Below we post a selection of recent letters to the WSWS .
Dear Editor,
Thank you for Talbot's excellent series of articles debunking the myths propagated by the AIDS denialists. It is worthwhile noting that the South African Government has recently backtracked on its position regarding the provision of anti-retrovirals and is now planning to make them available to all pregnant HIV+ women and to the newborn infants. However, there has been no public admission by any minister or from the presidency itself that they were wrong. Their inaction and obstinate stupidity in the face of an impending catastrophe caused thousands of needless deaths. Mbeki's pathetic quest for bourgeois respectability has landed him amongst the ranks of UFO cultists, Christian fundamentalists and right wing bigots. History will not be kind to him.
EG
South Africa
2 February 2001
This is the most disturbing article on Israel I have ever encountered. I have known for years that Israeli society was just as unjust as any other, but this made me look hard at just how it resembles modern day Germany or the USA, or any partially industrialized nation that practices favoritism to the rich and promotes desperation throughout its social structure and political avenues. It is time to get real. I shall email this to my English class, a graduate seminar in post-colonial literature, heavily theorized. This will dash some cold water in the face of the class, providing a context for our Palestinian poet we will read, with critical articles by Said and others. Thanks for the news.
SMC
1 February 2001
Dear Editors,
Mr. Nick Beams' article posted on the WSWS 30/01/01, concerning the likelihood of an unfolding US recession, was a valuable contribution to the understanding of the history of these amazing developments. It is the sort of analysis that only the WSWS is capable of presenting.
The contradictory and sometimes shallow views quoted by the various economic analysts, about their understanding of the “profit system and its modus operandi the free market”, highlights the value, and the importance, of the analysis provided by Mr. Beams.
Mr. Wynne Godley (page 3) from the Jerome Levy Economics Institute appears to be the exception. His analysis of the record indebtedness of the private sector, and the concerns he expresses about the “structural” problems arising from this indebtedness, makes you wonder about the ability of the Bush administration to manage this unfolding crisis. Mr. Godley's point about the tendency for many analysts to separate supply and demand is, I feel, the basis of his insight into this crisis.
This is what Karl Marx wrote on the subject over 150 years ago. He was discussing the question of (market) equilibrium prior to capitalist commodity production, and after it had been established. “What kept production in true, or more or less true, proportions? It was demand that dominated supply, that preceded it. Production followed close on the heels of consumption. Large-scale industry, forced by the very instruments at its disposal to produce on an ever-increasing scale, can no longer wait for demand. Production precedes consumption, supply compels demand.”
Modern capitalism has developed all sorts of cunning financial mechanisms to try to overcome this contradiction. I know Mr. Beams would have the knowledge to discuss them.
Yours sincerely
AC
1 February 2000
I thought that the exchange between WSWS and the angry Green was excellent. Obviously our environmental brother has too much anger and unfortunately, it's directed at the wrong people.
It's only logical that Nader should have spoken out (LOUDLY) after the election. The whole world was listening and it would have done wonders for the Green Party. If the Nader supporters don't realize this simple fact, they're in denial. Nader blew it!
MMA
29 January 2001
I read in your letters section a comment on the ideology of Ashcroft, which was quite correct. I would like to add that the ideology of the Christian Fundamentalists is based on a BIG LIE: This nation was NOT founded by Christian Fundamentalists. The founding fathers were deists, Masons, and others who rejected religious fundamentalism. They were truly enlightened gentlemen of their day, and were quite serious about the separation of all churches from all forms of the government.
Thank you for printing both letters in regard to Nader's silence. I believe that wsws.org would benefit, and the entire progressive movement would benefit, by enlarging the letters to the editor section of your most excellent web site. In fact, in time, the level of correspondence would be so high that wsws.org might even get some mainstream media attention. Perhaps even provide guests for shows like CNN's Crossfire. I hope that you can see where I'm going with this.
Best wishes,
HWB
29 January 2001
Please keep up your reports on what is happening in the US. And persuade as many others as possible to do the same. Here in the US most media are pretending everything is normal. Very little of the protests [on Inaugural Day] were shown on TV, and they were disparaged as “fringe,” though in fact they included elderly, middle-class, families with children.
The Reich-Wing's plan, though not disclosed, is the same for both public education and non-religious/government social services: put initial funding into private (religious) schools and “faith-based” (religious) organizations; and then eliminate the funding/existence of public and government services. The plan is to drive massive numbers into the arms of “religion;” call them “poverty camps” with viciously kind faces.
Again, please keep reporting, and persuade as many others as possible to do the same. The US media is a combination of “normalcy” and continuing attacks on Democratic opposition of the same vicious kind used against Clinton.
Thanks.
JN
29 January 2001
Thanks to a Yahoo linked to your site I read the article http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/nov1999/egyp-n19.shtml and a few other ones regarding plane safety, and I am finding them interesting. One issue that I wished you had included in your article is that the US congress used the “terrorist” attack on the TWA flight 800 as a pretext for passing the Iran Libya Sanction act. Interestingly they are not so interested in passing any sanctions on Boeing company even though it is apparent now that they are responsible for the crash, or revoking the sanctions.
DM
28 January 2001
Dear Editor,
I wouldn't describe myself as a socialist, but I was pleasantly surprised by the balanced, thoughtful and informed Dec. 23, 2000 article by Chris Talbot on the Congo conflict. Such reporting, on Africa in general and the Great Lakes in particular, is rare.
Sincerely,
EH
Kibungo, Rwanda