Fall 2023 Editorial

Autumn is a time of coming together with family and friends, a time of celebration and of battening down for the rigors of winter. This winter is made harder for us by an economy impacted by pandemic, war, and price gouging.

As corporate politicians gladly dole out another $857 Billion for weapons production and the escalation of a dangerous war, child poverty grows and rent-gouging leaves more of us hungry, homeless, criminalized and disenfranchised. As Senator Ocasio-Cortez recently pointed out regarding the latest weapons spending, $20 Billion could end homelessness, and child poverty could be reduced by half for $90 Billion -- far less than the money spent on weapons and war -- and far more controversial in a corporate oligarchy where business agendas and global hegemony are prioritized and citizen needs come last. Our lives remain endangered in a country saturated with guns. Mass shootings are a near daily occurrence. Our ruling class is more dedicated to our right to kill each other than to our rights to have healthcare, education, homes, or even sick leave in a continuing pandemic.

Who speaks for us? A few labor unions and a handful of elected progressives are not enough. We must speak for ourselves as a class. The poets in this issue do just that.

Some in this collection are nostalgic but, as Adrienne Rich once wrote, "nostalgia is the flip side of amnesia." We must see the past clearly to learn from it, whether on working conditions and labor history or on the realities of racism and sexism which continue to stifle so many lives.

We are living in a time when our systems and our lives are being held hostage by empowered corporate interests. We are divided by corporate parties, that rhetoric aside, agree more than disagree when in comes to priorities that harm us for the benefit of profiteers.

In the next few months our nation will likely be held hostage by overt right Republicans who have stated their intent to block any budget that doesn't include cutting, destroying or privatizing Social Security and Medicare. Center-right Democrats could have raised the debt ceiling to prevent this, but have refused to do so; nor have they stood with workers striking for sick leave they themselves feel entitled to. We, especially the poor and the elderly, must fight for our ability to live as profits for connected corporations such as big insurance, fossil fuel companies, pharmaceutical giants, and military industries reap record profits at our very real expense.

At the same time, we see an escalation in working class fight-back from teachers, railroad workers, students and climate activists. As working people, we know we can trust corporate parties and politicians to screw us. When we are left to choose lesser evils in elections, we are always the losers. We need to be active and united beyond elections. This must include massive protests, labor actions, building a progressive workers' party, and consideration of a national strike.

This journal continues to seek to unify working people around issues that affect us all, and to foster a class perspective which makes unity possible. We recognize the power of culture to shape perspectives and the potential strength of our unified class to disempower the destructive rule of self-serving corporate power. We are more than grateful for the poets and writers who join us in this effort. May this season of coming together shape our struggles in the coming year.