Fall 2021 Editorial

This collection emerges in a time when every system, from healthcare to education, from the Post Office to the Congress, is broken and dysfunctional and everyone knows it. Yet we live day to day with the pretense of a functional society. This condition has been called "hyper-normalization" and has preceded collapse or revolution. The pandemic continues to take a heavy toll with over 800,000 dead in the U.S. and hospitals overwhelmed. The rise of viral variants from the unvaccinated and from globally uneven access to vaccines underscores how deeply connected we all are on this small world. We breathe each others' breaths even as we labor for the same companies.

The deaths of so many workers has impacted the supply chains for production and shipping of goods. The deadly demands of employers have set off many labor actions and strikes with continuing attempts to organize Amazon and Starbucks. There were strikes at Kelloggs and John Deere with victories won against "2 Tier" exploitation of newer hires.

As congressional corporate representatives hold back already compromised spending on needed climate action, healthcare expansion, and support for child care, a record $770 Billion was given to the Pentagon without argument, debate or terrified warnings of inflation. Weapons and endless aggression remain the bipartisan priority.

We also face the continuing rise of fascism. Heavily armed and organized fanatics, some of whom were involved in the January coup attempt, are driven by disinformation media which few other countries would tolerate and which would not have been allowed in our own country before media deregulation which began in the 1980's. The Biden administration and corporate democrats are unwilling to pull the plug on this brainwashing program of cultivated fascist incitement to insurrection by reactivating historic limits on media. The problem for them is not the rise of fascism which serves and strengthens corporate power. More concerning for them is maintaining public confidence in the pretense of continuing functional government because, like Wall Street, corporate rule is a confidence game. It would collapse without public confidence in its legitimate authority -- which daily wanes.

A large majority of us oppose fascism war and corruption. Most of us support living wages, progress on climate mediation, child care support, universal medical access and labor rights. Many find our voice and discover our power when united in labor struggles and in organizing on issues which affect us. It is in such struggles where we learn that corporate power blocks every attempt to enact the needed changes we demand. No government run by vested interests is capable of serving public interests if they conflict with corporate profits. Such change can and must come from us; from an awakened working class, active and united in our own interests. That is why so much effort is made to keep us divided.

The poets in this collection see through the phony shilling of corporate embedded media and the deadly global aggression of an empire obsessed with and dependent on military might and endless war. Herein are poems of struggle, from tenant actions, civil disobedience and resistance, to racism militarism, war, and the legal misogyny of anti-choicers threatening a return to past oppressions. Only together do we have any chance of a livable future. Our words have power. Thet can serve as inspiration and outreach but that requires people seeing them. If you can, pass this journal around or leave it where others can find it.