With this issue, we officially kick off the annual People’s Voice Fund Drive. As usual, we need to raise $50,000 to help cover the costs of printing and distributing the working class press across Canada.

For the second consecutive year, 2009 saw an increase in overall paid circulation for People’s Voice. That’s a critical advance, at a time when progressive media outlets face complex new problems, but we need to keep this momentum going.

Some claim that the worst economic downturn in seventy years, which saw about sixty million workers lose their jobs in the OECD countries over the past year, is now a thing of the past. But unemployment shows no sign of falling, and the crisis keeps erupting in new forms, such as  the latest attempt to drive Greek workers and pensioners into abject poverty.

By the time this paper arrives in subscribers’ mailboxes, Parliament will finally be  reconvening, more than two months after Stephen Harper prorogued to avoid tough questions about the economy and the Afghan torture scandal. But working people can’t expect answers or action from that quarter. Once again, it will be up to our collective efforts to tell Canadians the true source of the economic crisis, and how to fight back to win a People’s Agenda, not more corporate greed.

Many big working class struggles lie ahead this year - the ongoing campaign to restore and  expand Employment Insurance coverage, strike battles in Sudbury and other communities, the Common Front negotiations by Quebec public sector workers.

On a global scale, the fight to make corporations pay for the consequences of climate change  is entering a higher stage. The campaign to end the imperialist occupation of Afghanistan  remains high on our agenda. Socialist ideals continue to gain support in many countries, as  hundreds of millions reject the failed policies of capitalism. We are living in a time of life and  death decisions for the future of our planet, and we desperately need stronger voices for  revolutionary change.

People’s Voice will continue to play our role in the fight against the capitalist crisis. We intend to keep growing our circulation, and to get thousands of copies into the hands of workers and  their allies in every corner of Canada.

Of course, we need your support to carry out these plans. Every year since The Worker first hit the streets in 1922, supporters of the revolutionary working class press have come through big time, for our predecessor publications, and now for People’s Voice. When you receive your fund appeal letter in the mail, please respond quickly and generously.

In our next issue, we’ll report on the “Shopping Bag” for the 2010 PV Fund Drive. Until then, remember that People’s Voice is your newspaper. Every contribution, large or small, helps us build it bigger and better!