Corporations not wanted
Re: Rosey good gossip, July 7-13
Thanks to Monday Mag for writing about Rose Henry's journey to represent the Victoria Street Newz at the International Street Newspaper Conference in Scotland. There's been a misunderstanding about our funding quest, though. Your article quotes Rose as saying "we haven't seen any big corporate sponsorships ... that's what we really need right now." In fact, a significant part of the Street Newz's mission is to educate people about the root causes and consequences of poverty, and we have published many articles over our seven-year history outlining the ways corporations have contributed to the increasing poverty and homelessness in our community and throughout the world. We realize the power that corporations hold over our lives, their union busting efforts, the ways they influence governments to cut spending for social programs and attempt to transform all our motives into for-profit ones. These values run in absolute opposition to the mission of the Victoria Street Newz, which nurtures the values of community, local ownership, co-operation and environmental protection. We wish to thank the many individuals, and a couple of local community groups, who have helped pay for Rose's airfare and conference fees. Rose continues to hope for a laptop or notebook to travel with, donations are welcome to help with that purchase, but we have never and will never (as long as I'm at the helm) seek or accept corporate donations. We prefer to keep our editorial voice free and untainted by commercial for-profit interests.
Janine Bandcroft, Victoria Street Newz