The following is a selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site.
On “Political dissent as terrorism: ‘Minnesota Patriot Act’ charges filed against RNC Eight”
I was present at the police state in St. Paul and was one of the people forced onto the Marion Bridge and was put under arrest. That experience of police brutality and the suppression of our right to free speech has really opened my eyes. I have been a socialist for some time now, but once you experience something like that it only intensifies your beliefs. When you think about it, the Republicans started an illegal war that has killed over half a million people and nothing happens to them. Then the people who go out and speak against the injustice get arrested and charged with “presence at an unlawful assembly.” Only in the land of hypocrisy. Thanks for the information about the RNC related arrests. We can’t let the government lock away the RNC 8 for speaking out against the government, and we must let them know we are not afraid.
B
Buffalo, Minnesota, USA
12 September 2008
“The Wall Street crisis and the failure of American capitalism”
It used to be that scratching out a 3-5 percent profit was a pretty good year. It used to be that people could put a million dollars in the bank at 6 percent interest and live comfortably. It used to be that a CEO made five or ten times what the lowest-paid worker made. People used to be able to get a semester at the state university for $500. In fact, I made $8.00/hour in 1978 bagging groceries in a union store while I was in high school.
Now that the rich have stolen every last penny from the majority of the workers and we can no longer afford to even pay attention, the house of cards has begun to come down. I’m not an economist and I don’t know the answers, but I do know that people making $12/hour do not buy new cars, do not “fly the friendly skies” and do not purchase new washing machines or dryers. Is it any surprise that UAL, Ford, GM, Maytag, and other durable goods producers have gone belly-up?
I encourage all working people to buy euros with any spare money they have and bury them in a can in the back yard. Placing worthless dollars in accounts of crooked banks is not the answer.
PK
16 September 2008
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What do you expect from a global banking system that is a major part of the capitalist structure that is built upon the foundations of personal greed? Even in failure, I know personally of at least two bankers who have been paid off in excess of $100 million to keep their mouths shut. They are not sorry in the least. Therefore, with a system that takes for the few and gives very little to the many, global systems have to change. Indeed, the whole basis of human development has to be totally questioned and re-engineering by every country, not on capitalist market systems but on long-term sustainability systems in order that we are simply around by the turn of this century. For the present winner-takes-all philosophy is definitely a system for human extinction.
DH
Bern, Switzerland
16 September 2008
On “Obama and McCain on 9/11: ‘unity’ in support of war and repression”
9/11 reminds me of my history study in Holland covering the Middle Ages Inquisition. As then, anybody who dares to question the validity of the present day George W. Bush’s term “war on terrorism” is himself branded a terrorist and subjected to the anti-terrorist laws. At the time of the Inquisition, this meant death. In today’s American inquisitorial environment, most people are skeptical regarding 9/11, but nobody dares question the validity of the “war on terrorism.” “These are bad people, and we must go after them, take them out.” The discourse is almost the same. The ultimate objective is to subdue the American citizens, totally depoliticize social life in America, prevent people from thinking and conceptualizing, from analyzing facts and challenging the legitimacy of the inquisitorial social order that now rules America.
The Big Lie becomes the Truth. Realities are turned upside down. War becomes peace, a worthwhile humanitarian undertaking. Peaceful dissent becomes heresy. The objective is to create an atmosphere of fear and insecurity, with a view to upholding the Bilderberg clique New World Order.
FBR
Thailand
12 September 2008
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You touch all the bases. While the hyenas and hypocrites of the mass media continue to milk the grief of 9/11 victims, any real truths about that day continue to be a big mystery to them (or more to the point, they pretend it is). They neither investigate nor illuminate anything for the American people (and the rest of the world, of course). The circus/farce continues.
RM
12 September 2008
On “The Palin interviews: Ignorance in the service of the ultra-right”
I love your columns and learn so much from WSWS each day. Keep up the great work.
One mistake though in today’s column on Palin’s interview. Palin was (I hate to say this) correct and your writer incorrect regarding whether one can see Russia from Alaska. The Little Diomede Island (in Alaska) and its sister island Big Diomede (in Russia) to the west are only 4 km apart at one point. From there, one can see one island from the other.
Best regards,
DD
Voorhees, New Jersey, USA
15 September 2008
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Thank you WSWS for your analysis on current events and the historical context, especially as we move into this economic crisis. WSWS had predicted this years ago. There was the “Great War,” then there was World War II. There was the “Great Depression,” then there is going to be ... what?
By the way, the Pentecostals, the church Sarah Palin is associated with, believe that humans and dinosaurs coexisted. That clears up a matter for me. All these years I thought the Flintstones was a cartoon. Turns out it’s a documentary. (Is “Ya-ba-dab-buh-doo!” a form of speaking in tongues?)
RR
Medford, Oregon, USA
16 September 2008
On “Texas hit hard by Hurricane Ike”
It is certainly informative and edifying, for those not yet convinced, on how capitalism works in response to natural and not-so-natural disasters. Apart from being a self-destructive force, fed by “coercive laws of competition” in Marx’s words, capitalism has a profound contempt for the working class and people at large. It also perceives in every disaster, caused by its very actions, an opportunity for profit and “growth.” This was certainly the case with Katrina, the tsunami in SE Asia, and at present with Ike in Texas and the train collision in California. The calculations obviously are in line with “cost-benefit” principles, that the cost of making the infrastructure safe is more than the cost of cleaning up the mess. This is the logic of capitalism, where everything is subordinated to the principle of profit, in deference to “coercive laws of competition.”
MS
Queanbeyan, Australia
15 September 2008