LETTERS to the Editor

...I am afraid, however, that many readers, and possibly even the author, may have overlooked the key moral and political issue in the article...

...A union like PATCO, which supported Ronald Reagan's candidacy, which turned down a fair offer that no union leader including PATCO's has called unreasonable, and which, in its in-eptness, has caused unemployment for thousands of workers, does not deserve support...

...Consumers United was formed for the purpose of providing a living model of social change in the workplace...

...Again, thank you for allowing your readers to view the Palestinians as people and not, in Steif s words, as desert fauna...

...This, as Browning said, does not prevent them from being the victims of discrimination...

...It is especially regrettable that The Progressive gave Buckley such a fair shake, as the National Review, in an article on nuclear power, discredited Helen Caldicott and other anti-nuke activists strictly on genetic grounds, rather than on the issues...

...It is not some device wherein each item has its ideological opposite...

...The discrepancies between what I witnessed personally and what passes for reportage of the conflict here in America has had a major influence on my world view...

...The use of 2,4-D and other toxic herbicides is almost unregulated in Wisconsin...

...New York, New York Congratulations (and many thanks) for running William Steif s excellent article on the Palestinians...

...Furthermore, some of the bare assertions in this article are as insidious as its implications...

...I teach English to foreign students, and have had many Arab students, including Palestinians, in my classes...

...Worse, to equate The Progressive to Human Events is about the same as equating National Review to The National Enquirer...

...We are not, after all, alumni rooting for our football team whether it's good or bad, clean or dirty...

...Sharon M. Fentiman Portsmouth, New Hampshire Television Regarding your Comment, "Television Boycott" (August issue), there is little reason to believe that the Coalition for Better Television will have much influence over the networks or the advertisers...

...There is too much good journalism around to waste my time with your magazine...

...I think articles like Steif s can encourage some meaningful dialog within the Jewish community...

...William Brace River Forest, Illinois Gauchos and Gauchistes Frank Browning's article, "France: The Spirit of '68" (August issue), was entertaining, but it would have been better to treat the subject more seriously and avoid some errors...

...We have also drafted a proposal on utility brush management...

...The mere fact that you can urge American recognition of the Palestinians and the PLO without even commenting on the Palestinian refusal to recognize the state of Israel indicates that your article is nothing more than an amateurish piece of propaganda...

...The fact that any person may become a citizen of Israel makes me feel somewhat righteous, but that is beside the point...

...No one knows just how much poison is dumped on Wisconsin farmland, on our forests, and in our waters each year...

...It's a radical idea, I admit, to believe in a world free of killing, especially by a species that purports itself to be intelligent and compassionate...

...As the child of Baptist missionaries in Jordan, I have spent most of my life emotionally attached to the Palestinian cause...

...The company has already changed the lives of those who work there...

...On seeing the Buckley article in The Progressive, I licked my lips and started reading, expecting to find even more reasons to despise him...

...If any readers would like more information about 2,4-D or other herbicides, our address is Chippewa Valley F.O.E., Box224, Holcombe, WI, 54745...

...The point is, what sort of people would deny citizenship to their own brothers and sisters...

...My travels in the Middle East bear out Steif s findings...

...They should create strong unions that can present their demands to the public and thereby obtain those that are justified via the political process...

...We have put together a fifty-eight-study bibliography about 2,4-D, 2,4,5,-T, and alternatives to herbicide use...

...It seems critical to me that at this juncture Americans in general and American Jews in particular begin to apply pressure to the hawks in the United States and Israel to come to terms with the Palestinians...

...I represent Chippewa Valley Friends of the Earth, a local environmental group whose main effort has been to stop the use of herbicides by electric utilities on rights of way...

...Daniel Conway Detroit, Michigan Herbert Levine, in his letter in the November issue, is absolutely right: John Judis's article on William F. Buckley was extremely fair and unbiased...

...When they are able to have their families join them, they do, and eventually they settle in France...

...As for travailleurs immigres, Africans and North Africans alike, especially those who are black, have indeed grown familiar with the traditions of Gallic culture over the centuries—especially its penchant for analyzing and categorizing the forms of oppression it can continuously impose...

...In any case, it spends most of its time meditating on its need for electricity in the quiet solitude of my front closet...

...In civil service, a union makes its gains by political means...

...He seems to have no obligation to present both sides—just the side of PLO fanatics...

...In fact, one of the most outstanding examples of worker self-management in this country is found today in a modern, computer-based insurance and financial services holding company in Washington, D.C.—the Consumers United Group...

...In addition, each person who works at CUG owns an equal share of the company, and profits are distributed equally among its employes (or in "the community," as it is known internally...

...CUG's experience may hold added promise for other firms as well...

...Many come from former French colonies...

...displays an ignorance of the difference between warfare and terrorism...

...On the other hand, gauchistes did...

...The alleged labor movement has been around long enough to speak the truth of itself, to oppose movements like Mc-Carthyism, to espouse the cause of minorities...

...Chris Kalka Holcombe, Wisconsin The Palestinians Iam pleased with your moral courage and intellectual honesty in discussing shortcomRON HAUGE ings of the state of Israel, and trust you have the strength to withstand the inevitable barrage of negative comment...

...LETTERS to the Editor Animal Rights Acomment on your Comment, "Danger: Animal Lovers" (October issue): I agree that all of us who care about the treatment of living beings must fight to protect them from cruelty, but I am also one of a growing number of "ethical" vegetarians who do argue seriously that animals should receive equal treatment with humans and that animal slaughter is the equivalent of homicide...

...Blacks who are neither "African" nor "foreign" are from the Antilles—not guest workers but French citizens...

...The fact that many Palestinians have suffered during the Israeli-Palestinian hostilities proves nothing about the equities of the hostilities, as your article so clearly implies...

...His letter criticizing John Judis's article ("William F. Buckley: The Consummate Conservative," September issue) is wholly of a quibbling nature...

...In fact, even my discussions with relatively "hard-line" Syrians showed that they would welcome a peaceful resolution to the Middle East stalemate, one that would include the existence of the state of Israel...

...But Buckley's ploy illustrates the need for the Left to be scrupulous in its scholarship...

...The article is neither news, exposure, nor interview, although it pretends to be all three...

...There was nothing to suggest that Buckley has more than one basic fault: his political and economic beliefs...

...But since The Progressive is published in Wisconsin, I feel slighted that no mention was made of herbicides in our own back woods...

...that you really do not expose...

...But time is running out and something must change soon...

...Perhaps the greatest lie is the one regarding the "voluntary" exodus of the Palestinians...

...Wallace Minneapolis, Minnesota Buckley's Quibbles William F. Buckley's letter to the editor in the November issue exemplifies an old debating technique that he honed on his television program Firing Line: Attack your opponent's position on minor points of fact and you destroy his or her credibility on major points of substance...

...It is from this perspective that I read and enjoyed William Steif's article, "The Palestinians...

...To state that American support for Israel is nothing more than "our legacy of guilt from the Holocaust" is inaccurate, to say the least...

...Buckley is a propagandist with a debater's disdain for the truth...

...Thomas A. Gaines Hampton, Connecticut Iam much troubled by your comment on the PATCO strike...

...you obfuscate with nonsense for the sake of making a big noise...

...North African" is the term used to designate those from such countries as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia...

...They were given a reasonable settlement offer to which their president agreed...

...In other words, by tying the country in knots every year or so, organized labor could assure any union of being granted any demand it makes, no matter how exorbitant...

...I am thus requesting that you cancel my subscription...

...Yes, the Palestinians are as entitled to their own state as the Jews are...

...AT CUG, more than 300 computer programmers, marketing specialists, accountants, actuaries, statisticians, and claims processors are involved in selecting and serving on the board of directors, electing their supervisors, hiring and firing personnel, and handling worker grievances and other company matters by committee...

...The air traffic controllers' demands were not justified...

...I find you contemptible...

...David R. Brown Sierra Vista, Arizona Your Comment, "A House Divided," was right on point...

...It is inappropriate to use the term "guest workers" when referring to travailleurs immigris in France...

...Carl Knoll...

...No doubt the article's publication marks a courageous move on your part...

...R.S...

...If President Reagan can break these irresponsible unions, more power to him...

...You are so blinded by workers' rights, whether they are justified or not, that you cannot present the issue fairly...

...Of course, with our intervention militarily on the behalf of the Israelis, such a "peaceful" outcome is less and less possible...

...Most of the studies are available in a good library, but we can provide copies of any that are listed...

...It is available for $2 to cover printing and postage costs...

...I have been a public employe for more than forty years, and I say labor unions have no place in the public sector...

...Steif states correctly that Jordan is the only Arab country that has granted citizenship to the Palestinians...

...Any side in a conflict has its tragedies...

...We do not need to eat flesh in order to survive...

...Charles H. Nance Washington, D.C...

...Mark Picus Houston, Texas Your November article on the Palestinians is an example of vicious irresponsibility...

...I must conclude your other articles on subjects concerning which I am more ignorant are equally distorted for the sake of sensationalism...

...Finally, to so downplay the "politics of oil" is simply naive...

...To suggest that "there is as much— maybe more—terrorism on the Israeli side of the Lebanese border as there is in Rashidieh and the other Palestinian camps...

...Animal rights include not only their right to live without cruelty, but their right to live...

...Minor errors of fact will always pass unquestioned by a receptive audience, but those same minor errors can ruin the effect of a substantively solid essay in the minds of a hostile one...

...If I were to go on strike, I would expect to give up my job...

...The slang term refers to those aging enragees who no longer subscribe to the sectarian gau-chiste militance (usually Maoist) of their youth...

...The primary issue is the oath not to strike...

...Frank Browning New York, New York Self-Management Sidney Lens's article, "The Promise of Self-Management" (October issue), highlighted the changes which worker self-management has brought to the Yugoslavian economy and which may offer important opportunities for the reform of socialist economics...

...BillKelsey Elgin, Texas I found the lead article in I your November issue, "The Palestinians," to be both superficial and one-sided...

...This experience has confirmed my suspicions that Arabs are as individual and varied as Americans, or Jews, or any other group of people...

...That canard is as obscene as the one about the Nazis not committing genocide against the Jewish people...

...Doug Bradley Madison, Wisconsin Ideological Opposites The Blanksburg Public Library is indeed mixed up if a balanced collection is defined on a strict numerical relationship of one conservative title for one liberal title (Memo from the Editor, September issue...

...It is questionable whether any media effort that is so mass-produced as television can possibly provide extensive "creative" programming...

...Contrary to the impression Browning gave, South American cowboys (gauchos) played no part in May 1968...

...What I find contemptible are the numerous hints concerning Zionist control of this country and the complete omission of any data to balance what is at best a highly complicated problem...

...But anyone who believes Israel to be the only LETTERS to the Editor or even the major obstacle to the creation of such a state does not have a very clear view of the situation...

...And since most Americans are, as Thorstein Veblen once said, "trained in the incapacity for social thinking" and thus hostile to the Left, this is not a quibbling point...

...Civil service employes should never be allowed to strike...

...MicaelaA...

...Heloise Console Seailles Nouzonville, France The author replies: Madame Seailles may not be aware of the fact, but there are, indeed, gauchos (pronounced go-shows) in France, though there are few gauchos (pronounced gow-chose) from the Argentine...

...I say this as a union person who has been a postal clerk, a policeman, a fireman, and a teacher...

...It may be that a temporary shudder will traverse the industry, but there is little more than pabulum and pap available on network broadcasts, anyway...

...In library operations, balance is the entire collection, taken as a whole...

...While our own company has been unresponsive, we have had requests from all over the country for this summary of ideas, also available for$2...

...Levine Milwaukee, Wisconsin Iam an American Jew and a Zionist...

...William F. Hamilton Gainesville, Florida As one who once refused to cross any picket line, I would argue that the house of labor would be in better shape today if its leadership had been more critical of its non-performing, corrupt sects over the years...

...Margaret R. Allen Hays, Kansas Solidarity Forever Ifound your Comment on the professional air traffic controllers' strike ("A House Divided," October issue) positively revolting...

...Eugene Wermer Northfield, Vermont Herbicides Phillip Johnson's article, "Fighting Herbicides" (October issue), was a well-written, thought provoking piece...

...The Blanksburg librarian was merely, and stupidly, avoiding the addition of The Progressive to the collection...

...S. Sobol Phoenix, Arizona William Steif's article is a typical example of war propaganda—smearing one side and whitewashing the other...

...You say...

...After hearing and seeing Buckley sputter out his views on Firing Line week after week, I had nourished a healthy distaste for the man...

...The real losers in the PATCO fiasco are the innumerable public employes actually working at poverty threshold wages who desperately need union strength to defend themselves and their clients from the ravages of Republican greed...

...I took that oath not only because I thought it right, but because it and the job benefits were part of what I was trading for...

...My own knowledge of the issues involved permits no simplistic conclusions, but is sufficient to reveal your and the author's ignorance of facts...

...It is shrill propaganda in the guise of interviews, and is presented in poorly written and highly biased terms...

...Unlike the foreign guest workers in Germany and Switzerland, a large proportion of the travailleurs immigres are already familiar with the native language and culture upon their arrival in France...

...We are conditioned to want it from childhood and we are pressured to consume it by those who stand to gain most from our carnivorous habits...

...if the machinists and other airline workers had acted like good trade unionists, they would have tied the air transportation system in knots, assuring a virtually instant victory for PATCO...

...The phenomenon of self-management is not limited to the Balkans, nor is its potential limited to its increased use in communist societies...

...To speak of "Africans, blacks, and foreigners" is to confuse several different categories of people...

...The sooner we get rid of all of them, the better off we all will be...

...At various times, it has done none of these things...

...When the ads come on, the channel gets changed or the set goes off...

...I was terribly disappointed...

...Until we, the human breed, see ourselves truthfully as a significant (or perhaps insignificant) part of the whole, we will never successfully evolve from our predator role to that of protector of this universe...

...To the French, the word "African" implies "black," as it is used to refer to people who come from such countries as Senegal, Mali, Upper Volta, and Nigeria...

...They were already very highly paid employes, and their job stress was no greater than that of police, firefighters, and many other workers.The other unions were not shortsighted, as you say, but intelligent enough to see that this was not a proper issue to require a union fight...

...When I bought my first television set about two years ago, I made sure that it was equipped with a remotecontrol unit...