Below we post a selection of recent letters to the World Socialist Web Site.
On “US media and liberal establishment: accomplices in the assault on Fallujah”
Dear Sirs,
I strongly protest the attack on Fallujah. It is a forgone conclusion that the heavily armed United States military will slaughter the residents of Fallujah who are protecting their homes.
There is no bravery in this. The stated aim of the US was to help liberate the people of Iraq. The carnage that will result from this onslaught is a crime against humanity. The US has already destroyed one hospital. This is against Geneva Convention rules.
I beg the media to not maintain mute complicity.
Sincerely,
JW
9 November 2004
* * *George Bush is doing the same to Fallujah as Hitler did to Warsaw in 1944.
S
9 November 2004
* * *Please keep up the great work exposing what is really going on in Iraq. Your article “Massacre Looms in Fallujah after US election” is so disturbing I don’t even know where to begin (particularly after Bush’s demoralizing reelection).
I read today that a US military planner (named Pike) stated, of the Iraqi insurgents: “They seem to be in a steady state of recruiting as fast as we can kill them ... we have to show them we will do whatever it takes to make elections happen so they might as well get with the program.”
Our leaders speak openly about the people we are supposedly trying to democratize as if they’re cockroaches and we’re the Orkin exterminator man.
I admire the perseverance of your principled opposition. I see this stuff and just lose hope.
JP
6 November 2004
* * *On “Iraq veteran Jimmy Massey speaks to the WSWS”
Dear Jeff,
Thanks for the great article on Jimmy Massey.
Jim is a true hero, and I commend him for speaking out, which took a lot of real guts. Facing the Marine Corps alone is no small task.
We have to get the troops out of Iraq. Oil money is behind this for sure. Halliburton pays its truck drivers in Iraq $8,000-10,000 a month while the troops protecting them make $2,500 a month—and they are the ones getting killed.
Thanks,
MW
Sacramento, California
12 November 2004
* * *“We’re committing genocide in Iraq”.... Well, Mr. Riedel, that’s exactly how we see US presence in Iraq. It’s sad to see that more Americans haven’t yet got the message and have reelected Mr. Bush.
With the enormous deficit that the Republican government is accumulating and the decrease in transfers to universities, etc., the US is sure to have enough of a contingent to send to any conflict they may decide to invent in the future.
MC
France
11 November 2004
* * *On the US elections
To the SEP/WSWS,
Congratulations on the SEP election campaign.
There is absolutely no reason for demoralisation in the 2004 US election result. There is in fact much that is encouraging in what it reveals.
The old mole of history keeps burrowing away.
The election reveals beyond doubt that liberalism is dead. The great “political centre” is no more. Once again the stark alternatives of our epoch are being posed: barbarism or socialism?
I believe the Democratic Party’s operatives sense acutely this deeper reality. The historical process has caught up with them. That is why they are suffering a kind of inner collapse, a truly existential dilemma. Millions of ordinary people who voted Democrat, however, will draw the correct conclusion, this corpse cannot be resuscitated. Indeed, it never represented their true interests. A genuine alternative that speaks to their needs is required. The SEP is that alternative.
In the form of the Republican Far Right the counterrevolution is under way. 2004 will embolden them. Now they cloak their counterrevolutionary program in religion. It is deeply repugnant and shows their contempt for the mass of the American people.
But the moment of socialism is also approaching. The prospects for social revolution in America are opening right up as the whole bourgeois political order disintegrates under the vast weight of social inequality.
Tens of millions of working people, the poor, the oppressed and the most serious and self-sacrificing elements of the intelligentsia will rally to the socialist cause.
People will put aside their personal religious views in the struggle for genuine human freedom. Sincere Christians have absolutely nothing to fear from socialism but much to fear in the ruthless capitalist and authoritarian program of Republican reaction.
Only socialism has the power to unite the American people who despise war and oppression and who first took up arms in the struggle for freedom and equality over two centuries ago.
A great and noble struggle lies ahead. Go forward!
RH
Sydney
8 November 2004
* * *Hi,
I just read your article “Swedish union bureaucracy uses GM strike to undercut German workers”. It was an interesting article.
It might be added though that the German metal workers have also presented GM with a similar offer where they agreed to work more hours per week for the same pay.
So, both trade unions seem to be equally bad, really.
Regards,
AB
7 November 2004
* * *On “New Jersey casino strike ends”
Thanks for printing some truth about the UNITE HERE Local 54 strike settlement.
Unanswered was also the issue of wage tiers. The expiring contract had seven (7) years to get to the top rate—even for low skill jobs.
To complicate matters the starting wages and the wage structure have been frozen for a decade—since the 1994 contract was settled (a contract that also gave away amongst other things a strict prohibition against subcontracting—causing the crisis we were unable to strike to get out of this time).
The new contract didn’t address the need to collapse the wage tiers—in fact it might have done the opposite: it delayed half of the normal raise you get each year until halfway through the year. Making 14 wage tiers in 7 years
Quite a windfall for the boss.
Thanks again,
SS
9 November 2004