Letters – Feb. 2, 2008

Big business apples

As a 41-year retired member of organized labor, I remember labor’s fight against the NAFTA bill. Capitalist’s servant William “Bill” Clinton did Wall Street’s bidding by signing the NAFTA legislation into law. At the St. Louis Labor Council we had guest trade unionists from Canada and Mexico showing labor’s united front against the NAFTA bill. Organized labor warned the Clinton administration about the negative consequences that law would have on the working classes throughout the Americas, North, Central and South. All of labor’s warnings have come true and then some. Two terms of George W. Bush have sharpened NAFTA’s attack on America’s working class. Why doesn’t the Obama campaign expose this ruling class traitor to workers of the U.S. whose votes they’re campaigning for? Hillary, another Clinton? Big business’ apples don’t fall too far from the big business trees.

Jim Wilkerson

St. Louis MO

Remember Stalingrad

On Feb. 2, the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) – Association of Anti-Fascists celebrates the 65th anniversary of the Red Army’s victory in the battle of Stalingrad.

Our federation of former resistance fighters, partisans, members of the anti-Hitler coalition and victims of the Nazi regime from over 20 countries of Europe and Israel recalls the sacrifice of the Red Army and the Soviet peoples in the great antifascist peoples’ struggle during the Second World War. The war plotted by German fascism aimed at murder, exploitation, suppression and destruction. Coventry, Rotterdam, Warsaw and Belgrade are the symbols of their air terror. Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Majdanek and Sobibor have entrenched themselves in the mind of mankind as ‘monuments’ of the Holocaust — a holocaust produced by Nazi “superior race” theories against all peoples, regardless of color and race. Babi Yar, Oradour and Lidice were places of National Socialist terror. Stalingrad stands for hope for liberation.

This hope was paid with countless human lives. The Soviet side registered approximately 1 million victims.

The Red Army victory in Stalingrad was a historic turning point. It signaled Great Britain and the USA to speed up the opening of a second front. For the resistance movement in all occupied countries and in Germany the battle of Stalingrad was the symbol for the coming defeat of fascism. The women and men in the resistance drew from it strength, motivation and optimism.

We connect our thanks to the fighters with the promise to pass this memory on to today’s generations.

Dr. Ulrich Schneider

Germany

Dr. Schneider is general secretary of the FIR.

Social Security shame

This letter was printed in the Oakland (Mich.) Press, and was also sent to AARP, of which I am a long-time member:

“I have not detected any protest by AARP of the recent Bush administration swindle of only giving a 2.3 percent cost of living raise for people on Social Security. The new cost of living formula was first cooked up under the Clinton administration, which was responding, or rather surrendering, to the Republicans’ privatization blitz. Most experts estimate the rise in the cost of living in 2007 at between 10 and 14 percent, but the Bush people, who are determined to eventually destroy Social Security, have grossly and flagrantly exploited and abused Clinton’s initial surrender.

“If anybody should start screaming about this injustice, it should be AARP. Who in God’s name does AARP represent? Is it the insurance conglomerates and their servants, the politicians, or is it the membership ?”

The letter never saw the light of day in any AARP literature.

I am very disappointed in AARP for not taking a stand on this issue.

Saib Shunia

White Lake MI

Vets issues on the ballot

I am a member of Veterans for Unification and the Coalition of Veterans Organizations, not-for-profit grassroots groups made up of vets and concerned Americans who care about health care and benefits for veterans.

On our primary ballot in Cook County and about 24 other counties in Illinois on Feb. 5, there will be a a bipartisan, nonbinding referendum supporting full mandatory funding of the VA health care system. It says that “all eligible honorably discharged U.S. veterans should receive quality and accessible health care and related services.” We want to show our congressmen in D.C. that we care about our veterans.

I am asking everyone to be sure to read until the end of the ballot and vote YES for Full Mandatory Funding for the VA. We have many new vets coming back now from Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. We need to show them that we really care about sending them into harm’s way and that we will also take care of them when they return home. We won’t forget them.

For more information go to www.coalitionofvets.org.

Francis O’Connor

Chicago IL

William Z. Foster still inspires

Trying to be inspired to write a letter to the editor because I’ve been urged to write, write, write! That’s why I attended English courses at UCLA — to be a good writer. The PWW has high standards I can’t always make as I’m 79 now.

So for inspiration I turn to my worn copies of books by William Z. Foster. He seems to say capitalism is bound to decay and fall and then socialism will come into power. Could mean a wave of the future, better society and enlightenment instead of ignorance.

Let’s work toward that. It would be something great.

George Gaylord

Anaheim CA

Emma Tenayuca

Writers Sharyll Teneyuca and Carmen Tafolla wrote a very nice bilingual children’s book on Emma Tenayuca, titled “That’s Not Fair! ¡No Es Justo!” Emma was a Texas union activist and led the historic 1938 pecan shellers strike in San Antonio. In 1939 Emma assumed the position of chair of the Texas Communist Party. She married Homer Brooks. Sharyll Teneyuca is Emma’s niece, although they spell their last names differently. The price of the book is $17.95 and you can order it online from Wings Press, www.wingspress.com/Titles/Teneyuca.html.

Richard Hernandez

San Antonio TX

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