Owing to dire financial circumstances, I have just had to cancel my on-line subscription to the Morning Star. So it's good news that the only left daily paper in the UK is apparently to be free on the internet come January.
The news is particularly welcome as Tribune seems to be terminally ill, and last week I heard that the monthly Socialist Campaign Group News, admittedly dull and worthy but one of the few media platforms there is for the Labour Left, was also to go under.
It could well be that the days of viable left print publications are numbered. And for a long time it has been seemingly an impossible task to sustain them. Lack of advertising and a myriad of other problems saw off the left-of-centre News On Sunday within weeks way back in 1987.
In an ideal world, I still think the LRC should have its own publication but unfortunately attempts to make Labour Briefing the official voice of the LRC came to nought last year. And it could well be that we have to find new ways of operating and gettting our message across. An on-line Labour Left publication could well be the answer.
All it takes is people with the appropriate IT expertise, others with the ability to write and comment and of course boundless enthusiam and commitment because there is never any money..... I hope this is something we can address early in the New Year when we should give the new re-vamped Morning Star on-line as much support as we possibly can. It's by no means perfect as a publication. But in a media world dominated by the metropolitan Islington mafia , the Star is one of the best assets we have.
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