Manager’s Column

From Fourth International, vol.3 No.3, March 1942, p.66.
Transcribed, Edited & Formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for the ETOL.

We believe the following extracts from letters of readers amply support our claim that the February issue of Fourth International was a particularly good one:

D.C. of Tennessee: “I am enclosing a money order for $1 for which please renew my sub to Fourth International. If possible, please send the February issue as I have not received my own copy and there are articles in it I would hate not to have, and would like very much for several friends to see.”
J. B. of Montana: “The FI was very good this time. It went over good out here.”

And we want to quote from a letter we appreciate because it indicates the growing prestige of our magazine: “While not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed in your publication, I wish to state that I have found them very helpful in interpreting world events and I sincerely hope that you may be able to continue publication.”

* * *

We know that all of you look forward each month to the interesting letters we receive from friends in other countries.

Argentina: “I have been receiving Fourth International regularly and I am very grateful to you. I beg you to continue sending the magazine ... It is very important in this period to continue receiving the publication of our movement.”
Cuba: “During these times I want to read good papers and magazines and find Interesting articles of the authentic revolutionary Marxists; so I enclose $1 for which please mail me Fourth International, and send me the back issues ...”
England: “Fourth International is extremely valuable material for educational purposes and it makes very interesting reading. Such material is vitally necessary if we are to increase the theoretical level of our friends and comrades ... We have wonderful opportunities locally and nationally, but we cannot utilize these without a clear and scientific understanding, i.e., without material such as the above ... We realize the difficulties in sending material to such places as ‘ours.’ But please endeavor to send us as many copies of Fourth International as possible ... We also would be pleased if you could send us a bound volume of the FI for 1941. By the way, the volume need not be ‘bound’; we are interested in the material and not the appearance! All our copies (half are missing) are black with use and thumb marks since they are passed around to a dozen people.”
England (From the British monthly Left which publishes articles of various viewpoints): “As it seems of particular importance at the present time that the Socialist movement in Britain should be aware of what the movement in the USA is thinking, we are proposing to begin, as a regular feature, the publication of representative extracts from the American Socialist press. If this new feature is to be a success, it is necessary that copies of American journals should reach me as soon after publication as possible. May we hope for your collaboration in this?”

And above all, as this issue of FI shows, with its publication of two basic documents from the Fourth International sections in France and India, the international connections of FI are being maintained one way and another!

* * *

We are pleased to report a pick-up in Fourth International bundle payments during the past few months. Some of our agents have cooperated in a commendable fashion with us in our attempts to establish regularity of payment. For instance, we know that every month we can depend on a payment from Montana, Boston, Chicago, Newark, Allentown,Minneapolis, Detroit, Quakertown, New Haven, Kansas, Buffalo, Cleveland, Philadelphia. In fact, some of these agents’ accounts usually show a credit balance. Even though payments have increased during the past few months, however, they have not as a whole yet become stable. There are still those agents who remit in a more or less haphazard fashion, every other month, every three months, and there are a few who really keep us guessing as to just when they will make a payment. We once more urge these agents to regularize their payments quickly as possible.

Subscriptions continue to come in quite regularly. For February, Local New York tops the subscription list, followed by Minneapolis, Chicago, Flint, Boston, Akron, Youngstown, Seattle, Detroit, St. Paul and Stockton. We would like to see the subscriptions increase, of course, and believe they will if you make it a regular habit to get a sub into the hands of every contact, and follow up on expired subs to make sure that they are renewed.

Top of page

Main FI Index | Main Newspaper Index

Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive

This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Trotskism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.

Last updated on 13.9.2008