On “Obama hardens threat of war against Iran”
I suppose you saw this moment from a couple nights ago in New York?
Audience member: No war with Iran!
President Obama: Nobody’s announced a war young lady, but we appreciate your sentiment. You’re jumping the gun a little bit there.
Jumping the gun! My eyebrows shot up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNIyteOVLVU
Greg S
New Hampshire, USA
5 March 2012
On “SEP campaigns in Michigan, California and Kentucky”
It is with delight that I read news about the SEP’s election campaign. The working class in the US is kindly solicited to shoulder its sacred responsibility to defend the suffering masses on the planet. We world citizens who belong to the category of suffering masses are looking forward to marching forward jointly with the US’s heroic workers. The role of ICFI today has its historical precedents in the role of Lenin and Trotsky in the Russian Revolution. I wish success to the SEP in the US election. I mean to push forward the message of revolution to the working class.
IVE
Sri Lanka
5 March 2012
On “Financial markets demand sharper crackdown against Egyptian workers“
It’s interesting to compare the 2010 estimated populations of Greece and Egypt:
Egypt: 81,121,077
Greece: 11,319,048
This, plus the demonstrated combativeness of the Egyptian working class (not to slight the Greeks, but the Egyptians have led the way this past year), and you have to marvel at the crocodilian brazenness of the IMF/WB/ECB troika!
Even though the figures cited are from the World Bank (via Google), I have seen no overt public mention of any perceived political complications of this sevenfold population disparity in implementing the troika’s war on Egyptian workers as against those of Greece.
Come to think of it, a similar remark pertains to the preparations for war with Iran as against Iraq, where there is a twofold population disparity and a massive difference in the topography of the two countries.
What I want to point out is the persistently destructive policies attributable to the Panglossian mindset of our rulers, who insist that the world should organize itself as they wish, regardless of objective conditions actually existing.
As the WSWS repeatedly makes clear, their policy prescriptions are allowed to be placed on the agenda solely due to the betrayals of the ex-organizations of the working class and the ex-left. Absent the support from these agencies of the bourgeoisie, they would be left baying at the moon. Until the working class decouples itself absolutely from these filthy organizations, as well as of all idealist fantasies of how the world works, they will continue to be dragged by the hair towards disaster.
CH,
Texas, USA
3 March 2012
On “Lessons of the Cooper Tire struggle”
Your commentary and analysis makes for compulsory reading—for anyone, anywhere—seeking to put an end to capitalist exploitation of humanity and of nature’s resources by the very, very few; the unions are part of the state(s) seeking to perpetuate this state of affairs.
The unions have been/are one of the main pillars of the rule of capital and the capitalist class, and, with the Social Democratic parties (see Europe), are responsible for implementing their historic crisis onto the backs of the working class. In Britain, the unions are joined at the hip to the Labour Party—war criminals and political gangsters. Their true function, to suppress the class struggle, attack the working class and save capitalism for the capitalists in time of crisis, regardless of the consequences for the working class, is becoming clearer by the day (despite the best efforts of the pseudo-left).
You state: “The eagerness of the trade unions to grant concessions is not merely the result of union functionaries’ perfidy and greed. It flows from their unconditional acceptance of the capitalist system.…”
I agree “...not merely...”—however, as a public-sector worker for many years, and having been up-close to the stench emanating from both union apparatchiks and Labour Party careerists (bullies)—the socially criminal nature of these people, who will do anything to maintain their power and social position, seems to me to have more the character of a Mafia outfit than even a tenuous connection to “politics”.
Perfidy and greed is the modus operandi, in the DNA of these characters, on both sides of the Atlantic as everywhere else.
History has taught that without the independent mobilisation of the working class, these “boot boys” will deliver the most telling blows, and must be stopped by workers and youth building their own political organisations, as countless articles published on the WSWS demonstrate.
With warmest regards from Manchester, UK
Sally C
Britain
3 March 2012
On “Will the Woody Guthrie Museum in Oklahoma distort the folksinger’s views?”
Tom,
Thank you very much for this piece on Woody Guthrie, an honest and powerful artist in the best tradition of American folk music. The distortion of his humanistic and political passion, misguided as it was, is a crying shame and an indication of the implacable hostility embedded in ruling circles towards the rich history of art affiliated with the socialist movement.
Julian Q
3 March 2012
On “The US media responds with hostility to this year’s Academy Awards show”
I actually enjoyed the parts of the show I watched this year, and noticed the improved quality and taste when compared with recent years. Still, surprising is the level of hostility displayed by the media—though it only serves to highlight our good taste! Two thumbs up, Mr. Walsh!
Kamilla V
BC, Canada
2 March 2012