Human power m its own end —Karl Marx 5. JQ ••• *'•**;« jnn APRIt/M 'ssmmMtrf-Mt WORKSHOP .-. New challenges to global capital saying 'no'saves a life in Latin American battle of ideas byHtunLin by Peter Hudis In February, Gov. Schwarzenegger, in the last appeal for death row inmate Michael Morales, decided he At a moment when the Bush should die. Morales was convicted in 1983 of the brutal administration is facing a quagmire rape and murder of a teenage girl. His execution would in Iraq and growing opposition to its add to a long list of those who perished since California policies at home, Latin America may revived the death penalty. not appear to be its central area of concern. Yet events there are becom­ Executions at San Quentin State Prison had been ing as worrisome to it as those in the conducted cleanly and swiftly, without much incident, Middle East. before Morales. There were, of course, the vigils of sev­ eral hundred to perhaps a few thousand outside the A left-wing government under Evo gates. Bearing witness to yet another state sanctioned Morales took power in Bolivia in murder, these vigils remind the rest of society of the December; a radical who favors uncivilized basis of our "civilization." nationalizing U.S. mining interests, OUanta Humala, is hoping to become DEATH CHAMBER NO-SHOW the president of Peru in April; and a left-of-center government may take In contrast to the noisy demonstration outside, power in Mexico if Andres Manuel inside the death chamber a quiet routine unfolds Lopez Obrador Df the PRD wins its methodically. The journalists, the state officials, the presidential election in July. Mean­ families of the victims all know their proper places. while Venezuelan President Hugo This time, however, the court mandated an additional Chavez's effort to create a "counter- licensed professional, an anesthesiologist. hegemonic pole" to the U.S. is becom­ Even the condemned knew his role. He knew to ing an increasing irritant to the Bush climb onto the deathbed, which eerily resembled a hos­ administration. March of tens of thousands opens World Social Forum in Caracas, pital gurney, where he would be strapped in. As the Venezuela in January. needle was inserted into his veins, perhaps he would The move to the Left by Latin remember the" gratitude he felt toward another health America's electorate is only one reflection of a conti­ then has tried to promote an Andean Free Trade worker when a similar needle delivered a cure for a nent in upheaval. In Ecuador the Confederation of Agreement, Morales' election has left that in tatters as serious infection—the kind of gratitude I am reminded Indigenous Nationalities last month called for a well. The administration is responding to this situation of by all the "thank you" notes patients leave behind in nationwide uprising to protest a possible free-trade by accusing its critics of being "undemocratic." * the hospital where I work. agreement with the U.S. In Colombia, the government In February Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Morales' execution never took place. The health is being sharply criticized for signing a free trade said of Chavez: "He's a person who was elected legally worker never showed up. The American Medical Asso­ agreement with the U.S. in late February that may just as Hitler was elected legally and then consolidat­ ciation (AMA) didn't give him the blessing to do so. throw 2.5 million Colombians out of work once tariffs ed power and is now, of course, working with Castro This "non event" was headline news around the world. are lifted on U.S. agricultural imports. and Morales. It concerns me." Director of National This time there was no autopsy. Instead, the examina­ From Mexico to the southern cone, Latin Americans Intelligence John Negroponte (ambassador to Hon­ tion was of the body politic and American "civilization" are expressing disgust with decades of U.S.-sponsored duras in the 1980s when the U.S.-supported govern­ neoliberal restructuring that has sunk 44% of Latin ment murdered thousands of people in Central Ameri­ Americans into poverty and made income disparities ca) stated a few weeks later that Chavez is a threat Continued on page 3 between rich and poor even worse than ever. because he is "diminishing freedom of the press" in Venezuela. BUSH'S FAKE TALK OF 'DEMOCRACY' Aside from the fact that these advocates of domestic That the Bush administration's policy towards Latin spying, torture, and the use of death squads against America is coming apart at the seams, was seen last liberatory forces in Latin America are hardly in a posi­ BLACK/RED fall when its Free Trade Agreement of the Americas tion to lecture others about "democracy," one thing that 1 died in the face of withering attacks by Chavez and cannot be said of Chavez is that he has ended freedom 'Covenant cannot other Latin American leaders. Although the U.S. since Continued on page 10 overcome crises by John Alan Sleeping giant stirs in immigrant marches Over 2,000 people in Oakland and another 1,000 in San Francisco came out on March 4 to meetings pro­ Mass gathering in Chicago 'I came here for work' moting a new book edited by Tavis Smiley, Covenant CHICAGO—Some 100,000 people converged on the CHICAGO—I joined the march for immigrants. It was with Black America, now a bestseller. A leading Black city's center on March 10. It is considered the largest a strike. It proved we have power. If immigrants didn't intellectual, Cornel West, heralded these meetings as a immigrant rights march in the city's history, and possi­ work one day, the U.S. would lose millions of dollars. possible starting point, for a new mass movement. bly the nation's. Drawing participants from the entire Immigrants work very hard. I came here for work. Covenant grew out of a panel discussion of 23 promi­ region, the demonstration was a statement that in the When you don't have documents, it's harder to find a nent Black politicians, academics, community activists heart of the country, immigrant labor would be heard job and the employers are harsher. One of the people and religious leaders that took place in February of and seen. trying to harm immigrants said the economy is down 2005 in Atlanta. It was called State of the Black Union. A march shut down traffic in the downtown Loop because of them. But immigrants work for $6 an hour The panel sent out an appeal asking what people where a rally in Federal Plaza took place. Some and less. In places where there are no immigrants, thought were the most crucial problems facing Black marchers had not reached Federal Plaza, site of the wages are higher. America. The response was deep and wide. This input rally, by the time it ended. The crowd was overwhelm­ If you are born here and the police stop you, you pay was then compiled into ten chapters of Covenant, each ingly Mexican, with representation by Poles, Chinese a fine and go on your way. If you don't have papers, of which focuses on one issue. The tremendous and Irish. Participants had heard about it through the you're put in jail and deported. Without papers, you response to this appeal, reflected in the initial input radio, by word of mouth, and through community can't get a drivers license to go to work, and you can't and in sales of the resulting book as well as mass out­ groups. get a Social Security number. The laws are harder for pourings for this tour, shows the depth of the crisis in The outpouring exhibited aspects of a general strike. the documented immigrant too. Black America. Some of the pressing problems The conditions immigrants work under have gotten Covenant covers are the right to health care and well Businesses had to close or find substitutes for workers being, the right to educational opportunities where who left to march. Students left classes to go down­ worse. Before when the boss wanted us to work over­ everyone can achieve their full potential, the system of town. Attendance at one high school was cut in half. For time, we were paid for it. Now working overtime is a unequal justice and environmental justice. employees fired for going to the march, a defense com­ favor, an unpaid favor. He says, "Can you do me a favor, .^ This effort comes from a range of Black politicians mittee has been formed. and work longer?" and if you say no, he makes a call and academics who rose to prominence after the Civil The pain felt by some businesses and the surprising and you're fired. This happens when someone can't Rights Movement. Ron Delluffls, who addressed the show of unity and strength underscored that immi­ come to work, and everyone covers a part of her job, grants, especially the estimated 11 million undocu­ without more pay. Continued on page 8 mented, are woven into the U.S. economy. As one The union sometimes helps, sometimes not. It used marcher put it, "Most people don't realize how much to be that when you had been working at a job for one work we do, but it's part of their daily lives. We are year, you had full rights. Npw it's two years. This ON THE INSIDE putting up all the buildings and cooking all the food. means also that you do not get a raise until two years WRITINGS OF RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA • Today they'll understand." ofwork. This is against the contract. I called the union 'Why Philosophy? Why Now?' p. 4 A bill passed the House this winter, H.R. 4437 which about getting my raise after a year. The rep never called back. Worse, a friend was hired as a temporary PHILOSOPHIC DIALOG • Power of Nega­ intends to overtly stop illegal immigration but, as with previous measures, effectively disciplines immigrant building cleaner—for two years. He was supposed to be tivity review by Anne Pomeroy ...... p. 2 labor all the more. The march was a response. In the made permanent after six months. Editorial • Europe, Muslim same week as Chicago's march, over 30,000 rallied in If you work second shift, the boss thinks he can minorities, and 'free speech'...... p. 9 Washington, D.C. West Coast immigrant protests took change your shift if he likes. He doesn't ask. He's not place in Oregon and California (see page 3). supposed to be able to decide for you. Maybe you have ONLINE: www.newsandletters.org -Jim Mills Continued on page 3 Page 2 NEWS & LETTERS APRIL-MAY 2006

PHILOSOPHIC A look at Dunayevskaya's Power of Negativity by Anne Fairchild Pomeroy new material here which requires consideration and about the nature of the revolution and what is to come Editor's note: This essay by Anne Pomeroy, professor integration. In PON, we are left, then, with a fascinat­ in or as the post-revolutionary epoch. But I believe that of philosophy at Stockton College, can be found in the ing landscape of provocative fragments which I think this takes us right back to Marx—to a real under­ online journal Cultural Logic. We publish excerpts of require a more systematic restructuring in order to standing of the meaning of his call for the abolition of it and invite your responses. For the complete text, see: make clear the connections between them. wage labor. http://eserver.org/clogic/2004/pomeroy.html. What seems to me especially necessary is to get Those who have read Dunayevskaya's other work Dunayevskaya's Hegel back to Marx—in other words, will recognize that this entails connecting together the to close the circle and, in so doing, to connect the pieces In Raya Dunayevskaya's The Power of Negativity: Continued on page 5 Selected Writings on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx into a solid edifice. How much Dunayevskaya herself {PON), the editors, Peter Hudis and Kevin Anderson, would approve of the reconstruction I undertake I can­ pull together a vast array of her letters, communica­ not know. I suspect that I may, in the final analysis, tions, articles, and speeches concentrating on the emphasize the immanence of the Idea more than she Iranian women beaten Hegelian Absolute Idea. The collection traces the would care to. But tKis and other features will remain TEHRAN—The peaceful gathering of 1,000 women's progress of Dunayevskaya's interest in Hegel from its open to debate. rights activists and human rights defenders who gath­ preliminary stages to what can only be described as "WHY MARX, WHY NOW?1 ered in Bark Daneshjoo (Student Park) on Internation­ her ultimate passion. She is nothing if not intense in al Women's Day, ended in violence when they were her conviction that it was time to resurrect Hegel for The title of this essay, "Why Marx, Why Now?" clear­ attacked by plainclothes militia, special anti-riot forces Marx and contemporary Marxism. The Hegelian Idea ly plays on the question that opened Philosophy and of the Revolutionary Guards, soldiers and police, who was one whose time had come. Revolution—"Why Hegel? Why Now?" And it is meant beat the protesters relentlessly. to indicate the contention of my work here: that we do How firmly Dunayevskaya believed this is betrayed Women gathered to emphasize their support of not really understand Hegel for Marx until we return women's human rights and peace and were charged by by the tone of urgency and frustration revealed in so to Marx. many of the writings in this collection. She so clearly security forces shortly after. The sit-in was silent, with feels she is on to something and yet seems unable to be In other words, the two questions elide. In Hegel, protesters holding signs reading: "Discrimination heard properly on the subject. Perhaps Dunayevska­ Dunayevskaya found the answers to her questions against women is an abuse of human rights," "Women ya's announcement of the necessity of the Hegelian oppose forced aggression or war," "Injustice means dis­ Absolute came too soon—too soon for what she calls crimination against women." the post-Marx Marxists who were too captivated by South Dakota tragedy After security forces filmed the protesters for inter­ the new critical theory, too soon for a political land­ rogations, the women were asked to disperse. The pro­ scape still laboring under the misconception that Sovi­ testers started singing the anthem of the women's et Communism had proved the wrong-headedness of movement, which calls for changes in their human Marxism, too soon for the diverse and factional mass rights status. When the final statement was read, the movements that saw in one another only competitors security forces dumped cans of garbage on the women's •vying for their slice of a very small pie. heads, then charged the group, beating the protesters. Even after they dispersed, protesters were followed TIMELINESS OF HEGEL and beaten with batons. The security forces adminis­ Or perhaps in some sense it was too late. Perhaps tered the beatings in teams. Women and men passing the extant interpretations of Hegel (and of Marx, for by were also beaten. Journalists and foreign corre­ that matter) simply precluded the openness necessary spondents were held in custody and released only after to hear her plea. Perhaps other voices had already cap­ their film had been confiscated. tured the attention of Marxists. After all, Kojeve was We hope the international community—especially already lecturingin France on Hegel's Phenomenology women's groups and human rights organizations—will of Mind in the late 1930s. stand in solidarity with Iranian women to condemn Regardless, Dunayevskaya herself was, for a period this violent attack on women's rights defenders in of over 30 years, communicating the urgency of a Iran. We urge women's groups in the region and from return to Hegel. In one of her letters to Herbert Mar- Islamic countries to protest the violent actions of the cuse, she accuses him of thinking that she is obsessed security forces against women's rights activists and by Hegel's Absolute Idea; if such an accusation was defenders. made it may indeed have been largely correct.(l) But Editor's note: On the same day in Montreal, Canada; we would do well to remember that those who appear Chicago!; Dallas; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles, San to harbor "irrational" obsessions today often prove to Jose, Sacramento, and Fresno, Cal.; demonstrators be tomorrow's visionaries. In other words, I believe marched in support of their sisters in Iran. that Dunayevskaya may have had good reason for her Protests in South Dakota against the abortion ban "obsession." But the difficulty with this collection of writings is The religious Right in the U.S. knew exactly why that the enormous quantity'of material is not system­ their leader, George W. Bush, nominated and manipu­ Betty Friedan's legacy atically linked. I do not believe this to be the fault of lated the recent approval of misogynists John Roberts Betty Friedan died in February on her 85th birth­ the editors. What is clear is that Dunayevskaya herself and Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now their day. H&r ground-breaking book The Feminine Mys­ was still in the process of drawing the disparate pieces plan begins... tique, published in 1963, captured what she called "the of her analysis together. Although she did treat the South Dakota's Republican Governor Michael problem that has no name," which she defined as "sim­ subject at some length in Philosophy and Revolution: Rounds recently signed into law a bill banning all ply the fact that American women are kept from grow­ From Hegel to Sartre and from Marx to Mao, there is abortions in the state except those necessary to save a ing to their full human capacities." She was a leader in woman's life. South Dakota doctors wouloj face five a movetnent that made it possible for women to under­ years in prison for performing an abortion. The ban is stand that our frustrations, dissatisfaction, and smol­ set to take effect in July unless—as ban supporters dering anger with the limitations society imposed on NWSA Fighting racism hope—it is challenged and ends up in the increasingly us, did not mean we were crazy, or that something was right-wing U.S. Supreme Court, and results in the wrong with us. Rather, Friedan's book was an articu­ OAKLAND, CAL— The organizers of the National reversal of Roe v. Wade. lation of an Idea whose time had come and part of the Women's Studies Association's (NWSA), Women of In response, on the day after International Women's movement wherein women recognized that something Color Caucus and Anti-Racist Workshop were thrilled Day, hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied in was wrong with a society that would oppress women at the turnout of over 30 women at their all-day work­ front of the federal courthouse in Sioux Falls, S.D., as and it needed to change—NOW. shop in January, "Stop Dreaming, Keep Working." motorists honked their support. Abortion rights advo­ The small women's group I was involved with in Organizer Pat Washington is a fighter for Black women cates reported a flood of donations, volunteers and 1967 sent a representative to the second convention of in academia through her own struggle against San membership requests since the ban was passed. the organization that Friedan helped found in 1966, Diego State University (see www.patwashington.org). But the Right's plan to destroy any control women the National Organization for Women (NOW). Our This was the fourth annual workshop co-sponsored have of their own bodies does not end in South Dakota. group, which included women active in the civil rights by both groups. It started out as "stop dreaming, start Ten other states are considering widespread bans, and anti-war movements as well as students, looked at ' working," as in stop dreaming about ending racism and most in the South. This growing attack on women's what NOW was demanding—equality with men with­ start working on it. It has been titled "stop dreaming, rights here is in contrast with legislation in 15 coun­ in this! capitalist society, the right for bourgeois women keep working" since its second year. This year they had tries in the last ten years which has relaxed abortion to work when poor and Black women had always a professional anti-racism educator, Shakti Butler, who restrictions. But globally, well over 70,000 women die worked—and rejected it outright. We were not alone. gave a workshop on "making whiteness visible." It was every year from illegal abortions4 Radical women explicitly rejected equality as a goal mostly her talking, so none of us got to know what oth­ . Re-criminalizing abortion in the U.S. wi 1 be a huge and instead demanded Women's Liberation. ers in the room were thinking and doing. She imparted blow to the global women's movement as well as Friedan was a founder of several important organi­ her words of wisdom and we were supposed to exercise women here. We cannot let that happen. zations besides NOW, including, in 1969, the organiza­ them on our own after she left. tion now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America; but At lunch, Betita Martinez gave a very "left" talk: she was important to the movement's development, not Everything you know is exactly backwards-, this coun­ only when she was right, but also when she was wrong. try is not founded on freedom and democracy, it is mmm Friedan was so fearful of bad press destroying.the founded on genocide, slavery and the land grab from by Mary Jo Grey movement that she let that set her ground. Instead of Mexico. No one would disagree, yet her talk gave no rejoicing in the rise of Women's Liberation, she saw it "founding" status to any form of resistance except to On International Women's Day, March l J, hundreds as a rival and too radical. Likewise, she did not grasi) say that it has always been great. of Women in Black, Code Pink, and othersi gathered at the lesbian movement as both emerging from the WLM An aspect of NWSA history that came up was how, at a military recruiting station in Oakland, Cal., to "Say and as a new source- of strength and ideas. She so the 1990 Akron, Ohio NWSA Conference, the women of No To War." The march concluded at a Women of Color feared the taunts by anti-feminists and the media that color and their white allies—including several N&L Resource Center's event, "Breaking Rank: Women of "feminist==Lesbian" that she Coined the expression "the members—walked out (see "Racism splinters women's Color Soldiers Speak Out." lavender menace." conference," July 1990 N&L). Since then it has been a * * * Friedan was able to transcend some of her inner con­ secret everybody knew, but no one talked about, and a Amnesty International held an online discussion on tradictions, eventually coming to embrace the gay and dread. So NWSA is now trying to say what happened, International Women's Day, concerning the state of lesbian movement, for example. The contradiction she what the organization learned, and in what way it has women's rights in Darfur, with Gloria E. White-Ham­ never Comprehended is that women can never be free changed. Unfortunately, that part of the agenda got mond, national chairperson of the Million Voices for under capitalism. Nothing she ever did challenged cap­ postponed until the general meeting in June. Clearly, Darfur campaign. Since 2001, she has been involved in italism or understood the relationship between there is much more that needs to be done on the sub­ obtaining the freedom of 10,000 women and children women's oppression and the mode of production. It is ject of "Stop Dreaming, Keep Working, and Start enslaved during the two-decade civil war. This conflict why the WLM has to move beyond her. While it doesn't Dreaming Again." has resulted in abductions and sexual slavery, rape. cancel out what she did accomplish, her limitations —Urszula Wislanka torture, and forced displacement against women and reveal why the struggle must continue—and will. girls —Terry Moon APRIL-MAY 2006 NEWS & LETTERS Page 3 NYC transit workers stay militant Tehran bus strikers NEW YORK—Subway and bus workers, who nearly para­ the day the contract was up. The workers had to orga­ appeal for solidarity lyzed the city during a three-day strike just before nize our own picket lines. CHICAGO—The bus workers of Tehran, Iran should not Christmas (see February-March N&L), are still with­ "The self-organization forced on the workers during be left alone in this critical hour of their battle. The out a contract as of mid-March. The leadership of Tran­ the strike has helped us to be organized since then. Center in Defense of Freedom and Democracy in Iran- sit Workers Union Local 100 capitulated to pressure First we formed a Vote No Campaign, and since we Chicago, by circulating this appeal which was released and called off the defeated the contract, by the Bus Company workers, is organizing interna­ strike without that has become the Com­ tional support among progressive individuals and obtaining a contract. mittee for a Better Con­ organizations. By sending your name or name of the They did negotiate a tract. We are pushing for group that supports the Iranian bus drivers and other contract in the next more participation by the Iranian labor activists, you contribute a whole lot. few weeks, only to members through rank- Long live international labor solidarity! have the union mem­ and-file meetings, mass Contact CD.F.D.I at P.O. Box 486, Highland Park, IL bership vote to reject rallies and such. There 60035 or [email protected]. it in January. Two-, will not be another strike, thirds of the 33,700 however, because the + + + members voted, and workers are afraid they To workers, all trade unions and progressive organi­ they defeated the would be brought back zations of the world contract by just seven prematurely again. 'I'm votes. not striking for [union CONDEMN THE ATTACK ON OUR STRIKE On March 17, the president] Toussaint,' On behalf of the 17,000 workers and employees of local's executive they say. Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company, we would board ordered a re- "The contract had like to inform you, the labor organizations of the world vote on the defeated some good points, but and all those who are distressed by the violation of the contract which man­ on balance it was bad most evident rights of people, that today, Jan. 28, our agement insists is because it began to all-out strike met the unprecedented assault of the now off the table. New York Transit Workers, on strike in December. shift the costs of security forces of the Islamic Republic. Management has health insurance and They raided our homes from the night before; they offered a worse contract and called for binding arbitra­ pensions to the workers. Maternity benefits were even took our young kids to prison. They arrested a tion (which can be forced on the parties by the state's only $200 a week for four weeks. Toussaint called large number of people—the exact figure for which we anti-public worker Taylor Law), and the union has that 'getting a foot in the door,' but if that is so, still don't have, but certainly over several hundred. faced continued legal threats of devastating fines and then the MTA got a foot in the door by having us They forced some of our colleagues to drive the loss of dues check-off as punishment for the strike (ille­ pay a percent of our wages for health insurance, buses, by beating them up and threatening them. They gal under the same law). with no limits." enlisted the help of drivers from the armed forces, and No resolution is in sight. Having failed to evis­ Other transit workers spoke from the audience, rep­ set upon us thousands of police and security officers— cerate the Taylor Law's restrictions on public resenting various dissident groups within the union. both uniformed and plain clothed—in order to smash employees, the transit workers may be fated to One man called for a TWU membership meeting to our strike. This is the situation we are in. join other municipal workers, who sometimes elect a new negotiating committee. Another contrasted What was the strike for? It was for the release of Mr work for years without a contract. the union's failure to prepare for the strike to the UPS Ossanlou and the other leaders of the union, thrown At a meeting of some 200 TWU members and their strike some years ago, for which that union had pre­ into jail for no reason at all by bullying. It was for the supporters, sponsored by Labor Notes on Jan. 27, Steve pared for a year. Many workers complained about lack introduction of collective bargaining, for the recogni­ Downs, a transit worker, described what happened: of democracy within the union. A young woman sup­ tion of the union, for a pay increase, arid so on. Can "The Metropolitan Transit Association had a billion porter introduced her grandmother, whose husband you believe that for such demands, they would launch dollar surplus. There was never any reason for it to had been a transit worker during the union's militant such a brutal and massive war on us bus workers? demand give-backs as it did. We were hurt when other era in the 1960s. In those days, she said, the union went This is what the Islamic Republic did, and we have unions who had pledged support for us in pre-strike into communities and educated people before strikes. no choice but to continue our struggle with even rallies, then stood on the sidelines instead of defending Members of other unions spoke about the need to greater resolve and unity. We ask you our colleagues our strike. work together to end the Taylor Law and to support and fellow workers throughout the world, you who can "The union leadership undercut the strike by not each other's struggles. Striking NYU graduate assis­ have your own unions and organizations, to condemn using all its options, such as calling out the commuter tants called for a defense committee to defend the this action of the Iranian state. railroad workers who are under the same management seven students who had just lost their grants. A public We trust that you will call for the immediate and and who were just waiting for us to put up picket lines. school teacher contrasted rank-and-file support for the unconditional release of all the detainees, for the recog­ The lack of pre-strike planning hurt too—the union transit workers—teachers in her school raised money nition of our union and for the meeting of our demands. didn't even organize picket captains or locations until for the strikers—to their union leadership's condemna­ We expect that you will condemn the assault on our tion of the strike. The meeting ended by discussing strike and demand the prosecution and punishment of plans for a city-wide labor support organization. all those who stormed workers' picket lines. WORKSHOP —-Anne Jaclard We thank all those trade unions and organizations who have supported our struggles. We have a hard and Continued from page 1 long battle ahead of us and urge you to continue your was on trial. SEIU picket in LA. support. State officials thought their machinery of death was —Union of Workers and Employees of well oiled. Everything fit perfectly. Except they forgot LOS ANGELES—Over 100 members of SEIU Local 99, i and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company that the worker is subject, and not just an appendage employees of the Los Angeles United School District to the machine. (LAUSD), demonstrated Feb. 28 outside the LAUSD Not even one press article saw this as a labor story, Administration Building where the Board of Education but it was. It was the question of labor, "labor ethics" if was meeting. Local 99 represents 38,000 non-teacher you will, posed by medical workers, which succeeded in employees, including teachers'. aides, bus drivers, stopping the death penalty. Before this, nothing made mechanics and cafeteria workers. Sleeping giant stirs any significant dent in denying the right of a state to The demonstration of mostly Latina cafeteria work­ extinguish an individual life. ers also included some Blacks, whites, and Asians. A Continued from page 1 The California death penalty has finally met its few of the signs read "Esta enfermo de trabajar sin another job, or your family needs you, but it happens match—in California labor. The misogynist "Governa- plan medico" ("Sick of working without healthcare"), anyway. Amnesty for undocumented workers may help tor" had already met his match in the recent battles "LAUSD cafeterias need healthy workers," and "Health make these job conditions better. —Martin with California's nurses, when he tried to gut their Care Now for all LAUSD employees." hard-won improvement in nurse-patient ratio. Mike Garcia, president of SEIU Local 1877 (which 1 Frontline healthcare workers over the last decade represents janitors), told how the prior janitors union, •We're workers, not criminals began to ask the questions, what is healthcare? What composed of mostly African Americans, was broken in OAKLAND, CAL.—Hundreds of immigrant workers and kind of labor should health workers do? That question­ the 1980s by the hiring of low-income Latino janitors. their supporters filled St. Elizabeth Elementary School ing was so infectious that it reached up all the way to He stated that L6cal 1877, today composed mostly of playground in the heart of Oakland's largest Latino the AMA, which now reminded all doctors that they Latinos, has been organizing security guards (many of neighborhood, the Fruitvale district, to observe Immi­ were bound by the Hippocratic Oath. whom are African-American) for three years. He con­ grants' Rights Day. Most speakers at the Feb. 25 event But this movement was begun by those of us at the cluded—we can win if we don't divide by race. were Latino, but Asian and African immigrant workers very bottom, with the aides, the housekeepers, and the After over two hours of picketing, workers entered addressed the crowd as well. What was foremost on clerks, as well as the nurses, who took on restructuring the meeting hall. The superintendent of the LAUSD, their minds was H.R. 4437, the immigrant-bashing bill and managed care, which we call "mangled care." Roy Rohmer, left the meeting before the first worker introduced by Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc), which spoke. A Latina stated that though she's working two passed the House in December. THINKING FOR OURSELVES jobs, she has no healthcare. Recently she had bronchi­ The bill seems to have picked up where California's What do we value in life? What is life? What is gov­ tis, which cost her $900 to treat. She asked for more notorious Prop. 187 in 1994 left off. H.R. 4437, known ernment's place in promoting the meaning of life? hours on the job so they could qualify for healthcare. as Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immi­ These questions were already immanent in our daily Another Latina stated that there are over 2,000 gration Control Act, calls for a 700-mile double fence work on the shop floor, long before a Terri Schiavo pro­ cafeteria workers without medical benefits. They are (with a patrolled roadway between) along the U.S.­ pelled this quandary into the forefront of our collective rushed in their work to feed thousands of children, who Mexico border. It boosts illegal immigration to an consciousness. Hucksters, con artists, right-to-lifers themselves don't have enough time to eat. aggravated felony and allows local authorities to and legislators tripped over themselves embracing A young white woman stated that she's paid for enforce immigration law. Schiavo while ready to pull the switch on Michael working three-hour days, but she actually works longer. Claire Horton, a physician at Fruitvale's La Clinica Morales on death row, or a Medicaid patient on her The cafeteria is short of staff. They need more people de La Raza, announced that the clinic has taken a for­ deathbed. and more hours. Six workers at her school feed 1,200 mal position opposing H.R. 4437. She went on to say, Even the most highly trained medical professionals, people daily. Her husband, who has .no health insur­ "We don't care if you just got here from Mexico yester­ doctors, are forced to ask the question, "With all the ance, was recently diagnosed with cancer. She received day. We're going to give you health care." But this could sophisticated training I have received, why am I loud, spontaneous applause from the audience. spell the end of La Clinica. reduced to the status of an automaton, instructed to A Black woman said she is paid for three hours a Many participants held up signs that read, "We're merely manipulate the instruments of my labor, this day but sometimes works four to six. One more hour not criminals, we are workers." This simple declaration time to be applied to produce death, while state per day would qualify her for healthcare. When her took on another dimension when a day laborer from bureaucrats do all the thinking for me?" kids get sick, they spread their sickness to their class­ Nicaragua pointed but that anti-immigrant lawmakers On that night there was a virtual presence of hun­ mates because of lack of healthcare. There are over did not count on the unity of Latinos. That worker dreds of thousands of health workers outside the gates 10,000 district employees without healthcare. She also unity, or cooperation, is what Karl Marx saw as the of San Quentin. Hovering' above the death chamber, received loud applause. basis of a new power through which the laborer "strips like a ghost, was the unrelenting questioning by At the conclusion of their grievance, the demonstra­ off the fetters of his individuality and develops the healthcare workers of the meaning of their labor, tors left the meeting and chanted, "We'll be back—we'll capacities of his species," that is, the capacities of being which challenges the domination of the State's prerog­ be back..." human. —David Mizuno'Oto atives over issues of life and death. Page 4 NEWS & LETTERS APRIL-MAY 2006 Why Philosophy? Why Now?

Yet July 1917 (KorniloVs attempted counter-revolution sky's "permanent revolution" the way to "'revolutionary EDITOR'S NOTE in Russia) was not just a date on the calendar, nor only seizure of power"—as if our whole state capitalist a Russian phenomenon that intervened between Feb­ age wasn't proof that willingness to take power February 2006 marks the 50th anniversary of ruary (overthrow of the Tsar) and October 1917 (the and class collaborationism are no longer oppo- Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of the crimes of workers' state). February would never have "gone on" sites. Stalin at the 20lh Congress of the Russian Commu­ to October without the Moreover, for the nist Party. His speech was part- of an effort to out­ Bolsheviks. As in Ger­ purposes of the Civil flank his rivals in the USSR's leadership and to co- many in 1919, the Rights Movement in opt within manageable channels mass opposition to Russian Revolution the U.S., the revoke his regime. By the fall of 1956. when the Hungarian would have been tionary sound is Revolution broke out against the USSR, his plans beheaded by the heard above the were in ruins. The Hungarian revolutionaries of counter-revolution just underlying class col­ 1956 called for a new society freed of both Russian beneath the surface laborationism- and '"Communism" and Western capitalism and helped that rose to the surface therefore can act as a place Marx's Humanism onto the historic stage. on all sides to chal­ polarizing force for The 50th anniversary of these events raises the lenge the workers' the intellectual Left question of what has the anti-Stalinist Left achieved power that had been which thinks it can in the course of the past half century. To help gen­ achieved. live very well without erate discussion on this issue, we reprint here a 1965 History is full of a total philosophy. essay by Dunayevskaya which evaluated the examples of "dead" The theoretic momentous world historic changes that had taken societies that live on, destruction of Trot­ place since the end of World War II. It originally only to exude a new skyism has become appeared in the December 1965 issue of News & Let­ reaction. Between the a necessity because ters under the title, "Why Philosophy? Why Now?" It defeated 1923 German in our life and can be found in The Rava Dunavevskaya Collection. Revolution and tri­ times there is a 6760-61. umphant Nazism a danger that the whole decade passed, but the seeds of counter-revolu­ whole forward movement of humanity will once wenty years after the end of World War II, a full tion were present in the murders of Rosa Luxemburg again be stopped in midpoint. generation has grown up, and yet look at our "new," and Karl Liebknecht [in 1919], and in the first Nazi The further digging into philosophic roots, the refor­ Tnon-fascist world. Twenty years after the British beer hall putsch, which failed in the early 1920s but mulation of this philosophy of freedom for our epoch in Empire began its dissolution with India winning its was also not transformed into any new October. Theo­ ever-new forms must be done by us. Neither Marx nor independence; sixteen years after Tito broke from Stal­ ry is needed not only to discern the counter-revolution Lenin could have, in the concrete, seen the problems of in and Mao won power in China; over a decade since but [also] to overcome it. History may repeat itself, but our age. This is our task. the end of the Korean War and true de-Stalinization a missed revolutionary moment perishes into the Therein lies the uniqueness of Marxist-Humanism. was begun by the East German workers, who first put old decadent society. Just as it is no accident that six weeks before the East an end to the myth of invincibility of Russian totalitar­ MARXISM AND OUR OWN PERIOD German workers tore down the myth of Communist ianism (a new stage of freedom which was climaxed, in totalitarian invincibility [in 1953], we concretized "the that orbit by the 1956 Hungarian Revolution); eight When Hegel complained that philosophy had not Absolute Idea" for our age by showing that the move­ years since a whole new world was opened by the responded to the challenge of the French Revolution, ment is not only from theory to practice, but from African Revolutions that so enveloped whole conti­ he didn't mean that it would have done so if thought practice to theory. This decided the structure of nents that even in the mightiest imperialist empire, "corresponded" to reality. He meant thought too Marxism and Freedom, so the concretization of "the the U.S., Cuba tore away free; not to mention the Negro would have to transform reality. second negativity," that is to say, not only the overthrow Revolutions right within this country—all these world- It is this, just this, principle of dialectic, which Marx of the old but the creation and continuity of the new, shaking events, and yet, and yet, capitalism is still so drove beyond the limits of philosophy when he wrote: will determine the structure of a new book [Philosophy firmly in the saddle that it can exude a new form of "Philosophers have interpreted the world. The point is and Revolution]. reaction. to change it." Far from this meaning only material No one else has even posed the working out of a new In Europe there is De Gaullism; in the U.S. [John] change, it meant change also in consciousness, in relationship of theory to practice demanded by our age. Birchism; [in Asia] the Sino-Soviet conflict signifies not thought, in the minds of the "educators" as well as The re-establishment of the Humanist and Abolitionist a break from state-capitalism but within it for the those "to be educated." From the moment when Marx roots of Marxism, which were the goals of Marxism and domination over the new Third World of newly inde­ first stated that in 1845, to the last breath of life he Freedom—and which were concretized on the Ameri­ pendent countries aspiring to establish themselves on drew in 1883, it would be hard to find a division can seen® by American Civilization on Trial and on the new foundations. During the same period the Cuban between his theory and his practice, a letup in either world scene by the chapter on Mao in the new edition Revolution [of 1959] was so diverted from its humanist the development of theory or in participation of revo­ of Marxism and Freedom—must be extended so that channels that Cuba is now hardly more than a satellite lutionary class struggles—national and international. both organizationally and philosophically, the sponta­ of Russia. His theory lives after him because it not only reflected neous movements on a world scale can rediscover the Must we then in the U.S. nevertheless fall victim to the period in which he lived, but our own period. missing link: the historic continuity with the free­ the gravitational pull of pseudo-revolutionism—Mao­ By introducing the wage laborer into economies, dom straggles and once and for all have freedom be, ism, Trotskyism, Fidelismo, "pure" Communist Party- Marx transformed it from a science of things dealing individually, socially, totally. ism? This, indeed, is the only alternative when one with profits and wages to one of production relations, looks for escape, instead of true liberation, which can concerned with laborers and capitalists at the point of only be achieved where there is a unity of the move­ production. By introducing Man into Hegelian dialec­ Developing a ment of liberation and the philosophy of liberation. tics, which had concerned itself with development of consciousness and self-consciousness, Marx put an end Philosophically PHILOSOPHY BECOMES THE IMPERATIVE to the dehumanization of philosophy. By making the Just as it was no accident that in liberated France masses the subject of history, he did away with the Grounded Alternative after World War II Hegelian dialectics and Marx's utopianism of socialism, the bringing in of an "ism" by humanism became the urgent questions of the day, so Utopian planners from the outside, instead of seeing to Capitalism in our day the answer to What Now? rests in the redis­ the masses themselves reshaping history from the covery of Marxist-Humanism. material foundations to its ideas. Only the whole is the "[Today's realities] show that simply saying 'no' does not rep­ It is not necessary, in order to expose the void, to truth. resent a forward step in the movement for liberation. Much, return to the death of Lenin and the disarray in the For the Humanism of Marxism, man as creativity, much more is demanded. The key is not whether one oppos­ Marxist movement. The need for a philosophy is felt by became the point of departure-^-and the point of es specific aspects of today's reality but whether one devel­ others than Marxists. While it was true that the ques­ return, which transformed reality and [provides] ops a concept of the transcendence of capitalism. If the radi­ tion was one of life and death for the Hungarian Free­ insight into the future. As Marx. reshaped Capital cal movement refrains from the arduous theoretic and prac­ dom Fighters [in 1956] who spoke in Marxist terms, it under the impact of the American Civil War and the tical tabor needed to meet that challenge, it will repeat the was raised as poignantly by the African revolutionaries struggle for the shortening of the working day, theory errors of the past instead of posing a viable alternative."— who spoke, instead, of "Negritude," independent itself was transformed from an intellectual debate to a Marxist-Humanist Perspectives Thesis for 2005-2006 African socialism. reflection not only of the class struggles but of the pull of the future. Humanism has now become the imperative for the Join us for a series of open discussions on the central per­ Negro Revolution, for the young intellectual, white and RELATION OF THOUGHT AND FREEDOM spective of News and Letters Committees: developing a Negro, who sees that "the power structure" will not let philosophically grounded alternative to existing society in it be, and yet considers it sufficient to meet each situa­ The relationship of thought to freedom hit Lenin with such extraordinary force when the Second Inter­ today's ongoing struggles against racism, sexism, imperialist tion as it arises without having any "preconceived war, and capitalism. We will discuss the ideas of Karl notions." national proved impotent in the face of the challenge of World War I [in 1914] that this greatest of all realists Marx, Raya Dunayevskaya and several radical thinkers, in In order to grasp the need for an underlying Marx­ six meetings: ist-Humanist philosophy, however, what is necessary wrote excitedly, idealistically, approvingly this para­ phrase of the mystic Hegel: "Cognition not only reflects is to see philosophy not only "in general," but most con­ 1 The Indispensable Foundation: Internalizing cretely and profoundly as the link in the forward the world, but creates it." And indeed this became not just an ideal, but the actual preparation for the Russ­ Marx's Works as a Totality—on Class, Gender and movement of humanity. Even for seeing the fork in the Revolution road ahead it is necessary, first of all, to clear away the ian Revolution. intellectual debris, the "undogmatic," no less than Without such an underlying philosophy, Lenin 2 What is Philosophy? What is its Relationship to the "dogmatic." could not have written State and Revolution and Revolution? A piecemeal policy is incapable of disclosing made this both the preparation for revolution 3 Spontaneity, Everyday Resistance and the Need for the historic link, the continuity in the struggle and the foundation for what happens afterwards a New Relation of Philosophy and Organization. for freedom, much less anticipate the future to assure the needed breakdown of the division 4 Not by Politics Alone^-What Is To Be Done with course of revolution as it overcomes the counter­ between mental and manual labor, if ever a truly The State? revolution that has always appeared at critical new society was to be created. The historic continuity was lost with Trotskyism. 5 A New Humanism? Marx's Concept of the moments just when victory seemed in sight. Transcendence of Value Production Lessons of history cannot be dismissed with a Having failed to become a polarizing force for any new Marxist regroupment, however, there was no necessity 6 What Does Marx's Concept of 'Revolution in shrug of the shoulders while one continues to Permanence' Mean for Today? live only for the moment. Unfinished revolutions in the 1950s to destroy all its pretensions to historic have ever been the source for the new breath the continuity. With the Sino-Soviet conflict out in the open in the 1960s, however, Maoism is exercising a gravita­ For readings, schedules and more information, visit old class society draws upon to keep on existing. newsandletters.org. Or call 312 236 0799. Or for the loca­ Sometimes it even appears as "new "—as the democ­ tional pull on the Left, and Trotskyism, which is tail- ending it, is just the non-Stalinist whitewash needed tion nearest you, see "How to Contact News and Letters ratic Weimar Republic [in Germany in the 1920s] did Committees" (page 11). when compared to the Kaiser regime that preceded it. to make Mao's "uninterrupted revolution" and Trot­ APRIL-MAY 2006 NEWS & LETTERS Page 5 PHILOSOPHIC A look at The Power of Negativity

Continued from page 2 between man and nature, a process by which man, inadequacy of mere negation, as the recognition of the material on labor from her Marxism and Freedom with through his own actions, mediates, regulates and con­ positivity of the act of negation itself as negativity, it the material on Marx and Hegel in Philosophy and trols the metabolism between himself and nature." entails humanity's self-consciousness as revolutionary. Revolution. In the final analysis then, I think that Marx goes on to indicate, however, that human labor is It is revolutionary being (human being) thinking itself. PON is not really about Hegel but about Marx in the not like the activity of any other creature. The funda­ Here then is the ontology that I think reaches back to worst (or best) way. For the way in which Dunayevska­ mental difference involves the engagement of ideas. Dunayevskaya's earliest understanding of Marxist ya is capable of reading Hegel and particularly the end "Man not only effects a change of form in the materials humanism. The second negation is the negation of the of Hegel's Logic is premised upon her understanding of of nature; he also realizes his own purpose in those form of social relations that is capitalism and, because Marx, of the unity of the Marxian corpus, of the imper­ materials. And this is a purpose he is conscious of.. ."(2) the specific operation of capitalism involves the enslave­ atives of concerned praxis for the present and the But this is the alteration upon Hegel: it is we (as ment of the negation itself (the creative power of the vision of a future in which real freedom and hence real concrete imaginative projective beings), not the Idea human being), the negation of the negation is the real humanity is truly realized. (as abstraction), who are the motive force, the efficient return of the human being to herself, the "freedom of The driving premise of PON is that post-Marx Marx­ cause of the dialectical movement of the real/material freedom" if you will and thus the ultimate humanism. ists have gone terribly awry in their rejection of world. Arguably Hegel himself might agree The becoming of the Absolute Hegel's idealism. She says, "we needn't prove the mate­ with this. Certainly he sees the human Idea is, therefore, the liberation rialism of Hegel [as Lenin was trying to do] but rather, being enacting and realizing the Idea in or of human being. Negation is, the idealism of Marx." She circles around a single still as history, but the difference seems to be one therefore, absolute because, to point. The object of her obsession is the last paragraph of emphasis. We are pushed, in the final quote Hegel, contradiction is the of Hegel's Science of Logic, and she returns to it again analysis, to ask the question: Is the human "root of all movement and life, and again. This paragraph is, she maintains, essential. being the agent of the Idea or is the Idea its and it is only insofar as it con­ to understanding what Marx meant by revolution, own agent? tains a contradiction that any­ what comes after the first revolution, the negation of The question is really about which condi­ thing moves and has impulse negation, the new beginning, the realization of free­ tions the other. This is not unimportant, as and activity" (PON, 61). Or, to dom. it reaches into the core of the matter—free­ bring it back to Marx, "there is ' In his Philosophic Notebooks Lenin believed he had dom itself. One must ultimately decide nothing immutable but the discovered in Hegel's Logic a capitulation to material­ whether the human being is going to be abstraction of the movement— ism in the transition to Nature indicated at the end of posited as the medium of the Idea's self- mors imzn0r£aZis."(5) the section on the Absolute Idea. But Dunayevskaya movement or whether human mediation is If indeed all is movement, and insists that he needed, to read on- in order to under­ accomplished through the Idea. If the latter, if indeed the contradiction is the stand Marx fully. Especially important, she believes, then the human being is the ultimate sub­ source of the movement, and if are the lines that follow: "The transition here therefore ject as Marx would have it. Is this really further the human being is the must be taken to mean that the Idea freely releases what is implied in Hegel? I think not, and self-determined source of the itself in absolute self-security and self-repose. By rea­ certainly Marx thought not. negativity that can' serve as con­ son of this freedom the form of its determinateness Marxism is "a philosophy of human activity" (PON, tradiction to any actuality, then humanity is, in this also is utterly free—the externality of space and time 129-130) and it is Marx's focus on the human being, his sense, absolute. Therefore, the Idea that is freedom, which is absolutely for itself and without subjectivity" humanism, .that contains an insight not otherwise even operating as it always must on the level of the (PON, 72). "The self-determination in which alone the achieved. In it, he has gone beyond Hegel and has particular, is still absolute. idea is, is to hear itself speak" (PON, 105). grasped the idealism as it is possessed, enacted, and CONCLUSIONS The difficulty lies in trying to fathom the totality of known by the human being. What is strikingly inter­ Dunayevskaya's meaning. Often, at crucial moments, esting and appropriate is that Marx's surpassing of If what I have said regarding PON is correct, then she will lapse into Hegelian terminology which, when Hegel on this matter is a simultaneous retention and there are several immediate benefits to be derived one is attempting to clarify Hegel, can be singularly is, therefore, .a true sublation. For the Idea is no less from following Dunayevskaya's lead on the Hegel- unhelpful. We need, therefore, to wash a bit of the present, even in some sense no less absolute, but now Marx connection: abstraction off of this material and, more importantly, it is dialectically united with the material reality in 1. We obtain a better and more nuanced under­ to make clear and explicit the structural integrity of human activity. standing of Hegel. Dunayevskaya allows us to under­ the whole and, therefore, the rationality of the pos­ stand that the Absolute Idea as a new beginning is ition. FREEDOM AND FIRST NEGATION entirely consistent with the Hegelian project. We are In order for there to be movement there must be urged to see that we need not give up on Hegel because DIALECTICS AND MOVEMENT change and in order for there to be change there must of the abstraction of his idealism. Marx certainly never To understand and fully appreciate her accomplish­ be negation. It is the presence of the idea in human did. He understood that we could not give up on Hegel, ment, it is crucial to recognize, that, for her, the beating consciousness that effects such negation. It is the pres­ the true philosopher of movement, but that we could heart of Marxism is the dialectic. This is why she advo­ ence of the idea in human consciousness that gives us locate his Absolute Idea not in a transcendent space as cated and practiced a repeated return to Hegel. She our particular power of negation and hence of alter­ an ideal principle driving its actualization with as hopes that by sending the post-Marx Marxists back to ation, for through the idea I can consider formal reali­ much iron determinism as any scientific materialism, Hegel they will get the dialectic right and, in turn, ty freely. I can consider what is not yet the case by con­ but rather as humanity's self-consciousness as the finally get Marx right. sidering other formal possibilities. source of the new society. But in order to understand why Dunayevskaya. con­ But what does this have to do with the analysis of 2. We obtain a better and more nuanced under­ sidered the dialectic to be of such importance it is nec­ labor in Marx? The real tragedy (and final injustice) of standing of Marx. Dunayevskaya's reintroduction of essary to recall the text that broke open her under­ capitalism is the enslavement of the human idea. This Hegel provides the only adequate understanding of the standing of Marx: The 1844 Manuscripts. Certainly is what Dunayevskaya saw so clearly. She understood historical or dialectical materialism. Any uncritical what Marx so appreciated in Hegel's philosophy was that labor power is the human potential for creative positing of a vulgar determinism is out of the question. that "the attempt to get to the ultimate. . .is not just alteration of the natural world. The political/economic 3. We obtain a better and more nuanced under­ Substance, that is, a static thing, but Subject, self-cre­ analyses in Capital reveal that in the capitalist mode standing of revolution. Dunayevskaya insists that we ative and developing..." (PON 199). of social relations, the power of creativity which is pay attention to Hegel, that we probe the Logic and the Marx's focus, however, was not on Subject in the made possible by the presence of the idea (as negation) Phenomenology again and again so that we can com­ abstract but on the subject as human being and thus in human consciousness is brought for sale on the prehend that revolution is not a mere violent negation also on the human condition. In the 1844 Manuscripts market. This sale is an act of desperation. "Free" of of the extant but a coming to consciousness of our own Marx clearly articulates the role of the human subject means of production, ''free" of commodities to either being human—not a party-line dictating the activities as mediator of the social objectivity. The dialectical or sell or to meet basic needs, the would-be capitalist of its members but the unity of our thought and action historical materialism of Marx is captured here- laborer has no choice.(3) Labor power is sold but acti­ which is the new society. human activity is the conscious mediation of settled vated; it is "purposeful activity aimed at the production It is clear that we do not yet hear ourselves speak the objectivity to new objectivity. of use-values."(4) As a result,.this power to produce, to first revolution. We are still trying to think the dialectic This particular presentation of human mediation is, mediate, to alter reality by enacting the alteration of and our thought in this regard is still so inadequate as in fact, the basis of the critique of capitalism in Capi­ form originally "seen" only ideally, is purchased and to need to be brought back to it again and again. We are tal, Vol. I. It holds a place of prominence in the Preface put to use realizing products, commodities—ultimately still trying to speak the dialectic and because we are to Marx's Grundrisse and stands as the declaration of realizing only one thing—surplus-value, capital. still trying to speak it we have yet to hear ourselves the nature of human labor opening the chapter on "The speak. There are stirrings of course. This Dunayevska­ Labor Process and the Valorization Process" in Capital, REVOLUTION AND SECOND NEGATION ya saw clearly. There is discontent clearly evidenced in where Marx says, "Labor is, first of all, a process The first negation is the first revolution. For Duna­ mass movements (PON, 245). There are ongoing strug­ yevskaya this was the negation enacted in the Russian gles across the globe—struggles against. We do not yet revolution. This is a "no" to capitalism and manifests hear what these struggles reveal about the creative itself as the mere negation of the institution. In it, the power of the working class. And until such time as we By Raya Dunayevskaya, worker carries Out a revolution by a negation of her do, we will not yet have realized the revolution and ush­ ered in the revolution in permanence. (s on The Alrehra of 1½ status in the capitalist system. Here the worker says "I am not wage labor." But this initial negation is merely But this realization takes us beyond Dunayevskaya preliminary and has no direction. This is because it is because it leads us to see as primary the issue of how The Power of not yet self-conscious. The negation of the negation such consciousness is elicited. We need to battle for the Negativity: occurs when this act of self-determination "hears itself coming-to-be of human consciousness and this battle speak"(PON, 105). will not be easy. Clearly capitalists have become aware Selected Writings on The revolutionary truly hears herself denying her of the importance of reproducing an ideology of disem- the Dialectic in status as capitalist labor and, for the first time, under­ powerment which could, on the view I have sketched Hegel and Marx stands its meaning. What does it mean to say that I am out above, only be called an anti-humanism. We must not wage labor? It involves a recognition of the positive respond in kind. It is a struggle for our shared future. content of the original negation. By hearing her own THE POWER OF self-determination in the "no" to capitalism, the revolu­ Notes NEGATIVITY tionary recognizes herself as the Subject of revolution: 1. Raya Dunayevskaya, The Power of Negativity: Selected the one who can say no—the mediator, the free subject Writings on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx, eds. Peter of the movement itself. It is one thing to say that a con­ Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson (Lanham, MD: Lexington dition is unwanted but it is quite another to under­ Books, 2002), ref. p. 129. Philosophy 2. Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1, stand the power involved in the ability to both think trans. Ben Fowkes (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), pp. & Revolution and enact the alteration of the unwanted. 283, 284. ...from Hegel to ; «"«» What is unleashed then is creativity itself. The sec­ 3. For the description of this double freedom of the worker see Sartre and from ond negativity involves the human being (humanity) Marx, Capital, pp. 272-3. Marx to Mao hearing its act of self-determination as such. It is, 4. Marx, Capital, p. 290. therefore, a very special kind of consciousness. A com­ 5. Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, trans., H Quelch txidi ^24.95 ... To order, see page 7 ing to self-consciousness. As the recognition of the (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995), p. 119. Page 6 NEWS & LETTERS APRIL-MAY 2006 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY KABUL included a former member of JANE, the Over 1,500 women and men partici­ underground abortion service, who pated in an event organized by the Rev­ talked about its olutionary Association of Women of history when Afghanistan to celebrate International abortion was still Women's Day, March 8. Participants illegal. A commu­ included a 12-member delegation of nity activist how to articulate an alternative to capi­ end, which referred to the Bush admin­ RAWA's Italian supporters and a large spoke on how talism. You have to turn to Marx. He istration gutting health and safety. number of journalists and guests. Section 8 and the was opposed to the Marxists in the U.S. Some thought it put too much emphasis end of the Chica­ on Bush, saving that kind of gutting Children of RAWA's orphanages, from who did not support the struggle go Housing against slavery. We have to break must have been going on before Bush different ethnic groups of Afghanistan Authority is and that capitalism is the real problem. presented patriotic songs in Pashto and through some of the misconceptions working to College teacher Dari. A theatrical play was presented by improve the bot­ about Marx that Labor is the only prob­ students of RAWA schools. The Arya tom line for developers but not the peo­ lem and that there is no Black question musical group came on stage to present ple being displaced. A member of the outside of the labor problem. songs, but unfortunately the electricity International Women's Day Coalition Revolutionary HAITI'S 2006 ELECTION was cut and their performance was and Chicago Peace Pledge spoke on interrupted. On behalf of RAWA, Rahi- California The U.S. is playing against Haiti in a media, specifically the sexist cover of + + + Wild Card game, and the winner is ... ? ma Paenda, a suffering mother whose last month's Vanity Fair. A speaker from daughter and son-in-law were killed by Females United for Action told of a suc­ BUSH, NIXON AND THE LAW The U.S. said it had no hand in forcing a U.S. bombardment in 2001, presented cess story of having a sexist billboard In my mind there is a very direct rela­ President Jean-Bertrand Aristide out of a certificate of honor to the Italians. A taken down. tion between Bush's illegal spying and office Feb. 29, 2004. That was the first certificate of honor was also presented then saying go ahead and pass an anti- card dealt from the deck. The second to Mr. Mir Ghulam Nabi, a worker at On March 8, International Women's torture law. He is clearly not going to be card dealt was the new election, but Kabul Museum. He accepted a big risk Day,, we rallied and then marched bound by any such law, given his lack of that card kept being held back to allow during the Taliban regime and took pre­ through downtown Chicago chanting: respect for any Foreign Intelligence Sur­ cious museum pieces to his house to "Health Care is a Right," "Women all the chips (from the UN, IMF and the veillance Act procedures—as taken up so-called friends of Haiti) to position save them from the Taliban's drive to demand a fair wage; anything else is an in the February-March issue on how the destroy all ancient pre-Islamic figures. Outrage," and "Monday for Education, "Bush agenda spawns crises." That arti­ themselves for what they want. Finally A RAWA member introduced Mir Not for War and Occupation." cle set an important historic context. that second card was dealt. It was the Ghulam Nabi: "We regard him and his Bush reaching for a single party state is election date, Feb. 7, 2006,* 20 years to like as real heroes of the Afghan people, a much greater threat than when Nixon the day that Baby Doc fled Haiti to we don't need fake heroes made for us On March 8 the Center for Freedom aimed for it. Now, when all three France. The third card was to announce by foreign powers." RAWA and Democracy in Iran-Chicago helped branches of government are controlled the winner of the presidential election, + . + + to organize a demonstration at Daley by Republicans, we have to hope there their puppet. "Baby Doc" Bush (who Center. In addition to slogans regarding will be more cracks in their ranks. many believe stole the 2000 and 2004 CHICAGO women's rights, other placards demand­ Concerned elections in the U.S.) was to take credit We had a wonderful International ed "Free political prisoners in Iran" and California for the Haitian election. But the Haitian Women's Day celebration. The theme "No to war and no to foreign interven­ + + + masses would have none of it. They was "Women Resist." It was in two tion in Iran." The group also distributed parts. the resolution provided by the interna­ LABOR FIGHTS demanded all ballots be counted and the On March 4 the Chicago Coalition for tional women's movement, which read The Congressional hearings on minie puppet regime announced the winner. International Women's Day heard two in part: "Today Iranian women are fac­ safety following the Sago mine disaster /The Haitian masses won with Rene panels. The first had an international ing their most difficult challenge: the clearly revealed the delaying tactics of Preval as the new president. The fourth dimension with speakers from fight for basic human rights. Despite the the Mine Health and Safety Adminis­ card is the inauguration. The last card Guatemala, a woman who works with presence of a theocratic regime dictating tration's officials to avoid taking any is Aristide in Haiti. mainly South Asian women, a represen­ every aspect of personal and public life, action to curb the unsafe practices of NouveauToussaint tative from the Brazilian Landless Iranians are witnessing an unprece­ mine operators. They were "studying" Chicago Workers Movement, and a U.S. woman dented rise of gender-equality aware­ scores of safety proposals, sent a team of who spoke on how International ness ... They have joined the global investigators to Australia to learn about • • + + '+•• Women's Day is celebrated globally as a women's rights movement and are mine tracing systems and wanted soha- national holiday. A speaker from demanding the basic rights set forth in tions. But they didn't want to hurry, WELFARE RIGHTS NARAL Pro-Choice America spoke on the Universal Declaration of Human In response to protests from Detroit because many proposals weren't proven^ welfare rights activists, the Detroit City the recent South Dakota abortion ban. Rights." It's the stock action-delaying bureau­ Council voted to raise water rates for The second panel was more local and AliReza cratic answer to any call for action. Send suburban customers outside the city it off to study—for years and years and limits. Learning such a measure was years. The fact is that there are mine illegal, they then voted to raise rates for THE BLACK DIMENSION I liked having a picture of Katrina on safety systems and devices in operation all. Now everyone is angry at everyone The march here in February celebrat­ the page with Raya Dunayevskaya's right now in some mines where the else. Meanwhile the affordability plan ing Martin Luther King's birthday article on "Marx and the Black World" union and miners have demanded safe­ for indigent customers, brought to the ty improvements. They don't have to table by activists concerned for 10,000 revealed the concerns the Black commu­ in the February-March issue. It makes city residents whose water has been nity faces in South Central Los Angeles you ask what does Marx have to do with send a team to Australia, they can do' it shut off, is buried in a mass of rhetoric today. They are not seen in the more Katrina? Katrina shows how racist this right here, right now—and they know it. and political name-calling. affluent community of Hollywood's anti­ But that wouldn't delay action, would Activists need to keep up the pres­ country is right now. We are learning it? war movements, where the Black com­ that there are still people buried in the sure on the City Council and Water Dep- munity is rarely present. Its concerns tartment to correct widespread prob­ muck in their homes. It is difficult to dig Andy PhiUips are more than an anti-war stance as Detroit, Mich. lems which contribute to rising costs. could be seen in the signs carried in this through a couple of feet of mud. The gov­ Water shut-offs and collection of bills march. They included "End Execution," ernment is not helping. It is too expen­ + + + fall unfairly on residents, when indus­ "National Black HrV/AIDS," "Fight War, sive. It is a serious problem that a What I've been seeing from the youth trial and commercial users get away in the midst of all the crises in the world with flagrant violations. Citizens with Racism and Poverty," and "Stop Police majority of white people still believe broken meters wait months for repairs. Brutality." that the response to Katrina had noth­ is that they want a direct focus on anti- Further protests in support of the The message of Martin Luther King's ing to do with race. capitalism. In a discussion of the last affordability plan are planned. nonviolence was inverted by the pres­ issue of N&L for example, they liked the Rights activists News and Letters Committees have article by Andy Phillips on the miners ence of military convoys and soldiers in been trying to engage the movement in Detroit the march. Traffic cones kept the crowd very much, but some took issue with the under check. This violent attitude toward a community celebrating the leader of the Civil Rights Movement can VOICES OF REASON FROM BEHIND THE BARS be seen recently in the ruling on three We must break past the stratification tionaries to become part and parcej to N&L is very educational. Of late, I white teenagers who savagely violated of "free" and "incarcerated" to become the prisoner of conscious class struggle. have been passing my copies on to an unconscious 16-year-old and were one solid block representing a unified Prisoner friends. Then we sit as a group and given only 21 months of prison. Near- goal. Nobody is free under oppressive Tamms, llttnois share our thoughts. You will be receiv­ life terms would have been given if capitalism. As long as the prison indus­ + + + ing requests for order forms in coming Blacks had committed the crime. At the trial complex continues to practice weeks from a number who want to have end of the march over 20 police officers forced work (legal slavery) the grass­ I am very grateful for News & Letters their own copies to study. were casing the gathering of about 30 roots job sector for the "free" proletariat striving to inform on a perspective which the general media would consider Prisoner teenagers gathered at the corner of Flo­ will be in perpetual competition. Marx Kenedy, Texas rence and Martin Luther King Boule­ said in his economic writings that "labor unorthodox, if not profane. News,.to jme, + + + vard. is a commodity... the capitalist is must be swallojwed with a grain of When I read my favorite column, Manel always free to use labor and the worker is always forced to sell it." salt, but I find "Black/Red View" in the Nov.-Dec. 2005 Los Angeles N&L's views doin- issue, I was excited to know that + + + Prisoners are forced to work in cor­ ciding with ;my Charles Denby and N&L worked with rectional industries, for pennies on the Watching George W; Bush speak at own on most sub­ Rosa Parks for the Alabama African hour, the same jobs that were once free jects it expounds American people. What an outstanding Coretta Scott King's funeral turned my world industries to free world citizens. stomach. She spoke up for the end of the upon. Many wtnild woman she was. Actually, there is much How can you compete with us? UNI- say Marxism is good to be said about this country and death penalty, the right of gays and les­ COR, the federal prison industry, has bians to have freedom from discrimina­ entirely based on the Bill of Rights. It is just not being roughly 22,560 "workers." Some of these an ideology of non­ used by the people in power. This is a tion, including the right to marry (in prisoners work outside the prison in opposition to her daughter Bernice), and conformity iand multiracial country but the only people maintenance positions, receiving the carping. Yet N&L exposes alternative who seem to be together are the rich for the end of war, especially Bush's war average of 12 cents to 40 cents. The on Iraq. She was a civil rights activist views that show capitalism and "democ­ who are draining the poor and needy workers produce office furniture, cloth­ racy," as we know them, are not the right out of existence. I hope N&L may before she married Rev. Martin Luther ing, textiles, etc. In order to challenge King, Jr and until her death supported ideal and especially not the only choice. open up the eyes of others to see what this malignancy we must make a pro­ Thank you for letting me be part oft this this country has done to its people over the MLK Center for Non-Violent Social tracted effort at unifying, forming a Change in Atlanta, GA. movement. so many years. There is a great deal of symbiosis of thought and action that work for all of us to do. Women's Liberationlst pans from the prison workers to the Chicago "free workers." As a prison activist I Iowa Park, Texas Prisoner + + + encourage Marxist-Humanist revolu­ Florida APRIL-MAY 2006 NEWS & LETTERS Page 7 MILOSEVIC'S CRIMES LIVE ON is how to make sure their candidates toe MAKING THE LIBRARY the party line. It was startling to hear that Milosevic boys in places like Srebrenica. Robert T. BILL OF RIGHTS REAL had died suddenly of a heart attack in I am proud that we in News and Let­ Wisconsin Here at the Alternative Press Center, the Hague, especially so because of the ters Committees, did not remain quiet + + + we're celebrating 36 years of self-sus­ possibility that he was trying to cheat either. We opposed Serbian narrow tained indexing for left and progressive When NOW founder Betty Friedan justice and history by manipulating his nationalism, and our reports in N&L, publications. We have been enjoying died right after Alito was appointed to own health. His drawn-out trial before collected in Bosnia-Herzegovina, your publication for six years. We want the Supreme Court, I thought it must the Hague Tribunal seemed inadequate, Achilles Heel of Western Civilization, you to know that you can search for have helped kill her to be ill in such your content in the print version of the in any case, to address Milosevic's caught the ongoing resistance. We reactionary times and see so much of Alternative Print Index AND on crimes against humanity. reported how the Bosnian defenders what she worked for being so quickly OCLC'S FirstSearch database, in a From the opposed Serbian chauvinism, not with destroyed by Bush and his cronies in library hear you. Please list us as an moment in PuNutwd hy Vaw s and Leiwrs CumnSmci ethnic identity, but with defense of a Congress. In times like these, it's good indexing service for your periodical. April of 1987 multiethnic society. Genocide in Bosnia to remember how quickly things can When we are listed in your periodical when as a and later in Kosova seems to have con­ turn around. I hope she knew about the and on your web site, librarians and petty bureati- ditioned world powers to business-as- tens of thousands of Italian women who researchers know that they can find crat he jour­ usual policies while witnessing genocide marched in Italy to keep abortion there your content in the print and online ver­ neyed to on an even more massive scale in Rwan­ legal. sions of the Alternative Press Index. autonomous ActiHes Reei of da and now Darfur. Women's UberaUonist Kosova to We could not have brought Milosevic Any donations to support us go decry supposed to justice without uprooting his malig­ Memphis directly to everyday operations like Kosovar out­ tfJhfffcMwmma. W.'-«) UnuMmwiMMiltnn'ffilJK' nant legacy. He leaves us with the + +'+•'• printing costs and wages. We would also rages against Balkans partitioned, in a world where gladly accept "donations in kind" such ethnic Serbs, INVITATION FOR APRIL 29 as running an ad for the Alternative "ethnic cleansing"—genocide—is just Our local Women's Action Coalition Milosevic another tool for rulers to consider. Press Index or its companion Annota­ (WAC) is calling for a rally on April 29 tions: a Guide to the Independent Criti­ became the Bob McGulre face of Serbian "In Defense • of Reproductive Rights." cal Press. Thanks for your support. Chicago narrow nation­ We're sick of seeing what is happening Alternative Press Center Collective alism. But his voice was far from + + + to our right to control our own bodies. In Baltimore alone—he had the backing of public Tennessee, just as in South Dakota, so- STOPPING ALITO called "leaders" are drooling to make .+ +* + intellectuals, even those like Mihailo As usual, Terry Moon is right on the Markovic, a prominent Marxist dissi­ abortion illegal. The Senate in Nashville Editor's Note: We are glad to let our money with "For freedom we must stop voted 24-9 for a resolution to amend the readers know of Annotations which has dent under Tito, to spew forth his justi­ Alito" (February-March N&L). Alito is fications for beginning ethnic wars. state constitution to specifically state been called "the best single way to make the worst of the worst of the worst. Bush that women's right to abortion is not the Library Bill of Rights real: providing The drive for a Greater Serbia and the Republicans over time have protected. Showing how fanatical they access to the myriad opinions, move­ cemented Milosevic's power at the cost deviously stacked the U.S. Supreme are, they voted 21-11 against a version ments, and activities that the orthodox of more than 200,000 corpses. He gained Court with a Catholic majority, all of that would have allowed abortion for conventional media either distort or allies in high places, beginning with whom are strong supporters of the women who were victims of incest or ignore." This new edition surveys 385 global powers imposing an arms embar­ death penalty. Then, the most horrid rape or "if their lives were in danger"! periodicals of the Left from around the go on Yugoslavia. Just as the embargo problem with Alito is his 1997 pro­ We plan to rally at the Shelby County world and provides detailed descrip­ imposed on Spain in the 1930s wound nouncement that innocence is irrele­ Courthouse. Our leaflet reads in part: tions of content, history, noted contribu­ up throwing roadblocks in the way of vant to him. (See Lambert v. Blackwell.) "Rally to keep women's right to abortion tors, contact information, guidelines for those fighting fascist invaders, it was no The U.S. Constitution is a worthless legal, safe, affordable and accessible. writers and detailed statistics for each different in Yugoslavia. When Bosnian piece of paper in the hands of judges to Rally to make over-the-counter contra­ publication. You can order it for $29.95 forces, in spite of all obstacles, were dri­ whom innpcence is irrelevant. ception legal and available for all from the Alternative Press Center, PO ving back Serb forces moving to official­ Robert J. Zani women. Rally to make sure women Box 33109, Baltimore, MD 21218, or go ly partition Bosnia, the UN and the U.S. Tennessee Colony, Texas never again have to turn to deadly, online to www.altpress.org. under CJinton intervened. + + + ' back-alley and butcher abortions." Milosevic also made enemies. I am With Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Scalia, Today over 70,000 women die every thinking of the international women's Kennedy, we are in big trouble in all year and hundreds of thousands more movement. While political and cultural areas. Hopefully Bush will be out of are left maimed because abortion is ille^ leaders in Europe and the U.S. general­ office before the next Supreme Court gal in the countries in which they live. If Subscribe to 1 ly dismissed Serbian expansion as "age- Justice retires. If not, maybe the Democ­ you are anywhere near. Memphis on old conflicts," women were prominent rats or independents can get their act April 29, join us. For more information among those exposing Milosevic's "eth­ together and take oyer Congress so that contact: [email protected]. tews & Letters nic cleansing" as an equally evil syn­ the appointment of. a crank like Alito onym for genocide that led both to sys­ Women's Action Coalition will be a non-issue. One thing that the tematic rape as deliberate policy, and Memphis, Tennessee GOP learned from the Thomas hearing inly $5 per year: the gruesome massacres of all men and # SELECTED PUBLICATIONS FROM NEWS & LETTERS

anc BOOKS PAMPHJ FTS ^ News ' Letters Committees Constitution •• 39¢ postage By RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA • 40th anniversary edition of American Civilization on • Marxist>Humanist Literature Catalog for 2000-01 • The Power of Negativity: Selected Writings Trial: Black Masses as Vanguard, and A full list of publications (includes many not listed here) on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx . • Dialectics of Black Freedom Struggles: Race, Philoso- available from News and Letters Committees 63¢ postage by Raya Dunayevskaya.. ; $24.95 phy & the Needed American Revolution Each $8, Special: Both for $15, including postage. ARCHIVES • Marxism and Freedom, from 1776 until Today • Marxist-Humanist Writings on The Middle East Selected • Guides to Collection and Supplement to the Raya 2000 edition. Foreword by Joel Kovel ....$24.95 writings by Raya Dunayevskaya 1961-1982 and News & Let- Dunayevskaya Collection: Marxist-Humanism: A Half • Philosophy and Revolution: from Hegel to Sartre and ten 1988-2002 $5 Century of Its World Development from Marx to Mao „ _ ...... ,... ^ ._. ... Full description of 15,000-paee microfilm collection ....$4.50 30th Anniversary issue, 2003 $24.95 • Bosnia-Herzegovina: Achilles Heel of Western Civiliza­ • Rosa Luxemburg, Women's Liberation, and Marx's tion' (Expanded edition) $5 • The Raya Dunayevskaya Collection—Marxist-Human- Philosophy of Revolution 1991 edition. New author's intro­ • Kosova: Writings from News & Letters, 1998-1999 ism: A Half Century of Its World Development duction. Foreword by Adrienne Rich $12.95 ., , $3.50 A. 15,000-page microfilm collection on 8 reels available from • Explorations in Dialectical and Critical Theory Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202 $165 • Women's Liberation and the Dialectics of Revolution: From Hegel to Derrida and from Marx to Meszaros $5 Reaching for the Future (Special: Includes shipping)....$10 • Marx's Concept of Intrinsic Value NEWSPAPER • The Marxist-Humanist Theory of State-Capitalism: by Andrew Kliman ...$2 • News & Letters subscription Selected Writings by Raya Dunayevskaya $8.50 • Marx's Capital and Today's Global Crisis Uniclue combination of worker and intellectual published 6 times a (Re uest • The Philosophic Moment of Marxist-Humanism: Two Includes critiques of Ernest Mandel and Tony Cliff $2 ^ 1 information about gift subscriptions.)...... $5/year Historic-Philosophic Writings by Raya Dunayevskaya • The Coal Miners' General Strike of 1949-50 and the ,, Contains "Presentation on Dialectics of Organization and Phi­ Birth of Marxist-Humanism In the U.S. • Bound Volumes of News & Letters losophy of June 1,1987," and 1953 "Letters on Hegel's by Andy Phillips and Raya Dunayevskaya $2 1970-77 1977-84 1984-87,198/-94, 1994-99 .$30 each Absolutes" $3 paperback, $10 hardcover N&L is also available on microfilm irom Pro Quest, 300 Zeeb • Myriad Global Crises of the 1980s and the Nuclear Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. N&L as well as other Marxist- By CHARLES DENBY World since World War II Humanist literature is available on audio tape. • Indignant Heart; A Black Worker's Journal by Raya Dunayevskaya $2 .... . 1989 edition includes Afterword by Raya Dunayevskaya $14.95 , Mail orders to: • Nationalism, Communism, Marxist-Humanism and the News & Letters, 36 South Wabash, Room 1440, Chicago, IL By ROSA LUXEMBURG Afro-Asian Revolutions 60603, Phone (312) 236-0799 • ^rffff^The Rosa Luxemburg Reader by Raya Dunayevskaya $1.25 Endosed find $ for ^ htemme checked batted by Peter Hudis and Kevin Anderson $23 • Voices from within the Prison Walls Please add $2 postage for each pamphlet, $4 postage for books, by D. A. Sheldon. Prisoners' views of (injustice system and Illinois residents add 7% sales tax. By DAVID BLACK organizing from within. $8 Q1H{'l'/J Helen Macfarlane A Feminist, For pamphlet plus donor copy for a prisoner $16 Name : , Revolutionary Journalist, and Philosopher in Mid-Nineteenth • The Revolutionary Journalism of Felix Martin (Isaac . Century England Special price, $15 including postage Woods) ...$8 Address _ : .

By KEVIN ANDERSON • Working Women for Freedom • City State Zip • Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism: A Critical Study by Angela Terrano, Marie Dignan, and Mary Holmes.. $2 First full-length treatment of Lenin's studies of Hegel ....$15.95 • Dos ensayos por Raya Dunayevskaya $2 Email Address ; . ' • 4-5/06 Page 8 NEWS & LETTERS APRIL-MAY 2006 Loss of emergency medical treatment BLACK/RED sfMlBlH Continued from page 1 in the Black and Brown community crowd in Oakland, was a very successful Black politi­ cian, heading for years the committee that oversees the the businesses are not Black-owned. Money made in military when the Democrats controlled the House of LOS ANGELES—I believe one of the reasons the Martin south Los Angeles does not stay here. It goes home Representatives. His election to Congress in 1970 was Luther King Trauma unit in South Central was closed with the owners of liquor stores on every corner. I wish an expression of the hope many in the Civil Rights is because downtown Los Angeles is being remolded people would not give them business. The owners let Movement held that elected progressive Blacks could into a beautiful center and loft area from all the old you spend your money but won't give you a job. make a change. Dellums retired after the Democrats beautiful buildings. There was one old department DEATH ROW KILLINGS lost control of the House and just before the election of store I can remember years ago near Momingside Hos­ George W. Bush when there was little hope of resolving pital, where the paramedics took people for emergency There is something else on my mind—the killing of the intractable social problems that impact the lives of treatment. Momingside Hospital closed after many human beings on Death Row. I am glad that Michael the majority of African Americans. years, then Daniel Freeman Hospital in South Central Morales was not executed. (See "Workshop Talks,"-page was used. But Daniel Freemen had to close its trauma 1.) What changed the doctor's mind about participating RON DELLUMS BACK IN POLITICS unit because of lack of money. Poor people could not in that execution? Was it because it took so long to get Those problems have become exacerbated under pay. the needle into Tookie Williams' arm when they exe­ Bush. Qellums, now 70 years old, has come out of Then everyone was taken to MLK—the only hospital cuted him? Is it racism, or do the doctors think electric retirement to run for mayor of Oakland and got a built in Watts after the 1965 riots. MLK was known for shock is better? Do the doctors have a license to kill? standing ovation when he said, "The winds of Katrina their trauma unit. I remember a shooting on McKinley In California there is a law which allows cops to blew into everyone's living room. It was a metaphor for Avenue near a school. The victim was taken to MLK. charge and prosecute supposed gang members of being everything that is wrong with urban America...I'll tell The news reported that if they had been taken some­ domestic terrorists. This law is racist to its core. you why I came back. I'm too damn old to be afraid. The where else, they would not have survived. —Georgians Williams Covenants, going to be the Bible of the new adminis­ Many of us know Howard Hall, who was accused of tration." Upon hearing this Cornel West embraced Del­ the shooting at 56th and Vermont, and that victim was lums exclaiming, "Thank God for this brother here, taken to MLK trauma unit. I could name many shoot­ who steps forward to take the risk." ing incidents and the victims were all taken to MLK. Protest Republicans Why should we believe that a second try at politics MLK was built to provide medical services to south Los MEMPHIS, TENN.—The fascist Republicans had their for Delllums can effect a solution to this country's prob­ Angeles. Now people are dying because there is no Southern Leadership Conference here in March. I and lems of race and poverty? According to their website, longer a trauma unit in south Los Angeles. Harbor about a dozen other activists had a little protest what motivated the Covenant was the appearance of General is approximately 20 to 25 minutes away by the present crisis as the extreme political divide in the freeway. country in wake of the 2004 election. The weakness of CLOSING OF TRAUMA UNITS the Covenant'is that it was conceived within this polit­ ical context without addressing a way to transcend it. I believe one of the many reasons they closed the Politics is already an alienating step removed from con­ trauma units was the wealthy people living downtown crete human relations. did not want to go to MLK for emergency care. They have now added a trauma unit to California Hospital NO SOLUTION WITHIN CAPITALISM in central Los Angeles. California Hospital has been Haven't we learned that if one is looking for solu­ there for many years without a trauma unit. My friend tions within politics one is necessarily going to work recently had a car accident just a few miles from MLK, within the capitalist framework? It is capitalism itself yet they took her to California Hospital. which creates poverty and these divisions within soci­ This system was created to keep the poor people ety, and they cannot be resolved without confronting it. down and make us stay in our own community. Most of That is why Karl Marx pointed to the difference between political and human emancipation. Recognizing that difference affects not only one's 1 desire for a new mass movement, but also one's rela­ 'For Workers' Power tionship to that movement. Inherent in the civil rights struggle itself was a concept of a new society that was The name of Maurice Brinton is against Bush and the Republican Party's neo-fascist never realized. That concept was one where masses of largely unknown to Americans, yet he agenda. We got a lot of positive response from people people take control of their lives through their collec­ was an important socialist writer, driving by, a few not so positive, but the real shock for tive action-and deliberations. This was the kind of mass activist, and champion of the work of me was engaging these ignorant Republicans who still self-organization that occurred in the great 1955-56 Cornelius Castoriadis on the British support Bush (the 36% or so left who do). Would you Montgomery Bus Boycott initiated by Rosa Parks. The left from the early 1960s onwards. AK believe these sheep still believe the lie that Bush Civil Rights Movement also inspired those who nar­ Press's recent collection of Brinton's invaded Iraq because they attacked us on September rowed the movement into the political arena. Capital­ writings For Workers' Power may serve 11, 2001?! They think Bush has been protecting us ism's persistent problems, its racism, poverty and to extend the circle of those familiar from terrorism? Scary. unending war-making, mean we have, to finish the job For Workers' with him beyond the limited number of Harold Ford, Jr., our Democratic Congressman, of fully articulating a concept of the new society and Power: the those in the U.S. who were exposed to came by the Peabody Hotel, where the Republicans not look again for a solution only in politics selected the editions published by Fredy Perl- were meeting, and shook our hands. He, said he sup­ writings of man's Black & Red editions in the ports us, until I told him who I was and that I ran Maurice 1970s. against him as a write-in candidate in 2004. He said I Dialectics of Black Brinton Brinton, who passed away in 2005, disrespected him, and I told him to run as a Democrat Freedom Struggles Edited by David left Trotskyism in the early 1960s to and quit running as a Republican and get a backbone. contribute towards building a non-van- I saw Tennessee Senator Bill Frist, who won the Race, Philosophy and the Goodwin guardist and libertarian socialist straw poll at the conference as the favorite candidate Needed American Revolution AK Press movement based on the self-activity of for the 2008 Republican presidential race, and booed by John Alan workers, all the while maintaining a when he crossed the street to have dinner. Only $8 (including postage) career as a neurosurgeon. He became a leading mem­ —Jim Maynard Order from literature ad on page 7. ber of the group Solidarity and a translator and propo­ nent of the writings of Paul Cardan, a pseudonym used at the time by Castoriadis. Much of the material Solidarity published was World Social Forum-Bamako as Africans see it Brinton's translations of Cardan's work, and For Workers' Power contains many of Brinton's intro­ ductions to these pieces, along with fascinating BANJUL, THE GAMBIA—The World Social Forum (WSF) tion, destruction of ecosystems," international trade, journalistic accounts of revolutionary upsurges is a gathering of civil society groups and movements debt and economic and social policies, social struggles, in France and Portugal. that meets every year in order to try to find solutions social and human rights. The report on employment The bulk of the book is Brinton's two long works, The to fight against the continued domination of corpora­ and poverty was attended by male and female trade Irrational in Politics, a popularization of the revolu­ tion capitalism. For the first time, this year WSF unionists, which ensured there was a gender dimen­ tionary period of psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, and changed its format from one centralized forum to a sion1 to the discussions. The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control, a closely detailed more global one with events taking place in Bamako, Many Africans ask a number of questions. The first account of the deterioration of workers' self-manage­ Mali (Jan. 19-23), Caracas, Venezuela (Jan. 24-29), of which is, "Who funds the WSF?" It is very difficult to ment in Russian factories from the revolution to the and Karachi, Pakistan. The first WSF was held in Porto determine who pays for the WSF. It is hard to find any year 1921. Brinton's position on the Russian experi­ Alegre in 2001. The organizers say they began the organizations or funding bodies highlighting their role ence is basically that of left communism, which, though forum as a response to neo-liberalism and corporate . as sponsors. containing much relevant criticism of Lenin's central­ capitalism and to enable activists, NGOs and civil soci­ Their second question is, "Are grass roots organiza­ izing tendencies, is debilitated by its utter disinterest ety groups to come together to share ideas, experiences tions represented"? The answer to this highlights the in Lenin's philosophic reorganization of 1914, an effort and seek solutions. This is now the sixth year and some problem faced by many grass roots organizations and towards the renewal of the Hegelian heritage of Marx people at this year's forum began to question the fact explains why so few Africans have previously been that still demands study today. "that nothing seems to be coming out of these enor­ unable to attend. Unless groups can find sponsorship This aspect of Brinton and Castoriadis is what lim­ mous efforts." • from private foundations, attending is almost impossi­ its the relevance of their work today. Their writings on Holding the WSF in Mali was important to Africans ble. Do the people at the forum represent the views of self-management and the dangers of bureaucratization for a number of reasons. First it allowed the partici­ the; organizations they represent? made great strides toward salvaging an authentic rev­ pants to feel "more connected to the process than if it There seems to be a lot of criticisms over the WSF's olutionary position, but their lack of interest in the was held elsewhere." Second, it enabled Africans to lay form, structure and decision-making. What were the importance of the Hegelian philosophical current of down their own agenda and discuss issues that are focus areas in Bamako this year? What does the WSF Marx's thought led toward their abandonment of Marx more specific to their countries and needs. Finally the mean for Africa? What global solution is the WSF gen­ entirely. Brinton endorsed Castoriadis's identification forum in Bamako acted as a preliminary to WSF 2007 erating? of Marx's work with positivistic and productivist atti­ to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, and for the other land­ It is difficult to see exactly what has been achieved tudes of the nineteenth century and claimed that he mark events in 2007 which will mark the 200th after six years of WSF forums. However it is possible had to free himself from Marx to remain a revolution­ anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade and the that the change in format from one centralized gathec- ary. 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence.- ing to this year's format spread over three continents Brinton's work made an indisputable contribution to There were several major themes at the WSF: War may enable more participation and decision-making at the movement for social revolution, but the path for­ and militarism, security and peace, globalized liberal­ grass roots level by activists and civil society members. ward today lies in a direction other than the one he and ism, aggressions against peasantry, alliance between —Fabakary Taal Castoriadis traveled. patriarchal and neo-liberal systems, and marginaliza- West Africa Correspondent —Kevin Michaels tion of women's fight, culture, media and communica­ APRIL-MAY 2006 NEWS & LETTERS Page 9 H'lHil'im Europe, Muslim minorities and 'free speech1

In February, violent demonstrations across the Mus­ fatwa calling for the death of the Anglo-Indian Muslim Against Racism, "No European Union country is as lim world targeted Danish and European embassies. writer Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Vers­ Islamophobic and xenophobic as is Denmark." Demonstrators were protesting the publication last es had supposedly maligned the Prophet. Rushdie sur­ Given this context, we find ourselves in agreement September by Denmark's largest paper, Jyllands- vived, but one of his translators was killed. In 1994, with Germany's Nobel Laureate Giinter Grass: "The Posten, of a dozen caricatures of the Prophet Muham­ Muslim fundamentalists in Bangladesh drove Taslima drawings remind one of those published in a famous mad, one of them wearing a turban shaped like a bomb Nasreen into exile, after the publication of her novel German newspaper during the time of the Nazis, Der with a fuse attached. Not only did these caricatures Shame, a feminist critique of women's rights under Sturmer. It published anti-Semitic caricatures in the mock and stereotype an entire religion with 1.5 billion Islam. same style." adherents; they also violated longstanding Muslim Rushdie, Nasreen, and other intellectuals of Muslim When Jews ridicule Jewish culture, or Muslim intel­ strictures against depicting Muhammad, considered a origin have issued a statement defending the right of lectuals criticize fundamentalism, this is quite differ­ form of idolatry. newspapers to publish the cartoons as a matter of free ent from when the mass media—in countries where speech and as part of the struggle against religious Christianity has been dominant—embark upon the DEMONSTRATIONS NOT SPONTANEOUS fanaticism. One of the signers, Ibn Warraq, wrote in ridicule arid stereotyping of religious and ethnic These anti-cartoon demonstrations were hardly another article of "the inability of the West to defend minorities. The editors of Jyllands-Posten are not free spontaneous, however. They occurred five months after itself," and went on to praise the "civilizing" effects of speech heroes, but bigots and bullies, as much as is the the event. In addition, they seem to have been orches­ the British in India. Iranian president. If there are any free speech heroes trated at the Organization of Islamic Countries annu­ In these pages we have frequently attacked Muslim in this controversy, they are the journalists in the Mus­ al meeting in Mecca in December, which also called for fundamentalism. We have also defended secularism lim world who are now in jail for having published a boycott of Danish goods. Authoritarian and unpopu­ and women's rights against Muslim, Jewish, Christian, some of the cartoons for the purpose of debate, or even lar Muslim rulers—from Egypt and Syria to Iran- and Hindu fundamentalism. However, we think it is for discussing them in a serious way. were once again seeking to channel dissent and unrest simplistic and even dangerous to view the current con­ THE DANGER outward, at the very time they were coming under pop­ troversy as one primarily between free speech and reli­ ular pressure at home. gious fanaticism. In the period after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and •In Damascus, where the security police normally even more so since September 11, 2001, reactionary forbid all demonstrations, thousands were able to take THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT political forces the world over have fanned the flames to the streets and burn the Danish and Norwegian Context is important here. Denmark has only of religious and ethnic fanaticism. Ronald Reagan and embassies. 200,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants, among a Ayatollah Khomeini did so in the 1980s, as did George • In Beirut, demonstrators destroyed the Danish population of 5.4 million. They constitute an easy and Bush and Osama Bin Laden after September 11. In the mission, as well as a Christian church. convenient target for a conservative newspaper like U.S., fundamentalist Christian preachers with White • In Tehran, crowds were allowed to set fire to the Jyllands-Posten. If it were really interested in promot­ House access have reviled Islam. In more secular West­ Danish Embassy, also attacking the Austrian one. The ing free speech, why did it refuse, on the grounds that ern Europe, despite strong reservations about the U.S. ultra-reactionary President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, this would "provoke an outcry," to publish caricatures invasion of Iraq, mainstream politicians regularly who has denied the Holocaust, issued a call for a con­ of the Resurrection of Jesus in 2003? scapegoat immigrants, many of them Muslim, as the test of cartoons mocking the Holocaust. While the international media, dominated as they cause of crime and unemployment. This has helped to • In Nigeria, some 100 died in clashes between Mus­ are by Western capital, have shown Muslim crowds as prevent the anti-war movement from developing into a lims and Christians. It began with a Muslim protest violent and bigoted, they have not covered the above larger challenge to the system. against the cartoons that attacked Christian commu­ facts very much. Nor have they covered the fact that In the Middle Eastern and Muslim world, equally nities and churches, which led to retaliation by Christ­ the present Danish government survives due to the reactionary forces manipulate Islam for political ends. ian mobs against Muslim communities and mosques. support of the Far-Right Danish People's Party (DPP), In many countries, these forces have replaced the left­ During the demonstrations, conservative newspa­ which won 13% of the vote in the last election. Under ist and nationalist parties in the articulation of anti- pers in a number of European countries reprinted all DPP pressure, funding has been eliminated for hun­ imperialist sentiment. With the rise of radical or part of the offending cartoons. In the U.S., almost all dreds of groups that had aided immigrants. The gov­ Islamism, women's rights and the most basic democra­ major media refused to publish the cartoons, but sev­ ernment also made it much more difficult for Danes to cy, let alone the prospects for a truly emancipatory rev­ eral student newspapers did so, again in the name of marry foreigners, causing some to apply for citizenship olutionary movement, have been set back immeasur­ "free speech." in Sweden, where laws are less restrictive. ably. A FREE SPEECH ISSUE? One DPP parliamentarian referred to "many points The controversy over the anti-Muslim cartoons pub­ in common between Hitler and Islam." Another stated: lished in Europe has helped extremely reactionary Oif the surface, these events seemed to be a replay of "All the Western countries are being invaded by Mus­ forces in both Europe and the Muslim world to gain previous controversies. In 1989, as he was dying, and at lims. Some of them speak politely, but they are waiting headway. This is a danger facing all progressive and a time when the theocratic dictatorship he had found­ to become numerous enough to kill us." According to revolutionary movements, in Europe, in the Muslim ed was losing support, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a Bashy Quraishy, President of the European Network world, and globally. New anti-war group to promote solidarity with struggles in Iraq NEW YORK—A new anti-war group, the National unionists, and innocent civilians. The Iraqi people can­ do not support "the resistance" as such. In particular, Organization for the Iraqi Freedom Struggles, is in the not be free as long as foreign armies occupy their land. we oppose all forms of outright or tacit Support for the process of being launched. The group opposes the Iraq We therefore demand the immediate withdrawal of political Islamist and Ba'athist forces that overwhelm­ war on the basis of international people-to-people sol­ U.S. troops and military bases from Iraq, and an end to ingly make up the armed insurgency. We reject all sug­ idarity with the freedom movements in Iraq. Unlike the U.S.-created "democratic process" that is part of the gestions that non-Western peoples are somehow less those tendencies in the U.S. anti-war movement which occupation. We also deem it necessary to stop the "next entitled than we are to freedom from oppression by for­ .are silent about the Iraqi civil movements or make war" before it happens. To this end, we will help edu­ eign and indigenous reactionary forces. abstract pronouncements about the "right to resist" the cate Americans as to the causes of continual U.S. inter­ occupation, this organization makes distinctions vention overseas. (3) We support the secular, democratic, and progres­ among those doing the resisting. Its founding state­ sive freedom struggles in Iraq—the Iraqi women, work­ ment demonstrates that it is possible to take an anti­ (2) We recognize the overwhelming, steadily growing ers, and youth who have created their own organiza­ war position that unconditionally opposes the actions opposition of Iraqis to the occupation, but also the tions within Iraq, who oppose both the occupation and of imperialist war and occupation, while not tacitly sharp divisions within the opposition. Accordingly, we the terrorist reaction, and who fight for the rights of supporting reactionary forces within Iraq. women, workers, national minorities, and GLBT peo­ Here is its founding statement: ple. For instance, we support the efforts of the Organi­ Against Iraq occupation zation of Women's Freedom in Iraq to prevent the The National Organization for the Iraqi Freedom Demonstrations around the world protested the U.S. imposition of Sharia law and to maintain women's Struggles (NO-IFS) is a coalition of individuals who invasion and occupation of Iraq which entered its shelters; the struggle led by the Basra Oil and Gas have come together to oppose the U.S. war against Iraq fourth year on March 20. Workers Union, in defiance of threats and assassina­ by supporting the secular, democratic, and progressive tions, against the privatization of the industry; the movements in Iraq that are struggling for freedom CHICAGO demand for secular government put forward by the against the occupation and against the Ba'athists and Iraqi Freedom Congress, a new coalition of several civil the political Islamists of all stripes, who aim to impose groups; and the IFC's efforts to build a non-sectarian, a theocratic state on the Iraqi people. We intend to be A multi-ethnic society based on neighborhood assemblies an organized presence within the American anti-war in communities of Baghdad and Kirkuk. These strug­ movement on the basis of the following principles: IRdI&*2sP* gles and their accompanying ideas are the latest instance of a long and rich history of indigenous Iraqi (1) We recognize the brutality under which the peo­ mass movements for self-emancipation—much of it ple of Iraq live, due to a recent history that includes secular, feminist, and multiethnic—that existed prior dictatorship, wars, economic sanctions, and especially MUTARY FAMILIES to the Ba'athist dictatorship. Although these groups the current occupation by foreign troops, accompanied are at present relatively small and weak, this is no rea­ by indiscriminate killing and systematic torture. The Q»EftKOUTr son to neglect them. On the contrary, it is a reason to presence of these troops has helped to promote indige­ 5 make our support of them an urgent priority. nous reactionary forces that often target women, trade = ¾ Chicago, Hinois 5? (4) We advocate that the anti-war movement as a - - *Mk whole adopt this approach to ending the war and occu­ NEWS& i^z^ pation—active support for the secular, democratic, and VOL.5 l/NO.2 APRIL/MAY 2006 SAN FRANCISCO progressive freedom struggles against both the U.S. News & Letters (ISSN 0028-8969) is published bi-monthly. Subscriptions occupation and the indigenous reactionary forces. This are for $5 a year (bulk order or 5 or more, 25¢ each) from News & Let­ type of solidarity is a central way to build and sustain ters, 36 S. Wabash, Room 1440, Chicago, IL 60603. Telephone (312) our movements here. It is by evincing an unyielding, 236-0799. Fax (312) 236-0725. Periodical postage paid at Chicago, Illi­ principled commitment to human freedom and to peo­ nois. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to A/ews 8 Letters, 36 S. ple struggling for freedom—not by explicitly or tacitly Wabash, Room 1440, Chicago, IL 60603. Articles may be reprinted ver­ supporting a supposedly "lesser evil" — that the anti­ batim if credited to "News & Letters." war movement and other movements will be able to Raya Dunayevskaya Chairwoman, National Editorial Board (1955-1987) grow. Charles Denby NO-IFS is asking people to lend their names to sup­ Editor (1955-1983) port the statement and help build the organization. Olga Domanski, Peter Wermuth, Co-National Organizers, News and You can find information on how to support the found­ Letters Committees. Jim Mills, Managing Editor. Felix Martin, Labor ing statement on its website, www.no-ifs.org; or write to Editor (1983-1999). ^P™^ NO-IFS, P.O. Box 5, Planetarium Station, New York, News & Letters is printed in a union shop. ® ^S&S&^ 759_c NY 10024-0005, or email [email protected]. News & Letters is indexed by Alternative Press Index. Page 10 NEWS & LETTERS APRIL-MAY 2006 New challenges to global capital in Latin America

Continued from page 1 since 1999 to forge a "counter-hegemonic" pole to the solution to the problems of neoliberalism. of expression. The open and vibrant debate that is tak­ U.S. He is selling oil at below market prices to several There is nothing wrong with demanding that global ing place in Venezuela over whether or not his "Boli- friendly Latin American countries. He has floated capital be prevented from continuing to rob the natural varian Revolution" is a viable path to the future is bonds to help Argentina pay off its debt to the Inter­ and human resources of Latin American nations. Just proof of it. national Monetary Fund. And he is also trading oil for as it is vital for workers to demand a more equitable A lively debate is in fact taking place in Latin Amer­ commodities (like soybeans) as part of an effort to redistribution of the surplus value that is robbed from ica today among democratic grassroots groups of curry favor with Morales' Bolivia. their hides each day at work, so it is important for the indigenous peoples, feminists, workers, national His ambitions extend even further. He is forging nations of the South to demand a redistribution of minorities and youth. There are few places to get a bet­ close relations with China and talks of using its tech­ wealth fifom global capital. ter sense of the battle of ideas taking place there than nological expertise to bypass Venezuela's dependence Yet by the same token, just as a worker who obtains at the World Social Forum (WSF), held in Caracas, on the U.S. He is also trying to forge a "strategic a wage increase still lives in a capitalist environment Venezuela in late January. alliance" with Iran. Venezuela is one of only a handful in which those gains can be readily taken away, a pop­ of countries that opposes placing restrictions on Iran's ular regime that demands a redistribution of the sur­ THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM access to nuclear technology. This is occurring at the plus value robbed from its people by multinational cor­ This year's WSF in Caracas, attended by 80,000, moment when Iran's right-wing president is cracking porations still exists in the context of the world market took place in a radically different context from last down on its labor movement, as seen in the arrest last and capitalist social relations. year's gathering in Porto Alegre, Brazil. month of 1,000 ' In a word, Last year's event was held in the midst of growing striking bus dri- il< * "*•«» socialism is not mass disillusionment with the accommodationist vers (see page 3). the same as stance of Lula da Silva's Workers' Party (PT). Although Inside nationalized the PT came to power through decades of struggles by Venezuela, industry and movements from below of metal workers, feminists, Chavez is solidify­ property—;even Christian base communities, and the Landless Peas­ ing his mass sup­ when a "co-man- ants' Movement, Lula has adhered to the neoliberal port by funneling a g e m e n t policies that the masses expected him to challenge. much of the scheme" operates No mass upsurge preceded Chavez's rise to power. nation's oil rev­ between workers He became president through a national election in enue into social and the state. 1999 after having earlier staged an abortive military programs. This As Raya coup. Since then, his promotion of what he calls "Boli- year 41% of Dunayevskaya varian Socialism" has created an opening that many in Venezuela's bud­ put it: • "Even Venezuela are using to promote radical demands, at get is earmarked where a state the same time that many questions are being asked for spending for like Cuba is pro­ about where his "revolution from above" is headed. health care, litera­ tected from the The Venezuelan political context directly impacted cy, housing, and worst whims of this year's WSF. It had a larger presence of traditional other needs. It the world mar­ Marxist-Leninist tendencies than previously. For the represents the ket and where first time 850 participants attended from Cuba. largest and most state planning is Most important, whereas at previous WSFs it was comprehensive . ,.-._• total, the price of rare to hear extended discussion of "socialism," let program of social The World Social Forum was;a global event with gatherings in Caracas, sugar is still alone a serious analysis of what constitutes a non-cap­ spending in Latin Venezuela, Karachi, Pakistan, and Bamako, Mali (above). For a report dependent upon italist society, this year's WSF was dominated by much America. . on the Bamako WSF, see page 8. the socially nec­ discussion of socialism—in part because Chavez has He has also set essary labor time anointed the "Bolivarian Revolution" as a project of up a dozen "missions" that provide emergency health, established by world production. In a word, to plan or "socialist reconstruction." education, and welfare as well as paid subsidies to the not plan is not the decisive question. The state of tech­ The question is what is meant by such discussions of poor. The missions are financed out of the growing oil nological development and the accumulated capital are socialism and whether the radicalization that charac­ revenue under a separate budget subject to Chavez's the determinants, the only determinants when the terizes Venezuela today will accentuate or impede the personal discretion. masses are not allowed their self-activity" (Philosophy search for a viable alternative to capitalism. While many at the WSF hailed these moves as proof and Revolution, p. 225). that Venezuela is moving in a "socialist" direction, such WHICH WAY AHEAD? BATTLE OF IDEAS IN VENEZUELA policies have done little so far to dent the nation's mas­ Chavez's attraction for many inside and outside of sive unemployment. Only 37,000 new jobs have been The turn back to statism in much of the movement Venezuela lies in his attacks on Bush and in his effort created in the past year. And many in the missions against global capital is by no means complete, includ­ to funnel Venezuela's oil wealth into social programs. complain of never getting paid for their work or being ing in Venezuela. Independent movements are gaining Chavez is using a fourfold increase in oil revenue paid only occasionally. strength there, such as an abortion rights movement. Many working people also complain about growing The growth of the women's movement explains why bureaucracy and the risk of one-man rule. Chavez's Venezuela is the only Latin America country with a tendency to appear on television several evenings a constitution that recognizes housework as economical­ week to give four-hour speeches has many critiquing ly productive activity. Housewives are now able to Pyeongtaek farmers him for a cult of personality and "Bonapartism." obtain social security benefits. DAECHURI, SOUTH KOREA—9:30 a.m., March 15. Two The most applauded as well as contentious aspect of However women are still underrepresented in the backhoes begin gutting the rice paddies on the far side Venezuela concerns the explosive growth in coopera­ government. Only 12% of the members of the National of the fields. Nearly one thousand riot police stand at tives. Thousands have sprung up, encompassing every­ Assembly are women. Demands are being raised that the edge of the field, armed with batons and shields. thing from food vendors to health care providers to 50% of its seats be reserved for women candidates. Thousands more are posted around the periphery of efforts to form cooperatives in industrial enterprises. Many are probing into a genuine alternative that the village. An untold number wait at adjacent Camp These cooperatives, which are also funded by the avoids the dead ends of both neoliberalism and state- Humphreys Army base, while hundreds monitor street state from oil revenues, are touted by the government capitalism. This was reflected in an "Alternative Social intersections and key access points to the area, pre­ and its supporters as a way to "popularize capital." As Foruni" held at the same time as the WSF by Venezue­ venting any tractors or farming equipment to arrive one official put it, "The principal idea is that coopera­ lan anarchists. Its sponsors stated at the forum: "In the for the March 17 spring cultivation. tives or development zones should integrate with other last four years Venezuela has undergone a polarization As the supporters realize that the destruction has cooperatives to add value through processing and induced by the top players vying for power against the already begun, they race down the long narrow con­ transformation" while avoiding intermediaries such as new Chavez bureaucracy that has supplanted the previ­ crete path that divides the vast fields. Protestors foreign corporations or private businesses. ous ome. Part of the demobilization of the social move­ immediately surround the machines, who halt their Most cooperatives are contracted to sell goods to the ments answers to this logic: having taken part in, and excavating so as not to crush anyone. Someone climbs government, which gives it a significant role in deter­ assumed blindly, the agenda imposed from above, post­ on top of the giant arm and secures himself to it. Elder­ mining which ones thrive and which fail. At the same poning their own claims. Another chapter belongs to the ly women lie down in front of the massive treads while time, many socially conscious activists are creating expectations created by some of the social activists faced people attempt to get inside the cab of the backhoe. nonprofit cooperatives that provide health care, hous­ with a 'progressive and left' government, spokesmen of a Unable to continue the digging, the machines stand ing, and social assistance to raise the standard of liv­ discourse that assumes the language of the movements idle. The residents of Daechuri have feared this ing of Venezuelans. but whose policies go in the opposite direction." moment for years, the day their land would be trans­ Thus the situation in Venezuela is highly contradic­ Clearly an important debate is going on in formed into dead earth, a mere platform for the U.S. tory. While some programs being enacted from above Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America over the military to expand its operational base. have a bureaucratic or state-capitalist stamp to them, direction of the movements against global capital— Suddenly the backhoes begin moving again, but large numbers of people are making use of the present even if the initiative for now rests with those favoring instead of continuing their excavation, they begin situation to press for radical changes on their own. a return to more statist tendencies of the old Left. refilling the pits with the dirt that they had just One reason for this shift is that while the movement removed. Elation passes through the crowd upon see­ WHAT/5 SOCIALISM? against global capital has raised the important slogan ing the workers disobey orders and follow their hearts. Such distinctions often did not get made in discus­ "another world is possible," it has tended to avoid an Then the military riot police move into action, cutting sions at the WSF, however, where enthusiasm over in-depth discussion of exactly what constitutes a soci­ off all sides. They occupy two bridges to prevent any Chavez's specific policies tended to trump serious ety that negates and transcends capitalism. more protestors in the village from joining. For a while analysis of them. Reticence about imposing programs and devising there is a stand-off An 80-year-old woman feints and is Even government ministers admit that some enter­ "blueprints for the future," both of which have been taken to the hospital. Police begin to arrest people. prises are being turned into cooperatives "not with the integral to the anti-vanguardist nature of the move­ Many protestors resist and are beaten down. Elder­ intention of transferring power to their workers, but to ments against global capital since their inception in ly villagers hurl mud at the police. Some cut through evade taxes from which cooperatives are exempt." Min­ the Seattle protests of 1999, is understandable. Yet no the fence and set small fires on the army base. The ister for Popular Economy Elias Jaua stated: "There movement can live forever on generalizations and good struggle continues for hours with neither side gaining are many cooperatives that are registered as such on intentions. If anti-vanguardists fail to spell out in pre­ or losing much ground paper, but which actually have a boss who is paid more, cise and specific terms the basic features of a social­ Before nightfall, the police backed off, the day had salaried workers, and unequal distribution of work and ist society that transcends the parameters of value pro­ been won, the fields still exist. Forty people are arrest­ income." Many workers in the cooperatives earn less duction, other less liberatory tendencies will surely do ed. Many are injured, with broken wrists and ankles. than the minimum wage, $188 a month, as they are so instead. This is what we are now witnessing, as At least two are still hospitalized in serious condition. not subject to national labor laws. many who want to know "what is socialism" find the Injured, exhausted, and running low on supplies and Yet many at the WSF argued that capitalist rela­ more that traditional, statist leftists are the ones who reinforcements, the residents of Daechuri and support­ tions will erode as "social ownership of the means of have a ready-made answer to their questions, albeit a ers of the Peace Village fear what will come tomorrow. production" and the elimination of private competition superficial one. Find out more from the Pan-S.Korea solution com­ take hold. Clearly there is a growing tendency in The debate is by no means finished, yet it will not be mittee against U.S. base extension in Pyeongtaek today's movements against global capital to return to brought to a successful finish unless we concretize the (http://antigizi.or.kr/english/) and Save the Pyeongtaek more traditional approaches that focus on nationalized creativity of cognition by spelling out "what happens Farmers! (http://www.saveptfarmers.org/) property and statification of natural resources as the after" the revolution, beginning right here and now. —Supporter APRIL-MAY 2006 NEWS & LETTERS Page 11 Workers battle privatization in El Salvador El Salvador's recent past is peppered with privatiza­ retract its privatization proposal. Moreover, the Leg­ lies who could afford it were spending one-fifth of their tion attempts that led to increased prices, mass firings islative Assembly passed the "State Guarantee of monthly incomes on potable water. In January 2000, a and, in some cases, massive popular resistance to Health and Social Security," written by activists to four-day strike against the Aguas de Tunari contract defend access to public services. The sale of the protect access^to care and bury the healthcare privati­ froze the city. telecommunications sector and the attempt to priva­ zation issue. Doctors and nurses fired for taking part Facing off against government repression, further tize parts of the public healthcare system provide in the strikes were ordered re-hired by the Supreme marches resulted in 200 people injured, and one dead. starkly contrasting outcomes. Court. When the government desperately negotiated a rate In 1998, ANTEL, the former state-owned telephone Resistance to water privatization has been common rollback with Aguas de Tunari, movement leaders company, was sold to didn't budge. Finally the government nullified the con­ France's Telecom, tract and created a new publicly elected water com­ which then sold it to mission. America Mobil. The Bechtel, for its part, is suing Bolivia in World Bank sale and re-sale led to arbitration court for $25 million for breach of contract. the layoff of 5,000 Movements in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica workers, the loss of have stalled or stopped water privatization plans. All seniority, salary cuts three countries, however, have initiated "pilot projects" and the dissolution of allowing private investment in some cities. ASTEL, the ANTEL Historic memory of Latin American resistance to workers' union. Three privatization is not lost on Salvadoran officials as they years passed before -continue their march to decentralize the public water workers could over­ company and implement co-investment. come government At a November 2005 forum on water management at obstacles and legally the San Salvador Sheraton Hotel, a government water re-constitute a union, technician obediently explained, "Co-investment is not now known as SUT- the same as privatization. We're not talking about a TEL. Cochabamba here." Activists in the audience roared, Members of water workers' union condemn water privatization. Not all government but the declaration revealed the government's cog­ attempts at privatiza­ nizance of recent history: officials here have tweaked tion have gone according to plan. In 2002, the nurses throughout Latin America since the 1980s. But the their strategy and are planning a kinder, gentler pri­ and doctors of the Salvador an Social Security Hospital resistance in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000 raised eye­ vatization, and they're hoping no one notices. System went on strike to oppose the implementation of brows because of its mass character and its principled Meanwhile, residents like Azucena in San Martin a healthcare voucher system and the privatization of opposition to corporate control of water. continue to suffer the effects of an underfunded public hospital janitorial services. The Bolivian government granted Bechtel-sub- water system held hostage by the drive to privatize. Tens of thousands took to the streets in "white sidiary "Aguas del Tunari" a 40-year contract to run "They charge me about $7 per month, but water only marches" (named for hospital employees' white Cochabamba's water system in 1999. The contract comes every three days," she says. "I don't know who is scrubs). Resisting jail and constant repression, health­ imposed fines for home rainwater collection and a responsible, but service should be better." care workers and supporters forced the government to 100% rate hike. The increase meant that many fami­ —Paid Pollack Further debate on Dunayevskaya, Hegel and dialectics

Editor's note: In the last issue"-of News & Letters^ we 337). Thus there is a deep connection between Hegel's Engelsian framework, Hegel must be doing something published a review of Raya Dunayevskaya's The Power monological ontology and his idealism. reactionary here, since this is' the end of his "system." of Negativity by Marx scholar Chris Arthur, as well as In conclusion, my own appropriation of Hegel's No matter that Marcuse (1955) and Dunayevskaya a response by Kevin Anderson, one of the editors of the Absolute is exactly opposite to that of Dunayevskaya. If (1953) thought otherwise, and used this passage to book. Below we continue the debate with a response by capital becomes absolute, it excludes new beginnings work out an emancipatory dialectic in anticipation of Arthur and a rejoinder by Anderson. by definition. The question arises whether and where the 1960s. + + + there is a pure self-referring movement not requiring Be that as it may, Arthur needs above all to consider I do not at all discount the notion of absolute nega­ mediation in something outside itself? There are two this. Marx's core dialectical category, "negation of the tivity. I am with the old Engels who counterposed cases: 1) the logic, in which thought deals with negation," the one that he singles out in both the 1844 Hegel's method, rooted in the absolute negativity of thoughts; 2) the form of value, generated through a Essays and Capital, is but another way of saying reason, a dialectic which is in essence critical and rev­ practical abstraction from the natural bodily form of "absolute negativity." For as Hegel writes in the Science olutionary, to Hegel's "system." wealth, and gaining self-movement through the circuit of Logic. "But in all this care must be taken to distin­ The problem with the notion of absolute negativity is of capital; but although having the inner drive to guish between the first negation as negation in gener­ its abstract character. It reduces all real movement to become absolute capital cannot produce its "others," al, and the second negation, the negation of the nega­ a purely logical category, complains Marx (Marx- labor power and nature. Hence "new beginnings" tion: the latter is concrete, absolute negativity, just as Engels Collected Works,No\. 3, p. 343; MECW 6, p. 164). require the liberation of productive activity, and the former on the contrary is only abstract negativity" It is fine as a slogan against static closed metaphysics. Nature, from their subsumption under the totalizing (Miller trans, pp. 115-6). If this passage is an expres­ But it cannot substitute for analysis (MECW 6, p. 163). logic of capital. sion of Hegel's "method," as against his "system," then This is a problem when the explanatory value of relat­ —Chris Arthur, author of why does it include the absolute at its' very core? ing such abstract categories to reality comes in. As Hie Hew Dialectic and Marx's Capital Arthur now seems to regard his differences with Marx said in 1843, Hegel does not provide the logic of Dunayevskaya as ones over interpretation, rather than the body politic but merely bodily trappings for logical her supposedly error-ridden Hegel scholarship. categories (MECW 3, p. 16). So I am uneasy when Are we really to go back to Engels's Ludwig Feuer- Nonetheless, it is too bad that Arthur, who has written Dunayevskaya finds all social struggles express the bach and the End of Classical German Philosophy of some fine critiques of Engels on Capital, would still 1886 as ground for today? There, as is well known, attach himself to Engels on dialectics. self-same "absolute negativity". Engels made the (in)famous distinction—not to be Moreover I disagree with Dunayevskaya in her found in Marx—between Hegel's "method" and his "sys­ attempt to recuperate for Marxism the "Absolutes" of —Kevin Anderson, co-editor of The Power of Negativity and tem." This ultimately untenable distinction has author of Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism Hegel's system. I am glad that Anderson acknowledges plagued Marxists ever since, especially when coupled she was wrong to say the syllogisms linking Idea, with Engels's assertion, in the same paragraph, that Nature and Spirit first appeared in 1830. However, he Hegel's "absolute idea" put forward a notion of "the end is right to point out that the very last sentence first of history" (MECW 26, pp. 360-61). In this way, Engels appeared then. But I fail to see the connection of this anticipated not the creative dialectical investigations How to contact sentence with any "new beginning." This sentence says of Lenin (after 1914), Lukacs, Lefebvre, Marcuse, and NEWS & LETTERS COMMITTEES that everything that has happened, is happening and Dunayeyskaya during the 20th century, but the banal will ever happen is just Absolute Spirit playing with utterances of Fukuyama, who (mis)appropriated the itself, a sentiment he already expressed in the Preface work of the great revolutionary philosopher, Hegel, for 36 South Wabash, Rm. 1440 P.O. Box 3384, Flint, Ml 48502 to the Phenomenology. The problem here is that this his own neo-liberal ends. Another problem with Engels Chicago, IL 60603 "mystical subject-object" (MECW 3, p. 342; MECW 4, p. on dialectics is the notion that all of philosophy can be Phone 312 236 0799 167) internalizes every relation and transition. "Hegel Fax 312 236 0725 P.O. Box 250657 divided into two "great camps," that of "idealism" (con­ Columbia University Station replaces the real connection between man and nature MEETINGS servative) and that of "materialism" (progressive). In New York, NY 10025 Call for Information by an absolute subject-object which is at one and the this scheme, Socrates and Plato, the founders of the 212 663 3631 same time the whole of nature and the whole of dialectic, are conservative, and the crude materialists MEETINGS humanity, the Absolute Spirit" (MECW 4, p. 167). As Machiavelli and Hobbes progressive. P.O. Box 27205 Sundays, 7:00 p.m. Marx complained in 1844, this Absolute has no objec­ Detroit Ml 48227 39 West 14th St., Room 205 tive relations, hence it is a mere thought (MECW 3, p. As to Marx's rejection of Hegel's absolutes, Arthur quotes most selectively. MEETINGS (Identity House, Manhattan) For example, he does not mention Marx's formula­ Sundays 2 p.m. r tion, "the absolute general law of capitalist accumula­ P.O. Box 3345 Follow the tion," this in the discussion in Capital, Vol. I of rising Write for information Oakland, CA 94609 unemployment as an outgrowth of capital accumula­ 510 658 1448 development [email protected] tion (Fowkes trans., p. 798, emph. added). Nor does he MEETINGS mention Lenin's view that at the end of the Absolute MEETINGS of freedom Sundays Contact for information Idea chapter of the Logic, Hegel "stretches a hand to 6:00 p.m. struggles in materialism" {Collected Works, Vol. 38, p. 234). (Space Echo Park United does not- permit a discussion of Dunayevskaya's Methodist Church attempt to go beyond Lenin on this point.) 1910 Madison Ave, PMB 59 Latin America 1226 N. Alvarado Memphis, TN 38104 I am glad that Arthur acknowledges that in criticiz­ (North of Sunset, side door) in the pages ing Dunayevskaya's "errors," he misread the German [email protected] original concerning the final syllogisms of Hegel's Phi­ INTERNET of News & losophy of Mind (1811-B0). This was the last volume of Letters Hegel's "system," The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. Arthur now concedes that Hegel's final sen­ [email protected] www.newsandletters.org tence, wherein the idea "engenders and enjoys itself as [email protected] (Oakland) absolute mind," was added only in 1830, as Dunayev­ An annual INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-HUMANISTS subscription skaya maintained. But Arthur still fails to see how this sentence could be connected to new beginnings for *'4t0Hf!eii C©ipe«|ioiidIiiai-l!#iiiMiliee is only $5 human emancipation. Of course, if we adhere to the BCM Box 3514, London, England WC1N 3XX http://www.thehobgoblin.co.uk, [email protected] Page 12 NEWS & LETTERS APRIL-MAY 2006 OUR LIFE# Significance of the Hamas victory Islamism. To take one example, there is by now only a Hamas, largely because the fractured Fatah movement by Kevia A. Barry and Mitch Weerth single movie theater operating in the Palestinian terri­ often ran multiple candidates in the same district. Called a "tsunami" by many, the Hamas victory in tories. Therefore it will be very hard for Palestinians to Most international discussion since the election has the Jan. 25 Palestinian elections is a major turning see Hany Abu-Assad's "Paradise Now," the brilliant turned on whether Hamas will moderate and negotiate point in Middle East politics. In a stunning upset, this film about the Second Intifada and its contradictions. with Israel. On the Right, the Bush administration and well-organized Islamist party, often linked to suicide The Hamas showed how years of Israeli repression the Israeli political establishment say Hamas must be bombings, but also known for its network of social ser­ and murder have backfired. Take for example Israeli pressured into changing its rejectionist stance toward vice organizations, defeated the nationalist Fatah President Ariel Sharon's "brilliant" decision to assassi­ Israel and renouncing terrorism. Such tactics, includ­ movement, obtaining a two-thirds parliamentary nate the elderly and infirm Hamas spiritual leader ing Israel's illegal impounding of Palestinian tax majority. Fatah has dominated the Palestinian libera­ Sheik Ahmad Yassine with a missile in 2004, after money, will increase support for Hamas. tion movement since the 1960s. which he boasted that Hamas was finished. Progressives and pro-Palestinians claim that Hamas Above all, the Hamas victory symbolizes the long- The Israeli government used the Hamas victory as a is ready to moderate and that, in any case, its victory term shift in the Middle Eastern and Muslim world pretext to lay siege, March 15, to a Palestinian prison was an expression of anti-corruption and democratic away from secular nationalism or socialism, and in Jericho on the West Bank and seize six prisoners sentiment, as well as disgust with the failure of the toward various forms of Islamism. Given the impor­ charged with killing an Israeli cabinet minister in Oslo framework to bring about a viable Palestinian tance of the Palestinian cause to Arabs and Muslims 2001. They said they feared the six would be freed. state. According to this view, Hamas is more a radical everywhere, the defeat of secular nationalism by The size of the victory in January seemed to stun nationalist party in Islamist garb than a deeply Islamists in Palestine is sure to strengthen Islamism even its leadership, who, like the rest of the world, had Islamist movement. This may turn out to be illusory. elsewhere. Moreover the Hamas victory comes on the expected a Fatah victory with a strong Hamas show­ To be sure, the Hamas electoral campaign concen­ heels of the strong showing by the Muslim Brother­ ing. It later emerged that the large parliamentary trated on corruption, gangsterism, and authoritarian­ hood in the recent Egyptian elections. majority masked a popular vote of only 44% for ism inside the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, Even before the Hamas victory, the other Palestin­ while downplaying its denial of Israel's right to exist ian tendencies had made many concessions to and its reactionary stances on culture and gender. French youth protest Nonetheless if Palestinian voters were merely rejecting corruption, gangsterism, and authoritarianism, they had many other choices, such as the secular leftist Mexican mine disaster party of Mustafa Barghouti. The Feb. 19 explosion at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in San Juan de Sabinas, Coahuila that killed 65 While Hamas is not as fanatical as many other Islamist movements, its overall program includes miners has had ongoing repercussions in Mexico. A many restrictions in the spheres of gender and culture. two-day general strike of mine workers was held on Progressive and secular Palestinians may resist such March 1-2 that affected eight northern and central measures. It should be noted that in Qalqiliya on the Mexican states, halting production at 70 companies. West Bank, where Hamas has governed locally for a The strike involved 270,000 workers and was only the year, not a single Islamist won this time- around. This second time since the founding of the national stemmed from their banning of a popular cultural fes­ mineworkers union in 1934 that a general strike has tival because it did not segregate men from women. been called. Then, on March 7, 30,000 workers rallied in Mexico City in support of miners. Both of these events were held in part because the Vicente Fox administration has moved to remove the president of Chile under Bachelet the mine workers union, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, Hundreds of thousands of students, workers and job­ Michelle Bachelet, the first woman to be elected who expressed some mild criticism of the general state less took to the streets in cities throughout France for president of Chile, was inaugurated March 11. She of mine safety in the days after the explosion. three major protests in March to oppose the conserva­ considers herself a "socialist," but insists she "wears The families of the 65 miners killed and their sup­ tive government's attempt to gut job security for young many hats" and makes no claim of intending to antag­ porters have continued with their protests at the workers. The First Employment Contract (CPE) would onize relations with the U.S. by asserting more state offices of the owner of the mine, Industrial Minera allow employers greater "flexibility" to terminate new control over the economy. Mexico, and its parent company, Grupo Mexico, employees under 26 years old at short notice. Bachelet's father was an official in the Allende gov­ because the owners say it will take them months to dig Ostensibly this would encourage employers to hire ernment until the 1973 coup, then was jailed , tortured, the bodies out. The conditions in the mines has deteri­ more youth, helping to reduce a youth unemployment and died in prison. Bachelet and her mother received orated greatly in recent years. Union workers work rate of 20%, which reaches 40% in the urban ghettoes. similar treatment but were then allowed to leave the alongside "contratistas," other workers who are legally "Our revolt is...to keep what we have," said Nadjet country for exile. She returned in 1979 and became a self-employed (and non-union) but are doing the exact Boubakeur, leader of the student movement UNEF. doctor.! She served as health minister, then defense min­ same jobs. After a youth was killed in a mine in Quere- The powerful C.G.T. labor union threatened a one- ister, under the outgoing president Ricardo Lagos. taro, March 7, it was reported that only one of the 60 day general strike if the government takes no immedi­ Her cabinet of 20 will include ten women. Women's mines in that state is operating legally. The rest are ate action to cancel the law. Over 68% of French citi­ groups hope that she will push through improvements "abandoned" • mines. zens oppose the legislation. in the: laws on reproductive rights, but a major diffi­ culty is that the legislature continues to have only 10% women, a sad legacy of the 15 years of post-Pinochet Haitian elections repudiate U.S. interference governments. Bachelet's close identification with the economic restructuring begun during the dictatorship, The February elections in Haiti were a clear repudi­ throw of Aristide. While official U.S. policy favored com­ Which has created one of the sharpest divides between ation of the U.S.-orchestrated overthrow of leftist Pres­ promise between Aristide and his conservative oppo­ rich and poor of any Latin American nation, meant ident Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Despite interna­ nents, the International Republican Institute (IRI), a that liter campaign garnered very little enthusiasm tional pressure of various kinds, the Haitian people wing of the Republican Party, operated on a parallel among the youth despite the fact that she was up voted overwhelmingly for Rene' Preval, a close col­ track, telling those same opponents (and their armed against the billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera. league of Aristide, now living in exile in South Africa. allies) to wait for Aristide's overthrow. In addition to having to prove that her "socialism" Preval got. over 50% of the vote in the first round, At the same time, the Aristide legacy is a mixed one. will mean something for the poor, Bachelet will be while his nearest opponent, the neo-hberal Max Mani- On the one hand, he championed the oppressed, in this challenged to help the Mapuche indigenous people and gat, received only 12%. Manigat protested the fact that the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. On the their supporters in their battles against corporate tim­ a recount eliminating fraudulent ballots had put Pre­ other hand, he resorted to warlordism, allowing crimi­ ber interests in the south of the country. A draconian val over the top, but left-of-center candidates like nal gangs to flourish, so long as they kept the small "antiiterrorist" law promulgated under Pinochet has Evans Paul conceded to Preval. externally supported opposition in check. The more been used against the Mapuche in recent years to dis­ Recent reports, especially Walt Bogdanovich and "moderate" Preval will surely try to placate mass suade them from destroying timber company property. Jenny Nordberg's "Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt hunger for change without offending the Bush admin­ Supporters like the lawyer Myriam Reyes Garcia are Haiti Toward Chaos" (New York Times 1/29/06), have istration, but the class contradictions in Haiti may be facing legal battles themselves for standing up for proved the extent of U.S. meddling in the 2004 over­ too deep for such a policy to succeed. them. NEWS AND LETTERS COMMITTEES Who We Are And What We Stand For News and Letters Committees is an National Editorial Board and National what is, but to reveal and further Presentation on the Dialectics of Orga­ organization of Marxist-Humanists Chairwoman of the Committees from develop the revolutionary Humanist nization and Philosophy in The Philo­ that since its birth has stood for the its founding to 1987. Charles Denby future inherent in the present. The sophic Moment of Marxist-Human­ abolition of capitalism, both in its pri­ (1907-83), a Black production worker, new visions of the future which ism (1989), and donated new supple­ vate property form as in the U.S., and author of Indignant Heart: A Black Dunayevskaya left us in her work from mentary volumes to The Raya its state property form, as it has his­ Worker's Journal, became editor of the 1940s to the 1980s are rooted io her Dunayevskaya Collection. News and torically appeared in state-capitalist the paper from 1955 to 1983. discovery of Marx's Marxism in its orig­ Letters Committees aims at developing regimes calling themselves Communist Dunayevskaya's works, Marxism and inal form as a new Humanism and in and concretizing this body of ideas for as in Russia and China. We stand for Freedom, from 1776 until Today her re-creation of that philosophy for our time. the development of new human rela­ (1958), Philosophy and Revolution: our age as Marxist-Humanism. This is In opposing this capitalistic, racist, tions, what Marx first called a new- From Hegel to Sartre and from recorded in the documents on microfilm sexist, heterosexist, class-ridden soci­ Humanism. Marx to Mao (1973), and Rosa Lux­ and open to all under the title The ety, we have organized ourselves into a News & Letters was founded in emburg, Women's Liberation, and Raya Dunayevskaya Collection— committee form of organization rather 1955, the year of the Detroit wildcat Marx's Philosophy of Revolution Marxist-Humanism: A Half-Century than any elitist parly "to lead." We par­ strikes against Automation and the (1982) spell out the philosophic ground of Its World Development. ticipate in all class and freedom strug­ Montgomery Bus Boycott against seg­ of Marx's Humanism internationally, as Dunayevskaya's philosophic compre­ gles, nationally and internationally. As regation—activities which signaled a American Civilization on Trial con­ hension of her creation and develop­ our Constitution states: "It is our new movement from practice that was cretizes it on the American scene and ment of Marxist-Humanism, especially aim... to promote the firmest unity shows the two-way road between the as expressed in her 1980s writings, among workers, Blacks and other itself a form of theory. News & Let­ U.S. and Africa. ters was created so that the voices of presents the vantage point for re-creat­ minorities, women, youth and those This body of ideas challenges all ing her ideas anew. Seeking to grasp intellectuals who have broken with the revolt from below could be heard ruling bureaucracy of both capital and unseparated from the articulation of a those desiring freedom to transcend the that vantage point for ourselves and limitations of post-Marx Marxism, make it available to all who struggle labor." We do not separate mass activi­ philosophy of liberation. ties from the activity of thinking. Send Raya Dunayevskaya (1910-1987), beginning with Engels. In light of the for freedom, we have published crises of our nuclearly armed world, it Dunayevskaya's original 1953 philo­ for a copy of the Constitution of News founder of the body of ideas of Marxist- and Letters Committees. Humanism, became Chairwoman of the becomes imperative not only to reject sophic breakthrough and her final 1987