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NEWS & LETTERS, February 2008 - March 2008

Readers' Views

Contents:

Hegel's Phenomenology Today

I have a question about "From the Archives"  (Dec.-Jan. N&L)  in which Dunayevskaya takes up which twilight we are facing. That is meant to evoke an image of a turning point in history and how the dialectic seizes on it and brings out a new stage of cognition. If there are turning points in history where one way of life is dying and a new way of life is emerging, what is the role of someone observing it? Can someone who grasps the dialectic do something about it? Is it possible for a dialectic to create a turning point?

--Reader, Oakland, Calif.

* * *

Dunayevskaya's letter to an Iranian comrade reproduced in "From the Archives" last issue, is amazing. By 1986 the 1979 revolution had gone into horrific counter-revolution and here is Dunayevskaya writing about the PHENOMENOLOGY! I think she is saying that when you're facing a new stage of counter-revolution it is important to have a vision of the ground you're standing on for the future. Academics who discuss Hegel have no vision. The vision that anchored Marx was developing the movements of his time. I see that same in Dunayevskaya.

--Women's liberationist, California

* * *

Peter Hudis' essay, "Hegel's PHENOMENOLOGY today: a Marxist-Humanist view" (Dec.-Jan. N&L), seemed to refer to the question of "the return of thought to itself" only as a pejorative, as a critique of Hegel, in contrast to Marx rooting the dialectic in the whole human being. But Marx's concept of the dialectic in the whole human being--externalization of human capacities and return to self out of that externalization--is also a philosophic moment, a founding concept that demands a return as does Dunayevskaya's philosophic moment of 1953. The absolute is the most concrete. She left us the task of testing CRITIQUE OF THE GOTHA PROGRAM by absolute method, not only reconstituting the dialectic anew in the face of new phenomena as Hudis puts it at the end. It means going further into that principle that never changes but proves its openness to the new. The dialectic in philosophy is not just about facing new phenomena but is a recollection and reconstituting of the philosophic moment.

--Ron Kelch, Oakland

* * *

Hudis says that Absolute Knowledge is subjected to the Golgotha of Absolute Spirit. Does it mean that history comes to an end, or that the scientific comprehension suffers a Golgotha and needs to be reconstituted? Such a reconstruction is the effort a living organization, News and Letters Committees, is undertaking today. 

--Mitch Weerth, Alameda

 IN MEMORIAM TO SHEILA GARDEN

We mourn the death and honor the memory of our New York comrade, Sheila Garden, who died in early February after a long siege of lung disease. Sheila was a spirited and feisty woman throughout the nearly  eight decades of her history as a civil rights, feminist and Marxist-Humanist thinker and activist.

She was tireless in her outreach efforts.  Even near the end of her life she asked for copies of NEWS & LETTERS to give to her caretakers. She was a lifelong rebel and revolutionary in every fiber of her being,  She pulled no punches when it came to religion and other orthodoxies. 

As news of her death became known to her comrades and friends, remembrances of her vibrant relationships quickly began coming to us. We want to share one such message that came from one of our Youth columnists, Brown Douglas:

"Sheila stands out from my memories of the first two national gatherings of News and Letters Committees I attended. I remember being a young newcomer to the ideas of Marxist-Humanism and feeling slightly confused and intimidated. Yet, no matter how incoherent and 'new' my Youth report might sound, Sheila always took extensive notes and approached me afterwards to talk about points she liked and didn't like. She always expressed great energy at any mention of the Women's and Gay Liberation movements. I'll always remember her as what is called a 'free spirit.'  We were separated in age by more than half a century but when we were talking the separation simply didn't exist.  She taught me a lot about being a human being."

So say we all.

--News and Letters comrades

GAY PLAGUE HYSTERIA

All the recent hysteria about a new "Gay Plague"--a new strain of staph linked to gay men--has been proved completely wrong. It is not a sexually transmitted disease and it is not limited to any segment of the population. The lead researchers on USA300 MRSA, the strain of staph involved, stressed that it is a skin to skin infection. A handshake could transmit it. These researchers did note that Gay men had a higher rate of infection in San Francisco. This could be due to higher rates of immunocompromised patients there, which make them more susceptible to more kinds of infections. What needs to be known is that USA300 is a supervirulent strain, which appears to be a result of societal over-use of antibiotics and the bugs of several strains combining to give rise to a super-strain which exploits the most immunocompromised patients.

--Medical worker, San Francisco

* * *

I am currently incarcerated, which only strengthens my resolve to bring change to the decadence which seems to permeate this world. Your various articles dealing with the LGBTQ movements, the proletarians at home and abroad, even those who may be considered "middle class," enlighten me about the totality of oppression.  Another example of the objectivity of your paper is the way you dealt with the comments by the President of Iran who denied the Holocaust that befell the Jewish people. Most papers expound only on a topic that fits into their agenda. Your objectivity  is greatly needed and appreciated.

--Prisoner, Missouri

EDUCATING THE EDUCATORS

A Michigan Science Teacher wrote of "Racism and Science" (Dec. 07-Jan. 08, N&L) accusing Nobel Laureate James D. Watson of uttering racist comments, revealing the alienation of brilliant thinking, and contradicting the fundamental concepts of genetics and evolution. Truth be told, Science Teacher was wrong.  Watson said he is "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa": because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours--whereas all the testing says not really."  "Science Teacher" failed to parse Dr. Watson's comments. At no point did Watson claim that "Caucasians are inherently more intelligent than Blacks." The Teacher embellished Dr. Watson's statements in a fraudulent attempt to inflame and incite those members of the Black community who were unable or unwilling to conduct legitimate research into his remarks.  Ironically, Dr. Watson offered no quantitative assessment of the relative intelligence of Caucasians or Africans. To inflate his status as a victim, Science Teacher presumed without proof that Watson's remarks demeaned Blacks and lauded whites.

--Roger Hummel, Gatesville, Texas

* * *

As soon as Detroit Public Schools enrollment drops below 100,000 students, more non-unionized charter schools will open in the city. The negative spiral of public schools with extraordinarily needy students and mismanaged staff assignments and resource allocation continues to accelerate. "Difficult" students need more staff and resources, not less. They need a safe, clean, caring educational environment that enriches their lives. Instead, because MEAP test scores dropped this year, my school has cut out music, gym, electives and all activities, from spelling bees to holiday dances,  to concentrate on remediation. I doubt that a "boot camp" approach will work.  I think we should provide as many "fun" educational activities as we can to boost motivation. As it is, they are cheated out of the survival skills and knowledge they need in a capitalist society, let alone one that would allow them to realize their full human potential.                      

--Teacher, Detroit

CREATING TERROR

The events in Kenya, Congo, Sudan and Chad show how human beings cease to be seen as having human qualities, and that they're just objects to abuse for whatever purpose. The reason is to create terror. This is a brutal version of the "shock doctrine" Naomi Klein has been writing about, those trying to clear any obstacle in their way. Have there been other wars in the region that have taught the men while they were growing up how to perpetrate this kind of brutality?

--Allan, Tennessee

* * *

I completely agree with John Alan in the Dec. 07-Jan. 08 N&L that "racist terrorism" is rampant in this country and will go him one better in stating that the so-called "War on Terror" is in and of itself racist terrorism. The bottom line is that "no noose is good noose"  unless it's a noose around the neck of the capitalist masters.  However, this is problematical as Audre Lorde has so succinctly pointed out: "The master's tools can never be used to tear down the master's house" and the noose is most definitely one of the "master's tools."

--Rand Gould, Michigan

 LOUISIANA: ONE BIG PRISON

I have drawn a cartoon to show how Louisiana is starting to look.  It shows this state as one big prison. If the "Jena Six" have to go to prison because their tennis shoes are a "deadly weapon" virtually everyone is guilty of "aggravated battery." Why not the whole state as a prison?  The "Jena Six" should at least get probation for time served, and not have to go inside those walls again. Keep paying close attention to that case, as you have been doing.

--DT, Lafayette, LA

FOR BRENDA HENSON

Brenda Henson, about whom you wrote in the December-January issue, passed away in February at the age of 62, surrounded by her family and friends, including her partner of 24 years, Wanda Henson. Brenda and Wanda founded Camp Sister Spirit in 1990 in Ovett, Miss. and their work there is continued by Brenda's daughter and her partner.

The camp is a feminist educational retreat and folk school where workshops on all social justice issues are available to the community.  It hosts womyn's,  LGBT, and pagan/multi-religious festivals as well as conferences.  There is an advocacy/referral service for people in crisis, a G.E.D./educational service, a lending library, an animal rescue project, and a hurricane shelter. There is also a food and pet food bank that coordinated the distribution of resources after Hurricane Katrina.

The camp is now more accepted by the local community. At first, locals sent death threats, vandalized, and fired shots at the camp until Attorney General Janet Reno sent Department of Justice resources to their defense.

--Adele, Memphis

THE BRITISH SCENE

The news from Manchester health workers that their strike was suspended follows a series of anti-union activities and victimization.  The latest news is mixed. The strikers have worked hard to maintain militancy and solidarity. But the outcome seems like a sell-out. Employment tribunals were set up in the 1970 strike to reduce solidarity action. The public settlements of large sums of money is an illusion. The employers write off the settlements as small beer to remove militants and destroy basic trade union organization. The cost to the individual is huge, ranging from depression to suicide, the end of marriages, the suffering of families.

In the short term all support and solidarity needs to be offered, but long drawn out campaigns are extremely difficult to win. New ideas and different methods of organization are needed.

--Pat Duffy, England

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