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Letters from our readers

On “75 years since the Flint sit-down strike

People have died trying to get livable wages and working conditions. These people deserve more recognition than those that died in wars. We have let or are letting the US go back to making workers industrial slaves. Debt, high housing and food prices let the people drift to voluntary slavery.

RD

Oklahoma, USA

30 December 2011

 

On “Sparrows Point, Maryland mill suspends steelmaking operations

 

The reoccurring betrayal of the working class by the trade union apparatus is to frighten and intimidate those it keeps telling us it represents. Their national ideological filth that spews from the bureaucratic machine will in time fade, due to the unrelenting work of the Socialist Equality Party to seek the truth and not only distribute it to the working class but offer an alternative.

Recently, the printing company I work for just told us that operations in Sydney have been shut down. Had the AMWU reached out to the other plants around Australia to defend those who worked there? Had they called for an occupation of the plant? Did they even bother to let us know what the company was doing?

 

None of the above. Just another orderly closure was on the menu.

Then one must ask this: how long did the union know about the closure? Our factory in Queensland has been promised over the last six months an installation of a new press, which will be with us shortly and of better equipment for all sections of the factory shop.

Coincidence? Highly unlikely.

Julian H

30 December 2011

 

On “Notes on the social crisis in America

Naomi, I really appreciate the series of articles you’ve been writing about social conditions around the country. I was particularly interested in the section in today’s article about the overloading of mental health facilities at a time when more and more people are suffering from depression and other conditions as a result of their desperate financial situation. A friend’s cousin is a psychiatric nurse in Southern California whose hospital is closing down their mental health facilities. She now has to re-train for another nursing specialty. It’s horrifying that, just when people have the most need for mental health assistance, hospitals are actually closing down their mental health departments.

Thanks again for the articles.

Carolyn

California, USA

29 December 2011

 

On “A personal perspective on the UK Occupy Movement

 

 

While this has been my experience in Seattle as well, I have always been much impressed by the yearning of the participants in the fringes of the movement for developing a clear political program.

I consistently noticed that the occupiers who are a permanent fixture in Seattle have a far, far more reformist mind than the group—fringe—that gathers to mostly see/hear what is happening within the movement.

I collected feedback from people about what should our demands be, and summarized them. But the permanent occupiers wanted to bring their own demands and ignore those of the people.

But this happens only because we have no leadership for the working class within the broad public. Thus the occupiers are reactively following the model of the outdated politics. But, like you, others will see this and thus we will take steps to build this leadership.

Thushara

29 December 2011

On “New research may show that Neandertals did not go extinct

 

 

It is also necessary to note that the shift between cultural and biological evolution, when mankind began to adapt not necessarily at the whims of time and chance, was when humans first began using tools. The creation of fire and the wheel, as well as cave drawings, are most likely not an absolute boundary between when biological and cultural evolution dominated human society, but it is a clear indicator that cultural evolution was becoming and would eventually become the dominant drive in human development. Or perhaps such considerations mark the boundary between species? Maybe the difference between H. neanderthal and H. sapiens is cultural, not biological, evolution.

I would also add, as a direct response to those who would take this research in a racist direction, that even if these results are born out from further research, it does not mean that there is somehow a “subspecies” of humanity. These people may have certain physical traits of neanderthals, such as the different facial structure, but they still have the same capacity for advanced conscious thought that all other humans do. Accusing those with a different bone structure of being “less-than-human” is akin to declaring the same about humans with a different skin tone.

Bryan D

27 December 2011

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