The American technological colossus was able to waste Vietnam from the air with antipersonnel bombs that destroyed cities at the flick of a wrist. However, on the ground, it was halted again and again by homemade mines. Could the Vietnamese have stopped U.S. imperialism in S.E. Asia without this defense?
Cuba has saved the lives of tens of thousands of children at home and in Third World countries with its socialized medical care. After the [Cuban] revolution the unused land held by speculators and that held by the American-owned Fruit Co., with its extreme exploitation of landless peasants, was distributed to the latter. Think of how many millions of lives would be saved if these measures could be instituted in every Third World country without fear of being crushed by one or another of the imperialist nations!
In the previously secret Kennedy tapes, the CIA tells him that the body count would be enormous if the U.S. attacked Cuba. You can be sure that the Cubans would have used rifles, grenades, AND land mines to defend themselves and will do so in the future if necessary.
Bea Bryant
Ontario, Canada
A clarification
I am gratified that the Militant properly laid the blame
for the incident which stranded a wheelchair user on an Amtrak
train to the management of Amtrak. I was equally pleased to see
the reinstatement of the rail workers. However, there are a
couple of things that it would be good for the editorial staff
to keep in mind.
The disability rights movement has fought against the labeling of people by their disabilities or the fact that they are disabled. The overwhelming numbers of the persons with disabilities are working-class toilers who have been frozen out of the labor market except to be used as a contingent of the reserve army of unemployed and underemployed.
Injured workers are cast aside with the woefully inadequate workers compensation system. A large number of persons with disabilities are veterans who were used as cannon fodder in imperialist wars. An even larger number of people with disabilities are the victims of imperialism in the underdeveloped world where, in addition to being bombed and shot, preventable diseases and hunger cause blindness, paralysis, developmental disabilities and less "visible" disabilities like heart disease, lung diseases, and HIV-AIDS, particularly among children.
Children with disabilities are deprived of not only an equal education and are labeled and segregated, but are the target of the ruling class offensive against the social wage. People with disabilities have found that the oft touted Americans with Disabilities Act is a very hollow promise of equal rights and, even then, under attack because its implementation would cut into the profits of the ruling rich.
The "leadership" of the disabilities rights movement's major organizations are captives of the Democratic and Republican parties, and therefore unable to explain why there has been no real progress for the vast majority of people with disabilities. In spite of advances in raising the consciousness of the non-disabled to the reality that people with disabilities can and do live lives of purpose and accomplishment (including leadership of the vanguard party of the toilers in this country), the labeling of people by their disabilities persists.
One of the unfinished tasks that will have to be tackled by the workers and farmers when they come to power will be the full integration of people with disabilities into all of the social activity of human kind.
Wheelchair users are not "wheelchair bound" any more than non-wheelchair users are "foot bound." Ray Charles is a musician and composer who is blind, not a blind composer. I'm sure you get the point.
Robin Maisel
Glendale, California
Best newspaper I've seen
I received a couple of sample copies of your newspaper.
Thank you very much. The socialist newspaper has a lot of
information concerning things going on in the world. It's one
of the best newspapers I've seen in a long time. Here is a
small donation.
A prisoner
Beaumont, Texas
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