Letters

...As much as any of us can have in common, his review of Linda Ron-stadt's latest album (December issue) shows that we are, at best, strangers in the night...

...Not so...

...Nonunion workers are being hurt by union workers' contracts—but not because union contracts are too fat...

...Just as the German social democrats betrayed the German working class in the time before Hitler, so the social democrats of today are merely a cloak for continuing capitalist exploitation...

...I'm sure they don't want to encourage a backlash against "overpaid" unionized workers...

...Cubans are shown having many of the same needs and desires demonstrated by members of other societies, both socialist and capitalist...

...ARNOLD ROTH Farmers are in a fix because they coveted their neighbors' land, because they saw their neighbors' disaster as their opportunity...

...But many have been lured off, seduced by the comforts and frivolities of an industrial job and a consum-erist life style...

...And that is a fact...

...Rather than repapering the entire billboard, they made small changes in the original wording which resulted in drastic changes in the message...

...But Zwerdling ignores the one reform that encompasses all others: the reform of ethics and values...

...Contrary to current Republican thinking, the world is not made up of two systems, locked in a life-and-death struggle...

...It encourages self-reliance, since the horse runs on home-grown fuel, provides its own replacements, and reduces the need for purchased fertilizer...

...In fact, my research indicates that the workers who are taking pay freezes and cuts are primarily unionized manufacturing workers who are experiencing a concerted employer drive for contract concessions...

...Moore and Marsis have a clear grasp of the problems and challenges facing the pay-equity movement...

...nimble machinery, powered by renewable fuels...

...But one has to wonder where Hentoff has been "melody-wise" for the last thirty years...

...The social democrats of Europe are like the goats which lead a stupid herd of sheep over precipices of economic calamity and continued exploitation...

...hasn't been developed yet...

...Jay Stewart Pullman, Washington The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...

...The pity is that the working classes in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, and Greece have not awakened to the gigantic hoax that has been played on them by ambitious and unscrupulous politicians parading under the "socialist" label...

...For manufacturing workers, the average was a 1.9 per cent decrease...

...Steif has allowed readers to view Cuban society from the inside and decide for ourselves...

...Yes, tax laws and marketing arrangements should be reformed to favor small-ness and diversity...

...The Euro-socialists do not seem to recognize that they cannot co-opt the bankers and multinationals, but that the bankers and multinationals are co-opting them...

...Anthony Parise West Olive, Michigan Signs of the Times Ienjoyed Melinda Welsh's "Signs of the Times" (Datelines, December issue) about Californians painting billboards with antiestablish-ment messages...

...That's greed...

...Service workers, on the other hand, are already so poorly paid that they have very little to give back...

...Ideally, we should take the best from all possibilities...

...Loyalty to labels and slogans has been a dangerous thing for European working people, to the point where political parties that have long since lost their militancy and spunk are able to hoodwink trade unionists and other proletarians...

...A careful matching of colors and tracing of to produced The Army Will Pay You $300 a Month to Learn to Kill...

...It combats erosion—pastures and hay-fields tend to stay put...

...The experts called it "economies of scale" and the farmers accepted that frigid abstraction in place of their own moral common sense...

...The workers will not for long be taken in by a "socialism" that consigns them to huge unemployment and inflation and considers NATO to be a top priority of government...

...The lesson to be learned from this glimpse of Cuban life is that there exists a multiplicity of paths to individual self-fulfillment and societal organization...

...The difference is that such companies impose pay cuts unilaterally on their nonunion work force, while the hourly workers take their cuts through union negotiations...

...A year ago, Business Week estimated that pay budgets for salaried, nonunion workers would rise 7 to 8 percent in 1983, down from 9.1 per cent in 1982...

...Harold N. Boyer Delran, New Jersey A Woman's Work What's a Woman's Work Worth...

...Frank W. Goheen Camas, Washington Down on the Farm Daniel Zwerdling offers sound recommendations to save American agriculture ("Down on the Farm," September issue...

...by Richard Moore and Elizabeth Marsis (December issue) contains some misunderstandings which, if taken as gospel by the pay-equity movement, could exacerbate the tensions between women and men workers which the authors want to assuage...

...Reviving the Draft Your December Comment, "One Dimensional Student," implies the one good argument for reinstituting the draft: It could galvanize effective student opposition to "imperial ventures" by threatening to disrupt their lives directly...

...Gonzalez's regime is helpless and hopeless because it has taken the path of betrayal and revisionism, exactly as have Mitterrand, Craxi, Soares, and Papan-dreou in their respective countries...

...It reminded me of similar activities in your own town—Madison, Wisconsin—during the 1970s, when a group in the University of Wisconsin Mountaineers decided to apply their climbing skills to promote truth in advertising...

...Moore and Marsis say manufacturing companies "are paying for new union contracts out of the pockets of their nonunion, mostly female office workers...

...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...

...The atmosphere of giveback and retreat created by the wage leaders—major unions in once-thriving manufacturing industries—has dampened everyone's hope of getting a raise...

...Rather, nonunion workers are hurt because the trickle-down effect of wage emulation has dried up...

...Well, what about the simple, durable, cheap tools developed for horse farming...

...In these concessionary times, no one group of workers is gaining "out of the pockets" of anyone else...

...Anne M. Rice Great Falls, Virginia Europe's Socialist Hoax Spain is "convalescent" under the social democratic regime of Felipe Gonzalez ("Convalescent Spain," October issue...

...This is not to detract from Hightower's warm-hearted feelings toward them, but they do have another side...

...People are best advised to keep hogs in front of them' at all times...

...Companies such as General Motors, which they cite, are reducing or freezing compensation for both groups of workers...

...These seemed preferable to the discipline and the independence of farm life...

...LETTERS to the Editor The Other Side of the Hog Regarding Jim "Whole Hog" Hightower's attempt to ennoble the lowly hog (Memo from the Editor, December issue), there's another side to hogs that High-tower did not explain...

...Horse agriculture implies farms small enough to know intimately, to love and care for...

...And farmers seemed too unsure of their own values to see the shabby vision behind that slogan...

...Is this why the Reagan Administration opposes the draft and relies instead on economic forces to push many into the military, where all the money is...

...For example, Coffee and Kent became Coff and Kent and Air Force Today, Industry Tomorrow became Force Today, dust Tomorrow...

...But the point is not to debate who's hurting the most...

...Joy, being a real value, can be ignored only with dire consequences, such as those set forth in Zwerdling's piece...

...Castro's Quarter Century William Steif s article on Cuba ("Castro's Quarter Century," December issue) is another fine example of balanced reporting that shows both sides of an issue...

...There are many "systems" in operation throughout the world today attempting to solve this problem...

...Zwerdling thinks that small, diversified farms would be impossible at present: "The equipment...

...It insists on diversity...

...They, especially sows, can be mean and ornery...

...Robert Bove Washington, D.C...

...It is time to state forth-rightly that most socialists in Western Europe today have been bought off, co-opted, and housebroken by NATO, the United States, and the Common Market to the point where the "socialist" label is merely affixed to a species of politician who delivers the working class into the arms of the banking and business community...

...Peddling the idea that "Marx is no longer relevant" and that "we must be realistic," they have succeeded in mollifying bankers and businessmen while jettisoning their original working-class support...

...Its significance lies not in protracted discussions of Marxism or even of "Fide-lismo," but in the ability to portray Cubans engaging in that most universal activity, earning a living...

...Comparable figures are not available for nonunion workers, but indications from employer surveys are that while raises for nonunion employees have shrunk, there are still raises...

...Our First Amendment rights would be worse off, were that the case...

...This treatment of a sensitive topic is neither radical panegyric nor Republican condemnation, but simply an illustration of life on a daily basis...

...Lawrence A. Wallace Washington, D.C...

...The experts told them, "Earn an American-style living on the farm—or sell out to those who can...

...The authors state that wages are stalled these days "primarily because of severe wage stagnation in nonunion, mostly female service work...

...Horses have something else in their favor: They are a joy to work with...

...During the past forty years, many farmers have, no doubt, been driven off the land...

...Jane Slaughter Detroit, Michigan Strangers in the Night Fortunately for all of us, Nat Hentoffs nostalgia for the melodies of the 1940s and 1950s does not extend to a similar nostalgia for the reactionaries of those times...

...Perhaps the best alteration was done to the sign stating, The Army Will Pay You $300 a Month to Learn a Skill...

...At 59 per cent of men's pay levels, many women workers are obviously worse off than men workers even after the men's unions take concessions...

...Like its counterparts in France, Italy, Portugal, and Greece, Spanish social democracy has run out of ideas, out of steam, and out of time...

...Yes, farms should be smaller, more diversified, less energy-intensive...

...The "convalescence" of Spain is the sickness of a continent in thrall to "socialist" charlatans and deceivers...

...The average wage gain for unionized workers in contracts covering 1,000 or more employees in the first half of 1983 was .9 per cent...