The following is a selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site.
On “Fidel Castro retires as Cuban president after 49 years in power”
About 15 years ago, while working at an auction house in DC, I saw the actual flimsy (yellow carbon paper) of Nixon’s report with an early visit he had with Castro—wherein Nixon slams door in face of Castro’s early entreaties, to cooperate with US. Nixon & Co. were having none of him. Also, as a federal employee, I’ve seen CIA and other official government reports on Cuba wherein the reigning hostility to Castro’s “caudillo” government is all over everything. This animus has not dimmed even after 50 years, so what can be expected as Castro’s power fades is a revanchist, recrudescent juggernaut by US and Western capitalist forces to once again turn Cuba into their own little corrupt playground.
It’s hard for me to see how it can be prevented with the demise of the USSR and the Stalinist state’s subsidizing of Cuba—which allowed it to survive for so long, in the face of overwhelming odds.
RM
20 February 2008
* * *Thank you for your excellent analysis. I appreciate your balanced presentation of the positive aspects of the Cuban regime, together with the negative aspects that are often ignored by the left.
KV
North Vancouver, Canada
20 February 2008
On “Deep divisions in Europe over Kosovo”
Thank you for your unbiased article. I was in Kosovo Sara Mountain in vacation and traveled across Kosovo en route to Belgrade four days before the NATO air raids. It was at peace. The bombing of Kosovo cities is what scared the people and put them on the road.
Kind regards,
LJ
Belgrade, Serbia
19 February 2008
On “An exchange on the break-up of Yugoslavia”
I would like to draw your attention to recent news on the Internet regarding the discovery of “vast oil and gas reserves” in northern Albania. Could it be that once again the United States and the European Community are encouraging the “Iraqification” of the old Yugoslavia in order to get their filthy paws on the region’s resources?
JH
21 February 2008
On “East Timor: Official ‘assassination’ claims collapse”
This is just to congratulate you on your interesting article on the recent events in East Timor. We will publish a summary of the article in our newspaper.
Harald Bruning
The Macau Post Daily
Macau, China
19 February 2008
On “Australia: Labor ‘rank and file’ meeting—no perspective to fight electricity privatisation”
I read your article with interest and many knowing nods. None of this surprises me. I am a former member of the Labor Party and the left and attended state conferences as a delegate from the Hunter region. One of my colleague delegates and I often remarked (joked?) that we were the only two delegates in the room that were genuinely employed in the private sector. I have the perception that the party is extremely incestuous now, and that’s how the power brokers like it of course!
SB
Australia
19 February 2008
On “Largest beef recall in US history reveals compromised food supply”
Thanks for exposing this extreme cruelty to animals in the workplace. You write, “The video, released January 30 by the Humane Society, shows cows that are too sick or crippled to stand up being shoved, dragged and rolled across cement-floored pens at the Hallmark Meat Packing slaughterhouse in Chino, California. Immobile cows whose hides are caked with manure can be seen being rammed with forklifts, jabbed in the eyes, dragged along by chains, shocked and subjected to simulated drowning with high-pressure hoses to get them on their feet in the so-called ‘kill box’ of the facility.”
Is this not a graphic example of our times and our ethics (the worst ethics of our species, that is)? This is how we treat our animals.
This is not unlike, as a matter of fact, how we treat our people and our fellow man at its worst—prodding them into wars they don’t want, coaxing them to buy things they don’t want or don’t need, exploiting all of their lives and even their deaths, subjecting our enemies to torture camps, Abu Ghraibs, Guantánamos, etc., then trying to make it all good—with an embarrassed smile and a recall—in a jiffy, when the truth is known all over.
Like our enemies, the cows, our human enemies must be hastened into the ‘kill box,’ so that we can make our money, and get off shift. Completely disgusting and inhumane. Hurry along now.
JB
19 February 2008
On “US Supreme Court refuses to hear case against warrantless wiretapping”
This is another Dred Scott case where the Supreme Court fails to right a clear wrong and support the Constitution in the face of appalling abuse of rights on the dubious grounds that the claimant has no right to sue in their court. This is a terrible abuse of power and in clear violation of several amendments.
AP
20 February 2008