[Marxism] Left Hook Updated

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

Left Hook


www.lefthook.org


Last Release: Sunday, September 5, 2004

Taking on Dangerous Lies:A Response to Zel Miller's Speech

| M. Junaid Alam |

On September 1st Democratic Senator Zell Miller delivered a speech to
the Republican National Convention gushing with praise for the president
and venom for his own party's nominee. He exalted the Republican Party
as the only force that can best protect and preserve the future of his
"most precious possession" - his family - because of its aggressive
stance in the international "war on terror," and derided the Democrats
for making the country "weaker" with their "manic obsession" to unseat
Bush. What strikes the conscious American as most disgraceful about the
senator is not his betrayal of the party to which he belongs, but his
allegiance to the most dishonest set of positions to which justice and
reason have never belonged. The promulgation of poisonous myths about
the war abroad, like the eagerness of a nervous public to eat up those
myths, is the greatest danger confronting America today.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Alam090504.html>

At Labor Rally, Union Voices Shake Up an Empty City Street

| Michelle Chen |

New York City, September 1

A few blocks from Madison Square Garden, overlooking a hundreds of
workers who had taken off early from work and taken to the streets,
labor activist Reverend Scott Marks shouted, "Enough is enough. It's
time-say it with me-to put Bush out!" The crowd chanted along as police
looked on and television news vans parked sleepily in the shade, some
half-heartedly taping the event but most just waiting for the evening's
convention.

The eerily deserted streets outside the site of the Republican National
Convention now echoed with the cheers of a sea of colored union t-shirts
and picket signs. Police barricades could not contain the roars of the
crowd as union leaders took the stage and called for a new political
regime that supported America's working families.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Ground/Chen090504.html>

A Brief Look at Cuba's Hardship

| Greg Rosenthal |

Prior to January 1st 1959, which marks the triumph of the radical
nationalist Cuban Revolution, Cuba's economy was completely reliant on
the United States. U.S. corporations controlled large land holdings and
invested heavily in sugar production, tourism, and mining. In short, the
U.S. dominated Cuban markets, trade, and financed their industries.
Cuba's economy was completely reliant on the U.S. The U.S. military
reinforced this relationship of capitalist dependency through direct and
indirect violent repression.

This relationship was radically altered after 1959. Revolutionary Cuba
under the leadership of Fidel Castro directly challenged U.S.
neocolonial and imperial dominance over the island. Cuba would
nationalize millions of dollars worth of U.S. corporate landholdings,
oil, utilities, ranches, mines and other forms of capital, in an attempt
to restructure the economy to the benefit the Cuban population.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/History/GRosenthal090504.html>

Debunking the Republican-Nader Connection

| Forrest Hill |

Democrats are infuriated by recent reports of a vast conspiracy by
Republicans to help Ralph Nader. After trying every tactic in the book
to keep Nader off state ballots, including harassing signature gathers,
hiring corporate law firms to scrutinize ballot access efforts and find
legal technicalities, and sending threatening letters to volunteer
petitioners, the Democratic Party is now accusing Republicans of
covertly working to bolster the Nader campaign.

Such accusations have lead to cries of foul by Kerry supporters and are
causing "Anyone But Bush" voters to go ballistic. Yet are the
Republicans really engaged in a full out effort to help Nader or is
there some other hidden agenda behind this so-called Republican plot?

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/DVreprint090504.html>



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