Letter: Does the sun shine? (1977)

Letter to the Editors from the September 1977 issue of the Socialist Standard

Does the sun shine?

I fear that the Socialist Standard is understood only by “intellectuals”. Why can’t you cater for the mass of the workers as the Sun and the Mirror do? Yes, they say the same old load of rubbish but they present it in a way the vast majority can accept. They are not “angry” in their approach but present opinions not without humour. It is no good presenting the truth when nobody’s prepared to listen because it’s not entertaining.

David Waite

Nottingham

Reply:

Since you describe the Sun and the Mirror as a "load of rubbish”, we infer that you don’t include yourself in the “vast majority” who cannot understand the Socialist Standard. We do not look down on the rest of the working class in that way.

Certainly we aim to make the Socialist Standard as readable as possible, and—as regular readers know—we are not averse to humour. However, we are presenting analyses and information; the papers you mention do not deal in either, and workers who want them have to (and do) go elsewhere. There is no merit in having a mass circulation if it achieves nothing in enlightenment. The Sun is produced to make money; the Socialist Standard is produced to make Socialists. Would you want to read it if it treated matters in a superficial way?

As for being angry—yes. we are. Instead of treating social problems as bubbles which can easily be burst if we all give a good puff for “the country”, we have to demonstrate that they are ineradicable from capitalism. Instead of giving cuddly-doll nicknames like “Sunny Jim” and “Supermac” to politicians, we show them as the holders of political power who administer the system against the workers’ interests. This is precisely what the asinine grin on the face of the Sun masks.

We don’t write for “intellectuals” but for working men and women who, in our opinion, are capable of understanding what we say. We are always open to constructive suggestions, and if you have any specific proposal for improving the SS it will be considered.

Editors.