We republish below a transcription of the primary founding statement of the original newspaper The Worker, published on February 2nd, 1922. Today we commemorate its 103rd anniversary. As some parts of the photocopy of the text are illegible, bracketed words indicate our best guess as to what was written.
This, the first edition of The Worker, is the advance agent of The Daily Worker. We are ambitious and we intend to grow [in size], increase in quality and enlarge the influence of this publication—a journal [rooted] solely in the interest of the working class. That [many] or most of [these] [unreadable for several words] their paper. In this work we take much pleasure in fulfilling a duty.
The Worker preaches the class struggle, but it is going to be fair about it. It will be just as fair in its treatment of the capitalists, the capitalist system, its hangers-on, leeches, parasites and apologists as they are in their treatment of the working class. As a consequence, The Worker will never have a good word to say for the exploiters and their hirelings. If we cannot unearth any new evidences of the horrors of capitalism, if we can discover from time to time no new proofs of the folly, incompetence and cruelty of the ruling class, we will remain silent, but praise for some act of regal charity toward those whom they have robbed will never be found in these columns. We leave that for their own sheets and the others which envy and ape them—the slippery organs of liberalism and social democracy.
This paper is for workers, and we want the workers to write for it—their contributions will be published. This paper wants the expression of the men and women of labor whose self-sacrifice makes this paper possible. We want the stories of the daily grind in all the places where labor sweats for the profit of the hog-jowled gentry who own this nation. If the stories are badly written and poorly spelled it makes no difference. The editor of this paper could not spell a word of more than two syllables five years ago. These little things will be attended to. That’s what the editor is paid for—when he gets paid.
This paper is against everything the capitalist class is for, because what is good for them is bad for us. Its policy is that in a fight with the employer and his political henchmen labor is always right. ALWAYS RIGHT. We do not have to wait for the report of an interchurch committee or a senatorial investigation to make up our mind on that point. We are prejudiced in this matter and we admit it—freely and frankly. We are rank partisans so far as the working class is concerned. Do not expect us to be “fair.” We intend to give the workers—organized and unorganized—the best of it whenever the issue is one between the workers and any section, group or individual of the capitalist class. That’s the way the capitalist press does, and it’s time that the working-class press took a leaf out of its book. A whole lot of workers will not agree with this policy. They still believe that it is respectable and Christ-like to be fair with an opponent that uses teeth, knees and elbows in the clinches.
It may be Christ-like, but it’s damn poor judgment as the results prove.
It is doubtful if this paper will ever acquire the polished style of journalism that the “intelligentsia” of the revolutionary movement so much admire. We hope not. It is not that we glory in the dirty shirt and the greasy overall—the national costume of the American worker—but we believe that too much suavity indicates that philosophical attitude toward the class struggle and the social revolution that has been one of the many curses of the American radical movement. This paper will carry better articles, better editorials, better cartoons, better poetry, better news and better all-around educational matter than any other working-class journal in the United States. It will be able to enlist talent that the capitalist class has not enough money to hire. We are not going to be crude and unlettered when it comes to dealing in economics, history, literature, and philosophy simply because this is a working-class paper. The workers do not want egotistical ignorance. They do want the same ruggedness and courage in the publications that try to speak for them as they possess themselves and without which the struggles of the oppressed masses in all ages could not be the most glorious pages of human history.
This paper is not being published to please or satisfy other editors. From the conventional journalist we want no praise and probably will get none. As a matter of fact we are going to develop a new school of journalism—the proletarian school. Its disciples will write and draw with but one purpose—the overthrow of capitalism through the militant and intelligent action of the working class.
After all, that’s the only thing worth working, writing, drawing and fighting for in this day and age.
And it is not a private fight. Anyone can get into it. The staff of The Worker extends to all who feel the same as they do a most cordial invitation to join them in the struggle.
The Worker is an entirely volunteer-run revolutionary newspaper free from and radically antagonistic to corporate influence. We rely on the support of our readers to sustain our editorial line in service of the working class and the reconstitution of its party, the Communist Party. Make a one-time or recurring donation to our newspaper today:
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