News and Letters, November-December 2011

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News & Letters, Vol. 56, No. 6
November-December 2011
You may view this issue of News & Letters in pdf form here

Lead

Occupy Wall Street strikes deep chord, challenges rulers

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, since beginning in New York City's Zuccotti Park--renamed Liberty Plaza--on Sept. 17, has spread to hundreds of cities and towns across the U.S. and linked with the occupation movements in Europe. On Oct. 15, Occupy demonstrations took place in 951 cities in 82 countries.

Occupy everywhere, the whole world is watching!


From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya

Spontaneity and new beginnings

The 1960s signaled the birth of a new generation of revolutionaries on every subject, from anti-Vietnam War to Women's Liberation, with the Black Dimension making it global both in Africa and in the U.S. Nevertheless, once the near-revolution in Paris 1968 aborted, it became necessary to draw a balance sheet between what were truly new, epochal beginnings, and what were only new stages of revolt.


To Yemenis 'rape is worse than death'

"I would rather she died than be raped," said Um Ahmed Alam angrily. A woman in her fifties, she fears the chaos the country will suffer if civil war breaks out in Yemen.
Her fear of sexual harassment is bigger than her fear of losing any of her four daughters. "Death is death, we all will die eventually, but the shame of rape is what we cannot handle," she said sadly.


Editorial

Failed U.S. occupation of Iraq

To the consternation of the people who voted for an avowedly anti-Iraq war candidate, Obama will have withdrawn troops not one month earlier than Bush agreed to do in 2008 in the Status of Forces Agreement with Bagdad. He has continued indefinite detention at Guantanamo for prisoners that Bush had rounded up, and he renewed the Patriot Act.


As Others See Us

The masses as Reason

Opposed equally to the tyranny of "ordinary" capitalism and its counterpart in the Soviet Union, China, and other Stalinist states, Marxist-Humanism states that the Hegelian struggle for freedom is primary in the movements of the masses against oppression. ... I believe Dunayevskaya's thought is very relevant today in addressing the political tasks of progressive people faced with the current economic crisis.


SHU prisoners: We want to be treated like human beings!

On Sept. 26 Security Housing Unit (SHU) prisoners resumed their hunger strike, suspended on July 20, to give California prison authorities a chance to make good on their promises to address the prisoners demands. Especially important to the prisoners was getting out of perpetual solitary confinement, starting with an objective review of their status as active/inactive gang member. To follow developments and join solidarity actions, visit prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com.

Voices from Pelican Bay SHU hunger strikers


Tar sands pipeline vs. human future

The battle over the Keystone XL pipeline reveals two opposite futures. The push to complete the pipeline, which is to carry tar sands oil 1,980 miles from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico, represents capital's drive to keep expanding production for production's sake, no matter how disastrous it may be to life on earth. ...
A second world, however, is fighting for a future conducive to truly human development, for the well-being of present and future humanity....


Workshop Talks

Class enemies in union clothing

In the East Bay there was a one-day strike of healthcare workers, which included Kaiser HMO as well as Summit and Alta-Bates of the Sutter Hospital Chain. In all, 29,000 workers from multiple unions and various locales were involved in one of the largest healthcare strikes ever.
Management wanted to impose a gag order against nurses who advocate for their patients. The Service Employees (SEIU) opposed the strike, even repeating Kaiser's unlawful threat to discipline employees, including termination, if they honored the picket line.


AIDS activism and ACT UP Chicago

AIDS, a death sentence 30 years ago, has changed. Many people are living longer but we still haven't got to the root of the real problem with AIDS, which is heterosexism and homophobia. That is connected to the issue of race, class, sexism and the economy as drug program cuts close off access to medicine.


MORE ARTICLES ... (see the pdf version)

p. 2:
      "Radium girls honored"
      "Palestinian women discuss statehood"
      "Wangari Maathai"
      "Women World Wide"
p. 3:
      "UAW and Big 3 still fear rank and file"
      "Chicago city workers defy new thug mayor"
      "Sutter nurses strike"
      "Farmworker solidarity"
      'I am Troy Davis'
p. 5:
      "Portrait of Alice Neel"
p. 6-7:
      "Readers' Views"
p. 8:
      "Fukushima activists testify in New York"
      "White House stormed over Medicare cuts"
      "Stop leeches bleeding public schools dry"
p. 10:
      "Remember Oscar Grant"
p. 11:
      "Stop all wars!"
      "Queer Notes"
p. 12, World in View:
      "Greeks fight austerity"
      "Kenya in Somalia"
      "Cherokee freedmen"
      "Switzerland's racism"
      "Bolivia's two roads"

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