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Readers' ViewsIt was good to read on the front page of the December-January issue of N&L about the classes you were inviting readers to participate in on "Confronting Today's Crises: The Marxist-Humanist Return to Marx and the Revolutionary Abolition of Capitalism." I've been rereading some of the material from earlier classes and am looking forward to participating in the study of Raya Dunayevskaya's ideas regarding the inseparability of philosophy and revolution. I have to take this class on--i.e., move to deepen my comprehension of the totality of Marxist-Humanism--not only for my own conscious development, but also to contend with my hardcore Afrikacentric Brethren, who steadfastly argue that Marx is no longer relevant. I've never agreed with that position, but my disagreement was only at a visceral level. Now, having come to a position of being able to examine Marx for myself, I've learned that Marx is quite relevant. It's a tragic mistake to summarily reject Marx because he has been deemed supposedly a "racist" and think you can build socialism without having studied Marxism in totality. Surely that path would merely continue the previous failed revolutions. The interview of John Alan by Mel Vapour reflected my own thoughts on our new president. If there is going to be a change in how government works, it is up to the voters who put him in office to hold their legislators accountable. It makes no sense to cut $40 million from a school package and yet throw millions out to states who run meaningless and fund-draining programs in prisons that can be attended for much less by men and women in the communities. It makes no sense to "bail out the banks" when men and women are being kicked out of their homes by the same banks that are taking their tax dollars in bailout plans that do not take the average person into account except with lip service. As John Alan noted, it isn't and can't be about one man, it has to be about a movement that is sustained regardless of that one man. At the March 19 anti-AIG demonstration in San Francisco, one woman, dressed in neat business attire and laughing, was carrying a sandwich-board sign saying "I am shocked, SHOCKED to learn that three decades of corporate malfeasance and poor oversight has fomented an angry mob." I thought she caught some of the spirit of the march. There were about 200 participants, blue and white collar together, very noisy, very angry, full of ridicule and contempt for the corporate confidence game. The Black/Red interview with John Alan was the best realistic look at Obama and the American political process in any publication in the U.S. "The prime duty of a U.S. president is to protect and preserve U.S. capitalism." That is the name of the game. Obama's unpublished script calls for him to be a Lula II. But borrowing trillions more dollars with no intention of paying it back is not an act of capitalism; it is a political act of survival and self-preservation, which ultimately puts the creditors in the driver's seat. Obama is simply following, more or less, the George W. Bush economic/political road map, and everyone knows how and where that ended up. It was just disclosed that the Office of Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) did not follow proper procedures in 97% of a sample of cases in the Enhanced Enforcement Program. This simply means that rules are ignored and death or injury can result. We know of cases in the NLRB dating back to the early 1990s that were never processed. What we seldom hear about is what happens after such negligent, if not criminal, actions. We hear nothing about the suffering of the workers and their families or the restitution they are entitled to. This is certainly part of the legacy of the Bush administration. The question is: will the Obama administration correct such flagrant violations? I read that when Obama met in March in the White House with the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world, they kept offering explanations for paying high salaries to their employees, and by extension, to themselves. It was reported that Obama warned them the public wasn't buying their explanations. Then he stopped the discussion by reminding them bluntly, "My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks." There is plenty to critique Obama on, but what shouldn't get lost is what N&L wrote about his election in the December 08-January 09 issue--that his election pointed beyond him. That's still important. There was a lot of thinking that the goal was to elect somebody better than Bush. I'm thinking about that because many who were uncritical of him when he was running for President are now super-critical. There are newer challenges to look at now, including how workers are going to respond when the state that is running the factory takes away their benefits. IN MEMORIAM FOR ERIC LEDELL SMITH It was with great sorrow that we learned of the sudden death last year of Eric Ledell Smith in Harrisburg, where he had served as an associate historian at the State Museum of Pennsylvania. An expert in Black History, and the author of numerous books on African Americans in the Arts, he was working at the time of his death on a biography of Countee Cullen, a Black poet associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Those in News and Letters Committees will remember him best as the young student at Michigan State University who found a copy of N&L at a campus "Black student house," sought us out in Detroit, and in 1971 became the Youth Representative to the National Editorial Board. It was the point when Raya Dunayevskaya's Philosophy and Revolution was being completed, and he participated in the vigorous discussions with her on it, within and without the Committees. When, in 1970, a consciousness of language had led many Women's Liberationist activists to ask us to change our motto "The root of mankind is man," we began to substitute other mottos as they were suggested and ask members and readers alike to help us choose another. Eric wrote especially passionately on "A Person is a Person Because of Others," which we described as a "Bantu proverb," in the November 1970 issue when we ran it. He wrote: "It is amazing to see how this African proverb unites and concretizes Marxist-Humanist principles of social relationships, history and universalism in the simplest terms possible, and long before the dialectical principles were established by Hegel, humanized by Marx, and related to the revolutions of today. Every time we travel down a different road of human thought or experience, we find the same spontaneous growth and urge to reach out, a growth blossoming in our time and signaling the approach of a new world." This brief writing speaks volumes about who and what Eric Smith was. We mourn his death and honor his memory. After accepting the Writ of Certiorari submitted by Mumia Abu-Jamal's lead counsel Robert R. Ryan in early February--asserting that African Americans were kept from sitting on the jury of Mumia's original trial solely for their race--the U.S. Supreme Court rejected it on April 6. On Feb. 13, Mr. Ryan turned in to the Court a Brief of Opposition to the prosecution's attempt to overturn U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Yohn's order for a new jury trial to decide whether Mr. Abu-Jamal will spend the rest of his life in prison or be executed. He remains wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner. The February-March front page article, "Israel's War on Gaza Shows Need for Total Uprooting," was very true and has been the truth for a long time. If Obama does not understand Israel is de facto the tail that wags the American dog, he is in for a rude awakening. I have heard the "peace process" malarkey and "road to peace" con job for decades. N&L is exactly right: only a total uprooting of the entire situation has a chance. Just barely. I learned that the article in the February-March issue by Raha, "Revolution needed in Israel," was circulated to others in a group that has regular meetings here, to continue the discussion. There are many leftists who say Zionism is racism and the only position is to be for a one-state solution vs. a two-state solution. Anything less would mean you are a Zionist and for U.S. imperialism. It is a perspective that lets itself be defined by whatever is against U.S. imperialism, not by, as Gerry Emmett cites Raya Dunayevskaya in the Lead of that issue, "self-determination . . . on truly Humanist foundations." The occupation of the third floor of the Kimmel Center at New York University in February was organized by students of the Take Back NYU! Campaign. While short-lived and broken up by excessive police force, it was a breath of fresh air. The students' demands were the result of years of organizing and participating in the structures that are supposed to exist to facilitate some sort of limited control of University governance by the students. TBNYU! demanded collective bargaining for all student workers and T.A.s, full transparency of University finances, as well as international social justice programs such as giving money to the University of Gaza which was recently destroyed by the Israeli invasion. The occupation by TBNYU! hopefully marks the beginning of a growing student militancy, which I think is even more important in a time when the ruling class will be demanding concessions from all of us in order to keep capitalist relations afloat in the face of recession and revolt. The news that Iowa now recognizes same-sex marriage vindicates my telling people for years that it is a relatively progressive state, a really nice place in many ways, and that the red-state/blue-state thing is largely nonsense. It is a good lesson for snooty and out-of-touch West Coast and East Coast ("bi-coastal") liberals to learn. I always felt there is a reason News and Letters Committees is centered in the Midwest and why you pay attention to every part of the country. This is a fine moment for many reasons. Urgent action is needed to halt the execution of 128 prisoners on death row in Iraq. Many awaiting execution were convicted for the "crime" of homosexuality, according to Iraqi Lgbt, a UK-based organization of Iraqis supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Iraq. It is reported that Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20, beginning in April. Ali Hili, of Iraqi Lgbt, has requested that the UK government, human rights groups and the UN Human Rights Commission intervene quickly to prevent this tragedy from going ahead. The death penalty has been increasing at an alarming rate in Iraq since the new Iraqi regime reintroduced it in August 2004. Amnesty International has called on the Iraqi authorities to make public all information pertaining to the 128 now on death row. For more information on how you can help, contact Iraqi LGBT, 22 Notting Hill Gate, #111, London, W11 3JE, United Kingdom or at http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/ MIGRATING TO THE ECOLOGY STRUGGLE People who want to escape from the frustrations of the class struggle often migrate to the struggle for a cleaner world. They haven't necessarily forgotten that a cleaner world is frustrated by the drive to produce and sell. They might see the recession as a good thing for the environment because we are making and selling less. All the factories on the South Side of Chicago have gone away, making it easier to breathe there. That kind of consumerist perspective is not reflected in the pages of N&L. Perhaps it should be. I read N&L fairly faithfully and I just don't see new things taken up. The paper updates me and keeps me current, but there are gaps. The editors could have an eye open wider for filling in the gaps. Every time I receive N&L it brightens my day, week, the ninth year! I share it with all the others I can reach. The bad news is that it only comes six times a year. We all wish we could help make it more. READERS: HAVE YOU SENT YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO HELP US KEEP NEWS & LETTERS GOING? |
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