However, this is a very important political error. Those of us who support Argentina’s sovereignty will look forward to your correction of the map. In addition, the map quality is not good, making it difficult to distinguish the borders between Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay.

Alejandra Rincon
Houston, Texas
 
 
History of National Front
There is one point in the May 20 editorial on the French elections that, while not central, needs correction. It has to do with the split in the National Front (NF) in 1999. The editorial explains the stagnation of these fascist forces, and its crisis. However, it seems to have gotten the two sides mixed up, characterizing Le Pen as more desiring respectability and Bruno Megret, who Le Pen threw out of the party, as opposing that.

Megret, who was generally presented as the number two leader of the FN at the time of the split, came to the National Front from the traditional right-wing parties. He went through an elite school that Balladur, Chirac, Jospin, and a large number of French cabinet members graduate from, and was generally seen as wanting a more "respectable" National Front, with which it would be easier to get the right-wing parties to ally with. Le Pen pooh-poohed such alliances.

I remember seeing Le Pen’s former head of public relations, who has since broken with him, explaining that Le Pen would purposefully throw out anti-Semitic one-liners and other statements that showed clearly what he was about in order to discourage FN hangers-on who were simply looking for a quick meal ticket. Le Pen was looking for people he could use to really build a fascist cadre. Megret was reputed to detest these remarks.

Le Pen has traditionally also belittled the importance of local elections, which Megret’s party places prime importance on. It was widely reported that Megret took with him the majority of the FN cadres during the split, and that he probably had a majority of the party with him when Le Pen kicked him out. However, Bonapartist formations don’t go very far without the Bonaparte, and Megret’s party has been having a tough time since the split, always scoring way below Le Pen.

Derek Jeffers
Paris, France
 
 
Birmingham conviction
Bobby Frank Cherry was recently convicted of planting the bomb that killed four Black children in a Birmingham church in 1963. Sarah Collins Rudolph, who was injured in the blast and whose sister was killed, noted "it was a long time" coming. The New York Times report alleged that the reason for the long delay was that the "brittle silence" protecting them "cracked only when they boasted of their involvement.... It was largely that boasting...that convicted them."

This is false. Bobby Cherry has been bragging about his crimes for 38 years, confident that he had nothing to worry about, as the local, state, and federal authorities supported his cause. The FBI decided to turn on its own and convict Bobby Cherry simply because the government finds it useful in today’s political context to polish the FBI’s "democratic" credentials so as better to be able to attack democratic rights across the board, under the guise this time of "fighting terrorism." There is no honor among thieves.

Robert Dees
Palo Alto, California
 
 
Profits are necessary
I enjoy reading your paper for its different point of view of the world. However, I have frequently noticed that your writers seem to ignore the fact that if a business doesn’t earn a profit, it can’t employ its workers. For example, rather than the steelworkers at LTV agreeing not to take a $1.50 wage increase, they should have agreed to take a wage decrease along with the option to purchase stock. This way the firm is more likely not to go bankrupt and throw everyone out of work.

Michael Camiolo
by e-mail

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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