Alan Grady
St. Paul, Minnesota

Support to Sinn Fein
Contrary to the letter of Josh Fritz in the February 25 Militant, it is incumbent for any revolutionary or progressive-minded person to support the struggle for Irish independence and unity. The only organization leading that struggle is Sinn Fein.

Gerry Adams came to the World Economic Forum to espouse the cause of Irish freedom and to use the platform available to win support or neutralize opposition to that goal.

In a discussion on World Hunger and Poverty he stated, "Let me say this clearly. It is wrong that the Third World should be crippled with debt while the first world is affluent. That debt should be canceled now." He said the same thing during his visit to Cuba and thanked the Cubans for their support despite strong criticism from his critics.

Support Sinn Fein? Absolutely.

Gary Cohen
Arlington, Massachusetts

Keep pushing on
I find myself writing to vent my frustrations with the problems that I see every day in the news and on the streets. I see so much homelessness, poverty, drugs, and total aggravation on the faces of the unnoticed in society. I hear their cries, I understand their anger in being out of work and not getting any support but ridicule by those who label them as misfits, uneducated, and lazy. The truth of the matter is that they the common workers of this land (America) are not lazy but stuck out here in this jungle looking for away to make a living, but it is not easy.

I myself am a laborer and a college student and find myself in the dark hole of this so-called recession, this hole of unemployment, just like the rest that are trapped in it. I lost my financial aid loans without any warning.

To many of my brothers and sisters out there trying to survive I say, push on and stay strong.

Sigmund Scott
Atlanta, Georgia

Shah of Iran
I would like to bring to your attention a mistake that has happened quite a few times regarding the name of the king of Iran who was toppled by the February 1979 revolution. His name was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, not Reza Pahlavi, who was his father.

Morteza Gorgzadeh
Toronto, Ontario

Imperialist protectors?
The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell's claim that the U.S. government, "far from being the great Satan, I would say we are the great protector." Another article in the same issue gave more details on the sort of "protection" the U.S. government provides.

General Abdul Rashid Dostum is one of the Afghan Northern Alliance leaders who was put back into power recently by the U.S. invasion and occupation. He had been infamous in Afghanistan since the late 1980s, first as a brutal thug for the Stalinist president, Mohammed Najibullah. Then in 1992 he switched sides when it became clear that the U.S.-backed forces would overthrow Najibullah. He and his troops became even more infamous in the subsequent period for massacres and widespread rapes of women and children.

The Chronicle reported on the renewal of similar assaults and injected some cold reality into the recent propaganda blitz by capitalist politicians like Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush alleging that the U.S. conquest of Afghanistan somehow benefits women there.

The U.S. government is the "Great Protector" all right--of the interests of the rich and powerful against the working class and working farmers of the world.

Robert Dees
Palo Alto, California

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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