RE: [Marxism] On the 1812 war

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The U.S. flag means different things to different people and its
meaning varies widely. In Boston during the school desegregation
struggle, some racist thugs used a U.S. flag at the end of a big
flag pole to assault a Black protester. The image couldn't have
been more perfect and the Socialist Workers Party took it and
made the image part of its presidential election campaign in a
poster. It was just great.

Today, as millions of immigrants fight for the right to live and
work in the United States, their carrying of the U.S. flaga is
a mark of astute political judgement. They want the right to be
able to live and work here free of harassment and fear of raids
by immigration, and with the right to join unions and to partake
of all those rights which still remain for citizens of these
United States. These are important rights and shouldn't be
sneered at, especially by people who call themselves Marxists!
Instead of allowing the U.S. flag to divide and isolate them,
the immigrants are using it to win the hearts and minds of the
public in the United States. Here's a graphic example:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs594.html

Last night the local TV coverage here in Los Angeles featured a
series of small segments on the preparations for Monday's massive
mobilization. Among the speakers was Minister Tony Muhammad of the
Nation of Islam. He spoke perfectly in explaing the need to oppose
the divide and conquer tactics of the people who run this country.
The Nation of Islam ahs played a very powerful and role helping to
oppose those anti-immigrant forces withing the Black community who
ape the racism this society uses against them by opposing the fight
by immigrants for full rights to live and work here. Here's one of
many examples we could cite from the paper of the Nation of Islam:
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_2564.shtml

The task which the immigrants rights movement has set for itself
includes educating and winning over the great majority of people
in the United States, and driving a conceptual wedge between the
great majority, and the tiny racist capitalist stupidist minority
who want to use divide and conquer tactics to prevent this great
majority from focusing on its own interests. This is the point
George Breitman was hinting at in his magnificent lectur back in
1962 HOW A MINORITY CAN CHANGE SOCIETY. If you haven't read it in
a long time, I cannot recommend it more highly as it's completely
timely for the situation in the United States today.
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/breitman/1964/xx/minority.htm

Finally, if one picture says a thousand words, here are 2000 worth:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs594.html

After that, if you'd like a few more words, try these:

A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood.
A finger fired the trigger to his name.
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game.

A South politician preaches to the poor white man,
"You got more than the blacks, don't complain.
You're better than them, you been born with white skin," they explain.
And the Negro's name
Is used it is plain
For the politician's gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid,
And the marshals and cops get the same,
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool.
He's taught in his school
>From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

>From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks,
And the hoof beats pound in his brain.
And he's taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide 'neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain't got no name
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.

Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught.
They lowered him down as a king.
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game.
http://bobdylan.com/songs/pawn.html


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews


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