Readers' Views

Contents:

• IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE ELECTIONS
• THE MIDDLE EAST AND WORLD POLITICS
• SADDAMS TRIAL
• WEARING THE VEIL
• PROTESTING CAPITALISM
• HUNGARY 1956 AS SPONTANEITY OF ACTION AND ORGANIZATION OF THOUGHT
• CAPITAL AND LABOR TODAY
• WOMEN'S WORLDWIDE STRUGGLES
• THE BRITISH SCENE
• FENCES ON THE BORDER
• VOICES OF REASON WITHIN THE BARS

IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE ELECTIONS

I feel as though an incubus was lifted in this election that could lead to openings. We got a call from an N&L subscriber who is now in a retirement home and wanted to share her joy that maybe the march toward fascism has been slowed in this country. Everyone knows that the Democrats do not oppose capitalism, but we've been under single party rule consolidating total control in this country for so long. The Right is in real disarray; it is trying to put together a face-saving package to get out of Iraq and call it a victory. The election results are an opportunity for a more open discussion on many fronts.

--Ron, Bay Area, California

* * *

It is interesting that many Democratic leaders who had demanded that Bush be impeached for misleading us into the Iraq war are now saying they will not impeach him. I know many voters who voted for the Democrats because they wanted Bush impeached, and said that if President Clinton faced impeachment for some hanky-panky with a female White House assistant, Bush should be impeached a dozen times over for the horrible slaughter of American forces and innocent civilians in Iraq.

--Veteran, Detroit

* * *

One thing I hope the election will put an end to is the hundreds of millions of dollars that Bush has been funneling into religious organizations which teach abstinence-only sex education. His AIDS policy, which is stingy on condoms and long on abstinence, is a disaster which has been shown to leave women at risk because they do not have the power to control how and when they have sex. The Democratic win is no revolution, but if it will change things like this, it will save lives.

--Women's Liberationist, Memphis

* * *

I see the Rumsfeld resignation as a very clever move on Bush's part. He gets him out in advance of the Baker report, and puts Gates in, who served both Democratic and Republican administrations, thereby snaring a good number of Democrats into his coming "new year's surprise" announcement that he'll start gradually withdrawing troops from Iraq. It would have been better for us for Rumsfeld to stay, as it would make Bush's room for maneuver more restricted. Individuals don't determine policy, in any case; social relations do.

--Revolutionary, Illinois

* * *

It was good to read the results of the Anti-war Referendum here and see that huge numbers of voters across the state of Illinois, wherever the referendum appeared on the ballot, voted to stop the war and "immediately begin an orderly and rapid withdrawal." The vote was 80% yes in the City of Chicago and there were similar tallies throughout suburban Cook County. Too bad a referendum is non-binding. But it's not meaningless.

--Voter, Chicago

* * *

I'd like to know more about what the election means for Iraq. Sen. Schumer, like Rep. Pelosi, says that there's not much that we can do about it. Schumer is for the horrible Biden plan to divide Iraq into three pieces. Anti-war sentiment is growing, but at the same time, the anti-war movement is shrinking.

--Revolutionary student, New York

* * *

THE MIDDLE EAST AND WORLD POLITICS

I appreciated that your lead article by Peter Hudis in the October-November N&L didn't talk about the aftermath of Israel's war "against Lebanon." It wasn't against Lebanon. It was the government of Israel against the people of Lebanon who don't want Israel to invade the whole Middle East. I can see the day when Israel justifies building new settlements in the West Bank and then wanting territory to support its growing population. What philosophy can justify Israel's occupation, the invasion of Palestine and Lebanon, the extinction of people in that area?

--Kenneth Bradshaw, Memphis

* * *

Hezbollah's shelling of civilians played into the hands of the Israeli regime as the peace movement there largely supported the war, thus failing an important test. The exception was the women's groups, who were left dangerously isolated by this capitulation. That they persisted despite such isolation made their revolt more important.

--Women's Liberationist, Memphis

* * *

The Lead brings up the number of bomblets left over which will threaten Lebanese civilians for years. That puts in context what terrorism really is.

--Subscriber, California

* * *

You say that after Israel's war in Lebanon the face of politics in the Middle East has changed. Significant events started a long time ago. They were planning this war since they planned the invasion of Iraq. Baker who now is trying to save the Bushes, was the architect of the first Gulf War when he told Saddam the U.S. didn't have a dog in the fight with Kuwait and Saddam took the bait.

Now there is full blown civil war and terror on the ground in Iraq. The sectarian conflict was brought on by the U.S. invasion. The premier imperialist nation declared they were going to spread democracy and now they have dropped that language. All this happened when there was a war in Africa that included genocide where probably more died in Darfur, the Congo and other regions than in Iraq. The whole discussion of human rights and democracy are not what they seem. We can't just start with categories projected by the originators of these crises.

--Htun Lin, California

* * *

I appreciated the description of Hezbollah as a counter-revolutionary force aligned with the state-capitalism of Syria and the fundamentalism of Iran. That view of them as a counter-revolutionary force is important and not everyone is getting it. SOCIALIST WORKER, for one, paints Hezbollah as totally revolutionary.

--Marxist Sociologist, Tennessee

* * *

The horror of what Bush unleashed in the Middle East was revealed in a new study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It estimated that over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have died in violence since the 2003 U.S. invasion. While Bush writes it off as "not credible" even the right-wing MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL says it is credible. Even if the number is "only" 50,000 as Gen. George Casey says, or the 426,369 the study says could also be correct, where is the outrage at these deaths? Where is there a sliver of bone-weary sorrow that should envelop those who bear responsibility for so many deaths? That there is only denial and an attempt to discredit the study, reveals the degenerate nature of Bush's capitalist imperialism.

--M. Soleil, Tennessee

* * *

SADDAM'S TRIAL

In their greatest hour of need, when Kurdistan was under gas and chemical attack, no one came to hear their voice. No resolution passed in the UN. The world stood silent while 18% of the Kurdish population of Iraq perished. Now, after the verdict against Saddam and projected execution in mid-February, once again the world may not be able to hear the story of the genocide against the Kurds.

The main issue is not the fate of a brutal despot who was no "desk murderer" but very much a hands-on killer. He personally approved of the "final solution" to the Kurdish problem knowing full well that the international community would not lift a finger. His trial was turned into a political circus. He knew how to manipulate the proceedings into an open tribune calling for the unity of nationalists and Islamists. What matters now is for the facts to come out and his deeds to become known. Only then can the Iraqis put that dark chapter of their history to rest and master the past. Otherwise, Eichmann's final words at the end of his trial may come true, as when he stood up and declared "We shall meet again!

--Iranian revolutionary, California

* * *

WEARING THE VEIL

The wearing of the niqab or veil by some Muslim women has become a national controversy in Britain After Aishah Asmi was suspended from her job as a teaching assistant because she insisted on wearing her veil whenever a male colleague was present, government ministers, including Tony Blair, supported the local authorities' decision to remove her.

The stated reason, that the children's education would suffer, is implausible. Blair described the veil as "a mark of separation." But in this case a Muslim woman who wanted to teach at a Church of England school is being prevented from doing so, so who is being separatist? A humanist criticism of the niqab is that it restricts the freedom and individuality of women who wear it, even if the restriction is self-imposed. We can criticize the veil on those grounds while opposing interference by employers or government.

--R. Bunting, Oxford

* * *

PROTESTING CAPITALISM

At the Oct. 29 anti-Iraq war demonstration in Hollywood, I was glad to see two Black women marching to publicize the plight of the victims of mass forced "relocation" and genocide in Uganda, which has been ongoing for many years. There was also a support group for CAMI (the Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Initiative), whose aim is to open grass roots clinics in Nigeria, then in other areas of Africa, to research, educate people about, prevent, and treat HIV/AIDS and other degenerative diseases. There were only a few Blacks, Browns and Asians among the mostly white protesters there, numbering 1,500.

The Black people have their own issues of high unemployment, health problems and mass incarceration of youths; they receive no mass support from other ethnic groups. Nor do Latinos receive mass support for their struggles for immigrant rights. If the time ever comes when masses of Black, Brown, Asian and White workers, youths and immigrants unite against their particular capitalist exploitation and oppressions, I hope they are united under the principles Marx established in his 1875 CRITIQUE OF THE GOTHA PROGRAM as a foundation for a new human society.

--Basho, Los Angeles

* * *

HUNGARY 1956 AS SPONTANEITY OF ACTION AND ORGANIZATION OF THOUGHT

The early 1950s were a time of great change. In March 1953 Stalin died and in June East German workers were the first to show that they had not been brainwashed as Western "specialists" thought, but demanded "Bread AND Freedom." It was the beginning of a great wave of unrest in East Europe and beyond.

The East German workers' slogan "Bread and Freedom" put freedom as a human necessity in its own right. By 1956 Hungarian workers challenged Communist totalitarianism with their Workers' Councils. Even before that, intellectuals in Hungary's Petofi Circle and other clubs opened a widespread theoretical discussion on realizing Marx's humanist socialism. Theoretical discussions of young Marx and of Hegel raged in all of East Europe and beyond.

In Poland, where many clubs emerged with names like "Red Tomato" (signifying that they were red not just on the outside but also on the inside), "Blown Fuse" and the "Karl Marx Club," the probing of Marx was the deepest. For an example, see Witold Jedlicki's account of the discussions in the Crooked Circle Club in Poland, which started in 1955 and continued until 1962. Here is what he wrote in 1963: " The philosophy of Hegel and young Marx, and to some extent also French Existentialism, clearly functioned at the time as the spiritual foundation at first of the movement of 'thawing' and then of those tendencies which were later labeled 'revisionism.'... "It was not an accident that NOWA KULTURA (New Culture) honored the 125th anniversary of the "wise man from Berlin" (Hegel) by a special article by Bronislaw Baczko... that ZESZYTY TEORETYCZNO-POLITYCZNE NOWYCH DROG (New Ways' Theoretical-Political Notebooks) carried a discussion of Hegel in almost every issue and that the young Marx was discussed so much on the pages of PO PROSTU (Simply). That was the dominant intellectual climate, not limited to Poland..." The new stage of cognition, which Hungary 1956 embodies, had a theoretical thread from the start both in Marxist-Humanism and in the world.

--Urszula Wislanka, California

* * *

The anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution is not just for past history's sake. It's not just that Bush is rewriting that history as if it were for free-market capitalism, rather than a struggle for workers' power in both politics and production, and truly free, humanist socialism. Dunayevskaya's letter, "Spontaneity of Action and Organization of Thought," printed in the October-November N&L, shows how Marxist-Humanism was in the air and intellectuals caught it, and how the self-organization of the workers into a new form of organization, workers' councils, manifested a creativity that gave the Revolution "its historic direction."

Today we look at it through a greater historical distance, when the revolutionary spirit of 1956 is weighted down by the consciousness of revolutions that failed or transformed into opposite. We need to look back at 1956 as the greatness that still stirs within humanity and from the point of view of the needed new society still struggling to be released.

--Subscriber, Memphis

* * *

Dunayevskaya's letter on the Hungarian Revolution was important to reprint. It was a proletarian revolution and she shows it was in no sense a defeat.

--Revolutionary lawyer, Flint, Michigan

* * *

The movement born in the Hungarian Revolution reached to China where Mao put down their version of Petofi circles after the 100 Flowers campaign. The idea of "Bread and Freedom" includes not just how much to produce but why and what kind of labor do we envision in a new society. There is a lot of excitement now about the ouster of the Republicans but we have to go into discussions about a totally new society.

--Korean-American, California

* * *

CAPITAL AND LABOR TODAY

Reports continue to come out about the horrendous loss of life in China's coal mines, with hundreds and thousdands dying in escalating disasters. Official government figures put the death toll in the mines at some 6,000 a year, but other reports indicate that the toll is much higher because many mine disasters are not reported or are ignored, and the actual figure is more like 20,000 killed in the mines each year--all to feed the insatiable appetite for energy demanded by China's hot-house capitalist development.  To put this death toll in perspective, there have been about 32 deaths in American coal mines this year, while in China there are 55 killed each day!

--Ex-miner, Detroit

* * *

Congratulations to Debra Moore, the nurse and union activist in Virginia, as well as to the hospital employees and her supporters, for being restored to her job, with complete quick time and wages at Eastern State Hospital, as it was reported in the last issue of N&L. The labor situation being what it is against workers today, and for quite some time now, it was not a surprise to read of her oppression. It was inspirational to read this success story which shows what people can accomplish when they act together for workers' rights and simple human dignity.

--Labor supporter, Japan

* * *

A friend of mine who works barely above minimum wage in fast food asked me what it felt like to be part of a strike. Then she said, "We should strike my job. They are too cheap to have a union."

Workers in her situation are exploited beyond their miserable wages. Their hours are cut or changed without warning, they are told they are not entitled to breaks, and they must constantly watch managers who steal from their cash drawers and then deduct the shortage from the crew members' pay.

I am thinking that other low-wage workers, like the many single parents of Detroit public school students, supported our strike this fall because they wish they could stand strong in their jobs.

--Teacher, Detroit

* * *

The fetish of high tech seduces us into complying with the prerogatives of capital's expansion. Our own union leaders tell us "we can't stop progress." They enter into labor-management partnerships to "help" the company compete. They seduce us with the promise of high tech trying to get us to accept speed-ups, deep cuts in health care, pensions, and layoffs. After consummating the marriage, capital leaves us holding the bag, often deadbeat even with our pension funds.

--Hospital worker, California

* * *

After reading Andrew Kliman's "Demonstrating an alternative to capitalism" in the October-November N&L, any question about whether the law of value can be transcended or whether it can exist in socialist society should be laid to rest. He has significantly shown that objectively any further discussion on the law of value must center on how it can be uprooted.

--Faruq, California

* * *

WOMENS WORLDWIDE STRUGGLES

You published a piece in the June-July "Readers' Views" about the One in Nine Campaign in South Africa working to raise awareness about violence against women. The case they had responded to was the rape of a woman by a high-ranking government official she had taken to court. In October, a year after the rape, Buyisiwe had yet to give her evidence in court. Her case was struck from the court roll because evidence was missing from the docket. Once the matter was struck the accused were released from custody and Buyisiwe was forced to take refuge in a place of safety because of threats and the risk of further violence. The One in Nine Campaign has continued to call for a national protest. More information is available by visiting www.oneinnine.org.za

--Supporter, Los Angeles

* * *

Dr. Shazia Khalid's tragic story reported in the October-November N&L reminded me of the many and varied unjust and oppressive conditions women suffer the world over. They are often told by women who suffer the events and may literally be putting their lives at risk by telling them. May their stories continue to be told so that awareness is heightened and we are moved to utterly transform human relationships so they BECOME human.

--Lindsay, Illinois

* * *

THE BRITISH SCENE

I thought you might like to share a letter of mine that was published in NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL, in the issue dated November 13. This was a response to an article by Gordon Brown on globalization: Brown dismisses protests against capitalist globalization as "an angry resistance to change--old-style Luddism, in other words." It may interest you to know that the original Luddites were weavers in early 19th-century England who opposed, unsuccessfully, the introduction of new technology that, in the social conditions of the time, deprived them of their livelihood and threw their families into poverty.

The propertied classes who put down the Luddites were themselves resistant to social and political changes, such as the extension of the vote to working people, the formation of unions and the reduction of working hours. Today's workers have good reason to be anxious about how capital moves around the world in search of low paid, nonunion workers without effective legal rights. Brown's globalization manifesto says nothing about the need for effective laws to protect workers from overwork and hazardous conditions, and for free, independent unions in all countries.

--Richard Abernethy,Britain

* * *

The Labour Party has been dominated by the theme of public service. The truth is that it is more like a gang of robber barons jousting for spoils. Myths, lies and corruption are a poor diet that the young and poor are given by a system designed to abuse them. The three main political parties are all affected. They cannot challenge this because they are all implicated.  Our public servants have become our masters.

--Pat Duffy, Britain

* * *

FENCES ON THE BORDER

Just as I finished reading "Plan for 'parallel' government in Mexico" (October-November N&L) I heard a news story about Bush approving the building of a fence between Mexico and California. Wasn't the U.S. a strong supporter of removing barriers and fences in other countries? The U.S. just wants to be prepared to keep Mexicans out. When Mexico is no longer a U.S. puppet they will no longer welcome the immigrant workers that the capitalist U.S. society has long exploited. Could the U.S. be getting worried and making an attempt to curb the Mexican influence on the rising Latino population? After all, the Mexican people have a history of revolution. It's estimated that by 2050 a third of the U.S. population will be Latino.

--Prisoner, Coalinga, California

* * *

VOICES OF REASON WITHIN THE BARS

I often use N&L as a guide to enhance the consciousness of those who have no idea why their lives are being spent inside a cage. Prison is not a part of society. It's an exile. The exploitation of prisoners must be seen as an act of imperialism from within. Such a vision must be tied in with Marx's view of capitalism "digging its own grave."

--Herman Wallace, Angola Prison