“Our Media” Campaign Expose the Capitalist Media Based on Loot and Join the Campaign of Truth of Social Change! Te Break the Shackles of Mental Slavery Strengthen the Alternative Media of the Maaeca! Friends, There is no need to reiterate how the capitalist system, sustaining itself on plunder, injustice, and inequality, is destroying our country and society. In the name of development, the country’s abundant resources and the hard toil of the masses is expropriated to fill the coffers of domestic and foreign capital magnates. Islands of luxury are being erected for a handful of people at the top. But the ocean surrounding them, of sorrow, pain and tears of the masses, is getting bigger and deeper. The bourgeois politics and culture, based on loot and lies, have filled the social fabric with mutual strife, divisions, hatred, fraternal violence, and a variety of mental disorders. Corruption and crime have spread into the veins of social life. Despite being against the interests of millions and millions of common people of this country, if this plundering system persists, itis not only because the voices raised in protest are crushed by the force of state repression. In every epoch, the exploitative systems have reigned on the strength of ideas and culture that justify and legitimatise their rule. Today, this task is being carried out by the bourgeois media with far greater expertise and a thousand times more power. The bourgeois newspapers, magazines, films, TV channels, FM radio, websites, etc. have launched an all-out relentless assault on the hearts and minds of common people across the country. From print media to electronic media, the grip of big and medium capitalists and of their interest-serving governments was already in place, now the big 'media giants’ of imperialist countries have also taken control over a significant section of the gigantic media apparatus. During the last few years, the capitalist class, in order to overcome its economic crisis, has thrown its full weight behind the Hindutva fascist forces to advance and bring them to power. In this campaign, their most powerful and potent weapon has been the media! Hundreds of TV channels, newspapers, magazines, etc. in multiple languages, as well as dozens of websites, thousands of Facebook pages, and millions of Whats App and Twitter accounts, are pouring out gutters of lies and hatred, day and night. It will, in fact, take many generations to mitigate and end the ill-effects of this poison of mutual distrust, ignorance, superstition, falsehood, unscientificness and irrationality thatis being propagated all through the society. Today, we read, see, and hear only what the imperialist-capitalist robbers and their system wants us to. The broad cross-section of the masses has been imprisoned in the dark dungeon of non-information, incomplete information, and misinformation. The truth of the so-called information revolution is that important facts are being suppressed in the pile of unimportant Jesand useless information. The pages of dozens of newspapers being published from each city are filled with film pictures, fashion shows, and sensational spicy news, but the problems and challenges and struggles of the masses do not find any place in them. The TV channels are even worse. News, like everything else, has been reduced to a mere ‘commodity’ and all limits of decency, ethics and morality are being transgressed in the race to sell one’s commodity. The legacy of journalists like Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Baburao Vishnu Paradkar, and Makhanlal ‘Chaturvedi, who considered journalism as a mission of social change, has been tarnished and abandoned by the corporate media long ago. Now most of the journalists are seen either playing the role of outright rioters or as pimps and agents, performing all sorts of acrobatics to justify every act of plunder, every lie, and every deceit of their masters. Dangerous doses of drugs poisoning the brain To make people not think seriously about their predicament and not raise questions, the hearts and minds of the whole society are being numbed by giving toxic doses of drugs of the ruthlessly despotic and rapaciously gluttonous profit-driven consumerist culture. Through TV programmes, comics, and films, even the children have come under the grip of this contagious ‘rain fever' of cultural pollution and hatred. Several surveys have estimated that an average urban child sees 8,000 murders and 1,00,000 other violent scenes by the time he finishes school. By the time he is 18, he has seen 2,00,000 violent scenes, including 40,000 murders and 8,000 crimes against women! The sick culture propagated by the media plays a major role in promoting heinous crimes against women and girls. Crime and criminals are being glamorized in films and TV serials. Many web series airing on over a dozen OTT platforms have broken all records in making sadistic violence, various kinds of sexual perversions and crimes ‘normal’ and appealing. Not only this, the media is also working to manufacture people's consent in favour of this, system. Efforts are made to inculcate in the hearts and minds of the people that there is no alternative to this system, so one should learn to live with it, with all its ills and sufferings. From time to time, attempts are made to create the illusion of freedom of the media by exposing some scams, etc, and airing some scathing diatribes, to retain some of its credibility. The alternative media of the masses must be built! In such a scenario, it has become extremely imperative today to take new ideas and new culture to the people, no matter how difficult this task may be. Today many pro-people journals, publications and digital news media outlets, which are operating on limited resources without making any compromise, are struggling for their existence. The journalists who raise their voice in favour of the people with utmost honesty and courage are harassed and hounded in various ‘legal’ and illegal ways by the governments that boast about the freedom of expression. Nevertheless, all these challenges notwithstanding, today the fight for social change cannot be carried forward without building an alternative, revolutionary media of the masses. Today, it becomes a fundamental duty and responsibility of all revolutionary forces and conscious, progressive, pro-people intellectuals to give accurate and factual information about this whole situation to the masses of the country and with their support and cooperation, build a wide network of publications as well as circulation of pro-people newspapers, magazines, and books, and various art mediums, from theatre and music to documentary and fiction films.Through these efforts a completely new, revolutionary renaissance and revolutionary enlightenment will have to be evoked on the front of thought and culture. We ought to free the masses from the stranglehold of the systemic ‘total blackout’ of the correct information and create ‘channels’ to gather information about the exploitation and oppression of the people of our country as well as the whole world, about revolutionary organisations and people's struggles, and about every tactic and conspiracy of imperialist and capitalist robbers and their governments and make them readily accessible to the masses. In the present times, the rulers are making the most subtle, extensive and efficient use of its information apparatus in order to safeguard this system. Now the peoples’ side, too, will have to make information a weapon in the fight for changing the system. Publication houses, printing presses, etc. will have to be established that run as a social mission, without driven by any profit motive, by gathering contributions from the masses to make available mass- literature and newsletters and periodicals at accessible prices, without government advertisements, grants and paper quotas. A network will have to be built for the production, screening, and distribution of pro-people short and full-length films and videos. Drama teams and music troupes will have to be formed that reach every village and every settlement. All digital and social media platforms and mediums like mobile apps and community radio will have to be used extensively for the propagation of such ideas and culture. The development of the correct, alternative, revolutionary media of the masses will be possible only in this way. Its size may be small in front of the mammoth media apparatus run by the capital of domestic and foreign corporate houses, but the power of truth will be on its side. With these objectives in mind, various mass organisations had launched ‘Our Media Campaign’ about 25 years ago. Since then, we have advanced this campaign with the support and assistance from conscious citizens, progressive intellectuals, students, and youth and even by gathering fistful of grains and small contributions from the hard-earned income of workers and poor peasants. These efforts have been convened and put together by Rahul Foundation, which was formed to carry forward the mission of Rahul Sankrityayan of laying the ideological-cultural groundwork for social revolution. As part of this entire project, an important journal of revolutionary intellectuals, ‘Dayitvabodh’ (now ‘Disha Sandhaan’), a journal of culture and media, ‘Naandipath’, a magazine addressed to students and youth, ’Muktikami Chhatro-Yuvaon ka Aahwan’,a revolutionary monthly newspaper of the working masses, ‘Mazdoor Bigul’, and a key journal of Marxist discourse in English, “The Anvil’ have been in continuous publication and circulation for the last several years and they have forged a distinct identity for themselves in their respective fields all over the country. The Rahul Foundation Publication Division and its associate publication, ‘Parikalpana,’ have published over 300 important literary and political texts in Hindi, English and Punjabi. In Marathi, Airan Prakashan, the newspaper, ‘Kamgaar Bigul’ and the magazine, ‘Sfuling’, a bilingual magazine ’Polemic’ (Malayalam/English) and a Punjabi magazine, ‘Tarkash’ are also part of this campaign. Anurag Trust, an organisation dedicated to the holistic scientific and cultural development of children, is also part of the campaign and has so far released about 100 books for children along with regular publication of children's magazine, ‘Kompal’. All of them are also making their publications accessible through digital mediums free of cost to a wide range of readers. Under the aegis of ‘Arvind Memorial Trust’, ‘Human Landscape Productions’ is working to take ideas and culture of change to the wider public using audio-visual media. Itsfirst documentary film, ‘Factories of Death and Despair, centred on industrial accidents and dangerous working conditions of workers, was well-acclaimed. The campaign also includes the progressive rock band ‘Anushtup’ which is working to develop a transformative consciousness among the masses through its revolutionary songs. Janchetna’, an institution for the distribution of progressive and pro-people literature as well as ideological-cultural propaganda material such as poetry posters, stickers, cassettes, etc., has been working actively for nearly three and a half decades towards this end. In addition to bookshops in Lucknow and Gorakhpur, volunteers of ‘Janchetna' run small book distribution centres at various places in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerala and make accessible books, newsletters, magazines, and aesthetic artistic posters, cards etc. to the people through book exhibitions. They work awaken the interest of reading in people and create new readers. Through its website and various online mediums ‘Janchetna’ is now taking literature to the remotest comers of the country. It is our solemn resolve that we will continue to take the peoples’ side to the people themselves without any assistance from the ruling establishment, capitalist houses, electoral- political parties, imperialist funding agencies, etc. and without making any compromises and without yielding to any pressure or repression. We are determined to swim persistently against the current. This is just a small beginning of a long journey. However, the process of building a new cultural movement and revolutionary media of the people in the whole country will take shape through such efforts. We do not want merely your sympathy, but also your meaningful contribution and active participation. With revolutionary greetings, Rahul Foundation You can help us in some of the following ways: * Give us financial support. You can donate cash to the volunteers of this campaign or send your contributions to the hank account of Rahul Foundation. We urge you to become a regular ontributor of this campaign, Become an annual/lifelong member of our newspapers and magazines. Promote and propagate them and create more members. © Collaborate with us to organise book exhil jons, seminars, discussi ings, film shows ete. under this campaign. © Be a part of this entire campaign. ‘Awaken the masses against the hegemony of imperialists, domestic capi and their regime over the media! Build and strengthen the alternative, revolutionary media of the masses! Enkindle the flame of revolutionary renaissance and enlightenment on the cultural front! & Postal Contact: Janchetna, D-68, Nirala Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh - 226020 Phone: 0522-4108495; 9721481546; 9910462009 Other contacts: 8860792320 (Delhi); 8858288593 (Allahabad); 9892808704 (Maharashtra); 7042740669 (Uttarakhand) Email: rahulfoundation..ko@gmail.com Website: janchetnabooks.org Websites of two associate newspaper and magazine: ahwanmag.com; mazdoorbigulnet ‘Published by Seiya on bball of Rahal Foundation and printed by Lanml Ofte, Indiranagar, Lacknow Issued 1 January 2022