Vol.63/No.42 November 29, 1999
Letters
Disagree on 'Free Tibet'
I was disappointed to see a negative reference to the "Free Tibet" movement in your November 15 issue (in the article about the WTO protests). There are a lot of students around the country who have been involved in "Free Tibet," and I've never met anyone who was an anti-communist or who wanted to "bring back feudalism," as your article insinuates.We are simply opposed to the oppression that the Tibetans have suffered, and which is well documented, since the Chinese government took over in 1959.
I just saw an article in the newspaper today about several Tibetan nuns having five years added onto their prison terms because they were singing religious songs in prison. (The fact that they were in prison in the first place is bad enough.) Your article said that the "Free Tibet" movement wants to "bring back oppression" to Tibet. Isn't their plenty of oppression under the Chinese government? I was surprised to see your newspaper take this position, because I thought socialists were on the side of freedom.
Jan Lyden
Raleigh, North Carolina
Nationalism of French CP
The article on France in the November 1, 1999, issue of the Militant ("France: '35-hour week,' joblessness spark actions by bosses and workers") contains an editorial error. The official name of the French Communist Party is "Parti communiste français" and its initials are PCF, not just PC. In English, this makes the party's name "French Communist Party" and its initials would by "FCP." However, the Militant editors systematically leave off the word "French" and the "F" from its initials.
The French Communist Party and the leadership of the CGT trade union confederation which they control, no longer pretend to be revolutionary, to represent a "new workers power" in another part of the world. Occasionally members of the PCF will correct someone referring to their party as the "CP" or "Communist Party" by reminding them about the word "French" in its official title. There is a large discussion in the PCF today about whether or not the party should abandon the reference "Communist." No one as yet has proposed that it abandon the word "French."
Nat London
Paris, France