Over the past year you have might have received a letter in the mail, overheard a conversation at a conference, or seen an email in your inbox telling you the sad news: Another grassroots print publication has been forced to shut down due to lack of funds.

Clamor magazine, Asheville Global Report, LiP magazine, Satya magazine, Kitchen Sink, Punk Planet--all have closed shop in the past year. Those of us who believe in the power of print media have had a rough time of late as we battle mainstream media consolidation and postal rate hikes that target small publications. Left Turn, now in its 7th year of publishing, has sometimes lived a precarious life, often managing to survive on emergency fundraising appeals of one kind or another.

Sobered by the challenges facing independent media and inspired by national conversations around "The Non-Profit Industrial Complex" that have discussed alternatives to foundation funding, we are launching our "100 Grassroots Sustainers" campaign to sign up 100 monthly supporters by January. We are asking you, the grassroots organizers and activists that make up our base, to donate $5, $10, or $20 a month to keep Left Turn not only alive and well, but also innovative and powerful.

Donating $5 a month, the price of a trip to the coffee shop in most cities, will provide not only the peace of mind that Left Turn will stick around for years to come, but will also make you a subscriber for as long as your monthly donation continues. Furthermore, we will print the list of monthly sustainers in Left Turn magazine annually (unless you do not want to be identified) as a thank you to all of our supporters.

Go to www.leftturn.org/donate to sign up now with our new automatic monthly donation option!

With your help, in many ways Left Turn is doing better then ever, and is moving forward in a variety of exciting directions. We have received nine awards in four years from Project Censored for our reporting on issues ignored by the corporate media. We feature first-hand journalism you wont find anywhere else from the frontlines of movements for justice. We were the first national publication to cover the story of the Jena Six.

In addition, our readership is now over 10,000 per issue, our subscriber rate has just reached a new high, we moved into our first-ever office, we launched a great new website, and we learned and contributed meaningfully at the first-ever US Social Forum in Atlanta!

Left Turn collective members took on exciting organizing roles at the US Social Forum. We coordinated buses for radical grassroots activists from New York and other cities, including families and childcare volunteers; we collaboratively put together panels, discussions and events on subjects like the non-profit industrial complex, "another politics is possible", anti-Arab racism, US imperialism in the Middle East, and the struggle for Palestine. These face-to-face conversations were a perfect example of the relevant role that Left Turn plays in facilitating political education, reflection, and strategizing within and among our various movements.

We are committed as ever to continue providing a magazine and website that connect independent journalism to the grassroots and we are working to grow and expand into a network of people who can bring our communities together through public forums, discussion groups, and workshops.

The US Social Forum recently showed us not only that "another world is possible", but that even in the US, in the heart of the global empire, it is on its way. Let's build together.

Become a monthly Sustainer!

$5 a month                       $10 a month                       $20 a month

Rebel Imports, which is run by some Left Turn collective members, currently handles online sales and donations for Left Turn.