More hypocrisy from Bush gang
National Public Radio’s reported on Bush’s comments, March 13, concerning the mass border crossings of Iraqis to Syria seeking refuge. Bush said the Syrian government should allow and accept all the Iraqis to their country and extend help to the fledgling “democracy.”
What immediately came to mind is the fact that the U.S. government is building a wall to shut out Mexican workers along the Mexico-Texas border. As of 2005, just over 80 miles of federally enforced barriers and fencing were at strategic points on the border, mainly in Texas and California.
And the big question: who is responsible for the tragic events in Iraq? The outrageous hypocrisy continues!
Gabe Falsetta
Glendale NY
Colombia’s killing fields
In reference to W.T. Whitney’s article (PWW 3/10-16) about the Communist editor, Carlos Lozano, whose life is in danger after he spoke out against President Alvaro Uribe’s claim that FARC had rejected the government’s peaceful attempts for bilateral release of hostages.
Similar hit lists have included Manuel Cepeda, an editor of Voz, who was murdered in August 1994, and other journalists working for the same newspaper who have been killed. Colombia ranks in the top three countries of the world for killing journalists.
This reflects on Uribe’s known association with the large number of paramilitary forces in Colombia that control large parts of the countryside by their uncontrolled killings. To quote Semana, Colombia’s leading newsweekly, “2006 will go down in history as the year in which the country learned how far the tentacles of paramilitarism reached. Though many Colombians knew that the paramilitaries controlled various regions of the country … nobody imagined that the scourge had become a cancer that was silently eating the pillars of democracy.”
John Radebaugh
Falmouth ME
A line from China
I have been a loyal subscriber of your e-news for a long time. I love it! Hope the web site rebuilding won’t take long!
Yan
Via e-mail from China
Editor’s note: The new servers are up and running. Thanks.
Africa not yet free
Among the remaining colonies in Africa are the Canary Islands, a colony of Spain. The Canary Islands are called the Canary Archipelago, the Canaries and the Canary Isles. The independence movement is called the Movement for the Independence of the Canary Islands, abbreviated MPAIAC. The only other remaining colony in Africa is Western Sahara, which is a colony of Morocco.
Richard Jack Fields
Jackson Heights NY
Songs for peace
I appreciated Art Perlo’s “St. Pat and the war in Iraq” (PWW 3/17-23) talking about different songs created against previous wars. It put me in mind of a ditty we used to sing in Quaker work camps during the Korean War. (It should be sung with a Cockney accent!) It goes like this:
I don’t wanna be a hero
I don’t wanna go to war
I justs wanna hang around
Piccadilly underground,
Livin’ off the earnings of the highborn mighty.
I don’t wanna bullet in me back,
I don’t want me buttocks shot away.
I just wanna live in England, jolly, jolly England
and dissipate me bloody life away!
Not very progressive, but one could do worse, no?
Barry Freeman
Chapel Hill NC
Responses to Texas’ socialist past
Thank you for publishing Jim Lane’s article on the proud socialist past of the Lone Star State (PWW 3/24-30). As a Texan, it was a delight and a surprise to read about the brave efforts of some of this state’s early socialist residents. Lane’s piece certainly inspires one to search out more hidden history.
Another great socialist from Texas was the unconquerable Lucy Parsons. Born in 1853 to the parents of slaves, Lucy’s radical activism included struggles on behalf of labor and the poor. The wife of Albert Parsons, one of the martyrs of the Haymarket Square demonstrations, Lucy never played the expected role of bereaved widow. Quite the opposite was true. She was frequently jailed and harassed by officials wherever she spoke, and was once labeled by the Chicago Police Department as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.” Anyone interested in learning more about Lucy Parsons might start with the web site at www.lucyparsons.org and follow the biographical links.
Lisa Casey Perry
Mesquite TX
I liked Jim Lane’s article about Texan socialists but I think that he should have included labor leader Albert Parsons who lived in Texas for many years. He was one of the Haymarket martyrs and his widow Lucy Parsons was a Communist Party leader.
Sean Mulligan
Via e-mail
Jim Lane responds: Good point! Thanks for pointing out this big deficit in any report on socialists in Texas.
Sober assessment
I want to thank you for your editorial of March 17-23, “A path out of Iraq.” It was a sober and accurate assessment of the practical steps that can be taken successfully to end the war. The passage of the Iraq Accountability Act in the House was a great victory for all the American people because it changed the debate from “if” our troops should come home to “when” they should come home. I know PWW will be in the fight to pass a similar bill in the Senate. Passage in the Senate would further isolate the Bush administration and those Republicans dead set on “staying the course” and/or escalating the war. As we look to the 2008 elections, these votes will play an important role in further strengthening the Democratic majority in Congress and control of the White House.
Joel Wendland
Ypsilanti MI
Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs magazine .
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