Views in brief

Standing with low-wage workers

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, was my 35th birthday. I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to stand in solidarity with striking low-wage workers.

My partner Josh (a United Steelworkers member) and I, both proud members of the International Socialist Organization, joined hundreds of hospital workers, fast-food workers and supporters in the fight for a living wage and the right to unionize. These workers, supported by the Service Employees International Union, rallied around the slogan "15 and a Union."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2012 population survey, the median age of front-line workers, including fast food restaurants, is 29. This is certainly the case here in Pittsburgh; we were surrounded by workers who are trying to support their families--women and men who work full-time and cannot provide for their children.

Together, we marched and chanted, but the highlight was when eight brave fast-food employees took to the streets in an act of civil disobedience for a sit-down strike. All eight were arrested.

From the workers that clean, to the hospital workers, to the food servers, to the people that we may not recognize, this fight is for them. It is not just about a higher wage--it's about workers organizing and leading the charge for a future that includes everyone. Solidarity forever!
Danna Cascone, Pittsburgh

Mistaken about Michfest

IN RESPONSE to "Michfest is dying from bigotry": I continue to be perplexed and dismayed by the lack of depth of discussion of this very complex issue. Your article contributes to a growing body of shallow, simplistic coverage of a very complex and difficult dilemma.

Categorizing women who attend the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival as hostile to, and phobic of, transwomen does nothing to move this dialogue forward. Your assertion is simplistic. You ignore the most complex aspect of the issue which I believe to be unique experience of being raised female in this society. I do believe that based on the experience of being identified female at birth, womyn as a class have very different life experiences than those of transwomen, most if not all of whom are raised with male privilege.

Another very important issue that is not addressed in your article, and is in fact rarely addressed in relationship to Fest is whether anyone of any cultural identity has a right to claim separate space. Separate space is safe space. It is space in which a cultural group can gather for the purpose of celebrating their identity.

I am disappointed in this article, and so, so many others. This article does not explore why Fest exists, the purpose of its creation, nor does it answer the question of why, despite ongoing criticism, it has survived through 39 years. An exploration of the benefits of gathering with one's peers may provide useful information for trans* folk to develop equally beneficial "safe space."

Further, this article does not acknowledge the many allies who attend and support Fest. Your failure to address those who care professionally and personally alienates more than it builds connection.

I expect so much more from a publication such as yours. I call upon you to support a dialogue, to really explore the culture that Fest has become, and draw out the many lessons from this annual gathering. There is so much good, and so much benefit for all.
(Rabbi) Anna Maranta, Ottawa, Canada

The Deep Green Resistance alternative

I APPRECIATED your analysis of the class conflict underlying environmental destruction in "Whose consumption is killing the planet?"

As a member of Deep Green Resistance, though, I think it's unfair to characterize our analysis in these terms: "While this more radical version targets capitalism as the cause of the crisis, it also dismisses the idea that working people could organize together to reconstitute and reshape our society collectively."

Nowhere in the book Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet is this idea dismissed, and nowhere within the organization have I ever heard anything derogatory aimed at working people or their abilities. Indeed, much of the book our movement is based on is focused on social justice, racism, misogyny, and class divisions. The physical attacking of industrial infrastructure is only one component of the strategy.

There's no contradiction in identifying a physical problem (the collapse of the biosphere), a militant solution, and also knowing that just societies will originate in what is now called the working class. I'm a lifelong member of this class, too, but I don't think that a future for humanity is strictly defined by "industrial sabotage carried out by an elite group of eco-warriors, the only people who really 'get it'"--and I doubt that anyone in Deep Green Resistance actually thinks this way.

What does seem clear is that no society at all, just or otherwise, will be possible without a living world to have it in. This must be the primary concern for anyone who wants justice. If there's a more coherent, realistic and specific analysis than DGR's for breaking the power structure that's killing the planet and us along with it, I'd be glad to hear it. If there's a socialist uprising with this capability, I'll be overjoyed to join it, but until then, I believe Deep Green Resistance has the best strategy available.
Michael Carter, DGR Colorado Plateau, Moab, Utah

Meat eating kills the planet

IN RESPONSE to "Whose consumption is killing the planet?": Although it is certainly true that corporate/capitalist behavior bears primary responsibility for human-induced climate change, it is equally surely untrue that individual consumers, particularly in wealthier countries, do not bear major responsibility and that they lack power to effect considerable change through modifying their patterns of consumption.

According to researchers Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, approximately 51 percent of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed directly or indirectly to animal agriculture. Simply by consuming animal products in massive quantities, individual consumers bear massive responsibility for global climate change and, correspondingly, have great power to effect change in greenhouse gas emissions simply by no longer doing so.

By no means does this make it any less important, for environmental and many other reasons, for capitalism to be overthrown through collective, mass action. But the role of quite modifiable individual consumption patterns should not be ignored.

The recent documentary Cowspiracy examines in detail the role of animal agribusiness (and those who support it with their purchases) in climate change as well as many other environmental calamities, and I highly recommend that people watch it.
Jeff Melton, Bloomington, Ind.

Not in the name of survivors

IN RESPONSE to "Never again means for anyone": Reading this article moved me to tears. I have visited Holocaust memorials in the past years and was struggling to reconcile what I was touched by with the bombing of Gazan children in the past weeks.

I now have my answer in the form of this letter.
Jane Chelliah, London