A Letter to Our Readers

Dear Readers,

Last week the Conservatives achieved a major electoral victory, and they will now set about remaking the country in their image once more.

It is an unquestionable blow for the left, which has expended much energy resisting the devastating effects of a decade of Tory rule whilst trying to bring about a new political settlement which raises the prospects and living standards of the many, and the most vulnerable in particular. We know that many of you, like us, will have spent the last few months working tirelessly to bring about a desperately needed change of government. We know that many of you will now be feeling exhausted and disheartened, and we extend our solidarity and admiration to all of you.

We always viewed the Corbyn moment as a political response to a changed world after 2008, a crisis of capitalism every bit as historic as that of the late 1920s. It is in the context of that crisis that we repeat a very simple assertion: there is no going back, and any politics seeking social justice must accept this. But Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party was only ever one aspect of a much wider shift across Europe and the globe. The people and ideas that drove it forward were drawn from a much larger movement that is stronger than ever, and the dynamism of today’s socialists, in Britain and abroad, was unthinkable just a few years ago.

But reinvigoration is not enough. We seek change. We recognise the urgent need for better, more informed journalism; analysis which grasps the climate crisis and a failing economic model; and an internationalist perspective which views our world as interconnected – meaning struggles everywhere share more than is often understood. To us this stands in contrast to the purveyors of fake news, including in the legacy media, such as those who published and circulated a conspiracy theory (which referred to both Novara Media and members of our team) during this election campaign whose sources included ‘Aryan Unity’. Such attacks – as with those directed at leftwing activists during the election campaign – are intended to startle and intimidate. We are neither startled nor intimidated.

Be assured that our project is not going anywhere. Novara Media was founded in 2013, in the embers of the initial anti-austerity movement which followed the election of the Coalition government. It is an organisation comprised of individuals whose adult lives have all been defined by the fallout of the global financial crisis, as have so many of yours. We come from a generation of people who have been told the future is not ours; that a better world is not possible. We reject these sentiments in the strongest possible terms, and reaffirm our commitment to reckoning with the most urgent and significant challenges of our times, not merely as a battle of ideas, but as part of a movement for radical and lasting change. Ours is not a politics of nostalgia, but a politics striving for a better future.

We make no secret or apology for our political commitments or values, our deep hatred of injustice, or our incitement to political action. We know our supporters expect nothing less of us. Racist authoritarianism, climate breakdown and the effects of austerity scar the present historical juncture as severely as at any moment in the last decade. We still live in the shadow of the financial crisis, itself a death rattle of 40 years of neoliberalism. And we still have a better future to win, for each other and for future generations.

Securing socialism, freedom and justice in our lifetimes will require us all to play a part, and there is no way around the fact that the next five years will be very hard. For us, the media continues to be both a tool by which to achieve these aims, and a terrain that must be won. This means continuing to expand our ability to report, analyse and criticise the injustices that will now define this government’s tenure, whilst providing a pluralistic home for leftwing thought.

Everything Novara Media has accomplished since 2013 has been thanks to you, our readers. Like you, we are bitterly disappointed with the election result, but we firmly believe in a future that belongs to all of us. Our role in securing it will be to build a new media for a different politics.

We hope you’ll join us.

In solidarity,

The Novara Media Team

If you would like to build a new media for a different politics, please go to novaramedia.com/support. Our work is only possible because of your donations.