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Letters from our readers

On “UK Liberal Democrats wracked by sex scandal

Great article by Julie Hyland on the Lord Rennard case, which does show how adrift the so-called feminist movement is from the concerns of working class women who have to work in low-pay, often insecure jobs and have to put up with the insecurity and stress that this brings about. It seems that there is a hue and cry from these feminists every time that women from the middle classes are excluded from either positions of political power or economic power; the glass ceiling comes to mind.

One point did cross my mind, and that is the detrimental effect that these blanket accusations can have on those women who experience rape and other forms of violence. When all accusations are elevated to the same level then the more serious accusations are somehow belittled.

Keep up the good reporting, Julie; you stand in the proud tradition of socialist revolutionaries such as Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg, Inessa Armand et al. That is the Marxist tradition which will fight for working class emancipation which will bring about human liberation rather that the liberation of a minority of middle class women, who, as Julie says, are quite happy to snuffle around for the capitalist spoils alongside their male counterparts.

Dave T

UK

27 January 2014

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I wonder if this silliness isn’t just a matter of greasing the skids for a renewed assault on Julian Assange for his alleged sex crimes. Sort of a dress rehearsal. All the same people are involved, after all.

CH

Texas, USA

27 January 2014

On “US officials ‘want to kill me,’ warns Edward Snowden

“Snowden rejected demands by President Obama and other US officials that he return to the United States to face trial on charges that include violations of the 1917 Espionage Act, which carries the death penalty”.

It’s ironic in the extreme, that in the same year, the Bolshevik government published secret treaties signed between the Tsar and Western Governments, which caused a furor and panic in the ‘international community’ of that time. The US Espionage Act is most certainly a reaction to this move for international transparency.

Mirek S

Australia

27 January 2014

On At Detroit Auto Show, workers denounce bankruptcy, attacks on wages and pensions

A young kid in the article perspicaciously points out:

“I soon found out if you are just trying to work hard you don’t fit in with the union.”

That is the experience of workers in my country Australia too. On any given day back in the 90s when they used to turn up to building sites (which was very occasionally) the union representative would head straight for the toilets and break down the toilet holders, cause a ruckus and play their childish games, going on with their “f--- the bosses” rhetoric. In the whole process, they didn’t advance the interests of the workers one iota. They came to play the Alpha Male game with the employer and proceed to divide the worksite. I doubt some of these union reps worked a proper 8-hour day in their life. We would leave the job with nothing to show for it, but no doubt [they] left with either a kickback or had alerted “the man” to his bargaining chip, which was really just a euphemism for extortion and intimidation. With everything that the working class has lost in real terms globally in the last 30 plus years, to see these guys go round with their comfy desk jobs, leaching off our pay and conditions, while compromising them at the same time with such actions, no wonder there is such endemic hatred for the unions around the world right now.

Respect to the SEP and the wsws.org website for standing up to the unions and calling them out for who they really are. Viva la revolucion, but on the workers’ terms, not on the bureaucratic trade union appararatus’ terms.

Matt C

NSW, Australia

29 January 2014

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