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NEWS & LETTERS, February - March 2007

Readers' Views

Contents:

BUSH'S NEVER-ENDING WAR

At a fundraising event in Alameda, Cal. for Lt. Ehren Watada's legal defense, the film "Ground Truth" was screened. In it several Iraq War veterans talk about how they are or are not coping with the bodily and/or mental damage they sustained overseas. All of them expressed how willing they had been to engage in combat before deployment. The column asked why are these conditions tolerated: “Could we be lured into thinking  that way because we subscribe to some form of ‘there is no alternative’? Is it because when we look out the window capitalism is everywhere, as far as the eye an see? Whatever happened to the mind’s eye?” Since June 2006 Lt. Watada has been publicly stating that he will not participate in creating more of the awful casualties on all sides of a war he believes the U.S. is prosecuting illegally.

I was drawn to reflect on Lt. Watada's case because of the December-January "Workshop Talks" column, which discusses the consequences of not asking yourself why you do what you do--whether you're part of the health care industry, military-industrial complex, or any production force under capitalism.  It was the mind's eye that finally opened in Ehren Watada. He would probably agree that what needs to be carried out now is "the concrete and specific task of organizing our own minds."

--Reader, Oakland, Cal.

* * *

How many Americans know that President Bush has now quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open our mail without a judge's warrant? It was done when he signed a "postal reform bill" into law on Dec. 20 and then issued a "signing statement" to declare his right to open our mail "under exigent circumstances."  It contradicted the very bill he had just signed. I think it's all part of his "terrorism" war. It smells to me like the very same justification he claimed for the secret warrantless domestic electronic eavesdropping that was revealed a year ago. Whatever happened to all the noise from the liberals in Congress about investigating that?

--Worried even more now, Chicago

* * *

I have a problem understanding President Bush's "vocabulary." He says he is going to send over 20,000 more troops to Iraq. But his administration keeps insisting that this is a "surge" or an "augmentation" in troops, and not an increase. If there are 140,000 U.S. troops there, and 20,000 are added, it seems to me to be an increase. Is there something about the words "surge" and "augmentation" that nullifies the word "increase"? Does "increase" under Bush now mean "decrease" or what?

--Puzzled, Detroit

* * *

One thing very few have mentioned about Bush's "troop surge" in Iraq is that the plan calls for three Kurdish brigades to patrol Baghdad along with U.S. troops. The Bush administration must have decided that they couldn't trust the Iraqi government's forces to keep the Shi’ite militias in line, so they're using Kurds. I wouldn't be surprised if what dominates headlines in coming months is an outbreak of fighting between Kurds and Shi'ite factions.

--Anti-war activist, Indiana 

* * *

It isn't only the Bush administration and the Democrats who don't seem very concerned about what will happen to the Iraqi people if the U.S. were to withdraw from Iraq tomorrow. I don't hear much discussion of that in the anti-war movement either. Shouldn't we be concerned that even a worse bloodbath may be in the offing?

--Subscriber, France

RETURNING TO MARX'S CAPITAL

Raya Dunayevskaya's 1978 critique of Ernest Mandel (December 06-January 07 N&L) is very timely. In this time of growing prestige of the market socialists, it is important to be reminded that many of these economic questions have been addressed in the past. Of particular importance are Marx's analyses of the unemployed army in his absolute general law of capitalist accumulation, and the place of the concept of freedom in creating the revolutionary subject. Both remind us to keep people at the center of our philosophy.

--Revolutionary Sociologist, Tennessee

* * *

Mandel’'s interpretation of the industrial reserve army is supposedly based on Marx's CAPITAL but Dunayevskaya sees him making it one-sided. Mandel's conclusion, that capitalism needs to be overthrown by the revolt of the working class, is separated from his theory of the unemployed army. If you only look at it as what helps capitalism assure its labor supply and discipline the workers, you're falling into what she says leads you to violate Marxism. She emphasizes two inseparables: dialectic methodology and revolt of the workers. It is why she makes a big point of something that would strike many Marxists as making a mountain out of a molehill: leaving out the word "freely" from "freely associated labor." In the age of state-capitalism, we have to grasp how close are revolution and counterrevolution.

--F. Dmitryev, Memphis

IRAN’S HOLOCAUST DENIAL CONFERENCE

When the Iranian foreign ministry's Institute for International Studies called for papers on its web site for a two-day conference in Tehran in December, it fooled no one as to its pretense to "scholastic objectivity." The 81-year-old head of the International Association of Holocaust survivors, Noah Flug, was asked to attend with a group of Holocaust survivors and also invited Ahmadinejad to visit Auschwitz, stating "our evidence, the story of Holocaust survivors, will serve much more than any research document presented by historians to establish the truth."

Khaled Mahmid, a Palestinian scholar from Nazareth, who has founded the only Muslim Holocaust Museum, also responded to the call for papers. Unlike Noah Flug, his paper was accepted. His hopes were dashed, however, when, after repeated calls to the Iranian Embassy in Amman, Jordan, he was finally told that "Israelis don't get a visa." He said he had "wanted to tell Iranians that when you play down the Holocaust or deny it, you are directly hurting the Palestinians who are in camps."

As it turned out, while the conference succeeded in getting worldwide publicity, it failed to prevent the student demonstrators in Tehran on that very same day from confronting Ahmadinejad and chanting "Death to the Dictator" and "We want freedom of expression."

--Raha, California

* * *

Am I the only one who is annoyed that not long after inviting a number of white supremacists, racists, and Holocaust deniers to Iran for a conference, Iranian President Ahmadinejad flew to Venezuela and was embraced and  praised as a hero by Hugo Chavez? How can leftists claim to be against racism in the U.S. when they make excuses for racists like Ahmadinejad?

--Psychologist, Costa Rica

DEADLY MANEUVERING

What did it mean that President Bush signed legislation on Dec. 18, 2006, which committed U.S. nuclear technology and fuel to India? He started the war in Iraq, wrongly accusing them of development of "weapons of mass destruction" and now threatens war on Iran and North Korea because of their potential nuclear weapons programs. This may be political maneuvering to contain China, a rising capitalist power that threatens U.S. world dominance. Capitalism, in all its forms must be abolished and replaced with a new, non-value-producing society before a nuclear holocaust destroys life as we know it.

--Japanese-American, Los Angeles

* * *

We witness some fantastic spectacles--like Bush's visit to China to promote "free trade" as the solution to all the world's problems, at the very time when China had just sentenced to 10 years in prison a poet and journalist, Shi Tao, for sending out an email describing the Chinese order to the media to downplay the 15th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen events. Never have Marx's words from THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO sounded more like today: "The bourgeoisie...in place of the numberless freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom--Free Trade.”

--Urszula Wislanka, California

WOMEN AND WELFARE

Part of what's going on with different administrations trying to destroy welfare is their attempt to make impossible the kind of welfare organizing that went on in the 1960s and 1970s. Few are doing the kind of work Johnnie Tillman did, demanding that women's labor as caregivers and those responsible for the next generation be respected as important work that should be compensated; demanding that women on welfare be treated as human beings.

--Terry Moon, Memphis

* * *

It seems likely that welfare reform was motivated by the drive of capital AND the racism and sexism inherent in the American system. Sexism and racism are real forces working against women and people of color in this country. Under capitalism they are institutionalized in novel ways.

--Amy Garrison, Memphis

* * *

While welfare "reform" does help create capitalism's army of unemployed, when it is cut off, many women have to go back to abusive husbands to survive. The Bush administration has been trying to get marriage programs into welfare programs, clearly an ideological component. The new welfare rules are an attack aimed at women and children that also has an effect on the working class. Any attack on women is an attack on society in general.

--Adele, Tennessee

SCHOOL CLOSINGS A DEATH BLOW

In an effort to balance the budget the closing of 52 public schools in Detroit by June has been proposed. School staff and parents are devastated. So many went to the School Board meeting Jan. 11 that they could not get into the room. Detroit residents act as if they are in mourning because closing schools can be a death blow to an entire community.

One teacher said, "Our middle school is the only one in our area and we already have a 25% absentee rate. If it is closed, many more kids (who will have to catch a bus to their new school) will not come, and the Bangladeshi children will go to the nearby charter school, so we will lose not only the state funding but that whole culture in our educational system." Our union rep said "it feels like we are being set up to fail." He is right; teachers' unions have never been so threatened as now.

--Teacher, Detroit

SALUTE TO THE YOUTH

This is a message to the Purdue fasters whose story appeared in the December 06-January 07 N&L:

My hat goes off to your hunger strike. Consider it an early gambit in what will likely be a long struggle. In the long haul, I predict you will prevail. Your cause is just. You have my admiration.

--Eli Messinger, M.D., New York

VOICES OF REASON FROM WITHIN THE PRISON WALLS

I have been locked up for 17 years on a 20 year sentence so I know what life without freedom is like. They do not pay us here and neither work time nor good time are worth the paper they are written on. I came up for my first parole in 1994 and have always been turned down, so I know what slavery feels like. I see our government becoming a police state where the people have less freedom and fewer rights each day. I see your paper as information on the movement to better mankind.

--Prisoner, Huntsville, Texas

* * *

As a political prisoner for the last 42 years, and totally anti-government in its present form, I can relate to most of the issues you write about. I would, however, like to see you put a special effort into what is a real cancer within our society--private prisons. The entire concept of locking people up specifically for profit is slavery. The private prison companies make no secret that they give millions to various political committees and local mayors to obtain approval to build their prisons in otherwise welfare/foodstamp/unemployed and unemployable areas of the country. I am an old man, 72 years of age and have not had any type of rule infraction for more than 10 years and nothing of a serious nature in my entire 40 plus years serving my sentence. When one in every 35 citizens of a country is in some way controlled by the "justice" system, something is definitely wrong.

--Prisoner, Colorado

* * *

What makes N&L a very necessary challenge to the status quo is that it proposes alternatives to already tried and unsuccessful policies and institutions, daring its audience to promote revolutionary novelty. Thank you very much for your work!

--Prisoner, Iowa Park, Texas

* * *

Too many prisoners are neglecting to look forward. I feel it doesn't matter if you are doing one single night in jail, or serving multiple life terms, you have a moral obligation to make the guards' lives miserable and disrupt what idiotic "programs" are forced on you. The one rule is to never use violence. Force them to write more paper work, hold them accountable for every facet of our meager existence, utilize every legitimate method of proceeding with every possible grievance. Bury them in paperwork. Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King knew that you had to keep your focus and act with dignity. We have to follow their lead because the alternative is capitulation.

--Prisoner, Vacaville, Cal.

REFLECTING ON THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS

The Old Left's emphasis on the November election was that it doesn't make any difference who won, because the Democrats won't save you. The Lead in the last issue didn't overlook that but showed that the elections reflected the signs of revolt and unrest. It's easy to dismiss the importance of the election because election results often don't measure up to the discontent they reveal.

--Observer, Escondido, California

* * *

The Lead on the election discusses the Democrats gaining control and moving to the right, so it won't mean a whole lot. There is no timetable for withdrawal from Iraq in the Baker Commission Report, so Bush takes it as a green light.

--Senior Citizen, Detroit

* * *

During the first week of the new year the ABC nightly news interviewed three new Congresswomen, all Democrats. I was enraged at the response by the woman from Kansas, Nancy Boyda. Someone needs to tell her that she doesn't have to do only what Bush says, as she seems to think is now required, nor even agree with him or rubber stamp him. She is there to represent and vote the desires of her constituents, most of whom want the war to end. Can we get Obama to tell Pelosi to tell this woman what is her purpose in Congress?

--Fuming, Chicago

* * *

If the defeat of the Republican political machine in the November election is measured as anti-war, it is not because the Democrats swung their weight in that direction. If anything, we were witnessing a punishment of failure. A change in the administration does not dismantle the war machine.

The ruling class is able to learn from both victory and defeat. We should do the same because they have now assembled a large army trained in urban warfare and against non-combatants. In terms of Iraq, solutions might be sought in the grooming of a strong man, leaving Iraq to its fate while servicing both corruption and oil. But our greatest danger lies in apathy, demoralization and conservatism. We need a little boldness as well as clarity. In these confused and confusing times we need philosophy more than ever. It will not be easy. 

--Pat Duffy, Britain

* * *

So the Republicans lost their stranglehold on Congress and the Democrats are enjoying a surge of power in state governments across the nation. I was not too surprised by the November election. With a massive moral and economic failure in Iraq, and no end in sight; with skyrocketing national debt, gross incompetence, scandals and a blatant disregard for the Constitution, how could Americans not demand a change? While not surprised, I was disappointed--and appalled--that we barely heard anything about climate change, or the devastating economic and ecological consequences of logging or outrageous mining, grazing and drilling practices. The track record on both sides of the fence is reprehensible. I urge your readers to help step up the battle against greed and for our most treasured wild places, by extending support to Native Forest Council. Information on the Council and its program is available by writing to them at PO Box 2190, Eugene, Oregon 97402 or by clicking onto <a href=www.forestcouncil.org> www.forestcouncil.org </a>. We have to intensify our essential work to save what's left and restore what's been lost.

--Tim Hermach, Eugene, Oregon

THE MIDDLE EAST

I appreciated Ali Reza's work to explore the role of philosophy in the Middle East in the December 06-January 07 N&L. The dominant ideologies of this time are Islamist and liberal capitalist. The place of a secular Left has shrunk. The need for a third way is critical and cannot be underestimated. The lives of all people are at stake, particularly women, children, workers, and various minorities (sexual, religious, ethnic). At a time when many on the Left are praising any anti-imperialist in the Middle East, Reza reminds us it is important to oppose all who do not support a truly free human being

--Allan, Memphis

POLICE TERRORISM

How can we pretend to be fighting terrorism when our nation's police are using more and more terrorism against our own people? Police all across the nation are out of control. Recently, a man here in Lafayette, LA died shortly after being tasered. Like the shooting by New York police that took the life of a young man about to be married, there was no possible justification. No one can feel safe, particularly Black people and Muslims, but actually anyone who seems to them slightly different in any way. Is it to keep us all in a state of extreme fear? We have to seek unity against this kind of terrorism without trampling on our differences.

--D.T., Louisiana

COOPERATIVE LABOR: A DEBATE

I appreciated the discussion between Andrew Kliman and Htun Lin (December 06-January07 N&L) on whether "workers actually manage the workplace, even as the capitalists control the money," since it speaks to the issue of whether a new society is based on taking over conditions that now exist in capitalism. It isn’t an easy question to answer. Many years ago the editor of N&L, Charles Denby, had a debate with another worker, Angela Terrano, over whether or not workers will be able to make use of existing forms of technology in a new society. The issue wasn't settled in that one debate--largely because workers have differing views on such questions. All the more reason to continue the discussion on such issues today.

--Historian of Marxism, Illinois

* * *

In Andrew Kliman's critique of Htun Lin's October-November "Workshop Talks" column, he questions the way Htun draws a relationship between workers striving to take control of their own cooperation on the ground of and the reach for a non-value producing future. Htun's suggestion that the ongoing struggle in health care is a reach for a different future is not an assertion that it alone constitutes a full break "with the enslaving laws of capitalist production." I saw the point of Htun's column as showing how the antagonism within cooperative labor under capitalism provides a way to discern aspects of a non-value producing form of directly social labor of the future. Marx himself provides a direction in the way he kept discerning, in the struggles of cooperative labor, including the Paris Commune in his lifetime, the pull of a different future beyond capitalist production.

--Ron Kelch, California

* * *

You can't just keep repeating in every Workshop Talks column that "we all know we need revolutionary change immediately." Sometimes you just want to engage what the workers are thinking, with the need for revolution being implied. But if you critique a column like Htun Lin's for not pointing beyond capitalism, then it is your duty to be specific about what is beyond it. Kliman's critique didn't show how to get to any reality beyond value production, either.

--David, California

* * *

After rereading Raya Dunayevskaya's THE POWER OF NEGATIVITY, I came across a statement which speaks to the debate over workers' control: "In reading this final chapter, the Absolute Idea, Hegel is through with all which we would politically describe as ‘taking over'; that is to say, capitalism will develop technology so perfectly for us that all the proletariat will have to do will be to 'take over.' As we reject this concept politically, Hegel rejects it philosophically. He has now so absorbed all the other systems that, far from taking over, he is first going back to a totally new beginning."

--Old Radical, New York

HOLIDAY GREETING

The recent death of the tyrant Gen. Augusto Pinochet was an early Christmas present to class-conscious proletarians the world over, but especially to those who lost so much in Chile. Now for a happy new year 2007!

--Ex-postal worker, Battle Creek, Michigan

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