Dear Editor,

I’m a clerk-typist working at the San Francisco International Airport who was one of the workers chosen by management to be laid off as of July 2, 2003. It appears that top-paid management bureaucrats, the ones that get paid the most and do the least, are protecting themselves.

At the same time, the airline corporations have left the workers and middle-class taxpayers holding the bag of debt for construction of our beautiful new San Francisco International Terminal, built solely for the purpose of reaping profits for these same corporations; and the CEO’s of these airline corporations are in the meantime are stealing the cold cash for themselves, while letting the workers take the fall as their companies go down!

And everywhere poor people are being smashed down more and more. We’re cutting back on housing for the homeless, education—especially for the people in need of education the most—jobs for the jobless, health care for the sick, etc., etc. We can’t afford these things. The richest country in the world can’t afford the things that people desperately need for a decent life!

But we can afford jails and prisons for our poor young people; we can afford to wage vicious wars on innocent people all over the world so that our super rich can take control of their oil and other natural resources and super-exploit their people and prevent them from taking control of their own lives, oil and wealth. The last thing our rulers want is a truly democratic government in those countries that we are supposedly “liberating,” where working people could make decisions that benefit themselves and not just a tiny, privileged, rich minority, like we have here!

Our super rich ruling class is on the attack, and they’re not going to stop at the bottom of the capitalist food chain. They begin by attacking the poorest and the weakest, but they will work their way up. Workers are being forced to give back wages and benefits that they need and deserve, and they are being threatened with more layoffs soon to come.

The rich rulers want, above all, to keep the working people fighting among ourselves over the crumbs that they throw us. They don’t want us to wake up and band together to form our own party, a labor party, that would fight for real solutions to the real needs of the whole working class, and others that are also oppressed and persecuted by our super-rich ruling class. We need a party that will demand good jobs for all, good education for all, good health care for all, and good housing for all. We need a party that won’t force the working people of this country to fight against working people of any other country!

The Democrats and Republicans are right now squabbling about how much they’re going to take away from us. The Democrats, our supposed friends, just want to take one arm and one leg, while the Republicans want all of our limbs. We need a better choice than that! We need to wake up to the phony, good-cop/bad-cop, two-party, con-game that’s been going on for way too long, and we need to do it fast.

In working class solidarity! For a fighting labor party now! For peace and justice for all human beings and species on this beautiful planet Earth!

Debbie Weinstein
San Francisco

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Hello,

My name is Daniel Falla. I’ve just read your magazine for the first time and I couldn’t agree with it/you more!

Enclosed is the check for the $15-dollar special introductory price subscription, plus a donation of $5 to help the struggle. Wish I could donate more but I’m a working-class guy who has bills to pay.

I work in a factory that produces glass and window parts. I’m also a member of the Brotherhood of Fabricators and Installers Local 763. A lot of our people at my job are also socialists and they recommended your publication.

That about does it for me here. Thanks a bunch.

Sincerely, Daniel Falla
St. Paul, Minnesota

P.S. Stand up, and show them that we’re all around. Stand up and rally to the call!

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Dear Editor,

I think your magazine is phenomenal, so bravo to your administrative staff and writers! Marx would be proud. My only suggestion is maybe you should consider switching your title and subtitles, putting “News and Analysis for the Working People” as the title of your magazine, with “Socialist Viewpoint” underneath it or changing the magazine name to a more neutral one. I urge this for consideration because a lot of Americans have a distorted view of the word “socialism” (associating it with the Soviet kind, for instance), and so people tend to steer clear of anything that has to do with it.

Changing your magazine’s name might serve as a step to gaining a wider audience, who may more comfortably identify with the label “working people,” which is what socialism is really about. The way I see it, you guys are basically putting forward the same insightful, analytical and conscience-bound views that can be found in the Z magazine. The difference with them is that by calling their magazine “Z,” the average American is intrigued, not hesitant or afraid, to pick up their magazine.

If your magazine was called “News and Analysis for the working people” or something of that sort, maybe places like Barnes and Noble would more readily put your magazines on their newsstands, which is what I’d like to see more of.

Sincerely,

R. R.
Antioch, CA

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