Announcing Spectre Journal

“All the powers of old...have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this Spectre,” but we won’t be stopped that easily – with your help!

Many of us recognize the need for a serious U.S.-based journal of rigorously Marxist analysis that can speak to a new generation of leftward-moving radicals, to a radical horizon through and beyond immediate politics of reform, and one that is open to activists and theorists leading struggles against racism and police violence, organizing for migrant justice, fighting for gender and LGBTQ liberation, tackling the climate crisis, and building grassroots organizing in unions, workplaces, communities, and on campus.

We believe that the moment is ripe for developing new, internationalist, Marxist-feminist, anti-racist, and concrete analysis, which can bring us reinvigorated political debate and needed interventions. Ultimately, a journal committed to chronicling and building working-class struggle will be rooted in a network of thousands of contributors, subscribers, readers, and activists who identify with and support its political project.

Spectre promises to be such a journal, but we need your contribution, now, for a successful launch.

That’s why I have taken on the role of editor, along with Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, Kate Doyle Griffiths, Holly Lewis, David McNally, Charlie Post, and Vanessa Wills to get the project off the ground. We’re working with our managing editor Ashley Smith and our creative team Annmarie Nye and Gabriel Berlin to launch our print edition on May Day – in less than two weeks.

By donating now, you will become a Spectre founder and will reserve your copy of the first issue, earn my sincere gratitude, and if you like, a token of that appreciation that you can wear to show off your “spectral” leanings. Anyone who donates at least $35 will automatically be subscribed to the first volume. We have a second issue already in the works scheduled for release on November 7.

We launched Spectre Online earlier this month, and we publish original content at least twice each week. These pieces range from analyses of class struggles around the world to dispatches from workers on the frontlines of care; from pieces on Marxist theory to practical interventions in strategic debates; and from rediscovering classics to critical debates over new books.

Our first issue will be mailed out on May 1, and we will publish our second issue on November 7. Moving forward, we hope to publish more frequently. But in order to make this plan work, we need to raise $75,000 from subscribers and friends. That’s where you come in!

You can donate right now at www.spectrejournal.com. If you click the donate button and contribute at least $35, you will automatically be subscribed to our print journal, though there are additional options – subscribing for more than a year, receiving a Spectre hoodie and tote, and so forth.

Please consider contributing at one of the following levels:

Sponsor—$1,000 (lifetime subscription plus a Spectre hoodie and tote bag)

Sustainer—$500 (3 year subscription, plus a Spectre hoodie and tote bag)

Solidarity—$100 (one-year subscription plus a Spectre hoodie or tote bag)

One Year—$35 (one-year subscription)

Two Year—$60 (two-year subscription)

Thank you so much for helping to launch Spectre. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at zach@spectrejournal.com. You should also feel free to contact me with proposals for web or print articles, interventions, or reviews.

“Openly, and in the face of the whole world,”

Zachary Levenson

Editor, Spectre

Zachary Levenson teaches sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and is an editor of Spectre.

Filed under: feminism, marxism