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NEWS & LETTERS, June 2004Readers' ViewsABU GHRAIB AND THE SYTEMATIC ATROCITIES OF BUSH'S WAR The Bush administration is trying to downplay any possibility that the despicable acts against the Iraqi prisoners were systemic. But if those photos had not been leaked, things would have been business as usual. We have been fed the lie that our troops were welcomed as liberators by the media as well as our government. It's being said in Washington that the world shouldn't judge the entire U.S. and its military based on the actions of "a few bad apples." But didn't we do exactly the same kind of ruthless actions when the almighty U.S. blanketted Iraq with missiles and bombs in March '03, killing thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens and putting hundreds into prisons. My question is how many more Iraqi prisoners will have to be abused, humiliated and sodomized before the rest of the world can officially pass judgment on the entire U.S. military and its citizens for allowing it. After all, we compared Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler for the torture of his own people. So isn't it fitting to compare George W. Bush to Saddam Hussein? The evidence is out and it shows that our own Ba'ath party just marches under a different flag. --Angry Citizen, Arizona What really hit home for me was hearing some commentator, identified as a Republican on a news program, ask why anyone should be surprised that prisoners were stripped naked, deprived of sleep and made to stand for hours. It was expressed as though that was the proper way to treat prisoners, as though it was the proper way to treat any human being. When will we in the U.S. take action to stop all abuse—beginning with the prisons in the U.S.? --Tristan, Los Angeles My son, who is in prison, had his whole unit stripped naked for two weeks, with all blankets and bedding taken away and the air conditioning turned up. During this whole time no phone calls could be made or mail received. I know this as abuse. It has to be stopped. --Georgianna, Los Angeles Of all the articles I've read about the torture of the Iraqi prisoners, the most powerful to me was one that commented on the way the grinning faces of the American military men and women in those photos reminded him of the photo exhibit that recently toured the U.S. as "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America," which showed whole families enjoying a lynching as if it were a picnic. No matter how much Bush insists the photos we're seeing are not "the American way," it is clear that racism and brutality still define a lot about our history and have a long way to go to be stamped out. At the same time it is important not to forget those who refused to accept that as the "American way"--from the Abolitionists of yesterday to the whistle blower who stood up today. --Revolutionary, Chicago The measure of this society's degeneracy is not only the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but the chorus of voices now being heard here in Memphis making the most outrageous excuses for that behavior. Many letters to the editor here reveal the racist attitude that any atrocity perpetrated by an Iraqi justifies the most vicious torment of any Iraqi, notwithstanding the fact that the Red Cross had said up to 90% of those in Abu Ghraib may have been detained by mistake. It isn't hard to see that the racist attitude right here is as vicious locally as it is toward people in the Middle East. --Environmental justice activist, Memphis That women participated in the torture of Iraqi prisoners definitely gives the lie to the slogan that "all women are my sisters." And Condoleezza Rice shows more than ever how false it is to think "women in the military will be too soft." While we hear that Colin Powell at least opposed some of the moves of Rumsfeld/Cheney/Bush on strategic grounds, Rice just followed along as one of the key architects. What we're seeing in the photos is not new. It always happens in war, and it's happening all over the world. What the U.S. has done is prove the lie of being the great liberator by picking up where Hussein left off, even down to using the same prison! They are all cut out of the same cloth, which is why they could reach into their own prisons to recruit those guards to be the "interrogators." --Educator and women's liberationist, Illinois MARCHING FOR WOMEN'S LIVES Given the historic nature of the March for Women's Lives, it's a crime how it has been hidden by the media and slandered by the Right. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting says they found only six stories from the broadcast networks on this largest march ever in the U.S. Other news outlets focused on the tiny contingent of anti-abortionists. Dick Cheney's head advisor, Mary Matalin, called the March "out of touch and irrelevant"--incredibly, since one out of every 300 Americans was there! Bush’s advisor Karen Hughes equated those who marched with terrorists! When asked whether abortion would be an election issue, she said "the fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life." Sure, like all those lives in Iraq and all the U.S. troops who have died or been wounded! --Outraged Women's Liberationist, Memphis I couldn't go to the March but watched the rally on C-Span and it wasn't made up of only "stars" although they were quite good. So many different groups were represented, including 100 young women and men from Medical Students for Choice, who came in lab coats with stethoscopes and talked of the dangers of losing abortion providers. There were many Latinas marching with their young children, some of whom said they might never have an abortion but firmly believed that choice has to remain only with each woman. --March supporter, Chicago The feminist movement is not prepared to say that women can be cruel too. There is a branch like Code Pink that says women are better and kinder than men, and I haven't seen any mention of the torture scandal on their website so far. It leaves us open to attacks from right-wing talk show hosts like Michael Reagan who blamed the scandal on women trying to be like men. Another one, Michael Savafe, blamed it on the new visibility of lesbians in the media, and called one of the women in the torture pictures "dykey looking." We need to be clear that feminism is about the radical notion that women are human. It liberates us to bring out the best in ourselves, but we have to be alert to its shortcomings and what causes them. --Adele, Tennessee CRACKS IN THE EMPIRE? Whenever I read the basic writings of Marx and Marxist-Humanism I realize how superficial is the approach of so much of the so-called Left. Calling for us to go beyond our circumscribed lives is dangerous stuff for the rulers. They fear the potential power of the masses. Yet we are beginning to see cracks in the stability of the U.S. drive for worldwide control. Its empire is beginning to deteriorate internally as all social services erode under the rulers' assault, and more and more jobs disappear. I am subsumed with anguish over the millions of children who will never have any kind of fulfilled life, or even ever reach adulthood. Yet there seems little public dissent. Is there a way out or is there "no exit"? --Frank, Wisconsin The hearings by the 9/11 commission are telling people what they already knew about Bush and his ulterior motives. I saw the press conference he gave after 9/11. His eyes were sparkling. He finally had a mission: to rule the world, beginning with overthrowing Saddam Hussein and occupying Iraq. --Reader, California If the growing anti-Bush sentiments due to his lies, cynicism, lack of any concern for his canon fodder, much less the thousands of innocent civilian victims, as well as his cronyism with the rich against the poor, finally fosters the development of a powerful anti-fascist movement, it could lead to a revolutionary situation. --Ana Lucia, Texas CALL FOR ACTION ON HEALTHCARE Quality, affordable health care has been priced out of reach for millions of hardworking, tax paying Americans. Healthcare increases are outpacing wages and have made it difficult for small businesses to provide coverage to their workers, while corporations are shifting the burden directly to their employees. On Saturday, June 19, tens of thousands will join together across the country from the Golden Gate Bridge to Brooklyn Bridge to demand a solution. To find an event near you, or to start your own event, go to http://www.bridgingthegapforhealthcare.org/. The crisis touches everyone. At this moment there are 8.5 million children in our country without health care and as you read this message, five more people lost their coverage. June 19 is the day to send our message to Washington. --Andy Stern, Cyberspace CONTRACTING OUT CANADA TO THE U.S. The heavy use of "contracting out" is completely decimating the union membership here. It is occurring on all fronts, but especially Health & Welfare and Government Services. Jobs paying in the $16 range are gone; services are contracted out, mainly to U.S. companies who hire at the $8 to $10 level. Many of the jobs are also part time, so there is no provision for benefits. There is no question it is a deliberate break-the-union ploy on the part of the right-wing government whose first act, when elected, was to reduce taxes for the top income faction. We have high unemployment and Vancouver City Council is currently debating the establishment of a tent city to "get the homeless off the streets." Councilors are looking at the U.S., especially Portland, where such a thing exists. And this in a world where the CEOs pull in millions! --M.M., Vancouver LEGALIZING GAY MARRIAGE The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Health on behalf of 13 same sex couples whose plans to be married by the mayor of New Paltz, N.Y., were thwarted after criminal charges for marrying gay and lesbian couples were brought against him. Charges have also been filed against several Unitarian ministers who stepped in to solemnize marriages in Mayor Jason West's place. Different lawsuits were filed against the clerk of New York City about his refusal to issue marriage licenses to gays and lesbians. The REFUSAL has taken place in a number of other areas, where suits are also being filed. The argument common to these different suits is that any law barring same sex marriages denies the persons the guarantees of equal protection and due process under the state's constitution. As one of the plaintiffs put it, "We are New Yorkers, we are U.S. citizens, and we want our rights protected." --Sheila, New York TWO EDUCATIONS As an unfortunate consequence of growing up in the mean and pernicious ghetto streets on the South Side of Chicago, I witnessed vile things on a daily basis and perpetrated heinous things against the innocents of my poor and wretched community. The moment that I learned to read and write well, I picked up Malcolm X's AUTOBIOGRAPHY and Carter G. Woodson's MIS-EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO. From each I learned much. From Malcolm's I learned about the devastating effects of self-hatred and the universal principle that "If you change your self-perception, you can change the behavior." From Woodson's book I have come to learn that "every man has two educations: that which is given to him, and the other which he gives himself." Of the two the latter is the most desirable. For 27 years I have struggled with my ignorance and now understand that it is incumbent on me when I am released to return to my community to give back to those from whom I have taken so much by helping as many of my kinsmen as I can to put the pieces of their lives back together. --Modibo, Colorado HAITI AFTER THE COUP Jamaica and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member countries resisted intense U.S. pressure by calling for an investigation by the UN into the circumstances that led to President Aristide's departure from Haiti after the Feb. 28-29 coup. There is a lot in dispute but the facts that are not in dispute are that Aristide was popularly elected and had an overwhelming majority of the votes in 2000; that he was forced out of office as a result of an illegal insurgency; that Aristide and his wife were then flown to the Central African Republic by the U.S. military; and that a so-called "resignation letter" it was claimed he signed was then determined by the U.S. State Department's own Creole interpreter to have contained nothing about resignation. The long history of the U.S. intervention in the Americas and the disinformation campaign that has emanated from the Bush Administration calls for a close scrutiny regarding Aristide's departure. None of the questions it raised have been adequately answered. Meanwhile the U.S. has closed its borders to Haitian political refugees and the Coast Guard has forced them back, disregarding the imminent danger they face on forced return to Haiti. --Concerned lawyer, New York MARXISM AND ANTI-MARXISM Marxism to me is a set of principles that makes the case against capitalism and builds the case for socialism and moves always in that direction. Articles by Marxists should always be written with that in mind. --S. R., Iowa I was reading in the recently published ROSA LUXEMBURG READER that she said what Marx had said on the basis of the experience of the Paris Commune, which had at that time been thought outdated for at least 30 years, was actually still very current. It is important to see who is talking about the actual currency of Marx in such terms today. --Luxemburg reader, Berkeley In CAPITAL, Marx talks about the phantom-like objectivity of socially necessary labor time. When your job goes to Asia, it is because they can produce the widgets cheaper. In health care they assign point value to different health procedures and that is what determines how much nursing a patient gets. This seems phantom-like. Who is making up all these numbers? Where does the objectivity come from? The nurse looks out for the health of the whole patient which may come into conflict with the “objective” assessment. --Health worker, Oakland, California VOICES FROM WITHIN In reading John Alan's column "Bush's Black Rightists" (May N&L), I couldn't restrain my delight at reading an accurate assessment of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Powell is good at more than just deflecting history. Both he and Rice have conveniently repressed the historical experience of people of African descent in Amerikka. Powell, Rice, and all those like them who claim to constitute the Black middle class harbor the idea that it isn't practical to continue to acknowledge the violent historical experiences of the oppressed New Afrikan masses. Witness Powell's presentation at the UN on Iraq's so-called WMD and Rice's public statements absolving Euro-America of guilt in the Atlantic slave trade as well as her keynote speech at the National Association of Black Journalists, where she spoke of Bush's grand plan for democracy in the Middle East. They are blatant examples of how both spread Bush's racist policies. Flawed civil rights organizations like the NAACP tout Powell and Rice as examples of so-called African-American achievement. The Black conservative judges they turn on are in reality less harmful to the oppressed masses of the world than Powell and Rice. It shows the contradiction within many civil rights formations that propagate a bourgeois class message which is narrow in scope. --Prisoner, California After seven years of incarceration in this dungeon, whatever sanity I have been able to hold on to is owed largely to the window into the world which papers such as yours, sent down the line by one comrade or another, have provided me. Because the one who had been sending them along has been moved I have not seen a copy for some time. Is there any way I could get a subscription of my own and then continue to send it on to others? --Incarcerated, Pennsylvania Editor's Note: Readers, can you contribute the cost of a sub to our donors' fund, to allow us to send N&L to those who cannot pay for it on their own? I've been receiving N&L for some time and think it's by far the best use of a printing press I've ever seen! May you continue to be blessed with the will and the resources to do the noble work of helping to change this world for the better. --Supporter from within, Arizona Thank you for keeping your paper alive! --Prisoner, Crescent City, California You can buy NEWS & LETTERS at these bookstores: SEATTLE Left Bank Books MINNEAPOLIS Mayday Books BOSTON The Lucy Parsons Center |
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