I began my conscious orientation towards a leftist perspective during the miners’ strike in 1985, while I was living in South Wales, and then took in anti-imperialist struggles led by (mostly) African liberation nationalists.

Vaguely searching the Net hoping to find some “socialist daily news” in the months after 9/11 and the imperialist invasion of Afghanistan, I stumbled across the World Socialist Web Site. My life turned one of its most important corners of my mature years.

I read the website daily and where I do not get the opportunity to read and digest the articles, I print off the remaining articles (or re-read them) once a month to create my own pamphlet. I don’t consider myself to be an advanced worker by any means, just a worker driven to search for objective truths.

The website, in my opinion, is the single most progressive act of this generation; the comments in the “Why I read the WSWS” section are a strong testament to this. My view is based not only on the quality and perspective of the reporting on daily events, but also on the focus on empowering the cognitive processes in the mind of the worker, to develop the individual capacity to critique the life lived in capitalist society, to activate and elevate the consciousness of the worker to prepare him/her to take on their historical tasks, nothing less.

I refer here to the articles/essays on historical analysis including human development, film reviews, exhibitions, philosophy, science and popular culture. As someone who aspires to write I can recommend in particular:

The objective character of artistic cognition

The aesthetic component of socialism

Andre Breton and the problems of twentieth century culture

Imperialist war in the Balkans and the decay of the petty-bourgeois left

Equality, the Rights of Man and the birth of socialism

Diego Rivera at the Museum of Modern art

Joan Miro: An artist in the service of mankind

along with the many articles written in defence of historical truth, and so many more …

I would like to see the website grow and feature regular articles/reportage from the underdeveloped nations, states and regions, but I recognise that this is a question of resources and accept that the project is a work in progress. The opportunity to mark the occasion of the website’s anniversary has compelled me to revise my commitments to it, and accordingly I am pleased to say that I have set up a regular financial contribution to the site and I urge comrades to do the same.