I’ll be talking to Peter Werbe about his book – Summer on Fire – a Detroit Novel. This novel details how a group of people around the alternative newspaper – Fifth Estate – reacted to the reality of an urban uprising happening around them.

Summer in Detroit was hot in 1967. And people were anxious. War was raging in Vietnam and the body count was growing – and opposition to the war was growing right along with the count.

 John Kennedy has been assassinated in 1963 and Malcolm X had also been killed two years after that.

Dr. King and SNCC had been leading some very vocal civil rights actions but have only had some important but often only symbolic victories. For most people – especially for African-Americans – life went on as usual. The status quo held.

We’d like to thank you for joining us in Facing Reality 4 Social Justice as we look at a fictional account of what happened in Detroit during the summer of 1967.

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Interview with Hector Rivera based on article he wrote for Tempest Magazine (tempestmag.org). How much is the change from Obrador to Sheinbaum also a change from the AMLO program - if at all? What are the headwinds the new government will face? What are the implications for the people of Mexico and their organizations?

The interview will be followed by a song dedicated to a hero of the 1910-20 Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa, and sung by Amparo Ochoa.

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France is in political turmoil. That's a good thing because it opens possibilities that didn't exist before. The New Popular Front Party (NPF) - a coalition of leftwing parties - is now the largest political force in France. But what does that mean?

We have a conversation today with John Mullen, a Marxist and long term resident of France, who is also active in the NPF. He gives us an excellent description of the dynamics of mobilization that came together to not only defeat the neo-fascist party of France but also received more votes than the Center party that now runs the country. This is s story that needs to be followed.

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Carl Sandburg's poems are as relevant today as when they were written. Here are four poems from his 1916 series Chicago Stories which show his insight to the class and social distinctions he saw. He was a democratic socialist in his early days and that comes through in many of his works.

This episode of Facing Reality 4 Social Justice is using four of his poems - Anna Imroth, Fences, All Day Long and Masses - to show his understanding of how working people suffer under forces that might seem overwhelming. The poems will be accompanied with commentary and music.

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In 1936 the Spanish army decided on a coup to get rid of the leftwing government just elected. They were successful but only after a 3 year civil war that decimated the country. Unions and leftwing parties organized an armed resistance to the army and their fight became a battle cry against fascism. Their efforts were often not only against the military coup - but for social and economic change as well.

This episode of Facing Reality 4 Social Justice will feature five soldier poets who were part of that revolutionary movement. Manuel Altolaguirie, John Cornford, Jose Herrera Petere, Julio Guillen and Miguel Hernandez joined the battle for justice with their voices and with their bodies. Two of them - Cornford and Hernandez - died because of their efforts.

Their voices - their poems - are an important part of the culture of resistance that still has resonance today.

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Interview with Michael Sladnick who is on the ground in Myanmar and building support for the revolution against the Myanmar military government. This is our third conversation with Michael on this issue and he describes the regional and international context of the two year long fight for freedom and democracy. How does the struggle in Myanmar relate to the other fights for freedom in South East Asia? Is the verbal support for democracy from Western governments relevant to the real word situation in the country?

The program ends with a short poem from an early martyr to the revolution, Khat Thi, whose poems have become battle cries by the Myanmar resistance. The poem will be read by a Myanmar resistance fighter in Burmese and followed with the English translation.

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In Carl Sandburg's poem Kalamazoo he describes the city as "convict gray, dishwater drab". But he also shows Kalamazoo as symbolic of America.

The current upsurge against the U.S. government's financial and political support for Israel's destruction of Gaza has become part of this dynamic - the movement is seen in the major universities of our country but it has awoken also in mainstream America and its schools and unions and churches. It parallels the movements against the Vietnam War in the 1960s to the fight against U.S. policies in Central America and South Africa in the 1980s to today's support for Palestine.

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Surrealism came from the social discontent that existed after WWI. Andre Breton wrote the first Surrealist Manifesto in 1924. It grew to a powerful artistic, political and philosophical movement that still has a strong intranational following today.

Penelope Rosemont has been a guiding force in this movement since the 1960s. In this interview she discusses the origins of the surrealist movement, its growth and relationship to economic depression and war, and its organizational crisis after Breton's death in 1966. She also looks to a vibrant future for the movement as it continues to inspire adherents with an increasing international reach.

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Carl Sandburg wrote numerous poems during the 1916-18 period about war and the burdens of war falling on working people. We will look at four of these poems in this episode - Buttons, And They Obey, Wars, Grass - which are not specific to World War I but are about the relationship of those who fight and those who lead them.

Sandburg was in the army during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and he combines his experiences then to the horrors of war in general and to the specific events of the "War to End All Wars". He identified as a socialist during this period and his poems reflect this humanistic reaction to world events.

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