Letters to the editor

Thanks for book review

The following letter is in response to a book review by Phebe Eckfeldt that appeared in the April 10, issue of Workers World newspaper.

The book is “Broken Justice: a True Story of Race, Sex and Revenge in a Boston Courtroom,” by Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin, and is available at www.brokenjustice.com.

WOW! What a wonderful review. The power of the words used reminds me of the power of the movement which supported me so many years ago. It was that power that helped me to continue on and not give up. Thank you for that and thank you for the wonderful review. It is my goal to wake up America to the threats to women’s reproductive rights which exist today. With your help we will achieve that goal. Again, thanks for the wonderfully powerful review and for all that you do for the oppressed.

—Kenneth C. Edelin, M.D.

China and youth

The Chinese Revolution is worth defending. When I was in high school, I read books such as “Daily Life in Revolutionary China” by Maria Macciocchi, and “The Long Revolution” by Edgar Snow. I learned about a society where the educational system was very different. Instead of the students desperately stressing out to get the best grades, and doing their best to appease teachers who knew just how to abuse their power over their students, in China the masses of youth were told during the Cultural Revolution that “It is right to rebel.”

This was such an inspiration to me.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a movement about empowering the people, specifically young people, to help run society. Youth weren’t told to obey. Youth weren’t told to take orders with a smile. Youth were told to stand up and be heard, as they were the future of a socialist society, in which the power belonged to the masses of people.

When I think of today’s schools, which are packed with racist cops, and students being dragged away in handcuffs or frisked for drugs is the norm, I remember what I read about education in Socialist China and that there is another way.

China has backed away from some of its socialist policies, but that is not enough for the U.S. The U.S. wants to reverse everything that was won in 1949 when the Chinese workers and peasants took power. The U.S. wants to rip all of China’s resources, all of China’s labor power, all of China’s land away from the Chinese masses, and return it to their money-grubbing hands of war and empire.

We must not let lies about Tibet get in the way of what is right. The Chinese Revolution is a revolution that every young person should defend!

—Caleb T. Maupin