Letters

THE LABOR VOTE

I read “New Dock City” [December 13–19], and I congratulate Steven Mikulan on a fine piece of work. I must admit that before I read it I was thinking, “What does this guy know? I was on the docks for 35 years as a longshoreman and clerk, and this guy goes down there for a couple days — what is he going to know about the dock situation?” I was pleasantly surprised to hear a voice that wasn’t the typical anti-labor rhetoric we see in the establishment papers, TV and radio. It was refreshing to read Mikulan’s point of view. I will look forward to seeing more of his articles in the Weekly.

DEMOS

Re: Judith Lewis’ “Peace Gets a Chance” [December 20–26]. Any coverage of any anti-war protest is welcome. But there have been other neighborhood alternatives to the boring Federal Building maso-ritual, and the tinsel one at Hollywood and Highland last Saturday was hardly “the first of its kind to occupy a pedestrian-filled intersection,” as Lewis writes in her wide-eyed article. People have been protesting without miss at the Virgil-Sunset-Hollywood-
Hillhurst hub in front of the Vista Theater since September 6, every Friday between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., with great success and fun. This kind of homegrown and local
action is the way to go, and your paper should be mentioning all
of them.

—Philippe Garnier
Echo Park

I have belatedly found out about David Corn’s piece [“Behind the Placards,” November 1–7]. Mr. Corn’s article took my remarks out of context, and left out other things to the point that I was badly misquoted. A few clarifications are in order:

1. The person I spoke to wasn’t David Corn; it was a young reporter who identified himself as an intern at The Nation. As far as Mr. Corn goes, it was pretty clear from his piece that he wasn’t at the October 26 rally and march at all.

2. My perspective was absolutely not at all what Mr. Corn reported. The remarks “Maoist” and “Stalinist” were spoken half-mockingly. I’m no fan of authoritarians like the WWP, but I also was criticizing those who didn’t come to the rally. I was talking about the young anarchists, anti-authoritarian and “indie-media” types who, unfortunately, pretty much avoided this march. This was a shame, because a tiny police presence would have allowed some pretty impressive breakout actions. If there is a problem with IAC/ANSWER’s marches, it is that they are orderly to a fault.

3. Corn starts off mocking some pretty legitimate causes. Free Mumia, Peltier, the Cuban 5? Sounds good to me, as it might to anyone who actually knows the details of these cases. Defeat Zionism? As the certified ethnic cleansers of the Middle East, by all (nonviolent) means! Bring capitalism to a halt? Great idea! It is true, of course, that these were
peripheral issues for an anti-war rally, but contrary to what one would have surmised from Mr. Corn’s account, they took up only a small part of the remarks at the demonstration.

It has now been 10 weeks since you published Mr. Corn’s piece. Churches are joining the movement in droves. The AFL-CIO has come out against the war. Hollywood celebs were arrested by the dozens in New York. The war drums of the corporate propaganda machine called “the media” are playing to smaller audiences every day. Acquaintances I know who have visited Europe, where they were temporarily free of the bombardment of U.S. mainstream-
media propaganda, came home realizing that Bush’s imperial foreign policy (not Saddam) is the greatest threat to the world since Hitler — and these people are pretty mainstream.

Finally, Mr. Corn insists the anti-war movement should be more pro-American and patriotic. But the whole concept of “pro-American” is too tainted with the sacrilege of American exceptionalism — the idea that we are somehow a God-chosen people with an exceptional political system and society which all the world must accept. The facts, of course, reflect a different reality. More important, no principled peace movement can be rooted in any sort of nationalism or patriotism. In fact, I don’t see any way of abolishing war as long as people who share a certain fragment of this planet — or language, or religion — can be convinced by their so-called leaders that they are more important than those who will perish from bombs, bullets or starvation as acceptable “collateral damage” in the pursuit of selfish national interests.

—Paul Donahue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

DRUG WAR

Re: Judith Lewis’ “The Terror War on Drugs” [December 13–19]. A “reform tax” on black-market marijuana is an idea whose time has come. My local marijuana supplier already charges a 5 percent “tax” on his product; 100 percent of the “tax” money thereby collected goes to drug-law reform organizations such as NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), the MPP (Marijuana Policy Project), FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums), Common Sense for Drug Policy, Jeff and Tracy’s Neighborhood, etc. No one complains about the “tax,” because the money is going to a good cause. If more marijuana suppliers in the country “taxed” their weed, pot-law reformers would have more funds to battle the estimated $40 billion spent annually on the drug war.