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Readers' ViewsIRAN: SUPPORT MANSOUR OSANLOO! According to human rights and democracy activists in Iran, Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the Tehran and Municipality Vahed Bus Syndicate, was taken on Tuesday, April 13, to the forensic commission in one of the hospitals in the city of Karaj in shackles. He spent nine hours going through various examinations. Osanloo is suffering from ailments ranging from acute heart problems, back ache requiring surgery, and problems with his eyes. The shackles on his ankles were clearly making visible marks. The doctors of the forensic commission have more than three times certified that he is not fit to be serving jail sentences. Based on the existing laws, those receiving certificates for not being fit to serve sentences must be released to receive necessary treatments. Several labor groups worldwide have called for Osanloo's immediate release from prison. Please join them. (See iranlaborreport.com) --Labor and solidarity activist, Midwest Native American poet Joy Harjo wrote this tribute on her blog on April 6: Wilma Mankiller Left This World for the Next This Morning What followed was a note from the Oklahoma Cherokee Nation, excerpted here: Our personal and national hearts are heavy with sorrow and sadness with the passing of Wilma Mankiller, our former Principal Chief....We are a stronger tribal nation because of her example of Cherokee leadership, statesmanship, humility, grace, determination and decisiveness. Years ago, she and her husband Charlie Soap showed the world what Cherokee people can do when given the chance, when they organized the self-help water line in the Bell community. Her gift to us is the lesson that our lives and future are for us to decide. Wilma asked that any gifts in her honor be made as donations to One Fire Development Corporation, 1220 Southmore Houston, TX 77004. Tax deductible donations can be made at www.wilmamankiller.com as well as www.onefiredevelopment.org. --Tim Finnigan, Illinois SPAIN'S 'RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY' It has been reported that Spain's most high-profile judge, Baltasar Garzón, is going to stand trial for overreaching his powers over an inquiry into the Franco regime. It is the Spanish right wing's attempt to destroy the historical memory of Spain, and erase from collective consciousness the blood-stained hands of the Franco regime and its supporters. Garzón should be applauded, not prosecuted. He has gone after famous mass-murderers such as Henry Kissinger, Augusto Pinochet, Osama bin-Laden. I see him as being like the "Madres de la plaza" in Argentina, who tirelessly remind the world not to forget the many youth and workers who were murdered at the hands of right-wing governments. President Obama should issue a statement of support for Judge Garzón. If he wins his case in Spain, it could set an example for countries like Argentina, Chile, South Africa, and yes, even here in the U.S., to go after those who have committed crimes against humanity, no matter how long ago. --Anti-fascist, California On January 19-20, under the banner "House Keys Not Handcuffs," members of LA Community Action Network, the Western Region Advocacy Project (WRAP), converged in San Francisco to demonstrate for an "end to the criminalization of homelessness and poverty." Following the rally, 1,000 protesters marched up Market Street to the Federal Building, demanding real change. There is a shortage of over 100,000 affordable housing units and thousands of units in slum condition in the city of L.A. Loitering laws are often enforced to criminalize the homeless and displace them in the interest of gentrification. Today, dropping a cigarette butt is a misdemeanor and a jailable offense where previously a littering citation was given. An elderly Black man who experienced racism during the Civil Rights Movement likened that situation to the way the Department of Justice is denying civil rights to the poor, the homeless and the downtrodden today. As one protester said, "We demand homes, not handcuffs." --Basho, Los Angeles When a jury deadlocked in the trial of a former Memphis police officer accused of beating up a transgendered woman, the judge in the case declared a mistrial. Bridges McRae had been accused of violating Duanna Johnson's civil rights. Surveillance video shows McRae punching Johnson while she was being processed on a prostitution charge. After nearly four days of deliberations, eleven jurors believed McRae was guilty. One thought he was not. The prosecution says it may want a new trial. It is more important than ever to show that we stand on the side of justice. Our Raise Your Voice group urges the community to stand with Duanna as we have stood with her since the beginning of this case.--Gay and Lesbian Community Center, Memphis This story is a testament to the Internet. And to Anat Kam, the whistleblower who is widely regarded in Israeli security circles as a traitor and will probably soon be charged with treason. Anat, a 23-year-old journalist, passed on a "hit list" of Palestinians living in the West Bank. The Shin Bet (Israeli secret police) protocol stated that if these "wanted" figures are identified during the course of a military action, permission is granted to carry out "an interception." Nice language for execution without trial. This is a big story, but until now no Israeli newspapers could publish it because a judge issued a gag order at the Shin Bet's request. Every news outlet in Israel front-paged the story, once the gag order was lifted. It would never have received such widespread attention had the Israeli authorities not tried to hide it in the first place -- and had the Internet not cloned the story through every webpage eager to expose state secrets. Israel has been playing defense ever since the Gaza Campaign, trying to keep its senior politicians and officers out of European courts on charges of war crimes. I say Praise the whistleblowers and all those who turned on the Internet lights, making it impossible for the authorities to turn them off again. --Gila Svirsky, Jerusalem / Nahariya For state-capitalists, during any crisis, their first priority is security for themselves--to contain and prevent organizing by anybody deemed a threat to their authority. That's exactly what's happening right now in Yushu, China, in Qinghai province, where the Tibetan monks were the first responders, after the recent devastating quake there. Those are the very monks who have been demonized for 15 years as potential enemies of the state. The Chinese regime better not step too far. Many of the Chinese soldiers worked side by side with the Tibetan monks before the authorities banned them from the area. Soldiers, like workers in the frontlines, have "a mind of their own." Once their anger reaches a point of no return over how their government cares squat about quake victims and more about politics, all the propaganda in the world against ethnic minorities will not stop Chinese soldiers from turning against their own government. It will make Tianamen look like small potatoes. --Asian American, California Marx eschewed discussions of philosophical/moral questions and turned to human sciences: economy, anthropology. He took seriously the task for philosophers to change the world. He did not insist on a purely materialist perspective, but rather a methodological one. The revolutionary movement is the nature of the epoch we're in the middle of. We don't have all the answers, but with sound methodology there can be progressive approximations that produce a more solid foundation to reach to higher ground. When you enter the dark room, with the dialectic you can explore it soundly. --Joe, Bay Area The Black/Red View in the March-April N&L was a good companion to the Lead article on Haiti in the same issue. The fact that a revolution in Haiti had an effect on Hegel's ideas of freedom is still to be understood. As far as I know, Susan Buck-Morss is the only one who is projecting that Hegel was affected by the Haitian revolution in developing his ideas. Yet I think she should have taken Hegel to task. He could have at least had a footnote that mentioned that revolution. The intellectuals don't look to unwashed masses for ideas because they think that ideas come only from intellectuals. --David M'Oto, Bay Area Chile's earthquake was 500 times stronger yet its devastation was a small fraction of Haiti's. That comparison is very instructive, showing the decades of economic restructuring and a centuries long colonial and post-colonial intervention in Haiti, which was deliberately underdeveloped. The logic of the current aid to Haiti is really a cover for the coup that ousted Aristide and methodically removed social activists. --Tom, Bay Area Your paper highlights oppressions all over the globe. I wish you would expose the "profiteers," the governments and corporations who profit hugely from the problems they create. Their dirty deeds are just excuses to justify their high-paying but meaningless jobs and positions. The peaceful protest turns ugly when police start hurting people and in the end they use these incidents for overtime pay, and then time off plus more money to respond to the next protest. They collect billions, 90% of which goes into their pockets. We live in a spook 'em, oppress 'em, and collect from 'em country that could not care less about real freedom and democracy. --Incarcerated, Crescent City, California Editor's note: Donations to our prisoners subscription fund pay for prisoners to receive N&L. Can you help? Mary Jo Grey loved sports and made sure it made its way into her column, "Women WorldWide." When anything happened concerning Title IX, the law that prohibited sexual discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, Mary Jo was on top of it. This paragraph gives the flavor of how she saw women in sports: "Pat Summitt--who became head coach of the University of Tennessee women's basketball team three years after Title IX was passed, and nurtured her fledgling team for years by tacking recruitment posters on trees, playing before a handful of people, and washing the team uniforms herself--became the winningest coach among women and men in Division I college history with her 880th victory." Just reading that column gives one a real history of women's struggle for freedom. We'll greatly miss the unique voice that Mary Jo imparted to News & Letters. --Terry Moon, Chicago I am deeply saddened that such a kind, dedicated, valuable Marxist-Humanist has been lost to time. --Anna Maillon, California It's significant to me that MJ started with N&LC when it was in Detroit and moved to Chicago with the organization because that is what was needed in 1984. I think living in Detroit in the 1960s-70s is what helped shape her world view. Something I shared with MJ was a struggle with "philosophy" in its most abstract sense. I believe this was shown in what she took on--staffing the office, the concrete work of physically putting together the paper, dealing with the housing/transportation/food coordination and committees around the plenums/conventions. It was making philosophy concrete in her day-to-day existence, as well as presenting it to others, that gave her life such meaning. --Erica Rae, Illinois It was an honor to work with her and share many Marxist -Humanist moments. Please let me know what kind of arrangements are being made to honor her. --Jerry Kagan, Chicago Editor's note: Plans are underway for a memorial meeting in May to honor Mary Joan. The date, time and place will be announced as soon as they are finalized. We want to thank all those who have responded so quickly to the shocking news of her death. |
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