Libraries in barber shops

Carlos Fonseca was the central leader of the FSLN [Sandinista National Liberation Front] of Nicaragua, the organization that led the revolution of 1979. In the mid-1950s, as a radical teenager, Fonseca wrote a letter to the Nicaraguan Minister of Public Education proposing that libraries be set up in barber shops.

"Libraries ought to be set up in places the masses want to go," he said. "I don't think there is any location in the cities and neighborhoods of Nicaragua that is more appealing for the reading public than barber shops. I have observed that most people who visit barber shops go for the newspapers and magazines they find there, more than for the haircut. . . The people — and this is very important — who go to these barber shops looking for newspapers and magazines are working people. . . The purpose of my letter is to suggest that all the workers' barber shops in working-class neighborhoods be used for the community libraries your Ministry is going to establish." 
 
Matilde Zimmermann 
Poughkeepsie, New York 
 

Support nurses in Ireland

On the radio many patients in hospitals were interviewed; one patient said he supported the nurses fully in their demands. When asked if he was concerned about his own health issues, he said the state was responsible for his well being and the blame should be squarely put on them, because the state was responsible for the nurses' standard of living and them being in a dispute with the government.

At the same time of the nurses' strike, Irish railway unions were threatening a 48-hour work stoppage during the upcoming bank holiday weekend. The nurses union also had a demonstration of more than 9,000 nurses on October 21 at noon on O'Connell Street outside the General Post Office. It filled the whole of O'Connell Street for two and half hours, tying up traffic throughout Dublin City.

I went to talk to pickets outside the Maternity Hospital on Parnell Square as a member of the Steelworkers in the United States. They told me issues in the strike ran from many nurses working more than 20 years for the health service, not yet even at the top of the wage scale making around 10 pounds an hour (about US$14); the unsociable hours nurses are forced to work; as well as the future of student nurses at university and what guarantees they had for future jobs in the health care field.

This is an important strike for all workers to support and let others know about. 
 
Dennis Chambers 
Chicago, Illinois 
 

Drug monopolies' profits

This seems off to me. What does it mean to "engineer expensive drugs"? Almost all drugs, at least new ones, are expensive, no? Do the companies do anything different from what they do with any other research? The writer's characterization of the drug monopolies goes for all their activities I think; not just AIDS research. All the "normal" laws of capitalism apply.

If this isn't true, please explain.

By the way, the article was really good, typical of the Militant.

Marty Anderson 
Staten Island, New York 
 
 
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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