: •tl0tm;p^vmr:;W W:-&^nl0m7H!^lMa wflnifciinDf ii it Developing a philosophically Workers9 lifetime labor stolen again grounded alternative to capital byHtunLin he terrorist attack in London on July 7, which killed at The pensions and health benefits of retirees every­ least 50, must be condemned where are threatened with unilateral cuts imposed by T by all who aspire for liberation. management. This hits workers from the public sector There is no justification for this to private industry, like auto and the airlines. attack, most likely carried out by At United, the unions entered into a cooperative reactionary religious fundamen­ arrangement whereby workers were sold employee talists. stock option plans (ESOP) in exchange for deep wage cuts, speed-ups, health and benefit cuts, and other The way in which the attack takebacks, in order to help the financially ailing air­ was timed to coincide with the G- line. When it no longer served the company's purpose, 8 meeting in Scotland represents United dispensed with the ESOP. a serious blow to the forces of lib­ eration. Tens of thousands came When the company later declared bankruptcy, to Scotland to protest the agenda the employee stock options failed. Further, man­ of the G-8 and to demand a new agement announced unilaterally it would no approach to poverty, racism, and longer honor the pension and health benefits of environmental destruction. its retirees, and used the bankruptcy judge to throw workers to the mercy of the underfunded Thanks to the attack, such voices Pension Guarantee Board. are being drowned out. The attack will also divert attention from When those in the labor movement act as though eliminating Africa's poverty and there is no alternative but to make concessions to cap­ debt, as the effort to sway world ital, there is no end. Capitalists keep coming back for opinion to deal with such issues more concessions in all arenas. In California, will be subsumed by concerns over Schwarzenegger's forces are pushing their special elec­ future terrorist attacks. tion on us so they can pass more anti-worker initia­ Edinburgh "Vigil for London victims [of bombings] and those of war and tives which they were unable to pass through the leg­ These events show how crucial poverty," July 7, during the G-8 summit in Scotland. islature. There are measures to attack teachers, nurs­ it is for the freedom movements to es, and public service workers—our pay, our pensions, firmly oppose all forms of terror­ and even our job security. But the most deceptive ism and religious fundamentalism in the course of the radical movement refrains from the arduous the­ projecting a comprehensive alternative to this capi­ oretic and practical labor needed to meet that chal­ Continued on page 3 talist system. If that is not done, the "two terrorisms", lenge, it will repeat the errors of the past instead of of the rulers and the Islamic fundamentalists .will posing a viable alternative. contiftue to feed off each other in a way that will divert, disorient, and even destroy the freedom move­ BLACK/RED ments themselves. I. Bush's Wars at The attacks occured on the heels of the recent rejection of the European Home and in Iraq Recollecting John Our "Draft for Marxist- Union (EU) Constitution Humanist Perspectives" is in France and The here to promote the widest Netherlands. On the one discussion on the political, hand, the vote manifest­ A Fighting the Right's Brown's revolt ed the wide gulf between philosophic and organiza­ Europe's elites and the 'Vision' of Uw Future by John Man tional challenges facing populace. A large per­ Marxist-Humanists. We centage of French youth Nowhere is a new alternative needed more than in : In world history we deal with the Idea as it invite you to join in the voted against it and in the U.S., where Bush and the Republicans are trying manifests itself in the element of human will, of process of developing our some working class to impose total ideological and political control. human freedom.... Objectively seen the Idea and perspectives for the com­ areas 80% voted no. Bush's lie that his reelection provided him with a the particular individual stand in the great oppo­ "mandate" to push for deep cuts in social security, sition of Necessity and Freedom—the struggle of ing year, as part of the The "no" votes reflect­ ed dissatisfaction with medicare, and other programs; while doling out tens man against fate. But we take necessity not as that effort to work out a unity of billions more to continue the war ia Iraq, reflects a of the external necessity of fate, but as that of the between philosophy and Europe's stagnant econo­ my, high levels of unem­ serious social crisis. divine Idea. The question then is: How is this high organization. Real wages for workers in the U.S. today are falling Idea to be united with human freedom? ployment, and fears that Europe will go the way of at the fastest rate in 14 years. The modest economic U.S.-style "free market" economic restructuring as growth has not filtered down to most workers, who —Hegel on "the individual as subject are being forced to work longer hours to keep up with of history" in Reason in History much as concerns over the content of the Constitution itself. Many in Europe clearly fear that the drive for the cost of living, especially in light of ballooning costs increased integration will become a mechanism for for health insurance. The lack of health insurance is David S. Reynolds' John Brown, Abolitionist: The hitting Blacks and Latinos especially hard; while they Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and cutting wages and social services in the countries with the highest wages and benefits. make up 29% of the U.S. population, they account for Seeded Civil Rights (Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2005) 52% of those without health insurance. On the other hand, the vote was no triumph for the has received many favorable reviews in the press. Bush's "answer" is to call for even deeper cuts in Apparently, a considerable number of people are still Left. Those advocating a "no" vote included the neo- fascist and racist Right, which fears that greater EU social programs and to demand that his tax cuts for profoundly interested in John Brown's October 1859 the rich be made permanent. His 2006 budget calls raid on the Federal Arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, integration will open the door to more immigration and the loss of national sovereignty. for deep cuts in everything from veterans' benefits to with armed white and Black followers. the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program. Reynolds tells the reader that John Brown and his Moreover Bush found it hard to hide his glee over France's rejection of the constitution—not only Such policies exacerbate capitalist society's tenden­ armed men quickly took control of the US. armory, the cy to become more and more class stratified. A recent arsenal and the rifleworks in Harpers Ferry and then: because it makes life much more difficult for French President Chirac, who opposed his decision to invade study showed that for every additional dollar of "All that was now needed was for the word to spread to income earned by the bottom 90% of the population local slaves, and soon the liberation force would be Iraq, but also because it reduces any chance that a politically unified EU will emerge in the near future from 1990 to 2002, the richest Americans (one-tenth swelled by hundreds, perhaps thousands of emancipat­ of 1% of the population) earned an additional $18,000. ed Blacks. that could serve as a counterweight to U.S. global hegemony. It appears that the Right may turn out to The social dislocations produced by this concentra­ "At least, that's what Brown thought. He sent a tion of wealth and power at one pole and immisera- party into the countryside to liberate slaves and take be the immediate beneficiary of the present situation. This is not the first time that European leftists and tion at the other hits youth and African Americans Continued on page 10 rightists ended up on the same side of a political especially hard. Teenagers seeking employment are ON THE INSIDE issue. In the 1960s many British leftists opposed having less success in obtaining jobs than at any time Britain's entry into the Common Market because they since statistics on teenage employment began to be WOMAN AS REASON • Will next didn't want national capital to be subjected to inter­ compiled in 1948. In Chicago, only one out of 10 African-American teenagers has a job. Supreme Court end choice?............ 2 national capital. As Raya Dunayevskaya noted at the time, such views reflected a complete lack of revolu­ Meanwhile, spending on police and the criminal WRITINGS OFRAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA tionary internationalism.(l) injustice system continues to climb, even as crime • What is Marxist-Humanism's rela­ rates decline. The incarceration of an entire genera­ This year's vote on the EU Constitution shows that tion of African-American youth makes a mockery of tion to Marx's humanism? 4 simply saying "no" does not represent a forward step the claim that the U.S. is a model of "democracy"—a in the movement for liberation. Much, much more is YOUTH • An anti-global capital activist point projected in many meetings, protests, and demanded. The key is not whether one opposes spe­ forums against police abuse and the criminal injus- views Marx's critique of Proudon ..