[Marxism] Left Hook Updated

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

Latest Release: Thursday, December 04, 2004

Left Hook Fund Drive on Our First Anniversary

The Editors

Dear Left Hook readers,

This December marks the first full year of online publication for Left
Hook. When we first began work on this journal, our goal was to fill a
major void on the American Left by providing a space for leftist youth
to discuss the struggles and concerns of our generation. For the past
year, we have strived hard to fulfill this goal; to make the journal an
open, engaging space for young American leftists to express their ideas,
offer their analyses, share their ideas, and discuss and debate the
pressing political and social issues of our time.

Against the backdrop of an emboldened US imperialism, with increasing
dangers and tragedies unfolding both domestically and abroad, we have
tried to equip our readers with a better, clearer understanding of our
world, offering political commentary, ground reports, interviews,
cultural pieces, and reviews relevant to our struggles. With this
all-sided effort, Left Hook has committed itself to a presenting bold,
unapologetic stand in favor of justice and equality, strongly opposing
the immoral and disastrous war in Iraq, relentlessly exposing the brutal
nature of Israeli colonialism, taking a principled stand against the
two-party fiasco during the elections, highlighting important union
struggles and initiatives, among many other causes.

In the past few months we have also made a concerted effort to improve
the journal. Instead of updating once a week or week and a half, we now
consistently update the site with new material once every three or four
days. We have not only included more content, but more original content,
relying less on reprints and more on exclusives and youth contributions.
Furthermore, we recently upgraded the journal's look, putting a forth a
completely redesigned and cleaner-looking website. We have also started
new projects, including the Left Hook War Blog, GI Briefings, and an
essay contest, with several other initiatives planned and under way.

The result has been a steady increase in participation and readership:
in July, we received 7,708 visits, in August, 9,453, in September,
11,094, in October, 12,718, and in November, our all-time high of 15,845.

However, all of these improvements, initiatives, and successes have
meant an increasingly strenuous workload for us: the tasks have rapidly
increased, but we are still only two people, and in school full-time.
Working on the journal has become much like a demanding part-time job,
involving much editing, writing, outreach, updating, increased activism,
and technical work. The recent resurgence of the anti-war movement,
including GI dissent and meetings across college campuses, for instance,
has required a redoubling of efforts and investment of greater time and
energy to explore, publicize, and help these positive developments along
through Left Hook.

To maintain this demanding pace and to keep providing the content you
have enjoyed here for a year, Left Hook greatly needs your financial
support for this month's Fund Drive. We have no business backers,
prestigious think tanks, or renowned institutes dictating our content,
no advertisements cluttering our site, and no hidden Swiss bank accounts
to fall back on.

You, our readers, are our only source of support. Ultimately, for all
our efforts, it is you who will determine the quality and success of the
journal and its various new initiatives. If you value our efforts - if
you value the presence of a radical journal offering a hub for young
leftists to coordinate, develop and strengthen not only themselves but
the entire American Left - please make a donation today.
[http://lefthook.org/Donations.html] It is, we think, a worthwhile
investment in our collective future.

Sincerely,
Derek Seidman and M. Junaid Alam


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Praise for Left Hook:

"Left Hook has been providing refreshing, informative, independent
reporting and analysis, with flair and insight. It's a very valuable
contribution, much needed."

- Noam Chomsky, professor at MIT and author of Hegemony or Survival

"In a time when the left is still trying to struggle out of its
post-90's malaise, the voices of both clarity and militancy must be
cherished and nurtured. Especially when those are the voices of the
young upon whom the world depends for the continuity of a politics of
resistance to the devastating criminality of late imperialism. Left Hook
is one of the most important of those youth voices, coming in loud and
uncluttered by the hand-wringing individualism of liberal poseurs and
life-style 'radicals.' Read it. Contribute to it. Distribute it. And
support it."

-Stan Goff, former Master Sergeant in the US Special Forces, anti-war
activist with Military Families Speak Out, and author of Full Spectrum

"Left Hook is unique among progressive electronic journals, both because
it is run by two amazing young men and because it provides incisive
analyses which have no match. Editors Seidman and Alam cover a wider
spectrum of issues and regions than do other journals - ranging from the
Ivory Coast to Arafat to a critique of the Left's assumption that Kerry
was the lesser of two evils. If you want to read a serious radical Left
journal that pulls no punches in critiquing the capitalist establishment
and does not sink into formulaic ideologies, this is the journal for you."

-Elaine Hagopian, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College,
author of Civil Rights in Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims

"Left Hook represents a very exciting development for everyone
struggling to understand our world and to create a better one. The fact
that it has been up and running for a year is testament not just to the
quality of the essays and interviews it publishes but also to the fact
that there are many thousands of committed young radicals in the United
States and around the world. A very hopeful sign indeed. I urge you to
support Left Hook in whatever ways you can."

-Michael D. Yates, Associate Editor of Monthly Review magazine and
author of Naming the System: Work in the Global Economy

"Left Hook is a new voice of dissent, radicalism and social
transformation, and a vital one. Left Hook speaks for and with the new
generation of activists, and needs to be heard by all. Send them money!"

-Paul Buhle, professor at Brown University, author of Encyclopedia of
the American Left


Donate today to Support Left Hook:
http://lefthook.org/Donations.html

Know Your Enemy: Political Contradictions of the Right

M. Junaid Alam

 As right-wing forces consolidate their control over the commanding
heights of national power, reaping the fruits of both their mobilization
and liberals' demobilization, it has become increasingly urgent for
serious progressives to examine the outstanding contradictions which
mark many of the Right's main political positions. For as conservatism
gains more power and prominence, it becomes increasingly difficult for
it to sustain momentum by merely blaming its favorite boogeyman - the
now marginalized "left" - as causing all America's ills. Stripped of
this crucial crutch, conservatism's bold advance regresses into a
limping gait - a fact of some consequence - but only if we are willing
to expose and attack the Right's weaknesses and inconsistencies.

- (Read full)
http://lefthook.org/Politics/Alam120404.html

America's Alternate Reality

Igor Volsky

During the first presidential debate, President Bush said, "there's
100,000 troops trained: police, guard, special units, border patrol.
There's going to be 125,000 trained by the end of this year. Yeah, we're
getting the job done. It's hard work." But on Nov. 24, the Washington
Post reported something quite different. The paper noted that "U.S.
authorities have concluded that plans to provide new police officers
with a two-month introductory course followed by some on-the-job
mentoring will not be enough to ensure their effectiveness. With many
police officers intimidated by killings and threats, some U.S. officials
have begun questioning the notion of trying to establish a system of
local policing at this time."

Thus, in a sense, we on the left have been vindicated. The president has
in fact been living in an election-induced alternative reality - and
that's putting it mildly.

- (Read full)
http://lefthook.org/Politics/Volsky120404.html


Liberalism and Its Bounds: Election 2004, an Epic Betrayal

Joshua Frank and Merlin Chowkwanyun


The amount of insult and betrayal those on the liberal-to-left spectrum
will take seems to have few limits, if any. Below, we survey one
election's worth of pre- and post-election betrayal from the Democratic
Party. By the end, we hope that rank-and-file Democrats and their
Anybody But Bush (ABB) election year sympathizers agree that the time
has arrived for all those that abandoned their movements in 2004 to root
for John Kerry, to now abandon the Democrats on the national level and
join radical reformers and others working outside of the Party's
stifling structure. Change will not come within this corrupt political
entity.

- (Read full)
http://lefthook.org/Politics/FrankChowkwanyun120404.html


GI News Briefing #4: Army Gearing Up to Punish Soldiers Who Refused
Dangerous Mission - Defend the 343rd!

Left Hook Readers: below is a statement issued by the Campus Antiwar
Network in defense of the 24 soldiers of the 343rd quartermaster company
who are facing punishment for refusing to go on a dangerous mission
earlier in October. Left Hook urges readers to visit
www.campusantiwar.net and show your support for these soldiers by
signing the petition being circulated in their defense. Read more about
what happened with the 343rd and here.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Defend the 343rd! Sign the petition in support of the 343rd
Quartermaster soldiers who refused to follow dangerous orders at:
Campusantiwar.net

- (Read full)
http://lefthook.org/Politics/GIBriefing120404.html



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