[Marxism] Left Hook Latest Release Online

["M. Junaid Alam" <junaidalam@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Left Hook

www.lefthook.org


Last Release: Saturday, May 22, 2004

Urgent: Left Hook Summer Fund Drive Reminder

| The Editors |

Hello all Left Hook readers, As you know, in last week's update we put
out a donations call for our May fund drive. Unfortunately, we have
received very little so far - only 5 donations for about $100. We
urgently need your help and support to not just improve and expand, but
maintain the current pace and quality of Left Hook.

The reality is that for the past six months, LH has been run and
maintained at a time when the editors were on a hiatus from university.
As that period has passed and the obligations of school demand more of
our limited resources, the time and energy constraints imposed as a
result necessitated launching this drive.

There are many things we are hoping to do: increase the regularity of
the updates, add more in-depth analysis, create an online map of where
LH'ers are so they can coordinate, maintain an info-update list for
radical events/protests in parts around the country, and project
ourselves as a non-sectarian, confident voice for leftist youth more
visibly.

However, to do this we really need your contributions. It is not
necessary to make a large donation - even $5 or $10 can help if enough
people contribute. It's really all a matter of how much Left Hook means
to you.

To donate, click here: http://lefthook.org/Donations.html

Thanks for your support

The time to act is now: A look at today's anti-war movement

| Nikki Marterre |

The torture photos that have been released from Abu Ghraib surprise few
on the left and others that have remained active against the occupation
of Iraq. We are familiar with the brutality of the United States and its
imperialist adventures. However, the photos have meant something very
different for American politics in general and the potential to build
the anti-war movement. The anti-war movement has been suffering from
stagnation - if not decline- ever since the war began on March 20th,
2003 with the exception of a few important events.

Suddenly this May, hundreds of photos were released to the media (too
big a story to cover up or ignore) showing torture of Iraqi prisoners in
Abu Ghraib, a known prison under Saddam which had obviously changed
little under its new leadership. The pictures were disgusting, showing
physical, mental and sexual abuse of prisoners. Even Congress got a
slide show. Suddenly the very last reasoning that American troops should
be there - liberation - came crashing down. Now according to Gallup
polls over 30 percent of Americans want all US troops withdrawn from
Iraq. Eighteen percent more at least want some troops withdrawn.

- (Read full) http://lefthook.org/Politics/Marterre052104.html

Kerry's "Image" Problem

| Michael Dempsey |

John Kerry's got a problem with the image thing. This even his fans
confirm. Eric Alterman, while reflecting on a private meeting he and a
few other liberal scribblers had attended with Senator Kerry, reported
that although the Senator would make an able president he lacked savor
faire so crucial in connecting with American voters. As a remedy to
this, The New York Times reported with no small amount of elation that
Kerry will be unleashing a barrage of million dollar television ads to
acquaint the American people with him. The worrisome impression is that
the voters don't know (or don't care to know) anything about John Kerry.
By funneling snippets of his St. Alban's childhood into living rooms
across America, people will begin to identify with the Senators program,
whatever it happens to be on that particular day, or so the hope is.

- (Read full) http://lefthook.org/Politics/Dempsey052104.html

A Marxist Critique of 'Third World Postmodernism': Part Two

| Keith Rosenthal |

For Maoists, the goal for Third World peoples was the struggle for
national liberation. The consolidation of the nation's own state-its own
autonomous space-was seen as a way in which the capitalists of a given
Third World country would be able to compete on the global market with
the much more powerful advanced capitalist economies of the First World.
By centralizing the nation's wealth and capital, and by using the state
as a means with which to arbitrate trade deals between international
capital and one's own market, it was hoped that one could improve the
living standards of ones own country, as well as accumulate capital for
the nation's capitalist elite.

The nation-state, then, would be the (rather Hegelian) cross-class
expression of the collective will of the "civil society". As the epoch
of post-war national liberation began to wane, and newly-independent
countries became integrated into the world market, two dramatic things
happened: the masses and middle-class intellectuals of those countries
became increasingly disillusioned with the promises of 'modern
state-hood'; and the capitalist classes within those countries began to
use the state more and more to further their own economic interests (as
well as the interests of international capital) against their own
people. This process was repeated in India, Vietnam, Cuba, throughout
Africa, and Latin America.

- (Read full) http://lefthook.org/History/Rosenthal052104.html

If you give us no choice, We will give you no option: A Poem

| Alison Seidman |

Mr. President,

Allow me to introduce you to
My body
The sanctuary of foreign lands you righteously
Don't mind dropping bombs within
Legally, mind you -
Or so we are taught to learn
There is an unmeasured sex in my body
A growth of estrogen stretching my limbs
From the pop, smack
Of a broken condom on the wounds of my insides

- (Read full) http://lefthook.org/Culture/ASeidman052104.html

War on Terror: Digital Artwork

| M. Junaid Alam |

(View image here): http://lefthook.org/Culture/Refugees052104.html



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