Taken from www.morningstaronline.co.uk
The Morning Star occupies a unique place in the history of British and world politics in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Founded on January 1, 1930, it is still the only English-language socialist daily newspaper published in the world.
In addition to that claim to fame, it is also the only newspaper in Britain owned by its readers.
Originally published as the Daily Worker, the paper was launched as the organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Over the next 15 years it fought its way into the consciousness of trade unionists and progressives throughout the land, always fighting for the cause of working people and battling against an Establishment which moved heaven and earth to extinguish it
It survived crippling court cases and the imprisonment of staff, harassment and even censorship by the police.
It survived a 12-year boycott (1930-1942) by wholesalers, during which the paper's readers delivered the paper to newsagents.
It outlived an 18-month ban (1940-41) by a vindictive Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, which was only called off after a grass-roots protest movement involving millions of people.
And it rose above the bombing of its offices in 1941, which destroyed both the building and the new presses which had been bought with cash raised by readers' collections.
At the end of the second world war in 1945, the Communist Party of Great Britain realised that the paper had a far wider importance than simply being the journal of the party and, in the September of that year, the People's Press Printing Society was established as an independent co-operative to publish the paper.
Shares were sold at £1 each and, up and down the country, tens of thousands of trade unionists, Labour and Communist party members, trades councils and union branches and regions bought into the paper.
Those shareholders realised that, for the working class, there was little that was more important than to have a daily voice against the forces of imperialism, capitalism, oppression and exploitation, a voice to counteract the diet of lies and distortions fed to the public by capitalism's toady press.
In 1966 the honourable name of the Daily Worker was replaced and the paper relaunched as the Morning Star - a change of name that was hotly debated throughout the trade union and labour movement.
But, change of name or no, the paper continued the fight against oppression that had been the hallmark of the Daily Worker and carried on earning the respect of all whose causes it espoused, sometimes as the supporter of great mass movements and sometimes ploughing a lonely furrow as the single voice of progress in a Fleet Street which, at times, richly deserved the title Street of Shame.
In 1984, the paper moved from its broadsheet format to become a tabloid, taking on an appearance which, with some modifications, is still recognisable today.
The tabloid Morning Star, however, faced many of the same hostilities and attacks as its predecessors - and some which could never have been envisaged in earlier days.
A continuous ban on advertising by commercial firms has left the finances of the paper permanently on a knife-edge and the ban's effects have only been offset by the commitment of the trade union movement to advertising in the Morning Star and the efforts of thousands of readers in raising and pledging money to the paper's Fighting Fund - another unique part of the Morning Star, which ties it to its readers in a way that no other daily newspaper would dare to attempt to emulate.
The optimism of the period of the Soviet Union as a banner for progressives the world over was replaced by a grim struggle for the survival of the ideal following the collapse of the socialist order in 1991.
The ramifications of that collapse were seen in the communist and socialist parties in virtually every country in the world and placed strains on the Morning Star which, in a weaker organisation, would have been its downfall.
But, a decade and more following the events of the early '90s, the Morning Star is still here.
In many ways, the struggle for socialism has become more complex and, in response, the paper has cast its net wide. As a forum for debate in the left, it has no parallel, as a voice for the working class it has no peer.
Be it on environmental issues, human rights, trade union struggles, national or international politics, the Morning Star is there to inform, to publicise and to advocate.
It has been a long, rough, road that the Morning Star has been forced to travel, but the paper of the working class is still fighting and still campaigning. It has matured and has even grown through this difficult period.
And it still carries proudly the claim on its masthead.
For peace and socialism.
The Morning Star occupies a unique place in the history of British and world politics in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Founded on January 1, 1930, it is still the only English-language socialist daily newspaper published in the world.
In addition to that claim to fame, it is also the only newspaper in Britain owned by its readers.
Originally published as the Daily Worker, the paper was launched as the organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Over the next 15 years it fought its way into the consciousness of trade unionists and progressives throughout the land, always fighting for the cause of working people and battling against an Establishment which moved heaven and earth to extinguish it
It survived crippling court cases and the imprisonment of staff, harassment and even censorship by the police.
It survived a 12-year boycott (1930-1942) by wholesalers, during which the paper's readers delivered the paper to newsagents.
It outlived an 18-month ban (1940-41) by a vindictive Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, which was only called off after a grass-roots protest movement involving millions of people.
And it rose above the bombing of its offices in 1941, which destroyed both the building and the new presses which had been bought with cash raised by readers' collections.
At the end of the second world war in 1945, the Communist Party of Great Britain realised that the paper had a far wider importance than simply being the journal of the party and, in the September of that year, the People's Press Printing Society was established as an independent co-operative to publish the paper.
Shares were sold at £1 each and, up and down the country, tens of thousands of trade unionists, Labour and Communist party members, trades councils and union branches and regions bought into the paper.
Those shareholders realised that, for the working class, there was little that was more important than to have a daily voice against the forces of imperialism, capitalism, oppression and exploitation, a voice to counteract the diet of lies and distortions fed to the public by capitalism's toady press.
In 1966 the honourable name of the Daily Worker was replaced and the paper relaunched as the Morning Star - a change of name that was hotly debated throughout the trade union and labour movement.
But, change of name or no, the paper continued the fight against oppression that had been the hallmark of the Daily Worker and carried on earning the respect of all whose causes it espoused, sometimes as the supporter of great mass movements and sometimes ploughing a lonely furrow as the single voice of progress in a Fleet Street which, at times, richly deserved the title Street of Shame.
In 1984, the paper moved from its broadsheet format to become a tabloid, taking on an appearance which, with some modifications, is still recognisable today.
The tabloid Morning Star, however, faced many of the same hostilities and attacks as its predecessors - and some which could never have been envisaged in earlier days.
A continuous ban on advertising by commercial firms has left the finances of the paper permanently on a knife-edge and the ban's effects have only been offset by the commitment of the trade union movement to advertising in the Morning Star and the efforts of thousands of readers in raising and pledging money to the paper's Fighting Fund - another unique part of the Morning Star, which ties it to its readers in a way that no other daily newspaper would dare to attempt to emulate.
The optimism of the period of the Soviet Union as a banner for progressives the world over was replaced by a grim struggle for the survival of the ideal following the collapse of the socialist order in 1991.
The ramifications of that collapse were seen in the communist and socialist parties in virtually every country in the world and placed strains on the Morning Star which, in a weaker organisation, would have been its downfall.
But, a decade and more following the events of the early '90s, the Morning Star is still here.
In many ways, the struggle for socialism has become more complex and, in response, the paper has cast its net wide. As a forum for debate in the left, it has no parallel, as a voice for the working class it has no peer.
Be it on environmental issues, human rights, trade union struggles, national or international politics, the Morning Star is there to inform, to publicise and to advocate.
It has been a long, rough, road that the Morning Star has been forced to travel, but the paper of the working class is still fighting and still campaigning. It has matured and has even grown through this difficult period.
And it still carries proudly the claim on its masthead.
For peace and socialism.
