Below we post a selection of recent letters to the WSWS .
Please make every attempt to publish a list of the “guests” on board [the USS Greeneville] at the time of this incident. I would also like to see you investigate their connection to Bush/Cheney and publish that information too. It seems other news services are “glossing” over these questions!
LF
22 February 2001
Dear Comrades,
I enjoy your site immensely and am gaining much needed relief of recent events by forwarding little nuggets of truth to my Republican coworkers, to which they are tongue-tied in response. Even they will begrudgingly admit that the writing herein is of the first rank!
Sincerely,
DD
Dallas, Texas
20 February 2001
Just read the article on your web site, “Another result of deregulation: natural gas prices soar in the US” by Gerardo Nebbia, dated 12 January 2001. Please inform your readers that the situation is much worse than Mr. Nebbia states. While “top analysts” are pontificating about 50 percent and 70 percent increases, the real increases here in Southern California are around 300 percent. My wife and I operate a coin laundry here in San Diego County. Our gas bill for January was $3,300. Last year the same usage would have been $900. I just raised prices last summer because of the $2,000 electric bills (up from $600 a year ago). I don't think my customers can pay another price increase.
Going broke in California
Dear WSWS,
I have just discovered your web site in the last couple weeks. My first reaction was incredible relief to find such wonderful journalism, which corroborates my own perceptions through this past couple months of political tragedy in the US. I'm learning so much. The more I read, however, the more frightened I become. Today I'm reading your series on the media; I can't imagine how we are going to “dis-install” these criminals.
Since these—I don't even know what to call them—have taken over this country I have determined that I can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch; I must take some kind of action. Demonstrations feel good but there has to be a lot more. I'm not a kid anymore (I was in Chicago in 1968 when the Democratic convention tore that city apart, I watched transfixed at all the events in those times); now I must be involved.
I can't thank you enough for being there. I'm giving your articles to everyone I know who might be open to them.
LD
Seattle
Dear editor,
Thanks for Julie Hyland's article on the erosion of the right to asylum. Another aspect of the attack on this fundamental right is the growth of xenophobia, often manifested in racist attacks on immigrants. In South Africa, the sight of Somalian refugees being mauled by police dogs was beamed around the world last year. Despite the protestations of our national police commissioner, this was not an “isolated incident”, but is in actual fact a reflection of the experience of many refugees in South Africa. Every day refugees, principally from other African states, are subject to violence from the authorities and, increasingly, the public.
South Africa is now in the process of producing a new immigration policy; it is already clear that this policy is intended to attract “skilled immigrants”—presumably this excludes those fleeing the ravages of war and IMF structural adjustment programmes. As the ANC in alliance with corporate interests moves swiftly to slash jobs and social benefits, the South African working class has to bear an increasing burden of hardship and misery. Immigrants and refugees are perceived as competitors for increasingly scarce jobs, and thus become the target for popular anger. Ironically, most of those entering South Africa are fleeing the very conditions which are squeezing South Africans. I believe that the government has failed to condemn the abuse of refugees and defend their unconditional right to asylum mainly because it diverts popular anger and attention from the state's attack against South African workers.
Yours,
EG
Cape Town, South Africa
15 February 2001
Why do we hear so much about the investigation into Clinton's last-minute pardons and yet there is no congressional investigation into what happened in Florida to give us an illegal administration?
Thanks for your time.
CC
15 February 2001
Dear WSWS,
Have you or are you going to comment on the current assault against the Clintons? I would be interested to hear what you have to say about the media barrage over the Rich pardon and the supposedly bizarre exit of the Clintons from the White House in January. Though Clinton's pardons do seem to have been inexplicably ill-advised, it seems clear that Republicans, backed by a tenaciously right-wing press corps, and not satisfied with using undemocratic means to oust the Democrats from power, are now hell-bent on making sure that there is no “Clinton legacy” or that the only legacy will be that of having been the most corrupt/dishonest, etc. leader in US history.
Sincerely,
DR
Pennsylvania
15 February 2001
Dear WSWS,
I just discovered your site and am delighted. Finally, an easily accessible source for news with the right perspective. I regularly print out your articles for use in my classes (I am a sociology professor). Though I am not overly political in class, it's good to have a source for facts about the real condition of the world.
Thanks again,
BB
15 February 2001
In a recent article on DaimlerChrysler, your reporter raised the question of what happened to Chrysler's $9 billion cash reserve. An article on the BBC web site offers a possible answer: “The German controlled car giant DaimlerChrysler bought 34% of Mitsubishi during the autumn.”
As usual, DaimlerChrysler's management would rather inflate the corporate ego by grabbing a bigger share of the world market than take care of the workers they already employ.
I look forward to the day when workers seize the means of production, and the corporate thugs are begging us for a meal and a warm place to sleep, instead of the other way around.
In solidarity,
JE
Clinton, Maine
15 February 2001
Regarding Ann Talbot's article on LeCarre's The Constant Gardener,
this is an excellent review. I just read the book myself and was slightly jolted by a major British novelist taking such a serious and honest look at one of the worst industries in the world.
CC
15 February 2001
As a young person with a big interest in politics, I am preparing to vote for the first time in the federal election later this year. The analysis of the politic climate in my native Australia, after the shock election results in Western Australia, was both comprehensive and it opened my eyes to the disillusionment of the voter public in the new millennium.
I was both surprised and jubilant at the coverage received in this part of the world.
C
16 February 2001