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NEWS & LETTERS, July 2002
Readers’ ViewsISRAELIS, PALESTINIANS June marked 35 years of the Israeli occupation of
"the territories." Volumes have already been written about the price
paid by Palestinians under occupation — the deaths, lifelong injuries,
traumatized youngsters and so much heartache that will not be expunged for
generations after the occupation inevitably comes to an end. But it has been destructive to Israeli society as well,
and not only in terms of the tragedy of lives lost through terrorism or military
service. There are additional ways it has taken its toll in Israel: The troubled
economy with a deep recession, increasing poverty and widening socio-economic
gaps; underfunded social and environmental programs; the abrogation of freedom
of speech with open expressions of racism against Arabs and dehumanization of
the other. Anyone who cherishes Israel or Palestine will do their utmost to
bring this tragedy to an end. Gila Svirsky, Jerusalem If the forefathers of the present Israelis would have
thought for a moment that the only way of having a "homeland" would be
through the enslavement and subjugation of another people, they would have made
a 180 degree turn, and would have remained in the Diaspora. Giorgio, Vancouver There have been a few relatively large and exciting
demonstrations here for Palestinian self-determination. Unfortunately some of
them have included slogans such as "Down, down, Israel" and
"Zionism is terrorism." They made me appreciate the way the discussion
on "Dialectics and the Israel-Palestinian conflict" in the June issue
gave us a perspective in the face of such a complicated situation as we see in
the Middle East. The warning was not to get stuck in a "first
negation" which can sometimes block the path to revolution. Revolutionary youth, Memphis CONFRONTING PERMANENT WAR AND TERRORISM The very broad implications of the "Patriot
Act" are now becoming manifest and explicit. We are in a state of
undeclared war in permanence which can be used against anyone. It potentially
includes strikers who interfere with business let alone anyone who belongs to a
socialist organization. The Bush Administration is so clearly
"pro-business" it doesn't care if the Constitution is subverted. At
the same time, the U.S. is in a "create as you go" mode of foreign
policy. It rejects and abrogates treaties at will. Since September 11 we are
seeing a situation that would have been unbelievable ten years ago, or even one. Senior citizen, Detroit The perilous nature of today's objective situation is
disclosed not only by the threat of nuclear war but also by the threat of death
by poverty in the second and third worlds and the threat of terrorist attack in
the U.S. Yet the Israel-Palestine struggle seems to be all that the Left here is
talking about now. What is left of the New York anti-war movement is now
fighting over the question of whether to focus on Palestine instead of Bush's
more nebulous wars. What really needs to be focused on are the failures of the
Left which were spotlighted in the N&L statement "Confronting Permanent
War and Terrorism: Why the Anti-War Movement needs a Dialectical
Perspective." Revolutionary activist, New York Editor's note: Copies of this statement are available
without charge from News & Letters. How necessary it is to fight not just U.S. imperialism
but all the fundamentalisms out to keep us unfree can be seen in the way U.S.
Christian fundamentalist groups teamed up with Islamic nations over the past
year to restrict the expansion of reproductive rights in recent UN conference
documents. Most recently they worked together at a special UN session on
children to strike out language that included the right of children and teens to
"reproductive health services" which they said could include abortion.
While this clear alliance might seem to you and me to put the Bush
administration in an awkward position, the administration simply says it
demonstrates that it "shares many social values with Islam." Anti all fundamentalisms, Pennsylvania Has the idea of nuclear war become acceptable? I cannot
help but contrast the kind of million-strong demonstration that took place in
New York City 20 years ago with the absence of any such mobilizations today,
when the only anti-nuke actions you hear about are local people trying to close
nuclear power plants near them. Our local plant, Indian Point in Westchester, 40
miles north of midtown Manhattan, has received a lot of attention since
September 11, since it's the next obvious target. The government response was to
announce that the county will begin giving away 340,000 potassium iodide tablets
to help protect people from possible radiation exposure during an emergency. The
seeming acceptance of the danger from plants and war seems like an ideological
victory for the capitalists at this moment and makes me wonder what will come of
the anti-globalization movement if it also fails to develop some deeper
understanding of the unlimited, uncontrollable destruction of which capitalism
is capable. Longtime antiwar activist, New York The additional powers to spy on the people of the U.S.
which the Bush administration says the FBI will be seizing is truly frightening.
There was no vote in Congress on this and certainly no public referendum. What
Bush, Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller are adopting are the tactics of
the vicious reign of J. Edgar Hoover. They were used then against unions and any
progressive groups. It was only the mass movements of the 1960s and 1970s that
finally forced the government to curb the abuse of people's rights. We had all
better see how the ultra-right is taking advantage of Bush's so-called "war
on terrorism" to attack all our civil liberties. Alarmed, Washington, D.C. Struggles for Women's Liberation Sima Samar, the former women's affairs minister of
Afghanistan, said she was leaving her office because she feared for her safety.
It turns out that the powerful conservative religious establishment had even
branded her the Afghan Salman Rushdie, accusing her of having questioned Islam
in an interview she gave to a Persian language magazine in Canada. Although she
denies ever making the statement of which she is accused, so many insults and
threats were thrown at her from the floor at the loya jirga, which she attended
as a delegate, that she decided to take a less visible post as head of the human
rights commission in Karzai's new government. These were her parting words:
"I believe we cannot change the country with only words. We have to change
it with our minds, our hearts and our attitudes." Women's liberationist, Illinois A Roundtable on Black Feminisms at Barnard College
featured Black women academics who were groundbreaking writers and activists a
generation ago, such as Kathleen Cleaver, a leader in the Black Panther Party in
the 1960s, and Michele Wallace, whose 1979 book Black Macho and the Myth of the
Superwoman exposed sexism among Afro-Americans. Unfortunately, instead of
addressing the nature of Black feminism today, they described their individual
work and concerns, most of which only faintly echoed women's liberationists of
another era. More interesting were the non-U.S. speakers who offered
internationalist perspectives on Black feminism. M. Jacqui Alexander complained
that Caribbean women are expelled from their homes by capitalism and then
criticized by Afro-Americans in the U.S. for letting themselves be used against
native-born Blacks. She suggested Caribbean and U.S. women learn each other's
histories of colonialism and slavery, respectively, before considering
solidarity politics with others. Oyeronke Oyewumi described herself as a global
African who favored feminism if it meant self-determination, but saying that
when you add race and class, you change the configuration. She warned against
taking white women as the norm for feminism or Afro-Americans as the norm for
Blacks. Women’s liberationist, New York A PRISON COOKBOOK I was impressed with your publication because you're not
afraid to focus on prison issues. It's why I want to pass on to you information
that some of your prison readers might find interesting. There is a book for
sale from a company called Bluehorn Publishing, titled A Prisoner's Cookbook.
The recipes are really very good and so are the rest of the contents. All the
cartoons, jokes and stories are very funny. Someone purchased a copy for me and
I'm enclosing one of the brochures that came with it. As you will see, a part of
the proceeds will go to help abolish the death penalty. Too many innocent people are put to death in this
country. Even one person wrongfully executed makes us all murderers for allowing
it to happen. Prisoner subscriber, Texas Editor's note: To order a copy of A Prisoner's Cookbook
send $10 plus $2 for shipping by check or money order to Bluehorn Publishing, PO
Box 2364, Humble, TX 77347. APPEAL FOR ACEHNESE Although there has been much in the news about East
Timor finally winning its independence from Indonesia, there has been nothing
about the three workers for the Rehabilitation for Torture Victims in Aceh, who
were executed in that Indonesian province nearly a year and a half ago. In
January 2001 the Indonesian Human Rights Commission announced that it would
establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killings but it has never
set up an investigation team. I'd like to ask your readers to write to the
Minister for Justice and Human Rights and ask that those suspected of the
killings be brought to trial without further delay and that the ongoing grave
human rights violations in Aceh be investigated. These appeals should be sent
to: Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Prof. Dr. Yusril Ihza Mahendra,
Menteri Kehakiman, JI. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. 6-7 Kuningan, Jakarta Selatan,
Indonesia. Solidarity activist, New York THE CHINESE SCENE The split in Chinese society and the ensuing crises have
never been as severe as now. It is unimaginable that the Chinese Communist party
regime can go on without major changes. The intellectual elite (one of the most
important vested interests) played a significant role in supporting the regime,
but the situation is very serious. The unemployment rate has risen to new
heights. Even college graduates cannot find jobs. Some liberals were inclining to the left, although due
to the bad reputation of the "New Left" which still affirms the
"merits" of the Mao era, their ambiguous attitude toward the current
leadership makes the liberals somewhat hesitant in their support of Marxism.
Wang Liziong, a young writer to whom the Independent Pen of Chinese Writers has
decided to give an award, has published an essay, "Capitalism Cannot Save
China" in one of the Chinese papers overseas. This is an indication of a
leftist trend among liberals. One young Marxist put out a website, "China's
Way," and it is amazing that it has attracted so many readers. But among
exiles, to talk about Marxism and Socialism is still not welcomed. Chinese exile, New York When you reported (June) that Professor José Solís
Jordán had been transferred to Puerto Rico on May 21, nobody knew that he was
going to be taken while "in transit" and jailed in Atlanta from May 21
to June 3. Then he was put in still another jail while "in transit"—this
time in Oklahoma. The conditions in Atlanta were inhuman. He was put in solitary
confinement in an area that dated back to 1902, although his papers indicated he
was supposed to be going to a minimum security "half-way house" in
Puerto Rico. In Oklahoma his conditions improved but he continued to be kept
from communicating by phone with his family. Was he subjected to this treatment because he has
remained firm in his convictions and refused to "cooperate" with the
FBI in fabricating cases against other innocent people who are pro-independence
activists? Solís supporter, Chicago TWO-TIER HEALTH CARE? Here in Flint we just had an example of how health care
is becoming less and less accessible when a Catholic hospital was bought by a
for-profit outfit that is charging such high rates for care that only the rich
can possibly afford it. This isn't a "two-tier" system. It's a case of
if you're not rich you just don't get any care at all. D.B., Flint, Michigan STRUGGLES IN PHILIPPINES Your June lead by R. Russell on what is happening in the
Philippines was wonderfully concise. It is the first time I have seen these
issues in any newspaper. Along with a friend in an Asian solidarity group here
who is working for better solidarity with Filipino activists, I will be
attending the International Solidarity Mission in the Philippines at the end of
July and would like to report to you on it. Visting feminist, Japan The June lead brings home the depth of economic crisis
in the Philippines. China, the new "manufacturing super power,"
greatly undercuts all on costs of labor, including the maquiladoras on the
Mexican border. Just as in the Philippines, their growth has collapsed and is in
decline as production moves to China. Observer, Bay Area, California A THANK YOU AND A REMINDER OUR THANKS TO ALL OUR READERS WHO RESPONDED SO QUICKLY TO OUR APPEAL FOR HELP TO KEEP NEWS & LETTERS GOING. HAVE YOU SENT IN YOUR CONTRIBUTION YET? |
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