The "Computer Age of Discovery" cartoon in the subscription ad is also clever, but it needs a contrast boost in the dialog balloons. They are too hard to read.

Dean Denno
by email
 
 
Capitalism in crisis
I’ve noticed that the web site of the Financial Times now has a section called "Capitalism in Crisis," so that the reader can more easily track the various investigations of Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, Tyco, Qwest, Global Crossing, Vivendi Universal, Adelphia, etc.

What the editors of the Financial Times cannot do is offer a scientific basis for these so-called scandals. In his book, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin does precisely this. "The development of capitalism," he writes, "has arrived at a stage when although commodity production still ‘reigns’ and continues to be regarded as the basis of economic life, it has in reality been undermined and the big profits go to the ‘genius’ of financial manipulation. At the basis of these swindles and manipulations lies socialized production; but the immense progress of humanity, which achieved this socialization, entirely goes to benefit the speculators."

Lenin also explained why no amount of regulation and "public accountability" would resolve their crisis. He wrote, "None of the rules of control, the publication of balance sheets the public auditing of accounts--the things about which those imbued with the good intention of defending and prettifying capitalism--are of any avail. For private property is sacred."

Bill Kalman
Albany, California
 
 
Palestinians’ potential allies
The crisis of Palestinian leadership is starkly illustrated by a recent bombing near the central bus station in Tel Aviv. The area is a neighborhood of non-Jewish immigrant workers, and appears to have been chosen because most of the city was closed for a Jewish holiday. Many wounded resisted medical care, for fear of deportation.

A conservative estimate of 300,000 undocumented immigrants live and work in Israel. Like their counterparts in London, Atlanta, Sydney, and Toronto, they are driven by the political and economic crisis in their homelands. Since the intifada of the 1980s and ‘90s, workers from the Philippines, Colombia, Romania, Nigeria, and Thailand perform work once done by Palestinians. Their children attend school with Palestinian children.

These are potential allies in the fight for a democratic, secular Palestine.

Kathleen Denny
Oakland, California


The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of interest to working people.

Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home