www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, December 2002
Readers’ Views
FIGHTING WAR AND TERRORISM AT HOME AND ABROAD All along, N&L has been bringing out how bizarre is the
mirror image of someone like bin Laden declaring jihad and someone like Bush
declaring a new crusade, each one invoking a national myth of unsullied goodness
and decrying the other as the evil to be annihilated. What needs to be
remembered is that Hussein and his henchmen no more speak for the people of
Iraq than Bush and his minions represent the people of the U.S. Even the
president's own United Methodist Church has informed its congregation that a
preemptive strike against Iraq cannot meet the criteria of the just war theory. --Tom More, Spokane The Left is back to "no blood for oil" as though
we are back to the last Gulf War. Some don't get it when we talk of the drive
for permanent war as being the administration's prime motivation, even though
the administration is talking constantly about it and practicing it. Reducing
our response to only trying to find a "logic" to the war misses the
point of the depth of the crisis as well as the depth of the passion for
freedom. --M.W., Oakland, Cal. As Bush is getting ready for a new Gulf War, we need to be aware of the horrors the U.S. government has been unleashing with its radioactive depleted uranium weapons. It left two to three times more depleted uranium in Afghanistan than what it used in the 1991 Gulf War. A web site at http://www.globalalternatives.org/911 warns of the severe health and environmental effects that will soon be registered. --Anti-war activist, New York Whether or not one believes war is justified should Hussein
refuse to allow U.S. inspections, the resentment boiling up in the Middle East
against the U.S.'s bellicose policies will not stem the rising tide of Islamic
fundamentalism in that area. The Bush administration gives no consideration to
what the people who live there think and creates fertile ground for more
terrorist groups. I'm glad N&L is abreast of these issues since the major
media reports very little about the opposition to Bush's foreign policies in the
Middle East. --D.T., Louisiana While it may seem like a small event to some, I wanted you to know that there was an anti-war demonstration in Springfield that was attended by about 60 people. As small as that seems, it was the largest anti-war demonstration here since President Carter reinstituted the selective service in 1980. --Union organizer, Springfield, Ill. President Bush saw the sniper killing and wounding of all
those people in Virginia as an act of terrorism and said whoever shoots innocent
people and kills them has a sick mind. Isn't that the same behavior the U.S.
military will carry out in Iraq if it follows the command of Mr. Bush? --Iranian exile, Los Angeles Noam Chomsky in his book, 9/11, never distinguishes between
the two worlds that exist within the U.S. and within the Muslim world. He views
it as a clash between two civilizations. It makes the headline of the front page
editorial in the November N&L stand out over all other analyses I've read:
"Stop Bush's war on Iraq, support the Iraqi people." That's exactly
what needs to be done. --Radical lawyer, Flint Raya Dunayevskaya's commentary on the 1962 Cuban Missile
Crisis (November N&L) is contemporary because in it she rails against the
Left not only for not following through on their own issue, opposition to the
bomb, when it comes to Russia, but failing to see that revolution itself is at
stake because Russia had become the greatest exporter of counter-revolution.
This is precisely the myopic view of many in today's anti-war movement,
personified by Chomsky, who fails to single out fundamentalism and its terror as
the face of counter-revolution. --Activist-thinker, California When I read in the November "From the Writings of Raya
Dunayevskaya" about Kennedy and Khrushchev accusing each other of
being "aggressor" and "deceiver" during the Cuban Missile
Crisis, I was reminded of Bush and bin Laden arguing over who's really the
terrorist. Answer: all of the above. --Revolutionary youth, Memphis THE NEED FOR A FAIR MEDIA I wonder how many know anything about the protest in front
of the Washington Post that was part of a campaign for fairness in the media,
launched by Black Voices for Peace in November. They are targeting the
Washington Post and other media outlets who have not been balanced and accurate
in their reporting on the participation of Black and other people of color in
anti-war activities. --Supporter, Chicago A vital handmaiden in the Bush administration's march to
power is the media. Freedom of the press, written and electronic, is in serious
jeopardy following the assimilation of the new media into conglomerate empires
such as Time-Warner and Disney, who have much more interest in profits than in
news reporting. Much of the media openly supports the administration and censors
unfavorable government criticism. Examples abound but one of the clearest
examples is the failure of the media to widely report the anti-war demonstration
by more than 100,000 in Washington, D.C. in October. --Retired journalist, Detroit To paraphrase Lenin, newspapers like N&L are like giant
bellows that will transform the "sparks" produced by the corrupt,
decrepit capitalist system into a fiery conflagration that will consume
capitalism. --Ex-postal worker, Battle Creek ECUADOR'S NEW PRESIDENT Lucio Gutierrez's campaign for the run-off election which
he won in November was a disappointment for many on the Left. His first act was
to travel to Miami and Washington to assure the business and banking communities
they had nothing to fear from his presidency. He has distanced himself from the
two activist grassroots parties that officially endorsed him and, instead of
proposing concrete programs, has spoken only in abstractions, saying he is
against corruption and for democracy. The mere attempt to eliminate the more
blatant corrupt practices of government and industry that are rampant here will
speak neither to the basic causes of poverty nor to the masses' passion for an
end to their misery and exploitation. --Correspondent, Ecuador ON FUNDAMENTALISM When the Islamic fundamentalists won elections in certain
areas of Pakistan, the first thing they did was sexually segregate the
educational system. Within all fundamentalisms is the idea that women are less
than human. Yet they are terrified that these less-than-human people will prove
the opposite. It reminds me of the way slaves were considered so inferior that
they couldn't learn, yet the South had laws forbidding them from learning to
read and punished whites who helped them. --Feminist historian, Tennessee The fundamentalist Right is saying men's masculinity is
being threatened, but never explains what that means. They are also threatened
by lesbian mothers who, according to them, can't teach a boy what it means to be
a man. The way this "masculinity thing" is being paraded around by the
Right needs to be analyzed. --Artemis, Memphis U.S. actions are fueling the popularity of fundamentalism
from Southeast Asia to Africa. It was the same during the Iranian Revolution in
1979 when the U.S. attacked Iranians in general, making it hard for some to be
against Khomeini. At that time many leftists, even in Iran, were slow to condemn
Khomeini and that hesitation helped him to consolidate his power and turn
against them. --Iranian exile, Hayward, Cal. The Christian Right has been going all out to support the
Israeli Right. The idea that the two ultra-conservative groups are serious about
their ideas is not to be laughed at. Jerry Falwell does have Bush's ear and can
mobilize his supporters to promote their agenda. Their ideas have a huge impact
on domestic and foreign policy, especially Israel's policy. --Anti-all-fundamentalisms, Chicago THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS Some of us here in Maine are giving serious consideration
to secession, either forming a separate nation or hooking up with Quebec or New
Brunswick. However, we are still part of the U.S. where Jonathan Carter ran as a
Green for Governor and garnered almost 10% of the vote. His was the first
candidacy under Maine's "Clean Election" law; that is, the voters paid
for it. He had run before without any money but always got only about 1%. --Observer, Maine It was a shock when two Michigan counties (including
Detroit) failed to pass a proposal on "Arts, Parks and Kids" that
would have provided funds for museums, parks and cultural institutions.
Perhaps enough people did not vote; some said they felt the election would make
very little difference. Or maybe homeowners were reacting to the doubling of
home insurance rates, said to be a result of the huge drain on insurance
companies after September 11, by refusing to vote for funding. --Susan Van Gelder, Detroit WOMEN'S LIBERATION AS A LIFE AND DEATH QUESTION We have always known that women's control over our own
bodies is a life-and-death issue. But it has been framed as a peripheral
pleasure issue—sexual freedom or choice—when it is really about life and
death. The question of AIDS emphasizes that, as your column on rape and AIDS
during war (November N&L) makes clear. --Black Christian feminist, Tennessee I found the articles about RAWA and the use of rape by the
military to be disturbing and absolutely necessary to know about. This
information should be more widely circulated among the public. Thank you for
what you are doing on that. --Women's Liberationist, Chicago The women's movement was able to make sexism ideologically
unacceptable in most circles for a while. You had to at least pretend not to be
sexist. Now an awful backward step is showing up. Sexism is so much with us
again that Bush can make jokes about how he makes his wife sweep the porch and
it's considered acceptable ideology. --Disgusted male, Mid-South "POPULAR FRONT" Some young people have a "popular front" stance,
where they think it is OK to forget about history and philosophy as long as they
can get everyone to unite against globalization. I saw one example of this at a
slide show by a radical artist named Eric Drooker. In the discussion one young
woman asked him how the anti-globalization movement could go forward. He
suggested taking the "best aspects" of Trotsky, Mao, and
Stalin--without mentioning the problems with any of them. He thought you could
forget about actual history and just unite. People are becoming more pragmatic. They make an
abstraction of theory and don't deal with their own experiences at work, at
home, or in their daily lives. --Young radical, Chicago HOW TO FIGHT? What we're up against in this country today is really
intense. Those who struggled in the '60s and '70s are either dead or in prison.
The police are getting so bad I feel they're going to either shoot me or put me
in prison. Young folks and people of color know what we have to fight but don't
know how to do it. --Tiger, Oakland, Cal. SUPPORT ACHEH! Readers who have been following the independence struggle
in Acheh, Indonesia, are urged to send letters to the U.S. and Indonesian
governments at this crucial time. Indonesia has stepped up its killing of
civilians and is bombing suspected rebel areas. It now theatens to "close
down" the entire province if the guerrilla resistance (GAM) does not agree
to a "peace agreement" by Dec. 9. GAM celebrated its 26th anniversary
Dec. 4, and vowed to keep up the struggle for independence. Jakarta has offered
only "special autonomy." GAM is in contact with other separatist
movements in Indonesia such as the Free Papua Movement and rebels calling for a
South Moluccan Republic. In Acheh the body of Musliadi, age 26, leader of the West
Acheh Student and Youth Action Coalition, was found on Dec. 4, killed like so
many others because of his activities against human rights violations in Acheh.
An economics student, he had been detained by security forces on Nov. 30. To
send letters of protest, contact Achech Center at internationalaffairs@siraaceh.org,
or IHRN at Kurt@indonesionetwork.org. --Acheh Supporter, New York CAPITALISM Capitalism is an irrational, anti-human system. There are
many ways that have been put forward to meet its challenge—not just state
socialism but anarcho-socialism and other forms that explore how to meet our
needs. We deserve to have our needs met in a rational way. Just imagine how the
questions of technology would change in a humanist society. Just imagine what we
could do with our time if it were more rational. --Eco-socialist, California In my job as an accountant, I see the system as a kind of
psychotic who every three months has to meet certain numerical goals. The
corporations work for their own survival based on those numbers. Nothing else
matters. The quarter system is maddeningly crazy. --Accountant, California I am fed up with Bush's complaints and disagreements about
Kyoto. If he thinks those accords will destroy the business economy, he is sadly
mistaken. If Kyoto is not agreed to, it is the effects of global warming
that will destroy most business opportunities. Maybe the Canadian dollar will
exceed the U.S's if Kyoto is ratified here and not in the U.S. It's up to Bush
whether America the "beautiful" survives global warming. --Fed up, Canada IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY I would like to see a movement to impeach President Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney, along with our entire Senate and House for not
upholding their oaths of office to protect our Constitution. What else would you
call it when such a subversive act as the PATRIOT act--that actively attacks at
least five of our constitutional amendments--was passed without most of our
representatives even reading it? I call it high treason when a political agenda
is put above our constitutional rights. --M.T.C., Lincoln, Neb. We all knew the Bush administration didn't want to have any
independent inquiry into the "failures of intelligence" that led to
the September 11 disaster. But it really took more than gall to appoint a war
criminal like Henry Kissinger to do the investigating! This is a man known for
massive deceptions about everything from the "secret bombing" of
Cambodia and Laos to his role in Chile, and on and on. There are so many
places that would like to put him on trial that he is known to get legal advice
before he travels anywhere these days. His appointment by Bush adds one more
"crime" to Bush's record. --Outraged, Pennsylvania FREEING JOSE SOLIS It was great to learn from PROLIBERTAD that Professor Jose
Solis Jordan completed his sentence on Nov. 21 and is no longer a political
prisoner. He should never have served a day. What is little known is that it was the 51 month sentence
given to Prof. Solis that gave President Clinton a standard by which to offer
clemency to the 16 Puerto Rican independentistas who had been given even more
outrageously long sentences. Solis also went to prison in a different era. The
Bush administration is now creating conditions by which many more innocent
people could end up in prison for their political opinions as Solis was. We
should honor him for the way he faced injustice with dignity and courage. --Gerard Emmett, Chicago WHO OWNS THE WATER? I read the article on "Who owns water in 'new' South
Africa" (October N&L) with great interest. It recalled my days growing
up in Mississippi with no running water. People often saved rain water from the
gutter, which resulted in an epidemic of rheumatic fever and irregular t-cell
counts. You know what others are going through when you have gone through it
yourself. Ours is truly one world. --Black working woman, Los Angeles BELAFONTE VS. POWELL Harry Belafonte said publicly what is taken as a given in
the African-American community, when he called Colin Powell "a house
slave," although others might have used a different word. Belafonte was born in 1927 in Harlem but spent most of his
young life in Jamaica. Powell was born in New York City too, of Jamaican
descent. Both men served in the armed forces—Belafonte in the Navy and Powell
in the Army. But it was not the rivalry that exists between those two branches,
or the difference in their ages that accounts for Belafonte's view of Powell. It
could be because they were both of Jamaican descent. I think big brother
Belafonte was calling on little brother Powell to stop being used by George W.
and his cabinet. Too much disrespect has been brought to bear by them on the
Black male already. I side with Harry Belafonte. --Nouveau Toussaint, Chicago PHILOSOPHIC DIALOGUE The review of Joel Kovel's book, THE ENEMY OF NATURE: THE
END OF CAPITALISM OF THE END OF THE WORLD (November N&L) was one of the most
intriguing contributions to Philosophic Dialogue that N&L has printed. Joe
Swoboda's view of the book is from two directions: 1) his belief that Marx's
works are ripe for an ecological interpretation and 2) his hope that this book
might provide a needed philosophic vision for the green movement of which he is
a part. He concludes that Kovel's vision is grounded in Marx's humanist
philosophy but is weak in developing Marx's dialectical vision of subjects of
revolt fighting for freedom. What I liked best was Swoboda's call for a dialogue
between Kovel, N&L, and social ecologists. --Mary Jo Grey, Chicago I thought the reviewer gave Kovel's book THE ENEMY OF
NATURE more credit than he deserves when he says that Kovel projects a need for
a philosophy of revolution. I don't think that was central to his vision of
eco-socialism. --Critic, Oakland, Cal Only through new human relations can philosophy fully
uncover the power of mediation and open up an objective view of nature. Kovel's
new book opens many avenues for discussion of the dialectic as central to
liberation. --R.B., California TECHNOLOGY AND THE DOCKWORKERS The discussion of technology in the November N&L Lead
gets to the crux of the problem when it says capital increasingly endows
material forces with intellectual powers while reducing human beings to a
material force. That's not an issue the dockworkers have addressed so far. They
are concerned about who is going to get the remaining jobs. Meanwhile,
technology is redefining the mind as something that computes and crunches
numbers. The people who are displaced need to ask what that means. --Concerned, Bay Area Some people, like my dad, whose brother is a boss on the
docks, look at the dockworkers' union and workers in general as greedy people
trying to get more and more money for less and less work. Actually, that sounds
more to me like the bosses. But money isn't even the issue for these workers.
The issue is having control over their own labor. --Youth activist, Memphis |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
