some good letters to the State News

http://www.statenews.com/index.php/section/letters

Understand Chinese issues, culture before judging it

When I studied in Beijing, I had eight Tibetan classmates. And like most Chinese friends, I have much concern about Tibetan issues. However, many Americans neglect that Tibet has been part of China for more than 700 years, which makes me disappointed. As a believer in peace, I’d like to share my opinion of the Tibetan issues.

First, is it really a simple protest? Terrorists in Tibet set fire to shops, schools and houses and bribed citizens to protest against the police. Their intention is to arouse the world’s attention, which they’ll use to force the Olympic Games to fail and separate China.

Second, does China really mistreat the Tibetan people? China helps Tibet build hospitals, schools and roads, which greatly improve the lives of Tibetans. For example, according to The Indian Express, the infant mortality rate in Tibet has dropped from 43 percent in the 1950s to about 3 percent in 2004.

Third, before you criticize one person, walk a mile in his or her shoes. A documentary about the American Civil War says if the U.S. was divided into two countries, it also could be divided into three or four countries. Actually, most people, including both Americans and Chinese, don’t want their country to be fractured into pieces.

I’d rather welcome people to visit China and better understand China, including Tibet, instead of only reading news from the media. It’s better for us to open our eyes and hearts to see Tibetan history, its reality and future.

Langhua Hu

applied mathematics graduate student

Published on Sunday, March 30, 2008

Speakers should spark worthy discussions, not false ideas

On Tuesday, MSU’s Young Americans for Freedom brought a self-proclaimed reformed terrorist named Walid Shoebat to campus. In my opinion, bringing such controversial speakers often causes the free speech debate to resurface. While the right to free speech should be protected and promoted, especially in an academic climate, it is critical to allow all viewpoints into the discussion, and the incredibly important implications of such inflammatory speech rarely are considered.

In this instance, the content of the Shoebat speech promotes a tense climate on campus that doesn’t foster learning. Making such blanket statements as, “the Muslim community doesn’t condemn terrorism,” establishes a university atmosphere that is detrimental to all students because it promotes completely unfounded suspicion toward others. Instead of bringing speakers who adversely contribute to MSU in this way, it would be infinitely more beneficial to foster true academic discussion. This could be achieved by inviting speakers who are highly qualified to speak on such topics and to use precise language when doing so.

Instead, Shoebat’s rhetoric essentialized large groups of people, and in doing so, is counterproductive at truly addressing a legitimate concern regarding the safety of American lives because it marginalizes mainstream voices. As students at MSU, we must be aware of the implications of the presence of speakers like Shoebat on our campus. Such events should encourage us to overcome such hostility by constantly striving for a more inclusive community.

Nada Zohdy

international relations and comparative cultures and politics sophomore (and a YDS member!)

Published on Sunday, March 30, 2008

Real ID Act infringes on state rights, individual freedoms

The Real ID Act is set to go into action beginning in May. This is the most dangerous and egregious attack on our civil liberties yet forced upon us. If I am forced to carry a driver’s license with an RFID chip in it, I will burn it in the same manner that our forefathers burnt their draft cards.

Write to the governor, state senators and state representatives. It will be up to the states to assert the rights of the individual above that of the self-anointed federal government. The threat of terrorism is a tool for the government to induce complaisant fear in us. I would rather serve an indefinite jail sentence than be complicit in the abrogation of our most precious freedoms. I am ashamed of anyone who remains willfully ignorant of this treasonous initiative.

Dan Jakeway

electrical engineering and mathematics senior

Published on Sunday, March 30, 2008

California senator wants to drop Cold War communist laws

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_8749719?nclick_check=1

By STEVE LAWRENCE Associated Press Writer

Article Launched: 03/30/2008 10:14:25 AM PDT

SACRAMENTO—Sen. Alan Lowenthal thinks it's about time that California removes some of the last vestiges of the Cold War from its laws.

The Long Beach Democrat has introduced a bill that would scrap statutes allowing teachers and other public employees to be fired for being members of the Communist Party.

The measure, scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee, also would drop a requirement that representatives of organizations seeking to use school facilities sign a form stating they do not have communist affiliations.

Lowenthal said the measure would drop old laws that were adopted at the height of the Red Scare following World War II and that have been found unconstitutional by the courts.

"Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the threat between us and communism just isn't there...," he said in an interview. "They are not a danger to our liberty, and the courts have uniformly said that."

But some conservative groups and bloggers have sharply criticized the measure, contending it would lead to the indoctrination of students.

"Less than 20 years after the fall of the communist Soviet Union, California lawmakers are eager to once again begin advancing a political ideology responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people," Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Family Impact, said in a statement.

"Instead of promoting communism in our schools, lawmakers should be focused

on actually teaching students to read, write and think for themselves."

The bill still would allow a public employee to be fired for advocating the violent overthrow of the government. That's a tactic the Communist Party USA has disavowed, said John Casey, Lowenthal's chief of staff.

Lowenthal also amended the bill to leave intact a portion of the law that allows a teacher to be fired for trying to give students "a preference for communism."

"That seems to be the part of the bill that caused people the most headaches and was not the part of the bill that Alan had the most interest in," Casey said.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, introduced legislation last year that would have dropped the old anti-communist provisions from the statutes but allowed the firing of public employees who supported terrorist groups.

It was rejected, 7-0, by the Education Committee after the American Civil Liberties Union and California Teachers Association argued that it violated the First Amendment.

Here are some of the other bills facing action this week:

DOWNER CATTLE—On Tuesday, the Assembly Public Safety Committee will consider a bill by Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank, that would prohibit slaughterhouses from selling meat from nonambulatory cattle for human consumption. The hearing comes after an undercover video shot at a Chino slaughterhouse led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history. The video showed workers dragging sick cows with metal chains and forklifts, shocking them with electric prods and shooting them with streams of water.

UNLISTED PHONES—Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, has a bill that would ban telephone companies from charging customers additional fees to have unlisted numbers. It's scheduled to be considered Tuesday by the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee.

CLONED FOOD—Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, is making another attempt to require food made from the meat of cloned animals to be labeled accordingly. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill last year, arguing that states are prohibited by federal law from requiring food labels. This year's version of the measure is scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the Senate Health Committee.

DRUG TESTING—A bill by Assemblyman John Benoit, R-Riverside, would require random drug testing for welfare recipients. Benoit says the bill was proposed by a Riverside high school student, R.J. Feild, who suffers from spastic triplegic cerebral palsy brought on by his mother's use of illegal drugs while she was pregnant and on public assistance. It's scheduled to be taken up Tuesday by the Assembly Human Services Committee.

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On the Net: http://www.assembly.ca.gov and http://www.senate.ca.gov

American Axle strikers solid

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12734/1/143/

Author: John Rummel

PWW photo by John Rummel

Inside UAW Local 235 in Hamtramck, across the street from the largest of the struck American Axle plants, Ray Wood, President of UAW Local 14 at the GM powertrain in Toledo was speaking to Local President Adrian King and Vice President Bill Alford. “Whatever you need….we’re only an hour away, when they mess with one, they mess with all of us, we’re family.” Wood had just traveled up from Toledo and his local had brought a bus and car caravan of union members to walk the picket lines.

Wood said the Toledo local is in local negotiations (those taking place following last fall’s national contract) and told King and Alford “solidarity, that’s what it’s all about” We’re going to be there for the long haul as well.”

“That’s a war wound, brother” said Wood while looking at the large cast on Alford’s leg and ankle, both broken while falling on the ice picketers have had to deal with through much of this strike.

Alford said people are coming out of the woodwork to offer support. This coming Monday, UAW local 412 from nearby Warren is sponsoring a solidarity rally and BBQ lunch for strikers. King and Alford said locals from GM, Chrysler and Ford are bringing everything from pizza, pop, and chips to a dump truck of wood to keep the barrel fires going on the picket line. The local Subway’s donated party trays but Alford said there’s still no Hamtramck Polish sausage – made locally and some of the best in the country – hint! hint!

One step inside the local hall or a walk outside on the picket line quickly shows the determination of the strikers. Morale of members is high, said Alford. They show up on time for picket duty and do not miss their four hour shifts. Some do eight or more, coming in every day. Older guys who have been here 30, 40 years are still coming in here to walk the line, said Alford.

PWW photo by John Rummel

President King said the local is taking steps to help workers who may be having financial problems. One UAW local will be holding workshops to help people with mortgage or credit problems. A welfare rights organization has offered assistance to those needing help with utility payments. The union is identifying couples where both work at the plant and may be in need of special help and are beginning to find locals who will sign up for an “adopt a worker program” for strikers who are having financial problems. This is the solidarity that makes victories possible.

Now in its fourth week, with 29 General Motors plants all or partially shut down and 40,000 workers being affected, the pressure mounts on American Axle to negotiate in a straight forward manner with its 3,650 striking auto workers. Although making over $37 million in profits last year, American Axle is still seeking huge wage and benefit cuts. American Axle’s chief executive, Dick Dauch, has set up eight non-union plants in the United States, Mexico, Poland, Scotland, India and China.

Automotive News estimated that in the years 2003 through 2006, the CEO received $58 million in compensation. Because the company has provided no data to justify the harsh cuts, the union has charged it with unfair labor practices. UAW president, Ron Gettlefinger, has said talks have been a “one-way” street of company demands.

jrummel @pww.org

Women’s peace advocate: ‘We need real, not fake, security’

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12745/1/266/ Author: John Rummel

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 03/24/08 13:56

Kerstin Greback, co-president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. PWW/Laura Dewey

FERNDALE, Mich. — “Women are the realistic people in the world; they can see the future and the need for peace and stability,” said Kerstin Greback, co-president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

Greback, who is from Sweden, is touring the U.S. to speak on the links between gender equality, peace and security, and, she said, to “get a feel” for this nation’s people, mood, and thinking.

Addressing a luncheon crowd here March 18, Greback said women play a key role in the fight for peace. Preventing war also requires the “protection of women’s rights and the maximizing of women’s political power,” she noted.

People everywhere have concerns about security, but “we need real, not fake, security,” Greback said. The walls the U.S. is building along the Mexican border and those Israel is putting up to prevent movement of Palestinians are not the answer, she said.

A goal of WILPF, Greback said, is to reach out to the underdeveloped world, to insure women have a voice and to help women organize themselves to play a role in the redevelopment of their country. She said United Nations Resolution 1325 can be a tool to reach this goal. Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000 by the UN Security Council, calls for better protection of women’s interests in post-conflict situations and for their full inclusion in reconstruction efforts that lay the foundation for sustainable peace and prevention of future conflicts.

A second area of concern for Greback’s organization is the military buildup in the European Union. From the Balkans to Poland, new members of the EU are being forced to bring their military up to NATO standards. And who is put forward as the straw enemy, she asked, and then answered: immigrants from Africa and other areas coming to find work. A variety of economic and political factors force people to migrate, she noted. The idea is projected that Europe is somehow entitled to the oil under North Africa’s sand, Greback said, while the conditions of the people there are of no importance.

The immigration question and NATO military buildup are big issues for the European peace movement according to Greback. She added that Romania has a large number of unemployed people but its admittance into the EU came with a price and part of that price will be paying to beef up its military rather than address its social and economic problems.

The third issue of concern Greback addressed was weapons in space and the “insane resources” going into this. Military spending is at odds with the human needs of society, she said, and we must “make visible all the costs of war and what we can do instead to build a better world.”

“A small battleship costs the equivalent of six and a half years of educating Afghanistan’s children,” she pointed out.

jrummel @ pww.org

The Next American Revolution

90 year old Grace Lee Boggs was one of the three leaders of the Johnson-Forrest tendency along with Raya Duneyevskaya and C.L.R. James.


The Next American Revolution

by Grace Lee Boggs
Left Forum Closing Plenary, Cooper Union, New York, March 16, 2008

I have decided to talk about the next American Revolution because I believe it is not only the key to global survival but also the most important step we can take in this period to build a new, more human and more socially and ecologically responsible nation that all of us, in every walk of life, whatever our race, ethnicity, gender, faith or national origin, will be proud to call our own.

I also feel that it would be a shame if we left this historic gathering in this Great Hall, at this pivotal time in our country?s history?when the power structure is obviously unable to resolve the twin crises of global wars and global warming, when millions are losing their jobs and homes, when Obama?s call for change is energizing so many young people and independents, and when white workers in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania are reacting like victims?without discussing the next American revolution.

Since it is hard to struggle for something which you haven?t struggled to define and name, my aim this evening, quite frankly, is to initiate impassioned discussions about the next American revolution everywhere, in groups, small and large.

I begin with some history. Forty years ago my late husband, Jimmy Boggs and I started Conversations in Maine with our old friends and comrades, Freddy and Lyman Paine, to explore how a revolution in our time in our country would differ from the many revolutions that took place around the world in the early and mid-20th century.

We four had been members of the Johnson-Forest Tendency, a tiny group inside the Workers Party and the Socialist Workers Party, led by C.L.R.James and Raya Dunayevskaya. Lyman, an architect, and Freddy, a worker and organizer, had been in the radical movement since the 1930s. Jimmy, an African American born and raised in the deep agricultural South, had worked on the line at Chrysler for 28 years and was a labor and community activist and writer.

I was an Asian American intellectual who had been inspired by the 1941 March on Washington movement to become a movement activist, and after spending ten years in New York studying Marx and Lenin with CLR and Raya, had moved to Detroit in 1953, married Jimmy Boggs and became involved in the struggles organically developing in the Detroit community.

Our mantra in the Johnson-Forest Tendency had been the famous paragraph in Capital where Marx celebrates ?the revolt of the working class always increasing in numbers and united, organized and disciplined by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production.?

In the early 60s when the working class was decreasing rather than increasing under the impact of what we then called ?automation,? we separated from CLR when he opposed our decision to rethink Marxism. Our separation freed us to recognize unequivocally that we were coming to the end of the relatively short industrial epoch on which Marx?s epic analysis had been based.

We could see clearly that the United States was in the process of transitioning to a new mode of production, based on new informational technologies, and that this transitioning was not only epoch-ending but epoch-opening, with cultural and political ramifications as far-reaching as those involved in the transition from Hunting and Gathering to Agriculture or from Agriculture to Industry.

As movement activists and theoreticians in the tumultuous year of 1968, we were also acutely conscious that in the wake of the civil rights movement, beginning with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, Rachel Carson?s Silent Spring in 1962, and the exploding anti-Vietnam war and women?s movements, new and more profound questions of our relationships with one another, with nature, and with other countries were being raised with a centrality unthinkable in earlier revolutions.

Full at:

http://www.michigancitizen.com/print_this_story.asp?smenu=77&sdetail=5818

Mugabe "intends to stay in power until death."

Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, "intends to stay in power until death." Honestly this is not the best news I've heard all day. Nothing makes my blood boil more than a "democratically" elected leader who has abused Marxist principles and black nationalism, and in turn robbed his people of their infrastructure, property, education, and livelihood.

Where did Mugabe go wrong? How has it gotten to this point?

Is in entirely Mugabe’s fault?

The answer to the last question is simply, no. Though what Mugabe has done to his people has been terrible, the problem lies with the Western sanctions imposed against the country in response to Mugabe’s decision to expel the mainly white, British citizens from their farmland. Zimbabwe, which many once deemed the “breadbasket of Africa,” has almost completely lost its agricultural economy. Because of Zimbabwe's chaotic fast-track land reform program launched in 2000, agricultural land that was then leased around 4,000 previously white-owned commercial farms was nationalized and leased to landless blacks for 99 years. The program was condemned by Western governments for its forced evictions of the white citizens. Trade sanctions were imposed by these same Western governments which slashed the country's foreign exchange earnings and helped trigger the current economic crisis. It is important to remember that these sanctions are what truly sent Zimbabwe into the crisis it is now. Mugabe is responsible in part for what has happened, but if he was to leave office tomorrow things would be the same. Amends must be made in the country for other things…social and economic. I’m convinced that such moves will be taken while Mugabe is in power. I would like to see someone else win the elections in the upcoming week, but I am not optimistic. There is far too much corruption going for the people of Zimbabwe to take full advantage of their democracy. After all, look at what happened during the last elections. Thousands of forged ballots entered into the system. Six hundred thousand ballots were requested for soldiers and police, often the “insiders” of political parties, when in reality that force only adds up to about 50,000. Millions of extra ballots were printed in the country—about 9 million for a nation of 5.7 million registered voters. Suspicious? I am.

At this point, I don’t pretend to know the state of Zimbabwe’s future. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope and pray that democracy will be allowed to take its course in this impoverished country—new leadership isn’t enough. More needs to be done. But what? Black nationalism. Marxism. Socialism. Pan-Africanism…isms, isms, isms. Revolutions. Countless ideas swim around in my head but I cannot see an answer clearly.

People are suffering and dying daily in Zimbabwe…who is listening?

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Mugabe critics predict fraud in Zimbabwe elections

Story Highlights

* Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, 84, seeks re-election in Saturday vote

* Mugabe faces three challengers -- two of whom have good chance of winning

* Critics predict vote-rigging, say thousands of extra ballots printed

* Nation in financial crisis with 80 percent unemployment, 100,000 percent inflation

(CNN) -- President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for nearly three decades, faces his toughest challenge yet in this weekend's general elections.

Voters go to the polls Saturday in simultaneous presidential, parliamentary, senate and council elections. Mugabe, 84, is seeking a sixth consecutive term as president of the southern African nation.

Mugabe faces three opposition candidates, two of whom have a good chance of winning. Mugabe's regime may be on shaky ground amid allegations of corruption and a failing economy.

Zimbabweans are the poorest they have ever been since the nation became a democracy. Unemployment is estimated at around 80 percent, inflation is more than 100,000 percent, and hundreds of thousands are fleeing the country to earn more elsewhere than they would back home.

Mugabe has been in office since the country, then called Rhodesia, gained independence from Britain in 1980. VideoWatch Mugabe on the campaign trail »

He was once respected as a liberation hero, but observers now criticize him for repressive tactics and corruption, and blame him for the country's dire economic state.

The Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, is the main opposition to Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party. But a split in 2006 severely weakened the MDC, and the party's two factions back different candidates.

One faction supports MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai, who led hotly contested challenges against Mugabe in 2000, 2002 and 2005.

This week, Tsvangirai had to cancel campaign rallies after the Zimbabwean government impounded a helicopter that was to carry him around the country, according to the owner of the copter charter company.

The other MDC faction backs Simba Makoni, Mugabe's former finance minister, who was expelled from the Zanu-PF after announcing his bid to unseat the president.

In what critics labeled a vote-buying exercise, Mugabe recently increased the salaries of the police, army and teachers and also handed out machinery to black farmers. Zimbabwean officials deny the moves had anything to do with the election.

Opposition: Millions of extra ballots printed

The MDC said Sunday it had discovered evidence that Mugabe intends to rig the elections in his favor. VideoWatch evidence of dead voters still on the rolls »

Tendai Biti, the MDC's secretary-general, said that leaked correspondence from Zimbabwe's electoral commission showed it had asked the company printing paper ballots to print 9 million. The country has an electorate of 5.7 million registered voters, Biti said.

Also, Biti said, the commission requested 600,000 postal paper ballots for soldiers and police officers. The number of soldiers and police in Zimbabwe adds up to no more than 50,000, he said.

"Remember, when they stole this election away from us the last time, they stole it with 350,000 votes," Biti said. "Six-hundred thousand is double insurance."

The United States this week warned of a possible unfair election, citing inaccurate voter rolls, the extra ballots for soldiers and police, intimidation of the opposition and the absence of independent observers.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has warned the elections were likely to be "deeply flawed." It said the electoral commission is partisan toward Zanu-PF and lacks both expertise and resources to run the elections properly.

A Zimbabwean official criticized the report, saying the elections can't be judged beforehand.

The Zimbabwean government this week denied CNN permission to cover the elections. It gave no reason for the decision.

Journalist: Mugabe intends to stay in power till death

The government also has handpicked election observers perceived as sympathetic to the ruling party.

After winning the last elections in 2005, Mugabe said he wanted to stay in power until he was 100 years old. The comment was interpreted as a joke, but many Zimbabweans didn't find it funny.

"What Mugabe says is normally what he intends to do," said Martin Meredith, who spent years covering Africa for British newspapers and has written biographies about Mugabe. "OK, he might not remain alive until 100, but he intends to remain in power until he dies."

Mugabe has been in power for so long that many young Zimbabweans have known no other leader.

After fighting in the civil war against the white Rhodesian government, Mugabe was part of the independence negotiations. He became Zimbabwe's first black prime minister and was lauded as a liberation hero -- someone of fierce intellect who presided over an African success story.

But nearly three decades later, Mugabe has consolidated his rule over all aspects of Zimbabwean life.

Soon after Mugabe came to power, his government launched a campaign to crush opposition in an area called Matabeleland. The massacre and beatings of thousands of civilians was little reported at the time and is still barely condemned.

Farms seized; slums razed

In 2000, Mugabe ordered the controversial seizure of commercially white-owned farms. He gave the land to black Zimbabweans who, he said, were cheated under colonialist rule.

White farmers who defied their eviction notices were jailed.

Five years later, Mugabe launched Operation Clean Out the Trash in which he razed slum areas.

Mugabe's land redistribution policies caused food production and agricultural exports to drop drastically and sent Zimbabwe into an economic freefall. In a country once viewed as southern Africa's breadbasket, it is now difficult to get basic food supplies.

"People are having to go to neighboring countries like South Africa and Botswana to buy flour, sugar,and cooking oil," said journalist Brian Hungwe.

Empty supermarket shelves are a common sight. People dig holes in the ground for filthy, contaminated water and turn to the black market for fuel.

Among the many who have fled Zimbabwe are professionals reduced to a life of odd jobs.

"As long as I'm getting money," said Blessing Tembo, a Zimbabwean engineer who takes whatever work he can find, whether it's cleaning someone's yard or carrying goods.

Tembo spoke from Francistown, Botswana, a border town that has absorbed thousands of Zimbabwean refugees looking for jobs, food and health care.

Nurses in Francistown say so many pregnant Zimbabweans are flooding Botswana that they're delivering more Zimbabwean babies than local ones.

"There are few doctors," Lydia Chishike, a pregnant Zimbabwean, said in Francistown. "Sometimes you go for a checkup, and there will be no doctors. Things are not in good condition there."

Economic solution includes $10 million bill

Zimbabwe has introduced measures to try to stem the country's decline, including the printing of more money in higher denominations. The latest is a $10 million bill.

Strict price controls punish businesses that price goods above levels set by the government, and a new bill forces foreign-owned businesses to give controlling interests in their operations to black Zimbabweans.

Once revered for offering its citizens some of the best education and health care in Africa, Zimbabwe has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world and education is becoming a luxury.

Mugabe denies mismanagement and instead blames economic woes on the West.

"They have even interfered with international organizations of which we are a member -- the World Bank and IMF [International Monetary Fund] -- which cannot extend any facility to Zimbabwe unless America and Britain say so," Mugabe has said.

In a CNN interview in 2000, Mugabe offered insight into his thinking on elections and power.

"When you go to elections it is not necessarily that of including every party in your Cabinet," he said. "You go into elections competing with each and every other group in order to win. Win and govern."

Article can be found here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/03/27/zimbabwe.election/

Protest important part of remembering war in Iraq

http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2008/03/letter_in_solidarity_032708

Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. In response, on Thursday, a coalition representing hundreds of MSU students and community members led a large, vibrant demonstration to call for an end to the occupation, which accumulates in cost and creates more destruction every day.

In addition to the devastating repercussions to the Iraqi people, we addressed a wide array of social and economic concerns connected to the war. These included environmental sustainability, war profiteering, military recruitment targeted toward low-income minorities, consumer culture promoting militarism and infringement of civil liberties through the pending legislation H.R. 1955.

The march and rally, which started on campus and flooded the streets of downtown East Lansing, served as a reminder that this war does not only have an adverse impact on the lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, but also is a moral and economic issue for MSU students.

Since we currently are not facing the threat of being drafted, many young people do not feel pressured to publicly denounce the war. But last year, our tuition was raised 9.6 percent, while the U.S. government continued to spend an average of $720 million per day to continue the war.

Although we live in the wealthiest country in the world, it is extremely expensive to go to college and the gap between who can and can’t make the investment continues to stretch. As residents of Michigan, a state afflicted with some of the highest unemployment and home foreclosure rates in the nation, we are all too familiar with the pressing need for responsible government spending that addresses domestic problems instead of creating international crises.

As members of the global community, we have a responsibility to take action on a local level. The State News is MSU’s primary media outlet, and we expected it to publicize the message of an on-campus event that drew in hundreds of people. But The State News refused to write a substantial article on the action because, in their editorial opinion, another march and rally against the war was not newsworthy — a decision that was made long before a press release was even sent out. In response to a vehement critique of this decision, students returned hundreds of copies of last Thursday’s paper to the office, demanding The State News be held accountable for such unprofessional behavior. As a partially student-funded newspaper and our “independent voice,” it is The State News’ obligation and responsibility to represent the powerful message of this broad coalition.

Thursday’s event brought together a multitude of students and organizations concerned with the many economic and social costs of the war, which is simultaneously spilling innocent blood and draining limited funds. The $720 million of taxpayers’ money spent every day could otherwise be allocated to combating rising tuition costs, promoting environmental responsibility or fulfilling the government’s obligation to provide veteran benefits. These are a few issues that the war raises, but in reality there are unlimited concerns that deserve to be explored within the media. But in the end, if we truly support the troops, and all citizens of the U.S. and Iraq, we must end the war.

In solidarity:

Chicanos y Latinos Unidos

Muslim Students’ Association

W.E.B. DuBois Society

NorthStar Center

Students for Economic Justice

Greater Lansing Network Against War and Injustice

Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlan

Ignite: Students for a Democratic Society

Young Democratic Socialists

MSU Slam Poetry Team

Eco

Ecological Food and Farm Stewardship

Published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Bordiga quote

"In the name of a greater civilization, we curse those who for the sake of their ambitious dreams, brought about the massacre of so many young lives. No matter how brutal the crime, you will always get glorification of its heroism and tradition from the eunuchs of bourgeois culture." - Amadeo Bordiga

This was written just after World War II and it still remains as relevant as ever. The bourgeosie might blast away millions of beautiful young lives, but when the little Eichmanns blow their trumpets and summon stupid nationalisms and democracies, the pile of corpses suddenly turns into a glorious athenian monument - worthy of praise and wonder.

Campus Progress: Debt Hits Hard

Tibet: What’s behind the protests?

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12731/1/415/

Author: PWW Editorial Board

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 03/20/08 13:38

As preparations pick up steam for this summer’s Beijing Olympics, the world has looked with growing dismay at the violence associated with protests seeking independence for Tibet.

While casualty figures are conflicting, it is tragic that deaths have occurred both among demonstrators for independence and among victims of violent protest actions that reportedly included torching of public buildings and homes in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa. It is urgent to end the loss of life.

The protesters acknowledge they are motivated by the publicity surrounding the Olympic Games. The head of the Tibetan Youth League, a major exile organization calling for independence, told the Chicago Tribune that with the spotlight on the Chinese, “We want to test them. We want them to show their true colors. That’s why we’re pushing this.”

The U.S. has consistently backed supporters of Tibet’s independence from China. Tellingly, the Voice of America — a notorious instigator of opposition in socialist countries during the cold war — said this week it is stepping up its broadcasts into Tibet.

Tibet, closely linked with China long before the 1949 revolution, has gained much, both economically and socially, from being an autonomous region within People’s China. While much remains to be done, the region has come from being an abysmally poor backwater to being an area where more and more people, both ethnic Tibetans and migrants from elsewhere in China, can access health care, education, and jobs in a modernizing economy.

Undoubtedly Tibetan culture could also use more support. But some western observers point out that over 90 percent of Tibetans speak Tibetan as their first language, and report that both Buddhism and the arts are doing well there.

The current situation should also be seen in the context of Washington’s longstanding campaign to break up socialist countries, including the USSR and Yugoslavia, with dire economic and social consequences for their populations. Most recently independence for Kosovo has held the spotlight.

A look at the bigger picture suggests it is important to end cross-border efforts to dismantle countries whose social policies Washington doesn’t like, as well as to end the loss of life in Lhasa.

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I also thought I should add on a good post from a discovervancouver.com forum where they were debating the Tibet situation:

Before all of you Hollywood fans jump to embrace peaceful Tibetans, here is your Tibet before the 50s:

Tibet was a feudal society with two main classes: serfs and serf owners/monastery masters - " a xenophobic religious dictatorship, feudal in outlook, which stifled economic progress and tolerated slavery", in the words of the Rough Guide to Tibet.

Serfs were forced to hand over a large percentage of their meagre agricultural output to the serf owners and to labor for them. Serfs were inferiors, like African–Americans in the Jim Crow South, prohibited from using the same facilities and even language as serf owners.

Worse than serfs were ‘chattel slaves’, who were often starved, beaten and worked to death. A master could turn a serf into a slave any time he wanted. Children were routinely bought and sold in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa.

Lamaist Buddhism may have been the essence of the culture of Tibet, but it was also the ideology of a specific oppressive social system.

Between the 1400s and the 1600s the abbots of the largest monasteries seized power. Because they practised celibacy their new political system could not operate by hereditary father–to–son succession. A new doctrine was created, with newborn children identified as reincarnations of dead ruling Lamas.

The central symbol of this system was the fourteen-and-counting men called the Dalai Lama, said to be the early Tibetan nature–god Chenrezig.

The Dalai Lama was the biggest serf owner. Legally, he owned the whole country and everyone in it. In practice, he or his family directly controlled many manors and pastures, thousands of serfs and hundreds of house slaves. When he moved from palace to palace, he rode on a throne chair pulled by slaves as his bodyguards beat people out of his path.

Most of the time there was no adult Dalai Lama on the throne. The most powerful abbots ruled as regents, training and manipulating the child–king.

Tibetan monasteries were not holy, compassionate Shangri–Las. They were fortresses; armed villages of monks with military warehouses and private armies. The monasteries expected—demanded—that the peasants support them.

Maoist revolutionaries said there were ‘Three Great Lacks’ in old Tibet: lack of fuel, communications and people. The revolutionaries proposed that these ‘lacks’ were caused not by the physical conditions but by the social system. They were the result of the ‘Three Abundances’ in Tibetan society: abundant poverty, oppression and fear of the supernatural.

The bottom line is that while it was unfortunate that China invaded Tibet, it improved life for many people. Yes, it was unfair. No, it was not politically correct. Yes, it has resulted in a decline of the cultural uniqueness of Tibet.

But those prone to whinging about the political incorrectness of the Chinese government should stop to think about the actions of other nations in history, from the European invasion, rape and pillage of the Americas and elsewhere to the recent the invasion of Iraq.

From what I see there is little difference between the way the Chinese and the western powers flex their muscles - except that the Chinese tend to only invade their neighbors, rather than sending armies half way around the globe.

Why the Mao Communists invaded Tibet depends on your political view point. I'm not a scholar in Tibetan history, but with the poor resources in Tibet especially back in the 50s, Maoists had little to gain excecpt to stabilize the area, and minimizing US and Indian influences, one would presume. Certainly, the liberation of the serfs from the oppressive Tibetan monks was a side effect.

Now, can someone please tell me what's so great about the Dalai Lama? I see a calculated politician in exile using religion as his weapon (what's new). It makes me want to throw up every time I see people mixing religion with politics."

The Dalai Lama: freedom fighter or feudal dictator?

NAFTA, Obama and Clinton

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12735/1/415/

Author: Emile Schepers

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 03/20/08 15:26

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have issued statements criticizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and calling for its renegotiation.

This produced uproar. The Mexican government, which told its people that renegotiation was impossible because of U.S. opposition, is embarrassed. The Canadian government reacted with consternation, and someone in Prime Minister Harper’s right-wing government started a smear campaign against Obama on the subject. Corporate-controlled media outlets and their pundits went ballistic.

Unfortunately, too many people in the United States see NAFTA only in terms of “U.S. jobs being taken by Mexican cheap labor.” When NAFTA was being negotiated in the early 1990s, third-party candidate H. Ross Perot attacked NAFTA from a nationalistic standpoint, claiming that if it were implemented we would hear a “giant sucking sound” of U.S. industrial jobs going to Mexico.

In the minds of many, NAFTA became a zero-sum game between nations, with American workers’ job losses being Mexican workers’ gains. This was an easy pattern of thought to fall into, because often in our history foreign workers have been seen as “cheap labor” unfairly undercutting U.S. wages. In the current battle over immigration, this was doubly unfortunate because it reinforced the racist idea of Mexicans being inveterate job thieves: they steal your job by sucking it down to Mexico, or by coming up here “illegally” and grabbing it.

Although it is true that the U.S. and Canada have lost a lot of industrial jobs since NAFTA was implemented, the “zero-sum game between nations” paradigm ignores some important facts:

• There is strong opposition to NAFTA in all three NAFTA countries, not just the U.S. In Mexico, this takes the form of protests by farmers and workers who rightly believe that their ability to support their families has been seriously compromised. Surveys show that people in Mexico are down on NAFTA by a 2 to 1 margin. Canadian workers are also critical of NAFTA. There is coordination among NAFTA opponents from labor and other people’s organizations in all three countries. This month, a new task force to study the possibility of renegotiating NAFTA was announced by U.S., Canadian and Mexican legislators, with the involvement of U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and others.

• Since NAFTA began in 1994, Mexico has been flooded by cheap, taxpayer-subsidized grain imports from the U.S., leading to a vast exodus of Mexican farmers from the countryside as multinational corporations such as Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Wal-Mart take over Mexican food production and distribution.

• Mexico expected that people displaced by U.S. corn and wheat imports would find jobs in foreign industrial operations attracted by low labor costs, but this did not work out, as there are many countries where labor is even cheaper than in Mexico. The difference in wealth between the people of Mexico and the people of the U.S. and Canada has been growing under NAFTA. Mexican workers would love to earn what U.S. workers do, but the trend is the opposite under NAFTA’s conditions.

• To meet the conditions of the 1994 Clinton loan bailout, Mexico was forced to implement NAFTA tariff reductions more rapidly and to slash its social safety net. Who really benefited was Wall Street, not the Mexican people — Wall Street’s investments were rescued on the backs of Mexican farmers and workers.

• In the U.S., opposition to free trade agreements is often phrased in terms of demanding labor and environmental guarantees from U.S. trading partners. But this is not the whole story. The U.S. just signed a free trade agreement with Peru. Many Democrats voted for it, on the grounds that the labor and environmental guarantees are much better than those in NAFTA. Nevertheless, there is a big uprising in the Peruvian countryside against this deal, with farmers and the left complaining that Peru will now be inundated with cheap subsidized U.S. farm products, ruining Peruvian farmers.

What is needed is a basic change in how we see NAFTA and similar pacts. Instead of seeing NAFTA as a zero sum game in which Mexican workers benefit at the expense of U.S. workers, we should see it as an attack by international monopoly capital on workers and farmers in all three countries, aimed at driving down the cost of labor and raw materials while increasing control of international markets, thereby vastly increasing profits.

The NAFTA-CAFTA-FTAA model of trade is not “free” trade; it is trade rigged to favor the outrageously wealthy over the rest of us, irrespective of nationality. The best response for workers and farmers everywhere is solidarity in struggle against monopoly capital and imperialism.

Emile Schepers is an immigrant rights activist.

Bailout goes to Wall Street, not Main Street

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12726/1/415/

Author: John Wojcik

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 03/20/08 13:02

Most Americans are having no trouble figuring out whether or not we are in a recession. Certainly not the 100,000 workers tossed onto the jobless pile in January and February, or the millions living an economic nightmare following last summer’s bursting housing bubble, the subprime mortgage crisis, and the resulting credit crunch.

For some on Wall Street, however, it took the stunning collapse of one of the world’s largest investment banks, Bear Stearns, to get the drift.

The big difference though is that, for their pain, workers are getting a “stimulus package” of tiny one-time tax rebates, while wealthy investment bankers will now be getting an open-ended multi-billion-dollar government bailout package after the March 16 Bear Stearns collapse.

Labor analysts say the current crisis began long ago when the country was pushed onto a low-wage economic strategy where workers, at best, are given the ability to spend and borrow but rarely, if ever, given real wage increases. The country was put on a path of risky financial schemes emphasizing credit and debt that made billions for investors and money firms but hollowed out the real economy.

Expensive but risky loans and subprime mortgages were given out freely because they brought in lucrative fees. “The practice made fortunes for some at Bear Stearns, many of whom had already run off with the money before the collapse occurred,” the mother of a night shift worker at the firm’s New York headquarters told the World. She said her son held a second job there so he could pay tuition bills for his son and two daughters.

The rich shed tears on Wall Street this week, but the tears were not for the 14,000 Bear Stearns workers who stood to lose their jobs. They cried because Bear Stearns, which traded at nearly $160 a share less than a year ago, collapsed after losing billions of dollars on mortgage-backed securities.

The bailout involves an agreement by JPMorgan Chase to buy its rival, Bear Stearns, for $236.2 million – or $2 a share, only 1 percent of what the investment bank had been worth 16 days earlier. The Federal Reserve has agreed to fund up to $30 billion of Bear Stearns’ less liquid assets, said JPMorgan, while Morgan guarantees all other business, such as trading and investment banking.

JPMorgan Chase chief financial officer Michael Cavanaugh refused press inquiries about what will happen to Bear Stearns’ employees.

The bailout deal is aimed at avoiding not only a bankruptcy but a crisis in the entire capitalist global financial system, analysts say.

President Bush, trying to calm turmoil in financial markets after these dramatic developments, declared March 17 that his administration is “on top of the situation” and dealing decisively with the slumping economy. He praised the Federal Reserve for its bailout of the Wall Street fat cats.

The nation’s central bank used this crisis to make its welfare for the rich program deeper and more open-ended than ever before. It cut its lending rate to banks to 3.25 percent from 3.5 percent and set up a new, more convenient fast track process for wealthy borrowers. It may cut its special interest rate for wealthy bankers yet again, this time to 2 percent, many on Wall Street are saying.

There’s generosity with taxpayer money when it comes to helping the rich, labor analysts say but the Fed, they point out, is ignoring another very important part of the mandate it got from Congress when it was established — the mandate to act as a guarantor of full employment.

Labor’s approach has been to call for immediate steps to revive the middle class by resolving the current affordable housing and mortgage foreclosure crises. Those responsible for these crises should be held accountable, labor says, not rewarded with big bonuses. Unions have called for a moratorium on economic policies that put corporate profits ahead of worker prosperity and reward financial gimmickry over the traditional “honest day’s work.”

Labor unions and Democratic candidates for public office, including the presidency, have called for an immediate moratorium on mortgage foreclosures for anywhere from six to 12 months.

Their point is that it is time to help the victims, not the companies who created the misery and are now getting almost all the government help.

jwojcik@pww.org

National dialogue needed on our overflowing jails

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12692/1/414/

Author: Rosita Johnson

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 03/14/08 14:56

In 2008 in the United States of America more than 1 out of every 100 adults is behind bars.

A report by the Pew Public Safety Performance Project announced that on Jan. 1, 2008, an estimated 2,319,258 adults were in federal and state prisons and local jails. The rate of incarceration in the U.S. is the greatest in the world.

Even more alarming is the fact that African Americans comprise over 41 percent of those incarcerated, although in the 2000 Census African Americans were 12 percent of the population. Nearly 1 in 15 Black men are incarcerated. But for Black men aged 20 to 34, a shocking 1 in 9 are imprisoned. The rate for Latino men overall is 1 in 36, and for white men, 1 in 106.

While the prison population is mostly male, the number of women is increasing annually, especially African American women in their 30s.

Southern states tend to have the highest incarceration rates. Thirty-six states reported an increase in the number of those incarcerated in 2007 over 2006, with a particularly astronomical growth in Florida.

The prison population has increased steadily during the last 30 years, but from 1987 to 1999 it tripled, and the rate of incarceration of Black males increased 465 percent.

The Pew report explains that current prison growth is driven primarily by “get tough on crime” policies. Among these are “three strikes you’re in,” which sends more lawbreakers to prison for longer times and returns those on parole to prison for minor technical violations. Any candidate who even questions sentencing laws is labeled “soft on crime.”

These policies have not decreased or prevented crime nor have they reduced recidivism. What has happened is that states do not have enough tax dollars to fund prisons and other pressing public needs such as health care, education and transportation. Lawmakers are being forced to rethink their punishment of nonviolent offenders. In 1987 the states collectively spent $10.6 billion on their prisons. In 2007 they spent $44 billion, a 315 percent increase. Experts say expanding prisons will accomplish less and cost even more in the future.

In order to reduce the prison population while still controlling crime, states want comprehensive sentencing guidelines that allow them to decide who goes to prison and who can be put into community drug treatment programs or short-term residential corrections facilities. The report says states must distinguish between violent and hardened offenders and those who are not.

Mandatory minimum sentencing must be modified. The length of prison stays could be reduced with credit for good behavior and completing education and work programs. Before release, prison inmates need support for housing and jobs to prevent recidivism.

Pews’ Public Safety Performance Project says its purpose is “to help states advance fiscally sound, data-driven policies and practices in sentencing and corrections that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and control correction costs.” Unfortunately, the report does not include juvenile incarceration, involving youths under 18 years of age. It does not address the effects of for-profit privatization of prisons and the “prison industrial complex.” It also does not address how prisons have become the new institutions for mentally ill people. No explanation is given for the 465 percent increase in incarceration of Black males starting in the 1980s.

Gary Webb documented the crack cocaine explosion in his book “Dark Alliance.” Webb showed that, in its efforts to raise money for the contras in Nicaragua, the CIA engaged two gangs in South Central Los Angeles to manufacture and distribute a new and cheap form of cocaine — crack. Guns were sold to them at below cost. The illegal drugs/guns industry is now embedded in Black communities throughout the United States and the Caribbean.

Candidates for public office will not address the devastation this illegal drugs/guns industry continues to cause. A national dialogue about the causes of and solutions for the crime and violence that plagues our cities and towns is needed as part of the 2008 election campaigns. It is not just a problem for African Americans, Latinos and poor whites. It is a moral and spiritual problem for the entire country and world.

Rosita Johnson (phillyrose623@verizon.net) is a member of the People’s Weekly World editorial board.

Unfinished Business: Socialist Market Economy

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/26/

By Al L. Sargis

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click here for related stories: Socialism

In Marxism-Leninism the question of state and economy, plan and market has been often intertwined with the transition period between capitalism (sometimes pre-capitalism) and socialism, and between capitalism and communism. Marx and Engels developed the concept of the transition period and dealt chiefly with its political aspects. They gave comparatively little analysis of the economic tasks of the proletariat after it seized political power. Lenin, on the other hand, devoted much attention to both political and economic aspects of the transition period, discussing this issue in some detail. From even before the October Revolution until his death, the issue is analyzed in such works as "The April Theses," "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It," "The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution," and "'Left-Wing' Childishness and the Petty-Bourgeois Mentality." He concluded that in a predominantly peasant country, with a multi-sectoral economy and low levels of productive forces and education, there could be no "leap to socialism" (unless, of course, there was a revolution in a developed capitalist country which could then aid them). Instead there had to be a series of transitional steps with appropriate economic and political tasks for each one. These measures constructed the material-technical and democratic foundations for socialism that had, in other cases, been developed by capitalism in advanced industrial societies. As such, they could include state capitalism, the law of value, money-commodity relations and other market mechanisms. However, there were two political conditions under which this must occur: (1) a workers state to promote a trajectory towards socialism and (2) a worker-peasant alliance to assure that the majority petty-bourgeois population could be won to the socialist goal. Reflecting on this situation Lenin formulated a series of propositions and practices leading to a socialist market economy in embryonic form, most explicitly exemplified in the New Economic Policy (NEP). For example, state capitalism was realized in the following forms: (1) foreign joint ventures and even foreign ownership of enterprises ("concessions"); (2) cooperatives based on market principles; (3) the use of capitalist merchants, as well as economic administrators and technical specialists trained in capitalist methods of management and organization; (4) the leasing of state-owned enterprises and natural resources to both foreign and domestic capitalists. State owned enterprises, which controlled the "commanding heights," were self-sufficient and operated on profit-and-loss principles, supplying themselves out of their own circulating assets. The law of value was recognized in the state economic sphere as an objective category and extended to cover the economy as a whole; market links existed not only between the socialist and non-socialist sectors but within the socialist sector itself. Economic competition was to be the norm both within and between sectors. State plans were materialized through market, not primarily administrative, mechanisms. If competition was conducted properly the socialist sector would demonstrate its superiority thereby ousting or marginalizing the capitalist sector. Lenin referred numerous times to this process as "paying our (capitalist) tuition for an undeveloped capitalism," "learning to trade like European businessmen," "advancing towards socialism...by capitalist management methods" and "test(ing) through competition between state and capitalist enterprises." Among the rural and urban petty-bourgeois majority - against which state capitalism was to counter their spontaneous development into capitalism - individual farms and shops were allowed, but the goal was to have them voluntarily join cooperatives of various types and levels of socialization as pathways of transition to socialism. This history indicates that the socialist market economy has its roots in the Marxist-Leninist experience, specifically in the early attempts to create socialism in multi-sectoral Soviet Russia. These origins are one of the sources drawn upon for contemporary China, Vietnam, Laos and, most recently, Cuba, as well as for the current concept of the socialist market economy. It's important to note that the idea of socialist market economy is somewhat different from market socialism, although in practice itís sometimes difficult to distinguish. The socialist market economy presumes a multi-sectoral socioeconomic formation that has a transitional character. The immediate goal is economic and social development, and the long-range goal is achieving entry into the first rung of socialism proper; the means is to use the advantages of all sectors to develop the productive forces, while attempting to minimize their disadvantages. This leads to a second presumption: that the level of economic, social and political development is inadequate to the task of entering socialism immediately, or after a brief transition period. In other words, the socialist market economy is designed for transition from an early capitalist or even pre-capitalist society, and the focus is to create the prerequisites for socialism that were put in place in the societies of developed industrial capitalism. Chinese and Vietnamese theorists of socialist market economy see underdeveloped forces of production leading to an underdeveloped form of socialism, and as the former become more robust, so does the latter. These theorists view market socialism, on the other hand, as a mechanism for negotiating all the steps of socialism through to the communist phase of development. Market socialism is not employed to "get to" socialism, but to ìget throughî socialism. While many similar economic and political tools may be used by both the socialist market economy and market socialism, the types of social formations and their final objectives differ. So, briefly, what does a contemporary socialist market economy look like? Economically, it is a mixed economy with a public sector of state, cooperative and mass organization-owned enterprises; a private sector of petty bourgeois, domestic capitalist and foreign capitalist owned enterprises; an intermediate state capitalist sector with various combinations of the public-private sectors (e.g., joint private-public stock enterprises). The public sector controls the "commanding heights" with the state macro-managing the overall economy, mostly through economic but also administrative means. State functions include the accumulation and protection of state assets, ownership of infra-structural and other strategic industries, maintaining sectoral proportions and overall balance, regulating income distribution, coordinating regional economic and social development and providing human services and public commodities, among others. Enterprises within each socioeconomic sector operate on the basis of market regulation. It may be summed up by saying that the state macro-manages the market and the market regulates the enterprises. Politically, the state is the instrument of working class rule. Hence, one of its main functions is to keep society on the path to socialism and maintain the dominance of the working class. While the state must accommodate the interests of all classes and strata represented by each socioeconomic sector, it must gear those interests to the goal of proletarian socialism. Although the working-class party has its economic base primarily among state enterprises in the public sector - since that sector is the foundation for socialism - it represents workers in every sector. Petty bourgeois, capitalist and other non-working-class people voice their interests in associations, parties and legislative bodies. The task of the working class is to prevent the capitalist class shifting from a class-in-itself to becoming a class-for-itself. These economic and political aspects raise certain questions that need to be addressed. A few of the crucial ones are: (1) How does the public sector remain strong enough to be competitive with the capitalist sector in the market? (2) While state enterprises control the "commanding heights" do these "heights" vary in accordance with historical conditions? (3) How does the state deal with the negative phenomena produced by the market economy? (4) How does the working class maintain the path towards socialism over several generations of transition? (5) Does the scope of the state and market alter as the socialist market economy reaches the threshold of socialism proper and what role, if any, does the market play after this plateau has been reached? Issues of this sort are not only grist for theoretical analysis, but urgent problems facing the concrete test of political practice in the countries currently constructing socialism via a socialist market economy. --Al L. Sargis is the Director of the Center for Marxist Education.

A New World is Emerging

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/6587/1/322/

By The Guardian (Australia)

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click here for related stories: Imperialism/Globalization

3-13-08, 10:17 am Original source: The Guardian (Australia) Discussions have been going on inside NATO about intervention in Latin America and in every other corner of the world, even without a UN mandate. This discussion has come about because the conservative and imperialist political forces in Europe and the United States are faced with the sweeping changes that have taken place in many countries in the recent period. They are most pronounced in Latin America where many countries are in the process of throwing off the economic, political and military domination exercised by the United States for more than 100 years. Just recently the lackey government of Colombia staged a provocation by violating the sovereignty of Ecuador and killed about twenty members of the national liberation movement FARC who were visiting Ecuador in connection with the release of some prisoners of war that they have been holding. This provocation, which aimed to start a military conflict in the region, has failed because of the condemnation of the Colombian government by many other Latin American governments. The Colombian government has been forced to back off! However, the incident highlights a growing trend being pursued by a number of reactionary governments who flagrantly violate international law and disregard the United Nations. The Israeli government regularly violates the sovereignty of Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, particularly the Gaza Strip. Turkey has more than once invaded the territory of Iraq claiming that it is attempting to wipe out the Kurdish independence movement. US forces frequently undertake military operations in a number of countries with the objective of foisting on countries governments acceptable to the US. One such example is military operations in Somalia over a period of years. Another is the illegal sponsorship of Kosovo "independence" where a fascist-like government has been installed by the NATO countries. Of course, the wars going on in Afghanistan and Iraq are classic examples of the attempt of NATO to install governments to their liking, seize their land and resources and establish military bases. In all these cases the UN has been ignored or its Charter violated. Other NATO operations include the French interventions in several countries in North Africa. Chad is the most recent example. These operations are all designed to stem the rapid progressive changes that are taking place across the world. But the changes keep coming.

None the less, the imperialist powers, who yearn for the return of a colonialist world dominated by North America and the major European countries, will continue their desperate attempts to stop the march of history by saying "So far, no further!". They will become more stubborn and lawless in their actions. Their answer to the changes taking place is to brand governments that do not comply as terrorist states, to demonise others and, in the final analysis, resort to war.

However, a new world based on entirely different principles is slowly but steadily emerging from the power politics, economic control and military force which has dominated the world for thousands of years.

Even the character of the United Nations has changed as a result of the establishment of new progressive, anti-imperialist governments. For some time the NATO countries could not get majority support in the UN General Assembly. Recently they could not get majorities in the Security Council either as evidenced by their inability to obtain support in their push to endorse the "independence" of Kosovo.

A new type civilisation which renounces war, recognises the equality of nations and their right to exist without interference in their domestic affairs and to establish relations of mutual benefit with each other irrespective of their size, is being formed. These new policies are emerging from Asia and from Latin America. They are incorporated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), in the principles of the ASEAN countries, in the Asian Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, in the new relations of peace and cooperation being built by Latin American countries and in the principles of the United Nations Charter which was adopted following the defeat of fascism in World War 2.

It is in this direction that a world without war is becoming possible.

From The Guardian (Australia)

And the race goes on

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12642/1/413/

Author: Teresa Albano and John Wojcik

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 03/07/08 13:17

It’s all about beating McCain


Texas labor leader Ed Sills reported that at his Travis County Democratic caucus, March 4, there was both a record turnout and strong cooperation between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporters in setting up the delegate selection process.

It suggests that the media focus on Democratic in-fighting may be missing an important trend — the overwhelming desire of Democrats to unite to defeat John McCain in November.

March 4 bounced Clinton back after a string of Obama wins made him the frontrunner. Ohio and Rhode Island voters handed her decisive victories. The Texas primary was much closer, with Clinton beating Obama by three percent. Obama won Vermont and still holds the pledged delegate lead. But his campaign’s goal of clinching the nomination by winning at least one of the two big states proved elusive.

Like previous primaries and caucuses, there were huge voter turnouts in all four states. Democratic turnout dwarfed the Republican turnout 2 to 1. In Ohio’s Cuyahoga County, some polling places were kept open for an extra hour and a half because they ran out of paper ballots.

Meanwhile, John McCain clinched the Republican nomination, allowing him to focus on attacking and creating division among the Democrats and on raising money. His goal will be to try to peel away conservative voters who have migrated towards Clinton or Obama because of their disgust with President Bush.

But grassroots unity against the GOP was strong at the Texas caucuses. Sills, communications director for the Texas AFL-CIO, told a labor meeting in San Diego, that the crowd of 308 Democrats at his precinct easily agreed on procedures. Obama got about 70 percent of the caucus votes. The Obama and Clinton organizers worked together so well, Sills said, and the good feeling was so strong that all procedures and resolutions were passed by acclamation.

Everyone was happy, he said, that the number of Democrats was so large that they were able to fill the cafeteria in the Caraway Elementary School.

Texas Democrats held caucuses after primary voting to pick additional delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Sills noted that he has been attending the Travis County caucus since 1994 and that he was the only Democrat at that first gathering. There were 30 Republicans.

In 2006, two Democrats showed up, Sills and Michael Murphy, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

In 1994, the precinct was 2-1 Republican. In 2006, Rep. Mark Strama, a Democrat, was elected to Congress there with a strong margin.

“If we can bottle what happened tonight, our precinct may be turning from purple to blue as surely as Texas may be going from red to purple,” Sills said.

Nationally, the Democratic presidential contest now turns to Wyoming (March 8), Mississippi (March 11) and then the next big prize, Pennsylvania, on April 22.

In her March 4 victory speech, Clinton said she would stay in the race, despite failing to win by large enough margins to overcome Obama’s lead. “We’re going on, we’re going strong and we’re going all the way. Millions of Americans haven’t spoken yet and they want their turn,” she told a small but exuberant crowd in Columbus, Ohio.

The Obama campaign said Obama leads in the popular vote for all 41 primaries and caucuses to date, has a more than 100-point delegate lead, and has won in 28 states to Clinton’s 13. They say Clinton cannot overcome the delegate gap.

The increasingly nasty tone that the Clinton campaign took in the last weeks is worrisome for many who want a united coalition going into the general election against McCain.

Clinton launched a media offensive combining security scare ads, complaints of unfair media treatment followed by appearances on “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show,” and waving about a memo purporting to show Obama duplicity on NAFTA. This media onslaught seemed to sway undecided voters towards Clinton, and put Obama on the defensive.

McCain, Bush and their surrogates also attacked Obama. One far-right radio talk show host, introducing McCain in southern Ohio, delivered a racist diatribe against Obama. McCain apologized afterward, but the damage was done.

Obama was forced to combat Clinton’s national security offensive in the last few days, allowing Clinton to claim the number one issue for voters, the economy.

In Ohio, voters from union households numbered approximately 35 percent of the total vote and backed Clinton by about a 4 percent margin.

Obama, who has called for a new kind of politics, may have to put that aside for now and challenge Clinton more strongly.

But with six more weeks until the next big primary, Pennsylvania, many are concerned that the increasingly negative campaigning may hurt the Democrats.

In order for the Democrats to decisively defeat the Republican-right attack machine and win the White House – and Congress – a united party and coalition focused on the issues and one candidate is necessary, they say. The experience in Travis County’s Democratic caucus holds out promise that on the ground, determined voters will make that unity happen.

Joel Wendland contributed to this article.