THEORY / PRACTICE &

"HumanNEWS power is its own end"—Karl Marx Vol.LETTERS 57 No. 6 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 $1 EDITORIAL Stop Obama's re-election doesn't the war on Gaza! end clash of two worlds Nov. 14, 2012—Israel's current onslaught against the Gaza Palestinians, beginning with the assassina- by Franklin Dmitryev While people of every race and class suffered from tion of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari, are more Hurricane Sandy's blows, in areas like New York City's The two worlds of the rulers and the ruled shone Red Hook, Far Rockaway and Staten Island many of than a response to Hamas' recent round of rocket at- through the suffocating blanket of propaganda sur- tacks. Syrian rebels have begun to take over land the working class and people of color faced serious ne- rounding the election in which Barack Obama won a glect from the government in the storms' aftermath. around the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, bringing second term. A pronounced gender gap and long lines revolution to its borders. As with the recent bombing Occupy Wall Street activists, 350.org and others de- at the polls in African-American and Latino areas cided that they could not wait for the state to act. They of the Yarmouk factory in Sudan, allegedly supplying reflected the determination to defeat the reactionary Iranian-built missiles to Hamas, Israel's war moves are created Occupy Sandy Recovery to help people on the Republicans and retain the first Black President. The ground, declaring, "We are creating autonomous zones driven by fear of the Syrian Revolution. biggest defeats were handed to the Tea Party and the Israel's attack must be opposed. "Operation for community and solidarity, not camps for managing Religious Right, notably with votes in four states in the lives of powerless victims." In some areas this was Cast Lead" in 2008, Israel's last war in Gaza, killed favor of marriage equality. thousands, including hundreds of civilians—many of the only help available for a week or more. At the same time a number of protests immedi- It was not only in the storm-ravaged areas that them children. For a government that includes Avigdor ately made it clear that Lieberman, the advocate of Palestinian genocide, to voters faced chaos at the struggle continues. the polls. Especially in carry on a new war against Palestinians is absolutely During early voting, unacceptable and must be opposed by all people of con- predominantly African- Floridians in a long line American and Latino science. That government must be overthrown. chanted, "Let us vote!" PALESTINIANS ARE A TARGET EVERYWHERE areas of swing states, after doors were closed voters faced long lines, At one and the same time, reports out of Syria de- in their faces. Follow- incorrect or mislead- scribe the shelling of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee ing the election, protest- ing instructions, last- camp in Damascus by Assad's genocidal regime, a re- ers in Phoenix chanted, minute changes, and gime that Iran desperately seeks to preserve. "Count our votes!" after privately funded at- It has long been clear that in a war between the learning of hundreds of tempts to intimidate reactionary governments of Israel and Iran, the Pales- thousands of provisional them. In Florida, some tinians' very existence will be threatened. The current and early ballots still had to wait seven hours attacks in Gaza and Damascus (and previously Lata- uncounted, most of them to vote, and Tea Party kia, Syria) are a direct expression of the counter-revo- cast by people of color. activists blocked vol- lutionary essence of these state powers. Outside Democratic unteers from hand- The U.S., France, Turkey and the Gulf States Senator Durbin's office Carole Ramsden ing out water to voters in Chicago, several peo- backed the creation of a new umbrella group to replace Part of the Budget Showdown action in Chicago on Nov. 9. standing in the sun. the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Syrian National ple were arrested dur- Republican-controlled Council (SNC). The SNC had become a marginal player ing a Budget Showdown state governments had passed a blizzard of measures continued on p. 8 rally (see article page 2), demanding deficit cuts be at trying to prevent people of color and students from the expense of Wall Street and the wealthy, not cuts voting, such as photo ID requirements, restrictions on in social programs. Sit-ins are opposing the adminis- registrations, and cutbacks in voting hours. Many laws tration's behind-the-scenes preparations to approve were blocked by courts, but some election officials and the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. And a gathering volunteers still tried to enforce them. Blacks in Ohio WORKSHOPTALKS wave of strikes at Walmarts was building momentum and Latinos in Arizona were disproportionately forced at press time toward planned nationwide actions on to cast provisional ballots that may never be counted. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. But the long lines were a sign that these attempts Just who are the HURRICANE REVEALS TWO WORLDS backfired, hardening the resolve of communities with Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath put the two a history of resisting discrimination. The racism per- makers and takers worlds in stark relief. Its destruction punctuated the vading the campaign was already obvious enough. In last few days of an interminable campaign marked the end, close to 750,000 more Latinos voted for Obama by Htun Lin by silence from both Obama and Mitt Romney about than in 2008, and Black turnout, while down national- The unparalleled billions of dollars spent in the the mounting harm from global warming. Instead, ly, rose substantially in the battleground states of Ohio, 2012 elections, in the midst of the Great Recession, each had jockeyed for position as the true champion of Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida and North Carolina. drowned us in endless ads. Yet Mitt Romney was de- coal mining, of oil drilling, of fracking for natural gas. WOMEN FIGHT BACK feated in no small measure by workers in Ohio and "We've built enough pipeline to wrap around the entire Ayn Rand booster Paul Ryan and the Republi- elsewhere. Workers saw through the glaring contradic- Earth once," bragged Obama. Despite the campaigns' can platform share the basic views on rape, abortion, tions in the claims of the Romney campaign that as a silence on climate change, the storm's devastation birth control and women's role held by Senate candi- seasoned capitalist he would rebuild the economy and brought the issue to the forefront of many American dates Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in help restore jobs. conversations. continued on p. 10 But Romney hadn't seen jobs at GM and Chrysler as worth saving, calling President Obama's Auto Res- cue Package "excessive government intrusion." The big- Special offer! Just off the press: gest lie, however, is shared by both parties. It is the lie that it is capital which creates employment. Right after the election, the biggest news item re- Marxist-Humanist writings on the Middle East ported by the New York Times and the Wall Street Jour- by Raya Dunayevskaya nal was that, fresh on the heels of Obama's victory, the From the Foreword: first crisis to greet the newly re-elected president was The Arab Spring can become a real Regularly priced at $10. the "looming fiscal cliff." turning point in human history. Against THE FIRST CONCERN IS TO SAVE THE BANKS the backdrop of a state-capitalist world Limited time offer: $8 The first concern to greet a newly elected President in a deep and intractable crisis, the OR Obama in 2009 was the looming collapse of the pri- vision of self-determination, courage, $10 for Crossroads of History vate financial sector. Obama's Treasury Secretary and dignity and creativity can raise itself into Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, both from Wall an absolute opposition to the degraded plus a one-year subscription to Street, distributed trillions from the TARP (Troubled reality of endless cutbacks, austerity, and News & Letters Assets Relief Program) that Bush had signed into law. accompanying bigotry that is all capital- Mail order to: News & Letters, 228 S. TARP saved Wall Street's hide and the jobs of ism is offering humanity.... continued on p. 3 Wabash, Suite 230, Chicago, IL 60604. Please In publishing this collection of Raya add $2 postage. Ill. residents add 7% sales tax. Dunayevskaya's writings on the Middle ON THE INSIDE East and revolution in permanence, we Name p. 4 Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: The hope to be part of the worldwide dia- logue that will move the revolution, and Address 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis humanity, beyond the inhuman system p. 2 The U.S. Left and Malala Yousafzai of capitalism with its eternal threats of City war and deprivation, its racism, sexism p. 5 Hegel and Marx on Absolute Method and heterosexism. These horrors must State______Zip p. 12 Famine and drones in Yemen end. In no respect are we willing to be passive spectators at yet another wrong Email Address ONLINE: www.newsandletters.org turning of history. ME 11-12/12 Page 2 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012

WOMAN AS REASON The Left and Malala Chalking a felony? by Terry Moon condemning the U.S. to others. Chicago—On Nov. 9 we held a "Budget Showdown" Tax's polemic is well taken. This is the same Left Meredith Tax, a women's liberationist and political protest at the Federal Building. We were protesting the who is incapable of condemning both U.S. imperialism activist since the late 1960s, author of The Rising of the threatened budget cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, ral- and Bashar al-Assad's slaughter of thousands of civil- Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1880– lying around the Robin Hood tax that would fall mainly ians. As Raya Dunayevskaya says in her essay on page 1917, and now U.S. Director of the Centre for Secular on the rich, and demanding that people get the servic- four in this issue: "It is at this point that the move- Space, a think tank formed to oppose fundamentalism es they need. We came from Occupy Chicago, IIRON, ments opposing war show their own negative character. and promote universality in human rights, has recently SOUL, Northside POWER, the Lakeview Action Coali- The falling into a trap is inevitable when one does not written an important and controversial blog post, "Code tion, the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, and National view positively what they are fighting , instead of Pink, the Taliban and Malala Yousafzai" (http://www. for Nurses United. only what they are fighting against." opendemocracy.net/5050/meredith-tax/code-pink-tal- Some people held a sit-in inside the building and The fact that the U.S. is such a huge and deadly iban-and-malala-yousafzai). were arrested. I was with people rallying on the outside imperialist power blinds much of the Left to the fact In her post she takes up the delegation of Code who were not trying to get arrested. I came to show sup- that there are two worlds in every country and we actu- Pink, a U.S. peace group that purports to be feminist, port. I was in an area where some people were chalk- ally can and should, at one and the same time, condemn to Pakistan, where they marched with former cricket ing. The chalk messages were not threatening, but were U.S. imperialism and support indigenous struggles in- champion turned politician Imran Khan to the borders G-rated messages like, "The people united will never be cluding—or especially—those of women, minorities and of South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold. There they defeated." LGBT people. Because that's what it comes down to, protested U.S. drone strikes that have killed hundreds Police walked up behind me, pinned my arms not only that you condemn both the U.S. and the Tal- of innocent civilians, including children, and apolo- and carted me off. They charged me with a felo- iban, but why. It is because you are grounded in a phi- gized for the strikes. However, they had not a word to ny, destruction of public property. I was held in losophy of liberation that you know enough to support say about the many hundreds killed in Pakistan by the the precinct for six hours. It would not have been those struggling for freedom and a new human society, Taliban, or those killed in Mumbai, India, by Lashkar- so bad, but my kids were waiting on me. The po- even when their enemy isn't exclusively the U.S. e-Taiba, part of a coalition of terrorist groups supported lice confiscated my phone, so I couldn't call to let by their host and guide, Imran Khan. them know where I was for two or three hours. The jail support from Occupy Chicago was amaz- ONE-SIDED SOLIDARITY Slutwalk in Chicago ing. There were people waiting for me when I was re- What Code Pink didn't see coming, as Meredith Tax leased. I was given a court date of Dec. 17, 2:30 PM, at reports, is that while they were in Pakistan, "in near- 2452 W. Belmont. This felony charge is utterly ridicu- by Swat, another Pakistani child, 14-year-old Malala lous. Earlier, another Occupy activist was cited with Yousafzai, was gunned down by the Pakistani Taliban two felony charges, including assaulting a police officer because she was an advocate of education for girls." because, according to the cop, "You damaged my hear- Tax continues, "No turn of events could more ing with your yelling." After months, that was finally forcefully illustrate the idiocy of the U.S. peace dismissed, so I'm pretty sure this will be dismissed too. movement's one-sided approach to solidarity." The Occupy Movement has shown a lot of support. The outcry against the shooting of Malala was so I'm really happy about that. Still, on the day before, a fierce and so passionate that, as Tax points out, "even 15-year-old kid named Dakota Bright was shot in the Imran Khan had to condemn it, though it took him head by a cop on the South Side. As a political prisoner ten hours to do so and he didn't mention the Taliban." Moon for News & Letters Terry I got all this support, but I'd like to see the same kind of As for Code Pink: "Code Pink's Washington office also support go to Dakota's family. did a hasty press release Oct. 10 saying they prayed I fear one day they will be shooting protest- for Malala's recovery and offering $1,000 to her school, ers in the head. There's been an escalation in while making 'a connection between drone attacks and the last year of police aggression toward protest- growing extremism in Pakistan'—as if there were no Slutwalk participants showing off their signs at the demonstration on ers. We're seeing protesters arrested for nothing. Taliban before there were drones." That's been happening in Black and Brown com- Tax's post let the voices of women in the region Sept. 16. Signs read: "The only time that my body 'shuts that thing down' is when I go through menopause"; "My body is a flower, not to be ex- munities for decades. speak eloquently for themselves. What they said, loud ploited"; and "Girls just wanna have funDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS!" The Chicago Police Department is out of hand, and clear, was that they opposed both U.S. imperial- and we need to turn our attention to it. So much at- ism's drones and—as Afiya Zia, a feminist researcher tention was paid to me, but not to this 15-year-old who and activist based in Karachi, Pakistan, said—we "'si- Rape and the disabled got shot in the back of the head by an officer. No atten- multaneously oppose the masculinist misogyny and On Oct. 3 the Connecticut State Supreme Court tion is being paid when they opened fire on a car with non-democratic rule and violence employed by local made the inhuman and sexist decision to overturn the a two-year-old in it—his dad allegedly kidnapped him authoritarian forces including the army, tribal rulers, sexual assault conviction of a man who "had sex" with a and cops fired into the vehicle that both were in. That landed political rulers, the ulama/clergy or indeed, any woman who has severe cerebral palsy, with the intellec- is highly reckless. More attention needs to be paid to patriarchal forces.'" tual functional equivalent to a three-year-old and who these stories. —Marissa Brown Scathingly, Tax conjectures that, "Perhaps the U.S. cannot verbally communicate. The Court held that, be- antiwar movement is so small because of its failure to cause Connecticut statutes define physical incapacity develop a politics that is critical of both U.S. imperial- for the purpose of sexual assault as "unconscious or for ism and fundamentalist movements like the Taliban." any other reason...physically unable to communicate WOMENWORLDWIDE THE TRAP OF ONLY BEING AGAINST unwillingness to an act," the rapist could not be con- by Artemis There were plenty of angry responses to Tax's victed if there was any chance that the woman could post, but what those who responded could not do—in- have communicated her lack of consent. In May the first feminist radio show in Lebanon, cluding those from Code Pink and the other so-called According to the ruling, since the victim was "Sharika wa Laken," premiered on a top radio station, peace delegates—was to bring themselves to actually capable of "biting, kicking, scratching, screech- reaching 70% of the population. NGO representatives, condemn the Taliban as they did the U.S. Oh, well, yes, ing, groaning or gesturing, " the court ruled that journalists, lawyers, legislators, activists, citizens and now that Tax brings it up, and now that they did gun she could have communicated her lack of consent public figures discuss topics affecting women such as down a 14-year-old school girl who got all that press, despite her serious mental deficiencies. the demand for citizenship to foreign husbands and they grudgingly condemn the Taliban too. Many used This outrageous ruling also states that "we, like children of Lebanese women, guaranteeing women's the argument that, since they were Americans, only the Appellate Court, are not persuaded that the state rights, economic empowerment and labor rights, social the U.S. deserved their condemnation. With that logic, produced any credible evidence that the victim was ei- security, higher education, voting, and, importantly, Pakistanis could only condemn the Taliban and leave ther unconscious or so uncommunicative that she was sexual harassment and violence against women. physically incapable of manifesting to the defendant * * * her lack of consent to sexual intercourse at the time of In October hundreds in Tunisia protested the treat- Abortion rights action the alleged sexual assault." ment of a woman raped by a police officer, then charged Chicago—On Oct. 20 dozens of determined women Lack of physical resistance is not evidence of con- with public indecency when she filed a complaint. Only and some men demonstrated against the war on wom- sent as many victims make the good judgment that after she filed her complaint did police claim they found en, this time spearheaded by the Catholic hierarchy physical resistance would cause the attacker to become her in her car in an "immoral position" with her fiancé. in cahoots with crazy anti-abortion, anti-birth control more violent. How can someone with the intellectual Women's groups and others are calling for an investiga- fanatics. This was the same bunch who came out on equivalent of a three-year-old know that she had to kick tion of the Tunisian government and judiciary. June 8 (see "Fighting the war against women," July- or bite to show lack of consent? According to the Rape, * * * Aug. 2012 N&L) to try to claim that requiring employ- Abuse and Incest National Network, lack of consent is Shulamith Firestone, who wrote The Dialectic of ers to include paying for contraception in the insurance implicit "if you were under the statutory age of consent, Sex and helped organize Women's Liberation groups they provide for their workers is an attack on freedom or if you had a mental defect." such as Redstockings and New York Radical Feminists of religion. Anna Doroghazi, director of public policy and com- in the 1960s, died in August. Now, feminist activists are What was heartening was that, though our group munication at Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Ser- petitioning the landlord of her New York East Village remained about the same size, the war on women crowd vices, worried that the Court's interpretation of the law apartment to create a "Shulamith Firestone Memo- was only about a fourth as big as they had been before. ignored these concerns. rial Apartment." The rent would remain below market This time we had a bullhorn, which we all enjoyed im- "By implying that the victim in this case rates, and would be reserved for a woman making an mensely as it was both visibly irritating to those op- should have bitten or kicked her assailant, this important contribution to feminism. posing a woman's right to control her own body, and a ruling effectively holds people with disabilities to * * * great way to get our message across. a higher standard than the rest of the population Middle Eastern women created the facebook group I had a long talk with an older woman active in the when it comes to proving lack of consent in sexu- "The Uprising of Women in the Arab World" where peo- Grey Panthers who was so happy to see us there that al assault cases. Failure to bite an assailant is not ple post photos of themselves with signs saying why they she joined the demonstration—and she wasn't the only the same thing as consenting to sexual activity." support this uprising. Facebook repeatedly disabled one. That so many women and men are happy to see us Beyond all the legal jargon is the human side. administrators and threatened to shut down their ac- protesting and join in is only one measure of how fed Women with disabilities have more than twice the rate counts for sharing a photo of Dana Bakdounes holding up people are with the attack on women's bodies that of rape and/or sexual assault than women without a a sign stating, "I am with the uprising of women in the became so blatant in this election year. disability. They are considered easy targets. It is uncon- Arab world because for 20 years I wasn't allowed to feel One sign spoke loudly to me: "When abortion is il- scionable that the courts would make the distinction the wind in my hair and on my body." Facebook claimed legal, women die." That is certainly the motivation for of saying that this victim could have somehow commu- they removed the post because of offensive speech in many of us standing there, that and a determination to nicated her lack of consent. A decision like this is sick the comments section, but the photo had been reported control our own bodies, lives, and destinies. and dangerous, and encourages those who would take for "nudity" and for being "insulting," although Dana is —Women's Liberationist advantage of someone who is disabled. —Suzanne Rose completely clothed and mostly covered by her sign. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org Page 3 Chicago teachers strike for real reform Robots get promoted New York City—Educators around the country system "educational apartheid…helped show that the Detroit—More sophisticated, inexpensive and safer cheered the gains achieved by the Chicago Teachers union was on the side of Black and Latino children…" robots are on the immediate horizon. They can be used Union (CTU) strike this fall, but also echoed the sen- Mark Torres, a New York public school alongside workers to produce virtually any manufac- timent expressed on one picket sign, "Our strike is teacher and leader of People Power Movement/ tured product requiring repetitive motions and are over—our fight is just beginning." How do we retain, Movimiento Poder Popular, described, "A long available from a firm in Boston called Rethink Robotics. replicate, and build on the history of progressive One problem with existing manufacturing robots is achievements of this strike? and radical educators that their speed and power require protective measures The strike represented organizing under the to keep them from harming humans, as can be seen a mass assertion by union- motto 'Our working on any automated production line. The Boston robot, ized teachers that they conditions are students' called Baxter, does not move as fast and is equipped can create "The Schools learning conditions'" with sensors that will slow it when it encounters a hu- Our Children Deserve," a (from a Sept. 24 posting on man, and a red button that will stop it when pressed. document which called the pubedco.com, an email list Baxter comes with a price tag of only $22,000 each present Chicago system of the Coalition for Public compared with the huge amounts of capital previously "educational apartheid." In Education in New York). required for robotic production. This puts Baxter in a contrast, the so-called "re- Formal evaluation of price range available to manufacturers from the very form agenda" led by Educa- teachers' performance is big to the very small. It takes time and money to train tion Secretary Arne Duncan here to stay. But mean- a new employee to do a task, but with Baxter, a human is the agenda of 21st centu- ingful evaluation will only moves the robot arms once, and it is fully trained. ry capitalism, in which stu- emerge from meaning- Another advantage of Baxter to the capitalist is the dents, schools and teachers ful principles. Who better cost per hour of production, which is estimated to be $4. are all commodities in an Franklin Dmitryev / News & Letters than teachers, with input While this is not as low as the hourly wages of 50 cents ever more alienated system. On Sept. 10, the first day of the teachers' strike, teachers and supporters, from administrators and or a dollar paid in some countries, it is very attractive Despite resistance including many students, parents and workers from other unions, held a communities, to answer to employers in the U.S. paying union wages, or even mass march and rally that shut down part of downtown Chicago. to change within large questions like, "What do the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. teachers' unions like the good teachers need to be- This means that bots will swell the ranks of the un- NEA and AFT, movements from within like CORE come better? How can the teaching profession establish employed by replacing millions of workers, exacerbat- (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) are seeking and maintain standards?" ing the crises faced by workers throughout the U.S. and to organize for changes that will benefit students Emerging from this strike is a recognition that a the world. It is very clear that the advances in technol- and school communities. Ideas, principles and vi- complete revolution, overthrowing capitalism and cre- ogy have outstripped the ability of capitalism to absorb sions of education guided CORE's organizing for ating a human society, would be needed to allow truly without creating insoluble social problems. two years prior to the strike in Chicago. human education to flourish. One contributor to the Since the advent of automated production, begin- Norine Gutekanst, a CTU organizer writing in La- discussion on pubedco.com on Sept. 24 suggested: "Ul- ning with the continuous mining machine in 1949 that bor Notes, said that the union "developed a deep new timately, reforming public education must be part of— turned Appalachia into a chronically depressed area, layer of member leaders and won broad public sup- not a substitute for—a broader movement for economic technology has wreaked havoc in virtually every area port…we made it clear that our union was…part of justice." of human life. a broad coalition." Calling the Chicago Public School Every one of us is either a parent, a teacher or part We still haven't heard much from the robonaut of a school community. All our voices and thoughts are in the space station circling the earth. This robot was needed to advance the struggle. —Susan Van Gelder purported to have many advanced features developed jointly by General Motors and NASA and was sent to WORKSHOPTALKS the space station to test its capabilities. While we don't Union recognized yet know what was discovered, a sure thing is that any continued from p. 1 feature that will aid the productive ability and capacity investment bankers, not the American workers. Now at Hot and Crusty of GM, regardless of the effect on the auto workers, will that corporate dollars are called free speech, Wall be put into practice in GM's auto plants. As one GM Street used our very own surplus labor on their candi- New York City—After 55 days of a nonstop picket line auto worker noted, "If it's good for GM, you can be sure date from Bain Capital to get him to the Oval Office, to in front of a shuttered Hot and Crusty Bakery on Man- it's not good for us." —Andy Phillips allow the corporate welfare recipients on Wall Street to hattan's posh Upper East Side, the new company man- repeat their financial malfeasance. agement agreed to workers' demands for recognition of Then as now, the first order of the day was to save their own independent union and a new contract. Hot Car wash unionizing the banks. Then as now, the big lie is repeated that and Crusty workers were locked out of their restaurant/ New York City—Workers at Astoria Car Wash & Hi- capital creates jobs. Save the banks first. Workers will bakery by the former management under the guise of Tek 10 Minute Lube voted 21 to 5 in September to join follow. Another fiscal cliff looms. But we workers had "renovations" and checking the employees' legal right to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. already been pushed over the cliff a long time ago. work in the U.S. This is the first victory in a six-month campaign to Workers told UNION PUSHES COMPANY PLAN News & unionize 5,000 low-wage car wash workers at the 200 Letters of abuses that mo- car washes in New York City. The Service Employees (SEIU) and its Super-PAC tivated them to organize. In an October election at Webster Car Wash in may have helped the Obama campaign counter Repub- Managers subjected work- Fleetwood in the Bronx, the workers voted 23 to 5 to lican Super-PACs. But it is no small irony that in my ers to verbal abuse and become the second such business in the city to unionize, shop and other medical facilities, our own union, the women workers to sexual citing low wages and harsh job conditions. The union SEIU, is concretely implementing management's pro- abuse. Workers were forced votes follow protests and rallies to improve industry gram in preparation for 2014, the year Obamacare is to to work overtime and were conditions by New York Communities for Change and be fully launched. cheated of their pay. Make the Road New York. The CEO of our HMO participated behind closed The workers contended "The bosses will respect us better now, and see us doors in drafting Obamacare legislation. They now an- that the lockout was the as people," said worker Francisco López. López, a Sal- ticipate tens of millions of new HMO customers who result of their efforts to or- vadoran immigrant who has been working at Webster will have to sign up or pay a tax. A brand new 350-bed ganize a union. They set up Car Wash for a year, said he makes $6 an hour and state-of-the-art hospital is scheduled to open, as well as a picket line, and appealed doesn't always earn enough in tips to take home the clinics and medical offices. to the public for support. $7.25 an hour minimum wage. Meanwhile, in preparation for the new facilities They received it from local The vote comes as state Attorney General Eric opening, the work force is being trimmed. Many front- university students, com- Schneiderman is investigating the Webster Avenue line healthcare workers report extreme exhaustion munity residents, and other shop—one of ten owned by city car wash kingpin John from speedup. Some departments are working at only unions and workers. At the Lage that are being looked at for potential wage-and- 50% staffing levels. Many of these workers say the un- same time, the company hour violations. —Supporter precedented speedup by computerized automation is received an official letter impacting patient care, and they have reported safety from the National Labor violations to the State Department of Health. Relations Board concerning Workers disappear WHOLESALE SHUTDOWNS their illegal actions against Los Angeles—The parking attendant where I bank Management has responded by closing "problem the workers. suddenly disappeared. She had worked for many years areas," shutting down whole wings of the hospital The workers fought on. Articles appeared in the in a little makeshift office with a chair and a window, which have experienced repeated citations and inspec- press concerning this battle. An Oct. 18 rally brought and always greeted the customers and wished them tions from regulators. Workers are then forced to sign attention to the struggle. Finally, they won. As one well. One day the new young guy who replaced her was up for new positions elsewhere in order to continue worker told me, they are very happy with their victory. standing by a post with a machine into which he would working. Many are uncertain what the future holds for When asked if they had a message for readers of insert our parking ticket to open the gate to let custom- them, because looming layoffs will be conducted with this newspaper, a spokesperson for the workers said, ers out. "Where is your office?" I asked. "This is it, this SEIU's Labor-Management Partnership president in "We have to organize. We cannot have fear of the bosses. is the new office," he said, pointing to the post with the secret negotiations. Sí se puede." —Michael Gilbert machine on it. Workers are saying the facility closings are retali- Many workers just like these parking attendants ation for speaking out. We are being pushed over a cliff N E W S & L E T T E R S are getting the short end of this system. Both Romney because we are not "just glad to have a job." This is the VOL.57/NO. 6 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 and Obama promised glossy tax cuts for the working real concrete crisis we are facing. News & Letters (ISSN 0028-8969) is published bi-monthly. Subscriptions are $5 a people, especially the middle class, without mention- The truth is we workers create capital's wealth, not year (bulk order of 5 or more, 25c each) from News & Letters, 228 South Wabash, ing that the minimum wage has not moved a bit for at #230, Chicago, IL 60604. Telephone 312-431-8242. Fax 312-431-8252. Periodical the other way around. Company management will spend postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to News least a decade and that many salaries are frozen. Both billions of dollars of what we have created investing in & Letters, 228 South Wabash, #230, Chicago, IL 60604. Articles may be reprinted capitalist parties had nothing to say about workers, but new facilities. Yet, in order to do that, they say they verbatim if credited to "News & Letters." a lot to say about investments in new technology and Raya Dunayevskaya bringing factories back to the U.S. have to recover that money by trimming the labor force. Chairwoman, National Editorial Board (1955-1987) For rank-and-file workers, that crisis is continuous- Charles Denby, Editor (1955-1983) How does it help the economy to open the doors ly present and real. Nothing will change for us concrete- Olga Domanski, Franklin Dmitryev, Co-National Organizers, News and Letters Com- of factories to workers paid so poorly they do not have ly unless and until we defeat the forces of abstract labor mittees. Terry Moon, Managing Editor. Felix Martin, Labor Editor (1983-1999), John enough money to live? Romney made a lot of stupid re- Alan, National Editorial Board Member Emeritus (2008-2011). and its idea of value production with our concrete labor. marks about working people, and Obama gave us a lot The only way to do that is to begin by reclaiming not News & Letters is printed in a union shop. of empty promises. If the workers don't have the money only our labor-power but the very meaning of our labor. News & Letters is indexed by Alternative Press Index. to spend, you will perish, Mr. Capitalist! —Manel Page 4 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 FROM THE WRITINGS OF The Cuban Missile Crisis and its test RAYADUNAYEVSKAYA of movements' negative character II. The Blockade and the Movements Opposed to It swallowed up by this curious movement. If nothing else can Editor's note: On the 50th anniversary of the be left unsullied, let's at least make sure that our Marxist-Hu- Out of the clear blue, a few short days after he him- Cuban Missile Crisis, we present Raya Dunayevs- manist ideas remain the beacon for future generations as they self argued against Republican opponents who urged kaya's analysis of how it tested not only the rulers' are for ours. Therefore we must unfurl our banner, and a blockade, J.F. Kennedy made the shocking, unilat- rash folly but the anti-war movement's short-mind- proceed with our opposition to both poles of world capi- eral, warlike pronouncement of blockade. Outside of edness—a lesson still urgent today. She wrote this tal, putting in their rightly subordinate place those who Khrushchev's break-up of the summit as a result of the piece as a Political Letter on Oct. 25, 1962, titled "follow the leader," be that Khrushchev or Kennedy. U-2 plane spy incident,2 when the two nuclear giants "Marxist-Humanism vs. the U.S. Blockade of Cuba, were pitted against each other with no intermediaries, III. The Testing Point the Russian Missile Bases There, Fidel Castro's 'Se- the people of the world were never closer to the brink At the same time, we cannot minimize the totality lective' Party, Playing with Nuclear Holocaust." All of nuclear holocaust. The present confrontation is not of the crisis by considering that, Kennedy having finally Raya Dunayevskaya Collection, It can be found in the limited to verbal threats and busted summits. It is now exposed himself as no different from the Republicans #3082-87. All footnotes were added by the editors. clear beyond peradventure of doubt that both Kennedy who had urged blockade before and now urge invasion, Dear Friends: and Khrushchev are mad enough to plunge the world things will be in any way easier for the building of a Marxist-Humanist movement. It is not only the Birch- My preliminary (Oct. 23) statement on the newly into thermonuclear war. If a summit meeting should re- ers5 that will take upon themselves the role of extra created brink-of-war situation as a result of President sult and stave off the day, it clearly will be only a delay- "enforcers." The hysteria created by the administra- John F. Kennedy's blockade of Cuba, Nikita Khrush- ing action. It is likewise clear that Cuba has become the possible locale of the outburst, as Berlin has been and re- tion is much more ominous than that created by a Sen. chev's missile bases there, and the impotence of the mains to this day another focal point, Joseph McCarthy who had no such power as Kennedy. UN the minute the two nuclear titans decide to un- but that what is involved is the United States-Russian competition Whenever a political position was proven wrong, there leash a war holocaust, correctly stressed the following: for domination of the world. were those among the Marxists "In opposing war, we make it clear that we are op- It is at this point that the who tried to misuse a Marxist posed to nuclear giants: Russia1 and the U.S. Un- both movements opposing war show statement about the whip of the der no circumstances do we get ourselves maneuvered their own negative character. counter-revolution helping the into a position where we, for a single moment, sound The falling into a trap is in- revolutionary development. Its so much against either one of them that we appear to evitable when one does not view ultimate tragedy was Stalin's idi- be for the other. Above all we oppose war not only positively what they are fighting otic statement, "After Hitler, us." as 'againsters' but primarily because we are for for, instead of only what they are First, the statement about the a totally new society, on new, on human begin- fighting against. Thus though whip of the counter-revolution re- nings, free from exploitation and discrimination, the Campaign for Nuclear Disar- ferred to it urging the revolution where the population to a man has the destiny mament (and Committee of 100) on when it is already in pro- in his own hands, beginning with the workers at are supposed to be for banning the cess but has not yet reached the point of production." bomb, they had not a word to say full fruition, as, say, between Here I wish to develop this position on two levels: against its spread to yet another February and before October (l) the objective situation and nearness of war; and (2) country, in this case Cuba. Obvi- 1917, when the Kornilov episode ramifications of this crisis for our existence both as an ously, the Trotskyites, along with exposed Kerensky6 and allowed organization and as a body of ideas, both on the ques- the Communists, are not the only the full development of the Rus- tion of continuous activity and writings, beginning ones who think of "good" bombs sian Revolution. In a non-revo- with the next issue of the paper. (Russian) and "bad" bombs lutionary period, the problems I. Before the Blockade (American). The professional nu- confronting Marxist-Humanism clear disarmament people have are made harder, not lessened, A good deal of illumination on both these factors now discovered that, in Cuban by the blockade, for the man who can be gained if we take it out of the present moment of hands (or at least on Cuban soil Women protest the Cuban Missile Crisis at the UN, 1962. has the means to start a nuclear crisis and see that which was inherent in it the day be- for these are not really in Cuban, holocaust does not forget for a fore. It happens that, on the basis of the Resident Edi- but in Russian, hands), the bomb inspires them to the moment his power to press down upon the opposition to torial Board discussion on Cuba on Oct. 8, Inez gave a following slogan, "Viva Fidel, Kennedy to Hell." his war-provoking policy. report to the Detroit local on Oct. 19, in which she said: OK, let's take up Fidel. Even without a bomb, he Take even the minor question of Kennedy's timing "What is new in Cuba today is that Russia is there, has moved so far away from the revolution he led that it his announcement of nuclear bases in Cuba to when it not in spirit but in guns, tanks, missiles with nuclear is hard to see what he is making of Cuba other than a would be most useful to the Democrats running for elec- warheads facing the U.S." This was before Kennedy's satellite of Russia, and I don't mean it only as a storer of tion. Two percent one way or the other may win him the "discovery," timed to election politics. Then Inez con- missile bases, but as an outpost of single-party state-cap- election of a Governor or a Congressman. Once won—or tinued: "What is a year old, but has been new for the italism. In the misnamed speech, "Marxism-Leninism," lost—however, he has to be concerned not with a 2% American movement ever since the fiasco of the U.S.- delivered on Dec. 2, 1961—nearly a year ago, that is— margin but with the fact that over 60% of the American sponsored invasion of Cuba, is that our basic rights Fidel expounded his conception of why an "integrated people are opposed to invasion of Cuba. As the capitalist and freedoms have been jeopardized, and these will revolutionary organization," that is to say, a single party ruler he is, he then turns the power against his own become more circumscribed. In opposing any invasion in which the Communists and what was left of the July people. Everyone who is not for his suicidal policy be- or war against the Cuban people, we cannot, however, 26th Movement3 merged. From urging his comrades "to comes "the enemy." let Khrushchev get away with playing 'the champion of overcome (their) scorn for military academies" through Of course, we increase our activity, not lessen it. peace' just because he defends Castro, who has taken his love of The Plan ("I always had a plan") as against the Of course, we know the universal opposition to war and away the rights and freedoms of the Cuban people as "anarchism" represented by opposition to him ("I am not can build on that. Of course, we build our organization Khrushchev has of the Russian people and Kennedy going to ask what Manolo Fernández4 represented, be- along with developing our ideas comprehensively, but of the American people. All three cause I believe he represented trash; we can do so only by being fully conscious of all the ob- are ready to shed blood to preserve he was a 'mad anarchist'") to his glo- stacles in the way. This is why the preliminary state- their power." rification of Khrushchev ("one has ment emphasized that: At that same meeting—and it only to read Khrushchev's report to "We have no power other than those of ideas, even as the working people have no arms other than those is necessary to keep in mind that the 22nd Congress….The building of their labor power. Therefore it would be folly to act this was held four days before the of socialism follows a well-beaten path by now"), this petty-bourgeois as if by opposition we mean the kind of arms that announcement of the blockade of idiot sees the truly independent only the bourgeoisie has. They—both Kennedy and Cuba—I stressed that what was third road—against both U.S. and Khrushchev—have arms and ships and missiles and wrong with people who pretend Russia and for a new humanist so- prisons and jet bombers. They can afford to play games that Russia is not in Cuba is that ciety—as an incursion of the "strict as to who is the 'aggressor' and 'deceiver' and who is the they thereby cover up the fact that Russia is the great- standard of selection" which must characterize "a party violated and deceived while they jockey for best position est exporter of counter-revolution. It is easy to see coun- of leadership." Now if only the workers will continue to to attack. We refuse to get into any such arguments.... ter-revolution when it is as direct as it is in the outright work, only harder, and agree that "The Ideal System of Our position must be as unique as it is, not either 'pop- squashing of a revolution, as the Russian destruction of Government Is the Party System," he can continue to ular frontist' or pretense to power."... the Hungarian Revolution. It is not easy to see counter- lead "collectively"—a la Khrushchev in Russia. Everything we now do—whether that be a front- revolution when it is a question of planned exploitation Anyone can—though it must be admitted that Fi- pager, a pamphlet, an educational, activity in a strike of the proletarian in his daily life. Yet these Russian del doesn't do it very well—repeat generalizations of or picket line—must bear the positive stamp of Marxist- "technicians" have been sent there, among other rea- Marxism on the role of the working class. The proof, Humanism and the totally new foundations for a truly sons, in order to compel the Cuban working people, who the only proof, that it is a way of life, not a mere weapon human society. Johnny put it succinctly enough when are resisting anti-labor laws, fighting the diversion of of propaganda, is its realization in life. No such thing is he said that we must learn to express our ideas clearly the Cuban Revolution from its announced humanism true in Fidel's Cuba, where not a single organ—from "in 25 words or less," that is to say, with full conscious- to state-capitalist channels, to compel them to produce the trades unions to the peasant unions, from the state ness that our time is not unlimited. more and more for less and less, and at the same time to the party—is any longer controlled by the working While we are under no illusion that times of such leave their political destiny to "the party and its leader." people. Nevertheless, because so many in the nuclear heightened crises are propitious for building a mass or- Finally, those who can't get away from the spuri- disarmament movement have been forged as "again- ganization, we are sure that the new sense of urgency ous ground for argument established by Communists sters" rather than as proponents of a totally new so- is just the impulse needed to intensify our activity in a for the special benefit of the liberals, to the effect that ciety, the Communists can set so fatal a trap for them way that the meeting of the movement from theory with if the U.S. has a "right" to bases in Europe, Russia that they forget what their very reason for existence that from practice will not be left to chance. It is a time has a "right" to one in Cuba, fail to see that the Rus- is—opposition to nuclear armament—and shout "Viva of testing of individuals as well as ideas and organiza- —Raya sian arms imported into Cuba are not one-tenth of the Fidel." tion. On this life-and-death question, at this life-and-death threat to the U.S. that they are to the Cuban peo- 5. The extremist right-wing John Birch Society, still active moment, we can under no circumstances allow ourselves to be ple. Small Cuba, even when armed by Russia, is no today, claimed that labor unions and the civil rights move- match for U.S. might, but it is a power against the un- 2. On May 1, 1960, a U.S. U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis ment were Communist conspiracies. One of its founders was armed revolutionary underground, and it is for this Gary Powers was shot down over Russian air space, causing the father of the billionaire Koch brothers. purpose precisely that they are intended. the breakup of a U.S.-Russia summit on disarmament. 6. Alexander Kerensky, a socialist opportunist, headed the 3. The July 26th Movement was a revolutionary group orga- Provisional government set up following the February 1917 1. Dunayevskaya refused to call the state-capitalist Russian nized to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Russian Revolution. General Lavr Kornilov led a failed empire “USSR” (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), be- Castro came to be its leader. counter-revolution against Kerensky in August. Lenin's cause it was neither socialist nor run by actual soviets, and 4. Manolo Fernández was a Cuban labor union leader who was Bolsheviks helped defeat Kornilov, opening the way for the was dominated by Russia. ousted by the government shortly after Castro took power. October Revolution. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org Page 5 ESSAY The 200th anniversary of Hegel's absolute method by Ron Kelch break with the old in the arena of human institu- would only come from "the party of the concept" which tions (spirit), resulting in a new Napoleonic landscape. instead turned "against the inadequacy of the world All revolutions, in the sciences no less than in gen- Hegel's absolute method came out of soberly facing that which has to be made philosophical" (CW, 1:86). eral history, originate only in this, that the spirit of man, new landscape, and the terror from which it emerged, What interested Marx is that Epicurus introduced for the understanding and comprehension of himself, for as being no conscious realization of the positive in the the element of freedom in the atomism of Democritus the possessing of himself, has now altered his categories, power of the negative. For Hegel, such a conscious self- where everything is the result of a mechanical neces- uniting himself in a truer, deeper, more intrinsic rela- realization would become absolute Spirit, not as any sity of atoms creating different combinations as they tion with himself. fixity but as totally new beginnings in human freedom. fall through the void. Epicurus added the dimension of —Hegel In other words, if a conceptual movement can freedom asserting that atoms freely "swerve"3 into each Today's global search for a new world against the shape the natural sciences, how much more does the other and mix it up. "dictatorship of capital" is seen in waves of revolu- negation of the negation, the positive in the power of Marx, in Capital, drew on Epicurus' view of atom- tionary mass self-activity and organization in public thought's negation of the old, hold for the human world ism to criticize the capitalist cult of isolated individuals squares. This global drive for freedom is happening where logic is the specifically human attribute? While operating as atoms while the thoroughly social char- on the 200th anniversary of Hegel's absolute method logic, which for Hegel is the self-determination of the acter of their lives is determined by relations among which meant so much to Marx's philosophy of perma- concept, is at "the very heart of things," the concepts things, commodities and capital (Capital, 172). The nent revolution. Marx's philosophy takes on new mean- that shape humans' relations with each other and with 1871 Paris Communards, who created a new way of or- ing with every revolutionary event. nature come within thought. Thus, thinking can move ganizing their lives, made it clear to Marx that the form In 1812 Hegel made beyond "instinctive activity" to reveal the concept as "an in which reality presents itself to those who create that a startling proclama- intelligent and free act," that is, an act "performed with reality through their labor is absolutely a function of tion, and demonstration awareness of what is being done." In so doing "spirit human relations. in his 1 Science of Logic, begins to be free" (Science of Logic, 37). The absolute opposite of the self-alienating of an absolute method in commodity-form is social individuals, recognizing which the concept (Notion) MARX'S NEW BEGINNING FROM ABSOLUTE METHOD themselves as such through freely associated labor, determines itself. The that is, freely, consciously created human relations in philosophical world and Marx, too, begins in 1844 from what is specific to production (Capital, 171). Further, the self-alienating the human species—labor as free, conscious, life-affirm- the world of revolution- commodity-form arises, not from sensuous experience, ing activity in contrast to alienated labor, reduced to a ary theory continue to be but rather from the "power of abstraction." The "power mere means to life (CW, 3:276). Distinguishing himself alternately attracted and of abstraction" specifically sets humans apart from the from Hegel, Marx insists on beginning from the con- repulsed by Hegel's asser- beasts because whenever humans engage each other tion in his 1812 Preface cept explicitly embodied in the whole human being. and nature they do so through abstractions (Capital, that "a given particular is not subsumed under this As with Hegel, this specifically human species 90; CW, 30:232). Any new beginning in human "atoms" character could only emerge in its own right as "nega- universal" (Science of Logic, 28) of absolute method. freely mixing it up is, as well, a new beginning in the tion of the negation" (CW, 3:329). "Positive humanism, Rather, Hegel says, absolute method is the movement self-determination of the concept. through which the particular, the given, the concrete, beginning from itself" is not negatively counterposed etc. determines itself. to nature because human labor is itself a dimension of DUNAYEVSKAYA: ABSOLUTE AS NEW Then the dialectic is no longer a spectator sport as nature. Nor is positive humanism a fixed concept exter- BEGINNING it was in the "introductory" Phenomenology of Spirit nal to labor like collective property. It is, rather, labor Hegel's absolute meth- where the philosopher traced how consciousness, in which constantly transforms or negates the given state od—the self-determination its movement through each stage over 2,500 years, of nature as well as human nature. Only when labor of the concept through worked out the way it knows its object as itself. Hegel's is alienated does this negation express itself as a log- the negation of the nega- Logic starts directly with the movement of the concept, ic external to the human being like the accumulation tion—underwent another thought itself, as the organization of the historical of capital. Rather, negation that begins from positive development when Raya movement of consciousness. However, Hegel's concept, humanism is accompanied by a negative return to self Dunayevskaya confronted which has its own self for an object, is no mere turn in- (negation of the negation) in which each one recognizes the problem of "what hap- ward. Rather, the freedom of the concept emerges out of the constant expansion of human capacities in their pens after the revolution?" this movement to engage life and spirit as a new unity own work, especially in cooperation with others (CW, She was working out the of theory and practice. 3:341-42). meaning of the transfor- MOVEMENT THROUGH THE NEGATIVE Marx could launch such a new perspective on hu- mation of the great 1917 man liberation in total with Hegel's abso- Russian Revolution into While Hegel's self-determination of the concept is continuity lute method because method itself is subject to dialecti- its opposite—a totalitar- not "mystical," it is counterintuitive because it does not cal development. It is why Marx could say in Capital ian one-party state. Ab- begin from "the understanding"—the particular con- that his dialectic is the "opposite" of Hegel's "Idea" as solute method never bows ceptual framework through which facts emerge. Rather "creator of the world" and yet avow himself a "pupil to a new given—especially the conceptual framework, the paradigm, is a moment of that mighty thinker" (Capital, 102) whose dialectic one that is a fixed identity, of the universal of thought's power of the negative. The is "the source of all dialectics" (Capital, 744). At the like collective property. conceptual framework through which facts present very start of his focus on labor in the 1843 introduc- Rather, it provides a new themselves as given comes out of the negation of its pre- tion to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Marx vantage point for the future after the revolution. Far decessor, just as what is currently taken as the given warned that one "cannot abolish [Hegelian] philosophy from Marxism being an external mediating force like will likewise be negated and its negation will generate without realizing it" (CW, 3:180). Realizing Hegel's self- a vanguard party to lead, absolute method is an orga- a new positive, a new set of given facts. The movement determination of the concept had a pull on Marx, from nization of thought that can be a force for a new be- through negating specific, determined content always his 1841 doctoral dissertation and his first critique of ginning in the conscious self-realization of the freedom implies a new positive and never stops. Hegel aimed Hegel to the end of his life. That was when Marx ex- idea. What is key is that the self-development of the to overcome the pervasive prejudice which forgets this plained Hegel's (Science of Logic, 238-313) critique of freedom idea is seen as a dimension of the spontaneous movement of the concept and repeatedly falls back into that most thought-centered of fields, mathematics, in movement. viewing thought as a general empty negative. particular the invention of calculus. In the Logic's 1831 Preface to the second edition, MASSES IN MOTION: A FORM OF THEORY a prescient Hegel asserted that thought's movement MARX'S CRITIQUE OF NEWTON For Dunayevskaya, the action of masses in motion through the negative even shapes "the empirical and Marx's 1881 Math- is not just a force or content for a preexisting theory, but natural sciences" where "the study of nature compels ematical Manuscripts is itself a form of theory. That form of theory manifests us to fix the categories" (Science of Logic, 32-33). Today showed, against Newton's the power of abstraction. The reason in mass action it is commonplace to acknowledge that scientific revo- and Leibniz's mystical often undermines the dualities or paradigms which lutions occur through negations of given facts driving form of calculus, that cal- shape the prevailing view of the world. Thus, it was the paradigm shifts. Thus, the Ptolemaic earth-centered culus comes out of the Black masses in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955- universe gave way to the solar system and Newton's "negation of the negation" 56 that brought the U.S. out of McCarthyism and shift- grand synthesis. Its negation, in turn, produced Ein- of the quantum in ordi- ed the perspectives on freedom from "us vs. them" to stein's world in which every fact is different from New- nary algebra.2 Like Hegel, contradictions within this country. So, too, the Hungar- ton's world. 2012 is also the 50th anniversary of Thomas Marx criticized Newton for ian revolutionaries created new Workers' Councils and Kuhn's groundbreaking Structure of Scientific Revolu- merely using calculus as rediscovered Marx's original humanism as a weapon tions, after which "paradigm shift" became practically an operational extension of against state-capitalist totalitarians calling themselves a cliche but which Kuhn proved captured a crucial mo- his theories about external "Marxists." ment in the true development of the most empirically planetary motion. This critique, written toward the end Organization that recreates Marxism for our epoch oriented natural sciences. of Marx's life, corroborated a central theme of Hegel's is the "party of the concept." That "party of the concept" HEGEL'S CONFRONTATION WITH KANT Logic, namely that fixing the idea in an abstract mate- has to explicitly bring the creative power of the negative rialism does not allow the idea to speak for itself, nor is into the fray in a way that it does not just undermine In his time Hegel confronted the philosopher Im- it conducive to a genuine empiricism, that is, letting the prevailing dualities but becomes recognized in-and-for- manuel Kant. Kant, to his credit, recognized that the world speak for itself in its absolute difference. itself. Hegel's "self-bringing forth" of the freedom idea Newtonian synthesis was not just about what was "out It wasn't atomism (the theory that all matter is can be recognized as immanent in the masses' reach there," but was impossible without pure categories of composed of individual particles) as an abstract materi- for totally new human relations and self-organization thought. Yet Kant was so "overawed by the object" that alist philosophy that interested Marx when, in his 1841 in the public square. Absolute method as new begin- he stopped the dialectical movement dead with a purely doctoral dissertation, he claimed Hegel missed some- ning shapes a new unity of theory and practice insofar thought-up abstraction, the "thing-in-itself" (Science thing in the ancient atomism of Epicurus. As a young as a new reality created by the movement is not, once of Logic, 51). Kant posed the "thing-in-itself" as a bar- Hegelian, Marx confronted how to move forward after again, experienced as a given but as a moment in a per- rier that thought could never penetrate. Hegel's total philosophy of freedom co-existed with a manent movement of the concept as an "intelligent and Hegel confronted the mental barrier Kant erected world of unfreedom. Many post-Hegelians turned in- free act." against revolutionizing philosophy even as the French ward, focusing only on the inadequacy of philosophy be- Revolution revealed the power of thought to totally 3. A new book by Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve (Norton, cause of its non-realization. Real progress, said Marx, 2011), tells of the 15th century rediscovery of Epicurus 1. Hegel's Science of Logic (Humanities Press, 1989). Also Karl 2. For a summary of Marx's argument see The Fetish of High through Lucretius' "On the Nature of Things." This rediscov- Marx and Frederick Engels, Collected Works (International tech and Karl Marx's Unknown Mathematical Manuscripts ery of Lucretius' life-celebrating ode to Epicurus, for whom Publishers: New York) is referenced as "CW" with the vol- by Ron Brokmeyer (Kelch), Raya Dunayevskaya, Franklin death was nothing to fear, animated Renaissance humanism ume number and page number in the text, except for the Dmitryev, et al, now available online at: http://catalog.ha- against the Church's obsession with the beyond, especially commonly used Ben Fowkes translation of Capital (London: thitrust.org/Record/003870963 death, and the suffering that will ensue if Church dictates Penguin, 1976). are not followed. Page 6 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 GLOBAL CRISES, GLOBAL REVOLT HIT CAPITALISM "Reactionary U.S. election shows kind of labor?" is part of the revolution capital's contradictions" (Sept.-Oct. but reaches beyond it, to a vision of la- N&L) is good in that it is written in bor after the revolution. So it's not just plain language and shows that it is not a question of "advancing the struggle," capital that creates jobs, but that in fact but of how both labor organizations and READERS'VIEWS labor is the source of capital. I like that revolutions get transformed into their it does not end with hopelessness. opposite. Activist was unable to get there. The woman to the article to identify names and inci- Teacher Bay Area couldn't leave her mother alone to at- dents today's readers might not remem- Bay Area *** tempt 15 flights of stairs. ber, but Dunayevskaya's article remains *** The last lines of the "Workshop Disability rights advocate otherwise completely relevant to today. The crisis is not only economic but Talks" column in the Sept.-Oct. issue Chicago Longtime Supporter environmental. The consensus among were something I couldn't stop thinking Los Angeles climate scientists is that global warming about. They were about something Marx • *** is real, primarily caused by human ac- had been looking for in the future as THE ELECTIONS I loved Dunayevskaya's column, tivity, and is a threat to our future. The "making labor, at last, not a mere means "Historic roots of far Right threat to The discussion of voting or not vot- world population has reached 7 billion to an end, but an end in itself." I kept U.S." (Sept.-Oct. N&L)! It is historical, people who are releasing 26 billion tons thinking, we go to work to make a liv- ing in the Sept.-Oct. Readers’ Views was and the footnotes extend it to today. I of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere ing, and then I asked myself, "What is answered in the affirmative by other have one quibble: comparing the Right annually. It all stems from the fetish of the purpose of our life?" Manel RVs. The knockout punch came from to cancer is not quite right, it's more like commodities at the point of production. Los Angeles an article on "Tensions over race in Oc- AIDS, in that it gives opportunities to We need to achieve a 90% reduction in cupy Chicago." It may be difficult for other diseases. Supporter carbon dioxide by the year 2050 to have revolutionaries to defend voting, yet it is Bay Area a chance at sustainability. Freely associ- • something that we can't throw away on *** ated labor would be the activity needed HURRICANE the road to revolution. The Republicans "Historic roots of far Right threat to to accomplish this goal. Subscriber HORRORS know the value of the vote, which is why U.S." speaks about politicians igniting Chicago they are trying so hard to suppress it. fears in the middle-class. It could have Because Voter *** been written today, about the election Sandy affected Bay Area Even when capitalism works the everyone, it we just had. This is what the prison ex- way it's "supposed to," the economy *** pansion of the last few decades is about. opened ground Obama's re-election was a victory moves toward crisis. At some point fi- The hysteria about releasing anyone for relation- against hatred and the extremist Right. nance capital and whole countries from prison is fueled by instilling fear ships between I was a volunteer for Obama in Iowa and have to be rescued. No matter which of "the criminal," which has become a people, which does not mean that Black, Chicago. Now that he's won, it's time to way we go, capitalism is bent on self- code word since Bush Sr.'s election. Rul- poor, Latino, and the elderly weren't hit pressure him to fulfill his stated com- destruction. Dunayevskaya wrote that it ing through fear is so contemporary it is harder. It also revealed Marx's maxim mitment to human rights and reducing doesn't mean it is automatic, but needs that having one basis for science and poverty, which he never mentions. Even remarkable to have that pointed out in a a hefty revolutionary push from masses Urszula another for life is a lie. There is fear, for though I like him and some things he historical perspective. of workers. Yet it isn't just workers who Bay Area example, that industrial pollution (like has done like the healthcare bill, I op- have to rise up. All of humanity must dioxins in New Jersey's rivers stirred pose him for continuing Bush policies take part in delivering the final blow. up by the storm) was carried in the like keeping Guantanamo open and at- Asian American • mud that now coats so many shoreline tacking Pakistan with drones, killing PHILOSOPHY AND REVOLUTION Northern California homes. Occupy Sandy has been in the many civilians. Where he's very danger- *** Freedom for one is the very basis of forefront of assistance to those hardest ous is the National Defense Authoriza- It is believed today that the old can freedom for all. This principle is the con- hit. Can new beginnings be made from tion Act (NDAA) allowing him to jail ac- trast between bourgeois and revolution- be left behind—the big factories, the tivists like us for suspicion of terrorism. understanding the commonality of suf- ary journalism. Gerry Emmett in "Syr- uneducated workers—and we will move Patriot for peace and justice fering from the storms? ian revolution fights Assad's genocide, into a new capitalism. But food, clothing, Chicago Susan Van Gelder world powers watch" (N&L, March-April iPhones still depend on sweated labor. New Jersey *** Surplus value comes from that variable 2012) lets philosophy speak for itself, *** On Nov. 7 citizens in Michigan vot- capital, the human being who is increas- full of passion, through the voices of sub- Hurricane Sandy is an example of ed to repeal Public Act 4, the emergency ingly being removed from production manager law passed by the legislature jectivities in a global movement. what happens to the disabled during an Prisoner supporter and forced into the world of low-wage, in 2011. There was formerly a less dra- emergency. With no power, life-saving California no-benefit work of service, distribution, conian law passed in 1990, Public Act home medical equipment cannot be used. etc. In reality capitalism produces com- 72, that was in effect when Public Act 4 *** With no elevators, people in wheelchairs modities, not wealth. Kevin M. was passed. Two pending lawsuits claim The need of movements for a phi- cannot get out of their apartments to Chicago that Public Act 72 was repealed when losophy of buy food or to get their medications. Public Act 4 was passed, one brought by revolution Lack of transportation means that their the Flint City Council, and one brought rests on the • aides cannot get to them. People have by the Sugar Law Center on behalf of "quest for LABOR AND LIFE been forced to leave their disabled loved various citizens. In any event, the for- universal- ones in bed for days because they have ity"—which Javier's article in the Sept.-Oct. mer law did not give emergency manag- no help to dress them or get them out of is the drive N&L, "West Coast port shutdowns and ers the power to void union contracts or bed or to the bathroom. Several disabled of human beings to be whole and free. forms of labor struggle," makes it clear simply bypass local governments; it was people have died in buildings that were aimed only at financial management. We could see it in Arab Spring, in Syria, that it is not new that the labor lead- flooded and they were unable to get out. ership betrays striking workers. Even The election results show that the in the outpouring against the shooting Rescue workers going door-to- when leaders are good activists, they fall emergency manager was unpopular of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan. The de- door in one high rise found a 73-year- under the illusion that capital employs across the state. Voters in only eight sire for the right to self-development is old woman who was taking care of her people and give in to automation. Such counties out of a total of 83 counties vot- universal. We need to be more explicit 97-year-old disabled mother. They were mental barriers are at the root of the ed to keep Public Act 4, even though very about a philosophy of revolution giving betrayals. The workers' question, "What out of food and water, and their worker few counties were directly affected by it. action a direction today. Only in Berrien County, where Benton Women's Liberationist Harbor is located, did voters living in a Chicago APPEALS FOR SUPPORT FROM RUSSIA, COLOMBIA county directly affected by Public Act 4 *** Lawyer An appeal from the Russian leftists United, we will never be defeated! vote to keep it. At Occupy Wall St. (OWS) one can Flint to their comrades in the struggle: To see this letter in its entirety engage in dialogue with people about *** We, the representatives of Rus- go to: http://newsandletters.org/An- topics from anarchism, to the elections, A 14-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai, sian leftist organizations, turn to our nounce/Russia.asp to Marxist-Humanism. At OWS Free gets shot in the head by Taliban thugs comrades all over the world with an ap- *** University I attended classes which who feel brave for shutting up a kid peal for solidarity. This call and your Community leader Felix Manuel were Marxist in orientation. There who demands education for all girls and response to it are very important to Banguero was among 27 Afro-Colom- is still a movement made up of people boys. You could say they're crazy in Pak- us. Right now we are facing not just bian and Indigenous activists arrested looking for a solid theoretical and philo- istan. But is it really different from the another instance of dubious sentenc- by the Colombian military in June, ac- sophical base for their actions. Some craziness of Todd Akin in Missouri, who ing by the Russian "justice" system or cused of ties to the FARC guerrillas. are open to Marxist-Humanism because believes women who are "legitimately" another case of a human life broken by Some of those arrested were already of our rejection of the vanguard party raped can't get pregnant? In case you the encounter with the state’s repres- under threats by the right-wing para- and embrace of the totality of Marx's think he's some sort of Republican odd- sive apparatus. Today the authorities militaries that the government claims thought. Marxism still has the power to ball, don't forget that exterminators say have launched against us a repressive no longer exist. change individuals and create new fight- for every cockroach you see, there are campaign without precedent in the Banguero was serving as Cultural ing forces ready to change the world. 500 you don't see. (I apologize to the recent history of Russia, a campaign Adviser of the town of Guachene. He M. Gilbert actual insects for using them as an ex- whose goal is to extinguish the Left as has a long history of community activ- New York ample.) David an organized political force. The recent ism, and was a significant figure in the *** Oakland, Calif. arrests, threats, beatings, aggressive struggle for Law 70, which in theory It wasn't just to pass the time that media attacks and moves towards de- guarantees that Afro-Colombian lands at every Occupy site I visited there was claring leftist groups illegal all point to and culture must be respected. His ar- • a library and time set aside for presenta- the new general strategy on the part of rest is one more example of how little TODAYNESS OF RAYA'S ARCHIVES tions and discussion. In a better world the authorities, much more cruel and the Colombian state wishes to comply The 1964 "From the Writings of time is the space for human develop- much less predictable than that of re- with its own written laws. Raya Dunayevskaya" article in the Sept.- ment, as Marx said it was. When we set cent years... To support Felix Manuel Bangue- Oct. N&L was so relevant that it's scary. aside time to examine matters and "do" Please, send your reports on soli- ro and others arrested please contact It was about the nomination of Barry philosophy, we move closer to the revo- darity action and any other informa- Charo Mina Rojas of Black Communi- Goldwater by the far-right Republicans, lution Marx called for that will finally tion or questions to this email: solidar- ties Process International at charomi- but I fear the extreme right wing today herald the beginning of human history. [email protected]. [email protected]. Gerry Emmett is far better organized. I appreciated the Marxist-Humanist California Solidarity is our only weapon! Chicago seven footnotes the N&L editors added NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org Page 7

EDUCATION AND LIBERATION that everything is fine when it is awful. Civilization on Trial (ACOT), but it's all about. What ex- The event of Malala Yousafzai being not a number that compels us to study it actly is "Marxist" The question of "reform" means shot in the head for wanting an educa- today. Many of the "facts" of Black His- literature? Do you very different things to the Obama ad- tion in Pakistan is not just about "over tory which were rescued from obscurity support political ministration and to teachers, students there." It's reflected in the rapists who by ACOT appear in K-12 social studies prisoners? Radi- and parents. "Reform" for some has fill our military. And we are constantly textbooks, but ACOT lives on because cal Social prison- come to mean the top-down imposition menaced by violence from the state. I in the context of a philosophy, it reveals ers? Or POW's? of an education to meet the new needs feel a real sense of urgency because it's the revolutionary dialectic of American Those groups are of capitalism—which does not include obvious that capitalism is the problem, history. That is, unlike bourgeois history very interesting, but they are always poor and minority children becoming while the Left gets all tied up in knots books, ACOT describes the interrelation just complaining. They act as if they are workers, thinkers and real citizens in over a discussion of "tactics." of mass movements and ideas emerging fighting capitalism but they aren't doing society's future. It also means an evalu- Teacher from them. Susan anything about the problem except com- ation system that even conservative Bay Area New York plaining. I have a lot of questions and supporters recognize is not based on *** *** would like some information about your valid measurements, but only designed It is not just the "Old Guard" that One of the consequences of Obama organization. to wrest control from unions and to de- refuses to acknowledge that teachers having been elected as the first Black Prisoner professionalize teaching, transforming are part of the working class, which has president is that it gave added impetus Tehachapi, Calif. it into "tutoring for test prep." So they been under attack for hundreds of years, to the illusion of a post-racial society. *** tried to make it look like teachers and but especially since the 1970s. It was Obama shied away from making race Your paper keeps me aware of the their unions oppose reform. That kind of brought out during the teachers' strike an issue. In the debates, race was spo- real issues facing common people. I reform, we do oppose. here in Chicago that this strike was part ken of only in the code words the Right love "Queer Notes." I'm Gay. Your paper Retired teacher activist of the larger class struggle, and without uses. It gives people an underestimation helps me think of others' plight. If I were New Jersey that conviction you get stuck with "work- of "Black masses as vanguard" and the free, I would volunteer to join the fight *** ing within the rules." potential of a new revolutionary explo- in some of these causes. I enjoy your paper but I would like to Longtime teacher sion ahead. Prisoner see more articles/analysis on Chicanos. Chicago Marxist-Humanist Huntingdon, Penn. Learning of labor and Black oppression *** Chicago *** is always educational, being that slavery There has I came across a copy of News & Let- built America and U.S. labor, e.g., the been a change ters from the summer of 2005. It was Wobblies, have had important strikes of consciousness • still powerful and very informative. I'm and are essential history. But there are because of the VOICES FROM THE INSIDE housed in long-term segregation (maxi- others who have suffered oppression like strike. The Chi- Your pamphlet Pelican Bay Hunger mum security) where I've been incarcer- Chicanos who got their states stolen and cago Teachers Strikers did a good job documenting the ated for 12 years. It means no TV or any First Nations people who got even more Union put back on the map what you event in prisoners' own words. Today other way to keep up with world events land stolen. Many movement papers mean by struggle and how you can win they have yet to obtain the five core de- or other things that interest me. Being hardly touch on these peoples. even a limited strike. The question that mands except some tokens. Our oppres- able to do that through someone spon- Jose remains to be worked out is how to bring sion continues, but we gained a new soring a subscription or sending me ear- California the rest of the working class together prison movement, still in an embryonic lier copies would be greatly appreciated. *** with us. stage but moving forward. The truth is Prisoner Years ago music education in the Retired teacher and activist the state ending solitary confinement Westville, Ind. Philadelphia school system was excel- Chicago will not fix our conditions any more than *** lent—many good musicians came out of *** a bailout would fix the capitalist system. N&L does an excellent job in report- that system. Later, it was watered down The teachers' strike was a labor Prisons today are tools used to con- ing on issues that exist throughout the and ultimately destroyed. At Bennington dispute in many ways. But teachers are trol the masses while upholding the world communities. It would be good College in the past, students and teach- unique because their "product" is chil- national oppression of the mostly Chi- to see you create a section in the paper ers made up their own curricula, but dren, so they have to take special care to cano, New Afrikan and First Nations where we, as a community, can collec- later a lot of music teachers were fired protect them. Both parents and children here in California, but including other tively discuss our understanding of the so that the kids could be prepared for were missing from the bargaining table. oppressed peoples across America. The issues so our solutions become an inte- the business world. The humanism of a Who is going to speak up for them? 2.4 million captives will continue to rise gral part of redeeming every oppressed liberal education became secondary to Parent of involved children up in revolutionary convulsions that community in struggle. survival. Jazz musician South Side Chicago will continue until a Socialist revolution Prisoner New York reaches our shores. Crescent City, California *** Prisoner *** I'm a teacher and heard a report on • Pelican Bay, Calif. TO OUR READERS: Can you do- the attacks on ethnic studies in Tucson AMERICAN CIVILIZATION ON TRIAL *** nate the price of a sub ($5) for a prisoner that made me feel I can't begin to teach Next year will mark the 50th anni- Please send me some literature so I who cannot pay for one? It will be shared what I want. I have to teach the myth versary of the publication of American can get a better picture of what you are with many others. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS FROM NEWS & LETTERS Books q News and Letters Committees Constitution...... 45 c postage See our website or contact us for fuller listing q Marxist-Humanist Literature Catalog by RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA A full list of publications (includes many not listed here) available q Philosophy and Revolution: From Hegel to Sartre and from from News and Letters Committees...... 65 c postage Marx to Mao 30th Anniversary edition, 2003...... $24.95 Pamphlets q Marxism and Freedom: from 1776 until Today Archives q Bosnia-Herzegovina: Achilles Heel of Western 'Civilization' 2000 edition. Foreword by Joel Kovel...... $24.95 (Expanded edition)...... $5 q Guides to Collection and Supplement to the Raya Dunayevs- kaya Collection: Marxist-Humanism: A Half Century of Its q Rosa Luxemburg, Women's Liberation, and Marx's Philosophy q Kosova: Writings from News & Letters, 1998-1999...... $3.50 World Development of Revolution 1991 edition. Author's new introduction. 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We didn't make the rules Van Nuys, Calif.—The Hernandez family home is one ing tour for Afro-Colombian activist Francia Márquez of this game, the economics of the situation did. We of 40,200 properties currently in foreclosure in Califor- Mina. In Chicago she spoke at a number of universities should change this entirely by making our own rules. nia. Javier Hernandez purchased the house in 2006 and and a community meeting co-hosted by CAMI (Commit- Right now the government is negotiating "peace" for several years he made his payments. When the bank tee against Militarization of Our Youth). Below are ex- with the FARC. We support a peace process. But Afro- raised the interest rate, the mortgage payments went cerpts from her talk. Colombians, Indigenous up. The Hernandez family found their purchase price ex- I want to speak of what peoples, and the poor ceeded the current value of the house. They started the my community, and Colombia, have many questions. The process of loan modification to reduce the principal and are living through. Of 10 mil- negotiations are only be- interest rate. lion Afro-Colombians, 3 mil- tween two parties. They lion have been displaced from leave out our concerns. Ulises Hernandez, Javier's brother who had been their homes. Many of our peo- This can result in just one talking to the banks said, "Bank of America (BOA) led ple have been massacred, and more armed group being us to believe that if we missed payments the loan could we are still often threatened. absorbed into bourgeois be modified!" This is a standard foreclosure scheme. Leaders of the resistance are politics, as has happened After three attempts for a loan modification, BOA sold often killed. so often elsewhere. Hernandez' home at an auction. Ulises said, "When they Multinational corpora- For us the problem auctioned the house it was worth half of what we pur- tions like AngloGold Ashanti didn't begin with the guer- chased it for." mining want the mineral rilla war 50 years ago, it On Aug. 21, the Hernandezes found an eviction no- rights in our areas, and oth- began 500 years ago when tice on their front door giving them five days to vacate ers want to impose monocrops the land was conquered their house. They decided to resist eviction and gathered like sugar in our farmlands. and we were brought here support from activists from Occupy San Fernando, Oc- Coca-Cola, Halliburton, Mon- to be enslaved. With the cupy LA, Occupy the Hood and from other foreclosure santo, Glencorp, GreyStar and Indigenous and others, victims. They built a barricade around the house and others are here. We have won we've formed an inter- surrounded it with Occupy tents. They called the prop- the right to be consulted on de- ethnic committee to pres- erty Fort Hernandez. velopment issues in court, but ent our views. The gov- On Aug. 26 they awoke expecting the police but in- Colombia is very corrupt. ernment has so far refused to address our issues and stead found media vans along their street. A few days Everything is done to protect and continue this ex- concerns. later, BOA finally reached out to the Hernandez family. ploitative system. The Constitutional Court on Dec. 13, The government talks about a peace process, but But after months of police harassment, on Oct. 29, 75 2010, ordered a mining project in my community, La they still plan to roll back people's rights. How can you Los Angeles Police officers in riot gear blocked off the Toma, to stop because they had not consulted with us. have peace this way? We think this will only further the street and proceeded to tear down the barricade of Fort But just last week the Ministry of Mines and the Na- current exploitative economic model. Hernandez with chain saws. Occupiers built another tional Mines Agency said that they have not suspended We can spend a lifetime talking about devel- one. —Basho the titles because they do not have the GPS coordinates. opment models, but in the end it's up to us to That is a lie, since they had the coordinates when they change it. We are fighting for a new model, not gave the titles. That is the kind of struggle we have. just for ourselves, but for humanity. Multination- When a river on our land was dammed for electric- als have the money to buy those in power. We don't have EDITORIAL ity, we still ended up paying the highest rates. money, but we have the will to fight to the end. The Black Communities Process is a con- My own life as a woman has changed in this strug- continued from p. 1 glomeration of movements, community councils, gle. I have two children and was always with them, but to events on the ground in Syria. These powers hope and individuals organized to defend our rights as now I am often away speaking and looking for allies. that the newly founded National Coalition of Syrian Black people. We organize in palenques, named Women have been forced to organize. Before, everyone Revolutionary and Opposition Forces will have more for the runaway slave enclaves, in local areas, concentrated on their own problems. Now we are begin- credibility with Syria's people than the SNC, and so which form larger networks, which work with ning to grow crops, work with youth in the community, give them greater leverage as the foundation of a post- other groups nationally on these issues. and criticize machismo in our families. We have been Assad government. The U.S. has given $8 billion dollars to the Colom- inspired to demand our own rights. It is the Syrian people's struggle that these world bian government to carry out a pacification program We can't allow our planet to be destroyed. Hurri- powers are responding to. The recently proposed Chi- similar to the one in Afghanistan. It really makes the cane Sandy was a product of the abuse we inflict on na- nese "peace plan," which recognized the areas liberated military here just the security arm of the multinational ture, and it didn't discriminate. Our ancestors fought from Assad's regime control, and Russian Foreign Min- corporations. Besides that, most of the previous Con- for us to be here, and we must fight for future genera- ister Sergei Lavrov's call to "negotiate a settlement" (is- gress also had ties to the narco-traficantes. tions. I will do what is necessary to defend our land sued in Saudi Arabia) show they've been forced to rec- It is the poor in Colombia and the U.S. who end up and community, and I'm not willing to subject myself to ognize the Syrian people's revolutionary gains—if only paying, whether through violence and displacement or physical or mental shackles once again. in the interests of undermining them. As with French President François Hollande's call to arm the rebels Life After Death: Echols exposes system vs. U.S. President Obama's reluctance to do so because they may threaten Israel, it is more a division of labor Life After Death by Damien explains in Life After Death that he and his family and between imperialists than a difference of aims. This is Echols (Blue Rider Press, 2012). friends were later interrogated, and were unaware of the unspoken, counter-revolutionary equation that has In the 1980s and 1990s how the police had violated their rights. He briefly de- always been the background of their response to the many people, even respected scribes the now famously mishandled trial and the lies Syrian Revolution, as to the Arab Spring in general. psychologists, believed that of the media and lawyers. Echols was given a death sen- satanic cults were committing tence and Baldwin, implicated by being his friend, was FIGHTING FOR NEW HUMAN RELATIONS acts of child sexual abuse and given life. So was Misskelley, an acquaintance with a For both Syrians and Palestinians—and for hu- human sacrifice all across borderline I.Q., who gave a false statement under the manity itself—the stakes couldn't be higher. As in America. This hysteria was duress of a brutal interrogation. Echols also states that Palestine, the provision of arms to the most fundamen- partially fueled by the since the West Memphis police had botched the case and re- talist groups, however unrepresentative of the larger debunked theory that thera- fused help from federal agents to cover up their own struggle, has had consequences. For one, starving the pists could use hypnosis to massive corruption and drug dealing. larger rebel groups of weapons has allowed Assad to recover repressed memories In the book, Echols describes in detail the hellish drag out his last days in genocidal bombing campaigns of past trauma. Even femi- conditions of death row and states that Baldwin has that never had to happen. Protesters in Syria Oct. 19 nists pressured each other described the rest of the prison system (which practices said, "America, your silence is complicit in thousands to believe the "ritual abuse survivors." Not many people slave labor in Arkansas) as not much better. Guards of our deaths." discussed the fact that the religious Right promoted commit violent assaults that would get anyone else sent Besides that, some episodes of rebel sectarianism, this modern witch-hunt with the purpose of convinc- to prison. The prison system deliberately erodes bloody reprisals, and even war crimes have been traced ing people of the need for a fundamentalist Christian the inmates' health with poor food, confinement, to the fundamentalist fighters. These have been used government to combat the supposed growing influence isolation, unsanitary conditions, temperature ex- to discredit the revolution itself, despite the far greater of a real devil. While the "satanic panic" has faded from tremes, and vermin. crimes of Assad and the shabiha government thugs. the mainstream, it has left a legacy of true innocent Even when hopeful of being released, Echols was Most important, the Syrians have shown that they victims—many people incarcerated for non-existent afraid he might first die from a "Russian roulette" of are able to criticize their own revolution, even demon- crimes. causes. Most people on death row are executed illegally strating against actions of the Free Syrian Army when The case of the West Memphis Three, Damien because they are mentally ill or mentally challenged. called for. Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Misskelley Jr., was Even mentally healthy inmates easily develop mental The revolution won't be decided by force of slightly different in that there was an actual crime. illness and do not receive treatment. Echols has been arms, but by the new human relations created. In 1993 in West Memphis, Ark., three little boys were rightly praised for his determination to keep his sanity What is decisive is the kind of revolutionary vi- found dead, and the rural, small-town locals, includ- and continue his self-development on death row by his sion that allows a youth like Loubna Mrie, an Ala- ing law enforcement, immediately decided that the studies in spirituality, philosophy and history as well wite woman activist, to look beyond sectarianism perpetrators could only have been Satanists. Ordinary as physical exercise, but he explains that the 18-year and embrace a greater idea of freedom as the potential suspects were ignored in the rush to incar- ordeal has left lasting emotional and physical damage. power that can destroy the reactionary regimes cerate Echols, who describes in his book how he was However, inspired by a quote from Viktor Frankl, that threaten human existence. She has opposed scapegoated for his love of heavy metal music and wear- "What is to give light must endure burning," Echols, Assad's effort to promote hatred between Sunnis ing black. Even more shockingly, he explains how along with Baldwin, has vowed to find the real killers and Alawites with her very life, saying, "I decided his poverty-stricken, fundamentalist community and fight for others unjustly convicted. Echols knows I would join the revolution and die for the revolu- would regularly ostracize anyone who had any the West Memphis Three were only freed due to years tion and never go back." interest in self-development. of intensely persistent effort by his wife, his support- Now opposition to all reactionary state powers and When Echols was unable to complete high school ers, and celebrities. He has written a very scathing ideas is a life-and-death necessity in the Middle East. due to bureaucracy, he went to the library to continue expose of poverty, fundamentalism, and the legal, Only on revolutionary ground can the questions of Isra- learning. His interest in the deeper meanings of life led justice, prison, and mental health systems. I hope el and Palestine, or Iran, be settled, and anything less him to explore spirituality, ranging from Catholicism Life After Death, which is also beautiful and humorous courts disaster and genocide. Now is the time when we to esoteric (mystical or "occult") religions including and destined to be both popular and a classic, will in- must fight for a vision of freedom. The old world has Wicca and Thelema, which fundamentalists carelessly spire readers to cultivate the same drive for justice, fo- gathered around Syria, Palestine, and the Arab Spring confuse with Satanism. Even before the crime, the po- cusing not only on individual cases but on changing the like jackals offering their rotting teeth in return for our lice harassed him for their own entertainment. Echols basic structures of society. —Adele humanity. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org Page 9 Kurdish prisoners on hunger strike Pelican Bay prisoners Below are excerpts of a Nov. 5, 2012, statement by (Justice and Development Party) government. Our ac- aim to end hostilities Kurdish prisoners on hunger strike in Turkey since tion will end when we achieve our goals. Until then new Sept. 12. Now thousands more prisoners are joining the people will join us every day. Agreement to End Hostilities hunger strike, making it one of the largest hunger strike To our people and to the public: (NOTE: All names and the statement must be verbatim protests in history. The hunger strike that we began on Sept. 12 is in when used and posted on any website or media, or non- its 54th day as we write this. media, publications) To the attention of the public; to the attention of As of today, we are entering a new stage. From Nov. all democratic people and human rights circles: 5 forward, we will continue our action with the involve- We, prisoners of freedom, are by this action an- ment of 10,000 people. Beginning Monday, Nov. 5, 2012, nouncing to the whole world our most basic human, all of the allied prisoners except for the sick, the elderly, social and political rights, which are legitimately and the children will go on an indefinite hunger strike ours—like our mother's milk is ours. We demand that without rotation. atrocities end. We are inviting to sobriety all people who approach Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan us casually rather than seriously, who use all means to and his crew should know that this tyrannical order, break and denigrate our strike, and who are respon- this sultanate of cruelty will bring no prosperity to sible for twisting reality by misrepresenting our truth. those who carry it out. Those who prosper will end up We are saying, "Let us prevent any outcome that in a dreadful state of being. could endanger the willpower of our peoples to live to- We are asking the whole world: Who can ig- gether and our social peace." It should be known that a nore our right to defend ourselves in our native resolution cannot be achieved by ignoring our demands, language? Who can deny our right to education in decrying our action and lying on television, in Europe, our mother tongue? Who can find it normal that a and in front of the whole world. On the contrary, the people's leader is kept in isolation and tortured? path to peace goes through a constructive engagement. Who can reject a dialogue with our leader, who To our beloved Kurdistan and our families: is the only assurance and the sole key to our liv- Our hunger strike, joined by the insurgency of our August 12, 2012 ing together? We are demanding that anyone who people and transformed into national unity and will- To whom it may concern and all California Prisoners: calls herself human respond to these questions! power, will play a historic role. We wish and expect that Greetings from the all PBSP-SHU [Pelican Bay We are saying "Enough already," "Edi Bese!" to this our people and friends become convinced of this as well. State Prison-Security Housing Unit] Short Corridor system that ignores us as a people, refuses our exis- We are calling on our Turkish sisters and brothers, Hunger Strike Representatives. We are hereby present- tence, and denies our liberty. To resolve the Kurdish on all peoples living in Turkey and on all responsive ing this mutual agreement on behalf of all racial groups issue peacefully and democratically, for our peoples to parties in question to contribute to our resistance, to here in the PBSP-SHU Corridor. We have arrived at a live in sisterhood and fraternity, for our dignity and support and to give a hand to our people, who are now mutual agreement concerning the following points: freedom, we are laying our bodies down for death. standing up. 1. If we really want to bring about substantive Our action is also an appeal to conscience, a The winner will be our people, the winner meaningful changes to the CDCR [California Depart- cry of an oppressed people, a way of calling off will be freedom, the winner will be peace, the ment of Corrections and Rehabilitation] system in a the insults hurled at our people, and through us, winner will be the future and democracy of our manner beneficial to all solid individuals, who have at all humanity. people. Those who lose will be the enemies of lib- never been broken by CDCR's torture tactics intended Our demands are addressed only to the JDP erty. to coerce one to become a state informant via debrief- ing, now is the time for us to collectively seize this mo- ment and put an end to more than 20-30 years of hos- Honduras three years after the coup tilities between our racial groups. La Voz de los de Abajo (Voices from Below) spon- Add horrible prison conditions: the Feb. 16 major 2. Therefore, beginning on October 10, 2012, sored a delegation to Honduras in September, three fire that killed over 350 inmates at Comayagua was all hostilities between our racial groups… in years after the 2009 coup which deposed the elected the third in a decade. Comayagua housed twice its offi- SHU, Ad-Seg [Administrative Segregation], Gen- President Manuel Zelaya. cial capacity. To prevent escapes guards held the doors eral Population, and County Jails, will officially Under his successor President Lobo, violence esca- closed too long. cease. This means that from this date on, all racial lated. Seventy Aguán campesinos (peasants) were mur- FREE JOSE ISABEL MORALES group hostilities need to be at an end… and if personal dered in three years. Jose Isabel Morales, "Chavelo," a member of one issues arise between individuals, people need to do all Honduras' homicide rate is the highest in the they can to exhaust all diplomatic means to settle such world. Lawyers, politicians, human rights workers, of the campesino movements of the Aguán, has been in prison for three years. He was convicted and sentenced disputes; do not allow personal, individual issues to es- LGBT people, journalists and campesinos are mur- calate into racial group issues!! dered regularly. without any evidence that he committed a crime. Sign a petition for his release at hondurasresists.blogspot. 3. We also want to warn those in the General Popu- RULE BY OLIGARCHY com. lation [GP] that IGI [Institutional Gang Investigators] On Sept. 9, 500 private guards, police and soldiers A vigorous minority in the U.S. House of Represen- will continue to plant undercover Sensitive Needs Yard trashed peasant shacks in Aguán. After the campesinos tatives has called for an end to military aid for Hondu- (SNY) debriefer "inmates" amongst the solid GP pris- surrendered, thugs pelted them with tear gas canis- ras. U.S.-made weapons, which Honduras is required to oners with orders from IGI to be informers, snitches, ters and threw tear gas into bystanders' houses. The buy with the "aid," not only are being used by the Lobo rats, and obstructionists, in order to attempt to disrupt Chicago group and an official international delegation government to suppress protest, but the "aid" is a sub- and undermine our collective groups' mutual under- were fired on when they tried to investigate. sidy to the U.S. and Israeli military industries. standing on issues intended for our mutual causes (i.e., One by one the leaders of MARCA (Authentic —January forcing CDCR to open up all GP main lines, and re- Campesino Reclamation Movement of the Aguán) have turn to a rehabilitative-type system of meaningful pro- been picked off. In September Antonio Trejo Cabrera, a grams/privileges, including lifer conjugal visits, etc. via civil rights lawyer, got a call while at a wedding. Upon peaceful protest activity/noncooperation, e.g., hunger stepping outside, he was riddled with bullets, presum- QUEER NOTES strike, no labor, etc. etc.). People need to be aware and ably on the order of oligarch Miguel Faccusé Barjum. vigilant to such tactics, and refuse to allow such IGI "This is a war against the campesinos and anyone by Elise inmate snitches to create chaos and reignite hostilities who offers them support—human rights workers, law- On National Coming Out Day this year, youth in amongst our racial groups. We can no longer play into yers or international delegations. But the campesinos particular showed the way. Texas Tech University's IGI, ISU [Investigative Service Unit], OCS [Office of keep on keeping on," said Victoria Cervantes of the del- Gay-Straight Alliance members told coming out stories. Correctional Safety], and SSU's [Special Service Unit] egation. People wrote their sexual orientation or gender identity old manipulative divide and conquer tactics!!! In conclusion, we must all hold strong to our mu- PLANTATION ECONOMICS on a door provided by the University of Florida's Pride Student Union. Virginia's George Mason University held tual agreement from this point on and focus our time, Faccusé and his corporation Dinant terrorize an ice cream social, a speakout/open-mic event, and an attention, and energy on mutual causes beneficial to all campesinos, Afro-Honduran Garifuna and Indigenous amateur drag show. of us (i.e., prisoners), and our best interests. We can no in the Aguán Valley. Faccusé's plantations of Afri- * * * longer allow CDCR to use us against each other can palm are run much like the pre-Civil War South. Human Rights Watch called for an immediate in- for their benefit!! Because the reality is that collec- Faccusé gets Clean Development Mechanism credits for vestigation of violence against gay-friendly bar 7FreeD- tively, we are an empowered, mighty force, that can "greening" Honduras, although almost all the crop is ays Club in Moscow, Russia. Masked men from the positively change this entire corrupt system into a sys- sent North to be burned. The jungle, a true source of homophobic group People's Council stormed the bar. tem that actually benefits prisoners, and thereby, the clean air, and productive farmland were given to oli- Property was destroyed and patrons were kicked and public as a whole… and we simply cannot allow CDCR/ garchs. 1.6 million hectares of land is devoted to mono- had bottles and chairs thrown at them. This attack CCPOA – Prison Guard's Union, IGI, ISU, OCS, and culture, while child malnutrition among the campesinos came as many regions in Russia passed laws against SSU, to continue to get away with their constant form is 60%. Thus continues the "greening" of Honduras. "homosexual propaganda." of progressive oppression and warehousing of tens of Campesinos face another threat: charter cities. The * * * thousands of prisoners, including the 14,000 (+) plus government wanted to grant private jurisdictions to its Nepal held South Asia's first ever LGBT sports fes- prisoners held in solitary confinement torture cham- oligarchs, but the Supreme Court has blocked the plan. tival. Cheered on by thousands of supporters, more than bers (i.e. SHU/Ad-Seg Units), for decades!!! The idea is a bigger threat to the Garifuna because, al- 250 athletes participated. Conditions for Queer people We send our love and respects to all those of like though a charter city could only be established on unoc- have been slowly improving since 2006 and Nepal's Su- mind and heart… onward in struggle and solidarity… cupied land, the Garifuna could be removed from their preme Court said in 2007 that the government must Presented by the PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Collec- land. "[T]he government is selling the country piece by do away with all homophobic laws. Pride parades and tive: Todd Ashker, C58191, D1-119, Arturo Castella- piece, and Analisis Afrodescendiente describes this as Queer beauty contests have been held. A boy who un- nos, C17275, D1-121, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dew- the second phase of the 2009 coup." (See http://global- derwent sex-change surgery in Thailand was welcomed berry), C35671, D1-117, Antonio Guillen, P81948, D2-106 voicesonline.org/2012/10/02/honduras-charter-cities- home. Queer people are no longer beaten and arrested And the Representatives Body: Danny Troxell, threaten-garifuna-communities/) in Kathmandu. B76578, D1-120, George Franco, D46556, D4-217, Ron- Women hold very few offices and get little respect. * * * nie Yandell, V27927, D4-215, Paul Redd, B72683, D2- For example, journalist Dina Meza received an extreme- In August, a Queer Pride parade was held in Ugan- 117, James Baridi Williamson, D-34288. D4-107, Al- ly vulgar, menacing letter from Comando Alvarez Mar- da for the first time. Some participants were arrested, fred Sandoval, D61000, D4-214, Louis Powell, B59864, tinez, a graduate of WHINSEC (School of the Americas) but the Queer community attended the parade, parties, D1-104, Alex Yrigollen, H32421, D2-204, Gabriel which included, "(you will) end up dead like the Aguán and a film festival anyway. In Uganda lawmakers call for Huerta, C80766, D3-222, Frank Clement, D07919, D3- people". (See http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/09/ laws with long sentences for "promoting" homosexuality 116, Raymond Chavo Perez, K12922, D1-219, James honduras-now-open-for-political-murder/) and death for "aggravated homosexuality." Mario Perez, B48186, D3-124 Page 10 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 Obama's re-election doesn't end clash of two worlds continued from p. 1 while the administration did fight those laws, it has no Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to start one. Indiana. Akin and Mourdock just made the mistake of objection to the most important voter suppression in- In his brief victory speech, Obama twice referred making it too clear that they believe every pregnancy, strument: the racially biased criminal injustice system, to the U.S. retaining "the most powerful military in his- even from rape, is a gift from God that must not be coupled with laws that disenfranchise felons. tory." However, the Arab Spring and the leftward move questioned—and they were soundly defeated, with a de- It is true that the core of today's Republican Par- of much of South America have shown a determination cisive women's vote against them, as were several other ty is dedicated to preserving white rule over people of to get out from under U.S. domination. Senate candidates. The same fate befell a proposed color, even after whites become a minority in the U.S. Neither that international domination nor the di- amendment to Florida's Constitution that would have The greater truth is that both major parties are part vision into two worlds within this country, neither the prohibited use of public funds for abortions or health of maintaining rule by a minority: the capitalist class. recurring economic crises nor the steady descent into insurance covering abortion. Though a small minority, the capitalists dominate the climate chaos can be abolished through the electoral When the primaries had barely started, women political system precisely because of their economic su- process. What is needed is the kind of leap to freedom were already organizing, galvanized when state legis- premacy. that can only come from below, from masses in motion, latures' ongoing attacks on Planned Parenthood were Campaign contributions are only one of the ways from the unity of all races, women and men, Gay and joined by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, that economic power is deployed. In 2012, it added up straight, immigrant and citizen, organized and unorga- a move that they saw as supremely political from an to an estimated $6 billion for Presidential and Congres- nized, and, crucially, theory and practice. organization formed to fight breast cancer. sional campaigns, with another $1.8 billion for state Whether it is the revolts in the Arab lands and The attack by reactionary state governments on and local races and ballot initiatives. That sea of mon- Latin America, the strikes and occupations in Europe, women's right to an abortion—including mandating ey, enough to feed 1.5 million poor families for a year, the Occupy Movement and Walmart strikes in the U.S., invasive vaginal ultrasounds and forcing doctors to lie was slanted toward the Republican side, but failed to or still newer movements, the drive of the struggles for to women or allowing them to withhold vital informa- deliver total control of the federal government to them. freedom is what must be built on. These new openings tion from patients—caused women to organize in every It did, however, remind both Republicans and need to be developed, their contradictions faced, and a state. No matter how Republicans denied that there Democrats who fills their feed troughs. It illustrates banner of total freedom unfurled to give them a direc- was a "war against women," women saw it and knew it yet again how self-defeating it is for labor unions and tion toward the establishment of a new human society. as a violation of their human rights. mainstream environmental, women's, Gay, Latino and Republicans voted against the Lilly Ledbetter civil rights groups to chain themselves to the Demo- equal pay act but hoped to capitalize on the poor econ- crats—as if that will yield more than a few crumbs. It Massive London march omy's negative effects on women. Most women rejected is true that there is more than a whiff of fascism in these attempts but know that the challenge is to keep today's Republican Party, and the Right's electoral de- against austerity up the pressure rather than letting all that organiza- feat gives movements from below more room to develop, tion fall by the wayside because there is now a suppos- but that will not stop the Democrats from compromis- edly pro-choice president. It was President Bill Clinton, ing with the Republicans, or from trying to co-opt any after all, who gutted welfare. independent movement. After four years of Obama's pragmatism and caving SECOND TERM AGENDA vs. WORKERS in to reactionaries, much of the margin that returned However much both of the capitalist parties had him to office had to do with voting against the Tea Par- tried to co-opt the Occupy rhetoric of the 99% and the ty and the Religious Right. That does not cancel the sig- 1%, President Obama's victory speech laid out a sec- nificance of the big gender gap—even bigger among un- ond-term agenda replete with the kinds of anti-work- married women—the gap among the poorer half of the ing-class goals that the Occupy Movement had risen electorate, and the huge Obama margin among people against in the first place. He identified "the challenges" under 30, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Gays. as "Reducing our deficit. Reforming our tax code. Fix- LGBTQ STRIDES ing our immigration system. Freeing ourselves from As against the passage in 2008 of California's anti- foreign oil." Gay Proposition 8, this year voters approved same-sex Though he mentioned "the destructive power of a marriage in Maine and Maryland, upheld it in Wash- warming planet," anything he has done about global ington state, defeated a Christian Right initiative to warming is a drop in the bucket compared to the magni- ban it in Minnesota, and elected the first openly Gay tude of the problem—and will be wiped out by his plans Dean Thorpe www.flickr.com/photos/aspexdesign/8107927106 Senator, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. to "free ourselves from foreign oil"—which means first It was a stinging defeat not only for the evangelical and foremost expanding fracking and approving the Christian Right but for the Catholic Church hierarchy, Keystone XL Pipeline to carry bitumen from Canada's London, England—The leader of the opposition, Ed which basically campaigned against Obama by hysteri- tar sands. Miliband, was heckled on Oct. 20 at a mass demonstra- cally accusing him of attacking religious liberty—that "Fixing our immigration system" was a nod to the tion here against austerity cuts. is, the "right" of employers to deny health insurance Latino vote, but what Obama and the Democrats have The Labour Party leader had addressed the crowd coverage of contraception for women. The Church also been pushing as the Dream Act is a half-measure that to garner support for his stand against the ruling coali- campaigned against abortion and, along with the Mor- would leave in place the U.S. economy's structure. The tion of the Liberal Democratic and Conservative par- mon Church, spent millions to oppose the marriage existence of a superexploited undocumented work force ties. Mr. Miliband claimed the government's cutbacks equality initiatives. is essential to its functioning, both for the direct profit- were "too far and too fast," which prompted outrage Labor faced a mixed outcome. Measures in Califor- making of agriculture, construction, restaurants, and from assembled activists committed to opposing cuts in nia and Florida blocked cuts in education and public so on, and as a weapon to force all workers to accept their entirety. services; the minimum wage was raised in Albuquer- worse wages and conditions. In addition, Obama has "Now of course there will still be hard choices," que, N.M., and San Jose and Long Beach, Calif. Anti- presided over more than 1.2 million deportations in his claimed Mr. Miliband, "and I do not promise easy teacher referenda were defeated in Idaho, South Da- first term, surpassing any other President. times...I have said whoever was in government now kota and Illinois, but one passed in Alabama. Michigan Finally, "reducing our deficit and reforming our there would still be some cuts, but this government has voters repealed the state's anti-labor "emergency man- tax code" is the banner under which Social Security, shown that cutting too far and too fast shows that this ager" law but defeated a union-backed amendment to Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs will be policy of austerity is not the answer to Britain's prob- put the right to collective bargaining in the state Con- attacked. lems." stitution. Obama's speech vaguely mentioned fighting for In an apparent attempt to calm the crowd, Miliband Most seriously, labor—both organized labor and new jobs, but said nothing about the reality of capital- then posed as Left, promising to tax bankers' bonuses the working class as a whole—has to confront the large ism's ongoing depression. He did not mention the five if his party was returned to government. Britain's Con- number of white workers who voted for Romney. Rom- million people unemployed for six months or more, servative coalition has gained notoriety for its budget ney won 59% of the white vote, and nearly two thirds of and that Black unemployment is twice that of whites. policy of cutting corporation tax whilst raising the Val- white men, including many workers. The fact that such He did not mention that living standards for working ue Added Tax (similar to a national sales tax) in what a weak candidate could gain nearly half the national people have been falling for a decade, and that many many see as an attempt to soften the blow to the private vote is sobering. It can only be explained by the appeals of the added jobs he celebrates have been low-paying sector whilst hitting the consumer. The Conservatives' to sexism, homophobia and above all racism. part-time jobs without benefits. He did not mention the hostile policy to welfare, trade unionism and Europe- In the face of the President losing the majority of epidemic of foreclosures and the spike in homelessness. an Union human rights legislation has further eroded the white vote, those who exploit racism in order to Instead of these pressing matters, Obama identi- their popularity as the UK struggles alongside the rest drag us ever closer to fascism are not just going to give fied "deficits and debt" as the "first order of business." of the Euro zone in the face of economic turmoil. up. The Tea Party and the Christian Coalition may be Social Security is not running out of money, as is often The Oct. 20 demonstration, organized by the spent vehicles, but their members are still venting hys- claimed, but he supports the Bowles-Simpson Commis- Trades Union Congress in association with the Coali- terical rage. If they agree with rightists from Fox News sion, which recommended cuts to Social Security and tion of Resistance, saw some 150,000 trade unionist blowhard Bill O'Reilly to the neo-Nazi Stormfront who Medicare. To avert the "fiscal cliff," an artificial product and political activists on the streets of London. are mourning the death of "the white establishment," of Tea Party politics, Democrats and Republicans are "I'm on this demonstration to say loud and clear will they turn away from primarily electoral means to angling for a deficit-reducing deal that would depend that I am not happy with this coalition's austerity pro- impose their will? mainly on cuts to social programs. A small rise in taxes gram," said Mark Osgood, 33, a trade unionist and VOTER SUPPRESSION AND MINORITY RULE on the rich will give the cuts a populist covering. member of the leftist Labor Representation Commit- Their leaders, however, have not given up on trans- MILITARISM vs. NEW OPENINGS tee from Portsmouth. "It is damaging to the economy, forming the electoral arena through voter suppression. The military, however, is likely to be spared. The working people's living standards and, what's more, of- The Supreme Court—which established its anti-democ- U.S. has withdrawn troops from Iraq and is reducing fers no solution. I do not agree with a single cut to the racy credentials by selecting George W. Bush as Presi- U.S. troops in Afghanistan—but at the same time the jobs of working people, who did not cause this crisis. It dent in 2000 and opening the floodgates for corporate administration is projecting a "strategic pivot" to the is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the ruling class campaign money with the Citizens United decision Pacific to confront the rising power of China. And drone to roll back the size of the state and open it up to the in 2010—has accepted a case challenging the Voting strikes will continue, no matter how many civilians private sector. They're grabbing the opportunity with Rights Act. There is a real chance that the Court will they kill (see "Yemen: famine, drones and freedom," both hands." gut the Act, which was instrumental in blocking sev- page 12). "Only industrial and political action will be suf- eral of the recent crop of voter suppression laws. And The revelation, two days after the election, that ficient to make the necessary changes," said Osgood, Iranian warplanes had shot at a U.S. drone five days "The next stage should be a one-day general strike. before the election was a pointed reminder of the pos- Working people in Europe and the world over are all in sibility of war against Iran. Obama's reluctance to wage the same boat, and the more we can link up with work- Readers: We want to hear from you! Write to us such a war is no guarantee that he can avoid being ers in other countries the better. As Karl Marx said, or email us! See contact information, p. 11. dragged into it, especially since Israeli Prime Minister '...working men have no country!'" —Dan Read NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 NEWS & LETTERS – www.newsandletters.org Page 11 Disability rights: The fight to stay alive Québec gains Chicago—The U.S. disability rights movement has from the program; dental care has been cut altogether a rich and diverse history. It is the only class of people except for emergencies; medical supplies have been cut a breathing space that you can suddenly become and/or quantities limited; spe- Québec, Canada—The election of Pauline Marois a member of at any time or cial permission is mandated as Premier of Québec has brought some change and a place. It does not discrimi- to get more than four prescrip- small but significant breathing space by getting rid of nate by color, sex, income tions; people are being thrown the utterly corrupt government of former Premier Jean level, age, ethnicity or sexual out of vital home care programs Charest. There are openings to look at problems anew preference. But for those who because they are no longer "dis- and make needed changes. have had no experiences with abled enough"; the hours of per- Marois attempted to reform the healthcare tax by disabled people, there is often sonal assistants have been cut, abolishing the flat tax as a way to distribute the contri- no knowledge of the move- leaving many disabled without butions more equitably according to income. It would ment's history and sometimes the help they desperately need. impose new taxes on profits, dividends, and other mon- lots of misunderstandings. Tragically, the waiver program ies from financial speculation. Problems arose when One of the heroes of the for technology-dependent and she tried to make it retroactive for all of 2012 with the movement was Ed Roberts, medically fragile children has hope of reducing the government deficit. It was impos- who had polio as a child and been gutted, meaning some sible to implement, as there was no way to trace all pre- was mostly paralyzed. children can no longer live at vious transactions. She had to start the tax from where Fortunately, his moth- home. To have to give up it is possible to follow the money trail. er was a good advocate. your child to an institution Marois stood up to federal Prime Minister

Ed got into the University Urszula Wislanka for News & Letters is a horrible price to pay for Stephen Harper, and has established better in- of Calif. Berkeley in 1962 the government's inhumane ternational relations between Québec and other but the university had decisions. countries. The election of François Hollande in no place to put him as he Movements for social France has been good for Québec. The former slept with an iron lung. change contain seeds for a new President of France, Nicholas Sarkozy, openly They put him in the infir- society—the positive in the detested French-Canadians. Hollande is friendly mary. The other students One of many demonstrations opposing Medicaid cuts, this negative. The disability rights to Québec, and when he and Marois met in Paris formed a group called the one in San Francisco, Feb. 2011. movement, for example, shares in October, they established important new cul- Rolling Quads and started much with other movements, tural and educational links. making demands: curb cuts, accessible buildings, including the civil rights and women's movements. Dis- More important is that Marois' election has re- lifts on buses. They had a huge impact on the ability activists are inspired by these movements. moved one of the last barriers, the former Charest university, then on the city of Berkeley. As they The disability rights movement gives us a glimpse government itself, from the investigation by the Char- graduated, they formed the first center for inde- into what a new society could look like and an idea of bonneau Commission of the massive corruption in Qué- pendent living in the country. what it means to be human, to have new human rela- bec—especially in government construction contracts. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 stated that any tions. It makes me think of a quote from Karl Marx: Unfolding is a picture of vast corruption that has facility receiving federal money had to be accessible. "from each according to his ability, to each according been going on for over 30 years. Often, mafia operatives The Health Education and Welfare (HEW) Secretary to his needs." People with disabilities show more than were the actual intermediaries between parties in a at that time, Joseph Califano, blocked its enforcement. anyone how this is true. You can't apply equal stan- system of collusion with kickbacks and a quasi-monop- In response, people with disabilities sat in at the ten dards to people because they are not equal. People can't oly on construction contracts. From 30% to 40% of gov- regional HEW centers. In San Francisco they took over compete on an equal basis. The disability rights move- ernment construction projects were hugely overpriced the HEW office and did a 25-day occupation. The Black ment shows how ridiculous this idea is and, in doing so, and poorly done and will now soon have to be redone. Panthers smuggled in food for them. This was the lon- points to what a new society could be. In recent days, Montréal Mayor Gérald Tremblay gest occupation of a federal building. —Disability rights activists and Gilles Vaillancourt, Mayor of Laval, were forced ADAPT was founded in Colorado in the 1980s. to resign. Former Deputy Premier Nathalie Norman- Leader Wade Blank had been involved in the civil rights deau is deeply implicated in corruption and may face and anti-war movements. ADAPT has chapters all over charges. So much is coming up that people are calling the country. Chicago ADAPT demanded lifts on buses HANDICAPTHIS! it the "bottomless pit." In fact the entire Québec Liberal and shouted down Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Party is tainted and it is even possible that ex-Premier officials at board meetings. They won in the courts by Suzanne Rose Charest may be criminally liable. about a year before The Americans with Disabilities Another scandal involves police brutality. A London, England—A disability campaigner who set up an Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, with a mandate that the Montréal police officer, Stéfanie Trudeau, known e-petition to stop government benefit cuts has vowed CTA would have to become accessible over time. as "Matricule/Badge 728," stopped a group of to continue her fight, after gaining more than 62,000 young demonstrators, illegally took their cell ADA did not signal the end of our struggle signatures. E-petitions need 100,000 signatures for a phones, and then shouted obscenities at them. but a new beginning. ADAPT fights to keep peo- debate in parliament. Though the petition has failed Too bad for her, she accidently hit the auto-dial on ple out of nursing homes and in the community. in this regard, it is not the end for the campaign. Pat one of the phones, and her tirade went into someone's We fight for community and home supports so the Onions, who is blind, said the government is treating voicemail. The next day it was on the radio, then on disabled can live independently. We fight to have disabled people as "worthless commodities" but that TV, and then on the internet. Former Officer Trudeau abusive institutions closed and have won the "doing nothing is not an option." The cause has struck is now pounding the pavement in an entirely new way. closing of several of them. a chord with people who feel the cuts are falling dispro- Elsewhere in Canada, Ontario Premier Dalton Mc- The ADA has been under attack since it passed. portionately on the disabled. Guinty, the youthful darling boy of fiscal conservatism Its protections have eroded. In one case, Chevron is * * * and social liberalism, resigned on Oct. 15 without a claiming that a man would be doing harm to himself Zambia The government is considering a bill honoring — clear reason. "Something's up," as the expression goes, by taking a specific position. The ADA provides that an the principles expressed in the UN Convention of the and it's something to watch. employer cannot discriminate against someone with a Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The bill promotes, Canada is still a mess but we now have some wiggle disability, which is exactly what Chevron is trying to among other things, access to justice, participation in room to figure out what to do next, and a truer picture do. If Chevron wins, it will weaken the ADA by allow- political and public life, the right to education, employ- of our society. The movement for a new human and col- ing employers, not employees, to decide health issues. ment and freedom of movement. It also prohibits tor- lectivist society is now standing on higher ground, and In the sections of the ADA related to employment, the ture, exploitation, violence against and abuse of people we'll get there some day. scope of the act has been so drastically narrowed that with disabilities. —Ti-Ouistiti and D. 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WORLD IN VIEW Yemen: famine, drones and freedom by Gerry Emmett controlled from thousands of miles away. a philosophy of revolution that breaks those mental While most Yemenis have no sympathy for al- shackles and discloses a path to freedom as well as soli- Demands for freedom and dignity drove the Arab Qaeda, they remain resolutely opposed to this kind of ex- darity with all those the world over who fight to be free. Spring. In Tunisia, in Tahrir Square in Egypt, in Da- trajudicial execution and outright murder. In the words It is toward that end that Marxist-Humanists in raa, Syria, and elsewhere these weren't abstract, but of lawyer Heykal Bafana: "America has lost the war. If the U.S. work. It is this which leads us to follow the de- concrete efforts to create new human relations under you trash your own values, if you rip up your Constitu- velopment of the Yemeni revolution and solidarize with conditions of dictatorship, capitalist crisis, endemic cor- tion and destroy the very freedoms that you say define it. We are one with our sisters and brothers and will do ruption, spiraling food prices and environmental deg- America just for the purpose of this 'war against terror,' all in our power to help you. The struggle continues. radation. While bourgeois commentators have then you've rushed to declare the Arab Spring over, Yemen won the war reveals that all these issues remain determi- for al-Qaeda. Post-election Venezuela nants. The overthrow of dictator Ali Abdullah Because there The reelection of Hugo Chávez as president is an Saleh was one episode in a continuing struggle. is no longer an important moment in Venezuela and Latin America as This year Yemen has been gripped by its America that's a whole. After more than a decade in power—during worst recorded famine. One of every two Yemenis recognizable." which his administration practically eliminated illiter- is affected by the food crisis, with a million chil- acy, drastically reduced misery and poverty, including Yemenis dren now at risk of malnutrition. The UN consid- far greater access to food and healthcare, and improved see the drone ers up to five million Yemenis as being "food in- housing—the majority of the population continues to strikes as secure." Billions of dollars in promised aid hasn't support Chávez as against the right wing neo-liberal one more in materialized, and much of what has come goes forces supported by the U.S. a long series to infrastructural development that doesn't meet At the same time it is necessary to be aware of the of insults the immediate need. limitations of this win, and the difficult problems and and injuries, The concurrent water crisis has added to the contradictions within the Venezuelan social process: including problems. Sanaa, Yemen, is in danger of becom- The personalization of the social changes in Ven- the U.S. gov- • ing the first national capital to literally run dry. ezuela. Much of the election was focused on being for or ernment's against Chávez. His personality, his will, his ideas and U.S. SEES CRISIS AS A WAR ZONE long-time actions, have come to represent the transformative pro- With all its problems, Yemen remains a des- support for cess. Can Venezuela arrive at the deep changes needed tination for refugees from crisis-ridden Ethiopia the Saleh re- if the changes are only embodied in a single individual, and Somalia who seek work in Saudi Arabia and gime. These and not a social movement of the masses? the Gulf states. Over 70,000 arrived this year. insults con- Because the project has not fully developed as a They have little protection, and are often subject tinue, for ex- • Yemeni women's struggle for liberation is very much a part of social movement from below, changes are dependent to kidnapping for ransom. Many women simply ample, when the revolution at Change Square. A young woman expresses on a state and local bureaucracy which often uses the disappear. The crisis is regional and worldwide U.S. Ambas- herself by sending her photo to The Uprising of Women in the revolutionary process for individual, narrow ends, as as well—it is part of humanity's crisis. sador Gerald Arab World. See "Women Worldwide," p. 2. opposed to a process that further develops and deepens While the world has looked away from Freiestein the revolution. Corruption and putting brakes on social Yemen, the U.S. has looked and seen only a recently talked about business opportunities in change is everywhere within the state, and rather than new battlefield in its endless "war on terror." Inno- Yemen without mentioning the current famine. cent Yemenis in al-Majalla, Abyanin, Marib and else- As journalist Shatha al-Harazi said, "They talk being rooted out from below, it depends on the word of where—who weren't seen as human beings but as just about universal values and human rights. But their Chávez to check or not check it. Centralization of power collateral damage—have been killed by drone strikes actual doings speak for themselves." The thinking of has substituted for the movement from below, and with the U.S. government, where every human relationship this the danger of state-capitalism is ever present. must be reduced to commodity exchange, remains light • Objectively, Chávez's project has been a national- Mali on the brink years from the concrete struggle for new human rela- ist and democratic one, important and necessary, but not a socialist one, despite much rhetoric. Venezuela The deep contradictions Mali has been experiencing tions that has existed in Yemen, and which continues is more dependent than ever on the most crucial com- are about to become even more intense. The Economic in the occupation of Change Square. modity in the world, oil, including its sale to the United Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has A REVOLUTION THAT CONTINUES States. The establishment of socialism needs to move agreed to send several thousand troops to join Malian Change Square in Sanaa, the center of the revo- toward breaking the law of value. This can only be done troops in an operation to take back the northern part of lution against Saleh, remains filled with tents, people from below; and not alone in a single country. Mali. The area has been primarily under fundamental- and ideas. This bright light exists and contains those Genuine socialism is international in its view- ist, al-Qaeda-linked, Islamic rebel control for months. • who are still fighting for Arab Spring and a new society, point. Chávez is international in establishing an alter- (See May-June and July-August N&L.) It is reported especially, of course, the women. The youth, women, native trade structure, ALBA, and promoting solidarity. that the U.S. and/or France will provide air support. workers and national minorities always recognized that However, his primary focus has been anti-imperialism. Tens of thousands of refugees have fled the reign getting rid of a dictator was only a first step. "We didn't This is not wrong in and of itself. But Chávez's anti- of terror that several fundamentalist groups—Mujao in come here to fight against one person. The goals of the imperialism has been narrowly focused—only against Gao, Ansar Dine in Kidal, and al-Qaeda in the Islamic revolution have not all been achieved," student Ibrahim the U.S. This has been reduced to "the enemy of my Maghreb in Timbuktu—have inflicted on the popula- al-Khatab told the Guardian Weekly (Aug. 21, 2012). enemy is my friend," as in his support of Iran's repres- tion. The dysfunctional interim government in Mali There is unity among the opposition in wanting to sive regime, which crushes its own people. An interna- has been completely unable to protect its citizens in the be rid of the remnants of the dictatorship that include tionalism, which is viewed only through the lens of a northern part of the country, and requested military Saleh's son, Ahmed Ali, who still controls the Republi- narrow anti-imperialism, is not the internationalism of intervention by West African states. can Guard. Saleh himself remains in Sanaa and contin- socialism. This is a double tragedy: Not only is there tremen- ues to wield significant political influence. Chávez has been willing to explore some ideas of dous suffering of the civilian population, but the libera- • Beyond this are the continuing demands of Marx and Marxism. However, a much fuller exploration tion movement of the long suppressed Tuareg people women and youth for a new way of life and the of Marx's philosophy of revolution is needed throughout in northern Africa for autonomy/independence has now need to respond to the global capitalist crisis. Be- Venezuelan society, particular among the masses. been buried under a fundamentalist push in Mali. yond this remains a battle of ideas. All of this is not to deny the great importance of A military operation by ECOWAS with the as- This battle won't be easy. Between local oppressors, the social processes taking place. However, the possibil- sistance of the West may uproot the fundamentalist the neighboring Saudi oil-kingdom theocrats and their ity of success is dependent on eliciting more profoundly groups, though this is by no means certain. What it will capitalist allies, the revolution in Yemen has powerful the actions and ideas of the Venezuelan masses, and on not do is provide for genuine self-determination of Ma- enemies. But the revolutionary Reason embodied by the a fuller development and clarification of Marx's ideas li's population, nor of the Tuareg people. —E.W. freedom fighters can be more powerful if it articulates in relation to Latin American realities. —Eugene Walker NEWS AND LETTERS COMMITTEES Who We Are And What We Stand For News and Letters Committees is an National Editorial Board and National to reveal and further develop the revolu- and her final 1987 Presentation on the organization of Marxist-Humanists that Chairwoman of the Committees from its tionary Humanist future inherent in the Dialectics of Organization and Philoso- since its birth has stood for the abolition founding to 1987. Charles Denby (1907– present. The new visions of the future phy in The Philosophic Moment of Marx- of capitalism, both in its private prop- 83), a Black production worker, author which Dunayevskaya left us in her work ist-Humanism (1989), and donated new erty form as in the U.S., and its state of Indignant Heart: A Black Worker's from the 1940s to the 1980s are rooted in supplementary volumes to the Raya Du- property form, as it has historically ap- Journal, became editor of the paper from her discovery of Marx's Marxism in its nayevskaya Collection. News and Letters peared in state-capitalist regimes calling 1955 to 1983. Dunayevskaya's works, original form as a new Humanism and Committees aims at developing and con- themselves Communist as in Russia and Marxism and Freedom, from 1776 until in her re-creation of that philosophy for cretizing this body of ideas for our time. China. We stand for the development of Today (1958), Philosophy and Revolu- our age as Marxist-Humanism. This is In opposing this capitalistic, racist, new human relations, what Marx first tion: From Hegel to Sartre and from recorded in the documents on microfilm sexist, heterosexist, class-ridden society, called a new Humanism. Marx to Mao (1973), and Rosa Luxem- and open to all under the title The Raya we have organized ourselves into a com- News & Letters was founded in 1955, burg, Women's Liberation, and Marx's Dunayevskaya Collection—Marxist-Hu- mittee form of organization rather than the year of the Detroit wildcat strikes Philosophy of Revolution (1982) spell out manism: A Half-Century of Its World De- any elitist party "to lead." We partici- against Automation and the Montgomery the philosophic ground of Marx's Hu- velopment. pate in all class and freedom struggles, Bus Boycott against segregation—activi- manism internationally, as American Dunayevskaya's philosophic com- nationally and internationally. As our ties which signaled a new movement from Civilization on Trial concretizes it on the prehension of her creation and develop- Constitution states: "It is our aim…to practice that was itself a form of theory. American scene and shows the two-way ment of Marxist-Humanism, especially promote the firmest unity among work- News & Letters was created so that the road between the U.S. and Africa. as expressed in her 1980s writings, pres- ers, Blacks and other minorities, women, voices of revolt from below could be heard This body of ideas challenges all ents the vantage point for re-creating youth and those intellectuals who have unseparated from the articulation of a those desiring freedom to transcend the her ideas anew. Seeking to grasp that broken with the ruling bureaucracy of philosophy of liberation. limitations of post-Marx Marxism, be- vantage point for ourselves and make both capital and labor." We do not sepa- Raya Dunayevskaya (1910–1987), ginning with Engels. In light of the crises it available to all who struggle for free- rate mass activities from the activity of founder of the body of ideas of Marxist- of our nuclearly armed world, it becomes dom, we have published Dunayevskaya's thinking. Send for a copy of the Constitu- Humanism, became Chairwoman of the imperative not only to reject what is, but original 1953 philosophic breakthrough tion of News and Letters Committees.