On “Big Brother Obama: US to spy on Internet messaging”
We are all about to witness the French Revolution in reverse. God help us all.
George D
28 September 2010
On “UAW dissidents offer no way forward for Indianapolis struggle”
What I love about this site—and this article in particular—is that the WSWS has a sense of history—a deep knowledge of who is who, and a long-term memory of these people’s previous actions and roles. Thank you for sounding the warning.
The workers of Indianapolis should not be lulled—for too long and in too many ways, the UAW has worked hard against the rank and file, and they are indeed prepared to do it again. Thank you, Jerry, for spelling it out. Workers everywhere need to look at who is talking to them, what they’re saying, and what they’re doing. As my mom used to say—“Consider the source.”
Christie S
Oregon, USA
28 September 2010
On “FBI raids on antiwar activists: A frontal assault on democratic rights”
This is the most upsetting incident since the Cointel investigation by the FBI in the 1960s against the reformist antiwar movement opposing the US invasion of Vietnam. I agree totally with you, Patrick, that the goal of these break-ins is political—that it has nothing to do with “material support for terrorism” but to terrorise the movement against the current economic depression.
How the outcome of the trials of the individuals victimized by these heinous acts turns out depends on the support from sympathisers and the judges. The horrible grand jury will probably be packed with reactionary judges, especially in Chicago, because the FBI wouldn’t have raided the leftists home unless they were sure they could get convictions in the grand jury proceedings. If successful in Minneapolis and Chicago they will undoubtedly move to break into more leftist homes as the struggle against the depression and capitalism heat up.
Steve H
27 September 2010
On “ISO opposes break with Democratic Party at Berkeley planning committee meeting”
The ISO is an organization that feels it has a huge stake in capitalism. Just read the ironically named Socialistworker.org. Everything Socialists have to fight against the ISO instead puts all of its weight behind. Their crude preoccupation with identity politics, their slavish accommodation to the petty-bourgeois/bourgeois mainstream (shown in their daily reproductions of articles from the Nation and the Independent) and their thundering silence about history and theory clearly show their contempt for socialism and the international working class. For all their chronic lack of seriousness and jokes in every article it is obvious that wherever the working class pushes forward the ISO will block their path with redoubled insistence on petty-bourgeois diversions and subordination to one bourgeois group or another.
While the SEP tries to broaden the class consciousness of the working class, the ISO always seeks to limit workers’ horizons to the bourgeois categories of politics that are repeated by every TV analyst and radio talk show host. Their self-identification as socialists is meant to establish a place of residence along the petty-bourgeois political spectrum. As the WSWS has noted, this is no more than a division of labor between the ISO and their petty bourgeois friends.
The working class must build a party devoted to its own interests and the real aspirations and potential that the working class has always had. Those workers and students whose enthusiasm for learning about socialism has been squandered and been systematically misdirected by the ISO should seek out the SEP and the WSWS which work in the revolutionary tradition of the Fourth International.
TJM
Massachusetts, USA
29 September 2010
On “Planning committee on education cuts—the ISO supports the Democratic Party”
I applaud you walking out and not compromising on the correct principles. There are many parent groups in Seattle involved in trying to prevent education cuts. But mostly, they overtly or covertly support the Democratic Party and thus knowingly or unknowingly lead the movement to a dead end.
In Seattle, once these parent groups get the ear of NAACP, teachers’ union leadership and so on, they have to even unwittingly submit to their demands—the chief of which is to not allow any break from the Democratic Party.
I have faced this issue head-on as the parent groups are not willing to even see the cuts in economic terms, to see the root cause. This is clearly because they are aware that such an analysis brings to light the corrupt nature of capitalism and the Democratic Party which they support.
However, on so many occasions, my individual conversations with people on the street, bus, I find incredible support for the ideas of socialism, when it is presented to people in a clear manner. I struggle with the time required to organize, meet people. But I know that there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who are keen to see a break from capitalism and work towards socialism—when it has been explained to them in clear, easy to understand terms.
Best,
Thushara
24 September 2010