On “Obama administration prepares charges against NSA whistleblower”
Obama is just another tool from the ruling class tool box. They screwed on us with Bush for eight years and put him back into the tool box. Then the ruling class took out the Obama ratchet and are wrenching us down even tighter. Need to retire the ruling class and take away their tool box as they have another wrench named Clinton in 2016—or any other assortment they can use.
Ken S
Wisconsin, USA
12 June 2013
You write:
“In a column published Tuesday, entitled ‘The Solitary Leaker,’ Brooks denounces Snowden and the millions of other young people who share his distrust of the political system, employing the same types of arguments that were used in the 1930s to defend the fascist dictatorships of Franco, Mussolini and Hitler.”
I might add that this distrust of the government and the political system were felt when I was a young woman in the 1960s and these same arguments were used to defend the administration of the time. Then, the government flung the same accusations of treason at our entire generation for protesting against the imperialist war in Vietnam, and against racism here in the US. The French government nearly fell in 1968. Richard Nixon was ultimately exposed by Woodward and Bernstein. The establishment was scared then, too. But obviously not enough.
Carolyn
California, USA
13 June 2013
On “The reality behind the ‘rebound’ of the US auto industry”
Thank you for this article. Comparing the current wage of the typical two-tier worker, and noting that after union dues and adjusted for inflation it’s the same as the 1931 workers’ income, while the company makes billions in profits, provides a clear illustration of what “recovery” means to Obama, his administration and the elite as a whole.
One thing I have heard and read over various media sites, social and official, is that there is a no-strike clause that ends in 2015. A lot of workers are looking forward to that.
Christie S
Washington, USA
12 June 2013
On “UK Labour Party pledges cuts in welfare”
The Labour Party leadership makes my blood boil. In the same week that the announcement was made that workers’ wages have seen an unprecedented cut, Miliband and bluesy Balls announces the end of universal provision and the institutionalisation of cheap labour with the threat of working for 24 hours on the minimum wage. These steps are another sign, if one was needed, that all the pro-capitalist parties’ agenda are to dismantle the welfare state and replace it with a one based on 18th century poor law principles.
As far as the Peoples Assembly is concerned, this is a no-hoper for the bulk of the working class. All it is doing is giving a few well-placed middle class and left leaning bureaucrats a platform to look good. This organisation is not coming from the mass struggles of the working class; they in no way resemble soviets or workers councils. In a few years, if not months, they will have shrivelled to the usual familiar faces and will have made no difference to the austerity attacks.
No, what is needed is patient work within the working class with socialists putting forward a clear Marxist programme. In this way there will hopefully be laid the basis for a true political struggle by the working class.
Dave T
UK
13 June 2013