In Japan we read about a commemoration for the victims of the U.S. firebombing of Tokyo during World War II and a protest by fishermen opposed to a deal struck by their union.

At the Hiroshima airport we were handed a leaflet by a group of five people opposing the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

David Johnson
Toronto, Ontario  
 

India and nationalities
The editorial in the May 27 Militant calling for the United States to get out of the Indian subcontinent is correct in all stated respects. The tensions between Pakistan and India are rooted historically in the imperialist attempts to thwart the revolutionary upsurge in India for independence from the United Kingdom. Uniting the toilers of the region against the imperialists’ war machine remains the only way forward.

The editorial also makes reference to the need to "press forward the national unification struggle on the Indian subcontinent" and later on to the fact that "the partition of India and the formation of a pro-imperialist outpost helped block the formation of a modern, centralized nation-state."

However, isn’t it necessary given the current situation in that part of the world to include in this same editorial the need for equality of all nationalities and the redress of all national grievances as the only road to uniting all the toilers in the area? India is a prison house of nationalities with some of them currently engaged in struggle against the Indian state.

Of course all political questions cannot be raised in every single editorial but this element remains central to achieve the necessary unity amongst the peoples of the subcontinent and to counter the imperialists’ propaganda.

John Votava
Berwyn, Illinois  
 

Opposes suicide attacks
Edward Said, who is an outstanding representative in the U.S. of the Palestinian struggle, recently wrote that the dehumanization of the Palestinians "is made even worse, one has to say, by the suicide bombings that have so disfigured and debased the Palestinian struggle. All liberation movements in history have affirmed that their struggle is about life, not about death. Why should ours be an exception?"

The major leftist organizations in Palestine, the DFLP and the PFLP, are strongly opposed to attacks against civilians, and attacks in Israel. Leon Trotsky argued persuasively against these sorts of tactics, which reduce the masses to the role of spectator, while giving the rulers and the police an easy pretext for repression, and for slandering a just struggle.

Josh Fritz
Chicago, Illinois

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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