The Morning Star

Infobox_Newspaper
name = The Morning Star


type = Daily newspaper
format = Compact
foundation = 1930
owners = People's Press Printing Society
political = Socialist, Communist
headquarters = William Rust House,
52 Beachy Road, Bow,
London E3 2NS
editor = John Haylett
website = [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk www.morningstaronline.co.uk]
:"For other uses, see Morning Star.""The Morning Star" is a left-wing, British daily newspaper, set in a compact format. It is mostly dedicated to foreign and domestic news, with a bias leaning toward social issues and unions, and away from the perceived "pro-business" stance of other publications. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4361137.stm BBC NEWS | Magazine | Pressing on ] ] It also has an arts page, a TV page, and sports pages. It famously eschews the gossip columns and sensational news of heavier tabloid papers, keeping to a lighter, tighter format (currently 12 pages weekdays, 16 on a Saturday).

"The Morning Star" was founded in 1930 as the "Daily Worker", the official organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but since 1945 it has been owned and published by a readers' co-operative, the People's Press Printing Society which operates on one vote per shareholder. The paper was re-launched as the "Morning Star" in 1966.

Editorial policy

Current Editor

The current editor is John Haylett, who was part of the group that was expelled from the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988 to found the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), and successive annual general meetings of the People's Press Printing Society have agreed that the editorial policy of the paper is founded on the CPB's programme, "Britain's Road to Socialism". [People's Press Printing Society Limited 61st Annual Report for Annual General Meeting June 2006, p. 4] However, despite this special relationship with the CPB, [ [http://www.scottishcommunists.org.uk/about/?page=stand_for_4 More about Scottish Communists: Part of the Communist Party of Britain ] ] the "Morning Star" is not a mouthpiece for any political party: [ [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index2.php/free/fighting_fund Morning Star Online - Britain's socialist daily newspaper ] ] features are contributed by writers from a variety of socialist, social democratic, green, and even religious perspectives.

Editorial line

Generally, the editorial line is in support of the ideals of peace and socialism. It was largely uncritical of the politics and actions of the Soviet Union. It is moderately Eurosceptic, though its reasons for such a stance are different from those of the "Daily Mail" or Rupert Murdoch's newspapers.

It is critical of the upper or ruling classes. It defends peaceful protests and civil disobedience and industrial action by groups of workers to improve their working conditions and wages. "The Morning Star" is also concerned with environmental issues and supports several environment campaigning groups; it advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament. In elections the paper endorses the Communist Party of Britain; where the CPB is not standing, the paper (albeit with some reluctance) advocates a vote for the Labour Party – although not what it terms the 'New Labour' faction.

Contributors

The paper carries frequent contributions from campaigning journalists John Pilger and Uri Avnery, Green MEP Caroline Lucas, Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Alan Simpson, Respect MP George Galloway, former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Neil Clark and the cartoonist Martin Rowson.

According to the editor John Haylett: :" ... We have articles from people that at one time we would never have given the time of day to - like the Welsh and Scottish Nationalists, the Greens, and regular contributions from church people ... [but] ... things that happened in the Soviet Union 70 years ago are still being used as a stick to beat the "Morning Star" [with] ."

History of support

The paper was the only British daily to support the National Union of Mineworkers during the miners' strike of 1984-1985, and it still campaigns for the coal industry to be rebuilt. It adopts the phrase "clean coal" to emphasise that the environmental impact of mining must be taken into account. The 2006 energy review by the Tony Blair administration was criticised for not giving enough consideration to clean coal energy. [ [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index2.php/free/comment/pulling_the_wool Morning Star Online - Britain's socialist daily newspaper ] ]

On international issues the paper generally advocates a "two-state" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and calls for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories. It is also critical of the Republican Party of the United States. It was the only daily paper in Britain to take a serious stance against the Kosovo War, denouncing North Atlantic Treaty Organization military intervention, and the only paper to criticise the way Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević was removed from office. It also opposed the Iraq War, but was much less eager to defend Saddam Hussein.

On Northern Ireland the paper generally takes a pro-nationalist line. News reports from Northern Ireland are almost invariably described as being "from our foreign newsdesk".

General history

Editorial history

In 1940, the paper, then the "Daily Worker" with an anti-war editorial policy during the Vyacheslav Molotov-Joachim von Ribbentrop Pact, accused Sir Walter Citrine, the General Secretary of Britain's Trade Union Congress, of "plotting with the French Citrines to bring millions of Anglo-French Trade Unionists behind the Anglo-French imperialist war machine". Citrine sued, and the case turned into a display of the "Daily Worker's" editorial position as being directed from the Soviet Union. [cite web | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,,00.html |title=Reds, Labor and the War|date=13 May, 1940|publisher=Time (magazine)] Because of its pro-Moscow position during the war, the "Daily Worker" was suppressed by Government order between January 21, 1941 and September 7 1942.

Finances and circulation

"The Morning Star" carries very little commercial advertising, with low advertising rates [ [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/contactus.html Contact Us ] ] , and the cover price does not cover print & distribution. Consequently the paper has always been heavily dependent on donations made by activists, reader's groups and sympathetic organisations such as Trades Unions.

The paper currently relies for its funding largely on donations to its perpetual "Star Fund" appeal (monthly target £16,000). [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index2.php/free/fighting_fund] In its past, the paper also received some indirect subsidy from the Soviet Union, in the form of bulk orders. The paper has been calling on readers and supporters to guarantee "The Morning Star"'s future via a dedicated fund-raising effort.

Backing from readers is intended to ensure independence from business-related advertising. While reporters on all the other national dailies may at times have to strike a balance between the financial interests of their employers and the informational interests of their readers (for example by reporting in such a way as to avoid causing offence to a major corporate advertiser or a billionaire proprietor), with the "Morning Star" the readers "are" the proprietor, so in theory no such conflict should arise. In March 2005, BBC News Magazine reported the "Morning Star's" circulation as between 13,000 and 14,000, quoting John Haylett's comment "perhaps only one in 10 of these readers would label themselves as communists". [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4361137.stm BBC NEWS | Magazine | Pressing on ] ] In August 1996, "The Guardian" reported the print run to be "around 25,000". [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/aug/03/olympicsandthemedia.pressandpublishing Morning Star faces Olympic challenge | Media | MediaGuardian ] ]

During the early morning of 28 July 2008, the offices of the newspaper were badly damaged by fire, [ [http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=237792&in_page_id=34 "Morning Star offices go up in smoke",] "Metro", 28 July 2008.] and the edition of 29 July took a reduced form.

On-Line version

An [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk on-line version of the paper] was launched on 1 April 2004. Some parts of the site are free, including [http://www.peoples-press.com/today.pdf a PDF of the paper's front page] , the editorial [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index2.php/free/comment "Star Comment"] and all the articles from the [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index2.php/free/culture culture] and [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index2.php/free/sport sports] pages, but features and the actual news are subscription only.

Editors

*19?? - present John Haylett
*1974 - 1995 Tony Chater
*1959 - 1974 George Matthews (1917-2005)
*1949 - 1959 JR Campbell
*1930 - 1949 William Rust [ [http://www.communist-party.org.uk/index.php?file=history&his=chapter5.txt Communist Party of Britain - for peace and socialism ] ]

Notes

References

* Coughlan, Sean. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4361137.stm "Pressing On."] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/default.stm BBC News Magazine] . Monday, 21 March 2005. Retrieved May 24, 2005.
* Sanghera, Sathnam. [http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto042220050028006407 "A lifetime on the left"] Financial Times Friday 23 Apr 2005. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
* Deeson, Martin. [http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article222736.ece "Still flying the red flag: Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Morning Star presses are still rolling."] The Independent. Monday. 23 May 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2005.
* The Crisis at the Morning Star [http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Back/Wnext7/Star.html"What Next journal- 1998"]

External links

* [http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/ The Morning Star On-Line]
* [http://www.peoples-press.com/today.pdf Today's Morning Star front page (in PDF format)]