The Bazhiba’igan editorial team is happy to announce that Bazhiba’igan is officially launched on this, the 4th of April, 2024.
Bazhiba’igan, Ojibwe for “the spear,” is a journalism collective and publishing platform dedicated to providing true and accurate reporting on local, state, national, and international news to residents of the Keweenaw Peninsula and beyond. We seek to advocate for indigenous liberation and the emancipation of the working class in the Keweenaw and throughout the world.
People are inherently biased in their writings and actions, consciously or otherwise. As a publication which is made up of people, as all publications are, so too will our writings include the biases of the people that make up this publication. Rather than to deny this fact and claim that our writing is “unbiased” or “apolitical,” as some publications might, we will fully acknowledge and disclose our biases. As stated above, we seek to be advocates of indigenous liberation and the emancipation of the working class, and our publications will reflect that bias. This does not mean, however, that our publication will be nonfactual. We will always seek to provide true and accurate reporting, issue corrections to any mistakes that are made, and make clear distinctions between factual reporting and the opinions of the author.
We will report on matters of local concern, social and economic, and on the activities of our local municipal governments. We seek to provide our readership with the knowledge and tools to be active participants in local governance and advocate on behalf of themselves and their neighbors. We will pay particular attention to news of indigenous liberation and the organizing of labor for the emancipation of the working class.
In the first edition of Työmies, our predecessor in radical publishing in the Keweenaw, then editor Victor Kosonen concluded the “Mission Statement of Työmies” with a sentiment we would like to echo:
“Only the working people themselves can improve their miserable conditions. We hope for enthusiastic support from working people not only as readers of our paper but also as its correspondents. Since this paper is to be the working people’s own paper, it naturally follows that in writing to us they will freely express their uninhibited opinions without concern for the oppressive politics of our capitalist society.”
Bazhiba’igan is is published by Bazhiba’igan Publishing, an official organ of the Keweenaw Socialists.
In Solidarity,
The Bazhiba’igan Editorial Team