Socialist Action /October 1999
Our Readers Speak Out
Dear editor,
I am writing especially to congratulate you on your July issue. Your
coverage of the Balkan War was brilliant and in the best Marxist tradition.
I found the discussion between Cockburn, George, and Seligman particularly
stimulating.
The Blair "New Labour" government has shown that the social
democratic leopard has not changed its spots since the betrayal of August
1914. In domestic and foreign policy it is trying to out-Thatcher THATCHER!
I also appreciated Nat Weinstein's Marxist analysis of "Inflation?
Deflation?" In Britain, as in the U.S., capital is on the offensive.
Inflation at 2.5 percent is well below the government's target and the lowest
it has been for decades. Unemployment is falling, with the jobless at a
19-year low of 1,280,100.
But in spite of the decrease in the (unemployed) reserve of labor, the
rate of increase in average earnings in the first part of this year dropped
from 4.6 percent to 4.3 percent. This, of course, has not stopped the bosses
from voting themselves fat-cat salary increases and bonus share options.
That is why I appreciated Paul Siegel, in his review of Daniel Singer's
book, stressing the current importance of parts of the "Transitional
Program," as I did when I spoke to the Fourth International's Youth
Camp last year.
I think with the growing disparity between the earnings of theheads of
corporatioins and those they employ, the demand to open the books should
be high on the agenda.
Charlie van Gelderen,
Cambridge, England
Dear editor,
Defending the Million Youth March was more complicated than you front-page
editorial lets on. [Socialist Action, September 1999]. Why? Because the
march's leader and spokesman, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, is a notorious anti-Semite.
Not one to embrace the idea of the essential unity of humankind, Muhammed,
at last year's march, attacked Jews, gays, and even Native Americans.
In 1994, at a speech at Kean College, N.J., when he was an aidfe to Louis
Farrakhan, Muhammad called Jews "hooked-nose, bagel-eating, lox-eating
impostors" and "blood suckers." He calls New York City "Jew
York City" and said the holocaust was justified.
This is why the march fell about 994,000 short in its projected attendance.
To demagogically attack Jews for the economic problems of Black youth is
to practice what Marx's friend August Bebel labeled "the socialism
of fools."
As a supporter of Socialist Action, it was disappointing that your editorial
ducked this aspect of the march.
Michael Steven Smith
New York, N.Y.
The editor replies:
We acknowledge that the issue of anti-Jewish scapegoating by Khalid Muhammad
should have been addressed.
In past articles (see our October 1998 issue) we criticized Muhammad,
while pointing out that the real dangerous anti-Semitic bigots are in the
ruling class. New revelations about Richard Nixon illustrate that. The issue
of "anti-Semitism," was just the rulers' excuse to ban or disrupt
the Million Youth March.
Socialist Action /October 1999 |