First Published: Unity, Vol. 3, No. 12, June 6-19, 1980.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: 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 Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
Beginning this fall, the Chinese edition of UNITY will change its format to a monthly magazine in the Chinese language only, called UNITY MONTHLY. The next issue of UNITY (June 20) will be the last issue of the English-Chinese edition of UNITY under the current format. We will then take a break to prepare for publication of the new magazine. In making the change, we hope to better serve our Chinese-reading audience. The English-Spanish edition will continue to publish as usual.
For over ten years, we have tried through the pages of UNITY, and before it Getting Together, to provide timely revolutionary analysis of major events in the world and across the country. For the Chinese language edition, we have paid special attention to events in China and in the Chinese communities.
The Chinese language edition of UNITY has also been the only consistent U.S. Marxist-Leninist publication in the Chinese language. For both I Wor Kuen (IWK) and the League of Revolutionary Struggle (LRS), this has been a very conscious choice based on the important role that Chinese people play in the struggle for revolution in the U.S., and because we uphold the equality of languages for all oppressed people in the U.S.
In the movement as a whole, and in the Chinese communities in particular, our goal has been to present a clear revolutionary alternative to our readers. We have carried this out both in our publication as well as in our participation in the struggles of the masses. As the organ of IWK and later the LRS, we have directly participated in many significant mass struggles in the Chinese communities such as historic October 1st events beginning in 1970, the Jung Sai garment workers strike in 1974, the over ten-year battle to save the International Hotel, the struggle against the New York Health Inspector’s harassment in Chinatown, and many others. In these struggles, we have tried to learn from the masses, synthesize their rich and militant experiences and put these ideas forward in our pages.
We have aimed our paper at the advanced elements who have come forward through struggle and have tried to provide them with a consistent Marxist-Leninist analysis to help them in their day-to-day lives, help distinguish what is correct and incorrect and help struggles to proceed along a correct path. This has been particularly important in this period of striving to unite Marxist-Leninists around a correct line to form a single unified communist party.
In carrying out our work over the past ten years and more, although we have had many shortcomings and limitations, we have always received warm support from the masses. This has been concretely reflected in sustainers, subscriptions, contributed articles and welcome criticism and advice from hundreds of Chinese readers. This support has been a continual source of inspiration to us and an incentive to try to improve our work and move forward.
It is with the above perspective in mind that we are making the change in our current Chinese edition. The basic purpose of UNITYMONTHLY will remain the same as that of UNITY newspaper. It will contain the key articles from the English-Spanish edition edited especially for the Chinese magazine and special topical features, cultural pieces and articles of particular interest to the Chinese-reading audience.
At the same time, we feel that a magazine format will help us to improve our work, particularly in strengthening our ability to write, translate and feature more, longer analytical articles. We want to address more sharply the pressing questions on people’s minds and help provide more leadership to the growing complexities of the mass movement. This is true not only in a general sense, but for the particular struggles of Chinese people as well.
While we do not see UNITY MONTHLY as a theoretical journal, we feel the magazine format will better serve the balance and content of our Chinese language political organ at this time. The magazine format will make it easier for us to highlight longer analytical articles and features while we can continue to run news and briefs to keep our readers abreast of what is happening in the world and country.
Additionally, while a monthly format does put some limitations on our ability to have as many timely articles, going monthly will increase our ability to pay more attention to our editing process, quality of writing, translation and layout.
On the question of language, since the magazine will be in Chinese only, we encourage our English-speaking readers to subscribe to the English-Spanish biweekly. The Asian/Pacific Islander page currently in the Chinese-English biweekly edition will no longer exist, but the articles will be included in the English-Spanish edition.
The UNITY staff is looking forward to serving our Chinese-reading audience with UNITY MONTHLY. We hope you will send in your comments, suggestions and criticisms so that we can make the new magazine the best possible tool to serve your needs and interests.