A wake-up call for democracy

Exciting times at New Internationalist!

With this issue, we are thrilled to unveil a fresh design with many new elements. There’s now a regular debate – called Argument. This month’s tackles the ethical minefield of buying and selling human organs for transplantation. We have introduced a forward-looking news section – Agenda – that links to events in the month ahead. There’s more global culture in an extended Arts section. And we now have a slot for Alternatives and an ‘Applause’ page that celebrates individuals or groups who are making change happen.

At the same time we have just launched a new website. See what you think at www.newint.org. The aim is for easier interaction with you, our readers and subscribers. But we also want to connect all of New Internationalist’s different activities – the ethical shop we run, for example, and the wide variety of books we publish. Talking of which, there are two mouth-watering recipes from the hot-off-the-press Global Vegetarian Kitchen on page 54.

This new-look magazine is the product of months of consultation, with readers, subscribers and potential subscribers. You told us you wanted more positive stories, more debate, larger text and more of a chance to interact with us. We hope we’ve delivered.

One thing we absolutely did not want, was to lose the things that people really value about the magazine – its in-depth analysis, its capacity to get to the issues behind the news, its international focus on justice, human rights and the environment.

In this month’s issue we give special attention to the state of democracy in the world today, with an article from India about Arundhati Roy’s extraordinary confrontation with the authorities, an interview with Robert Fisk about the Middle East and a piece by Latin America’s leading commentator on grassroots democracy, Raúl Zibechi.

As we worked on the magazine, democracy seemed a doubly appropriate subject for us to be tackling. The process of developing the new look has been unusually democratic – it’s the way we tend to do things in a workers’ co-op. As a charmingly understated placard on a recent demonstration in Stuttgart put it: ‘Democracy is sometimes a little bit difficult...’

But the most important part of this process is yet to come. That’s the bit when you tell us what you think of the new magazine and website.

Please be honest. We can take it.

Vanessa Baird and Jess Worth for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org