This morning I went back to the hospital, and while I was waiting, a member of the hospital staff who is Black asked me if I was reading anything interesting, and when I showed him the book he wanted to know where he could get it (Barnes & Noble? Revolution Books?). Finally, I had to sell it to him. He says he has friends who will be interested as well.

My advice: don't go anywhere without at least two copies.

Marc Lichtman
Brooklyn, New York
 
 
Airline safety inspections
The March 6 edition of the Wall Street Journal points to another reason why working people must fight for our own government. Remember the EgyptAir crash, which was blamed on a suicidal pilot? The Journal had a small inside article concerning a Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) emergency directive which mandates "enhanced inspections of the elevator control systems in all Boeing 767 jetliners, after determining that special inspections mandated last summer are not adequate to detect a potentially dangerous control problem."

More rigorous inspections have found weakened and cracked parts in the mechanical links that move the elevators, horizontal surfaces on the tail that move the nose up and down. Both the agency and Boeing deny that these problems are related to the investigation of the EgyptAir crash in October 1999, in which the jet careened wildly before crashing off the Atlantic coast.

For decades, Boeing denied that there were any rudder problems with the 737, believed responsible for at least two crashes which killed many passengers. While Boeing pays for a rudder modification now in the works, they still deny responsibility for those crashes. The aviation industry protects its profits, and they are dangerous.

Kathleen Denny
Oakland, California
 
 
Honoring a co-worker
On Tuesday, March 6 at the morning break workers at one part of the assembly line at truck maker Scania in Södertälje, Sweden, got a message that one of their co-workers had died on Monday evening after leaving work. Instead of going back to work at 11:00 a.m. as if nothing had happened, the workers held a discussion about this specific worker and the working conditions we all face. The worker who died had worked at Scania for 35 years. He had told his co-workers during the day on Monday that he had been ill during the weekend but still went to work. The discussion touched on the pressure from the company to go to work even if you don't feel well and that you lose pay the first day you are sick.

The bosses were unable to get the workers to go back to their jobs. So the assembly line was closed down for the rest of the day. This was the best honor we could give our dead co-worker who was an outspoken defender of workers' rights.

Birgitta Isacsson
Stockholm, Sweden
 
 
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.  
 
 
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