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   Vol. 70/No. 32           August 28, 2006  
 
 
Letters
 
Mexican elections
Concerning the Militant article on the July 2 Mexican presidential election, I felt that the article left the reader hanging. It did point out that all of the capitalist parties—PRI, PAN, PRD—were basically the same. But I don’t think that the article made it clear that workers and the poor seemed to support the populist López Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). Also, it failed to mention that the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) did not support any of the candidates and the EZLN leader, Subcomandante Marcos, claimed the problem in Mexico was the capitalist system.

Since the Militant claims to be a socialist newsweekly, I would think that it would at least call for the need in Mexico for a workers’ party to provide leadership to the workers’ struggles and for socialism.

Nick Brisini
Hastings, Pennsylvania
 
 
‘Terror threat’
With the current “terror threat” all workers at Chicago’s O’Hare airport on August 10 had their cars searched before being able to enter the airport.

Rick Young
Chicago, Illinois
 
 
‘English Only’
Your coverage of efforts by city governments to create discriminatory conditions for immigrants highlights the inclusion of English-Only provisions in local attempts to accomplish what the U.S. federal government has failed to do: establish English as the country’s “official” language.

Recent English-Only campaigns have targeted mostly Spanish speakers, but also others. Proponents of English-Only are featured in the press any time bilingual education or immigrants’ rights are the topic. They argue that bilingualism is a threat to English and “American” culture to create hysteria among workers that there is an impending loss, which will be caused by speakers of languages other than English, in an effort to divide workers.

Their claims that workers suffer from multilingualism are false: the capitalists wish to create conditions that favor their profits, and they can only do this at the expense of the workers. Campaigns to scapegoat the foreign born, and speakers of minority languages, are necessary from the perspective of the capitalists, and must be rejected by working people.

Juliet Luther
Bronx, New York
 
 
 
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