Would it be possible to explain the religious and clan differences and "warlords" in clearer class terms? How did they originate and develop, and what do these groupings represent in the class struggle in Somalia? The Militant is very clear with similar differences in Iraq, but the recent developments in Somalia, the characterization of the SICC, and the Oromo Liberation Front Movement, are all difficult to understand without more explanation. Perhaps some reading materials or references would provide clarity.

Wendy Banen
New York, New York  
 
Response to immigration raids
ACELA, the Latin American Cultural and Education Association in Utah, has stood at the forefront of organizing resources to help the victims and the families of the December 12 immigration raids at the Swift plant in Hyrum, Utah. They are an organization that is comprised mainly of working-class Latinos. They played an important role in organizing the march for legalization that drew 40,000 participants in Salt Lake City April 9.

John Langford
Park City, Utah  
 
Hussein execution
I agree wholeheartedly with the point made by Sam Manuel in his article “U.S. rulers press brutal Iraq war” (January 15 issue) that the hanging of Saddam Hussein was a “lynch-mob style execution that violated even elementary bourgeois standards of justice.” But it seems to me that a larger point has to be made that the U.S. client regime in Baghdad had no right to try, much less execute Hussein to begin with. The trial and execution of Hussein were as much a violation of Iraqi sovereignty as the imperialist invasion and occupation.

Bill Kalman
Richmond, California
 
 
Related articles:
Behind the war and divisions in Somalia  
 
 
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