[Marxism] Left Hook Updated

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

Left Hook

www.lefthook.org

Latest Release: Friday, November 12, 2004

The Irony of Arafat

Sylvia Shihadeh and Robert Jensen

Yasser Arafat died as the leader of a country that does not yet exist,
and therein lies the tragic nature of the former leader and the ongoing
tragedy of the people of Palestine.

Arafat's passion and commitment helped forge a Palestinian independence
movement, putting the dispossession of his people on the political map
in a way the world couldn't ignore. Pundits are talking of him as merely
a "symbol," a strategy not only to ignore his real contributions but
also to denigrate the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people
for justice.

Arafat had long carried those aspirations, for which he will be
remembered. But at a crucial turn, he betrayed both principle and
pragmatic politics by accepting the 1993 Oslo agreements, which left him
not an independent leader of an emerging state but a subordinate to
Israel in charge of policing his own people but with few other powers.
The irony of the tragedy is that this fatal mistake is the one thing for
which he is lauded in the halls of power in the United States.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/DVReprint111204.html>

Forget the Democrats, Build The Mass Movements!

Roy Rollin

In the aftermath of the elections, much of the mainstream left remains
in a state of despair or disbelief over Bush's victory. Many are hoping
against hope that some scandal of epic proportions will emerge out of
Ohio. Others contemplate packing their bags and moving to Canada. Not a
few of the liberal literati have taken to writing off most of America's
population as a bunch of religious rednecks who got the government they
deserved by not heeding their enlightened advice on who to vote for.
However, the real tragedy was not the defeat of pro-war and
pro-globalization John Kerry, but the demobilization and demoralization
of the anti-war and global justice movements that the liberal left's
perspective of Anybody But Bush (ABB) was predicated upon.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Rollin111204.html>

The Reelection of George W. Bush: A Possible Bright Side?

Joshua Frank

We are nearing the end of 2004. And if there has been one lesson that we
should have all learned this year it is that the U.S. electoral system
sets all challenges to the power-elite up for a horrifying defeat. Hence
the reason so many liberal and progressive voters deemed John Kerry our
only hope for defeating George W. Bush this November. Faulty logic indeed.

They said, and still say, that Kerry was at least marginally better than
Bush. After all, who in his or her right (or left) mind did not support
the Kerry campaign? Bush, we were told, was (and now again is) the worst
president in history. An Adolf in the making.

Or is he? Bush is bad, no doubt. But he has yet to drop an A-bomb on a
civilian population. Only Democrat Harry Truman did that. Okay, so maybe
Bush is the second worst president.

No progressive would defend Dubya's doings, though. He lacks any
redeeming qualities. But has Bush really been the greater evil during
the past four years? Has he done a worse job than Bill Clinton did?
Sure, we have eight years by which to judge Clinton, compared to Bush's
four, but let's give it a quick whirl.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Frank111204.html>

Dear America, Thank You: A Message from Up North

Macdonald Stainsby

Dear United States: I want to thank you. Don't get me wrong. I don't
think you had a real choice. But the fact is, you are going along with
this. No, I don't mean that no one is challenging the vote. I was unable
to figure out which side I was thinking would be better in helping the
movement for a better world. I suppose there is a part of me that is
choosing to believe that we have been granted the best option possible,
whatever the outcome, we are stuck with it anyhow. For the last couple
of weeks, I was trying to determine for myself which of the various
options available would be best for those of us on the planet-- you know
us, the other six billion, give or take-- engaged in one form or another
of resisting your government.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Stainsby111204.html>

Why Did Bush Win? And What Do We Do Now?

Pham Binh

This is the question that 55 million Americans who voted for Democrat
John Kerry asked themselves when they awoke November 3rd to find that
George W. Bush had - for the first time in his life - won a national
election fair and square. Bush won the popular vote with 59 million
votes, and the Republicans picked up 3 Senate seats and 5 seats in the
House of Representatives. Bans on gay marriage won in all eleven states
where they were on the ballot.

What happened?

One view is that the country has moved to the right politically, and the
majority of working-class Americans in the "red states" or "middle
America" are too conservative, apathic, stupid, or some combination of
the three to see that Bush has been one of the most terrible presidents
in history. Yet this view doesn't square with the facts.

The first fact is that turnout of eligible voters was only about 55
percent, which means only a minority of the country supported Bush. When
broken down by education, Bush voters tended to have more education
indicating that Kerry's support tended to be working-class, while Bush's
tended to be from the middle and upper classes. The class breakdown of
the vote becomes even more stark when looking at income: 36 percent of
people making under $15,000 voted for Bush, 55 percent of those making
$75,000-$100,000 voted for him, and 63 percent of those making over
$200,000 voted for him.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Binh111204.html>



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