Letters

April 20
Oftentimes when you’re an activist you can get kind of worn out because the Bush administration is wilding on us and around the world. But reading your editorial last week about marching on Washington, D.C., on April 20 got me thinking.

A lot of people aren’t used to marching like we did in the old days, except for those of us that have had to go out on the line during strikes over our contracts at work. But the truth is that getting into the streets is sometimes the only way out of a bad situation.

Going down to D.C. on April 20 will be one way to say to our representatives that we want peace and justice. “Justice” in bringing those who bombed the World Trade Center to trail and “peace” while that’s being done.

It’s scary now that Bush is talking about using nuclear weapons. It shows that use of war just keeps growing unless we say no! So I hope the readers of the PWW will get themselves, their neighbors and their families on the bus on April 20.

Jackie McCleodNew York NY

Listen in
Building a mass movement to stop Bush’s enending war was the burning question last weekend when over 60 activists attended the excellent Peace Conference in Chicago hosted by the Peace and Solidarity Commission of the CPUSA.

The main report and panel presentations on peace campaigns and international solidarity were webcast live as audio on the Internet. But if you missed the Conference webcast, fear not. You can read the main report and hear all the reports archived at www.cpusa.org/peace.

The Internet Department of the CPUSA is proud to present the sound of such key events in real time to people in distant cities and lands. We hope the readers of the PWW will tune in to www.cpusa.org as we carry audio programming of the April 20 March on Washington to Stop the War at Home and Abroad!

Noel RabinowitzCPUSA Internet Department Coordinator

End U.S. blockade
When the corporate infrastructure for Enron was built, capitalist creativity was almost unlimited. Profits were at stake. But no long-range program to benefit people was envisioned.

Likewise, an economic blockade of Cuba supported by monopoly capital and a protectionist foreign policy subservient to imperialist aims of world economic domination (Free Trade Area of the Americas) exposes how our government acts to the detriment of society at large.

No government can maintain credibility or respect when its citizens are denied freedom of travel. No organization, however small, can hold the American people hostage to a policy that violates international law, defies democracy, subverts our Constitution and injures those most vulnerable. The U.S. blockade does all of the above.

Solidarity and peace with the brave Cuban people. Demand your congressperson vote to lift the blockade and normalize relations with Cuba. Repeal Helms-Burton now. Free the Miami Five.

Richard GrasslAuburn WA

Fund our trains
The Amtrak system must not be further reduced in size. On the contrary, it must be expanded. Both highways and airports are badly congested; but no matter how much government money is poured into building roads and enlarging airports, we still have congestion. Further shrinking of Amtrak will not solve this problem, but getting more people into trains will help to reduce it.

The United States’ transportation policy is totally inconsistent. Since 1980, federal funding for highways has increased 106 percent and for aviation it has increased 130 percent; but for Amtrak it has decreased 65 percent.

With adequate funding our passenger train service would go much farther toward reducing congestion, as well as giving tens of thousands of taxpaying Americans – whose preferred mode is train travel, for its comfort, relaxation, proximity to natural environment and its safety – more opportunities to exercise their preference.

John J. Bowman, Jr.Lancaster PA