In These Times

IN THESE TIMES. The most circulated periodical of the Left, from a weekly tabloid, 1976-1995, In These Times(ITT) became monthly magazine, with a web presence rivaling that of the newest major entry, Jacobin.

James Weinstein, the leading editor of Studies On the Left and founder of the journal Socialist Revolution in 1970, set out to reach a wider readership through a weekly publication. He conceived of ITT as a "socialist newspaper whose mission was to act as a catalyst in the revival of a popular movement for socialism in the United States,” he later reflected. It rejected existing Leninist projects, which Weinstein characterized as thoroughly sectarian: “Our attitude towards [such groups] was not hostile. Rather, it was intended to be one of benign neglect.” But the paper did bring together former members of the old Communist left with non-communist socialists. Founding sponsors included former Communist Party leader Dorothy Healey and Monthly Review founding editor Paul Sweezy with Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee champion Michael Harrington and such notable younger socialists as Barbara Ehrenreich. Many ITT staffers and contributors considered themselves close to two socialist groups: the DSOC and the New American Movement, which would merge in 1982 to form the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

The newspaper maintained an avowedly socialist, internationalist orientation, and its global coverage, especially of Central America during the Reagan years, offered robust opposition to US interventionism. Editorialists elaborated these views, formulated in the paper’s early years by Studies veteran Martin J. Sklar and in later years by Weinstein himself. They focused politically on efforts within the Democratic Party, but offered coverage and sympathy for occasional insurgent efforts such as the New Party. Reportage of independent journalists from across the world sometimes scooped the commercial press. Mainstream journalists also occasionally contributed stories unpublishable in their usual outlets. Its other strengths included a cultural view of changing American society, minus the all-too-familiar leftwing contempt for popular culture, and an insightful view of US history, thanks to Weinstein, Sklar and others of the inner circle who had been trained as historians and scholars of empire by William Appleman Williams among others.

Uninterested in making ITT a prestige liberal publication like the Nation or New Republic, Weinstein founded the paper in Chicago rather than Manhattan or the Beltway. By intent, ITT kept its eye on grassroots activism. Unlike some liberal outlets and especially the New Republic that shifted from center or to the right on foreign and domestic policies alike, ITT did not sway from its foundational politics. Weinstein and his staff fought Bill Clinton’s hard yank of the Democratic Party towards neoliberalism in the 1990 and never beat the drums of war after September 11, 2001. As mayor of Burlington, Vermont, then a member of the House, then Senate, Bernie Sanders appeared often in its pages, both as a subject and contributor.

In These Times proved to be a crucial launching pad for a wide range of progressive and socialist writers, as well as home for prominent left writers. Pro-Palestinian academic and activist Norman Finkelstein was launched into national prominence as a graduate student in 1984 by his skewering of a spurious pro-Zionist historical tract, in a cover story. Chris Hayes worked as an editor and writer for the magazine in the early years of the new century before moving onto the Nation and then an anchor position at MSNBC. Jacobin magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara was hired soon after graduating college. Noam Chomsky was a founding sponsor along with Julian Bond and Herbert Marcuse. Famed authors Naomi Klein and Arundhati Roy, likewise historian Rick Perlstein (who became president of the magazine’s board), all made regular contributions.

Shifting from tabloid to magazine format in 1994, ITT outlasted multiple financial crises. A 1993 “refinance plan” began with "In These Times is at a crossroads," never a sentence indicating fiscal health. In 1995, a Republican-leaning business manager purloined $125,000 to fund a magazine intended to be a “TV Guide for radio,” then absconded to the Appalachian Trail under the codename “GypsyMan.” After the 2008 financial crash, the magazine almost went belly-up, with staffers facing payless pay days.

Through strenuous and continuous efforts at fund-raising, In These Times reached solid footing. During its first decades, survival was long dependent personally on Weinstein (who died in 2005), who raised cash from a wide variety of sources but also sunk much of his wealthy family’s largesse into the paper. Editor and publisher Joel Bleifuss subsequently oversaw a steady rise to fiscal health. ITT’s circulation remained at 40,000 for years, more or less the original circulation of the weekly. Its website, meanwhile, settled to about 600,000 per month. ITT remained, as it was at its origins, the best source for reporting on the labor movement, with senior editor David Moberg the dean of US labor journalism. The recently rejuvenated socialist movement around the Bernie Sanders campaigns, and DSA found a home here, covering both its electoral and non-electoral organizing. ITT’s Chicago headquarters have long since been a hub for the city’s Left, hosting a constant stream of author talks, organizing meetings, and fund-raising social events.

In These Times Website. https://inthesetimes.com