Happy holidays, from 1979.

This old magazine cover is too perfect (or too wrong!).   [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, Every year we like to take a break from our earnest December fundraising to send the entire MoJo community a nice, warm, seasonal greetings, no matter what or how you celebrate, because we truly are so grateful for you. And holy smokes, do we have a greeting for you—a holiday cover from our archives, published in December 1979. Where to even begin? WITH THE RIFLE ON MARY “MOTHER” HARRIS JONES' BACK, OF COURSE. We’re pretty sure it was intended to symbolize the “hellraising” in the cover line—think guerrilla fighter. But it's pretty remarkable how much recent history has changed the meaning of an image like that. And how history tends to rhyme. We can’t show you the reporting from that issue because it’s not online, but when looking, we did find [the prior issue, from November ’79](. It was a milestone in the history of this magazine, and it shows how much MoJo's core personality has remained consistent. In his [editor’s note](, our co-founder, Adam Hochschild, explained an investigation that was three years in the making: "[The Corporate Crime of the Century](." "It’s called dumping: When the U.S. government forces a dangerous drug, pesticide or other product off the domestic market, the manufacturer then sells that same product—frequently with the direct support of the State Department—throughout the rest of the world." The issue contains several blockbuster investigations, including one on an issue that’s still a top MoJo beat today—reproductive rights. Barbara Ehrenreich (whom we—the world—[lost]( this year), Mark Dowie, and Stephen Minkin [revealed]( that pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. government were collaborating to export contraceptives deemed too dangerous in the United States to poorer countries. Spirited writing was as important to Mother Jones as it is now, witness [this lede]( from a sidebar by Ehrenreich: "There used to be a joke that an aspirin could keep you from getting pregnant — if you held it between your knees. Now there’s a new twist: birth control pills can help you get pregnant — if you take them as part of one of AID’s Third World 'contraceptive inundation” programs.'" And we really get a kick out of how even in 1979, our predecessors [shrugged off]( the lazy critique that they were a bunch of commies: "When we visited Marx & Company’s Seventh Avenue office recently, an employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said the company had indeed exported pajamas [treated with the hazardous flame-retardant Tris], about 12,000 pairs. These were bought by a Venezuelan wholesaler, who sold them around South America and the Caribbean. Soon, the employee’s boss, a florid and hostile man, entered the room and wanted to know our business. Told that it was Tris exports, the man (was he Karl Marx himself? We do not know) insisted that his firm had nothing to do with such matters." It's great seeing how committed and how fearless Mother Jones has always been, and there’s only one reason why: An equally committed and fearless community of readers—including some of you from then still here today, and many who have joined since. So like that cover says, happy hellraising to you and yours no matter what you celebrate or what kind of hell you're raising. Sincerely, Monika Bauerlein CEO Brian Hiatt Online Membership Director [Donate]( P.S. We promised a break from the earnest fundraising, and we're so grateful that many of you have recently pitched in or support our work with a monthly donation, but for those who haven't yet, we wouldn't be doing our jobs shepherding this incredible organization if we didn’t point out that big red donate button and [how incredibly important]( this month truly is.   [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755