The Korean War—A History

 

By Bruce Cumings, 2010

Published by Modern Library, a division of Random House Inc.

A review by Steve Halpern

In Bruce Cumings’ book The Korean War—A History, he didn’t just give us the facts of the war, he also gives is a perspective for why this has become known as the “forgotten war.” In order to gain an appreciation for his perspective, we need to look at the contrast between the United States government’s portrayal of the war contrasted to what actually happened.

The United States government’s rationalization for the war against Korea

Shortly after the surrender of Japan in the Second World War, Syngman Rhee became the President of a supposedly democratic Korean government. 

Then apparently for no reason, the North Korean Army invaded the South. The United States responded with a supposedly heroic invasion at Inchon where they drove the North Koreans out of the South. In another supposedly magnanimous gesture, the United States invaded the North to rescue the people from “Communist slavery.”

Then hordes of the Chinese armed forces overwhelmed the U.S. military and drove them out of North Korea, back to the area around the 38th parallel. The United States continues to have a presence at the border between North and South Korea, to prevent an invasion that, they argue, would subject the people of the South to “Communist slavery.”

The reality of the war against Korea

Bruce Cumings dates the beginning of the war against Korea to the beginning of the Japanese occupation of the country. Japan also eventually occupied the neighboring region of China known as Manchuria. Historically there were many Koreans lived in Manchuria for long periods of time.

The Japanese repression of Korea, as with their repression in China, was unimaginably horrendous. The Japanese forced about 20% of the Korean population to move to Japan or Manchuria. Both northern Korea and Manchuria became industrial centers under Japanese occupation. 

One of the most horrendous aspects of this occupation was the Korean “comfort women.” These were Korean women who were used as sex slaves for Japanese men. Today Korea continues to demand a Japanese apology for the horrors inflicted in those years.

After the Japanese surrender, a revolution broke out in China. The ruling power of the Guomindang, headed by Chiang Kai Shek, lost most of their influence in the country. Prices for basic commodities skyrocketed and the government had no way of fixing this horrendous problem. 

Under those conditions the Chinese Communist Party gained influence and overcame the forces of the Guomindang. Korean resistance fighters in Manchuria fought alongside the Chinese in opposition to the Japanese and in support of the forces of the Chinese Communist Party. This is where Kim Il Sung became a central leader of the Korean resistance forces.

After the Japanese surrendered, the United States armed forces invaded southern Korea. They installed Syngman Rhee as the Korean President who would support the U.S. capitalist interests. Rhee had been living in the United States for 30 years, at the same time as Korean resistance fighters battled the Japanese occupation. 

Bruce Cumings has an entire Chapter dedicated to all the different areas in South Korea where the people organized to demand democratic rule of their homeland. These movements were not connected to the politics of North Korea. One of the main issues of these rebels was a redistribution of the wealth of the country. Syngman Rhee organized to brutally repress all those movements.

Who were the people who repressed those who demanded democratic reforms? These were the Koreans who worked for the Japanese and carried out the brutal repression of their homeland. When Syngman Rhee came to power, he used the same forces as the Japanese to support his ruthless rule of Korea. 

Rhee wasn’t satisfied with dominating South Korea. He continually attempted to provoke the North Koreans into a war he felt he could win. Finally, the North Koreans invaded the South and took Seoul, the capital, in a few days. Within about two weeks, the North Koreans took control of the entire South except for a small area around Pusan. 

One of the reasons for the rapid victories of the North Korean forces emanated from the mass opposition to Syngman Rhee in South Korea. Another reason had to do with the fact that the North Korean forces were battle tested in their resistance to the Japanese and in their armed support for the CCP in the Chinese revolution.

The massive U.S. invasion at Inchon was no surprise for the North Koreans. They simply were not able to mobilize to resist the invasion. Then, the forces of the north made a strategic retreat.

Syngman Rhee had the absurd idea that the armed forces of the north had been decisively defeated. At that time, most people in the north supported the government that had been in power. This is what Rhee had to say about anyone who supported the North Korean government.

“I can handle the Communists. The Reds can bury their guns and burn their uniforms, but we know how to find them. With bulldozers we will dig huge excavations and trenches and fill them with Communists. Then cover them over. And they will really be underground.”  

These were the words of the U.S. appointed President of Korea who was supposed to save that nation from what politicians from this country imagined as “Communist slavery.” For the short time that the U.S. forces occupied the north, Rhee carried out his plan to repress anyone who opposed his will.

On Thanksgiving Day of 1950 the U.S. forces were close to the Yaloo River that is the border between Korea and China. They had a holiday dinner with all the trimmings, as well as shrimp cocktails. 

Then, in three days those same forces were surrounded by the combined armed forces of China and Korea. An entire battalion became cut off from the forces in the south. 

Many U.S. so-called historians labelled General Douglass MacArthur as a brilliant military commander. In reality MacArthur began his career brutalizing veterans of the First World War who went to Washington to protest not being paid their military benefits. 

In Korea, MacArthur was in most cases a yes man. He followed his orders and invaded Korea at Inchon. Then he followed his orders again and invaded the North. He believed that the Chinese and Koreans were incapable of resisting U.S. military force. Then when the Chinese and Koreans divisively defeated his forces after their Thanksgiving dinner, Truman fired him and took away his command of the military.  

The United States government didn’t want to admit that they had been decisively defeated in this war. So, they went on an unimaginable bombing campaign of the North. Literally every building in large areas of the north were destroyed. After the U.S. Air force burned German and Japanese cities to the ground, they used firebombs against Korea to burn down entire cities. Dams were destroyed that only affected the civilian population. This same saturation bombing would be used against the people of Vietnam in later years.

The forgotten war?

So, when we look at the chasm of information between the U.S. government’s version of the war against the Korean people, and what actually happened, we might begin to see why many consider this to be the “forgotten war.” 1950 was just a few years after the United States defeated Germany and Japan in the Second World War. Media pundits at that time argued that this would be the beginning of the “American Century.” 

Then just five years after the U.S. military victory, an army of Chinese and Korean soldiers decisively defeated the supposedly most powerful armed force in the world. Even after destroying most of Northern Korea, the U.S. military failed in their attempt to force the Korean people to submit to their will. No wonder the power brokers in this country would like to forget the reality of their war against the Korean people.

Bruce Cumings also gave evidence that the North Koreans also carried out repressive measures. Many North Koreans died because of a famine several years ago. Comings argued that this might have been largely avoided. There was unjustified repression by North Koreans of their opponents in the South. Comings argues that there might be 200,000 prisoners in North Korean prisons. However, today the United States has more prisoners than any other nation in the world. We can conclude that the repressive actions of the North would not have been nearly as great if the United States had not militarily intervened in the affairs of another country.

Bruce Cumings also argued that a new war in Korea could erupt any day. There never was a truce signed between the United States and North Korea. He also argues that when the United States armed forces invaded Korea in 1950, they knew nothing about the Korean reality or its history. After close to seventy years of U.S. troops occupying Korean territory, the power brokers in this country continue to be completely ignorant of the Korean reality.

Truth and reconciliation in Korea

Bruce Cumings dedicated his book to former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung. Kim made significant efforts to uncover the many war crimes committed by the South Korean government and the U.S. military forces. In fact, he was one of the indigenous activists that was repressed by the regime of Syngman Rhee. 

Because of his efforts, the Korean people are much better informed about what happened during the war. While the people of the South might have disagreements with the politics of the North, there is a growing consensus that Korea is one nation with a very long history.

So, the story of the war against Korea isn’t just a story of the unimaginable horrors of that war. It is also a story of how the Korean people are working to bring about the one nation that the United States government is determined to keep separated.

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live—Ten weeks in Birmingham that changed America

 By Paul Kix 

Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan 2023 

Reviewed by Steve Halpern 

There have been many books written about the civil rights movement. For me, Paul Kix’ book You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live is as good as any of them. What makes this book special? 

Kix wrote about the intense drama surrounding ten weeks in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. In his depiction of those ten weeks, Kix gave incisive biographies of all the leaders who contributed to the unfolding battles in that city. 

Clearly there are limitations to this book. In my opinion, the information presented by Kix greatly outweighs the disagreements I have with some of his conclusions. 

The plan 

In 1963, 12 to 15 leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) met at the Dorchester Academy, outside of Savanna, Georgia. The topic of this meeting was to discuss how to carry out a campaign to desegregate the city of Birmingham, Alabama. 

Up until that point, the civil rights movement wasn’t having much success. The Supreme Court ruled in their Brown v. Board of Education Topeka decision that discrimination in the funding of education was illegal. However, gross disparities in the funding of education continued, as they do to this day. 

The 385-day Montgomery Bus Boycott prompted a court decision that formally allowed Black people to sit anywhere they wanted on buses. However, in practice very little had changed since the boycott. 

There was a desegregation campaign in Albany, Georgia that was unable to make any significant changes. However, those assembled at the Dorchester Academy were determined that Birmingham, Alabama would be different. 

A detailed plan was laid out by Wyatt Walker who was a college educated pastor and had served in the military. The plan appeared to be foolproof to those assembled. However, James Bevel didn’t like it. 

Bevel had been raised on a farm in a small town in Mississippi. His father, Dennis Bevel, lost his farm because he refused to report on his Black neighbors to the FBI. Then Dennis Bevel became a sharecropper in Itta Bena, Mississippi. 

His father introduced James Bevel to religious writings and they both considered themselves half-Jewish. Unlike the other members of SCLC, James Bevel dressed in overalls and wore a Yarmelke. 

Bevel spoke to Martin Luther King about his reservations concerning Wyatt Walker’s plan. He argued that SCLC members needed to get acquainted with the Black community of Birmingham to become a part of their struggle for liberation. Walker’s plan would appear to be imposed from outsiders. 

In the military soldiers are required to follow orders or face a court-martial. In a liberation struggle, people need to choose to take substantial risks so they might have a chance to live profoundly better lives. 

For the Black people of Birmingham to be convinced to take those risks, Bevel believed that the members of SCLC needed to understand who they would be dealing with. However, Martin Luther King and the rest of those assembled rejected Bevel’s approach. 

 The enemy 

About 100 years before the battle of Birmingham, President Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. This speech commemorated those who gave their lives in the war against the slave owners. In that speech Lincoln recited the famous words that the Union soldiers who lost their lives in the Gettysburg battle, “did not die in vain.” 

In the aftermath of the war, the federal government passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution that claimed to abolish slavery, establish “equal protection under the law”, as well as voting rights for all male citizens. For the first time in the history of this country largely democratic governments with Black representatives controlled the former slave states. 

Then around the year 1877 federal troops left those states. Northern capitalists and government officials agreed that the forces in support of the Ku Klux Klan would now run the former slave states. As a result, Black people lost all citizenship rights, and all branches of the federal government supported these flagrant violations of the Constitution. 

The new power brokers in the South adopted laws known as Jim Crow. The apartheid system of South Africa was similar to Jim Crow. 

Birmingham, Alabama did not exist during the Civil War. After the war capitalists invested in the construction of the city because of the iron and coal deposits in the surrounding hills. 

For many years, there was no pretense of any kind of democracy in Birmingham. The city was a dictatorship run by Eugene “Bull” Connor. The punishment for going against the Bull’s will might be a severe beating or death. Bull Connor rewarded police officers and racist mobs who murdered Black people. His core support was the Ku Klux Klan. 

We might consider that the KKK was one of the racist mobs in the world. In Germany there was the group known as the Freikorps, who became the base for the fascist Nazi Party. In czarist Russia the terrorist group known as the Black Hundreds murdered thousands of Jews in the infamous pogroms. 

Fred Shuttlesworth was a pastor who lived in Birmingham. For years, it appeared that Shuttlesworth was carrying out a one-person crusade to bring a bit of democracy to the city. His home was one of hundreds that had been bombed. When he attempted to enroll his children in an all-white school, a racist mob mercilessly beat him and stabbed his wife when she attempted to intervene. 

Shuttlesworth addressed those assembled at the Dorchester Academy. His words were the title of Paul Kix’ book: “You Have to be prepared to die before you can Begin to live.” Martin Luther King told those who were gathered that one of the consequences of the Birmingham campaign would be that some of those in the meeting might not survive. 

 The initial problems 

The goal of the campaign was to get mass support of Birmingham’s Black community. Using the tactic of non-violent civil disobedience, the plan was to fill the jails with people who violated the Jim Crow laws. The problem was that week after week, few people volunteered to become a part of the campaign. 

Hundreds of thousands of dollars had been raised in a fundraiser sponsored by Harry Bellefonte in New York City. Much of the money would be used to bail out people who had been arrested. With few people being arrested, the campaign was at a stalemate. 

Bull Connor refused to give permits to any demonstration in the city. So, the police arrested the few people who demonstrated without a permit. 

Then the courts got into the action and declared an injunction against demonstrations in the city. This meant that anyone who was arrested might remain in prison for three months instead of an immediate release on bail. 

Eventually Martin Luther King decided that he and other leaders of the campaign would violate the injunction. This might mean the possibility of months in prison during the Birmingham campaign. King put on overalls with a denim shirt and went off to get arrested. The prison guards put him in solitary confinement. 

During this time white pastors in Birmingham criticized King for challenging Jim Crow. They argued that if he was patient, change would come eventually. 

King, writing in the margins of a newspaper and on toilet paper with a worn-out pencil responded to that criticism in depth with his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. These are a few highlights from that letter. 

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” “Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say ‘Wait.’ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim”— “then you will understand why we find it difficult to say wait.” 

We might also consider that King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail was one of several letters by revolutionaries who served time in prison. The list of those prisoners includes the Cuban revolutionaries José Martí, and Fidel Castro. Others included Mother Jones, and the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. 

 A new plan 

James Bevel left Birmingham and returned to his home in Mississippi because he felt that the initial desegregation plan was a dead end. When he learned of Martin Luther King’s arrest, he returned to the city with his wife Dianne Nash, who was also a leader of the movement. 

Bevel then attempted to understand why there were so few Black people from Birmingham who became a part of the desegregation campaign. He discovered that many Black people were routinely arrested in the city, so there was little fear of arrest. The fear was of employers who would learn of an arrest of an employee for demonstrating in support of civil rights. Black people understood that this would mean a termination from a job that would prevent the worker from providing for his or her family. 

Bevel then looked at the young people who were in high school or grammar school. These students were open to the idea of demonstrating and had little to lose. However, there was a problem. 

Martin Luther King was opposed to recruiting children to march in demonstrations. He asked the leaders of SCLC what they thought, and they agreed to not expose children to beatings or arrest. 

However, James Bevel now was determined to pursue his strategy because he saw how Wyatt Walker’s plan wasn’t working. So, he organized meetings with students where he educated them about the consequences of Jim Crow segregation. 

The students were stunned to learn of the full impact of Jim Crow, but their experience corroborated James Bevel’s explanations. They also understood that this discrimination would continue throughout their lives unless there was fundamental change. The students became enthusiastic about the idea of non-violent disobedience to the Jim Crow laws. 

In order to carry out that strategy, Dianne Nash went around the rooms of students and collected their knives, brass knuckles, and other weapons they might use to defend themselves against attacks by vicious police officers. 

Eventually, even Wyatt Walker began to see the wisdom of James Bevel’s strategy. 

 D—Day 

James Bevel called May 2 “D—Day.” Just as the allied armies invaded Normandy in the Second World War, the children of Birmingham, Alabama were going to engage in non-violent disobedience to defeat the forces of segregation in the city. 

Groups of fifty students marched out of the 16th Street Baptist Church. They were immediately arrested on the orders of Bull Connor. Then for the rest of the day more groups of 50 students marched out of the Church to be arrested. At one point, James Bevel approached Bull Connor and asked if his officers needed a lunch break from being exhausted in the work of arresting hundreds of students. 

Then Bull Connor tried to intimidate the students with his canine unit of German Shepherds. He also used powerful water cannons that knocked down the students and ripped off their clothes. 

As the jails filled up, Connor sent hundreds of children to a barbed wire open-air fairground that had been used for cattle. Those students lacked food and had no protection from the pouring rain. 

 However, thousands of students kept coming. 

 A breaking point 

Guy Carawan was a musician who introduced the civil rights movement to the song “We Shall Overcome.” Carawan was white and he attempted to join a civil rights meeting in Birmingham. This was a violation of the Jim Crow laws and Bull Connor ordered his arrest. 

There was a spontaneous outrage in the Black community protesting Carawan’s arrest. Adults, who had not been trained in civil disobedience wanted to immediately respond and have a protest demonstration. Wyatt Walker was nervous about supporting that demonstration, but James Bevel insisted, and the demonstration proceeded. 

Wyatt Walker chose Charles Billups to lead the demonstration. He was a co-pastor and had not distinguished himself in the movement. However, Billups served time in the military and had been severely beaten by a racist mob. 

As the march approached the fire engines and water cannons, the demonstration stopped. The police intercepted photographers of the news media, so whatever happened to the demonstrators would not be recorded in photographs. 

Billups marched out in front of the demonstration. He started singing “I want Jesus to walk with me.” The demonstrators joined in. 

Captain Evans of the Police Department ordered the demonstrators to disperse. 

Charles Billups replied, “We’re not turning back. We haven’t done anything wrong.” “All we want is our freedom.” 

Billups knelt to pray and then stood up and said, “Turn on your water! Turn loose your dogs! We will stand here until we die” he shouted those words again and again and thousands repeated those words behind him. 

Bull Connor gave the order, “Turn on the hoses.” 

When the firemen refused his order Connor shouted, “Dammit! Turn on the hoses.” 

The marchers then proceeded unharmed past the police and firemen to continue their peaceful demonstration. 

 The Kennedy Administration 

Paul Kix devoted a section of his book to the evolution of President John F. Kennedy and his brother the Attorney General Robert Kennedy with regards to their relations to the civil rights movement. Kix’ perspective is that both Kennedy’s were initially indifferent or even hostile to the movement. Then, when the Kennedys became sensitized to the issues their attitude was transformed. 

I agree that the attitude of the Kennedy Administration changed during the Birmingham campaign. I disagree with the idea that their attitude towards the movement made a fundamental change. 

The father of the Kennedy brothers was the capitalist, Joseph Kennedy. He raised his children with a similar attitude as the father of former President Donald Trump. In those atmospheres the essence of life was about winning against capitalist competitors or pro-capitalist politicians. Their attitude towards the working class that creates all wealth was either indifferent or hostile. 

The Kennedys decided that their best way to win in politics was to join the Democratic Party. They became friends Joseph McCarthy and supported the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that routinely violated the constitutional rights of anyone who considered themselves communists. Because of that history the Kennedys put pressure on Martin Luther King to disassociate from his lawyers who had supported the Communist Party. 

In fact, the Kennedys relied on Democratic Party politicians that ran the Jim Crow system that stripped Black people of their constitutional rights. That support was necessary for John F. Kennedy to win the Presidency in 1960. 

For these reasons and others Martin Luther King felt there was little difference between Kennedy and Nixon in the 1960 Presidential elections. 

Paul Kix traced the beginning of the change in the attitude of the Kennedys in his chapter "The Gathering At 24 Central Park South." 24 Central Park South was a building owned by Joseph Kennedy where Robert Kennedy had been living. 

Sparked by the events in Birmingham, the Attorney General contacted the writer James Baldwin to organize a meeting where Kennedy could get a feel for the Black community’s response to his efforts. 

Attending that meeting aside from Baldwin was Lorraine Hansberry, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horn, and Jerome Smith. Smith had been beaten in the Freedom rides of 1961, and in Mississippi. He was in New York receiving medical attention for injuries sustained in Birmingham. 

At that meeting Robert Kennedy spoke about how the administration’s efforts in support of civil rights were unprecedented. 

Jerome Smith responded, "Unprecedented?" The mere thought of being in the room with the Attorney General made him “nauseous.” 

Kennedy was insulted arguing that Smith was talking to the Attorney General of the United States. 

Then Loraine Hansberry, the author of the play A Raisin in the Sun had this to say. “You’ve got a great many very accomplished people in this room, Mr. Attorney General. But the only man you should be listening to is that man over there.” She pointed to Jerome Smith. 

Kennedy tried to ignore her remark and continued to talk about his civil rights bill. 

Then James Baldwin asked Smith if he would ever consider enlisting in the army to serve his country. 

Smith answered, “Never! Never! Never!" 

Kennedy was enraged by those words and asked, “How can you say that?” 

Smith answered the question. His answer would be echoed by Mohammed Ali in later years. “These poor people (Vietnamese) did nothing to us,” “They’re more my brothers than you are.” 

Kix reported that Kennedy was “irate” at those words and accused Smith of treason. 

Lorraine Hansberry continued, “Look,” “If you can’t understand what this young man is saying, then we are without hope at all. Because you and your brother are representatives of the best that a white America can offer; and if you are insensitive to this, then there’s no alternative except our going into the streets … and chaos.” 

After hours of more conversation, Hansberry concluded that given how Kennedy had failed to act in Birmingham—after watching those news programs, reading those newspaper articles with Birmingham datelines—given all that, she had no choice but to ignore Kennedy now. Then Hansberry and the rest of the group got up and left. 

Before he left, Harry Belafonte said this to the Attorney General. “You don’t visit our pain… Those children are our children and—” 

“Enough” Kennedy hissed. 

The news of that meeting leaked to the press and Martin Luther King read the article. He then phoned Harry Belafonte and asked what happened. Belafonte felt the meeting was a disaster that distanced the Attorney General from the movement. 

Martin Luther King disagreed and had this to say. “Maybe it’s just what Bobby (Kennedy) needed to hear.” Apparently, there was wisdom in King’s words. 

Robert Kennedy thought of his children and how he would feel if his children were treated as the children of Birmingham. So, he talked to his brother, the President, about the need to endorse comprehensive civil rights legislation. In order to drive through his point, Robert Kennedy argued that winning the next election wasn’t the most important thing. Making sure that Black people who lived here had basic civil rights was more important. 

A problem few people recognized is that the comprehensive legislation had already been adopted in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in the year 1868. This Amendment argued that every citizen of the United States is supposed to have “equal protection under the law.” 

In his speech to the public supporting civil rights legislation, President John F. Kennedy used the ideas of Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail in the following passage. 

“who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his (Black people’s) place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?” 

So, here we see how there was a clear change in the attitude of the Kennedy brothers on the question of civil rights. The question remains, Was this a fundamental change in their attitude? 

 Cuba 

Before the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Cuban people experienced a similar kind of dictatorship that Black people felt in Birmingham, Alabama. The dictator’s name was Fulgencio Batista. 

The estimates are that about 20,000 Cubans died in police custody when Batista ruled the island. About 500,000 sugar cane workers lived on the knife edge of survival working long hours under the sweltering sun. The rural guards were the law and had the power to steal, rape, brutalize, or even murder those who resisted. This while Havana became a virtual playground for the affluent. 

Understanding these conditions, we might appreciate why most Cuban people were ecstatic when the revolutionary army rode into Havana. 

The new revolutionary government made it clear that this would be a new day. Farm workers were given titles to the land they toiled on. Others were trained for better paying jobs. At the same time as the Birmingham campaign was underway, there was a massive literacy drive in Cuba that succeeded in teaching the vast majority of the population how to read. This literacy drive was the beginning of making Cuba the nation in the world with the most doctors per capita. 

The United States supported the apartheid regime in South Africa for decades. When South Africa invaded Angola to install a puppet regime, Cuba sent their armed forces to defeat the South African invasion. The culmination of that effort combined with a series of events created an atmosphere where Nelson Mandela became the President of South Africa. 

So, understanding this history, we need to ask the question, why did the Kennedy Administration support the invasion of Cuba in what is known as the Bay of Pigs? Then, why did the Kennedy Administration threaten Cuba with atomic bombs in the Cuban Missile Crisis? 

Clearly both Cuba and the United States are sovereign nations. The United States has thousands of atomic bombs. So, if the U.S. had the right to have those bombs, why was the Kennedy Administration opposed to Cuba having those same weapons? 

The government’s response is that they were trying to defend the people of this country. Well, if that was the case, then why didn’t the government defend the children of Birmingham in 1963? 

In my opinion, the only reason why the U.S. threatened Cuba with atomic bombs was to maintain their position as the world’s superpower. 

 Conclusion 

In the international struggle to liberate humanity, I believe we need to understand the difference between the words tactics and strategy. Strategy is the overall perspective that a liberation struggle uses. Tactics are the methods used at a particular time in the struggle. 

Clearly, the tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience was effective to a certain extent in the civil rights movement. However, the tactic of armed self-defense was also effective in Monroe, North Carolina in a movement led by Robert F. Williams. 

Martin Luther King learned about nonviolent civil disobedience from Mahatma Gandhi’s largely nonviolent resistance struggle for independence in India. Gandhi learned about nonviolent struggle from the African National Congress when he lived in South Africa. The ANC promoted nonviolent resistance until the South African armed forces massacred 69 people in Sharpeville. 

Then the ANC transitioned to the armed struggle. At his trial, Nelson Mandela argued that there comes a time in the history of every nation when the people either use arms or there is no longer a nation. 

Malcolm X, in my opinion, summarized the strategy for liberation in four words. “By any means necessary.” 

Clearly the Cuban Revolution would not have happened were it not for the use of armed struggle. The point is that armed struggle is warranted only when the masses of people are willing to do what it takes to remove the old power. We see the goals of liberation in Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence “to provide new guards for their future security.” While Jefferson was a slave owner, his words remain relevant today. 

Well, this review has been too long, but I will conclude by saying that Paul Kix book is well worth reading. However, when reading this important book, I would question the limitations of what was clearly achieved in Birmingham in 1963. I would also ask the question, what wasn’t achieved?

Suits

The film distributed by USA Network and Netflix (2011-2019)

Created by Aaron Korsh

Starring, Gabriel Mach as Harvey Specter, Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross, Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson, and Meghan Markle as Rachael Zane

A critical review by Steve Halpern

Recently I’ve become addicted to the film series Suits that can now be seen on Netflix. This is a fictionalized story of the inside workings of a fictionalized corporate law firm called Pearson Hartman. One of the main characters is Mike Ross played by Patrick J. Adams. Ross has a photographic memory and can recite every word of every book he’s ever read. This includes every number he’s ever seen. This ability would have made him an outstanding lawyer, but he broke a law that prevented him from getting a law license. 

By accident, Ross interviews for an associate law position at Pearson Hartman with one of their top lawyers, Harvey Specter, played by Gabriel Macht. Specter is impressed with Ross’ abilities and takes a big chance by making him his associate attorney. This, in spite of the fact that Ross has no law degree.

Throughout this series, we get a glimmer of the world of corporate law. This includes routine 60-hour work weeks and occasional all-night sessions. This is the world of law partners who receive salaries of hundreds of thousands of dollars and senior partners who receive millions. This is the world of astronomically expensive clothing, routine meals at the most expensive restaurants, and opulent office space in New York City, one of the most expensive cities the world. Pearson Hartman, being one of the top law firms, only considers graduates from Harvard Law School to become members of the firm. 

Why are these lawyers paid so much money? Answer—billable clients. 

The plot to this series is about the squabbles members of this firm need to deal with, and how these divergent perspectives cause the powerful lawyers to feel their livelihood might be taken away. I admit that the fast talking legalistic and emotional dialogue is what kept me addicted to these shows. However, we might also consider something the show only skirts around. This is that one word—reality.

The story

In one of the episodes, Harvey Specter represents the owners of a hospital where there is a possible strike of the nurses. It is Specter’s job to convince the nurses that the wage increases they were demanding would put the hospital out of business. 

Mike Ross has a grandmother who was cared for by nurses. He learns of the long hours nurses need to work under stressful conditions to care for his grandmother. So, he asks his boss Harvey Specter if there is a way for the hospital to come up with the money for the wage increases the nurses are demanding. Specter answers that the law firm is in business to support the interests of the clients. He argued that Ross needs to “get on board” with that perspective or to get another job.

The reality

Above is a chart showing what the health care payments are for people living in various countries in the world. These payments are contrasted to the life expectancy of the people who live in those countries. 

The United States pays more per person for health care than people who live in any other country. Yet there are several countries where people live significantly longer than people who live here.

We also might think about how literally hundreds of hospitals in this country closed because they weren’t generating enough money in profits for their owners. So, why would so many hospitals close while this country spends more money on health care than any other nation in the world?

We can begin to answer that question by looking at all the corporations who profit from health care in this country. Literally dozens of corporations profit from routine operations. Drug companies are so profitable they pay thousands of dollars in advertising for every doctor in this country. Then there are the banks and insurance companies who never directly provide health care but receive outrageous amounts of money by profiting off of the health care system. Corporate law firms among the corporations that never provide health care yet derive enormous profits from all the health care corporations they represent. Some of those law firms represent the owners of hospitals in their effort to compromise the demands of nurse’s unions for a decent wage. 

What does all this mean?

The only reason why most employers hire workers is to derive a profit from their labor. However, the individual employer is only one of the corporations where profits are derived from our labor. There are the banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, landlords, and corporate law firms. None of those enterprises contribute directly to the goods and services we all need and want. However, every minute we are on the job, and for every commodity we purchase, all those enterprises get their piece of the action. 

So, when corporations argue that they have no money for the wage increases for workers, we might keep all of this in mind.

The story

Jessica Pearson is the fictionalized managing owner of the law firm Pearson Hartman. Pearson happens to be a Black woman who becomes obsessed with attracting and maintaining billable clients.  

In the make-believe world of Hollywood, Pearson saw potential in a mailroom worker, Harvey Specter. So, she did what any other corporate executive would do in this make-believe world. She financed Specter’s education through to Harvard Law School, hired him upon his graduation and, of course, made him a senior partner of the firm. 

Pearson then relies on Specter to take on challenging cases, as well as take-over attempts by her nemesis. Well, I haven’t viewed this entire series, but apparently Pearson and Specter are successful their efforts.

The reality

The character Jessica Pearson is portrayed by the actress Gina Torres. Today Gina Torres is one of the actors who are on strike against the motion picture industry. Above is a photo of Torres on a SAG-AFTRA picket line. This is what she has to say about the strike. 

“It’s about reminding people that it’s not just our fight, it’s everyone’s fight that corporations are slowly squeezing us out at every level, in every industry. So, we’re fighting for the little guy—and the medium guy.”

Perhaps one of the little or medium guys Torres was thinking about was her father Richard Torres, who was a typesetter for La Prensa and the New York Daily News. Both of Gina Torres’ parents were born in Cuba. Gina Torres speaks fluent Spanish and was raised in the Bronx, New York. She attended the High School for the Performing Arts and was trained to be a choral and operatic singer. Like may young people today, Torres found the astronomical expense of a college education to be prohibitive. So, she pursued an acting career.

We might consider that the corporations that Gina Torres and her co-workers are striking against are represented by corporate lawyers. These are the same kind of corporate lawyers that Gina Torres portrays in the film series Suits. I take nothing away from Torres for playing that role. Actors, in spite of the pro-capitalist films they star in, enrich our lives by exposing us to compelling stories. My main point is that we need to develop is different vision to the reality we face.

Affirmative Action

We might also consider the fact that Gina Torres’ character Jessica Pearson is a black woman who is the managing owner of a prestigious law firm. This reflects a partial breakdown of the racist attitudes that prevented Black women from even being considered for that kind of position. However, there continues to be a long way to go in combatting discriminatory attitudes.

Today African Americans and Latinos are about 30% of the population of the United States. However, only about 10% of the lawyers in this country are Black or Latino. This disparity comes out of a long history of blatant and vicious discriminatory policies by the government, as well as corporations. We might also consider that the wages of women are about 82% of the wages of men on average. 

This is the background to the recent Supreme Court decision to force Harvard Law School to abandon their affirmative action program. In other words, the Supreme Court argued that since racist discrimination has a long history, they feel there is no reason why that history should not continue today. Because of this decision, it will become more difficult for Black women, like the fictionalized character of Jessica Pearson, to become partners of law firms in this country.  

The Cuban Revolution

When we look at the Cuban Revolution, as well as the history that led up to the Revolution, and the Cuban reality today, we see a different vision of how fundamental change can happen.

The First Cuban Revolution was waged against Spanish colonialism and slavery. One of the Generals of the revolutionary army was the Afro-Cuban Antonio Maceo. We might consider that while thousands of Black people in this country were being lynched by racist mobs, Antonio Maceo was leading his armed forces, and defeating the heavily armed Spanish Army in battle after battle.

Yet, when that revolution was on the precipice of victory, the United States invaded Cuba, forced the Spanish to surrender, and then imposed a constitution on the Cuban people. In that Constitution, the U.S. government reserved the right to veto any decision made by the Cuban government.

As a result, Cuba had one ruthless dictatorship after another. Then, after organizing a revolutionary army in the Cuban mountains, a new revolutionary government took power on January 1, 1959.

Almost immediately after taking power, the new Cuban government gave land to the landless farmworkers, organized a successful literacy drive, and brought health care to everyone on the island.

The U.S. corporations in Cuba didn’t like those initiatives. So, the managers closed factories attempting to destabilize the government. The Cuban government didn’t go to court and sue those corporations. They simply took the corporations out of the hands of their owners and made those enterprises property of the Cuban people. 

As a result, today Cuba has more doctors, per capita, than any other nation in the world. Cuban life expectancy is longer than in the United States. Cuban infant mortality is less in Cuban than the United States. Cuba has sent their doctors all over the world to treat patients who had no access to health care. Cuba has also trained doctors from all over the world for free.

Today Cuban women are equally represented in the government as well as the scientific community. Black people, who were once victimized by vicious discrimination and lived in dire poverty have made significant gains. During the 1970s and 1980s Cuba mobilized its armed forces to defeat a South African invasion of Angola. That defeat of apartheid paved the way for the abolition of the apartheid laws and the election of President Nelson Mandela.

I’ve written about this Cuban history to demonstrate how there is a different vision of women’s liberation than we see in this country. Clearly the working class needs to break down all discriminatory practices. However, working as a senior partner in a law firm does little to advance women and Black people.

However, with all of its limitations, the Cuban Revolution and the government on that island today are advancing the interests of all Cubans. There are Cuban women who helped to make this possible. These women include, Celia Sanchez, Vilma Espin, Haydée Santamaría, and Melba Hernández.

Conclusion

Today there are entire libraries filled with books on the law. Thinking about that reality, we might ask the question: What are the laws working people need?

There needs to be laws against murder, rape, theft, assault, and discrimination. Ultimately there needs to be laws specifically designed to stop the corporate drive to maximize profits. With those kinds of laws, working people would be able to begin to organize the world based on human needs and not profits. These are the stories that Hollywood is determined not to tell.