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Letters from our readers

On “Tripoli faces humanitarian crisis

 

Jalil’s statement that the bombings should continue because “Gaddafi is still capable of doing something awful in the last moments” is reminiscent of the Vietnam era “destroying the village to save it,” only now it is being applied to entire cities. It is monstrous.

 

I cannot express enough how thankful I am to the WSWS writers—especially Bill Van Auken—for their continuous and consistently excellent coverage of the events in Libya. I have seen all manner of wishful thinking, distortion and outright silliness (e.g., the claim that anybody who opposes the war is pro-Gaddafi; contorted rationalizations of the total dependence of the NTC “rebels” on NATO’s murderous sorties; failure to square the GCC’s support for this “revolution” with the nature of the GCC regimes; even comparisons of Gaddafi to Charles Manson!) on “progressive” blogs and web sites. They are worse than worthless.

 

Meanwhile, the WSWS continues to clearly analyze the situation on the ground and, most critically, give its readers a good idea—drawn from the statements of imperialist and NTC representatives themselves—of the kind of post-Gaddafi regime that we can expect and how it will deal with the Libyan working class. Keep up the good work.

 

Lawrence M
30 August 2011

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Just a point from the history books. In 1992, the West supported a military coup in Algeria against the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which had just won a democratic election. Now it has brought to power in Libya parties with similar platforms. The hostility therefore between these two states that share a border will be intense. And war the most likely outcome. The government of Algeria has seen what trusting the West has done for the old Libyan regime. Algeria’s leaders are likely to conclude that time (and the West) is not on their side. So war and soon.

 

Chris
Ireland
30 August 2011

On “IMF chief warns of new financial meltdown

Why is it that we keep hearing about banks that are not allowed to fail but yet John Q. Public or Jane Doe are? Our nation is partly in this mess because it allows thousands upon thousands of small people to fail by not being able to afford their mortgage, car payments, etc.

 

It seems obvious to me that we are on the precipice of another collapse in the world economy because nothing has changed, at least not from what I can tell from where I sit. Companies are still earning record profits yet reducing employee benefits to almost nil or simply laying them off with no valid reasons—e.g., Verizon.

 

It is bizarre to me that corporations (non-living things) are seen as being more valuable than living breathing creatures. Until we get this issue sorted out, we will always and forever be on the edge of one crisis or another.

 

Brandon S
Michigan, USA
29 August 2011

 

On “US government intervenes against faculty at Youngstown State University

 

Once again, educators find the unions can have no strategy to defend themselves and their students in the face of administrative attacks engendered by the government budget cuts and backed by the government at all levels. The Obama administration will force all workers to realize they are in a political fight in which the union’s alliance with the Democratic Party, in defense of the system that enriches the already corporate wealthy on the backs of the working class, stands as an obstacle.

 

As in other struggles the WSWS has written about, including the recently betrayed Verizon strike, Youngstown State University faculty need to form rank-and-file committees against the union collaborators to expand the struggle to include not only the rest of the workers and students in their community but all the other employees of other universities, schools, the state and private industries who are hit by budget, job and wage cuts. The program of this struggle needs to become centered on organizing the industrial actions and political party based on socialist policies that will end the domination of the profits-first class.

 

In solidarity,

HL, a New York teacher
29 August 2011

On “Hurricane Irene and the decay of US infrastructure

 

The point should be raised, or at least the question asked, Why is the Secretary of National Security heading up recovery efforts? Last time I checked, weather patterns were a consequence of Earth’s climate, not a terrorist organization. I find the idea that Napolitano leads recovery efforts absurd.

 

Bryan D
30 August 2011

On “A right-wing rant against British youth from Slavoj ‌i‌ek

Dear WSWS,

 

Stefan Steinberg’s article on philosopher Slavoj Zizek’s denunciation of the British youth revolt is excellent. Politically, Zizek is a conservative and authoritarian thinker. The right-wing politics is lost on a number of his admirers as a result of his showmanship: coarse jokes, pop-culture analogies, rambunctious attitude, and tornado-style delivery.

 

Zizek has called himself a “good Stalinist” and, during a public lecture of his I attended in 2009, declared rejection of Lenin’s theory of the revolutionary party. The bizarre alternative Zizek proposed was to combine Lenin with Kierkegaard. Zizek’s anti-working class politics, which is also admiring of Heidegger’s decision to join the Nazis, is troubling.

 

Sincerely,

AD
30 August 2011

On “Canada: The death of Jack Layton and the myth of national solidarity

 

Your comments in the article on Jack Layton and NDP are completely valid. As a Canadian living in Ontario, I felt we were betrayed by the provincial NDP when they formed government for the first time in the early 1990s under the leadership of Bob Rae.

By the way, he is now a Liberal MP in the Federal Parliament, in fact, the interim leader of the Liberal Party! It was sad to see the federal NDP, too, unconscionably take away any vestige of choice by becoming a corporate/plutocracy-friendly party.

In conclusion, I think a criticism of this otherwise insightful article is warranted. Under Layton’s leadership, NDP also adopted a lackey position regarding Zionist agenda. He admonished the very few NDPers who had been critical of Israel. He could have supported the small but vocal Jewish minority who stand for humanity, but instead he complied with the wishes of the likes of B’nai Brith in their merciless mission.

 

Parviz M
Ontario, Canada
31 August 2011

On “A letter: Some thoughts on author Stan Barstow (1928-2011) and postwar British social realism

 

Once again ,WSWS proves its worth by honoring writers and playwrights ignored by mainstream corporate-dominated media. I agree with the article’s analysis but offer one observation. David Storey clearly dealt with the issue of educated children of working class parents who for whatever reasons were unable to fulfill their potential (e.g., The March on Russia; The Restoration of Arthur Middleton).

I submit, however, that some of Storey’s work (Life Class and more obliquely The Contractor) deal with the loss of opportunity (“potential,” if you will) brought on by the economic stagnation of the early 1970s and the rotting away of the progressive economic and social justice tradition (welfare state in the UK; New Deal in the US).

Sincerely,

Peter L
Connecticut, USA
29 August 2011

 

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