3.25/5 (Above Average)

“One by one the cargo-liners blew up, most conveniently for I.C. in its squabble with the union. In fact, these accidents were too convenient…”

Richard Wilson’s “Strike” (1953) first appeared in Future Science Fiction, ed. Robert W. Lowndes (July 1953). Unfortunately, this issue of Future Science Fiction has not been digitized yet. Please reach out in the comments if you want a copy. I purchased the magazine in order to feature it on the site.

“Strike” is the third story in the “Dateline Mars” sequence by Richard Wilson (1920-1987). To the best of my knowledge, this sequence follows the investigative career of Reporter Scott Warren, chief of the Iopa bureau of the Galactic News Service on Mars.¹ I am unsure how many stories appeared in this sequence as they have not yet been grouped as a unit on The Internet Speculative Fiction Database.² Regardless, there’s an appealing simplicity to the general framework of the series — how news agencies attempt to provide objective reporting in a future in which humanity has settled Mars. “Strike” also clocks in as an unabashedly pro-labor union tale. From the stories I’ve gathered so far, this is somewhat rare for the 1950s.

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