, in August, 9,453, in September, 11,094, in October, 12,718, and in November, our all-time high of 15,845.
However, all of these improvements, initiatives, and successes have meant an increasingly strenuous workload for us: the tasks have rapidly increased, but we are still only two people, and in school full-time. Working on the journal has become much like a demanding part-time job, involving much editing, writing, outreach, updating, increased activism, and technical work. The recent resurgence of the anti-war movement, including GI dissent and meetings across college campuses, for instance, has required a redoubling of efforts and investment of greater time and energy to explore, publicize, and help these positive developments along through Left Hook.
To maintain this demanding pace and to keep providing the content you have enjoyed here for a year, Left Hook greatly needs your financial support for this month's Fund Drive. We have no business backers, prestigious think tanks, or renowned institutes dictating our content, no advertisements cluttering our site, and no hidden Swiss bank accounts to fall back on.
You, our readers, are our only source of support. Ultimately, for all our efforts, it is you who will determine the quality and success of the journal and its various new initiatives. If you value our efforts - if you value the presence of a radical journal offering a hub for young leftists to coordinate, develop and strengthen not only themselves but the entire American Left - please make a donation today. It is, we think, a worthwhile investment in our collective future.
Sincerely,
Derek Seidman and M. Junaid Alam
"Left Hook has been providing refreshing, informative, independent reporting and analysis, with flair and insight. It's a very valuable contribution, much needed."
- Noam Chomsky, professor at MIT and author of Hegemony or Survival
"In a time when the left is still trying to struggle out of its post-90's malaise, the voices of both clarity and militancy must be cherished and nurtured. Especially when those are the voices of the young upon whom the world depends for the continuity of a politics of resistance to the devastating criminality of late imperialism. Left Hook is one of the
most important of those youth voices, coming in loud and uncluttered by the hand-wringing individualism of liberal poseurs and life-style 'radicals.' Read it. Contribute to it. Distribute it. And support it."
-Stan Goff, former Master Sergeant in the US Special Forces, anti-war activist with Military Families Speak Out, and author of Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century
"Left Hook is unique among progressive electronic journals, both because it is
run by two amazing young men and because it provides incisive analyses which have no match. Editors Seidman and Alam cover a wider spectrum of issues and regions than do other journals - ranging from the Ivory Coast to Arafat to a critique of the Left's assumption that Kerry was the lesser of two evils. If you want to read a serious radical Left journal that pulls no punches in critiquing the capitalist establishment and does not sink into formulaic ideologies, this is the journal for you."
-Elaine Hagopian,
Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College, author of Civil Rights in Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims
"Left Hook represents a very exciting development for everyone struggling to understand our world and to create a better one. The fact that it has been up and running for a year is testament not just to the quality of the essays and interviews it publishes but also to the fact that there are many thousands of committed young radicals in the United States and around the world. A very hopeful sign indeed. I urge you to support Left Hook in whatever ways you can."
-Michael D. Yates, Associate Editor of Monthly Review magazine and author of Naming the System: Work in the Global Economy
"Left Hook is a new voice of dissent, radicalism and social transformation,
and a vital one. Left Hook speaks for and with the new generation of
activists, and needs to be heard by all. Send them money!"
-Paul Buhle, professor at Brown University, author of Encyclopedia of the American Left
Donate today to Support Left Hook.
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