www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS,
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2003
Readers' Views
WAR, RESISTANCE & THE NEEDED ALTERNATIVE The part of the Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives
printed in the July issue of N&L that spoke most strongly to me is the quote
from the Constitution of News and Letters Committees on the opposition to war.
The key is the phrase “to a man, woman and child control their own lives.”
When we talk about the battle of ideas, we’re not talking about tenured
professors doing battle with other tenured professors at international forums.
We’re talking about the “man, woman and child” of the streets being able
to argue those ideas. Intellectuals may think that ideas are for the learned.
But as long as the ideas affect me, I want to have something to say about it.
The unqualified man on the street cannot be treated as someone who has no
responsibility to dig into dialectics. N&LC Member, Bay Area I agree on “the servility the mass media displays to the
prevailing powers in this country.” I’m especially concerned about the radio
companies like Clear Channel and Infiniti who have been buying up more and more
stations and channels, which will then broadcast only conservative positions.
Artists more and more will have to project only what the government leaders
believe in order to get recording contracts. That’s how they will perform
censorship. P. Dan, Detroit In its obvious thrust to achieve world hegemony, Mr. Bush
managed to abrogate almost all international treaties regarding anti-ballistic
missiles, nuclear testing, Kyoto, and on and on. Now they even want to develop
smaller atom bombs to be used in front-line attacks. The U.S. has the greatest
arsenal in the world of every kind of weapon and wouldn’t let the UN or any
international body inspect or supervise it. Correspondent, Canada On this 100th anniversary of George Orwell's birth,
everyone is getting to understand how “Orwellian language” works in
2003--“war is peace” and “occupation is liberation.” Ron B., Oakland, CA Some left-liberals accept the idea of the U.S. going into
Iraq and taking Saddam out of power. They see it as a liberation. Christopher
Hitchens broke with THE NATION over the Iraq war, saying the U.S. should take
care of Hussein as if that would establish democracy. Computer analyst, Memphis If the U.S. really wanted to convince the Iraqis about
democracy, they would have gotten Hussein’s sons alive and put them on trial.
There wouldn’t have been any question of their identity, either. Asian American, California Some leftists make it sound as if they hate everything
about American culture, including Americans, and then think they will be able to
influence them! It amazes me. Labor activist, Memphis I would not have said “impotence in peace.” After all,
the oil is flowing, but the water and electricity are not. That is deliberate.
On the other hand, I couldn’t agree more that Bush’s contention that outside
military intervention is the only way to liberate people is dangerous. The
looming threat of Islamic fundamentalism taking over is especially not lost on
the women who have a lot to lose in the most secular of Middle East countries. Hospital worker, California I thought the view of experts was that an anti-ballistic
missile is totally useless in destroying the multiple warheads of any incoming
missile or even to sort out which of the warheads are dummies and which one is
actual. It’s obvious you can’t use anti-ballistic missiles against
commercial airlines or people armed with box cutters or suicide bombers. The
only reason I can see for going ahead with a renewed “Star Wars” project is
to provide huge profits to Boeing, Raytheon and the other such beneficiaries of
the industrial-military complex. Surely, people know that the millions they are
throwing out the window would be better spent giving people half decent living
conditions, lessening the reasons for terrorist activities. Giorgio, Vancouver I’m struck with how the principle, “to the barbarism of
war, we pose the new society,” is key to the whole Perspectives. It opposes
that to the ideological pollution that says people can’t free themselves but
need the U.S. to do it for them. Spontaneous movements do look for organization
and a set of ideas to guide them. One of the pitfalls of the 20th century was
that shortcuts were always offered that stopped the revolutions short. In the
Iranian revolution the ideology of Islamic fundamentalism took over and was able
to present itself as the revolution in place of the activity of the masses.
That’s why it’s so important to have a philosophy that projects a new
society as growing out of the spontaneous forms so they can preserve their own
significance. Supporter, Tennessee The most startling part of the Perspectives Draft was
pointing out that the current military adventure is cheaper than during the
height of the Cold War. Those arguing that we can’t afford this war, would be
shocked by the fact that it’s kind of cheap. It means that the refutation of
the war has to be at a deeper level. It’s true that terrorism and war are in a
vicious circle and despite their mutual animosity they are reinforcing one
another. A war has a way of making you choose sides, which most of the Left is
doing. Anti-war activist, California One graduate student I know wasn’t happy about the $5 tax
rebate on his check that he got the other day. He said sarcastically, “Oh this
is really going to stimulate the economy!” Coming from a right-winger I
thought it was significant. Activist for patients rights, Memphis THE INVINCIBILITY MYTH The article by Raya Dunayevskaya on “The myth of the
invincibility of totalitarianism” (June N&L) was a terrific bit of history
but the question is whether it has any meaning for today. I think it has several
layers of meaning. It certainly shows empirically, even if you are neither a
Marxist, a humanist, nor a dialectician, that you would be wrong to deny the
continuous possibility of human beings taking their lives into their own hands
and trying to remake their world. That is important to grasp for those who have
given up on social revolution, whether due to claims that the masses’ thinking
is too confused by patriotism, consumerism, or whatever to be able to include
the idea of an alternative. The question of whether meaningful change comes only from
the outside is also still being hotly debated. The issue Dunayevskaya presents
is deeper than “don’t rely on any state power.” Who can you rely on when
you don’t have the strength to win by yourself? Her ideas inform our political
practice, such as our advocacy of “people to people” solidarity work with
freedom fighters, from women in Afghanistan to students in Acheh. But even more
we can see how Dunayevskaya’s writing on events such as the East German and
Vorkuta revolts concretized theoretically such abstract concepts as continuous
negation, self-movement from within, and transformation into opposite in her
continuous development of philosophy as crucial to social transformation. Anne Jaclard, New York HISTORIC FREEDOM MARCH Well over 10,000 people took part in a 40th anniversary
“Walk to Freedom” here on June 28. They were marking the historic march for
freedom that took place in 1963 when thousands marched down Woodward Ave. in
Detroit with Martin Luther King Jr. That march had ended with King reading his
first version of what became his famous “I have a dream” speech a few months
later in Washington, D.C. After this year’s march, the president of the
Detroit Branch of the NAACP, Rev. Wendell Anthony, said “We are here not just
to march or dream. The problem comes when we march but have no destination. We
have unfinished business in America.” Many of us who marched had been there in 1963. It is
noteworthy that there were a lot of politicians there, as well as workers from
the Detroit Department of Transportation who were picketing against the mayor. Still marching, Detroit BLACK STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM I just came across John Alan’s column in the July 2002
N&L titled “‘Racial Privacy’ Fraud” and want to commend him for his
stand on the issue. We have little time left to mount an effective campaign to
defeat the heinous lie of Ward Connerly’s “Racial Privacy Initiative.”
Perhaps we can get the sides of city buses covered with signs that read
“Connerly Code: Racial Privacy=Jim Crow Revived,” to redirect people’s
fears in the proper direction. As Alan says, it isn’t about keeping government
out of our private lives. It’s about keeping government from telling the
public what it already knows it’s doing wrong. It’s about a Police State and
everybody too scared to challenge its lies. Let’s look at where Connerly’s
money comes from. Perhaps you can do another piece on that specifically? Steve Greaves, San Rafael, CA As a longtime activist, I remember well the Black
nationalist movement which is making a resurgence today. To Black nationalism,
everything in Africa is the “motherland” and it’s all good. It shows
people don’t know their own history. Part of the new society we envision will
have to have a confrontation with cultural relativism. It’s not as simple as
thinking that the West is all bad and the rest is all good. Black Christian feminist, Tennessee Why do you capitalize “Blacks” to refer to African
ancestry but do not capitalize “whites” to refer to European ancestry? Are
“Blacks” superior to “whites”? Do you think that such reverse racism is
helpful to organize the people here and now to defeat fascism? Prisoner, Texas Editor's note: It took a decades-long struggle by
African Americans against the attempt of white racist America to render them
invisible, before they succeeded in getting first Negro and then Black
capitalized. For the history of this struggle, consult the work of Carter G.
Woodson, the founder of Black History Month. FIGHTING EXTREMISM Eric Robert Rudolph is one of Uncle Sam’s ex-soldiers. It
seems to me that when you are looking for someone who kills for right-wing
causes you don’t have to look far. It seems as though all you have to do is
look to some branch of the U.S. armed forces or somebody who has some dealing
with law enforcement (FBI, DEA or even CIA) connections. The FBI we are told was
looking for five years and spending who knows what trying to find Eric Robert
Rudolph and came up empty-handed. Luckily for the government, a rookie deputy
who was not complacent about his job finally caught the “good old boy.” It
leaves me wondering whether this puts the rookie deputy on the KKK/neo-Nazi hit
list? Nouveau Toussaint, Illinois Bush has now sent warships to Liberia, where rebels are
trying to overthrow the murderous Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. Taylor is a
business partner of the TV evangelist Pat Robertson, an extremist who would
severely curtail freedom in the U.S. if he could and whose connections abroad
have in the past included many repressive regimes. He tried to get the ban on
Taylor lifted so the dictator could visit the U.S. He was also in business with
Mobutu, the ruthless former-dictator of the old Zaire. In fact, Robertson has
been deeply involved with repressive regimes around the globe. Wherever they are
found, fundamentalists, whether Muslim or Christian or any other sort, are not
known for respecting human rights. We need to oppose the Christian
fundamentalists here as strongly as we oppose the fundamentalists in Muslim
nations. D.T., Louisiana A small victory against the Bush administration’s
decimation of our civil rights was won on July 22 when a federal judge dismissed
the charge of supporting terrorism against lawyer Lynne Stewart. Attorney
General John Ashcroft had publicly overseen Stewart’s arrest in April 2002 in
the first case based on evidence obtained under Ashcroft’s new rule allowing
the government to monitor jailhouse conversations between lawyers and their
clients who may commit “future acts of violence or terrorism.” Her client,
an Egyptian cleric convicted of plotting to blow up New York landmarks, was
hardly allowed to speak to anyone but her. She was accused of aiding his efforts
to send a message to his followers while visiting him in prison. Federal District Judge John G. Koeltl called the charges
unconstitutionally vague and ruled that the anti-terrorism statute could not
apply to a lawyer doing her job. Charges that she lied and defrauded the
government still stand. The U.S. has not announced whether it will appeal the
dismissal of the more serious charges. Observer, New York SUPPORT REGIME CHANGE--DUMP BUSH I wore my “Dump Bush” T-shirt all day today, and I
can’t tell you how many stares I got, how many quizzical looks. I had maybe
half a dozen people walk up to me and talk about the war. I directed those who
wanted to buy one of the T-shirts to go your offices. I hope they follow up on
that. Chris, Chicago CUBA--WHAT COMES AFTER Despite the bourgeois media in the U.S. writing about
“Castro’s revolution,” what should really be commemorated is the courage
of the Cuban people who overthrew Batista and took history into their own hands.
The fact that the revolution turned into its opposite and now wears the face of
one man shouldn’t stop revolutionaries from saying that there is an
alternative to the way things are, one that lies in masses in motion and not the
authoritarian Party or cult of personality of Castro. Brown Douglas, Memphis I don’t agree with the Draft Perspectives printed in the
July issue of N&L. I read an interview with Castro who said that Cuban
hijackers, when they get to the U.S. get asylum, even with their weapons, and
the U.S. arrests the innocent passengers. The three guys who were killed were
tried under Cuban laws and executed. I may not agree with their laws, but Castro
was just trying to protect his country from being invaded. The Draft
Perspectives is a lot of over-analyzing and no solutions. What are we calling
for the masses to do? Come to meetings? Carlos, California A group of Cuban women from different provinces have joined
together to appeal for international solidarity with Martha Beatriz Roque
Cabello and to pressure the Cuban authorities to release her from prison. She is
an economist and was the only woman among the 75 oppositionist intellectuals
sentenced to long terms a year ago. She is 58 and has not received the medical
attention she needs. These women fear she may die in prison. Readers can email
<a href="mailto:ilk@mail.interlog.com">ilk@mail.interlog.com</a>
to get information on how to help them. Supporter, Florida WORKERS FIGHTING AGAINST CAPITALISM Formal negotiations between the UAW and the Big 3 (GM, Ford
and Daimler-Chrysler) are underway to replace the present contract due to expire
Sept. 14. The biggest issues are a major push to force workers to pay more for
their health care and to get concessions from the unions on flexibility in the
work place (in other words, speed up in production) and more freedom to close
plants. Unlike the more militant Canadian UAW which split from the
American-dominated UAW years ago, the UAW here has consistently lost ground and
will lose more with the new contract with its concessionary union policies.
Rank-and-file sentiment is clearly opposed to the leadership. Facing layoffs,
speed-up and plant closings they don’t feel they are in the “same boat” as
a management that is paid millions while they face hardship and uncertainty. Contract watcher, Detroit I want to send my best wishes from Britain to the Tennessee
nurses in their efforts to unionize reported in the July N&L. Their story is
the same around the world--under-resources and attacks on labour. In some cases
the attacks come not just from management but the unions themselves. Lip service
is paid to democracy at work, while the workers pay a heavy price in bad backs,
stress, violence and depression. I have often thought that more feminist theory
and support should be given to this group. Male nurse, Britain In the article on “War, resistance, and the need for a
new alternative” (July N&L) you say that “the key question facing us is
whether the forces of revolt will project a viable alternative to this stage of
capitalism.” I would suggest that what the proletarian movement needs is a
shock and awe campaign of our own against capitalism. Retired postal worker, Michigan THE ISRAELI SCENE The neo-conservatives have cast their shadow over Israel,
and our new economic reform is, wouldn’t you know it, good for the rich and
bad for the poor. Vicky Knafo, a gutsy single mother who walked into Jerusalem
from her home in the Negev, managed to inspire dozens of Israelis to join her at
her encampment opposite the Finance Ministry (now headed by former Prime
Minister Bibi Netanyahu). Those joining have included not only other
down-and-outers, but also contingents from both the peace and social justice
movements. These movements are finally building bridges to each other after many
years of working in unproductive isolation. A spur-of-the-moment feminist
conference, in which all the women’s organizations are participating, was
called in the park adjoining Vicky’s encampment. Gila Svirsky, Jerusalem THE WALL At least George Bush called it a “separation wall” and
condemned it. The Israeli government calls it a “security fence,” trying to
tone down its immense size and ascribe to it powers of “security” that it
does not have. It commits two cardinal sins: First, it is constructed inside
Palestinian territory and not on the original border between Israel and
Palestine. That means it is destroying more homes, cutting more Palestinians
from their property and land, and directly harming at least 210,000
Palestinians. Second, the area adjacent to the wall will probably be declared an
“open-fire zone” endangering the lives of anyone who approaches it. The last
thing we need is an open-fire zone in our backyard. Outraged Israeli, Jerusalem On July 30 the front page of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE carried a
picture of the hideous “security wall” that is being constructed in the West
Bank. The very next day, July 31, their front page carried, among other stories,
a headline “New neighbors draw the line at Cabrini” with an accompanying
picture on the back page that showed a seven-foot-high wrought iron fence that
has separated residents of two different areas of Orchard Park--one side housing
the low-income residents, the other their more affluent neighbors. This complex
was billed two years ago as “the future of public housing” where former
Cabrini-Green residents would live side by side with those who could afford
expensive condominiums. I was stunned because I had not heard anything about
such a fence now being constructed. Whether or not the CHICAGO TRIBUNE had
intentionally run these stories one right on top of the other, the message was
powerful. And sickening. For a human world, Chicago THE SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE I think you need to explain the Socialist/Communist
alternative better. Explain why there will be no exploitative social relations,
how we get rid of money, buying and selling, accumulation cycles and such. You
also need a better critique of media “head fixing.” The bosses’ media
attacks Marxism regularly. Is it asking too much to counterpunch them a bit?
Your paper is informative/educational on workers' activity but the
“activity” must have a forward motion and linkages. Otherwise it is turned
backwards. To sum up, you need to get into the ABCs of socialism for ordinary
workers more. A lot more. Here’s my subscription renewal. Longtime subscriber, Los Angeles NEWS & LETTERS is my link to the outside world
internationally in a more direct and realistic manner than usual news provides.
You assume the reader is an informed person, and the paper takes it from there.
Yet it will take time to decipher/understand the Marxist-Humanist philosophy.
I’m trying because you show how important those ideas are for all of us.
Please thank the one who gave me my donor sub. Prisoner, California |
|
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 |
