Summer Editorial 2022

This summer has been marked by fires, floods, severe drought, famine and pestilence, by escalating global social conflict and war. None of these can be separated from each other and all are connected by and to an economic system of exploitation and global competition for control of resources. In our own country and others, social stresses and rising citizen demands have given rise to fascist, as well as progressive movements.

Fascism is the defensive reaction of corporate oligarchy to rising citizen demands for inclusion and for citizen interests when they challenge corporate profits and dominance. It is the brutal rule of corporate power using hyper-nationalism, fear, religion, disinformation, division and hatreds to rally popular support among the less informed.

Due to U.S. expansion of the conflict in Ukraine we now find ourselves closer to nuclear annihilation than any time since the Cuban missile crisis. The Ukraine leadership, a result of U.S. meddling, is proudly and overtly fascist. Russia's leadership under Putin is also a corrupt, neo-Tsarist variety of fascism. The US/NATO stoking of a proxy war in this nuclearized region is the height of myopic arrogance that further endangers the world with no hope for a positive outcome. This deadly conflict must end, not be made any worse.

American workers are struggling with price-gouging, poverty, stagnant wages, the least accessible healthcare in the developed world, pandemic levels of gun violence, continuing institutional racism, and growing attacks on women's rights. We are appalled that addressing public-health and safety issues are seen as questionable expenses while repeated record-breaking money for war and weapons sales continues without question.

U.S. funding of war and aggressive actions are not limited to Ukraine as we see from recent visits and $1.8 Billion in weapons sales to Taiwan in violation of agreements with China, drone attacks in Somalia, and continued arming and funding of Israeli apartheid and Saudi aggression. These are the fascist priorities of an aggressor state vested in endless war; as Martin Luther King opined, the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet.

The contributors in this summer issue understand the growing threat of competitive corporate dominance, of fascism and war, especially in this time of climate emergency. Close to 80% of working people support universal healthcare, climate action, voting rights, and women's reproductive freedom. These priorities are subverted by corporate media and politicians funded by big business interests whose priorities are legislated at the expense of our freedoms, our health, and the future of life on earth.

Democracy, unlike fascism, is defined by authentic public participation. Getting there from here is a continuing struggle upon which our rights and existence depend. The majority of us understand the level of rot and corruption that cripples democracy, sickening our country and world for the enrichment of a few like an insatiable parasite. We must actively stand against war and oppression and for priorities of sustenance. We must vote and we must work to unite our progressive majority in the struggle to end military aggression, war and criminally corrupt, globally destructive corporate dictatorship. This issue completes twenty-five years of publication. We are grateful to be able to continue doing our part to demonstrate and encourage a mindset of social and class solidarity necessary to our struggle for a livable world and for authentic democracy.