Dear Progressive Reader,

August 6 marks the seventy-eighth anniversary of the use by the United States of the world’s first atomic bomb against the city of Hiroshima. Between 70,000 and 128,000 civilians were killed, the exact number remains unknown. The new three-hour biopic about “the father of the atomic bomb” tells the story of the Manhattan Project that developed the bomb in intricate detail. According to reviewer Ed Rampell, “As the specter of nuclear war rears its ugly head once again, seventy-eight years later, we’re all in dire need of a reminder of the threat posed by [J. Robert] Oppenheimer’s invention.”

The Progressive has stood as a voice against nuclear madness since the 1940s, as I chronicled in an article three years ago. An August 27, 1945 cartoon on the cover depicted humanity taking a bite from an apple labeled “Atomic Bomb.” The newest issue of The Progressive, arriving in the mail to subscribers this week, has a series of articles that address this threat. Jim Carrier looks at President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Hiroshima and how the spectacle belies the actual efforts by the Administration to build up and “modernize” the nuclear arsenal. Alfred Meyer examines the nexus of nuclear weapons and nuclear power in the current bipartisan build-up, explaining that “The nuclear enterprise continues its cancerous growth and development, playing a central role in our nation’s economy and military strategies.” Paul Hockenos reports from Germany on another path taken, where the last of the countries nuclear plants was shuttered earlier this year. And Doug Bradley tells the story of a resurrected peace ship—the Golden Rule—which first sailed to oppose U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands in the 1950s, and has returned to be piloted by Veterans for Peace in opposition to nuclear weapons and all wars. That ship is scheduled to sail into Milwaukee, Wisconsin next month.

Chuck Collins is a peace and economic justice activist who has written numerous books on the wealthy elites who hide their money in secret shelters. His latest column for The Progressive takes on the use of private jets, which are literally fueling the climate crisis. Collins has a new book out, this time a novel, called Altar to an Erupting Sun. He is currently on a book tour and will visit A Room of Own’s Own bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin on August 9. I spoke with Collins for an extended interview last Friday on WORT-FM Community Radio.

Elsewhere on our website this week, Glenn Daigon examines the campaign in the State of Maine to create a public power utility; cartoonist Mark Fiore illustrates the negative effects of an attitude that it’s “too late” to address the climate crisis; and Lela Tolajian shines a light on the use of forced labor by the “fast fashion” industry. Plus Carol Burris reports for our Public Schools Advocate project on a rightwing think tank that is promoting the charter school industry with fudged facts.

Finally, as discussions of intervention following the recent military coup in Niger are in the news, I looked back on our 2017 coverage of U.S. military involvement in that region. As peace activist Kathy Kelly told me at the time, “as many as twenty million people could yet die of starvation across the African continent. . . . Under these circumstances,” she said, “why would the United States want to spend millions to further militarize the region?”

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. - The 2023 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now on sale for half price. You can still order one online.

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