Spring 2019 Editorial

Our working class bears the brunt of public policy written by and for connected industries and militarists. We've seen our jobs exported, the value of our wages reduced, our communities and workplaces poisoned and our loved ones sacrificed to greed and war. Many of us are not only made ill by our jobs but cannot afford needed medical care or medications.

This spring finds us at the precipice of global chaos with our government's sabotage of the Russian power grid, the exposure of our electoral interference in Brazil, and the growing threat of a war with Iran based on lies. Around the world, and in our own country, we see a rising demand for climate sanity and economic justice. Cultivated division and the rise of neo-fascist nationalism are intentional obstacles set in the path of our progress.

Nationalism is a response, orchestrated by corporate media, to the anger and disaffection resulting from the impoverishing ruse of trickle-down economics. It is a desperate defense against the rising tide of eco-social democratic alternatives as well as a struggle to bolster an obsolete model of competitive nation-states in an increasingly interdependent world. The results are war, poverty, crushing oppression, refugees and climate devastation. At root, this conflict is between corruption, unfettered profiteering and authoritarian rule versus democracy and the public good.

The poets in this collection understand this and write from personal experience. We are each others' witness. We know that we must have each others' backs, that unity is our only security. The bosses know it too and do everything they can to undermine our unity and to further exploit and discard us.

The poem "Billy Ray" by Len Shindel speaks of crooked labor leaders and racism. Corrupt labor leadership is something union members must confront to take back and strengthen our unions. The reality of union struggles is fleshed out in Stewart Acuff's poem, "Considering My Own Lynching." His experience shines a light on the direct connection between extreme-right hate groups and business interests which keep us poor and divided as well as the real benefits and power that come from our unity.

This issue comes out on the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. We are proud to publish a poem by Chris Butters, written in 2011 to commemorate the passing of the Marriage Equality Bill in New York. Oppression against any of us hurts us all. Also in this issue, "Henry Winston's Laugh" by Rafael Pizarro commemorates the centennial of the founding of the Communist Party. The strength of that organization in the Great Depression of the 1930s and the pressure it exerted was largely responsible for reforms like Social Security, Worker's Comp., minimum wages, the strengthening of labor laws and progress on civil rights. Such advances did not come from the benevolence of the ruling class but from the organized demands of people in the streets. Until we dis-empower wealth, we will continue to have to defend those gains against constant attempts to roll them back.

Poems in this issue from Australia and China demonstrate that the struggle for justice and the common good -- the workers' movement -- is and must be global. We all face the same obstacles of multi-national corporate power and we can only succeed by confronting them together.

The journal in your hands is an example of our unity because it would not exist without your support, for which we are very grateful. We are proud to continue publishing working class culture and to be connecting workers through our shared experiences beyond our national borders.