JUNE 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 6
L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R
JUNE 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 6
L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R
Your book review of One World, Ready or Not by William Greider (Multinational Monitor, May 1997) ended with an unnecessary polarization of peoples' choices in the face of globalization. Robert Weissman ends the review by saying the debate is between "reformed globalism" or "a measured localism." First of all, the internationalization of capital is good in that it has also engendered a recognition by the world proletariat of their common interests. It has also continued the ongoing perfection of the means of production. This is just a broader justification of Marx's idea of the common ground among the world's workers.
The real choice today is an expanding capitalist state grinding workers to pulp or internationally workers taking over the means of production and doing away with the State. Weissman's emphasis on "localism" misses the point of international workers' consciousness that works to seize industries. This goes right along, however, with Ralph Nader's recent presidential campaign where he sought to "reform" capitalism, not get rid of it.
For a journal which claims to be a "multinational monitor," you don't seem to have the internationalist perspective of workers owning and operating their own industries. This would be implementation of the DeLeon-Marxist program of socialist industrial unionism.
A disappointed new subscriber,
Charles Bateman
Sacramento, California
CRITICIZING THE TOBACCO DEAL
There are three facets of the attorneys general deal with the tobacco industry that are being overlooked and that must be dealt with.
1) In the process of addicting the nation's youth to their chemically enhanced product, the American tobacco companies have managed to buy control of a large portion of the national food chain. No agreement with the corrupt, death-dealing tobacco companies should leave them with the ability to poison our dinner tables. Kraft, Nabisco and other assets need to be stripped from them in the same way that cars, houses and boats are stripped from convicted drug dealers.
2) We all have a responsibility to all the peoples of the planet. Any deal with the tobacco companies must hinder their ability to poison any of the people of the planet, not just Americans.
3) The Hill and Knowlton public relations firm is also a defendant in the states' cases. They are not only the people who perpetrated the tobacco fraud in the media, they also perpetrated the Iraqi babies on the cold floors of the hospitals fraud to facilitate George Bush's war, and have been doing the dirty tricks for the Pacific Lumber Company, one of the most voracious consumers of the planet's natural wealth. Hill and Knowlton (and the role of paid corrupt, corporate media) must not be overlooked in this historic and crucial case.
Dan Scanlan
Grass Valley, CA