However, Gleijeses is mistaken when he asserts that African Americans weren’t interested in what was happening on the Continent and that Congressman Charles Diggs and Malcolm X were the only ones interested. But it was precisely the constant hammering by Malcolm of the central role of Africa in the fight for Black liberation in the U.S. that led to African liberation becoming a bedrock of the Black movement.

If memory serves me correctly, there were many demonstrations in the early and mid-1970s demanding "Portuguese out of Africa," and "Black majority rule in southern Africa." These protests were organized by different coalitions, e.g. the African Liberation Support Committee, African Liberation Day Committee, and others. Thousands participated in these demonstrations, including one of 20,000 in Washington, D.C.

As a matter of fact, African Liberation Day (the last Saturday of May) was celebrated every year in many cities in the early and mid-1970s. Many of us who actively supported Cuba’s role in Angola had many a hard debate with others who considered themselves Maoists who opposed Cuba’s aid.

While it is true the NAACP and other liberal middle class organizations did little to organize this anti-imperialist sentiment, especially among Black youth and students, it is not historically correct that African Americans "had little time for African issues."

Omari Musa
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  
 

Events in the Netherlands
As a longtime resident of the Netherlands I was very interested to get a Trotskyist perspective on the circumstances surrounding Pim Fortuyn’s assassination in your May 27 article on that subject. However, I would like to note a few inaccuracies: Although it can be argued that the assassination was followed by "an outpouring of Dutch nationalism," this was not "orchestrated by the capitalist rulers." Actually the latter--if the reference is to the leaders of the national government and large business organizations--were, from all the evidence, profoundly shocked and dismayed by the assassination, which further shook a status quo already upset by the Srebrenica affair also alluded to in the article.

The emotional atmosphere in which Fortuyn’s funeral ceremony took place actually arose spontaneously from, for the most part, the "working people and middle-class layers" which the article says were "sucked into" the spectacle: those whose incomes and social status might be regarded as to a greater or lesser extent allying them with the "capitalist rulers" tended to regard the entire episode as unedifying and an embarrassment to the country, while lower-income groups mostly just stayed away.

Finally, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are not "direct colonies," though they have a colonial past. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes their present situation as follows: "Since 1954 the Netherlands Antilles have been an integral part of The Netherlands, with full autonomy in internal affairs. The island of Aruba was formerly a part of the Netherlands Antilles, but in 1986 it seceded from the federation to become a separate...self-governing part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands."

Willem Daniels
The Netherlands  
 

About Alejo Carpentier
The article in the June 10 issue on the new printing plant in Cuba was very inspiring. I just wanted to point out that the final paragraph that refers to Cuban author Alejo Carpentier could be confusing in that it leaves the impression that he is still alive. In fact he died in Paris in 1980, where he was the Cuban cultural attaché. He received the "Miguel de Cervantes" literary prize in 1977. Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez once stated that he considered Carpentier his greatest influence.

Aaron Ruby
Houston, Texas  
 

Pakistan and Afghanistan
You criticize Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan and give a wrong reason for that. The reason was simple. Pakistan did not want the Soviets at their border with all that it implied. The Russians have wanted and needed an exit to the sea via a southern route for their gas and oil pipelines in Central Asia. The northern route is frozen so they had their eye on a southern route for a long time. Pakistan had no desire to become a Soviet satellite.

The CIA aided and abetted Pakistan in helping the Taliban for their own reasons. Why should Pakistan take the brunt of the terrorist fallout now when so many Pakistanis have suffered already due to the Taliban regime set up in Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion?

Tamzin Jans
Paris, France  
 

AFSCME resolutions
AFSCME locals in Seattle and Los Angeles have submitted resolutions to the national AFSCME convention schedule for this June. These resolutions oppose the Bush administration’s war on "terrorism" and its attacks on civil liberties. The resolutions also demand that the Bush administration fund social services instead of the war on "terrorism."

The local in Seattle also passed a resolution that supports the Palestinian labor movement’s call to end United States aid to Israel. It calls on the Israeli government to end the occupation of Palestine and recognize the Palestinian unions.

Steve Hoffman
Seattle, Washington
 

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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