Since December 2014, we have followed, listened – through lundisoir – and learned from the remarkable effort of the lundimatin collective. An essentially french language website, we have over the years sought to translate, comment on – as much as has been possible for us and imperfectly – and share essays, poems and interviews published on the site with the larger english speaking world; not because we think this latter more important, but because we understand that english has come to occupy the place of a global lingua franca.
Today, the lundimatin collective is in difficulty. And because of what they have shared with us, we wish to modestly reciprocate by publishing their call for assistence in English.
Lundimatin is bankrupt/ruined
(Now, we need help!)
lundimatin, #527, July 16, 2026
Dear Readers,
We have just learned that lundimatin is facing financial ruin, so we urgently need your help.
Makassar, the company responsible for distributing the books we publish, is going bankrupt.[1] What this means for us in practical and financial terms is that we will never be reimbursed for the total sales of the books we have edited, printed, and published over the past two years. We’re not talking about a shortfall in revenue but a massive, outright loss that we’re not yet able to quantify precisely—since numerous related expenses must be factored in—but we’re looking at at least 50,000 Euros that have vanished into thin air. So two and a half years of work, tens of thousands of Euros in printing costs—all of it has gone up in smoke, or rather, down the drain. There are dozens of us independent publishers in this dire situation; a website summarizes all the calls for support here: https://www.sauvonslesindes.fr/
From One Bankruptcy to the Next
Given our wide range of activities—both official and more low-key—this slump in book sales might seem minor, yet it has put us in an untenable financial situation. Lundimatin has always been completely independent, with no advertising, no subsidies, and no subscriptions. Everything we produce is accessible to everyone, without conditions, thanks to the donations we collect monthly or on an ad hoc basis through fundraising appeals. To have lasted almost twelve years on this model is nothing short of a feat and a display of resourcefulness that could be considered a work of art. But it entails great economic precariousness, numerous constraints and, as we are seeing today, considerable fragility.
It all failed …
If our failure were merely financial, all this would be trivial. If our only vulnerability were financial, things would actually be going rather well. In the twelve years of our existence, we have weathered a wide variety of situations; the one we find ourselves in now is by far the most delicate, the most perilous and the most painful. The prevailing climate of fascistisation breeds powerlessness, resentment and stupidity. Inevitably, some are reviving all manner of left-wing illusions in a quest for the “lesser evil” – which will amount to nothing more than the pragmatism of defeat – whilst others are entrenching themselves in radical identity-based stances that are as disconnected from reality as they are hyper-connected to the isolation of social media and its soul-destroying nature.
We no longer have the wind in our sails; it is blowing violently against us. Hence the urgent need to stay the course.
… Long live lundimatin
Lundimatin is not a newspaper; it is a platform for expression. Ever since the fragmentation of any unified and coherent discourse on the world, ever since the very collapse of a world that we sought to make intelligible, we have always sided with experience and therefore with experimentation. To put it more clearly, we believe that the highest form of radicalism lies in understanding reality with all the necessary subtlety and tact. Contrary to a certain mystique of conversion—which would have it that a particular discourse or statement can enlighten and bring the unbelievers into line—we start from the principle and the observation that a thousand practices and a thousand relationships lie beyond the reach of the economy, or at the very least are not entirely subordinate to it. Our task is to open up a space of complicity and conspiracy that allows them to come together, to resonate and to gain momentum, in converging disagreements. The diversity of forms, dimensions and voices found in this journal bears witness to this, as do its regularity and longevity. We would go so far as to say that, against all odds, we occupy a unique and undisputed position.
How to support us
The number of people who support us on a monthly or one-off basis has never been higher, proof if ever there was any that our work is valued by many. The amounts donated are, however, generally on the decline for all the reasons one might imagine; this is a reality shared by all “independent media”. The decline in our readership’s income, combined with the illusion of free access created by the glut of information, works against us.
Unless we can find a far-left figure like Pierre-Edouard Stérin[2] willing to fund us at a loss and just for the fun of it, we can only rely on those who believe that lundimatin must continue.
We must therefore not only bridge the gap left by Makassar’s bankruptcy but also substantially increase the number of our subscribers and the funds we raise for our weekly publication.[3] It is worth noting that your donations entitle you to an income tax relief equal to 66 per cent of their value, up to a limit of 20 per cent of your taxable income. This means that if you pay a lot of tax and do your sums carefully, a donation of 1,000 Euros will only cost you 340.
So, if you’d like to support us, click here.
Order our books directly from lundi.am
All our books are still available on the lundimatin website: https://lundi.am/livres for a very modest delivery charge. Our partner bookshops can also order them directly from us; we’ve managed to save a small amount of stock, and a new distributor will be taking over our catalogue from the start of the new academic year.
Let’s keep going …
[1] In the “book supply chain”, the distributor acts as a logistical intermediary between the publisher and bookshops. They store the books, deliver them to bookshops, collect the proceeds from sales and pass them on to the publishers. It is this link that has been broken, and this final stage (passing on the money) that is missing.
[2] This has been a running joke in our editorial office for years. One day, a billionaire looking to let his hair down will ring our doorbell and offer to free us from all financial constraints. With the door ajar, we’re still waiting for him…
[3] To avoid any sense of over-dramatisation, we have deliberately omitted to mention that our offices were burgled last week and that we therefore need to replace a large proportion of our video equipment. If you work in the film industry and know how to source 4K cameras on the cheap, please do get in touch. Similarly, if you’re a wealthy property owner with bright, secure premises to let, we might be interested. Any other form of support or a helping hand is, of course, most welcome.