New July-August 2011 issue of News & Letters is online
News & Letters, Vol. 56, No. 4
July-August 2011
You may view this issue of News & Letters in pdf form here
Lead
Palestinian youth open new front in Arab Spring
The Arab Spring’s arrival has marked a new stage in the Palestinian struggle…. The vision of massive, non-violent protests by Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and beyond fills Israel’s right-wing rulers with horror. It recalls the first Intifada of 1987, the most powerful challenge to Israel’s unjust rule so far. It also brings to their doorstep a tremendous human power that has shaken the world.
From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya
Iran–philosophy and organization
This letter was a reply to a discussion article by an Iranian revolutionary activist and thinker, published in the December 1979 N&L. Written during the time of the Iranian revolution, it speaks profoundly to the Arab Spring today.
Pelican Bay SHU on hunger strike
Prisoners at Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHUs) are going on a hunger strike July 1 to demand the prison recognize they are human beings. To sign a petition to the California prison officials to recognize their demands, see http://www.prisons.org/hungerstrike.htm. To follow developments and join solidarity actions, visit prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com.
Editorial
Following his triumphant announcement on May 1 that Osama bin Laden had been killed, President Obama probably could have declared “Mission Accomplished” and ordered an abrupt departure from Afghanistan. His choice instead to stay and continue permanent war not only guarantees more bloodshed for Afghans and Americans, but risks his own political isolation.
Essay
Civil War still hotly contested
The history of the U.S. is a quagmire of facts and near fictions; conflicting thoughts and ideas; established truths and myths, and nowhere is this more evident than when one discusses the causes and effects of the Civil War. This is especially evident on its 150th anniversary as some try to rewrite history, claiming that “states’ rights” were the issue, not slavery and the racism that underpinned it.
Greece, democracy and the economic crisis
Since May 25, a people’s assembly has been in session in Greece’s Syntagma Square outside of parliament. Europe has been rife with persistent revolts, mass strikes, marches against economic retrenchment for some time. When the Arab Spring emerged against political repression and economic deprivation, it resonated in Europe in a new “Take the Square” movement which began during the run-up to May 20 elections in Spain with a demand for “Real Democracy.”
Big nations fiddle while climate heats up, poor starve
You don’t need a weatherman to know the wind has blown in another year of disasters: record flooding of the Lower Mississippi River, a record Texas drought, a record Arizona wildfire, the worst fire season in U.S. history. This comes after 2010, the planet’s hottest year in history, which brought record flooding in Pakistan and Australia, and record heat in Russia, all of which slashed the year’s grain harvest.