This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes No. 47 December 1990
MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the
world's oppressed majority, and against the
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in
the service of the people. support it, struggle
with it and write for it.
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. IMPERIALIST WAR DEMANDS REVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE
2. U.S. THUNDERS INTO GULF
3. SOVIET CAPITALISM FACES CRISIS; FOOD RATIONING BEGINS
4. LETTERS
5. PALESTINIANS FACE STATE CRACKDOWM
6. "SOCIALIST" ELECTED INDIAN P.M.
7. EPLF HOLDS ALL BUT CAPITAL CITY AGAINST ETHIOPIA
8. PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT FAKES SOCIAL PROGRESS
9. SOUTH KOREA PLANS BUYOUT
10. MARINE CORPORAL WON'T FIGHT FOR U.S.
11. SPONTANEOUS REVOLUTION: FOCOISTS ASSUME THE MASSES WILL BE
INSPIRED TO REVOLUTION BY HEROIC ACTS OF ARMED STRUGGLE
12. REUNIFIED GERMANY COLLIDES WITH ANARCHISTS
13. A GORBY-KOHL PACT IS BORN
14. MICHIGAN STUDENTS AGITATE AGAINST CAMPUS POLICE
15. THE UAW AND THE AUTO OLIGOPOLY KISS AND SIGN ON THE DOTTED
LINE
16. ACTIVISTS CONFRONT NUKE TESTS
17. MUSIC REVIEWS: EDUTAINMENT
18. FILM REVIEWS: BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES
19. OBIT: MEIR KAHANE
20. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a
revolutionary communist party that upholds
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection
of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist
parties in the English-speaking imperialist
countries and their English-speaking internal
semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works
from the vantage point of the Third World
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans,
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups
over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM
knows this is only possible by building public
opinion to seize power through armed struggle.
Revolution is a reality for North America as the
military becomes over-extended in the government's
attempts to maintain world hegemony.
MIM differs from other communist parties on three
main questions: (1) MIM holds that after the
proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution,
the potential exists for capitalist restoration
under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within
the communist party itself. In the case of the
USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death
of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in
1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in
this country.
MIM accepts people as members who agree on these
basic principles and accept democratic centralism,
the system of majority rule, on other questions of
party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is
universally applicable. We should regard it not as
dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is
not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases,
but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208
* * *
IMPERIALIST WAR DEMANDS REVOLUTIONARY RESPONSE
by MC12
In this issue MIM publishes a letter from a United States Marine
corporal who opted out of the Iraqi bloodbath (See page 11). We
commend Corporal Jeff Patterson and all other soldiers who are
refusing to take part in imperialist war. Outbreaks against
imperialism can and must scrape away at the underbelly of the
beast-and its military apparatus is an extremely sensitive target.
We urge all readers to resist the draft: not to register, and not
to respond if called. These are illegal acts which put people at
risk with the law. But when the alternative is killing and
dying-wasting our lives to kill innocent people-and with a
revolutionary alternative available, the path to resistance is
clear.
Instead, organize against this and all imperialist wars, with a
realistic strategy to win: study, distribute and write for MIM
Notes; work with and join MIM. Don't throw away your lives to kill
others. Build this party to create public opinion and seize power
for the people, one step at a time.
Military risk, imperial weakness
As the United States declines from its position as top world
economic power, the government invests billions of borrowed
dollars on a military machine. At great risk, this country has
driven forward its military superiority to outflank the other
imperialist powers who are improving their economic standing. If
the war machine doesn't generate a victory to pay a return on this
investment-through the conquest of territory and the subjugation
of nations-then the whole top-heavy structure will be
destabilized.
Desperate to insure military victory, the U.S. government will
likely impose a military draft of young men in the war against
Iraq. It's military might is stretched thin, and any fighting
which drags on will require fresh blood to fuel its fire. Draft
resistance-refusing to fight for the imperialists-must be our
response to this call.
The war presents a conflict, a mixture of good news and bad. The
bad news is the imminent deaths of thousands or hundreds of
thousands of people, innocent civilians or soldiers pressed into
service by economic necessity. This spilt blood-the product of
greed, not one drop of which is deserved-infuriates all those who
oppose world-wide oppression, and inspires us to greater acts of
resistance.
But the expansion drive of the U.S. empire is also ultimately a
sign of weakness. By banking so much on military victory, risking
its advantage over other competing powers, Amerika is showing its
true frailty. The war of expansion is an act of desperation.
The menacing imperialists have a weak underbelly. As Mao Zedong
explained, they are "real tigers" and "paper tigers" at the same
time. With incredible military might and insatiable greed, they
have the power to devour and destroy whole nations, and millions
of people.
But because their time on the world stage is limited, as their
presence generates the necessary response of revolution the world
over. In the end, they are forced to become paper tigers, as was
shown in the great victories of the Russian and Chinese
revolutions. All that force is destroyed by the uprising people.
The anti-war movements of the 1960s and since did not fully
appreciate either the strategic weakness or the tactical strength
of the enemy. The organizations were mostly loose and
undisciplined, their messages didn't carry through a complete
analysis; although that period witnessed the birth of Maoism in
Amerika. While we must still acknowledge the victories and
advances of these movements, failing to admit their failures will
only retard our further development.
So in the long-term war to end imperialism and bring power to the
people, communists fight one winnable battle at a time. This is
the principle of fighting with strategic confidence while keeping
tactical respect for the enemy. We do not confront the enemy head-
on, with inferior numbers. Instead we strike at weak spots, build
our strength and advance steadily.
In 1958, China's Communist leader Mao Zedong explained:
"The United States has set up hundreds of military bases all over
the world. China's territory of Taiwan, Lebanon and all military
bases of the United States on foreign soil are so many nooses
around the neck of U.S. imperialism. The nooses have been
fashioned by the Americans themselves and by nobody else, and it
is they themselves who have put these nooses round their own
necks, handing the ends of the ropes to the Chinese people, the
peoples of the Arab countries and all the peoples of the world who
love peace and oppose aggression. The longer the U.S. aggressors
remain in those places, the tighter the nooses around their necks
will become."
The course of simultaneous expansion and self-destruction of the
U.S. empire remains the same to this day. With this confidence, we
move forward.
Notes: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung. Foreign Language
Press: Peking, 1972. pp. 76-77.
* * *
U.S. THUNDERS INTO GULF
by MC12
The U.S. government in November moved to almost double the size of
its military force in Saudi Arabia and the surrounding region.
This escalation is a direct and deliberate step toward war with
Iraq.
The war is inspiring a largely confused and scattered peace
movement which does not yet enjoy popular support, though various
elements and groups are well organized.
With the latest buildup, the total military presence in the region
is approaching the maximum level achieved during the Vietnam War:
500,000 troops.
There are already more than 238,000 U.S. troops facing Iraq now,
and the Pentagon is adding up to 240,000 more, bringing the total
force sometime after Jan.1 to nearly half a million. The new
deployment will include half of all U.S. troops in Europe. Also,
three more aircraft carrier battle groups are being sent, which
will make a a total of six in the region.(1)
In a deliberate show of force, the United States, on Nov. 14,
began its Operation Imminent Thunder. Thousands of troops and
planes practiced a sea-based attack on land, using Saudi beaches
not far from Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. The exercise will also test
new M1-A1 tanks shipped from Europe, which have better protection
from chemical and biological weapons, and air-conditioning, than
the M1s already sent.(2)
More forces for war
In his televised speech on Nov. 8, President Bush said that
without an "adequate offensive military option," economic
sanctions against Iraq would not force a withdrawal from Kuwait,
which is still the official goal of the United States. But the
increased deployment he described is no less than an open
declaration of war, leading the imperialist charge against an
upstart nationalist government with big ideas.
Bush's call was repeated by England's prime minister Margaret
Thatcher. "Either he gets out of Kuwait soon," she said, "or we
and our allies will remove him by force."(3)
The Soviet Union-which has gradually increased its support for
U.S. military action-said it would support an offensive, but it
first wanted United Nations approval. Soviet recognition of U.S.
leadership in the war is a big victory for the Amerikans. At the
press conference where the Soviet announcement was made, U.S.
Secretary of State James Baker "could not resist smiling, and his
aides jabbed one another in the ribs."(4)
The U.S. government has been pursuing a U.N. Security Council
resolution approving force in advance, before asking Congress for
permission to attack.(5) The Security Council has emergency U.N.
powers for wartime. That requires the agreement of the French,
Soviet and Chinese governments, all of whom provided weapons and
support to Iraq (along with the United States) for the last 10
years, and were recently considered its allies.
Iraq's total troop strength of about 430,000 in Kuwait and
Southern Iraq may be matched in the new buildup. Secretary of
Defense Dick Cheney said he'd have 430,000 troops in Saudi Arabia
within weeks. Those soldiers already there will not be rotated
back until after the war, as had been announced.(11)
Toeing the line
Getting other imperialists and various client states to support
military action has been the chief U.S. diplomatic mission since
the invasion of Kuwait. From early on, the United States saw the
crisis as an opportunity to gain more control over Middle East oil
supplies, to tie client states into a system of dependency on
Amerikan imperialism through material incentives and coercion, and
in general to use its military might to gain advantage over
economically growing imperial powers such as Germany and Japan.
This is the essential cashing in on the military investment which
has been the cornerstone of U.S. economic policy for 10 years and
more.
Commitments to the war on Iraq from other imperialist powers have
been small so far. U.S. allies have pledged a total of $9.1
billion, but have so far only come up with $1.3 billion.(6)
Total allied forces now stand at 300,000 plus, and are still less
in number than Iraq has in troops and especially tanks.(7)
England and France provide the most support of the major
imperialist powers; England has now increased its commitment to
15,500 troops, more than 220 tanks and 60 planes.(8) France has
sent at least 13,000 troops.(9)
But the biggest contributions have come from corrupt governments
such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Morocco which are eager to
pick up Amerikan support at the cost of their autonomy and the
well-being of their people.(9)
In a half-hearted attempt to prevent war, Morocco called for
another summit of Arab leaders to negotiate an end to the Iraqi
occupation. But the plan fell through when Iraq and its allies
couldn't agree on terms with the U.S.-backed stooges.(10)
Resistance and support
"There is strong bipartisan support for what the president has
done so far," said one major Democratic congressman, who wanted
Congress to reconvene specifically to endorse the president's
actions. Some leaders are not convinced of the economic and
political benefits of an offensive war, and some want
congressional approval first.(12).
Resistance to the war is still small, but it is well organized for
its size, and in fact its level of activity is already greater
than it was at a comparable time in the Vietnam War.
The anti-nuclear organizations and various pro-Soviet Latin
American solidarity groups which remain at the heart of the new
peace movement, have smaller memberships and fewer followers then
they did recently.(13) Peace between the USA and USSR, and the
Sandinistas' defeat drove people from these groups.
MIM has in the past exposed the weakness of the reliance of U.S.
activists on an implicitly pro-Soviet line, and here that weakness
is emerging as a factor. The new war is not simply East versus
West, and it requires a more complicated analysis. In fact, truly
pro-Soviet groups are finding themselves incapable of fully
denouncing the war at all, since the USSR supports it.
Still, at least 15 soldiers have declared their intention to
become conscientious objectors.(13) And several major religious
groups have denounced the buildup, including the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the National Council of
Churches.(14)
The anti-war effort is growing, though slowly, and with a war its
ranks will surely swell. There are already some signs of
widespread uneasiness. According to the bourgeois press, President
Bush's public approval rating is down to 49%, from 76% in
August.(15)
The government explicitly links the war effort with white working
class jobs. After explaining the economic threat posed by
Hussein's control over oil reserves, Baker said: "To bring that
down to the level of the average American citizen, let me say that
means jobs."(16)
And of course he may be right: defending U.S. interests does
contribute to the internal stability of the country, which
currently favors the white labor aristocracy who dominate the
working class here.
Blacks favor the war less than whites. Election exit polls showed
that 71% of whites support the troops in Saudi Arabia, while only
44% of Black voters do.(17) A U.S. Army poll showed that 26% of
new Army recruits were Black last year, while Blacks are only 14%
of that age population. Only 10% of those "volunteering" said they
joined to serve the country. The majority said they joined for the
money or training.(18)
Notes:
1. LA Times in Detroit News 11/9/90, p. A1.
2. Detroit Free Press 11/15/90 A3.
3. NYT 11/9/90 A1.
4. Ibid., A10.
5. Wall Street Journal 11/15/90 A4.
6. DFP 11/15/90 A3.
7. AP in Ann Arbor News 11/13/90 A8.
8. AP in AAN 11/14/90 A7.
9. Detroit News 11/11/90 D1.
10. WSJ 11/15/90 A1.
11. AP in AAN 11/9/90 A10.
12. DFP 11/15/90 A20.
13. WSJ 11/14/90 A1.
14. DFP 11/15/90 A3.
15. AP in AAN 11/17/90 A3.
16. AP in AAN 11/14/90 A7.
17. Washington Post in AAN 11/10/90 A3.
18. NYT 11/13/90 A8.
* * *
SOVIET CAPITALISM FACES CRISIS; FOOD RATIONING BEGINS
by MC¯
The government of the Soviet Union is still arguing over the best
way to transform state capitalism-the existing economic system in
the Soviet Union where the state runs the economy on the basis of
profits-into free market capitalism, where the state would sell
off its factories and land and stop setting prices.
As this debate goes on, the authority of the central government,
headed by President Mikhail Gorbachev, is being undermined.
Fourteen out of 15 republics in the Soviet Union have declared
independence or movements toward self-rule in one form or
another.(1) The Russian republic, the largest, most powerful one,
headed by President Boris Yeltsin, has also split with Gorbachev
on several occasions. Now the two leaders have agreed to a
settlement which amounts to a "new system of state power,"
according to Yeltsin.(2)
Capitalist plans
Last summer, Gorbachev seemed to have a legislative mandate to
implement his "500 Days" program, designed to transform the Soviet
Union to market capitalism in 500 days. Yeltsin also supported the
program. But, according to the Associated Press, "Gorbachev balked
under pressure from conservatives, and persuaded the national
legislature to grant him sweeping powers to implement a far more
modest reform program."(3)
Yeltsin remained adamant about the implementation of capitalism
when Gorbachev presented his watered-down version. Under the new
plan, Gorbachev proposed a slower rate of privatization,
deregulation of prices at a slower rate, government retention of
more state-owned industries, and that the decision to sell off
collective land be left up to individual directors.(4) While
Gorbachev continued his "capitalism is inevitable" rhetoric, he
was slowing the transition in an effort to protect the power
structures which are tied to economic control.
Yeltsin called him on this. "The millions of bureaucrats who run
the economy were fighting for their privileges," Yeltsin said of
Gorbachev's change of heart. Soviet leaders and the Amerikan press
buy the rhetoric that free-market capitalism will solve problems
in the USSR without acknowledging that they already have a form of
capitalism.
Gorbachev, maintaining that "there is no alternative to the
transition to a market economy," went on tour to Germany, France
and Spain looking for more than $1 billion in credit to back his
program.(5)
Of late, Gorbachev and Yeltsin seem to have settled their
differences through some closed-door negotiations that may have
resulted in a new form of state government for the country.
Yeltsin's support is seen as critical, as the Russian republic is
the resource and industrial heart of the country, and contains
half of the Soviet Union's 287 million people.(3)
Gorbachev went to negotiate with Yeltsin on Nov. 14, saying that
the two should sign a new treaty to preserve the federation, which
would be renamed "The Union of Sovereign Republics."(2) It is
unclear what the exact arrangement is from press account, but
Yeltsin and Gorbachev are portrayed in some sort of agreement.
Class struggle
The Soviet Union is increasingly headed for class warfare as the
entrenched bureaucratic elite fights for power with a younger
generation of capitalist roaders. The transition from state
capitalism to free market capitalism would undermine a host of
bureaucrats who have grown fat off their position and pave the way
for a new breed of capitalist entrepreneurs who could fight it out
with each other instead of the state. Neither of these choices
provide any hope for the masses.
Gorbachev himself knows that the masses are becoming angry with
the choice between which type of capitalism gets to oppress them.
He cautioned Yeltsin and others that if there was no agreement
soon, he would lose his ability to hold on the state and put
through a market system.
"A situation may arise that will be worse than during the Cultural
Revolution in China," Gorbachev said, referring to the decade from
1966-76 when Mao encouraged the masses to criticize the party and
purge its ranks of capitalist roaders.(2) The Cultural Revolution
was the most democratic period in world history as workers,
peasants and students had a chance to direct the revolution in
their interest and against the deadwood in the party ranks.
Economic downturn
As the economy of the Soviet Union goes into crisis, a phenomena
endemic to capitalism, the Soviet Parliament has demanded
explanation from Gorbachev.
Food rationing has become commonplace in the USSR, with the City
Council of Leningrad announcing rationing of primary foodstuffs.
Leningrad, the Soviet Union's second largest city, is the largest
city to impose rationing, although many smaller communities have
done so.(6)
The Leningrad rationing is severe: 2.6 pounds red meat, 1.1 pounds
poultry, 2.2 pounds dry cereal or pasta, 1.1 pounds flour, 10
eggs, and 11 ounces vegetable oil per person per month. This is
only 22% as much meat as the average Amerikan consumers each
month.(6)
The Soviet bourgeoisie is worried that this will lead to unrest
with the arrival of winter. Leningrad has not had rationing since
the Nazi blockade of 1941-44 in which 600,000 died, many from
starvation.(6)
The Soviet economy generally has shown signs of collapse during
the first nine months of this year. The Gross National Product,
the sum of all goods and services the country produces, fell 1.5%.
Coal production dropped 27 million tons; exports fell a total of
$11.1 billion, much of this was in oil which they can't export
enough of due to bad equipment. The Soviet Union is the largest
oil producing nation in the world.(8)
Imports rose $200 million, exaggerating the existing trade
deficit. The worst of this was meat imports which rose 71%.
Inflation, which some apologists argue does not exist in the
Soviet Union, ran 9% with estimates as high as 20%.(8)
"If we do not do something about the situation now, people will
take up arms and pour into the streets, and this will not be a
military coup but a popular coup," said member of parliament
Viktor Alksnis.(7) The military chief, Marshal Sergei F.
Akhromeyev, announced, however, that the army completely backs
Gorbachev and stands ready to "protect our federal socialist
state."(7)
Western leaders were also concerned that Gorbachev and his pro-
west, pro-capitalist program would be undermined. U.S. officials
said they are considering using U.S. emergency disaster programs
to airlift food and medicine.(6) President George Bush is expected
to discuss the situation with Gorbachev during a 34-nation summit
in Paris.
Bush certainly would not want to have Gorbachev taken out of power
just as the Amerikan army goes to war with Iraq. Soviet support is
seen as crucial to Bush's Security Council resolution approving
the U.S. invasion.
The transition to market capitalism in the Soviet Union will be
very painful for the Soviet masses and will at most only serve to
change the leaders at the top. The internal contradictions between
nations grow more intense, the country collapses internally and
the former central government is no longer able to function.
Finally, although there is an apparent decline in superpower
competition as Amerika has its hands full, the position of Soviet
imperialism will be weakened by the numerous splits in the
economy.
Notes:
1. National Public Radio 10/26/90.
2. AP in Ann Arbor News 11/14/90, p. C1.
3. AP in Ann Arbor News 11/15/90, p. C1.
4. Newsweek 10/29/90, p. 49.
5. NYT 10/27/90, p. A3.
6. AP in Detroit Free Press 11/16/90, p. 1.
7. NYT 11/15/90, p. 1.
8. AP in Detroit News 10/21/90, p. 3A.
* * *
LETTERS
A MESSAGE TO THE TROOPS...
The U.S. government is dressing you up in poison gas suits to play
Rambo for them in the Persian Gulf. You are sitting out in the
middle of the desert with your ass on the line, wondering what's
going to happen next. We suspect you are a decoy to draw the gas
attack which would be used as an excuse for a U.S. invasion of
Kuwait or Iraq.
We know what you are going through, because we spent some time in
the shooting gallery too. As veterans we want to say straight up:
you have no more interest in fighting in the war the United States
is preparing for today than we did in the war they were waging in
the 60s. Vietnam era GIs were told that we were bringing Asian
people democracy. We wound up killing 2.5 million of those people
in a war of genocide. You are in the Middle East supposedly to
protect "our" oil. You could wind up killing hundreds of
thousands. AND FOR WHAT? So that the Pentagon can finally
establish Fort Saudi Arabia, like they have been wanting to for so
long? So that the United States can control the oil resources of
that region which don't belong to us in the first place? So they,
by extension, can control their main economic competitors like
Japan and in Europe who depend on that oil? The bottom line seems
to be expanding the U.S. empire as the motive and hair trigger
politics and massive troop deployments as the method.
The situation is volatile. When the orders come to Rambo out, your
response will profoundly impact the lives of millions of people in
the Middle East and have unknown effects on world history. The
politicians stuck you in a situation where you can't now see the
end result of your actions. But you, like us, will have to live
with those results forever.
The Brass want you to obey; we want you to think. We feel that our
experience may have an effect on your decisions. Those of us who
sat in the jungles of Vietnam learned that we could see no bravery
in "Search and Destroy" missions in which we directed massive
firepower to slaughter anything that moved. We could find no glory
in destroying the village to save it. Similarly, many Beirut vets
speak of the rude awakening when they realized that the people
they were sent to "protect" hated them and that every U.S. GI was
a sitting duck. (Remember the Marine barracks?) Those of us who
are vets of the U.S. invasion of Panama ask where is the honor in
house-to-house terror, or in pushing back the Panamanian families
who had come to mass grave sites seeking to identify and reclaim
their loved ones. You undoubtedly will have many of the same
experiences we did. Ghosts march through our dreams every night.
Your nightmares have yet to begin.
CHECK OUT THESE FACTS:
*It's one thing to kill, die or get maimed for a worthy cause. But
once the smoke clears and the shouting is over, as history has
shown time and again, we shouldn't have been in there.
*When you are choking in a poisoned atmosphere remember that you
are facing chemical and other weapons sold to Iraq by Western
powers only too happy to make a buck off the deal. Ask ask any
veteran who suffers from Agent Orange exposure what help you can
expect if you survive. Remember that the United States is still
operating massive defoliation programs in Central and South
America under the phony excuse of the war on drugs.
*Remember too, that for eight years the U.S. government cheered on
Iraq while it gassed Iran and its Kurdish people.
*Bush says you are there to stop naked aggression. That hypocrite
has no right to speak on this question, having just finished
invading Panama.
*Saddam Hussein is a reactionary ruler who invaded Kuwait in his
own interests. But while the U.S. media calls him a fascist
madman, the U.S. government is busily trying to keep you from
being able to buy unapproved record albums. In the United States,
racism and police attacks are on the rise. There are major efforts
to stifle political protest, and women are fighting their own
government to protect their reproductive rights.
Meanwhile, you sweat it out on a lie and a humbug. Sure, there are
those Rambozoids who can hardly wait for the order to charge.
Well, let those who proudly wear the "KILL THEM ALL AND LET GOD
SORT THEM OUT" shirts pay the price. But to those of you who
question the idea of blindly going along with the program, we have
something to say.
You should know that while you are carrying out your orders there
are veterans from previous wars and military actions leading
demonstrations against your presence in the Middle East. We will
welcome you back to join our ranks. Like you, we were ordered to
do our duty. Take Vietnam (which some of us tried to do). Fooled
at first, we began to question the lies and the hypocrisy that put
us there. Many of us were sickened by what we were ordered to do.
Others were inspired by the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese.
We began to resist. Thousands of us in Vietnam (and in the United
States) refused to carry out orders. Many went to prison rather
than bear arms against our so-called enemy. Whole companies and
naval units mutinied and refused to fight. A half million U.S.
troops deserted. GI resistance took every form, from the fragging
of officers, to a number of troops that actually joined and fought
for the other side. Out of all that, we learned to question what
the hell is going on. All the government learned was to tell
bigger lies. Welcome to Fort Saudi Arabia.
As veterans we came to understand that our duty was to the people
of the world and to the future, not to the Empire. We resisted and
rebelled. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
U.S. troops out of the Middle East!
-Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist
4710 University Way NE #1612
Seattle, WA 98105
WHAT PLANET IS MIM FROM?
Dear MIM:
What planet are you poor nebisches from, anyway? Why would anyone
believe a bunch of sectarian nonsense put out by people too
chickenshit to sign the articles they write? Are you afraid mom
and dad will find out what you're up to? Or could it be that
you're really a bunch of MBAs who are putting this out as a joke?
Get a life.
-East Coast detractor
November, 1990
MC5 replies: Yes, we are MBAs from Pluto, but we believe
Earthlings are capable of recognizing the truth; even if those of
us who happen to speak it have horns and green underwear.
All of our factual information comes from sources we cite. If you
don't believe it, go track it down yourself.
Otherwise let this letter stand as a perfect example of the kind
of psychological attack devoid of any political substance that MIM
faces all the time.
MC11 adds: You'll no doubt find MN43's "What is a pig question?"
helpful. Back issues are $1.
'I WILL NOT PICK UP MY RIFLE ANYMORE,' SAYS MARINE
It took the invasion of Panama to shake me into awareness that,
within weeks, young corporals like myself could be sent into a
situation that is likely to go against everything I believe in.
Before then, I already had thought about war and whether there
were any good wars worth fighting. Through self-education, I found
that my own sense of what was right was changing slowly. For one
thing, I couldn't fight for a country whose priorities are all
screwed up. It, to me, is embarassing to fight for a way of life
in which basic human needs, like a place to sleep, one hot meal a
day and some medical attention, cannot even be met in our nation's
capital.
It also is wrong for this country that was supposedly born from a
revolution more than two centuries ago to deny people all over the
world their own rights to govern themselves and handle their own
affairs. Our so-called "boys" are all around the world. It was our
government that gave the world Idi Amin, Pinochet, Noriega and
Marcos.
The only war worth fighting is against the ignorance and economic
violence that gets committed right here daily, in the schools, in
our communities and as well as our government. We need not raise
our children to kill and hate. This January I resolved that I was
going to work for peace from now on and I was not going to be
involved in murder in Panama and that was that. I will not pick up
my rifle on orders anymore.
-William Gutierrez Depusoy
Corporal, U.S. Marine Reserves
MC5 comments: This letter and the one on page 2 are reprints from
the October 1990 issue of Stormwarning available for $10 for 10
monthly issues from the above address. MIM is not affiliated with
VVAWAI, but other parties might be.
The message is right on and very timely. However, MIM would stress
the situation of the oppressed nationalities in the United States
more than the issue of racism.
* * *
PALESTINIANS FACE STATE CRACKDOWM
by MC44
Nov. 15 marked the second anniversary of the Palestinian
Declaration of Independence, introduced in 1988 by the Palestine
National Council-Palestine's government in exile. The declaration
claims the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an independent nation with
its capital in East Jerusalem.
True to its word, the Israeli government refused to accept a
United Nations delegation to investigate the Oct. 8 killings at
the Temple Mount, when police fired live ammunition on
Palestinians demonstrating against the rumored destruction of the
Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, two Islamic holy sites.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir stated that any delegates from the
U.N. would be treated like any other tourists and that the
government or police would absolutely not cooperate in any quest
for information regarding the killings. United Nations General
Secretary Javier Pe'rez de Cuellar declined to send a delegation
under those conditions.
As of MIM press time de Cuellar is currently considering Israel's
latest offer to accept one single envoy-U.N. French representative
Jean Claude Aime'e-as long as there is no mention of the incident
at Al Aqsa in the report.
The government says there should be no explicit mention of
protecting Palestinians; just the broad subject of human rights in
the territories.(1) A spokeswoman for Mr. de Cuellar later said
that no conditions stipulated by Israel for the visit would be
acceptable.(2)
Israel has been taking a more conciliatory approach to the U.N.,
hoping to prevent the Security Council from passing a proposal
which would convene the 164 signers of the Geneva Convention to
discuss protecting Palestinians in the occupied territories: the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.(1)
The Israeli government conducted its own investigation of the Oct.
8 incident, in which the investigators determined that
Palestinians were at fault for starting the violence and the
rioting that day, but that police were to be criticized for their
unpreparedness and regrettable use of live ammunition.(1)
Promote the killer
Among those criticized was Police Chief Aryeh Bibi, who was in
charge of the Jerusalem area police. What did you expect? He has
since been promoted to a full commander in charge of the Police
Manpower Division (police personnel) which has afforded him an
increase in both rank and salary. No disciplinary action will be
taken against the police.(1)
The weekend of Nov. 3, Attiyah Abdel Atti Zanin-a Palestinian from
the Gaza Strip jailed for his involvement with the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO)-was reported to have committed
suicide in prison. His family and the demonstrators that responded
to Zanin's death insisted that he had been killed under Israeli
interrogation.(3)
Even if he did technically kill himself-which his family had
stated is unlikely given Muslim prohibitons against suicide-Zanin
died in prison, under state control. Demonstrations in the West
Bank and Gaza followed the death, and over 200 Palestinians were
wounded that weekend, many by live ammunition.(4)
Independence day
Israel has responded to the increase in demonstrations and the
recent celebration of Independence Day with (surprise) increased
repression.
On Nov. 12, the government announced the banning of 2,400 more
Palestinians from crossing the Green Line, the artificial boundary
that separates "Israel" from the occupied territories. This brings
the total to 10,800 who cannot officially visit or work inside
Israel.(5)
Shamir has announced a plan to halve the number of jobs held by
Palestinians in Israel, and replace the workers with recent Soviet
immigrants.(6) He has two goals in mind: first to employ the many
new immigrants, and second to decrease Israeli dependence on
Palestinian labor within Israel. One essential tactic in the
intifada, the 35-month Palestinian uprising, has been the use of
general strikes, during which all businesses in the territories
shut down and no Palestinians report to work inside the Green
Line.
The Soviet immigrants are the latest weapons in a demographic war
to drive Palestinians out of Israel, following on the heels of
thousands of Ethiopian Jews brought to Israel for the same
purpose.
On Nov. 14, Defense Minister Moshe Arens ordered two Palestinian
activists jailed without charges and sentenced to six months
imprisonment.(1)
The U.S.-Iraqi war has inspired Shamir to repeat that the intifada
is just another hostile Arab movement to destroy Israel. Now he
has announced that any negotiations with Palestinians will have to
take into account the relations between Israel and all Arab
nations.(7) Israel seems confident that nothing could sever its
ties to Amerika, and therefore its leaders can publicly attack
Arab allies of imperialism without fear of reprisal. In the long
run Shamir may be mistaken, but recent events have shown that for
now the "special relationship" still serves the interests of the
United States.
Notes:
1. NYT p. 8, 11/12/90.
2. Wall Street Journal p. 1, 11/13/90.
3. Ann Arbor News p. 1, 11/4/90.
4. NYT 11/5/90.
5. WSJ p. 1, 11/12/90.
6. Detroit Free Press 11/15/90.
7. WSJ p. 10, 11/7/90.
* * *
"SOCIALIST" ELECTED INDIAN P.M.
by MC18 & MC44
The demand for a theocratic state by India's Hindu population
escalated through November with riots resulting in nearly 400
deaths from mid-October to mid-November.
On Nov. 7, Prime Minister V. P. Singh was forced to resign after
losing a vote of confidence, ending his 11-month old coalition
government.(1) Singh sought the vote following a challenge from a
coalition of dissident members of his own Janata Dal party, that
had joined with the Congress Party of former Prime Minister Rajiv
Ghandi. Ghandi was asked by President Venkataranam to form a
government to replace Singh's, but he declined, offering his
support to Chandra Shekhar.
The Janata Dal faction joining the Congress Party call themselves
the Janata-Dal Socialists, apparently attempting to reconcile
socialism with the opposition Congress Party, which favors
introducing increased capitalist measures in India's tightly-
controlled industry, and opening India further to Japan and the
West. The coalition is headed by Chandra Shekhar, the phony
socialist who is now India's prime minister.
One week after Shekhar was sworn in, Singh regrouped and attempted
to counter with a vote of confidence. The new government survived
the vote, with 57% of voting members of parliament in support.
Shekhar is the eighth Prime Minister, and this is the weakest
Indian government since independence in 1947.
India's Left Front, a socialist-communist party alliance,
immediately denounced the new government. Spokesperson for the
Front Somnath Chatterjee called it "a mockery and debasement of
democratic norms."
Lal Krishna Advani, leader of the reactionary Hindu Bharatiya
Janata Party which had knocked the wind out of Singh's government
by withdrawing its support, refused to support the new government
as well, accusing it of lacking "political legitimacy."(2)
The Janata Party withdrew support from Singh when he opposed and
blocked a Hindu assault on a Mosque in the town of Ayodhya in
northeast India. Singh was also responsible for implementing
affirmative action plans for lower castes, which set off waves of
protest among India's conservatives.
The latest surge of Hindu-Muslim violence peaked when the assault
on the Mosque began.(3) The goal was to demolish the mosque and
construct a Hindu shrine on the site for Lord Rama, a Hindu god.
Although the mosque survived six days of attack, open rioting has
continued in New Delhi between the Hindu majority and the Muslim
minority. The fighting has consisted of continuous exchanges of
attack and retaliations from both sides.
Indian Muslims and Sikhs-12% and 2% minorities respectively-have
formed an alliance to fight against oppression by Hindus, who
represent 82% of India's 880 million people.(3)
The Sikh religion is a synthesis of Hinduism and Islam,
incorporating aspects from both traditions, such as the Muslim
belief in one god and the Hindu belief in reincarnation. Sikhs
have actively fought for an independent Sikh nation in Punjab
since 1983. Punjab is a region in the northwest section of India
and Pakistan. In the 18th Century it had been a Sikh kingdom,
later annexed by Great Britain and then divided when India was
partitioned in 1947. The Indian state of Punjab was established in
1966. Their struggle has resulted in at least 2,770 deaths in
1990.(3)
Notes:
1. NYT p. 3, 11/9/90.
2. AP 11/16/90.
3. AP 11/15/90.
* * *
EPLF HOLDS ALL BUT CAPITAL CITY AGAINST ETHIOPIA
by MC44
The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), the revolutionary
movement fighting for independence and sovereignty from Ethiopia,
now controls virtually all of Eritrea-including the Red Sea port
of Massawa, captured in February of this year.
The EPLF was formed in 1962, and the Eritrean population of four
million has suffered 500,000 casualties in the war to date.(1) The
Eritrean capital city of Asmara, with a population of one million,
is still controlled by Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam.
Daily airlifts of food relief from Western governments are flown
into the city.(2)
Ethiopia continues to refer to the nation of Eritrea, which it
occupies, as its province, and the suppression of the independence
movement as a "civil war."
Food relief is no solution to the problems of famine. And this
wouldn't be enough food anyway. Drought has certainly contributed
to the starvation in the Horn of Africa, but the standard
bourgeois analysis, that "one million tons of relief food will be
needed to avert large-scale starvation"(2) conceals the causes of
hunger and famine. War, poverty and export crop production-which
Ethiopia relies on to fund the military occupation of Eritrea and
neighboring Tigray, also fighting for independence-are the reasons
Eritreans are starving.
Activists: why is there no boycott of Ethiopian coffee?
The EPLF has been criticized for supposedly not allowing relief
aid to enter Asmara through the port of Massawa. However, if their
aim was to block relief efforts they would expand their shelling
of the airport at Asmara to include attacks on the incoming food
flights, which they have systematically ignored.(2)
Internationalists support the independence movements of Eritrea
and Tigray, two of the longest-running liberation struggles on
earth, which the imperialists of both the USA and USSR have
opposed.
Notes:
1. Economist p. 50, 11/22/90.
2. NYT p. 10, 11/11/90.
* * *
PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT FAKES SOCIAL PROGRESS
by MC¯
On the night of Nov. 4, the U.S. consulate in Lima, the capital
city of Peru, was attacked with automatic rifle fire and a
homemade bomb, according to the Chicago Tribune.(1) There are
conflicting reports in the press: the Associated Press reported
that the same attack was done with rocket grenades.(2) Two police
officers were also killed in separate attacks.(1) These attacks in
the heart of the Peruvian government's stronghold, the capital
city, continue to show the strength of the revolutionary forces
and the overall lack of control the government has.
Although the bourgeois press speculates that the Communist Party
of Peru (CPP), known in the press as the Shining Path, was
responsible for the action, no group has claimed responsibility.
This attack is just part of the mounting evidence that Peruvian
President Alberto Fujimori has no program to solve Peru's social
and economic problems.
Fujimori was elected in March 1990. The elections took place under
conditions of martial law. Voting was obligatory. Polls at the
time showed that voters knew nothing about Fujimori.
In Peru, 25-35% of the country is under control of the military in
what is called a "state of emergency."(3) Even the conservative
press estimates that the CPP controls nearly one-third of Peru,
principally the territory in the Upper Huallaga Valley.
Phony social programs
On Oct. 27, Fujimori proposed a "new" program to fight coca leaf
production, the source of cocaine. At the same time, his
government rejected a $35.9 million military aid package from the
United States.(4)
The New York Times summarized the program as follows: "the
creation of a free-market environment where peasants would find
alternative crops to be economically attractive."(4) This is the
rabid capitalist philosophy of Hernando de Soto, economist and
author of The Other Side, a book advocating market capitalism and
austerity for Peru.
This is just one of many indications that Fujimori's "new"
approach is the same as the previous government's and the same as
his opposition, Mario Vargas Llosa's. Vargas Llosa wrote the
preface to de Soto's economic book and financed the research.
While in the obligatory elections the masses rejected Vargas
Llosa's call for austerity, they ended up getting the same program
by voting for the virtual unknown Fujimori. This is why the CPP
says that voting is only the opportunity for the masses to choose
which bureaucratic capitalist will oppress them.(5)
Fujimori's program, according to the press, involves a rejection
of military and police repression as a means of stopping coca leaf
production. The program will grant land titles to coca growers and
reduce state controls and private monopolies that make cultivation
of legal export crops unprofitable for small farmers, according to
the Times.(4)
This program is an economic impossibility and the government knows
it. It is the opening of the Peruvian economy that has allowed
multinational corporations to exploit the country's resources and
build large monopolies which destroy the prices for subsistence-
type crop production.(5) The government is simply hoping that it
can win the hearts and minds of the peasants by offering "land to
the tiller."
Fujimori drew a parallel between the situation in Peru and the
U.S. involvement in Vietnam. "Let us not repeat the errors of
President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam," he said. "Here in Peru, we
are not going to run the risk of being defeated because we put the
peasants, their innumerable relatives, friends and countrymen on
the side of drug traffickers and terrorists."(4)
The peasantry, however, is already on the side of economic
reality. They support the CCP in the same way the peasants of
"South" Vietnam supported the Vietnamese Communist Party over the
Diem's U.S. puppet government. Diem had to cancel elections, and
Fujimori was elected under martial law-for the same reason.
Bush administration's hard line
However weak Fujimori's attempt at using social democratic tactics
to pacify the revolutionary masses is, it met with extreme
displeasure on the part of the Bush administration in Washington,
D.C.
The $35.9 million military aid package from the United States was
to have trained six Peruvian Army battalions for operations in the
Upper Huallaga Valley which the United States claims is the
world's largest coca producing area. It is the CCP's main base of
operations and the area where the party controls the most
territory.(4)
The aid will be reallocated to Columbia and Bolivia, countries
which the Bush administration regards as more cooperative in its
war on drugs. Vice President Dan Quayle called Peru's drug policy
"the most problematic" out of the three Andean nations that the
United States has targeted, allegedly because of coca
production.(4)
Attacking the masses
Fujimori demonstrated his real hatred for the masses in another
new program which would provide birth control from government
clinics. While this might masquerade as a progressively minded
move, Fujimori did not institute the program because 90% of
Peruvian women said they wanted more access.(6) Rather, this was
his response to Peru's swelling urban population.
"We don't want a country populated by children feeding themselves
from garbage dumps," Fujimori said. Fujimori presented no program
to help feed Peruvian children.
Rather, his sole aspiration is to limit the population, especially
of Lima, without improving the peoples' standard of living.
The bottom line
Heriberto Ocasio, the national spokesperson for the the U.S.
Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru, says that "Fujimori
doesn't have a program either. His program is essentially that of
the APRA...."(3) The APRA was the former government of Peru. But
Fujimori's government is trying to put a social democratic face on
the same repressive measures of his predecessor, Alan Garcia.
While previous MIM Notes articles have exposed the bogus social
programs put forward by the Garcia regime at the same time as
almost half the country was under military control, the evidence
is now in that the Maoist predictions of Fujimori were correct: He
is just another fascist disguised with some pseudo leftist
rhetoric, just like the APRA.
More than 160 people died last month in "political violence,"
according to the Times, and the situation is headed for full-on
civil war. Even the Times acknowledged the weakness of Fujimori's
proposal: "Even with peace, a free-market environment and access
to rural credit, peasants may not be interested in dropping
cultivation of coca leaves, which are the most profitable in
Peru."
Notes:
1. Chicago Tribune 11/6/90.
2. AP 11/5/90.
3. Heriberto Ocasio, Excerpts of Speech Given at New York
Conference on Peru, April 21, 1990, reprinted in the Revolutionary
Worker, published by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
4. NYT 10/28/90, p. 9.
5. MIM Notes Peru Study Pack, available for $12.50, postage paid,
from MIM.
6. NYT 11/16/90.
* * *
SOUTH KOREA PLANS BUYOUT
by MC12
South Korea is attempting a gradual West German-style buyout of
its divided other half. Seeing North Korea as economically weak,
the Southern leadership is hoping to seize the opportunity to
assert control through eventual reunification.
A big part of that project involves the further dependence of
South Korea on the world's imperialist powers. To that end, the
Soviet Union and South Korea established diplomatic relations in
September. The USSR has decided the South is a better ally
economically, largely abandoning the North, which in turn looked
to China, where it found rhetoric of support but hardly any money.
North Korea is a country led by a revisionist nationalist named
Kim Il Sung, who took power in 1945. Kim has not embraced Maoism
or the need for continued class struggle under socialism, known as
cultural revolution.
North and South both claim to want reunification, and have held a
series of decorative meetings to that end. The highest level of
contact so far was between the South Korean prime minister and and
North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.
South Korea wants access to Northern markets for its exports, but
it's not prepared to take over the Northern economy, so South
Korean President Roh Tae Woo wants a gradual takeover with
imperialist support.
There are 45,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, and the
North hopes to see that number reduced as a result of these
negotiations. More high-level meetings are planned for December.
Japan has a different perspective than the other imperialists,
especially the United States and the USSR. While the the
superpowers are willing to build South Korea into an industrially
productive neo-colony, Japan views South Korea as a potential
competitor. So Japan is taking a new interest in the North. It
wants to keep what it sees as two competitors separate, hopefully
killing a competitor (the South) and gaining a colony (the North).
Japanese investors are interested in Northern markets as well, and
talk of new diplomatic relations has begun.(1)
Under a fascist state machine
All this goes on before the backdrop of massive persecution in
South Korea, which has built an export-based economy by promising
stability-at-gun-point to Western investors. The capital has
poured in; the resources have flowed out, and a fascist crackdown
has been necessary to consolidate economic power in the hands of
the capitalist state.
In response to escalating protests by students and workers, the
government has led an attack on popular organizations, including
the National Council of Labor Unions and the National Council of
Student Representatives, many of whom have been arrested or face
arrest warrants.
There are now at least 1,300 political prisoners in South Korea,
according to the Human Rights Committee of the National Council of
Churches in Korea. This figure does not include University
students outside Seoul, or workers who do not belong to the
National Council of Labor Unions. The Committee estimates that if
these figures were included, the number of prisoners would be
around 1,500.
Many of these are old people who have been in prison since the
Korean War in 1950.
Prisoners are allowed no contact with lawyers, and no
correspondence. There is no amnesty and no parole.
In militant mass demonstrations, protesters frequently engage the
police and army in all-out combat, including the use of fire-
bombs, which were recently specifically banned. Since then 252
people have been prosecuted for violating the ban, though many of
them were only accomplices (if they were involved at all), whose
pictures were taken at demonstrations.(2)
Notes:
1. Economist 10/20/90.
2. Korea Update Sept.-Oct. 1990, published by North American
Coalition for Human Rights in Korea, 110 Maryland Ave., NE
Washington, DC 20002
* * *
MARINE CORPORAL WON'T FIGHT FOR U.S.
by MC5
Vietnam War veterans have teamed up with people currently in
military service to spread a movement against U.S. militarism in
the Middle East. The October issue of Stormwarning, the
publication of Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist,
reports that U.S. Marine Corps corporal Jeff Patterson refused to
get on the plane for his deployment in the Middle East.
The following is a statement by Patterson:
"As we speak tens of thousands of servicemen are being mobilized
to defend for the first time in American memory a blatantly
imperialist economic interest stripped of the State Department's
beloved specter of international communism. Although the United
States is facing off against a truly despicable man in Saddam
Hussein, the reality is that U.S. foreign policy created this
monster.
*It was the United States who tacitly endorsed the Iraqi invasion
of Iran ten years ago.
*It was the United States and West Germany who sold Hussein
chemical weapons throughout the war.
*It was the United States who remained silent when Hussein used
these weapons on his own populations.
*And after all of this, it was the United States who gave Hussein
safe passage through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz by
shipping Iraqi oil under the flag of Kuwait, thus protecting it
from Iranian attack by U.S. escorts.
What is the equation that balances human lives and corporate
profits? In my opinion no such equation exists, except in the
minds of those that are preparing to fight this war.
The United States has no moral ground to stand on in the Persian
Gulf. We created this monster and pointed him in this direction.
We pour millions into the coffers of Israel's military to wage war
against stone-throwing youths seeking a country to call their own
once again.
I can not and will no be a pawn in America's power plays for
profits and oil in the Middle East."
On Aug. 29, Patterson sat down on the runway instead of getting on
the plane. The Marines threw him in the brig.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Patterson's supporters went
to federal court to have Patterson released from pre-trial
confinement and succeeded. As of now, "the military still hasn't
decided what to charge Jeff with, although they are considering a
variety of charges which carry more than five years imprisonment,"
according to Stormwarning.
Meanwhile, an Air Force recruiter has apparently told the
Washington Post that he is having trouble doing his job and a
Black Muslim in Kentucky announced he would not serve against
other Moslems.
Take action
The Committee to Defend Jeff Patterson is urging supporters to
popularize his stand and to write letters of protest to:
Commanding General
First Marine Expeditionary Brigade
Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station
Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii 96863-5501
Copies of letters and donations to Patterson's defense should be
sent to the Committee at 820 Miliani St. Suite 714, Honolulu, HA
96813. (808) 533-7434 or 576- 2955.
Notes: Stormwarning, 4710 University Way NE #1612, Seattle, WA
98105.
* * *
SPONTANEOUS REVOLUTION: FOCOISTS ASSUME THE MASSES WILL BE
INSPIRED TO REVOLUTION BY HEROIC ACTS OF ARMED STRUGGLE
by MC5 & MC¯
Focoism is a popular theory that says that small cells of armed
revolutionaries can create the conditions of revolution through
their actions. Demonstrated revolutionary victories, the successes
of the foci, are supposed to lead the masses to revolution. If
conditions are ripe, according to focoists, a single spark can
start the revolutionary fire.
Focoism often places great emphasis on armed struggle and the
immediacy this brings to class warfare. Maoism, on the other hand,
warns that taking up the gun too soon, and without the proper
support of the masses, will result in fighting losing battles.
Focoists look to spectacular actions and tactics such as building
takeovers, special demonstrations and flag burnings to grab media
attention to rouse the masses to rebel. Maoism is the more steady,
methodical process of developing the most advanced theory and
raising the mass consciousness through struggle and seizing power
one calculated battle at a time.
Amerikan focoism
In the United States, the line between focoism and Maoism is
partly blurred because the focoists often possess a correct class
analysis while supporting spontaneous tactics. Some focoist
groups, for example, understood that the white working class in
Amerika was not a revolutionary class, but still held that their
revolutionary violence directed against specific targets would
unleash mass uprising.
Still, there are concrete differences in how Maoists and focoists
organize in the United States.
George and Jonathan Jackson, who organized the Black Liberation
Army (BLA) in California in the 1960s, and the Black Panther Party
(BPP), a Maoist party which fought for liberation of the Black
nation, often mentioned Che' Guevara and Mao Zedong in the same
breath. Guevara was a famous focoist who lead the Cuban revolution
to victory with Fidel Castro, but he was quickly captured and
killed by the Bolivian government when he attempted a similar
strategy in that country.
The Weatherman, an underground revolutionary organization that
hoped to spark the Amerikan masses with a bombing campaign, and
other descendants of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYMI), a
trend which grew out of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in
the late 1960s and early 1970s, also linked Maoism and focoism.
The Jacksons sum up U.S. focoism saying that "we cannot raise
consciousness another millimeter" without armed struggle.(1)
George Jackson argued that the power of the gun brought the
struggle into focus and showed the masses his army's will to fight
the oppressor.
But, ultimately, focoists are scornful of analysis of concrete
conditions except those of military struggle. "Conditions will
never be altogether right for a broadly based revolutionary war
unless the fascists are stricken by an uncharacteristic fit of
total madness.... Should we wait for something that is not likely
to occur at least for decades? The conditions that are not present
must be manufactured," writes George Jackson.(1, p. 14)
George Jackson gives the example of the 1930s as a case where
conditions for revolution were present in Amerika, but "the
vanguard elements betrayed the people of the nation and the world
as a result of their failure to seize the time. The consequences
were a catastrophic war and a new round of imperialist
expansion."(1) Therefore, the Communist Party (CP) of the 1930s
bears responsibility for the enormous crimes of U.S. imperialism
committed since the 1930s. The CP supported the U.S. government's
involvement in World War II.
There are two levels at which revolutionaries must deal with
Jackson's argument. First, is it true that revolutionary
conditions will not appear for decades unless the bourgeoisie
makes a mistake? MIM maintains that revolutionary situation may
arrive, even suddenly, as the U.S. empire becomes over-extended
abroad.
The Weatherman of 1969 agreed: "Winning state power in the United
States will occur as a result of the military forces of the United
States overextending themselves around the world and being
defeated piecemeal; struggle within the United States will be a
vital part of this process, but when the revolution triumphs in
the United States it will have been made by the people of the
whole world."(2) U.S.-Soviet competition to divide up the world
supplements the pressures of Third World liberation struggles. The
Weatherman said the primary contradiction was between U.S.
imperialism and the Third World at the time.
Second, Jackson, RYM I and author J. Sakai in Settlers: The
Mythology of the White Proletariat (one of MIM's "must read"
books) all point to the alliance between the bourgeoisified
workers and the imperialists as one of the main reasons for the
failure of revolution in the United States. The focoists explain
why there are no conditions for mass armed struggle, but then
proceed to engage in armed struggle.
When it is pointed out that their tactics don't match their
analysis, the focoists typically have two replies. One is a purist
argument which says the U.S. masses are part of the enemy and will
never support revolution, at least not until the revolutionaries
force the state to bring down repression on everybody. All that
Amerikan revolutionaries can do is serve as an isolated detachment
of the Vietnamese, Filipino, Salvadoran, etc. proletarian
revolutions. Individual revolutionaries will fail in the United
States but they will take some of the enemy forces with them and,
thus, make some contribution to the success of revolutions
elsewhere.
This argument smacks of Judeo-Christian ethics because it
basically says do what is morally pure even if the real world
impact is slight. Focoists initiate armed struggle, not because
they think that armed struggle offers the best chance of success
now, but because they as individuals can feel morally correct for
making the greatest sacrifices to fight imperialism now.
These people are not much different than those who leave the
United States to demonstrate moral distaste for U.S. policies or
to join Third World revolutionary movements to which they can make
no contribution. People like these, who do not employ the science
of Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought (MLMZT) in order to win
state power, actually endanger the revolution for their own
selfish, moralistic ends.
The other rejoinder that focoists have is that subjective
conditions create the material conditions for revolution. First,
the focoists say that the mere example of seeing one bullet down a
helicopter will shatter the invincibility of the enemy. The defeat
of the U.S. military is shown to be a reality: "How would they
have felt (the pigs and the people) if the nameless, faceless,
lightning-swift soldier of the people could have reached up,
twisted the tail of their $200,000 death bird, and hurled it into
the streets, broken, ablaze!! I think that sort of thing has more
to do with consciousness than anything else I can think of."(1, p.
19)
Second, the focoists say that the bourgeoisie will necessarily
wreak repression on the masses in order to attack the
revolutionaries.
The Maoist reply to these two arguments is two-fold. First,
because the focoists ignore the material conditions, they will not
demonstrate the weakness of the imperialist state; instead they
make themselves martyrs who are useful to the imperialists in
search of public proof of their invincibility. That is to say the
focoists will unintentionally convince the masses, more than ever
before, of the myth that the imperialists cannot be defeated-by
losing decisively to the imperialists.
Second, the imperialists will not have to impose heavy repression
to oppose a failed revolution of martyrs and media stars. Where it
does impose repression, the ruling class may gain the popular
support of the bourgeoisified workers in favor of "law and order."
The crux of the issue is this: Do conditions exist for successful
armed struggle in Amerika? If not, starting the armed struggle too
soon will only taint armed struggle in the minds of those who
would otherwise favor armed struggle when conditions are
conducive. That is to say premature armed struggle sets back the
onset of successful armed struggle.
Maoists do not regard focoism with a liberal eye. Lin Biao,
second-in-command to Mao at the time, put it this way in 1965: "If
they are to defeat a formidable enemy, revolutionary armed forces
should not fight with a reckless disregard for the consequences
when there is a great disparity between their own strength and the
enemy's. If they do, they will suffer serious losses and bring
heavy setbacks to the revolution."(3)
One of George Jackson's favorite quotations from Chairperson Mao
is "When revolution fails. . . it is the fault of the vanguard
party."(1, p. 27) However, this can be interpreted to mean that
revolution may fail if the vanguard party starts armed struggle
too soon or too late. The focoists still need to deal with Mao's
own analysis of the situation:
"Internally, capitalist countries practise bourgeois democracy
(not feudalism) when they are not fascist nor at war; in their
external relations, they are not opposed by, but themselves
oppress other nations. In these countries, the question is one of
long legal struggle... and the form of struggle bloodless (non-
military)... the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries
oppose the imperialist wars waged by their own countries if such
wars occur, the policy of these countries is to bring about the
defeat of reactionary governments of their own countries. The one
war they want to fight is the civil war for which they are
preparing. But this... should not be launched until the
bourgeoisie becomes really helpless."
Grounds of unity
Although Maoists need to demarcate from the focoists' military
line, the focoists' class analysis of the United States is often
right on target. There is nothing in the RYM I class analysis that
corresponds to its military line. Likewise, the Weatherman's class
analysis of 1969 (and Sakai's class analysis today) demonstrate
why armed struggle is out of the question at the moment:
"As a whole, the long-range interests of the non-colonial sections
of the working class lie with overthrowing imperialism....
However, virtually all of the white working class also has short-
range privileges from imperialism, which are not false privileges
but very real ones which give them an edge of vested interest and
tie them to a certain extent to the imperialists, especially when
the latter are in a relatively prosperous phase."(2, p. 65)
Jackson, too, formulates the question of the middle classes in the
United States in 1971. "A new pig-oriented class has been created
at the bottom of our society from which the ruling class will be
always able to draw some support."(1, p. 49) Jackson adds that
with victory in World War II, the bourgeoisie was able to offer
Euro-Amerikan workers "the flea market that muted the workers'
more genuine demands.... The controlling elites have co-opted
large portions of the lowly working class." (1, p. 102)
Since these class analyses do not correspond to the military
tactics their proponents advocate, MIM adopts the analysis without
accepting that armed struggle is the best way forward at this
time.
Engaging the masses
While it is a hallmark of focoism to attempt to gain the greatest
amount of media exposure in its mission to ignite the masses in
the here and now, in reality this is one area where focoism has a
hard time.
First, there is nothing to say that the masses inherently
understand the focoists' spectacular actions, armed or otherwise.
And if the foci rely on the bourgeoisie press, the masses are
shown a distorted account of what actually happens and the tactic
backfires. Here the methodical, Leninist strategy of building the
party through building the newspaper, its organ, pays off. The
Maoists stand ready with the most advanced theory and cogent
explanations of the facts.
Second, while the spontaneity of the moment might delight some of
the masses-those advanced enough to be in sympathy with the
focoists-this remains largely in the realm of feel-good activism.
Spectacular actions do not necessarily correspond with the most
advanced theory and the best way forward, but focoists conceive of
no other method to arouse the masses. Focoist-type demonstrations
of force are thus substituted for the actual building and taking
of power.
In the long-run focoism has never created socialism or communism,
while in the short run it has gotten many of its proponents killed
or imprisoned for their actions. There is no substitute for
organizing around the most advanced line by convincing the masses
and supporting their own initiatives.
Notes:
1. George Jackson, Blood in My Eye (New York: Bantam Books, 1971)
p. 10.
2. Harold Jacobs, ed., "You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which
Way the Wind Blows, " Weatherman, (Ramparts Press, Inc., 1970) p.
53.
3. K. Fan, ed., "Long Live the Victory of People's War!" Mao Tse-
tung and Lin Piao (New York: Anchor Press ).
4. H.W. Edwards. Labor Aristocracy, Mass Base of Social Democracy
(Stockholm: AURORA, 1978).
* * *
REUNIFIED GERMANY COLLIDES WITH ANARCHISTS
by MC89
At midnight on Oct. 2, the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany) acquired 16 million people and 42 thousand squares miles
through a process some call "reunification." Greater Germany now
has a population of 78 million and dwarfs the rest of Europe in
virtually all economic categories.
Not all came along willingly, however. On Oct. 3, the New York
Times reported that some 5,000 anti-unity demonstrators braved "a
vast deployment of police" to march through the Brandenburg Gate
but were largely ignored by jubilant pro-unification crowds.(1)
By Oct. 4 the story had changed: "8,000 radical opponents of unity
marched out of Kreuzberg, the heart of West Berlin's celebrated
counter-culture." The anarchist group Autonome-called "a cluster
of anarchic thugs" by the objective journalists at the
Times-rioted in Alexanderplatz, Berlin's central square, smashing
windows. "A huge cordon of police.... used tear gas, batons and
water cannons to curb the breakout, and skirmishes continued into
the night. Several score protesters were hustled off by the
police."(2)
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported 302 arrests. Anti-
unity ralliers were organized, they said, by the Young Socialists
(SPD), a group calling itself Alternative Agenda (Alternativer
Liste) and Autonome, who they said were "young Turks." Their
slogans included "Germany-Shut Up," "Never Again Germany," and the
charming "Where the State Stops, Life Begins." The paper went into
grim detail reckoning up the torn awnings and trashed beer-
gardens, but also said that the police had been "brutal" in their
"skull-smashing."(3)
The social-democratic Paris newspaper Le Monde was patronizing.
Its story began, "Kreuzbergers did not intend to let pass the
grand celebration of reunification without marking the change." Le
Monde described the police brutality in the most detail, but its
conclusion was that it was all "in the noble tradition of
Kreuzberg." Along the way, however, its correspondent stumbled
upon an important thought: "Doubtless they were also fearful of
not being able to continue to live in the center of Berlin-a
development which is today the subject of all speculations."(4)
Speculation stopped on Nov. 14, when 2,000 police in bulldozers
and tanks stormed into a section of Kreuzberg inhabited mainly by
squatters. Three hundred squatters were also arrested in former
East Berlin, leaving 120 buildings vacant in all.(5)
When the first wave of 700,000 East Germans came to West Germany
via Hungary one year ago, West politicans gulped and then claimed
that the refugees were welcome-that Germany in fact had a housing
surplus and an economy that could sustain newcomers. The claim had
a great deal to do with drawing open a breach in the Berlin Wall.
Unfortunately it does not seem to have been true. The German Mark
muscled itself into a position of dominance over other European
currency over the summer as the promise of unification looked like
being fulfilled. But the fact of unification was not greeted
warmly by the market. Today the Mark dips and bobs, and many are
wondering where the capital to retool East industry is going to
come from.
The housing surplus was a flat-out lie. Undesirables like the
Kreuzberger squatters are being forced out to make room for rent-
payers. It is hardly unthinkable that an entire class may be
targeted next. German nationalist pride has already turned ugly as
police have been convicted for spreading "Germany for Germans"
propaganda in Munich.(6)
The victims will likely be some of the few brown German residents:
between 1.5 million (official: Statesman's Year-Book 1986-1987)
and 10 million (unofficial: Economist) Turks are now resident
aliens. They are poor and segregated, working dogsbody jobs for
their white overlords.
And they will be eagerly replaced by incoming Landsmann, who will
work the same jobs (this is the freedom they were supposedly
clamoring for?) but will be white while doing it. Turks are
already reported to be fleeing, making room for the new Aryan
nation.
Notes:
1. NYT 10/3/90, p. A9.
2. NYT 10/4/90, p. A16.
3. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/5/90, p. 5.
4. Le Monde 10/5/90, p. 7.
5. Knight-Ridder in Detroit Free Press 11/15/90, p. A1.
6. Economist 10/6/90.
* * *
A GORBY-KOHL PACT IS BORN
by MC12
The Soviet Union and the newly-united Germany have signed a non-
aggression pact, pledging to give each other room to plunder the
world for an indefinite period before once more turning against
each other.
This time both powers are imperialist competitors.
The last non-aggression pact the Soviet Union signed with Germany
was in 1939, before Khruschev steered the USSR toward state
capitalism and social imperialism. Stalin signed the 1939 pact in
an attempt to buy time for a military buildup to defeat the
fascist imperialists in Europe. The Nazis broke the treaty to
invade Soviet Union.
Earlier this century, signing non-aggression pacts was a popular
pasttime for imperialists gearing up for war, but Stalin's motives
were very different.
Stalin was faced with Western imperialist complicity in the threat
against socialism, as the United States and England were more than
happy to see Hitler march on the USSR. The non-aggression pact
allowed time for a defensive buildup which would lead to the
defeat of the Nazis, and allow the pursuit of socialism in the
USSR to continue.
Notes: AP in Ann Arbor News 11/10/90 A3.
* * *
MICHIGAN STUDENTS AGITATE AGAINST CAMPUS POLICE
by MC5
Ann Arbor, MI-A long-simmering movement against administration
control of student life erupted at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor on Nov. 15. A series of building takeovers and
demonstrations, involving up to 2,500 students at its peak, put
forward the slogan "No Guns! No Cops! No Code!"
Students wrote these and other slogans on the sidewalks on campus
with chalk. In confrontations typical of the whole conflict, the
administration paid workers to clean off the slogans instead of
waiting for rain, which came the next day.
The administration also apprehended one chalk slogan-writer and is
threatening legal actions against the students for vandalism.
Moreover, to end the building takeover that gained widespread
media attention, the administration had 16 students arrested on
Nov. 16 for "trespassing" in campus buildings.
In the last two years, the Michigan administration has steadily
moved toward giving its Department of Public Safety officers (its
security guards) the right to arrest people and carry guns.
Previously, the university paid Ann Arbor city hall for city
police protection on campus.
Ann Arbor city cops-also criticized for harassment of gays,
lesbians and minorities-are officially accountable, through city
council, to city residents, a large portion of whom are students.
University security guards are ultimately accountable to an
appointed administration, itself accountable to regents elected by
over 1.5 million voters in Michigan in little-publicized
elections. The regents serve eight year terms.
Student leaders, principally those associated with the student
newspaper, the student government and single-issue political
organizations, recognized the switch to university cops as an
attempt by the administration to intimidate demonstrations against
itself.
The cops' ugly past
In the past five years, to stop demonstrators protesting the
policies of the administration, university security guards have:
*Followed home demonstrators against military research on campus,
thereby embarrassing the president of the university into making
an apology.
*Assisted with removal of protestors against CIA recruitment on
campus, kicking one in the groin at one rally.
*Claimed the right to restrict attendance at political talks,
chasing away activists and even musicians from campus grounds on
occasion.
*Allowed only approved university administration images by
physically taking away banners from students trying to stage a
demonstration while national television cameras portrayed life at
the University of Michigan.
*Physically removed demonstrators protesting the inauguration of
the university president.
*Torn down a placard saying "CBS lies" put up by students again
during national television coverage.
*Harassed gay students and lesbians in the bathrooms.
All of the above actions by Public Safety officers occurred before
they had guns. All of the actions had the effect of stifling
dissent against university policies or removing images for public
consumption not approved by the administration.
Justifying its move to have its own cops with guns, the university
administration cited crime in the campus area. It pointed out that
other universities have campus police forces, but it provided no
evidence that this had improved the crime rates on those campuses.
Left with no official means of controlling their own lives other
than to try to influence regents elections for the state at-large,
many students gave up the struggle. However, student referenda
consistently indicated 80% disapproval of university
administration moves to create a "code of non-academic conduct"
and police force.
This feeling finally exploded in demonstrations which attracted
the attention of all the major television stations in Detroit, the
front-page of the largest daily newspaper in Michigan, and the
attention of a host of smaller newspapers, radio stations and
television channels on Nov 15 and 16. What began with less than
200 students became over 2,000-including conservative student
government activists, vocal pro-capitalists, Dead Heads, and anti-
AIDS activists-once the major media had become involved.
Of course, this movement still left students without their final
objectives which would involve actually holding institutional
power. There is still the danger that the thousands of students
will lose their power struggle and become disillusioned with
politics once again. As MIM Notes goes to press, the students are
considering and agitating for a class boycott.
Using the mainstream media
Issues that cannot receive this quantity or favorableness of
mainstream media coverage cannot go the same road as the "No Guns!
No Cops! No Code!" movement.
To really blow open the gateway to widespread and large student
movements, students-particularly those interested in the causes of
the truly oppressed-need independent organizations that will take
the place of the unreliable bourgeois media. MIM is just such an
organization. The growth of MIM Notes circulation and student
movements will go hand-in-hand.
* * *
THE UAW AND THE AUTO OLIGOPOLY KISS AND SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE
by MC11
The United Auto Workers of America (UAW) negotiated the last of
their three labor contracts with the Big Three U.S. automakers
(General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) at the beginning of November.
The "negotiations" serve to reinforce MIM's belief that Amerika's
white working class is part of a labor aristocracy whose material
interests are the closely tied up in those of the capitalist
class. This was essentially a prefabricated process with a
predetermined outcome.
Job security, pension benefits, and keeping the U.S. automakers
viable competitors in the capitalist world market were the main
issues on the table. Public ownership of the means of production
somehow failed to make it onto the agenda.
"There is a greater need for labor and management cooperation,"
Howard D. Samuel, president of the industrial union department of
the AFL-CIO said prior to the beginning of negotiations with
General Motors in September.(1)
This "need" is based on the simple assumption-a legitimate one,
judging by the friendliness of the negotiations and their mutually
satisfactory outcome-that auto workers support and wish to
perpetuate the capitalist system, and the well-being of their
companies in particular. They want the company to make large
profits, so that their jobs will be safe and they can share in the
wealth.
The idea that auto workers might want to do away with the auto
oligopoly altogether and seize the means of production for the
proletariat of the world is not considered-and rightly so. The
white working class in the United States benefits from the
exploitation of the Third World proletariat by U.S. corporations.
The new UAW-GM agreement, which the Ford and Chrysler contracts
closely mirror, provides that workers with less than 10 years'
seniority who are laid off can be paid up to 95% of their take-
home pay for a year. For those with more than 10 years' seniority
the benefits period extends for three years.(2) So GM can close
plants-which it wants to do, since it cannot sell all the cars and
trucks it has the potential to build-while paying workers not to
produce anything. Production for social need, instead of for
profit, is apparently a concept the UAW did not choose to bring
up.
The average auto worker makes more than $30,000 a year before
overtime, and the UAW gets approximately $345 million a year to
make these deals.(3) The auto contracts, which will expire in
three years, were widely perceived as beneficial to both parties,
a symbol of the new age of worker-management cooperation. Self-
proclaimed revolutionaries who stubbornly subscribe to the
Trotskyist idea that revolution can only come from the urban
industrial workers and insist on attempting to organize the white
working class should wake up and smell the Folger's.
In this golden age of labor relations, it is the real proletariat
of the world that gets left out in the cold.
Notes:
1. NYT 9/3/90, p.1.
2. Chicago Tribune 11/10/90.
3. Detroit News 11/12/90, p.3E.
* * *
ACTIVISTS CONFRONT NUKE TESTS
by MC11
The United States has detonated four nuclear weapons at its Nevada
test site in the last two months. On November 14, four protestors
from the environmental activist organization Greenpeace delayed
the test for two hours by infiltrating the site and making their
way to "ground zero." They were removed and arrested.(1)
In a test on October 12, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
detonated a nuclear weapon with a yield of 20 to 150 kilotons. The
atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II was a 13-
kiloton weapon. A DOE spokesperson claimed that no radiation
escaped into the atmosphere from the underground test chamber. The
United States has announced eight tests at the Nevada site this
year. The tests have been made with increasing frequency since
U.S. troops were sent to Saudi Arabia.(2) Not that we should leap
to any conclusions, but...
The nuclear warhead production industry's budget in 1989 was over
$8 billion. Since 1945 the U.S. government has built more than
60,000 nuclear warheads.(3) Imperialism is necessary for
capitalism to expand and survive, and the use-or threat-of nuclear
weapons is a an important tool for a superpower desperately
fighting to maintain its world hegemony.
Tactics such as those employed by Greenpeace and SANE/Freeze
(lobbying, civil disobedience, marching on Washington, voting)
haven't stopped government spending on nuclear weapons from
increasing every year for the last decade, or prevented pro-
imperialist candidates from being elected. Such tactics are doomed
to failure, because they lack a sound material analysis of why the
U.S. does what it does and an understanding of the forces they
face.
For those who would like to avoid a nuclear war-and all
imperialist wars-MIM recommends joining the revolutionary party
and organizing for revolution. It's one or the other.
Notes:
1. Chicago Tribune 11/15/90.
2. L.A. Times 10/13/90.
3. The Defense Monitor Vol. XVIII, No. 4, 1989.
* * *
MUSIC REVIEWS
BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS, EDUTAINMENT
The emphasis of this most recent album centers on the use of rap
music as the voice of the urbanized oppressed Afrikan Nation. The
lead singer, Chris Parker (KRS-1) also writes and produces, and is
at the forefront of the "stop the violence" anti-drug movement.
His message is not pro-socialist, but definitely anti-Amerikan.
Not being an advocate of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought has
left KRS-1 claiming to be a revolutionary without a program for
the liberation of the Afrikan nation.
He does refer to biblical revelations about a second coming of
Christ and calls himself a "meta-physician." Following the pro-
Jesus line has, to no surprise, allowed anti-gay and consistent
women-as-whores references ruin an otherwise well-intentioned
militant album. For instance, in the cut "ya strugglin," the issue
of using chemicals to alter Blacks' hairstyles is raised, and
Blacks are questioned: why do they follow an Aryan standard of
appearance.
The song contains excerpts from a speech by socialist Kwame Toure'
asking just that. KRS-1 blows it by equating the male's use of the
"Gerri Curl" style with feminine qualities. Such horseshit only
misconstrues what those men really want to look like - white - and
ignores (maybe accepts?) Afro-American women doing the same thing.
KRS-1 does have songs that deserve praise though. "The Homeless"
forces the Afrikan-Amerikan community to ask whether its loyalties
should be aligned with oppressive Euro-Amerikkka or not. "Love's
Gonna Get 'Cha" examines the overemphasis placed on
material/consumer goods by the drug culture and "beef" exposes the
hazards of flesh-eating, like on his previous two albums. KRS-1
also tries to point out the value of an education, working for
social change, and knowledge of Afrikan history. He states at the
album's conclusion that "when you have (an) army of one concept,
one thought, one movement, and one action, you have what is called
a revolution....(as) we stay separated....we will constantly,
constantly lose every single battle from day-one to day-forever."
This quote serves to only expose his narrow focus for the "we" in
that statement is not just restricted to Afrikan heterosexual
males, when an analysis of global systems of power is done.
Ignoring the connections amongst the oppressions hinders us all,
especially in a medium as potent as rap in its ability to
communicate to the masses of impoverished youth.
-MC 15
* * *
FILM REVIEWS
BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES
The Free Speech Movement, Mario Savio, Haight-Ashbury hippies,
"little Bobby Avakian the judge's son," Students for a Democratic
Society, Abbie Hoffman, Peace Park, the Black Panthers and Ruth
Rosen versus the House Un-American Activities Committee,
Chancellor Clark Kerr, Berkeley cops, the Draft Board, LBJ,
Oakland cops, Mayor Daley, Chicago cops, Governor Reagan and the
National Guard. Guess who won?
It's a point often forgotten. Viewed with the students' objectives
in mind, the real "Berkeley in the Sixties" was a failure. Towards
the end of the film Jack Rosenberg, who spent 32 hours in the back
seat of a cop-car when thousands of students refused to let it
pull away-the birth of Berkeley's rebellion-is asked to recount
the gains made. His eyes jump around, he hems and haws, he shifts
in his seat: "Um... the civil rights movement, desegregation."
Unfortunately, Berkeley activists had almost nothing to do with
that. Numbers were mobilized with an ambition to change
things-that in itself is the great legacy of the decade-and they
changed virtually nothing.
Yet the issues, the tactics, and even the look of sixties activism
remain, in dwindled numbers, at the start of the 90s. Students who
have failed to learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat
it.
Their skulls smashed by cops' nightsticks, their park bulldozed,
their numbers reduced by a foreign war, their campus occupied by
the Guard, their eyes burning from tear gas-Berkeley activists
were put down by sheer military and police force (something they
hadn't counted on and couldn't have been prepared for). Not drugs
and loose living, a lack of vision, or a clash of visions, though
these all weakened the movement: of all the retrospective
documentaries, "Berkeley in the Sixties" is unique for not making
fun of the activists.
The film is refreshing, but it leaves the audience grasping.
Shrewder viewers-and by all means everyone should see this
film-will engage in a little critical thought. If we know that in
the end the pigs are going to act like pigs, then doing anything
less than building an organization adequate to meet them-and the
forces they represent-is really doing nothing at all. Students who
still haven't learned that lesson today should be pointed toward
MIM.
-MC89
* * *
OBIT
MEIR KAHANE
Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the Jewish Defense League (JDL)
and the leader of a movement to expel all Arabs from Israel, was
shot dead after giving a speech in New York on Nov. 5. Police say
witnesses identified an Egyptian Muslim man who was quickly taken
into custody. The police say, despite press speculation, that the
man acted alone in the killing.(1)
Mainstream coverage of the killing and obituaries were tame, to
say the least. The Times began its story on the funeral, "In a
white brick synagogue near his boyhood home in Brooklyn, Rabbi
Meir Kahane was eulogized yesterday as a holy man who, like the
prophets of old, was often shunned by his people."(2)
Two books have been published this year which detail and document
Kahane's life, Robert I. Friedman's The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir
Kahane-from FBI Informant to Knesset Member (Brooklyn: Lawrence
Hill, 1990) and Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall's The
COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against
Dissent in the United States (Boston: South End, 1990).
Kahane was a monster. Under the slogan "Never Again," which
referred to his determination to prevent another holocaust of
Jews, Kahane preached a kind of race-hatred and promoted a kind of
violence which seemed to many reminiscent of Nazism. His Jerusalem
office was papered with anti-Semitic flyers, was called the
"Museum of the Potential Holocaust." His followers, often working
closely with the Mossad, Israel's secret police force, and killed
scores of Palestinian leaders. In recent years Kahane was expelled
from the Knesset, Israel's parliament, for being a "racist."
Strong language, coming from a government which is itself on a
course to rid the land it claims of all Palestinians.
Nor was Kahane a marginal figure. As the pro-Palestinian Israeli
activist Israel Shahak has often said, Kahane spoke the private
thoughts of many Israelis, and more accurately reflected Israel's
policies than its placating politicians.
Author Friedman is a journalist who has written on the JDL. The
title of his 1986 Village Voice story gives an idea of the
character of his treatment: "Nice Jewish Boys With Bombs."
Friedman shows little knowledge of history beyond the facts his
research has led him to directly-he calls the Black Panther Party
"extremists," just as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
did-and he often sensationalizes when he should be theorizing, but
the facts he uncovers are fascinating and worth repeating.
Churchill and Vander Wall, by contrast, have iconic status among
MIM cadres. Their Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars
Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement
(Boston: South End, 1988) is a primary text in MIM study groups.
The new book, here only cited, will be examined in detail in next
month's MIM Notes.
Young Dog
Kahane was born in Brooklyn in 1932 to ardent Zionists (see
definition of Zionism on page 4). Z. V. Jabotinsky, who led the
armed struggle to establish Israel and whom Israel's first prime
minister dubbed "Vladimir Hitler," and Israeli Prime Minister to-
be Menachem Begin were frequent guests in the Kahane household.(3)
After inlaws were ambushed and shot by Palestinians in Palestine
in 1938, the Kahane family
dedicated itself to arms-running.(3, p. 21) Young Meir joined
Betar, a para-military youth group founded by Jabotinsky, in 1946,
buying arms from returning GIs and from mobster Meir Lansky and
packing and shipping them under the aegis of the Longshoreman's
Union. Future Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek ran a competing New
York business.(3, pp. 35-37)
At the time most Orthodox Jews opposed Zionism on religious
grounds. The Kahane family was Orthodox and sent Meir off to a
Yeshiva, an Orthodox school, to study to become a rabbi. Meir,
more interested in politics than books, nearly flunked out, later
dropping out and for a while forsaking his Orthodoxy.(3, pp. 43-
44) Nevertheless a sub-head in the Times citing the authority of
his father said he was "A Brilliant Student."
Spook
The FBI began watching Kahane in 1955, shortly after he had been
drummed out of Betar for his militance.(3, pp, 42-45) Working as a
Hebrew teacher to children, Kahane preached hatred for the Blacks
he saw coming into Jewish neighborhoods, striking a chord with FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover.
Again he was expelled for his extremism. But this time he went to
the press. The Brooklyn Daily ate up Kahane's story of persecution
at the hands of self-hating Jews and ate up Kahane: later he
became associate editor of the newly-retitled Jewish Press.(3, pp.
48-51)
In 1962 Kahane travelled to Israel, where he was shocked to find
no one paid attention to him.(3, p. 52) Defeated, he returned and
took a job as a morning paperboy, at age 30.(3, p. 55) Days he
spent scheming with his old Betar buddy, Joseph Churba, who had
developed contacts within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
and Israeli intelligence while a Columbia student and who was then
working on behalf of the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh
Diem.(3, pp. 57 & 60) Before long the two, Kahane using the name
Michael King, had been hired by the FBI to infiltrate the far-
right John Birch Society and various sects of the left and the
right.(3, p. 62)
Churba and Kahane soon became pro-Vietnam War point men as
President Johnson ran for re-election on a peace platform. In
1965, they founded the Consultant Research Associates to promote
the war among American Jews ("If the U.S. allows Vietnam to fall,
what support will it give to Israel?") and the July Fourth
Movement, with cells on campuses across the country.(3, pp. 63-66)
The CIA backed Kahane's and Churba's pro-war work. Kahane wrote
The Jewish Stake in Vietnam and published it through a CIA-funded
house while Churba testified before Congress, instigating purges
of Arabs from the U.S. government.(3, p. 78)
Churba still lives in Washington. In 1979, he ghostwrote an
article for Ronald Reagan ("Recognizing the Israeli Asset,"
Washington Post, August 1979), becoming a member of Reagan's
transition team the following year.(3, p. 80) Today he is head of
the Center for International Security, a think-tank founded by the
Moonie Confederation of Associations for the Unity of the
Societies of America.(3, p. 59)
Jewish Defense League
Kahane, by now an expert in right-wing organizing, found a focus
for his energy in 1968 when he formed the Jewish Defense League.
Perversely, he had first proposed calling it the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, the name of a counterfeit world-domination
document often cited by anti-Semites.
For his first official act he testfied before the House Un-
American Activities Committee, denouncing the anti-Zionist
American Council of Judaism, and giving his group an image of
being "sanctioned by the government," as Friedman says.(3, pp. 89-
90)
"Sanctioned" may be a weak word. It's certain that the U.S.
government and the JDL moved in the same direction, at least at
this time; it's open to question how closely they worked together.
Circumstantial evidence-Kahane's years as an FBI and a CIA
operative-suggests that the state may have helped to create the
JDL and assigned Kahane to mastermind its coming attacks on Black
activism. Or Kahane might have worked independently and shared
information with the feds. Or the feds might simply have used him
and the JDL without his knowing compliance. Only the last notion
can be proven.
Kahane preyed upon Jewish fears of Black militants, culling all
the anti-Semitic quotations he could and comparing the black-
leather-and-beret Panthers to the Nazis in his Jewish Press
column. Black-Jewish tensions were already running high as a
result of a New York strike which pitted the largely-Jewish
teachers' union against Black parents who wanted their children to
have Black teachers and administrators. JDL thugs sent forged
death threats to teachers, attacked Black protestors, and raided
the offices of radio station WBAI, which was sympathetic to the
parents, carrying clubs. (3, pp. 91-93)
The FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) was working
behind the scenes to stir up white backlash too, and it wasn't
long before they started using the JDL as a front. A memo approved
by Director Hoover ran as follows:
"The NYO [FBI New York Office] is presently considering an attempt
to contact and establish some rapport with the Jewish Defense
League in order to be in a position to furnish it with information
the Bureau wishes to see utilized in a counter-intelligence
technique...."(3, p. 94)
Soon the following letter was sent from FBI offices:
"Dear Rabbi Kahane:
I am a Negro man who is 48 years old and served his country in the
U.S. Army in WW2.... I have always thought Jewish people are good
and they have helped me all my life. That is why I become so upset
about my eldest son who is a Black Panther and very much against
Jewish people. My oldest son just returned from Algers (sic) in
Africa where he met a bunch of other Black Panthers from all over
the world. He said to me that they all agree that the Jewish
people are against all the colored people and that the only
friends the colored people have are the Arabs.... From the way
they talked it sounded like they had a plan to force Jewish store
owners to give them money or they would drop a bomb on the Jewish
store.... I though (sic) you might be able to stop this...."(4)
On May 7, 1970, 35 JDL members pulled up in front of Black Panther
Party headquarters in Harlem in a van loaded with chains, sticks,
and numchucks.(3, p. 97)
-MC89
Notes:
1. NYT 11/7/90, p. A1.
2. NYT 11/7/90, p. B11.
3. Robert I. Friedman.The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir Kahane-from
FBI Informant to Knesset Member (Brooklyn: Lawrence Hill, 1990).
4. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall's The COINTELPRO Papers:
Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United
States (Boston: South End, 1990).
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
ISRAEL TORTURES PALESTINIAN PRISONERS
by MC11 & MC14
Evidence suggests that Israeli authorities murdered Palestinian
prisoner Abd el-Ati al-Zaanin on Nov. 2. The death was framed to
look like a suicide, with prison officials testifying that they
found the 35-year-old resident of the Gaza Strip hanging in his
cell from a rope made of a torn blanket.
A preliminary autopsy report released Nov. 4 stated that al-Zaanin
had choked to death, but did not indicate how he had choked.
Israeli soldiers wounded at least 300 Palestinians and killed one
during the two days of demonstrations that spread throughout Gaza
following the news of al-Zaanin's death.(1)
Incarceration of Palestinians as a means of suppressing their
struggle for self-determination is a tool employed by Israeli
imperialism with increasing frequency. On November 3, two
Palestinian leaders were arrested and told they would imprisoned
for six months without being charged.
There are currently more than 14,000 Palestinians in Israeli
prisons, not counting temporary detainees in the hand of the
military or the 58 police stations and outposts scattered
throughout the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
Since 1965, well over 350,000 Palestinians-nearly one-fifth of the
population of Occupied Territories-have been imprisoned.(2)
Torture of Palestinian prisoners by members of the General
Security Services (Shin Bet) is common practice. Several sources,
including the respectably bourgeois London Times, have reported
Israeli use of prolonged beatings, electroshock, and psychological
torture to extract confessions from Palestinian prisoners. (Signed
confessions used as evidence in Israeli courts are in Hebrew,
which many Palestinians do not speak or read. All other courtroom
proceedings also take place in the language of the
imperialists).(2)
Autopsy reports have revealed at least three other deaths by
torture at the Gaza prison in the last 20 months. In March, 1989,
officials said a prisoner who was found dead in the prison's Shin
Bet section had died of an ulcer. An autopsy showed that the ulcer
attack was due to the blows evidenced by the 24 bruises on his
body.
On Dec. 3, 1989 another prisoner was found dead in a cell in the
Shin Bet interrogation section of the prison. Prison officials
claimed he had hanged himself. An autopsy stated he had choked to
death, but could not determine how.
On Dec. 19, 1989 the Gaza military commander said a 27-year-old
Palestinian died of a heart attack in the Shin Bet section. An
autopsy revealed that he died of internal stomach bleeding caused
by a blow.(1)
Israeli imperialism and it's brutal manifestations are supported
and made possible by U.S. aid. This year the figure reached $10
million a day-$3.7 billion a year.(3)
Notes:
1. Cox News Service in Columbus Dispatch, 11/6/90.
2. Palestine Focus, July-Aug 1990, p.4-5
3. Palestine Focus, Sept.-Oct. 1990, p.7.
DON'T BOTHER TELLING IT TO THE JUDGE
by MC11
The California State Supreme Court isn't interested in why Charles
Edward Whitt thinks he should not be murdered by the state. The
condemned man was found guilty of the shotgun murder of a
bystander during a 1980 robbery of a general store.
The justices voted on Oct. 25 to uphold Whitt's death sentence,
even though they agreed that the trial judge should have allowed
Whitt to respond when his lawyer asked him why he deserved to
live. Too late, they said. Since Whitt's lawyer didn't tell the
judge what Whitt wanted to say, there was no way of knowing
whether his statement would have effected the verdict.
In accordance with Amerika's distorted legal system, in which
those responsible for the death and exploitation of millions are
rewarded and those who are the most exploited are punished, Whitt
will go to the electric chair. If he makes it before Dec. 31, he
will be the twenty-first prisoner to be (officially) killed by the
United States in 1990, and the 141st to be executed since the
death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Notes: L.A. Times 10/26/90, p. A21.
STATE DRUGS PRISONER FOR EXECUTION
by MC11
Michael Perry is a diagnosed schizophrenic who has been sentenced
to death. The good news for him is that although the United States
is one of the few countries in the world to sanction capital
punishment for the mentally retarded convicted of a capital
offense, it has not yet passed a law allow the execution of anyone
who is insane. (If prisoners can't realize they're being executed
as a result of their actions, they're deemed "not competent to be
executed"). The bad news is that the Supreme Court ruled last
February that a state can treat mentally ill prisoners with anti-
psychotic drugs against their will if the state decides it's in
their best interest-and when Perry takes his drugs, he becomes
"competent," in the eyes of the state. Given the choice of
insanity or death, Perry has refused to take the drugs. But the
Louisiana Supreme Court has ordered him to be treated, against his
will if necessary, to permit his execution. On Nov. 13, the United
States Supreme Court sent Perry's appeal-which argues that it is
in fact not in his best interest to take the drugs-back to the
Lousiana 19th District Court for a decision.
Notes: New York Times 11/14/90.
FACTS ON PRISON
by MC11
The federal and local governments with their war on drugs and
tough talk on crime say prisons are a solution. The facts belie
their claim. Crime rates go up and down, but money for prisons and
the number of people in the joint only goes up.
*Since 1980, prison and jail populations have increased by
114%.(1)
*4.1 million adults came under the authority of correctional,
parole or probation officials last year. One-quarter of these were
in prison or jail.(1)
*Blacks make up 11.4% of the total U.S. population. 47% of
prisoners are Black.(2) Assuming the same racial breakdown for
those on parole or probation, approximately 6.7% of the total
African-American population over 18 fell under direct state
supervision last year.
*The nation's prison and jail population recently passed the one
million mark and is rising at a 13 percent annual rate.(3)
*Maintaining that rate of growth would cost at least $100 million
per week for construction of new facilities alone.(3)
*According to the Jail Population Statistics, Bureau of Justice
Statistics Survey, in June 30, 1989, 26% of U.S. jails were under
Federal of state court order or consent decree to limit the number
of inmates due to overcrowding.(3)
*In 1989 prison cell space increased by 5.5%, while the states'
prison population rose 7.4%.
*Most states spent an average of $65 a day on housing prisoners
inmate.(4)
*More than 10% of the nation's prison population is housed in
rental cells. The Federal Government pays rental fees for more
than 12,000 prisoners a year. In the 1990s most states will
double the number of prisoners in rental cells, even if current
proposals for construction are actually accomplished. (Local
sheriffs bid for paying customers, make huge profits).(4)
*According to the most recent National Crime Survey, report one in
four American households experienced a violent crime or property
crime last year-virtually the same proportion as in the past five
years.(5) In other words, crime rates have nothing to do with the
amount spent on prisons or the size of the prison populations.
Notes:
1.AP in NYT 11/5/90.
2.Statistical Abstract of the United States.
3. NYT 10/22/90.
4. NYT 8/3/90.
5. NYT 9/4/90.
FREEDOM FOR BLACK NATION
Dear MIM:
My eyes are red
My heart is bleedin'
There's time for war
I can't take it no more
Everday the sun don't shine
but when it does we're gonna
be home "in the motherland"
with every other blackman, woman and
child
My eyes are red
My heart is bleedin'
for freedom
There's time for war
I can't take it no more
To hear you cry.
To see you die.
To hear him lie.
To see him kill you.
My eyes are red
My heart is bleedin'
for love-for black love
To share, and to be with my black
universal family.
My eyes are red
My young heart is bleedin'
for a Mac' 10
My eyes are red
My young heart is bleedin'
for a Mac K-11
There's time for war
There's time for you and me
to come together. Forever,
and ever, and ever, and ever
and ever, and ever, and ever.
Together forever;
There's time for you to love me
There's time for me to love you.
My eyes are red
My young heart is bleedin'
for a M-60
My eyes are red
My heart is bleedin'
for a M-50
My eyes are red
blood red!
My heart is bleedin'
Up you mighty race and accomplish
what you will.
Up!
Up!
Up you mighty race and accomplish
what you will.
Let know man of another race
bring us to his feet!
Up you mighty people
and let our hearts bleed!
Till we've accomplished what we
will
My eyes are red
bloody red
freedom, freedom you
mighty race!
-Black prisoner
October 1990
MIM NOTES IN PRISON
Prisoners have long been MIM's best correspondents, the people
who, as a group, have responded to MIM Notes the most consistently
and with the most interest in MIM's goals and principles. Daily
exposure to the full forces of state repression and the harsh
material conditions under which they live make prisoners one of
the most potent revolutionary groups in the U.S., despite the
immense difficulty of organizing against the state from within its
most oppressive institution. In recognition of this, MIM has made
a concerted effort to get MIM Notes into the prisons-the paper is
also free to all prisoners.
The wall of silence built around prisons by the state and the
media's refusal to investigate the bits of stories that do get
through-and its willingness to report the distorted versions
propagated by the Department of Correctional Services -keeps the
reality of what goes on inside shrouded from the public eye. In an
effort to expose the fascist nature of the state as in its
physical, psychological and economic violence against prisoners,
MIM plans to devote space in upcoming issues to the stories that
don't get reported.
Although it is difficult for prisoners who want to work with MIM
to participate in all aspects of the party, they can participate
in what is at this point our most important work-building our
newspaper. We encourage prisoners to supply us with articles,
letters and information on their conditions and the issues around
which they are organizing. (In the interest of security no names
will be attatched to the information we publish unless
specifically requested).
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