Spring Issue Editorial

The truth is finally emerging. We knew that the corporate oligarchy robbed us of our pensions and savings. That they shipped our jobs to poor countries exploiting desperation. That they preach austerity for us to pay for their plunder, cutting jobs, vital services, the benefits of those lucky enough to have them, and unemployment compensation from those unable to find work. Their courts and Congress have criminalized real journalism and dissent with laws written by cabals like ALEC. Now we hear that they are listening to and recording our every phone call and email, tracking our every purchase and internet activity.

The so-called war on terror is finally coming home, only now the "terrorists" are those who threaten corporate interests. The new persons of interest are you and I. This brings home the vital importance of real, non-virtual communication and of the printed word. Their National Security State can tap every phone and computer but they can't read everything printed and they certainly do not pay much heed to poets.

But poetry, at its best, is truth telling. Though this press continues to struggle on a ragged piece of a shoestring, we are grateful for the support that has allowed us to continue to publish the uncensored, unvarnished truth of our class reality and our proletarian commitment to a just and livable world.

Many of the poems in this collection reflect a gritty nostalgia devoid of sentiment. We remember the jobs that have been stolen from us and the misery of that work. We remember the injured and the disappeared even as we look with trepidation and anger at the bleak future offered by this system of corruption in its dying throes. Women's increasingly difficult experiences are expressed in this collection. There is a strong focus on parenting and family, as well as on culture and a sense of "home."

What comes through is that whatever our background or our economic state, we are all in this together. As working people, we share common experiences and interests. We struggle with debt. We suffer the degradation of job hunting, dreading bosses and landlords. The same face of greed sees us all as expendable tools and as a threat when united.

We have been monitored on the job and off but we are watching too. We as workers are both agent and victim in the process. Like Edward Snowdon and other operatives know, as soon as you look up from your monitor and ask why, you are the enemy too. We who do the work know where the weaknesses in the system of dominance are. We know who benefits, who suffers and why. We will continue to speak that truth until everyone has had enough of their abuse and the illusion of their power dissolves like a bad dream.

Their power depends on our consent and cooperation. Our realization of that begins its subversion. Let this be a turning point uniting the majority against the destructive tyranny of the global corporate - NSA regime that threatens us all. So let the truth telling continue.