MPO History - From the Beginning

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To fulfill the stipulations of the MPO bylaws the delegates to the Fourth annual MPO Convention, which met in Indianapolis, in 1925 decided to establish a newspaper, an official organ of the MPO, and to name it MACEDONIAN TRIBUNE. Under the guidance and leadership of the MPO Central Committee Secretary Jordan Tchkatroff the MACEDONIAN TRIBUNE was founded and began publication on February 10, 1927.

And the rest is history - documented in the most authentic way, as a vivid testimony of lives, ideals, desires and struggles of Macedonians in North America. Over the next eight decades the MPO became the only free consciousness of enslaved Macedonia. With its firm and uncompromising stand for a free, independent and united Macedonian state the MPO became a Macedonian legend, second only to IMRO, and the highest symbol of the legal struggle of the Macedonian Liberation movement throughout the world.

MPO approaches the third millennium with even greater enthusiasm than its founders had at the beginning of this century. The century-old struggle has been rewarded with the existence of a free and independent Macedonian state. While the fundamental goals of the Organization, as stated in its bylaws, remain the same, its contemporary purpose is best summarized in the Mission statement developed in 1996 by the MPO Central Committee:

The mission of the Macedonian Patriotic Organization is to:

• Continue to work for human, civil and economic rights for all Macedonians of the world

• Promote and preserve the ethnic traditions, customs and history of our people

• Promote and develop the cultural and social growth of our youth - Promote and strengthen our Organization.

The MACEDONIAN TRIBUNE is our primary voice in achieving this mission.