Bush's hypocrisy in the Middle East

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The U.S. government is risking another Vietnam years as successive U.S. administrations tried through by moving its military might into the Middle East on armed force (the contras), economic blockade, and evthe pretext that Iraq has re-shuffled the borders. Few ery other method to oust the Sandinista government. people realize that world imperialist powers (the And what about Cuba, which faces constant U.S. United States, Great Britain and France) artificially established these borders over the past eight decades. Bush's hypocrisy over Iraq would be embarrassing The American people have no interest in such a were it not for the high stakes involved in terms of war—a war that will be fought to protect the profits During Iraq's war with Iran (1981-1989) the U.S. government was "neutral for Iraq," despite the use of poison gas against civilians of the oppressed Kurdish nationality. That war was secretly instigated and backed by the United States to weaken Iran and cost Now, the fear of a stronger Arab nation in the Middle East, one that dares to fight for a greater share of profits from its own oil resources, causes President Bush and the oil monopolies he represents to suddenly discover that Saddam Hussein is "another Three-fourths of the world's oil comes from the Middle East and North Africa. The vast majority of the oil, the tankers, and the refineries are owned or controlled by U.S. corporations and their imperialist terests of the oil corporations, not the interests military threats? profits-and American and Arab lives!

The United States government is defending the working people here or in the Middle East.

Bring the troops home now!

Self-determination for the Arab people!

THe SOVIETS WOULDA DISCATCHD TROOS T0 IRAQ TO FACE OFF AR TROOPS IN SAUDI ARABIA WORD-WIDE DENOUSTRATA AGAINST US IMPERIALISM,

Voice

Dear editor, I agree with James Patrick's letter in the June 1990 issue. I think it would be terrific if you could publish twice a month. You provide a unique and much-needed voice for revolutionary-socialist democracy on today's left, and I think with more frequent publication you could get your perspective across 1) on a more timely basis and 2) to a wider audience.

Second: How about a piece on socialist democracy, theory, practice, and history-somewhere along the lines of Cannon's articles in your "Toward a Socialist America" pamphlet?

One of the clearest lines of demarcation between Trotskyism and both Stalinism and Social Democracy in the workers' movement is our commitment to such principles. I think this needs to be hammered in, again and again.

We can recruit people to a clearly inunderstood and presented socialist of (Trotskyist) program, particularly now with the collapse of Stalinism in the East and the upping of the bosses' offensive here.

C.F., St. Paul, Minn.

Teachers

Dear editor, I'd like to fill you in on the current situation of teachers here in West Virginia. A circuit court injunction against a statewide strike was upheld by the state supreme court, as expected. This stick, and even a stringy carrot, will very likely head off a strike in the fall.

There will be a special session on education in late August as teachers come back to work (and as many teachers who had their pay withheld come to the end of paychecks). I suspect that the governor will plead poverty as before.

And as before, the poverty is selfinduced, caused by massive tax breaks traditional position of the revolutionary socialist movement on such a basic democratic question is disturbing. If SA has abandoned that position in favor of one that supports censorship, please say so and explain your decision.

Eric Hamell Philadelphia, Pa.

In reply Pornography-by its very nature —exploits and debases women. In capitalist countries, It serves the ruling-class ideology that tends to reduce women to sex objects, while denying them their rightful role in society. Thus, the capitalist class promotes pornography through such media as advertising.

Poland is not a capitalist country, but the ideology of the capitalist class is steadily seeping in as the Solidarity/Stalinist regime moves toward a "market economy."

Brenda Bishop's article in our July issue points out that pornography is on the rise in Poland despite the fact that the Stalinist censorship laws remain in effect. Thus, censoring pornography can be seen to be ineffective-as well as antidemocratic (as Eric Hamell makes clear).

Laws of censorship open the door to other, more dangerous laws which seek to "regulate" the civil liberties of the working class. That is why we oppose censorship. The way to stop pornography is by education and by working to build a more equitable (socialist) society in which men and women can be equals.-the editors Wake up