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Letters from our readers

On “Former colonial powers send military ‘advisers’ to Libya”

 

On a side note, there is even a more direct link for France and Great Britain with Libya: these two imperialist powers took over the country during WWII (in February 1943) and maintained a colonial occupation of it until the end of 1951.

Olivier L
France
21 April 2011

On “US seeks to subvert anti-Assad movement in Syria

Contradictions are an inevitable part of the opportunistic imperial strategy of the USA. The Syrian regime has received a great political/military boost in the reduction of the Libyan rebels to the status of NATO clients. Syria is a country that is periodically bombed by the Israeli air force. And the Syrian military are in a permanent Cold War with the Israeli state, which may become hot in minutes. Now those who revolt in Syria can be painted as members of a Western fifth column by the Syrian government. Paid agents of the Israeli/US/NATO imperial axis. And this political boost to every tyrant in the Middle East is a direct result of the NATO action in Libya. Possibly then the NATO strategy is more Machiavellian than it appears at first glance.

Chris
Ireland
21 April 2011

On the revolution in Egypt

The problems you face in your struggle for a better future today can never be guaranteed whilst the social wealth produced by the working class is left in the hands of the parasitic elite who reign over every facet of life as we know it. Your demands that privatized companies that were once public owned enterprises be re-instated as the latter will fall on deaf ears; free speech, equal rights, the right to strike, rights to protest do not exist under capitalism.

These parasites will tell their police units to gun you down, brothers and sisters, if you show any sign of resistance and their generals to crush workers with their tanks.

As we have seen in the past any party that does not call for international socialism has betrayed the working class as this was shown in France, June 1936, when the working class downed tools and demanded revolution. What was to follow from the Stalinists?

The 40-hour working week and other small tokens given to workers from the 200 families that controlled France’s economy, only to be followed by inflation not long after that quickly swallowed any benefit to the working class.

The only way forward for workers in Egypt is by building your own rank-and-file committees in workplaces, committees of action in your towns and valleys and by linking your struggles internationally based on international socialism.

Leon Trotsky founded the Fourth International on this critical principle. This party still stands its ground with workers all over the world. Even though Leon Trotsky was murdered by the Stalinists many decades ago his program is still embedded in the Fourth International, the party for world socialist revolution.

Julian H
Queensland, Australia
20 April 2011

On “Senate report on Wall Street crash: The criminalization of the American ruling class

I look forward to the detailed analysis of the Senate report.

It is certainly the case that any prosecution by the bourgeois state of these gentlemen would have to be handled on a severely restricted basis. After the Nov. 08 crash, leading figures in the hedge fund industry explained the subjective need to “keep dancing while the music is playing,” which is another way of hiding behind the objective laws of capital transfer in equalizing the profit rate between different sources and industries.

Best,

Thushara
18 April 2011

On “US public university presidents’ pay soars

The article brought many good points; college presidents are getting rich and tuition is increasing rapidly. In Washington State our recent state legislators have given the green light to allow state four colleges to raise their tuition by 14 percent. Thus our colleges are more expensive than the private colleges are in California. The Seattle Times stated that students now have to paid close to 40 percent more. Moreover, students are now not being accepted to colleges, and being passed over for out-of-state students who have to pay more to go to college. Our community colleges are being affected and they too have to reject students and raise their tuition.

Paul
Washington, USA
19 April 2011

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