Who came out ahead?
When Clinton signed the welfare "reform" law, it really came home to me that I needed an analysis that speaks in terms of the class struggle - and I wasn't finding it in the Nation or the Progressive! I've been doing enough reading lately; (New International) to sharpen my political consciousness. Like the other night on some news program, they were posing the question as to who came out ahead in the 104th Congress - the Democrats or the Republicans? Either way, I thought, how did the working class fare?

I won't carry on any more! But, hey, it sure feels good to be better "equipped" to see through the nightly propaganda machine! Carry on!

Mark Heinecamp

Tucson, Arizona Media cover-up
Readers of the big business daily newspapers in Vancouver had to look real hard for news on the massive march in Toronto October 26 against cutbacks and attacks on workers' rights.

The Province buried the item on page 38 of its Sunday, October 27 edition. The Vancouver Sun's Monday edition published five short paragraphs on page 5 but did not report facts on the march. Instead, it featured Ontario Premier Michael Harris' declaration that he would ignore protesters' demands. The Globe and Mail placed the story on page 6.

Both the Sun and the Globe gave page-one headline and photo coverage to anti-Quebec independence rallies which took place in a few Canadian cities on October 27. Despite widespread prior news coverage and paid publicity, the rallies were a flop, drawing in total only several hundreds of participants.

Roger Annis

Vancouver, British Columbia Stop poisoning forests
As state Highway One winds through the Maungataniwha Raetea Forest in Northland, New Zealand, a string of big protest signs condemning the government's use of the poison 1080 loom into view. The signs lead to a protest camp on Department of Conservation (DOC) land which was set up in late September to protest against DOC's dropping pellets of 1080 to kill off the possums infesting the forest.

To counter a previous protest in 1994 DOC called in riot cops from Auckland. They dropped poison pellets onto the campsite from a helicopter. Police threatened to shoot the protesters' dogs and horses and handled their guns in a provocative way. The protesters were subsequently found not guilty in court of all the charges laid against them.

Possums, introduced from Australia, are a scourge in the New Zealand forest, killing a wide range of broadleaf trees by stripping them of their leaves. They also spread bovine tuberculosis to cattle. The protesters explain that 1080 poison, which is banned or heavily restricted in most countries takes longer than DOC claims to break down, killing hunters' dogs and other animals and birds. They explain that contract trapping is 35 percent more effective than poisoning in wiping out possums and, because it is labor intensive, would create rural jobs.

A day of festivities in late September drew a crowd of 150 to the campsite to hear bands and show their support.

Malcolm McAllister

Auckland, New Zealand Scientific terminology
I take issue with a footnote to the excerpt from Leon Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution in the October 28 issue. The footnote describes the Mensheviks as a "Moderate socialist party claiming allegiance to Karl Marx."

The word "moderate," I believe, has crept into the Militant from the world of bourgeois journalism. The capitalist media love to contrast "moderates" like the Mensheviks to "extremists" like the Bolsheviks. "Moderate" connotes realism and reasonableness; extremism connotes the opposite.

If we look at the history of the Russian revolution, we can see that the Bolsheviks had the only reasonable and realistic course; the Mensheviks, dreaming of a liberal capitalist outcome of the revolution, would have been among the first victims of Kornilov's counter-revolution had not the workers and soldiers, led by the Bolsheviks, defeated Kornilov. Bolshevik policy was based on reality; the Mensheviks were utopians.

The capitalist media are not interested in encouraging their readers, especially their working-class readers, to think for themselves. It is important that the newspaper of the working class, which seeks to educate rather than manipulate, use scientific terminology.

Tom O'Brien

St. Paul, Minnesota

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of general interest to our readers. 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.  
 
 
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