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From Labor Action, Vol. 4 No. 37, 23 December 1940, p. 1.
transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The Christmas-New Year holidays are approaching.
As the old year is rung out, we will hear repeated everywhere the saying: “Peace on earth, good will to all men.”
But there is no peace on earth, and very little is left of good will. The entire world is being engulfed in the second and more dreadful of the two world wars. Never were the alternatives of barbarism or socialism, slavery or freedom, war or peace, posed more urgently.
The voice of the working class is being silenced or falsified. Yet it is that voice alone that is able to speak truly of a new and sanely organized civilization. It is that class alone that is able to usher in the new civilization.
Our press is devoted single-mindedly to making that voice heard. We have not lost one iota of our confidence in the working class, in its ability to reorganize world society, and in the certainty that it will accomplish its great and noble historical mission. We intend to continue being what we have always been, voice and arm of the working class.
The difficulties facing a militant labor paper have not decreased with the outbreak of the war, but rather increased. But so has our determination to continue the fight and bring it to a victorious conclusion.
Our press now asks for, and we believe it deserves, the generous aid of all its readers and supporters. The war has not multiplied the modest sources of revenue that were at our disposal. Our “foreign trade” has been all but crippled by the war. We must rely exclusively now on the aid we can get in the United States. Without increasing this aid, we ore threatened with paralysis.
It is a traditional custom to give gifts to friends on Christmas. Our press – Labor Action, the New International – is asking for a Christmas Gift from you! Relieving the financial burden now carried by the press of the Workers Party, means also mare literature published by us, more pamphlets, more organizers organizing, more speakers speaking, more activity in every field of our work.
Comrades, readers, friends of Labor Action – send in a Christmas Gift to our press! Send as large a financial contribution as you can. Send it as a donation to Labor Action. Or you can send it as a subscription to Labor Action for one of your friends, if you do not already have one yourself. In this way, you will be giving a Christmas present both to our press and to your friend.
Give a Christmas Gift and give generously. And as the post-office authorities say, “Mail early!”
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