In doing the second issue of Socialist, it became clear that while we were looking for writers who could cover specific issues, we also found ourselves asking writers for works they have already written. We have no problem with this; in our movement the more attention one can give to an issue or a good article about an issue, the better it is for everyone. However, we also want to encourage our readers to submit articles to us as well. Socialist is put together by people who, like most people, have other jobs. Some of our jobs are in the movement, some not. But the fact of the matter is that we can certainly use the help of others in making this publication bigger and better. If you have articles you've written, or articles you want to write, feel free to send them to us. We don't guarantee that they will be published, and as Socialist is free to you, we don't have money to pay writers (even though they should be paid). But we will read what you send, and if it fits into the scheme of what we're looking for on a particular topic, you just might find your article in an upcoming issue.

The comments we've received on our last issue were overwhelmingly positive. Just one example is a letter from Gary Linder of Stevenage, who writes: 'It's about time that socialists put together a magazine like yours, which is good enough to rival what the corporate media puts out.' We're quite flattered, but we're also not so sure that a modest fourteen page online publication quite rivals the Economist.Not by a longshot.

Nevertheless, our goal is to find a way to build upon this idea, which we feel is a good one, to create a socialist publication that one day actually could rival what the capitalist media puts out. We have some exciting articles planned in the coming months, and we plan to introduce some new features as well as we go along.

While there is clearly a need for a more closely knit and organised international socialist media, the resources available to us have always been sparse, and the political climate in which we operate has been less than generous to us, even in nations with a long-developed social democracy. The difficulty is the same as it has always been; people in power would rather not see working people have their own voice. The right-wing press in almost every nation has managed to manipulate public opinion to the point of bringing down elected governments. The US once created a coup d'etat with nothing more than a radio broadcast (Guatemala).

From our perspective, this is precisely where the power of the internet comes in. It has allowed a greater co-ordination of activities between socialists, and a level of access to communication that was heretofore unthinkable. But while we are proud of our new, small project with Socialist, we also recognise that we socialists need not only our own publications, but our own radio and television programmes, newspapers, and news services. Such a goal is a long, long way away from this page, but it is a goal that we feel we have to call attention to.