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ISRAEL/PALESTINE

I went to a “call for a ceasefire” rally in Greensboro, N.C., Nov. 16 at Representative Manning’s office—he is an AIPAC funds recipient and voted to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib. There was a good crowd—and young! I have to hope this is going to be the crisis that will get young people involved; it looked that way today. I only knew three people there.

Long-time Peace Activist
North Carolina

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I am dismayed and devastated by the events in Israel/Palestine. It is my hope that progressive people worldwide will demand a cease fire and an end to the total blockade of Gaza. We cannot give up on the pursuit of social justice.

Patt
Detroit

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I watch the news every day. Innocent lives are being lost, over 6,000 were children! Israel is bombing hospitals, but they don’t find the terrorists. This guy, Biden, is crazy. He wants to give $14 billion to Israel and $44 billion for the war on Ukraine. Yes, he’s fighting Russia through Ukraine: here’s the money and weapons; you go do it! He could stop it. The leaders here don’t want to stop it.

Lebanese-American
Detroit

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Ukraine’s President Zelensky muddied the waters by joining U.S. President Biden in equating Ukraine’s self-defense against Russia’s invasion with Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza. Fortunately, the most important part of Ukraine’s radical Left cleared the air with their own letter of solidarity with Palestinian people. It is a model of internationalism from below, with the focus on liberation. Writing “as people to people,” they condemn attacks on civilians whether by Hamas or Israel. They insist that there is no justification for collective punishment or identifying all residents of Gaza with Hamas, and call to end the occupation. Seeing parallels in their own suffering and struggle for self-determination with the Palestinians under siege, they reject their government’s unconditional support of Israel’s military actions. They reject “pitting Palestinians and Ukrainians against each other, where hierarchies of suffering perpetuate racist rhetoric and dehumanize those under attack.”

Franklin Dmitryev
Chicago

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There is a parallel between the World War II Nazis and the Netan-yahoo Zionist-settlers. Just as the Nazis imprisoned the residents of Warsaw in the ghetto before destroying it, so Netan-yahoo has perpetrated the same crime against the Gazans. Palestinians on the West Bank are under a reign of terror by bloodthirsty settlers. We are witness to the Zionist “FINAL SOLUTION” against the Palestinians. Still, we must remember that recently 76% of Israelis called for yahoo’s resignation. Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. Israel was established as a haven to prevent the extermination of the Jewish people. But now that state turned into the exterminators.

Curtis R.
Michigan

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REVOLT CONTINUES IN IRAN…

I am very happy to hear that Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Well deserved! This worker for women to be free in Iran and for human rights for everyone is imprisoned in Iran for that work. Nevertheless, she is known worldwide. Iran cannot hide her. Iran cannot stop many women from working for freedom.

Feminist
Canada

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I saw on TV recently that Iranian “morality police” thugs had severely beaten another young woman. The TV footage showed her being dragged out of a subway car. Other footage showed her on life support in an ICU. Now they report that she is brain dead. Several years ago, a woman was shot in the neck and died during protests against the murderous dictatorship. With Amini’s brutal death last year, this adds at least three more to the horribly large number of brave Iranian young women who have sacrificed their lives for freedom. Death to the dictators! Woman! Life! Freedom!

Ex-Postal worker
Kalamazoo, Mich.

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…IN CANADA FOR 2SLGBTQIA+

It’s heartening for me to read news coverage that 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and our supporters counter-protested against bigots who want children to no longer learn of our her/history nor of our very existence in society, who want Canada to delete our rights. Across Canada, the so-called 1MillionMarch4Children movement were met by people who truly want to protect all children, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity. It’s difficult for me to understand New Brunswick Premier Higgs’ approval of new policy requiring teachers to notify parents when children are questioning their gender identity. Doesn’t he realize there are children in homes that are hostile, some extremely, to Queer people? Additionally, Higgs says he favors so-called parents’ rights in education. Yes, we in Canada must be vigilant against those who want to weaken the human rights that are enjoyed here.

Kaitlin
Atlantic Canada

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TOO OLD TO RUN

At this point in the presidential race the main issue, aside from the proto-fascist threat posed by Trumpy and the MAGA republicans, is: who is gonna croak first, and when will they croak? George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, among others, must be turning over in their graves. Washington warned against the undue influence of political parties, Lincoln preserved the union by defeating the Confederate rebels.

I don’t understand why the Democrats don’t promote Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer as a presidential candidate. The plot against her by the “Wolverine” militia and other yahoos and “da yoopers” makes her the perfect bourgeois candidate against li’l Donnie, the perfect foil to the thug trump, as she became the victim of his promotion of lies and hatred. (“Da yoopers” is the term for Michigan residents who live in the upper peninsula, “UP” “Yooper.” If you live in the lower peninsula, where I do, you are a “troll” because you live “under,” i.e., south, of the Mackinaw bridge. Ha!) Besides, Miller isn’t scheduled to croak any time soon, unless she gets run over by a Mack truck or an airplane falls on her.

Ex-Postal worker
Kalamazoo, Mich.

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RACISM ALIVE AND WELL IN TENNESSEE

Tennessee underfunded its only public historically Black university by far more than originally estimated. Tennessee State University received $2.1 billion dollars LESS than it should have between 1987 and 2020, according to a federal analysis.

The leaders of the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a letter to Governor Bill Lee, encouraging the state to make the university whole. The new figure from the federal government is four times higher than even the largest initial estimate of underfunding.

TSU was found to be the most underfunded public land-grant HBCU, according to the figures from the National Center for Education Statistics. And the new $2.1 billion estimate is only the tip of the iceberg, since it captures only 33 years of the school’s funding.

…So typical.

Bob
Middle Tennessee

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PRISONERS AND OTHERS MISS PRINTED NEWS & LETTERS

Thanks for the latest issue (digital) of News & Letters. But in digital version we will miss the “letters” section. In truth letters from prisoners were very good. They found News & Letters as the only platform in America to raise their voice. On many occasions Frontier reproduced prisoners’ letters. In India many journals (print edition) on the left are dead and many are on the verge of extinction, thanks to technology. Meanwhile, I have asked our office to put News & Letters on our online mailing list.

Timir Basu
Kolkata, India

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The loss of a printed edition of News & Letters will affect many prisoners who will no longer have access.

Gregg Smith
St. Marys, W.Va.

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I received your going out of print letter. I want to say sorry, and I thank you myself for providing me with News & Letters. You not only helped my personal studies but my personal soul to continue to be well in mind and body. You gave me hope and knowledge and I will not forget. I have been incarcerated for 23 years straight, all on a person’s word. If I get exonerated I can go to the State Bar here in California to a panel of six to see if they will let me enter law school. If yes, and god willing I pass, I’ll be an attorney but not in criminal law but in tax-trade-real-estate banking. Again, I won’t forget y’all. I can’t shine in here. Lots of negative energy: hate, envy, greed. Everyone is out for themselves so I keep my circle small. You all please stay well and thank you positively again from the bottom of my heart.

Mr. Marcus Fields
San Luis Obispo, Calif.

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To all my komrades at News and Letters Kommittees in Chicago: I’ll first kommend you for your long-served committee work about the people, for the people, of the people, and with the people! I am in receipt of the Kommunikation you’ve sent putting me on notice that your paper will no longer be sent to the men and the women on lockdown! What a loss, I’ll angrily express! For education is the path of Kommunikation that leads to an orbit surrounding liberation! News and Letters Kommittees is precisely that! In short, you’ll be righteously missed by kountless of “the International Kollective of Innocent Oppressed People”! However, don’t ever depart the struggle nor abandon the movement.

With revolutionary love,

Komrade Sha
St. Petersburg, Fla.

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PAUL GEIST

Your “In Memoriam, Paul Geist” is greatly enriched with the links to his poetry, music, and writings for News & Letters. In the context of those pages they give a taste of the events, of the moment of writing. I hope readers will appreciate reading more of his thoughts and will enjoy listening to his musical performances.

Susan Van Gelder
Detroit

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I worked with Paul for five years, going to meetings at Cafe Reggio. We were in classes together, distributing newspapers at demos, going to May Day celebrations, etc. I wish I could have gone to his funeral.

Natalia
New York, N.Y.

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The In Memoriam to Paul was beautifully written. Thank you, Susan.

Clare J.
New York, N.Y.

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Paul was an amazing human being. I sat next to him at many News and Letters Committees literature tables and if you did that you’d always learn something. It might be about literature, especially Shakespeare, or about Hegel and the dialectic, and of course about Raya Dunayevskaya’s development of Marxist-Humanism. He always wore this great shirt with a lovely cat face on it taking up the whole front. That’s the only shirt I ever saw him wear and I thought he washed it out every night. When, after years of seeing him with that shirt, I asked him about washing it every night. I think he enjoyed telling me that he had a whole bunch of identical cat-face-decorated t-shirts. I’ll miss Paul and his vast passion for freedom.

Terry Moon
Chicago

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DAN BREMER

Dan Bremer was a bright light in News and Letters Committees. He was even brighter among his family and friends. Those friends included cats and kittens; he volunteered at a no-kill kitty shelter, Tenth Life Cat Friends, which has set up a memorial in his honor. Dan was a man of few words, but what he said was often on target. He was thoughtful in his words, spoken and written. His words worked and will continue to work for a peaceful world where living beings can thrive. His life certainly inspires me to keep working for a better world. He was a true friend and gentle human being in word and deed. This world needs more people like Dan!

Kaitlin
Canada

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I am saddened to learn of the death of Comrade Dan Bremer. However, his contributions to News and Letters over the years have earned him an honored place when the roll call of the Revolution is announced.

Curtis
Michigan

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TEXAS GOV. TARGETS PREGNANT WOMEN & REFUGEES

Those 12 women in Texas Terry Moon wrote about in “Abortion bans—cruelty is the point,” thoroughly exposed the homicidal venality of Gov. Greg Abbott targeting pregnant women in the name of “protecting” embryos. Abbott exposed his own hypocrisy when one child died after being kidnaped and deported from Texas on buses to Chicago, and one refugee who drowned after being impaled on barbed wire in the Rio Grande river was a child. We can blame the Biden Administration for complicity: Biden wouldn’t have waited for a court decision to remove barricades from I-35 if Abbott had erected them across a highway, so why didn’t the Corps of Engineers dismantle obstructions from the Rio Grande immediately instead of merely suing Abbott?

Bob McGuire
Halifax, Canada

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OHIO REPUBLICANS TARGET PREGNANT  WOMEN AND DEMOCRACY

We’re living in retrogressive times, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is the poster child. His attack on women’s studies, Black studies, and what is called DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is not an attack on elite universities. Those universities were forced to create women’s and ethnic studies departments by massive movements of youth for freedom, including sit-down strikes and building occupations.  Youth with a passion to learn about their own history that had been hidden behind what passed for history—that of white male leaders—changed the academic world for the better. DeSantis is going after universities too, but his real target is movements for freedom, and he knows it.

Women’s Liberationist
Chicago

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REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY

Thank you for the article on “Hugo Blanco (1934-2023), Peruvian Revolutionary.” It is refreshing to hear about a Latin American Marxist. The struggle to leave feudalism is what capitalism opposes. The difference between them is that in capitalism man is sold the idea that he is free, but the condition of life has him in chains.

Pedram
Spain

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RAINING ON THOSE WITH DISABILITES

This is from the RAPLIQ fb page. No artist cited. I think you need to do work to make it a jpeg. It means the disabled are still being rained upon because the world still needs to do work so the disabled have access to every aspect of life.

Kaitlin
Halifax, Canada