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NEWS & LETTERS, June-July 2006

Readers' Views

Contents:

WORLD OF LABOR AS POWER AND CONCEPT

Investigations since a coal mine explosion killed 67 miners in Mexico  several months ago have exposed the following: the mine had a long history of safety violations that were known but never corrected; collusion between President Vicente Fox's government and the leaders of the corrupt miners union to destroy attempts to organize an independent union; the president of the miners' union lives a life of luxury that included living in a mansion and travel by private plane; President Fox, instead of following his election campaign promise to expose the well-known scandalous corruption between the government and union bureaucrats, has embraced the corruption. The disclosure of these investigations have not only outraged the survivors of the miners who died, they have created an uproar among all the Mexican people that threatens both the union bureaucracy and Fox's political party.

--Ex-miner, Detroit, Mich.

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Thank you for pointing out in the Workshop Talks column of the April-May issue that halting capital punishment in California is a labor issue. You may want to know that the California Nurses Association, which has been in the forefront of the struggle against health care restructuring, issued a statement on Sept. 25, 1988 that reads in part: "It is a breach of the ethical tradition of nursing to participate in taking human life, even through a legally authorized civil or military execution... CNA is strongly opposed to all forms of participation by nurses in capital punishment by whatever means, whether under civil or military legal authority."

--Nurse, California

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The capitalism we live under today creates a situation where some do all the work and get nothing, while the bosses and owners keep everything for themselves. It is manifested as the class struggle. It is what happens when people let their responsibilities slide. We are responsible for the world and need to build the organizations necessary to service all the people as we protect ourselves from capitalism and move forward to the next stage of mankind. I call it the Marxist-Humanist incentive.

--Sid Rasmussen, Iowa

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The 2006 Labor Notes Conference held in Detroit in May reflected the profound impact of the movement for immigrant workers' rights, internationally and locally. Following the 30,000 who marched in Detroit last March, worker to worker solidarity and cross-border organizing was on the agenda. One workshop was an organizing session among workers in El Salvador and Detroit, both places where unions are threatened by privatization of municipal water service. Everyone emphasized that privatized water service may not maintain current water quality and safety. Latino students in Michigan universities are forming a support group.

--Susan Van Gelder, Detroit

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I see migrant workers as the "vanguard" of the global working class. Immigrant workers are voting with their feet and giving the big middle finger to the whole global economic system. Their struggles are at the cutting edge of revitalizing the entire working class movement in this country, as their success at returning the traditional May Day to its home attests. As revolutionaries and internationalists it's not only a matter of principal that we should support these workers and their struggles, but it is our greatest hope to see a world transformed. As I see it, globalized capital has made international working class struggle not just a pretty slogan but an absolute necessity.

--Labor activist, Chicago

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One can't help but feel solidarity with the immigrants who protested on May Day. Many come from countries where folks have been persecuted for helping others in need, especially the poor. House Bill 4437 is similar since it would punish those who help immigrants. No wonder so many responded spontaneously.

--Reader, Kansas

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In the 1950s and 1960s Black people here in Tennessee and the South would go to St. Louis and Chicago, to the car manufacturing plants, to get a better job and they were welcomed by the capitalists with open arms because they could pay them less than the white workers. They used Black labor to undermine the white worker. I see the way the capitalists are using immigration as the same pattern.

--Peace Activist. Memphis

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THE LOS ANGELES TIMES got it right when it said that for many of the truckers who shut down the Southern California ports on May Day, "staying away from work on May Day was more than a statement about U.S. immigration policy. It was an attempt to kick-start changes in working conditions that many complain are dismal."

What was important to me was that they were pretty much acting individually when they left their rigs and joined the rallies. It was reported that they were amazed to realize later what they had been able to do collectively, since they are notoriously such a fragmented group. One of the truckers is quoted as saying, "This is the beginning of the way we change our lives."

--Supporter, Southern California

POMEROY ON WHY MARX? WHY NOW?

Anne Pomeroy's essay on THE POWER OF NEGATIVITY in the April-May issue helped me understand some of the concepts involved in the philosophy of Marxist-Humanism that I have had trouble understanding. It also made me feel I was not alone with that problem when Pomeroy was so honest about saying that it is not helpful, when you are trying to understand Dunayevskaya's writing, to have her go off into some Hegelian terminology. That certainly doesn't make it any clearer for me. But I keep trying because I'm convinced what Dunayevskaya is saying is important to understand. I've come to believe that to grasp it I will have to reorient myself to a whole new perspective of reality.

--Longtime Socialist, Wisconsin

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Anne Pomeroy is a professor who knows a lot about Hegel, but she says THE POWER OF NEGATIVITY made her ask not "Why Hegel?" but "Why Marx? Why Now?" I hear her saying we learn a lot from Dunayevskaya on the Hegel/Marx connection that gives us a better view of Marx.

--Women's Liberationist, California

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Her posing of the distinction between Hegel and Marx is the most succinct I've ever seen and helped to clarify it for me. I don't think it can be defined in a more succinct fashion. I see her talking about human mediation as human relations in the working out of new ideas. She doesn't turn Hegel into an idealist or Marx into a materialist in opposition to that.

--David, Bay Area

* * *

Pomeroy's review of THE POWER OF NEGATIVITY deals with the degradation and enslavement resulting from capitalism's mode of production. The crime committed by the capitalist against humanity is the greatest atrocity in history. They rob humans of their fundamental natural right, that is, the ability to formulate ideas, thus turning enormous masses of people into automatons fit for becoming appendages to capitalist production machinery. No other economic social system can claim to have doomed more people to an alienated life and death than the monstrous capitalist system.

--Prisoner, California

SOME CANADIAN HISTORY

Consider this a book review to share with your readers: THE HANGING OF ANGELIQUE by Afua Cooper is (sadly) non-fiction, the story of a slave girl in Montreal in the 1700s who was brutally tortured and then hung. Worse--it is a well-documented account of slavery as it existed in Canada. I must tell you, Canadians are educated to believe that the slaves came up from the U.S. via the underground railway and were free when they got across the border. The part we are not told is that we, too, had a society which bought/sold/mistreated slaves, no different than the society on your side of the border. Afua Cooper holds a Ph.D in African Canadian history and teaches history at the University of Toronto.

--Longtime supporter, Vancouver, BC

WHAT IS SOCIALISM?

"New challenges to global capital in Latin American battle of ideas" by Peter Hudis in the April-May issue was full of useful information/analysis about the present social/political movements in Latin America opposing global capital. But I appreciated it most for raising (but not answering) the two key questions of the day, "What is socialism?" and "What happens after" the revolution? I use the term "real socialism" to distinguish it from all the fake socialisms that have ever existed, which were/are state capitalisms, with the dictatorship of "the Party" over the working class in nearly all cases. By "real socialism" I mean world society as never before--of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers--without capital, commodities, wage-slavery, imperialism, money, the State, borders, nationalism, war, racism, sexism, gay/lesbian discrimination, rampant environmental destruction, prisons, poverty, inadequate health care, illiteracy, etc.

But how can this be done? Marx and Engels guiding principle was "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need." World production would be highly planned through a democratic world council and produced by democratic, council or assembly-based workplace. But how do we get from here to there? Let's focus on the above goals and then discuss the "from here to there."

--Perry Sanders, Denver

NO SECRET ABOUT SECRETS

A few months ago we were assured by the Bush administration, after the media exposed the practice, that secret electronic surveillance of communications in the U.S. was restricted to foreign contacts. Now we know that this is not true (surprise, surprise), and that domestic communications are also being monitored.

The first report was that ATT, Verizon, and Bell-South had cooperated in the eavesdropping, and there were no denials. But then, after the telephone companies had time to consult with administration legal eagles, we learn that ATT denied cooperation and other denials soon followed. After all, it's their word against ours, right? All of this, of course, is what has been exposed. But then there is what we don't know and that is the most scary. At this point, where so many Bush administration lies have been exposed on so many issues facing this country today, how can anyone believe, or trust anything that comes from that triumvirate of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld?

--Increasingly Fearful, Michigan

VOICES OF REASON FROM WITHIN PRISON WALLS

I can see that the prisoners' struggles to be treated like human beings are a worldwide battle that is being fought by our sisters and brothers in occupied countries like Iraq; in the so-called sweatshops; and in public schools where Blacks and Latinos graduate without being able to read and write. In this richest country in the whole world, no new schools are being built, clinics and hospitals are being closed, but new state-of-the-art maximum security prisons are built every year to add to all the old ones still operating. In the last ten years, I have seen younger and younger prisoners coming into the criminal system, without any hope for their future. They will get no rehabilitation, no educational or vocational training. Just 24/7 lockups to look forward to.

--Prisoner, Susanville, Cal.

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The time for our socialist beliefs have reached a dire point. I have read that the Roman Empire collapsed upon itself and I wonder if the Empire we are looking at today will follow the same path and lead the world into another Dark Ages? Can the process be stopped? Will the power mad be stopped before their own destruction? I doubt it but I can still hope. That's why I look forward to reading your paper every issue and thank you for the work you do.

--Prisoner, Coulinga, LA

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I wish I could say I enjoy the paper, which is superbly constructed. The state of the world is discouraging and I thank N&L for bringing it to me without any artificial sweetener coating. The truth is hard to swallow. But deceptive information is deadly.

--Inmate, Angleton, Texas

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I am on Death Row and am writing to thank you for sending me N&L. I really enjoyed it. I have passed it on to the other Death Row inmates and hope you can find a donor to pay for a sub for me. Whether or not you can do that, please keep up the great job you do. Your support means a lot to all of us here.

--Inmate, Youngstown, Ohio 

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I'm enclosing a bit of money. I like the idea of it being used for someone locked up, but you know your needs better than I do.

--Longtime subscriber, Vancouver

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Readers: Can you help to pay for a sub or other literature requested by those who cannot pay for it themselves?

AN EXCHANGE ON ISLAM AND THE LEFT

Dear Mr. Barry:

I have read your short commentary on the online version of N&L February-March 2006. In the "Our Life and Times" column regarding the Australia riots it did not seem that you gave much analysis to the underlying causes of the recent riots. I don't know your stance on Islam but I do feel the Left has dropped the ball. You may find the faithfreedom website interesting. It is a free speech zone where the articles are by people from all viewpoints. Please do not give me a fast, pat response until you have thoroughly analyzed what I can only call an apostate insurgency that many on the Left have willfully ignored. There are other ex-Muslim websites that need to be carefully read as well and it is my hope that the folks at N&L can discuss this issue honestly. Very few other socialist groupings will touch it. Maybe they assume that being against Islam is to be racist and rightwing. Of all the groups I know of, I feel yours has the best chance of dealing with it honestly.

--infidelinfinity

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Dear infidelinfinity:

Thanks for your response. I agree the article lacked analysis, but this part of our paper is more factual reports than theoretical analysis. I also looked at the website faithfreedom--what struck me there was a lot of ethno-religious hostility. We have written a lot about Islamic, Christian and other fundamentalisms, but also on Islamophobia, which is certainly real as well. Our April-May issue has an Editorial analyzing the cartoon controversy. Perhaps it will have at least some of the analysis you found missing in the short article. In case you haven't seen it earlier, here is the link to our statement at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks:

Against the Double Tragedy: No to terrorism and Bush’s drive to war!

--Kevin A. Barry

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I appreciated the educational value of the April-May N&L Editorial on "Europe, Muslim minorities and 'free speech'" that combined several topics. It didn't leave anyone off the hook. It made me think about how the posturing from politicians on Dubai was exposed by the revolt in Dubai and the complete non-response to it from here. We need an article to show how that was the opposite to fundamentalist xenophobia. When you are an immigrant, you are marginalized and in the new land you gain a fresh perspective on "old" issues.

--Korean-American, California

THE BLACK DIMENSION

In his review of Tavis Smiley's Covenant with Black America (April-May N&L), John Alan succinctly summed up the political bankruptcy of the book in the title of his column, "Covenant cannot overcome crises." Why not? He answers in the form of a simple but important question: "Haven't we learned that looking for solutions within politics, one is necessarily going to work within the capitalist framework?" It's the same capitalist framework that has bred the myriad social issues confronting Afrikan Amerikans, other people of color, and white working poor. To think that the capitalist framework can somehow change to no longer perpetuate inequality is tantamount to suicide. By now one would think that Black politicians, academics, and community leaders would have come to this realization. The absence of an alternative vision to bourgeois politics speaks to the vacuity in Black so-called leaders regarding any philosophy of liberation. It underscores the need for us to create such a philosophy beginning with our self-activity.

--Prisoner, Crescent City, Cal. 

* * *

Georgiana Williams' article on the loss of emergency medical treatment in the Black and Brown community in Los Angeles is very thought-provoking. The closing of the trauma unit in South Central is clear: poor people use it and they don't have money to pay. Kaiser's CEO made a statement on patient-dumping onto skid row where he got very moralistic. But we live in a dumping, two-tier society. This is what the labor struggles to fend off two-tier were trying to prevent. Georgiana covered several different topics but they were all related. Racism ran throughout all of them.

--Health worker, California

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The case of former Chicago police commander Jon Burge for the torture of 135 African Americans to secure false confessions over a 20 year period is in the news again as part of the investigations by the UN Committee Against Torture. Despite mountains of evidence and judicial findings that Burge and his officers systematically and methodically tortured African Americans at police headquarters, not a single officer or other official has been prosecuted. While the Burge cases may be the most well-known they are not isolated or past-history. The Committee has raised the need to collect nationwide reports and facilitate action to mete out punishment and try to prevent all forms of police brutality.

--Activist, Chicago

SOUTH AFRICA

Please let your readers know about this. On May 8, 2006 a trial was concluded in Johannesburg, South Africa, which cleared a high-ranking government official of rape. Jacob Zuma, the accused, was the former deputy president of South Africa until recently, and has interest in becoming South Africa's next president. During the trial, the victim's past sexual history was interrogated and the outfit she was wearing at the time of the incident was discussed at length. Steps are now being taken to pass legislation improving the way victims are treated in Court. To learn more about this, visit the One in Nine Campaign website at www.oneinine.org.za. The One in Nine Campaign was formed in response to the Jacob Zuma trial, and is working to raise awareness about violence against women in South Africa.

--Kirsten Grimm, Los Angeles

BIBLE AND CONSTITUTION

The story is about a hearing in March in Annapolis on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, where Jamie Raskin, a professor of law, was asked to testify. At the end of the testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said, "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that? Raskin replied, "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

--Still smiling, California

COME TO COURT JUNE 9

Last May Indiana was barred from seeking the death penalty against Zolo Agona Azania, because of the length of time between trial and sentencing and because of past misconduct by the prosecution during two prior sentencing trials. The prosecutor has appealed the decision to the Indiana Supreme Court who will be hearing oral arguments on June 9. It will be a key turning point in Zolo's struggle for justice. The hearing starts at 9:45 am (8:45 am Chicago time) at 200 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 45204, Room 317. We are organizing a car caravan from Chicago that will leave the city at 4:30 am on June 9. We urge you to help us show the justices we will not allow the State of Indiana to kill Zolo. The caravan will leave the Jewel/K-Mart parking lot at 1341 N. Paulina. If you need a ride, call us at 773-4235-6716.

--No Death Penalty, PO Box 478314, Chicago, IL 60647

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