Readers Respond
As a general rule, we reserve our "Readers Respond" column for critical evaluations of our past work and suggestions for future issues. In this issue, however, we are printing a few of...
...sive Latin American governments that cater to the multinational corporations...
...Although NACLA is totally committed to support the people of the Americas, it never allows this commitment to distort its review of developments: its analysis of political and economic trends is always objective...
...Recent events in Nicaragua and El Salvador clearly demonstrate the lack of awareness and sensitivity on the part of U.S...
...Trustworthy information is more necessary in today's world when problems everywhere are interrelated...
...Biology Emeritus, Harvard Nobel Laureate in Medicine "We would like to highlight NACLA's significant contribution to the investigation, analysis and documentation of the diverse mechanisms of imperialism, as well as your propagation of an efficient methodology for researchers dedicated to similar goals...
...Its comprehensive studies on developments in Latin America are especially valuable because they deal with the activities of multinational corporations for which many of our members work...
...Ronald V. Dellums Member of Congress (D-Calif...
...When our missioners have returned from the different countries that NACLA has written about, I show them the NACLA Reports on the area and ask them how that jives with their experience in their work at the grassroots...
...It has inspired the work of many concerned with the development of an alternative approach to the third world...
...I know of few instances in which research has been of such direct assistance to activists struggling with a practical problem...
...Passionately and objectively it describes the history and human conditions among our beautiful neighbors to the south...
...NACLA Reports are an indispensible resource for us as readers, citizens, writers and editors...
...and Latin America is one of its key survival points...
...I need to know a little bit more than I'll get from the biased and idiosyncratic reports in most newspapers...
...Victor Navasky Editor, The Nation "NACLA Reports provide the best background and depth for discussion and argument about U.S.-Latin American relations that I know about...
...injustices against the people of the Third World...
...Hobart A. Spalding, Jr...
...NACLA, therefore, is a valuable aid in our struggle to protect the jobs of our members...
...of History, Princeton "Today, as we evidence the extraordinary international solidarity given to the struggles of the Central American people, we feel that times have changed, we are no longer alone...
...In terms of this change, NACLA was the first...
...When the news directs our attention to a particular country, it is rare that NACLA has not already produced, or does not swiftly provide understanding...
...NACLA has a consistently documented viewpoint-empathy with the ill-fed, illhoused, ill-clothed 70% or more of Latin America's people-which balances the sporadic and pseudo-impartial reporting found elsewhere . . . To have achieved this role, struggling with limited resources in personnel and funding, is a tribute to the dedication of NACLA's staff...
...George Wald Prof...
...we learned-without anyone particularly telling us-of the birth of an organization of "gringos" in solidarity with Latin America's struggles...
...NACLA provides us with a unique service...
...Historian, Brooklyn College...
...foreign policy, the exporting of jobs from here and the repres...
...We are all in this long and difficult struggle together, a struggle whose end one can already see...
...I am not a Latin America specialist, but I do get around quite a bit as a speaker...
...Staughton Lynd Lawyer, labor historian, activist "In the 30s, Andre Malraux showed us that we could best understand the empire by examining it in its colonies...
...1979] was the first systematic analysis of the phenomenon of disinvestment [in the steel industry...
...We can best understand this maze through studying the columns of NACLA...
...Director, Justice and Peace Office Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers "I am writing to tell you how much NACLA has meant to me over the years...
...Its merger of radicalism and reason produced the best of the post-1960 journals...
...Myles Horton Highlander Center New Market, TN 58 "NACLA Reports, from its inception, merged a deep commitment to Latin America's liberation with a profound respect for a mastery of the knowledge essential for comprehending the multidimensional aspects of social reality in Latin America...
...Boris H. Block General Secretary-Treasurer United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) "No organization on the American scene has made so great a contribution to an understanding of Latin America and none is more needed than NACLA in the remaining years of the HaigReagan Administration...
...It is my fervent hope that NACLA will continue to be one such voice...
...The answers that I have received have been overwhelmingly positive...
...In this issue, however, we are printing a few of the many letters of support and congratulations which we have received on the occasion of our fifteenth anniversary...
...NACLA's Reports are invariably well-researched and documented, their analysis sophisticated and provocative, and their presentation lucid, well-organized and convenient for reference...
...The last years of this century are witnessing complicated efforts by the American colossus to achieve global dominance through an intricate system of neo-colonies governed by compradors...
...In particular, we find your studies of the role of the United States government and transnational corporations in Latin America to be well-researched, clearly written and persuasive...
...Richard S. Scobie Executive Director Unitarian Universalist Service Committee "No newspaper, no periodical that I am aware of has been able (or, for that matter wanted) to present to the English-reading public as full an account of the social movement in Latin America over these decades [since the Cuban Revolution] as NACLA...
...It helps us explain the relationship between U.S...
...That's the highest praise that I can give you...
...Emilio Gonzalez Diaz President, Puerto Rican Association of Sociologists "NACLA has achieved the difficult goal of combining political integrity, combative solidarity and informational substance in its years of publication on Latin America...
...Edelberto Torres-Rivas Sociologist, Secretary-General Central American University Confederation "[NACLA] is one of the best tools that we have [at Maryknoll...
...foreign policy in Latin America, NACLA helps defend against the revival of wars, both hot and cold...
...corporations in maintaining military and semi-feudal dictatorships in these lands...
...If I'm going to comment on our government's foreign policy...
...Since there's no way to talk about U.S...
...For Americans, the interrelation between foreign relations and civil liberties at home is critical...
...We have found that information of people's victories over oppression and exploitation quicken our awareness of needs for structural changes here in the South...
...Rev...
...Once we have understood, we will know how to act...
...In this struggle, NACLA can strengthen our hand...
...Gabriel Kolko Historian and author "Steelyard Blues: New Structures in Steel" [NACLA Report, Jan.-Feb...
...It has offered us a chance to know the truth that can make all free...
...James F. Petras Sociologist and author State University of New York, Binghamton "In the 1960s NACLA pioneered antiimperialist research, serving as a model for similar groups dedicated to other geographic areas In the 1970s, it expanded its activities and publications while consolidating its reputation as the leading publication on Latin America...
...it was the first of the important expressions of solidarity which we received . . . Fifteen years ago...
...Marge Piercy Novelist and poet "NACLA has truly served as the conscience of the American people with respect to South and Central America...
...10 members of the Research Department, United Automobile Workers of America (UAW) "We are in a world that needs to be restructured politically if we-civilization, the human species-are to survive much longer...
...Leonard B. Boudin General Counsel National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee "All who care about freedom and human dignity owe the North American Congress on Latin America a great deal...
...Keep it up, it's essential...
...Nathan Spero Research Director United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE...
...For the last 15 years I have looked SeptlOct 1981 57update . update . update . update forward to receiving each Report...
...It has exposed the shameful role of our government and major U.S...
...Every concerned progressive must insure that this happens...
...Barbara Ehrenreich Author and journalist "We have found NACLA publications the most reliable sources of information about Latin America that have come to our attention...
...Its capacity to synthesize knowledge and commitment, avoiding stale rhetoric and academic jargon at one and the same time, has made NACLA Reports required reading for me since the inception of its publication...
...In the 1980s, with the forces of reaction again gathering, it is vital that NACLA continue its work with the same high standards...
...Ramsey Clark Attorney and activist "NACLA Reports have presented a balanced and rational view of current Latin American events which have been extremely helpful in furthering my understanding of U.S.-Latin American relations...
...Daniel P Driscoll, M.M...
...Stanley J. Stein Prof...
...NACLA's method of work has resulted in the diffusion of knowledge which is necessary for the development of popular educational-informational campaigns and the provocation of debate, demystification and ideological struggle in other forms...
...Conrad Lynn Civil rights lawyer and activist "NACLA Reports consistently provide excellent analyses and information on Latin America...
...The time I spent myself on the staff of NACLA early in its history was invaluable to me as a writer...
...We find that the most isolated hollow in Appalachia is in some way affected by the transnationals and that Latin America is fast taking the place of the South as the place where runaway industry tries to escape unionism and social legislation affecting the welfare of workers...
...Assoc...
...To find my way through a maze of calculated mis-information on Latin America, I turn regularly to NACLA Reports...
...Fred Halliday Sociologist, University of Essex, England "NACLA has maintained a tradition of linking informed analysis with antiimperialist activism...
...foreign policy without talking about Latin America, I do need NACLA...
...Today's political and economic conditions make NACLA's efforts to counter the distortions of the mass media all the more critical...
...its presentation of data is always accurate...
...We must congratulate and thank you...
...By educating Americans on the realities of U.S...
...policy makers toward Latin America, and the need for responsible voices to speak out against U.S...
Vol. 15 • September 1981 • No. 5
