The LGM Working Class

A year ago, I was jetlagged and had to write a post after a birthday fundraising day of disappointing results to get enough resources to get this blog through another year.

A year later, here we are again, with me very tired at the Labor and Working Class History Association and me needing to write another post on the same lines.

Look, we do this because we want to. Sort of. We kind of feel an internal need to do so. And we know that some of you are not wealthy people. None of this applies to you. But we also know that some of you can definitely help make this blog through another year. I want you to do this. I want you to recognize that the writers of LGM are workers. We provide knowledge and expertise for you in a variety of fields. And we deserve enough compensation to at least break even.

Now, as LGM’s least popular writer, I recognize that the idea of you giving money to me may not be what you want. But here’s the thing: I’m not actually going to see that money. Or a tiny percentage of it at best. So far in 2019, the amount of money I’ve made off LGM has…..not covered my internet costs in any of the year’s first 5 months.

What you are covering is the server costs and, I don’t know, all the stuff that keeps this site running. And think of how good it has been in the last year. We’ve added Elizabeth–a genuine rock and roll star to write cultural criticism. We’ve tamed the trolls down to the point that the only issue we’ve had is the “sexy photos” spam over the past few months that I think we have now tamed and eliminated. We have one of the only functional comment threads on the internet. That in itself takes labor–from me mostly–and costs to the professionals who take care of this sort of thing.

The only way this site maintains what it is and gets better is if you help. If you don’t and you can help, it means you really don’t care. And I don’t believe it. I believe you can look into your heart and make it happen for a community that means a lot to you. Whether you are a commenter or a reader, you come here for a variety of reasons–for Paul’s legal work or the contemporary poliitical commentary of Scott and Paul and Shakezula, for my labor work, for Simon’s police violence activism, for Melissa’s occasional posts on global human rights, for VS’s art, for Farley posting pictures of ships. Whatever it is, it only continues with your support. It’s on you to make it happen.

So if you don’t care whether virtually the last independent academic political blog on the internet survives or not, ignore this whole post. But if you’d like to see us continue, you need to donate here right now. Or now that the Patreon thing is a thing, make it a consistent part of your life.

Plus, since we are now 15, we are copying our friends from Tacocat and while we aren’t going to wear our tiara, we are going to party like a queen.