Struggle, vol. 14, #4, Winter 1998-9:

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Three editor's notes by Tim Hall

Whose weapons of mass destruction?

. Once again, American bombers have blasted the Iraqi landscape and killed and maimed Iraqi people--allegedly to eliminate Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. What hypocrisy! The long poem below, by Patrick William Bradley, Jr., who is religious but hates the war-making capitalist Moloch, intimately describes and passionately denounces immensely powerful American weapons of mass destruction--nuclear weapons which, even 36 years ago, made Saddam's weapons of today look like child's play. And these weapons were used twice against Japan and again almost used during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and later against the Vietnamese. As I once wrote in a poem:

The enemy of American workers
Is not a foreign one.
It schemes in plush-lined offices
In Wall Street and Washington.

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An Additional Editor's Note

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. Patrick Bradley's poem describes and denounces the American weapons of mass destruction which still threaten the world; it also shows the cost paid by the workers to build and maintain such weapons for the rich rulers to use to murder and plunder workers of other countries. Not only are these weapons instruments of genocide because they are inevitably directed against civilian populations and not just armies, but lives of workers are thrown away in their construction. Bradley exposes the heartlessness of the capitalist bosses and their union-leader pawns who unite to crush the organizing drive of the clerical workers on the project. The picture that emerges from Bradley's poem is that of a brutal, inhuman behemoth of a system, a true Iron Heel, more powerful than that described by Jack London. The only questions that remain are: can this infernal war machine be opposed, and, if so, how? The anti-war masses of the '60's, in their marching millions, answered the first question with a powerful YES--IT CAN BE OPPOSED! And they partly answered the second: YES--BY MASS ACTION! The latter part of this second question involves how such a movement can be created, what its main forces will be, and how it should be led. In my opinion this problem will be solved by a revived, anti-revisionist theory of Marxism-Leninism.

The response to the urgent fund appeal

. The rumors of Struggle's death have been greatly exaggerated. Struggle was, indeed, in deep financial trouble prior to our last issue. But the response to the urgent fund appeal I sent out with that issue was excellent. Many people sent contributions, sometimes together with subscription payments. A number of warm letters of support for the kind of literature that Struggle publishes were also received. I want to thank all the readers/writers who so generously responded. The response shows that enthusiasm for revolutionary and progressive creative literature continues, even in the absence of strong mass movements challenging the ruling capitalist class. Information technology, the free market or even increased government intervention, if that develops--none of these will solve the pressing problems of militarism, aggressive war, racism, sexual oppression, the exploitation of the workers, poverty, environmental destruction, etc. Only the working masses through struggle can combat and eliminate these plagues. Struggle hopes to contribute to that process by developing a movement of activist creative literature. So the magazine will go on, at least for awhile. As you may have noticed, the magazine is edited and produced by one person -- me -- there is no office or staff. Bookstore sales are limited and, when the magazines must be mailed, they only break even, if that. So we need subscriptions, subscriptions, subscriptions--the key to a stable financial base.... Again, my thanks to all of you! -- Tim Hall

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