Summer 2021 Editorial

This issue completes twenty-four years of our publication. Traditionally, our summer issue has a focus on the inseparable subjects of war and climate change. Summer has, especially over the last twenty years, become the "terrible season," each year hotter than the year before; each summer rife with natural disasters from fire and flooding to deadly storms.

The recent IPCC report shows that as we pass 410 ppm of atmospheric CO2 and 1866 ppb of methane, a far more powerful greenhouse gas, it is warmer now than it has been in 800,000 years. Even so, minimal but important actions which would slow our emissions are opposed by influential fossil-fuel corporations. Though the Biden plan may pass, the licensing for methane fracking on public lands continues unabated.

We knew from the poems we had about these issues that this would be a hard-hitting collection. We feared that it might be too demoralizing, if that is possible in this time of continuing crises. We still struggle with a pandemic made far worse by media disinformation, misinformed resistance, the reality of nightmarish corporate medicine and the continuing reality of class and racist inequities endemic to capitalism.

The existential crises of COVID and of the expanding climate catastrophe require global cooperation made nearly impossible by a system of competitive corporate nation states. This obsolete model, barely 250 years old, has become an obstacle to our survival. Marxists understand that this kind of state and system must be abolished and replaced with cooperative working-class democracies. We can work together globally for the common good or we can compete and fight to the death --- of everything.

The poets in this issue understand that our working class experience is shared, as is our fate as a species. We must force our elected leaders to act responsibly. What is made clear repeatedly in these poems is our shared knowledge of the power behind the curtain of Amercan "democracy". Corporate and military-industrial interests rule both official political parties and the leaders they back. We live under a system of utter corruption. We have managed to elect some publicly funded progressives who are making a big difference. But it is not enough. We face the onslaught of an extreme-right insurgency much like the Taliban, with a sympathetic media, Supreme Court, and politial party with elected representatives. We, as cultural workers, have an important role to play in shaping the culture and mindset necessary to topple the rule of wealth in its own interest and at our very real expense.

That is what this journal is about. We have no illusions about our impact but it does change lives and inspire, letting people know they are not alone but part of a class determined to have each other's backs and to fight for a just and livable society and world. Expanding our voice is vital to this effort. Pass this and other issues around or put them where others can find them. We are fortunate to have new voices in this issue.

Our summer issue also presents the winner of our Working Peoples' Poetry Competition. Our winner this year is Marge Piercy for her poem "The Unfinished Masterpiece." Another entry included in this issue is "My Grandfather's Grindstone" by Sally Ventura. This contest helps support our existence. We are grateful for your entries and for a your continuing support.