[Marxism] LH Updated

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

Left Hook


www.lefthook.org


Latest Release: Monday, December 13, 2004

Folks, We Need Your Help: Left Hook Fund Drive Needs Your Support

The Editors

Dear /Left Hook /readers,

On December 4th we marked our first anniversary of publication, and
launched our first anniversary fund drive
<http://lefthook.org/December04appeal.html>. Given the journal's
steadily increasing readership, its growing content, and the increasing
importance of leftist youth voices in these uncertain times, we had
hoped that our readers would provide us the support needed to sustain a
serious effort like /Left Hook/.

However, it seems so far that these hopes have been misplaced.

In the ten days since the launch of our fund drive, we have received
only 9 contributions totaling just $450. Needless to say, these results
are rather depressing. We know there are many more of you out there -
both young and old(er) regular readers of /Left Hook/ - since there are
almost 100 youth activists on the discussion list, 500 more readers on
the information list, and 500 /daily/ visitors to our website. We also
know that getting our material is only a matter of a few keyboard
strokes and mouse clicks - but the reality behind that is many long
hours of work. A lot of effort goes into making what you see and read on
your computer screen actually /happen/.

The bottom line is, without a significant upturn in contributions, we
will be forced to drastically scale down our work on Left Hook. This is
not a matter of alarmism, simply an honest assessment of plain and
simple facts: no time-intensive venture -- certainly no radical,
independent one -- is sustainable without the concrete financial support
of its audience.

For a long time, leftists have been griping about the increasingly
right-wing drift of American society, and specifically, the growing rise
of a viciously right-wing media. This is all true enough - but how can
these dangerous trends be countered if efforts to project and develop
the voices of youth fighting these trends - efforts like /Left Hook/ -
are not supported? Quite simply in this case, it's a matter of "putting
your money where your mouse is."

So please, if you are one of our many thousand regular readers who have
not yet donated to our fund drive, show your support by contributing
today. <http://lefthook.org/Donations.html> Contributions both large and
small are greatly welcomed - and urgently needed to move forward.

Sincerely,
Derek Seidman and M. Junaid Alam

The War /is /the War Crime: Abused Iraqis, Abused Americans

M. Junaid Alam

This was a war to transcend all wars - a war fought not for crass
interests or crude motives, but for freedom and democracy. Or so we were
told. Once this grand narrative was felled by reality, however, the
story of its basic actors was twisted to meet new requirements: since it
could not possibly be that the war aims were themselves corrupt, it must
be the Iraqis - the supposed recipients of liberation, and the American
soldiers - the deliverers of that liberation - who were flawed. This
twist was to serve as punishment for those Iraqis who interpreted
"freedom" to mean not only freedom from Saddam but freedom from US
control, and as a smear job against those US soldiers who interpreted
"defending the country" to mean something other than killing innocents
and creating more hatred for America...

As the struggle in Iraq intensifies, its bitter and revealing ironies
rise like angry waves, pummeling the eroding promontory of the war's
many myths - foremost among them its very viability. Iraqis resisting
occupation, soldiers exposing the brutalities that are fueling
anti-occupation sentiment, and other Americans reluctantly being pressed
into service to strengthen that occupation, are, in uneven, overlapping
and contradictory ways, all victims of this war.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Alam121304.html>

Report on the Youth Anti-War Movement: Rebuilding the Antiwar Movement
on Campuses

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field

Since the election there have been small signs of the reemergence of the
antiwar movement - with small actions and emergency protests around the
country in response to the U.S. slaughter in Falluja, for example, and
more recent campaigns against campus repression, such as the campaign
against Zionist attacks on the right to criticize Israel at Columbia
University. Last weekend, 400 people marched against the war in Boston
in response to a call put out by the Boston Student Mobilization to End
the War, and in many cities, plans are being made to travel to D.C. to
protest Bush's inauguration on January 20.

With the U.S. going full throttle to crush the resistance and impose the
"election" of its hand-picked puppets, these are very welcome
developments. And in another significant step toward rebuilding the
national antiwar movement, nearly 100 people from 30 schools gathered at
Pace University in New York City on November 13-14 at the Campus Antiwar
Network (CAN)'s Stop the War 2004 national conference. As a conference
participant from the CAN chapter at New York University, I want to give
my impressions of the conference and how the student antiwar movement is
positioning itself.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Ground/Field121304.html>

The Antigay Mandate?: Fault lines in the Republican Party

David Baake

On Election Day 2004, the Republican Party achieved a major victory,
gaining seats in both houses of Congress, and re-electing their
president to serve four more years and to appoint up to three new
members to an already Republican Supreme Court. In the exit polls, Bush
supporters overwhelmingly agreed that there was one major reason that
Bush should still be president despite a quagmire in Iraq, a never
ending 'war on terror,' and an economy in shambles, this reason was of
course, 'moral values.'

Bush's 'moral values' are based on two issues: he is pro-life, and he
supports a constitutional amendment to ban homosexual marriages. Many
lower class Americans, especially Catholic Hispanics, voted directly
against their economic interests because of these 'values' that are
championed by the religious right. The Christian Right, after putting
Bush back into office after the most expensive campaigns in history,
will demand results. Bush can't allow Roe v. Wade to stand, when he
controls all three branches of government, without losing the support of
the religious right. Similarly, they will demand more than a symbolic
attempt to ban homosexual marriage.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Baake121304.html>

Vote Fraud As Fundraiser: Cobb and the Ohio Recount

Josh Frank

Something fishy is in the air out in Ohio, where the presidential vote
recount in being led by the Green Party's ex-presidential candidate,
David Cobb, with minimal support from the Libertarian Party. However
well-intentioned Cobb's pains to make every vote count seem, he may well
be pulling a fast one on his supporters and Democrats, who have been
battling denial since John Kerry's loss to George W. Bush last month.

Cobb's own performance in Ohio can be diagnosed as miserable. And that's
putting it kindly. His ticket pulled in a mere 186 write-in votes in the
state (Mickey Mouse and Bart Simpson were not far behind). This alone
should make anybody wonder why Cobb and his staff, which is comprised
largely of new recruits, are even dealing with the recount in the first
place.

For starters, Cobb's name did not even appear on the ballot in Ohio, yet
his team is the driving force behind Ohio's 88 county recount. Too bad
Cobb didn't put this amount of energy into his own 2004 campaign. But
for anyone who paid even the slightest bit of attention to the Greens
this past election season, it should come as no surprise that Cobb's
actions serve the interest of the Democratic Party once again.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Frank121304.html>

What is Happening in Haiti?

Stan Goff

Below is an audio link to a talk ex-Special Forces Sergeant Stan Goff
gave at the Peoples Organization For Progress about developments in
Haiti. Goff once served with the US military in Haiti and now goes back
there frequently as an anti-imperialist activist.

# Listen to the talk
<http://www.radio4all.net/dl.php/450-1-20041210-StanGoff.mp3?file_id=19325&protocol=http&;>


# Listen to the Q & A
<http://www.radio4all.net/dl.php/450-1-20041210-StanGoffQ_A.mp3?file_id=19326&protocol=http&;>


# Go to the website hosting the audio
<http://www.radio4all.net/dl.php/450-1-20041210-StanGoff.mp3?file_id=19325&protocol=http&;>



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