The following is a selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site.
On “French presidential election: Sarkozy and Royal to compete in second round”
I’ve just learned that Lutte Ouvriere’s Arlette Laguiller has called on her supporters to vote for Royal in the second round. I must say you were right about Lutte Ouvriere. You had been right all along, although I was willing to give this organization the benefit of the doubt.
Lutte Ouvriere is nothing but an opportunistic group that only claims allegiance to Trotsky in order to deceive the masses. It serves as a prop for bourgeois rule. A vote for Royal in the runoff would be a vote against the workers. Royal is not “socialist.” Royal is neo-liberal (she says she will deliver “change” without upheaval). She is no better than Sarkozy. She and Sarkozy are the same; they are two sides of the same coin.
They are both enemies of the working class. And whoever calls for supporting either of them is an enemy of the working class too. There is only one way out, only one solution, the solution advocated by the International Committee of the Fourth International: an independent political party of the working class. I really hope the International Committee of the Fourth International will be able to build a section in France as soon as possible.
RF
Romania
23 April 2007
On “Court appeal scheduled for US political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal”
In a country with a responsible government and legal system the following is enough to free him from the death sentence and prison: “The medical examiner’s report, which had not been entered into the record at the original trial, noted that the bullet removed from the officer’s brain was .44 caliber. Mumia’s gun, a .38, could not have fired such a bullet. Moreover, the police allegedly failed to conduct a test to determine if Mumia’s gun had even been fired recently, or a routine test to see if he had recently fired any weapon.”
FRS
Thailand
18 April 2005
On “Four years since the looting of the National Museum—The plunder of Iraqi antiquities continues”
What a painful article to read! Not only is the US/UK invasion committing genocide in Iraq, it is also destroying the most ancient cultural heritage of the entire human race.
It reminds me of the burning of the library in Alexandria, Egypt in ancient times—except we know the modern equivalent was intentional.
MB
Los Angeles, California, USA
19 April 2007
On “Germany: Green Party attacks peace marches”
A party which suddenly turns and attacks a peace march is truly one which is running out of clout.
JB
19 April 2007
On “Iraqis oppose US plan to divide Baghdad into ghettos”
As I read your article I realized that the US government forces are doing the same thing the Nazis did to the Jews and the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians. Locking up entire neighborhoods and turning them into ghettoes with only a few checkpoints to pass through is, in effect, creating prison camps for the citizens of Baghdad. It truly is, as one of the Iraqis said, collective punishment for the Iraqis’ resistance to the occupation of their country by forces who are destroying it and all of its physical and social institutions. This is monstrous.
American teachers of history had better change their presentation of the US military as the “good guys.” Otherwise, how will they explain to their students the fact that what they have taught about the Nazis in Germany—that they were evil murderers who walled in countless thousands of Jews in ghettoes—is suddenly acceptable when these atrocities are committed by Americans?
Just as the Nazi government convinced the German people that its actions against the Jews were justified because they were a danger to the “Volk”—that they were communists, that they were non-human beasts bent on destroying Germany—the US propaganda machine is attempting to convince the American public that the Iraqis are a danger to American citizens because they are opposed to having their country destroyed and their people killed so that American oil companies and crooked outfits like Halliburton can proceed to vacuum Iraq’s oil out of the ground and make billions in profits.
What we are watching unfold in Iraq is the plan for other countries whose resources—especially oil—are needed by the corporate elite to increase their wealth and control energy supplies all over the planet. If this is allowed to continue, the future looks grim, indeed.
CZ
San Francisco, California, USA
25 April 2007