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ISR Issue 46, March–April 2005


L E T T E R FROM THE E D I T O R S

THIS ISR revolves around three themes: the shift to the left in the political climate in Latin America; the so-called war on terror, and the corresponding domestic assaults on Arabs and Muslims that accompany it; and, finally, U.S. poverty and working-class struggle.

Noam Chomsky establishes the main theme with “Latin America at the tipping point.” A series of recent elections bringing to power political forces that challenge neoliberalism, as well as a host of economic and social struggles, indicate that Latin America is in the midst of a period of mass radicalization. Lance Selfa translated two articles for us by socialists in Venezuela; one is a brief but informative survey on the factory occupation movements in four countries—Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Brazil; the other, an analysis of the forces pushing forward—and limiting—the revolutionary process in Venezuela, by Venezuelan socialist and trade-union activist Américo Tabata. Tom Lewis brings us an eyewitness account and analysis of the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, and poses the question: Will the challenge to neoliberal policies in Bolivia be transformed into a challenge to capitalism itself?

The international controversy over the publication of anti-Islamic cartoons has exposed the depth of racism in Europe and the United States against Muslims, as well as the link between the ideological justifications for war, domestic repression, and imperialist intervention. It has also exposed weaknesses on the Left. Rather than seeing the cartoons as part of a provocation against Muslims that is of a piece with the harassment and deportations of Muslims, many liberals, and even some leftists, accept the line that the issue is one of free speech. A racist cartoon against Jews would not have elicited the same response. Lee Sustar provides the context to make sense of the issue, showing that this is a classic case of the right wing cloaking itself in liberal garb to promote its agenda.
Campus Antiwar Network (CAN) coordinating committee member Elizabeth Wrigley-Field reviews the evidence that the U.S. government has been spying on activists, and shows the link between the repression of Arabs and Muslims and the way it is being used to prepare a climate that makes repression of any kind of dissent seem more acceptable. Toufic Haddad takes a look at the recent Hamas election victory in Palestine, as well as the hypocrisy of the U.S. in seeking “democracy” only if the “wrong” people, i.e., Islamists, don’t win.

Annie Levin’s article on the “war on terror” discusses the pitfalls of the liberal-Democratic argument that Iraq is a “diversion” from (the acceptable) war on terror. Yet, as she points out, the war on terror is what provides the ideological justification for U.S. intervention not only in Iraq, but also Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and elsewhere. This line has helped weaken the antiwar movement, ironically at a time when a majority of Americans have moved against the war.

The U.S. working class continues to be the victim of a “one-sided class war.” In spite of an economic boom, wages for most workers have not risen, and poverty is increasing. The employers, sensing labor’s weakness, have embarked on an ambitious attack on workers’ health care and pensions. In lockstep with the employers, the Bush administration is pushing through a series of drastic social spending cuts. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor outlines the facts and figures relating to poverty in the U.S. after Hurricane Katrina. But not all workers are taking it without a fight. Nicole Colson, who attended a series of rank-and-file meetings of United Auto Workers members to organize against Delphi’s attacks on wages and pensions, tells the Delphi workers’ story. Hadas Thier provides a detailed analysis of the impressive three-day transit strike in New York and its aftermath, arguing that the union movement nationally needs more New York-style battles.

Sharon Smith, in an excerpt from her new book on the history of the U.S. labor movement, takes up the central question of whether white and Black workers can unite in common struggle and against the idea that white workers have an interest in upholding racial oppression. Jeff Bale’s analysis of the U.S. occupation of Germany after the Second World War is essential reading, not least because of the tremendous illusions in the U.S. role in that war. Paul Foot’s article on the great radical romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, will make you want to read poetry even if until now you swore you never would.

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