The Militant articles on World War II are invaluable and can always be used when discussing the history and patterns of imperialism and capitalist wars. A book or pamphlet with these articles would be helpful in explaining the truth about World Wars I and II to workers, as these wars are always coming up in numerous types of discussions.

Your explanation of the Communist Parties’ policies regarding election campaigns and of Stalinism during World War II was timely and helpful in discussions with co-workers. These articles have been very remindful of the necessity to constantly go back and study history to understand current politics and the continuity of the Socialist Workers Party’s current analysis.

Thank you for the inspiration, the excitement, and the stimulation for study and support to the Militant, Pathfinder, and most especially, the Socialist Workers Party and its history.

Wendy Banen
New York, New York

The “Theses on Tactics” adopted by the Fourth Congress of the Communist International can be found in The Communist International 1919-1943: Documents, Vol. I 1919-1922, edited by Jane Degras (Frank Cass & Company 1971).

It is also taken up in New International no. 3, in the article by Mary-Alice Waters, “Communism and the Fight for a Popular Revolutionary Government: 1848 to Today.”

Related materials from the Third and Fourth Congresses of the Comintern can be found in The First Five Years of the Communist International by Leon Trotsky, published by Pathfinder Press.

—Editor
 

South Africa
The Militant’s call for a five-month period to study and distribute New International nos. 12 and 13 is on the money. I found these to be the most valuable books I’ve read for understanding the 21st century. (I haven’t had time to read no. 12 yet.) Let me share a question with you and your readers. In NI no. 5, South Africa under apartheid was described as an imperialist nation. In NI no. 13, South Africa is described as an oppressed nation, part of the semicolonial world exploited by imperialism (p. 31 of first printing). I doubt that the change is based on the feeling on the part of the authors that they were wrong in NI no. 5 and needed to revise their position. After all, a revolution occurred in that country. I can see how this revolution would change the status of South Africa in this regard but would like to have the picture filled out. Wouldn’t this be a good topic for a Militant article or column that would review the tasks of the South African revolution against apartheid and take up the current situation?

David Salner
Frederick, Maryland
 
 
Trade union mergers
In the context of the ongoing assault on our living standard by the employers, the top echelons of the labor officialdom in the United States continue to try to consolidate their dues base by mergers. Recently, PACE and the USWA officials voted to carry out a merger. PACE, which represents paper, oil, atomic, and chemical workers, organizes industries that are by in large totally different than the USWA (which predominately represents workers in the steel industry, machine shops, etc.). This merger was opposed by a number of PACE locals. It signals an increasing dilution of the strength of the union members in a given industry. One of the candidates for president of the AFL-CIO has proposed that all the separate unions be reduced to three large unions. Clearly, we need to chart a course that advances our struggle.

Robert Roberston
Bloomfield, New Jersey
 
 
Send me the ‘Militant’
Please send me an introductory subscription to the Militant. I am disabled and very low income. I would like to see something that old and disabled people can do for the revolution! I am so unhappy just surviving. I have very little strength and energy. But I want to help—as I have done before many years ago.

Arlene Benson
Santa Monica, California
 
 
Student sit-in
In mid-April, students at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, staged a sit-in and hunger strike in order to get the university’s attention about contracting out to companies that pay workers a below average wage to clean.

This came to the students’ attention when an employee was fired for stealing and a Bosnian woman wrote to the school newspaper explaining to the students that the majority of the cleaners do not steal but they are not paid very well and the reason they are doing these jobs in the first place may be due to war circumstances where they could not stay in their country.

The students went on strike and now they have the support of the community. So finally Washington University is going to sit down and talk with the students. I am giving you this news for the reason that these small sit-ins do not get the attention of major news stories and sometimes they can be the beginning of something bigger than you or I.

Julie Hovland
St. Louis, Missouri  
 
 
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