To understand the importance of Lenin’s conception of the party newspaper, we have to look at the conditions of Russia in the early 20th Century. In the text, Lenin characterizes three periods in the development of Social Democracy in Russia, stating the initial stage was from 1884 to 1894. “This was the period of the rise and consolidation of the theory and programme of Social-Democracy,” he wrote. This was social democracy in an embryonic and uncoordinated form, detached from a concrete movement and without a developed, militant political party.

　　The second period was from 1894–98.In this period,“Social-Democracy appeared on the scene as a social movement, as the upsurge of the masses of the people, as a political party. …This was also the period where the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class was formed, before merging into the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.”

　　In 1902, the 3rd period was occurring as Lenin was writing What is to Be Done. This period was characterized as one of ‘Disunity, dissolution, and vacillation.’ But as Lenin states, this disunity was not on the part of the workers, who were eager to take action, but on the part of the leaders of social-democracy themselves. “It was only the leaders who wandered about separately and drew back,” he wrote then. “The movement itself continued to grow, and it advanced with enormous strides.” This new stage saw the proletarian struggle spread to new strata of workers, as an upsurge of activity was experienced.

　　“Lenin’s merit is that he deprived the bourgeois press of its aura of being a supernatural force … the entire bourgeois press within a capitalist state is a weapon for consolidating the power of the bourgeoisie.” – Baluyev

　　Within Lenin’s writing, there is an effort to denounce the perceived “objectivity” of the bourgeois press. Lenin showed that the “mainstream” press of his time, while presenting itself as a source of universal truth, actually had a class status and was an ideological tool for maintaining capitalist rule.

　　The mainstream press today reflects the same capitalist class interests, and helps maintain capitalism and U.S. imperialism. We can easily see these economic and political ties as most big business media outlets are owned by capitalists themselves (e.g. Heath Freeman owns Denver Post, and the Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos), they are mainly funded by huge corporate advertisers, and thus, the big business press promotes ideas which affirm capitalist control, both domestically and internationally. Whereas the capitalist press (which Communists should still analyze and use) represents an extension of capitalist power, a Communist Party paper reflects the interests of the working class and puts forward an alternative political program.

　　The Russian newspapers of the 20th century should serve as an inspiration for connecting our newspaper with the politics of our party. Just as the Bolshevik newspaper created a connection between the political goals of the RSDLP and the working masses who read the publication, we must use our newspaper as a means of building and deepening the political struggle by connecting the mass struggles of our time with our party program. We fight as a unified working-class movement, not only through party activity, but through our press. The Communist Party must use every tool at our disposal to fight against reactionary attack, as every instance of abuse of capital is covered in the press.

　　We continue to use the press and publications like Peoples World to help working-class and democratic struggles move in the direction of socialism. We must encourage active workshops and help party members submit articles to People’s World. The essential role of the PW as a representative of the working class is a necessary condition for raising class consciousness and building the fight against capitalism. Finally, we must work to strengthen our party press by solidifying our party connections and concentrate our political tasks around the newspaper. We must be critical and continually discuss how to improve our newspaper. The PW sees itself as the voice of the party, the working-class and people’s movement, and part of the independent press. How can we strengthen its mission as the party’s organ and continue to build a newspaper that supports the party’s program and working-class demands? We have seen the effects of this connection between the newspaper and party practice throughout our history, with the incredible work of the People’s World and Daily Worker.

　　Editor: Zhong Yao、Deng Panyi

　　From:https://www.cpusa.org/article/understanding-our-press-as-a-collective-organizer/(2023-8-5)