October 18, 1999
Working people and all supporters of democratic rights have an obligation to speak out in defense of free speech and against censorship, in face of New York City Hall’s threat to cut funding and take other punitive measures against the Brooklyn Museum of Art based on the content of an art exhibit.
This is an attack on the rights of all working people, including on access to public cultural institutions such as museums and libraries — gains that are the product of working-class struggles over the past century and a half. Workers need to reject any attempt at defining an official art — either under a capitalist censor’s eye or in a workers state.
Part of the fight of the labor movement must be to broaden access to art, books and music of all varieties. Workers don’t need to be told what’s “good” or “bad” art. They can make up their own minds.
October 18, 1974
The UN World Population Conference opened on Aug. 19. The delegates from the imperialist powers, particularly those representing Washington, argued that “too many people” are a threat to humanity.
The solution offered by the capitalists is the same today as it was more than a century ago. Frederick Engels wrote in 1844, “The consequence of this theory is that since it is precisely the poor who constitute this surplus population, nothing ought to be done for them, except to make it as easy as possible for them to starve to death; to convince them that this state of affairs cannot be altered and that there is no salvation for their entire class other than that they should propagate as little as possible.”
However, with the end of the capitalist system this “surplus” population would become a valuable asset in the construction of a new society.
October 17, 1949
Thought-control was one of the worst features of Japanese life, they used to tell us. Many people assumed that after the American authorities took over, thought-control would be eliminated. This assumption was ill-founded because thought-control is back in Japan. The only difference seems to be that the current variety is labeled “Ordered by MacArthur” instead of “Ordered by Hirohito.”
The previous two weeks has led to the dismissal of more than 1,000 teachers and professors. By the end of the year the victims are expected to number several thousand educators.
The purge results from a law passed “under occupation supervision [which] states that no government employee is hereafter permitted to indulge in any form of political activity either during or after working hours. That’s the kind of “democracy” U.S. imperialism has exported to Japan.