Socialist Action (US)

The monthly paper of Socialist Action, San Francisco, 1983–2010

Our readers speak out

Socialist Action, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1987 · scan pp. 15–16 · about 816 words

Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 15 →

Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.

Scan page 15

Dear editor, On Nov. 17, I was privileged to be invited to a breakfast honoring Sergio Ramirez, vice president of Nicaragua. The breakfast was sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

SCLC invited a wide range of antiwar, solidarity, and civil rights organizations to send representatives. Approximately 100 people attended.

Rick Congress of the Atlanta Committee on Latin America, Nicaragua Network, spoke of solidarity work in Atlanta and introduced Peter French of Atlantans to Let Nicaragua Live. Peter reported on a fundraiser which netted $5000 for medical aid to Nicaragua.

Also giving greetings were CALC, Concerned Clergy, and Martin Luther King III, the son of the slain civil rights leader. A delegation of "Children of War" was introduced, including a young woman from South Africa and a young woman from Nicaragua.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of SCLC, praised Vice President Ramirez and the right of the Nicaraguan people to live in peace. Lowery had just returned from Nicaragua. Lowery urged an end to the United Statessponsored aggression.

At the end of the program, the Rev. Lowery asked us all to join hands and sing Overcome.

This was a significant meeting. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began to link the civil rights movement with the movement against the war in Vietnam shortly before his assassination. That link was never fully realized.

I believe that this meeting was a continuation of that linkage. The solidarity and clear focus presented at the breakfast shows the tremendous potential for building a broad-based antiwar Robin Singer, Atlanta Committee on Latin America Terrorist Dear editor, A Dec. 10 New York Times article states that Ramon Medina, who Eugene Hasenfus said orga -nized contra efforts and provided liaison with the U.S. Embassy, is indeed Luis Posada Carriles, as charged by the Sandinistas.

Posada, a Cuban-American, was convicted by a Venezuelan court of having bombed a Cuban commercial plane in 1976, destroying it and killing 73 people. He later escaped from prison.

Posada was one of about 200 participants in the U.S.-spon -sored Bay of Pigs invasion who were given commissions in the U.S. Army.

According to the Times, "As many as 100 of the [Bay of Pigs] invasion veterans, continued to work closely with the CIA on hundreds of attempts to destroy Mr. Castro's regime."

It is now clear that the CIA employed Posada, a fugitive wanted for terrorism, in order to provide arms to other terrorists —the contras.

You would think this most shocking revelation would be featured prominently in the mainstream media. Unfortunate -ly, this has not been the case.

I'm calling this matter to the attention of your readers in case it may have slipped by you.

New York City The truth Dear editor, The Dec. 5 issue of The Militant, published by the Socialist Workers Party, lists the U.S. parties that attended the 25th anniversary celebration of the Nicaraguan FSLN as follows: "From the United States they included the Communist Party, Socialist Workers Party, and Line of March."

I read the December 1986 issue of Socialist Action and learned that four U.S. parties attended the celebrations in Managua. The fourth party, which The Militant fails to mention, was Socialist Action.

The Militant by using the word "include" did not technically lie. It just didn't tell the truth. With only four U.S. parties in attendance, The Militant could have easily mentioned Socialist Action.

Is it possible to trust the information-let alone the analysis—of a paper that omits facts to serve its own political motives?

David Kirschner, San Francisco Trotsky Dear editor, I recently attended "Trotsky and Frida," a new play performed by A Traveling Jewish Theatre. [See theater review in the December 1986 issue of Socialist Action.] While the actors gave a very fine performance, the play seemed rather silly and trivial. Further -more, the program notes con -tained a glaring inaccuracy.

The program states: "Trotsky is appointed War Minister and San Francisco Forum and others.

Sponsored by Socialist Action creates the Red Army. He leads the Bolsheviks to victory. Trotsky then initiates a policy of forced collectivization that leads to starvation and economic disaster."

The program lists several "primary sources" for its conclusions, including "The Prophet Outcast" by Isaac Deutsher. In this book, however, there are many references to Trotsky's opposition to the process of forced collectivization.

Deutscher writes that the Left Opposition, led by Trotsky, "wanted industrialization and collectivization to be carried out in the broad daylight of proletarian democracy, with the consent of the masses and free initiative from below; whereas Stalin relied on the force of the decree and coercion from above."

I notified A Traveling Jewish Theatre of this and other quotes from Deutscher that clarify Trotsky's policies in hopes the program notes will be corrected for future performances.

Ruth Harer, San Francisco social justice"

Scan page 16

SOCiALiSt Action

----- pull-quotes -----

Friday, Jan. 23, 8 p.m. Army, Rm. 308 S.F. (821

← Contents of Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1987

Something wrong on this page? Tell us →