News content and tone guidelines

If you've registered on libcom.org, you can post content to our news. There are particular kinds of articles we want most, and some obviously that we don't so much. But don't worry, if we can't use something on our news page we will look at any other areas of the site where it might be suitable, or we may edit it to make it fit in.

For a detailed look at the type, style and tone of content we'd like on libcom.org, please take a look at our Style guide.

If you're not sure whether your article is suitable, take a look at our existing news articles for comparison, or consider posting it in the forums first.

For general advice on how to write news articles, see our news report writing guide.

In brief, however, here are a few basic tips and suggestions:

Content
For libcom.org news the main kinds of article we want are as follows, in this order of importance:

1. Stories and analysis about people taking collective direct action to improve their lives.
Example: Fighting the fare hike in San Francisco
2. Analysis of current events, such as wars, natural disasters and other big mainstream news stories from a class perspective.
Example: Post Office privatisation will be disguised as workers' ownership
3. News about the effects of corporate and government policies on people and the environment.
Example: 12 million trapped in forced labour worldwide

While these are our priorities we will happily publish other news stories provided they fit the aims and ethos of the site with the general exception of the following topics:

Actions: There are many websites for 'activists' to post stories about 'actions' they have taken part in, such as indymedia. We suggest using one of them instead of libcom.
Example: "Activists blockade Esso station"

The left: Leninist groups are a minor irrelevance in society who do not interest anyone. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, let's not give them any attention they don't warrant.
Example: "Trotskyist Workers' Alliance split"

Promotion: If you would like to advertise an event, group or campaign please use the announcements board on our forums.

Tone
To get our message across most effectively, we have decided to try to keep all content with the following tone:

- Serious - avoiding rhetoric and overly emotive language
- Clear - written using simple English, free from jargon
- Concise -try not to let articles get too long. Very long texts (say from over 2000 words) may be better off in our library.
- Outward-looking - i.e. aimed at the intelligent layperson, not at people who are anarchists, activists or libertarian communists already. Not talking down to anyone, but explaining all historical references, acronyms specialised vocabulary, etc. and in general trying to address general issues of concern to all.

Many thanks, and happy posting!

If you need technical help with posting news articles, post in our feedback forum.