It’s been awhile. Many of you have been asking after us. We are as deeply apologetic about the delays as we are appreciative of your patience. That said, we are back and incredibly excited. Far from being dated, the issue you’re holding tackles a theme still dominating headlines everywhere: Whisteblowers, what they’ve exposed, and their relationship to democracy and social justice. Amidst so much debate about the legitimacy and motives of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, it seemed necessary to broaden the aperture and tackle these subjects historically and philosophically. In short, it felt time to explore the tactic of whistleblowing on its own terms: from the ethics of exposure in Charles Shafaieh’s opening contribution to Sam Husseini’s look at the leak that nearly averted the 2003 Iraq invasion and Palina Prasasouk’s profile of Matt Diaz and his revelations about Guantanamo. David Wilson looks into the Mexican bribery scandal that shook Walmart, while Calvin Moen examines of our relationship with Chelsea Manning. You hold in your hands an exploration of whistleblowing that goes well beyond the content of particular revelations.
Two factors played a major role in our recent pace. The first was that WIN editor/publisher, Jay Cassano, left his position to take on a role as contributing editor, while digging into increased obligations as a senior staff writer at Fast Company. This led to my being brought on as interim editor/publisher, and navigating the learning curve of operations here in the middle of this issue’s production process. The second major hurdle was our having to identify and shift to a new designer mid-stream, and begin visual production of the magazine anew. Thankfully, this has yielded something of an aesthetic reboot, which we think matches the dynamism of this issue’s content.
Speaking as the interim editor, I’m incredibly excited about sharing this issue, and the conversations it’s likely to provoke. And I’m looking forward to forging new terrain with future issues, expanding WIN’s readership, and foregrounding new, innovative movements for collective liberation.
— Joshua Stephens
