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 170 September 15, 1998
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. U.$. IMPERIALISM CONTINUES WORLD WAR III
2. NUMBER IMPRISONED IN AMERIKAN CONTINUES TO RISE
3. LETTERS
4. ALBANY PIGS & ALL PIGS ARE AMERIKKKA¹S MILITARY ARM FOR
NATIONAL OPPRESSION; REPORT INCRIMINATES ALBANY POLICE
5. ALBANY COPS IMMUNE TO ASSAULT CHARGES
6. PROTESTS CONTINUE AGAINST U.$-BACKED INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT
7. PUERTO RICO SETS DATE FOR PHONY PLEBISCITE
8. SPIES TAKE $44 BILLION IN U.$. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
9. REACTIONARY DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA TELLS PRISONERS:
"FIND PRISON OPPRESSIVE? DON'T ORGANIZE, MEDITATE!"
10. U.$. BOMBS IMPORTANT PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT IN SUDAN
11. CONTINUED U.$. ATTACKS AGAINST IRAQI PEOPLE
12. U.$. IS BIGGEST TERRORIST IN AFGHANISTAN
13. DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM!
U.$. BOMBINGS SHOW IMPERIALIST LUST FOR WAR
14. PEOPLE PROTEST IMPERIALIST MILITARISM
15. CIA TERRORISM GROWS IN ANGOLA
16. WHAT'S THE BIGGEST ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY?
THE FBI
17. GUATEMALA SUES U.$. TOBACCO FIRMS
18. OUTRAGE OVER RAPIST'S UNREPENTANT FRIEND:
DON'T RELY ON IMPERIALIST COURTS AND COPS TO END
PATRIARCHY!
19. PIG COLLECTION OF PRISONER'S DNA HALTED
20. RAIL RAISES CONSCIOUSNESS AND FUNDS AT WARPED TOUR
21. HAND-WRITING ANALYSIS IS LATEST MANAGEMENT
HOCUS-POCUS
22. WHEN YOU ROLL SNAKE EYES, THE WHITE HOUSE WINS
23. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
* * *
WHAT IS MIM?
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
* * *
U.$. IMPERIALISM CONTINUES WORLD WAR III
The United Snakes of Imperialism dealt its most recent military
blow of World War III on August 20, 1998 with its bombing of
Sudan and Afghanistan. Imperialism economically, politically
and militarily dominates oppressed nations throughout the
world. The purpose of imperialist hegemonic control is to
extract wealth and exploit labor to increase the wealth and
power of the imperialist nation.
The most recent military strikes and the intensified so-called
anti-terrorist campaign is part of a war long ago launched
against the majority of the world's peoples -- World War III.
This war is the primary cause of death, starvation, poverty,
illness, crime and social problems. MIM supports the growing
anti-imperialist sentiment and organizing among oppressed
nation masses. We denounce the recent military attacks and MIM
strongly denounces the real terrorist: Amerikkkan imperialism.
In the official Amerikkkan rhetoric immediately following the
strikes against Sudan and Afghanistan in which 75 Tomahawk
cruise missiles were used, the United Snakes claimed that there
was "compelling," yet classified, information which linked
Osama bin Laden to the bombing attacks against the Amerikkkan
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The United Snakes used this as
reason for bombing alleged training camps of Islamic rebels in
Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.
A CNN-USA Today poll following the bombings stated that the
majority of Amerikkka supported these imperialist attacks with
65% of parasitic imperialist masses in the country supporting
the use of further action including ground deployment to
allegedly stamp out Islamic terrorism.
Immediately following the bombing, Pakistan announced that one
of the never-miss missiles landed in its territory and injured
a half dozen people. Clinton quickly called the Pakistani
president. Afterward, Pakistan retracted its statement that a
missile had hit its territory.
Several days after the bombing, protests around the world, and
compelling and well-documented information made clear that the
U.$. had struck a genuine pharmaceutical plant. The constantly
changing and contrived justifications that the u.s. uses to
justify invasion of other countries, such as the claim that
this plant was manufacturing a deadly nerve gas, do not
convince MIM. And even if this were true MIM would not support
the biggest terrorist organization in the world invading other
countries as a self-appointed global police.
As MIM Notes goes to press, the people of Sudan as well as many
other countries have called for a fact-finding committee of the
United Nations to prove that the factory had nothing to do with
the production of chemical weapons components. The United
Snakes says that this is not necessary and refuses to turn over
the evidence which supposedly justifies the direct military
invasion of two nations.
MIM calls on all anti-militarists, pacifists and progressives
to work with RAIL and oppose the direct military attacks
against the Third World people. MIM calls on all anti-
imperialists to organize against this particular campaign and
imperialism in general and build genuine anti-imperialist
organizations as strong forces within the United Front against
imperialism. The MIM-led United Front against imperialism
carries out education campaigns while developing independent
institutions of the oppressed. We build towards the day when we
will tear down the current illegitimate Amerikkkan government
through armed revolutionary struggle to ending oppression and
construct a society which represents the interests of the
masses.
* * *
NUMBER IMPRISONED IN AMERIKAN CONTINUES TO RISE:
Trend towards fascism against oppressed nations continues
The number of people in Amerika's prisons and jails rose to
1,725,842 in 1997 - an increase of 5.2 percent. By 1997, the
number of incarcerated Black men passed the number of white men
in prisons and jails. Close to ten percent of Black men aged 25
through 29 were in prison last year. The imprisonment of Black
men at eight times the rate of white men is an example of how
the prisons system is a tool for the repression of oppressed
nations within u.$. borders.(1)
As the Bureau of Justice Statistics report citing these figures
is being publicized, we are also learning that all the talk of
decreased crime rates in Amerika may be just that. Several
major U.$. cities have recently been exposed for tampering with
their own crime rate statistics, especially downgrading
felonies to less serious crimes to reduce the number of crimes
that get reported to the federal government.(2)
MIM likes to point out that despite the wildly growing number
of prisoners in this country in the past 30 years, the crime
rate remained steady. So Amerikan prisons do nothing to end
crime. The fact that several police departments tampered with
their crime rate statistics goes to show that crime rates are
irrelevant to imperialism. In 1998, lower crime rates sell
police departments and so lower crime rates are what the
departments deliver. The important thing is to keep up some
justification for increased fascism against oppressed nation
communities.
MIM calls the growing prison system and the police departments
that feed off of putting people in prison all part of emerging
fascism in Amerika. While we hold that Amerika is not fascist
at this time, there are elements of fascism in this country,
specifically in the prisons. Fascism is defined as the
combination of the state and capital for the extraction of
forced labor, and we see fascism in the pay-for-imprisonment
systems that prisoners are being subjected to around Amerika.
We see fascism particularly in prisons growth, complete with
private capital investment in prisons.(3)
Texas has the highest rate of imprisonment in the u.$. - 717
prisoners per 100,000 population. The nearest competitor is
California, with 672 per 100,000. When it comes to regions, the
South "wins," with 506 prisoners per 100,00 throughout the
region.(1) Coincidentally, the two largest private prisons
companies in Amerika are based in the South -- Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA), in Tennessee (4) and Wackenhut in
Florida. Business is booming for private prisons as Amerika
cracks down on the oppressed.
States all over the country are contracting with private prison
companies to build pieces of their state system. Earlier this
year, 100 Indiana prisoners were sent to a CCA-run prison in
Tennessee. They are to remain there indefinitely. Contrary to
the usual argument that private prisons are so great because
they cost the state less money, it will cost roughly the same
to house these 100 men in the Hardeman County Correctional
Facility as it would have cost to keep them in Indiana.(5)
More recently, CCA has signed agreements to open new prisons
and jails with the state of Montana, and the county of Tulsa,
Oklahoma. The Montana agreement calls for a 500-bed men's
prison that will cost $25 million. The prison will be
expandable to house 1,500 prisoners and will be built and then
run for four years by CCA from the time it is completed in
August 1999. This contract is supposed to bring in $9 million
per year for CCA while it houses 500 prisoners.(6)
In Tulsa, CCA will build a 1,440-bed multi-security-level jail
of which 1,100 beds will be used immediately. The Tulsa
facility should be open by April, 1999. After signing the Tulsa
deal, CCA was running and building a total of 79 repressive
facilities with 64,946 beds in the U.$. and other countries.
The Tulsa contract will bring in more than $17 million for CCA
when the jail is filled to capacity.(7)
The state of Georgia recently built its first private prison -
contracting with Cornell Corrections Corporation. The prison
cost $38 million to build and will imprison 750 people. The
town where the prison is located, Folkston, is apparently
thrilled that it can now take part in the prisons boom. It is
expecting to double its population from 2,400 to 4,800 because
it can now support more citizens who will live off the
repressive institution.(8)
Just as we see emerging fascism in private corporations opening
and running their own prisons for profit, we see it in state
prison systems charging prisoners for their own imprisonment.
One such pay-for-imprisonment is Ohio's recently adopted plan
to squeeze $3 from a prisoner each time s/he makes a non-
emergency visit to a doctor or other medical personnel. The
state claims that the policy is intended to discourage false
claims of illness -- so that prisoners will not try to skip
days of work by claiming they are sick when they are not.
But with inmate pay scales averaging to $18 per month, and
needing that money to buy things like stamps, envelopes and
soap, $3 per medical visit looks a lot more like extortion or
an ultimatum to keep prisoners from seeking care than it looks
like a deterrent to skipping work. An Ohio prisons spokesperson
claims that prisoners who do not have money in their accounts
are not denied care.(4) And possibly this is true, but MIM
already knows that prisoners in Michigan have debits placed on
their accounts regardless of whether the money is there when
they make a charge or not.
In Iowa and Michigan, prisoners also pay $3 a pop for health
care visits, and this can be for minimal care or advice.(9) And
in Illinois, prisoners are provided some health care within the
prison, but are charged $2 if they have to leave the prison to
go to the hospital.(10)
Prisons growth
With so much money to be made off imprisonment, it's no wonder
Amerika is rushing to lock more people up than ever before. But
rather than admit the real motives for building prisons --
national oppression and profit -- the U.$. government and media
focus on the supposed fact that Amerikans "are safer because
more criminals are behind bars."(8)
But the same numbers that show the prisoner population growing
at a rate that will top 2 million by the year 2000 show that
most of this growth can be attributed to those under lock and
key serving longer sentences and being denied parole. Prisoners
incarcerated for parole violations also now account for 30
percent of the total prison population, up from 15 percent in
1980. And all of these changes amount to the same thing:
prisoners are serving longer sentences for the same
convictions.(1)
This straight-up lock-em-up approach to prisoners reveals the
gross hypocrisy of the system that claims it is for
"corrections," and of those state systems like the one in Ohio
that use the term "rehabilitation" in their names. By
criminalizing prisoners, and by arguing that the most correct
approach to crime is to keep human beings confined to prison
cells for more years off their lives, the statisticians,
analysts, policy makers, and the keepers of the keys are
arguing that once a persyn is convicted of a crime that's it
for them, bar them from society for life.
MIM agitates against prisons and for prisoners' rights because
we believe firmly that human potential is infinite, as Mao
said. And prisons in Amerika do all they can to destroy human
beings' capacity and will to exercise their potential. We write
propaganda like this to show that while the bourgeoisie has its
side of the story that says society is better with people being
locked down, we have our side too. MIM builds independent
institutions of the oppressed and builds public opinion in
favor of the just struggles of the oppressed. We do this
without any pretensions toward being objective because we are
firmly subjectively invested in the interests of the oppressed.
We are working toward the goal of revolution to overturn the
oppressive institutions of the current imperialist society and
replace them with institutions run by and in the interests of
the international proletariat.
Notes:
1. New York Times 9 August 1998, p. 14. (The contrasts between
the white and Black nations in the prison figures are most
stark, but part of this is attributable to inaccurate or
incomplete reporting on Latinos in Federal surveys. Even with
current reporting, 2.6 percent of "Hispanic" men between 25 and
29 are in prisons and jails -- compared to 0.8 percent of white
men the same age. But it is impossible to distinguish between
Blacks and the Latino nations with these categories because the
government does not clarify how many Latinos are of African
descent, etc. The article MIM found on this subject also did
not list any figures for First Nations.)
2. New York Times 3 August 1998, p. 1.
3. MIM Theory 11: Amerikan Prisons on Trial.
4. Associated Press 10 August 1998.
5. The Evansville Press 10 April 1998, p. 15.
6. CCA press release 22 July 1998.
7. CCA press release 27 July 1998.
8. Savannah Morning News 10 August 1998.
9. Michigan DOC Notice to Prisoners: Prisoner Co-Pay for Health
Care; An Iowa prisoner 16 July, 1998.
10. An Illinois prisoner 13 May 1998.
(MIM is aware of many other states charging prisoners for
pieces of their imprisonment, but there are too many instances
to list in one place. Contact us if you would like to work with
us on compiling all this information for quick anti-prisons
activism reference.)
* * *
LETTERS
Black wimmin face national oppression
Dear Editor, I am writing your newspaper to protest and to
provide a counter-analysis to "Black Birthrate for Single Woman
the United States," which appeared in the New York Times July,
1, 1998.
One of the oldest myths of US society is the sexual and family
irresponsibility of Blacks in America. Whether it be the
stereotype of the Black man as 'Mandingo' (the sexual stud) or
the Black woman as a 'baby-making welfare queen' the sexual and
irresponsibility myths are part of the pack of racist lies,
slander, and defamation that are at the core of American
ideology and values.
A society cannot oppress a nationality without having an
arsenal of ideas that justify that oppression. Newspapers,
television, radio, movies, and popular culture in US
imperialist society arc all undercoated with these myths as to
why imperialism is 'correct and good.' Racist and sexist myths
are used to justify every embodiment of sexual and racist
oppression.
In this instance, this newspaper article would have the naive
reader to believe that if fewer single Black women gave birth
to children, fewer Black people would live in poverty. Poverty
is therefore defined by the NYT as a variable that can be
controlled by the people. And Black poverty is, therefore,
linked to poor, unmarried single Black mothers.
The unspoken assumption is that Black women, not America, are
the cause of this poverty.
A revolutionary and historical analysis is the only method that
can be used to arrive at the truth. We must define
revolutionary as the set of ideas and values that seeks to
overturn the power of capital (banking, finance, and
manufacturing) by the oppressed toilers and masses.
In this situation, the truth is that Black people in the United
States (the descendants of the slave trade of the 17th, 18th
and 19th century into the Western Hemisphere) have had a
relationship to the United States government and the United
States economy that is one of racism and national oppression.
Post-slavery America has seen the full development of various
classes in the Black nation, mostly working class and poor,
with large numbers of middle class, and a small elite.
Large numbers of Black people in the United States live in
poverty, both women and men. (The majority of Black people are
women.) Although this article will not quote statistics, the
earning power of Black people is less than white people in the
United States. The earning power of Black women is less than
Black men. And the majority of Black families are headed by
Black women. Therefore, the relationship between Black women
and US imperialism is one of sexual and national oppression
(also known as gender and economic racism). When these women
bear children their families are, therefore, more likely to be
poor than the children of a white American female.
It must be remembered that racist US imperialism systematically
under-employs Black people. It must be remembered that the
dirtiest jobs in the economy are often filled by Blacks. It
must be remembered that there are certain places in the
American workforce where it is still rare to see a Black face
(for example, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning jobs,
or maintenance mechanics or electronic technicians or computer
software technicians, et et cetera.) But there are many jobs
where it is quite common to find Black single women (such as
fast-food jobs, maids in hotels, and employees in dry cleaners,
supermarket check-out cashiers.) Because of these realities,
single Black female parents are more than likely to 'feel the
heel' of the US economy on their neck while they work, live,
and raise their families.
This truth must be twisted by US imperialism because it is a
truth that exposes the racist essence of the relationship
between Black women and US imperialism. Therefore, articles are
published that promote the myth of "irresponsibility" among
Black single mothers.
An interesting fact can also be seen by observing a chart in
this same article. This particular line graph shows that while
Black childbirths by Black single moms is supposedly
decreasing, childbirths by white single women is not. No racist
remarks or analysis is made about single white mothers causing
white poverty. There is no need for US imperialism to create
that lie. Why? Because white Americans do not face national
oppression. The prisons are not reserved for them. And their
wages are not depressed because of their structural
relationship to US imperialism. Since this is not the case,
lies and other myths will not be created to condemn them as a
segment of US society. But since Black people do face national
oppression in the United States, and since poor and working
class Black women's wages are depressed as a consequence of
their economic relationship to US imperialism, public opinion
will be created to attempt to marginalize these women within US
society.
All dictatorships and all oppressive societies attempt to
create scapegoats in order to hide the real reasons for glaring
contradictions within their society. Single Black women are
used as a scapegoat to explain the lingering poverty within the
Black nation and the Black population.
What can be done? The most important thing is to continue to
build revolutionary movements, organizations, and theory.
Without revolutionary movements, revolutionary organization and
revolutionary theory, the revolutionary truth cannot be spread
among the proletariat and oppressed masses. Without this trio,
the power of capital cannot be opposed or overthrown.
In this instance, the truth must be told far and wide. No
sexist and racist attack on single Black mothers must be
allowed to go unanswered.
Revolutionaries should not shy away from important ideological
issues such as the one discussed in this article. The
imperialists attack their enemies daily, monthly, yearly and in
each epoch with lies, slander, and myth. The revolutionaries,
the proletariat, and their allies must spread their class truth
in the same manner. This is the only way to create the
conditions for staging winning important battles in the arena
of ideas and politics. These battles and struggles are very
important in waging the people's campaign to defeat US
imperialism and its allies.
--A comrade in the wind. July, 1998
MIM responds: We agree with this comrade's analysis of the
national oppression faced by Black wimmin. The principal
contradiction within u.s. borders is the contradiction between
the oppressed and the oppressor nations. Because of this, the
oppressed nations, including the Black nation, face the
repression and oppression described by the writer. Because
white people in the united snakes enjoy the status of oppressor
nation, they also enjoy the cultural benefits which include
propaganda portraying white wimmin as responsible mothers in
contrast to Black wimmin as in the case of this New York Times
article.
We agree with the writer's conclusion that the only solution to
this national oppression is revolutionary struggle. We must
expose the ideas of our enemies for the lies that they are. And
at the same time we must build an organization capable of
overthrowing the imperialists using the lessons of past
revolutionary struggles. Work with MIM to build this
organization and expose the lies of our enemies. Send articles
like the above to MIM Notes to help expose the imperialists.
* * *
ALBANY PIGS & ALL PIGS ARE AMERIKKKA¹S MILITARY ARM FOR
NATIONAL OPPRESSION
REPORT INCRIMINATES ALBANY POLICE
by an RC
Police brutality and national oppression within the Albany
Police Department has been brought into the spotlight by local
mainstream media in response to recent incidents. Two cases
that occurred last year have been at the forefront of this
coverage. The first case involved three young Black men who
were attacked outside a local club by police yelling racist
names who unleashed an attack dog on them. The second case
involved a bar fight which ended by two off-duty officers
bringing Jermaine Henderson to a police garage and beating him.
In the latter case the court recently decided the pigs were all
immune (see accompanying article pg. 5).
In light of the recent attention given to police brutality, the
Center for Law and Justice carried out an unscientific survey
of Albany residents, and included it in "To Protect and Serve?"
a status report on the relationship between the community and
the Albany Police Department. The Center is a progressive group
that has worked in Albany to advocate a lessening of the police
state and the prison industrial complex in New York.
For a more thorough history of police activity in the Albany
area refer to the first section of the report which details a
history of racism which was acknowledged by state officials and
the whole police department. But this is not just an Albany
issue, this history could be of any city in the U.$. where
police are Amerika¹s military arm for national oppression.
Oppressed nations and youth don't trust cops
The most incriminating confession in the Center's report may be
that given by a former Albany police officer who assured that
being Black, Latino, in an interracial couple, or driving a
nicer car than an officer are all circumstances that make
police beatings more likely to occur. "Police brutality has
been going on forever in the Albany Police Department. It
starts with the rookies right out of the academy..."
This statement does not come as a huge surprise to people who
are the victims of police brutality everyday, as the Center's
survey indicates. Compared to whites, Blacks and Latinos
interviewed by the Center had a much more negative attitude in
general towards the police. Similarly, people ages 16-20
expected much less from the police than older people who got
progressively more confidant in the police with age.
These attitudes are evidence of a systematic form of
oppression. Blacks and Latinos don' t trust the police because
experiences have taught them that the police are not looking
out for their interests. On the other hand a majority of whites
know that the police exist to protect their material interests
which involve maintaining hegemony over the oppressed nations
of the world, specifically the oppressed in the U.$. when we're
discussing the domestic police forces. And it is young people
who recognize the injustice that exists in a system which uses
a large militarized force to maintain the wealth of the
minority over the majority of people of the world. These same
young people often don't have a large stake in maintaining such
a system and therefore must be targeted by the police to keep
them in check for as long as they stay opposed to that system.
As part of their service to the community, the Center for Law
and Justice collects reports of police brutality from the
people. From 1996-1997 they received 53 complaints against the
police: including 27 for brutality and 16 for harassment.
Out of the 27 brutality charges only 12 had enough confidence
in the police department to file a charge directly with them.
Of those 12, most had trouble with the filing process. As of
the report, 6 had still been unresolved and five had been
reported as "unfounded" complaints by the department's internal
investigations. In fact, from 1991-1997 there were a total of
776 complaints filed with the department; 106 of which were for
brutality. Of those only two were considered "substantiated" by
the department itself.
One of the problems dealt with by the Center is the difficulty
that people face filing charges against police in the first
place. They criticize the police department for "performing
much of its work out of the public view and operating as a
paramilitary operation set apart from the community." While
this is true, this is inherent in the nature of a force whose
purpose is to protect the interest of one group (the white
settler nation) against the interest of another (oppressed
nations.) They are not there to "serve the people" as the title
of the report questions. Once one recognizes this, it becomes
futile to try to turn the imperialist police into a force that
serves the communities they are occupying.
While organizing for more citizen power in police
investigations is a progressive action, accepting the existence
of the police will lead to a reformist strategy that depends on
the cops to change the cops. MIM upholds a revolutionary
platform which has the goal of eradicating the police as a part
of the U$ government that is responsible for violent repression
around the world.
How to fight criminal injustice
The Center's survey addressed a few possibilities for improving
the relations between police and the community. The results
were the following: 63.5% supported more cops on the street,
76.9% supported more police sponsored education programs, 89.4%
supported community oversight of internal investigations, and
95.2% supported officer training in ethnic/cultural issues.
(One should remember the survey was not carried out
scientifically, therefore these numbers are probably flawed.)
The worst of these solutions is to increase the number of
police. It should be noted that only 33% of young people
supported this option, while 100% of those over 60 did. Many
people in the U.$. are under the false illusion that more
police and prisons will bring more order to society by
isolating the bad seeds. But as the police state of the latter
part of this century advances, numbers are becoming more
conclusive that increased police and prisons do not reduce
crime at all. (See MIM Theory #11 "Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial"
p.42 and other articles for more information on this. Available
from MIM for $6.)
The number three choice, more police programs, is also against
the interests of the people, merely giving the police more
power and influence over the community. For some reason the
Center was "surprised" by the 89.4% who supported community
oversight of the police. It is unclear why this was surprising
to them. This solution is the only one of the four that could
be progressive, and serve to help the community in dealing with
the police. Carried out in the model of the Black Panther Party
where the revolutionary organization policed the pigs and kept
them from beating and killing people in the community, police
oversight can literally save lives. However, this option does
not stop systematic repression and can further the
integrationist strategy of trying to get more pigs who are
Black or Latino, but really represent the interests of the
oppressor. Under the leadership of the proletariat can
community policing be a tool against national oppression.
The most popular choice, sensitivity training, is very
idealistic to think that police can be taught to be nice to the
people they are programmed to repress. This is why MIM stresses
the national contradiction here in the U.$., to point out that
it is not individual's racist ideas that are the problem, but a
system based on national oppression that creates the problem. A
materialist view of the situation shows that ideas that stem
from social relationships. (See MIM Theory #7 "Proletarian
Feminist Revolutionary Nationalism" for more on the national
contradiction with u.s. borders. Available from MIM for $6.)
While community oversight can be a good way to organize against
the police, that does not mean that any so-called oversight
committee will serve the people by protecting them from police
brutality. Again the mistake is often made of relying on the
system to change its ways without changing the system as a
whole. The Black Panther Party had a program that relied on
policing the cops, thereby denying the authority of the U.$.
police by instituting their own protection through force.
During its time it was a very successful program which looked
out for the people in the community. The Center's status report
gives a good example of the very opposite. It looks at the
Community Police Relations Board, established in 1984 after the
murder of a handicapped Black man by the Albany police. This
was not built by the community and not led by the proletariat,
but set up by the government. The Board has virtually no public
participation because of inconsistent, last minute scheduling.
Further investigation by the Center proved the Board to be more
of a police support group than anything else. The minutes from
meetings showed a "preoccupation with police-sponsored
activities and programs such as PAL and DARE." Members
reportedly frequented police academy graduations and police
retirement celebrations. Their activities proved to be against
the people when the Board lobbied the New York Court of Appeals
for stiffer sentencing penalties against defendants.
In fact, the Community-Police Relations Board serves the
purpose of smoothing over relations between the police and
those members of the community who are willing to support the
intensifying police state. It is up to the people to create
their own organization that will increase the power of the
people, not of the police.
The Center's report both looks at the history of police
activity in Albany and brings forth new evidence to incriminate
the department. While the report lacked a clear line, it does
give people a lot of information to use against the injustice
system. In a high point of the report, they question "whether
limiting citizen oversight to instances of individual police
misconduct and discipline is adequate to effectively address
the problem which is often rooted in the operating environment,
both political and social, of the department and community."
However, they do not go on to describe that environment which
is the imperialist system carried out by the U.$. government.
It is by recognizing police brutality and criminal injustice as
a systematic problem, and not a few bad cops like the
mainstream media suggests, that we can begin to come up with
ways of ending such violent repression.
Note:
To Protect And Serve? The Center for Law and Justice, Inc. June
1998. For a copy send $3 to Pine West Plaza Building 2,
Washington Ave. Ext. Albany, NY 12205.
MIM and RAIL receive countless direct reports from the masses
both battling the pigs on the streets and the pigs in prisons.
We publicize the information to organize against this constant
terror, but we can use your help in distributing the
information further and working with MIM and RAIL on a
compilation project. Contact mim@mim.org to help gather and
distribute the information gathered from the masses.
* *
ALBANY COPS IMMUNE TO ASSAULT CHARGES
One of the high-profile brutality cases in Albany last year was
the beating of a young Black student athlete by two white cops.
The fight began between Jermaine Henderson and two off-duty
cops in a local bar. The incident ended in the garage of a
police station where Henderson was beaten by officers Bonanni
and McKenna.
The officers were immediately suspended. Soon after, Mayor
Jerry Jennings released evidence of a cover-up attempt by the
department. The Albany police responded in full fascist form by
marching in front of city hall to protest the treatment of the
two officers. They knew that it was the government's job to
back up the department in their repression, both legal and
illegal. Many police also raised money to support their
colleagues, which brought the attention of many Black groups
concerned with the power of the Albany Police Officers
Union.(1)
Mayor Jennings continued to hold strong against the charged
police to their dismay. However, the court dismissed charges of
assault against the officers after they testified against
Henderson without waiving their right to immunity. They dropped
the charges against Henderson in a similar deal.(2) As a
result, the courts releasing two guilty cops with the small
trade off of letting one Black man free.
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Black men fill U.$. prisons,
while cops continue to run the streets free. Even though the
police have taken some heat in this case, the system has
succeeded in maintaining the Amerikan status quo. The Albany
police continue to keep brutality investigations secret so that
the pigs can cover each other's asses. Until we overthrow this
system of imperialism we can't expect the pigs to change. Their
job is to protect and serve the unjust system.
Note:
1. To Protect and Serve?
2. Times Union 13 August 1998, p.A-1.
* * *
PROTESTS CONTINUE AGAINST U.$-BACKED INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT
by MC17
In Indonesia protests continue against the U.$. backed military
dictatorship. On August 25 police broke up a demonstration in
support of Megawati Sukarnoputri in the city of Palu.
In 1997 the U$ congress allocated an additional $4.5 million in
aid to the Indonesian dictatorship, with $100,000 aimed at
military training alone.(2) In addition to brutally repressing
and offering up for exploitation its own people, Indonesia
occupies East Timor, an occupation infamous for the brutality
and oppression the East Timorese have undergone.
In all, the United States has sold more than $1.1 billion in
weaponry to Indonesia since its 1975 invasion of East Timor;
the sales have gone on in Republican and Democratic
administrations alike, regardless of the rhetoric espoused by
the President at the time. According to the U.S. Arms Control
and Disarmament Agency, from 1992 to 1994 (the most recent
years for which full data is available), Indonesia received 53%
of its weapons imports from the United States.(3)
Megawati was ousted as head of the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI) in a military-sponsored party congress in June of 1996
under President Suharto's leadership. Although Suharto stepped
down in the face of massive protests, his successor was a loyal
and trained supporter and little has changed since the new
figurehead, B.J. Habibie, took power.
Over 1,000 Megawati backers converged on the building where the
congress of the PDI was being held, claiming that Soerjadi had
been illegally installed as chief of the party.
Megawati is the eldest daughter of Sukarno, Indonesian's
president prior to the coup by Suharto which led to the
massacre of hundreds of thousands of communists and other
activists.
The military seizing control of the PDI is just one more
example of the failure of electoral politics throughout the
imperialist controlled world. The PDI never represented more
than a liberal reformist alternative to the military
dictatorship. It is far from a radical or revolutionary
organization. Yet even this alternative is seen as dangerous by
the dictators.
On the same day, in the capital of Jakarta, police blocked
about 300 workers from marching in the streets during a protest
for labor rights injuring a number of the protestors.
It is clear that the people of Indonesia will not be allowed to
participate in democratic elections under the current
government. This is not possible while the country is
militarily and economically controlled by the imperialists. The
just demands of the people for control of their government must
be led by a revolutionary line and strategy that can
effectively take on imperialism and win: Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism.
Notes:
1. Associated Press. 25 August 1998.
2.http://amadeus.inesc.pt:80/~jota/Timor/TimorNews/Mar97/Indo.n
ot.concerned.with .US.proposal.to.stop.aid
3.http://amadeus.inesc.pt/~jota/Timor/TimorNews/Mar97/US.arms.t
ransfers. to.Indo.I
* * *
PUERTO RICO SETS DATE FOR PHONY PLEBISCITE
by MC17
On August 14 Puerto Rico's legislature approved holding a
referendum on whether the island should become a U.$. state.
The referendum is scheduled to be held December 13 and has been
pushed forward by Governor Pedro Rossello who is a strong
statehood supporter. This vote, which pretends to offer the
Puerto Rican people self-determination, offers three options:
statehood, independence, or the current "Freely associated
state" also called commonwealth status.
As a "Freely associated state" or commonwealth, the Puerto
Rican people have u.s. citizenship but if they live in Puerto
Rico they can not vote on u.s. ballots. Puerto Rican's can and
are expected to fight in u.s. wars, and Puerto Ricans sustain
combat causalities in u.s. wars in numbers far exceeding their
proportion in the population. Pedro Rossello, governor of
Puerto Rico and willing lackey of u.s. colonialism, has as his
goal, like that of other colonial lackeys who desire greater
access to their master's wealth and privilege, to gain full
statehood for Puerto Rico as the 51st state.
The United States is not bound by the referendum. In March, the
U.S. House passed -- by one vote -- a bill allowing for a
similar referendum and agreeing to work with the island on
possible statehood. But that bill is held up in the Senate.
Rossello apparently hopes a strong majority for statehood would
move Congress to act.
Rossello refers to a plebiscite as the "self determination
process," an "orderly method" which would allow the people of
Puerto Rico to decide what they want with all the definitions
spelled out clearly for them. But this so-called self
determination is not real democracy. It is not possible to talk
about the Puerto Rican people exercising their right to self
determination with u.s. troops occupying their island and the
u.s. government controlling the country.
At this time, the plebiscite that most u.s. and mainstream
Puerto Rican politicians propose would simply show what the
Puerto Rican people will say with the bribery and arm-twisting
of Uncle Sam. Only the people themselves in Puerto Rico can
establish a true plebiscite of the people for self-
determination. After a stage of revolutionary nationalism, the
Puerto Rican people will be able to decide their future without
the influence of imperialist power.
Anti-imperialists must use this opportunity to expose the lie
of self-determination at every turn. We must remain strong in
our demand for complete u.s. withdrawal from the island of
Puerto Rico.
Notes: AP, August 14, 1998. For more information and analysis
of U.$. imperialism in Puerto Rican send $1 for a copy of the
RAIL pamphlet "End U.$. colonialist domination of Puerto Rico:
100 years is too long."
* * *
SPIES TAKE $44 BILLION IN U.$. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
In the summer of 1997, the U.$. government arrested two Taiwan
spies trying to steal biotechnology secrets from U.$.
corporations. The government arranged a sting.
The American Society for Industrial Security said $44 billion
were stolen in 17 months up to June 30, 1998.
Even though the Cold War is over, the capitalists still have
high stakes espionage going on. As long as their is a property-
system there will be a reason for such espionage.
So-called intellectual property has become more and more
important in international economic and political relations.
While the Third World feeds and clothes the people of the
imperialist countries, the people living in comfort in the rich
countries undertake more and more white-collar labor.
Everything from access to life-saving drugs to computer
software is blocked under the capitalist system thanks to
property rights. Not only is distribution of good ideas and
products blocked under capitalism, conflicts between nations
and ultimately war arise over property.
The corporations say they need a reward for their work; hence,
they must have patents and the ability to make profits from
inventions only they control. In contrast, we believe that
rewards for invention should be distributed once by the
government. Organizations and individuals can still be rewarded
and their greed satisfied, but once the reward has been made
the invention becomes the property of the people. Such will
speed up the application of everything from software to life-
saving drugs.
The purchase of invention ideas by the government will also
eliminate the incentive for espionage. It is the same incentive
under capitalism -- profit -- that inspires both the company
inventing the new drug and the spy seeking to steal it. When
the profit system is eradicated, a number of problems disappear
with it -- arms sales, pornography as big business, pushers for
addictive drugs and espionage for profit.
Note: Austin American-Statesman 10 May 1998, p. G1.
* * *
REACTIONARY DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA TELLS PRISONERS:
"FIND PRISON OPPRESSIVE? DON'T ORGANIZE, MEDITATE!"
Greenfield, MA -- In early August, RAIL attended a screening of
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana at Greenfield Community College,
organized by the Vipassana Meditation Center in Shelburne,
Massachusetts. RAIL attended to organize the participants into
our campaign against control unit expansion and learn more
about the movement.
While a large number of people were interested in the MASS RAIL
and some gave RAIL donations, it was less than should be
expected at a prison related event. In fact, the organizers
were so disturbed by our presence that we were offered a bribe
to go away. They were afraid that we would scare away their
invited Department of KKKorrection guests and therefore
sabotage the effort to bring this reactionary movement into
more prisons.
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana is a 50 minute documentary about
the introduction of a program of 10-day Vipassana Mediation
courses in Tihar Jail New Delhi. According to the video, Tihar
is one of the world's most notorious jails. Tihar is maximum
security, but an accused pickpocket can spend 6 years there
waiting to get a 1 year sentence.
Vipassana's response to this injustice? Don't think about it,
but concentrate on yourself, how you hurt society, and seek
forgiveness. The introduction of Vipassana mediation into
prisons is a thick liberal veneer over a terribly reactionary
core of perpetuating this system.
The liberal veneer can confuse some. For example, the Vipassana
teachers insist that some guards and prison staff also take the
course. In Tihar Jail, the warden sent the most corrupt and
violent guards -- under threat of termination -- to the
courses. Many supposedly came back improved, less violent
people.
Which gets us to the next part of the veneer, that the course
helps people to concentrate and reflect on their actions. Any
highly structured quasi-voluntary program of doing nothing but
listening to your breathing for 10 days couldn't but help
people to focus. The corrupt guards learned that their practice
wasn't an effective control strategy and it was about to lose
them their jobs. The course also made many prisoners begin to
feel sorry for their actions against society.
It is important that people take responsibility for their
actions. In a just society, crime will have to be dealt with by
the people and not an occupation government. Criminals will
undergo a process of self-criticism by which they transform
their outlook and behavior. But this can only take place when
the larger society has some moral authority.
The Amerikan government actively imports drugs into the country
with it's CIA, and yet it has the nerve to call small-time
dealers and possessors of drugs to be criminals. For Amerika to
look down its nose at prisoners is hypocrisy at best, and more
accurately it could be called a carefully packaged program of
changing the subject.
Crime is without doubt a problem, but the solution to crime is
increasing social justice. When people live in an honorable
society and can contribute to society in a socially useful way,
crime will no longer exist. Focusing on yourself -- to the
exclusion of society -- merely helps you fit into the dominant
ideology of imperialism.
* * *
U.$. BOMBS IMPORTANT PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT IN SUDAN
In Khartoum, Sudan, the U.$. bombed a pharmaceutical plant, Al-
Shifa, located on the outskirts of this large city. Although
the u.s. claims they were bombing a plant that was controlled
by Osama bin Laden and manufacturing components of a deadly
nerve gas, all evidence suggests that the U.$. destroyed a
company that only produced medicine.
The only evidence supporting the u.s. claim is, predictably,
classified. While Sudan is welcoming any and all visitors to
inspect the site, the company has produced evidence that the UN
had authorized Iraq to purchase large quantities of medicine
from it, and workers and builders of the plant have come
forward both in Sudan and around the world to state that the
company did not have the equipment or the secrecy to carry out
the operations the u.s. alleges.
Al-Shifa was opened in July of 1997. The plant is a private
joint venture between Sudanese and Jordanian nationals which
had been partly finances by a Nairobi-based bank owned by the
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.(1) Idris
Babiker, the Al-Shifa plant manager stated that much of the
machinery was imported from the United States, Sweden and
Switzerland and at the time, the English ambassador attended
the ceremony and since then, the United Nations has approved
contracts with the factory specifically for the sale of
pharmaceutical products.(2)
Three Jordanian engineers who oversaw the pharmaceutical
plant's production and first three months of operation said
that it would have been impossible to convert the plant into a
chemical weapons factory. In addition, an English engineer who
assisted in the construction of the factory and who worked for
four years as a technical manager for the Baaboud family who in
part owns the plant refuted the United Snakes' claims that it
would be possible for the plant to produce chemical weapons.(3)
The fact that the u.s. evidence for the danger posed by its
bombing targets is almost completely lacking only serves to
underscore the true militarist and imperialist intentions of
the u.s. attack. But even if bin Laden did control the camps
and pharmaceutical the u.s. bombed, this does not give the
united snakes the right to invade and attack these countries.
Along with the destruction of Al-Shifa, in the process of
perpetuating peace and democracy, the Amerikkkan missiles also
damaged two food processing plants during the raid on Al-
Shifa.(1) This is in a country where 2.6 million people are
threatened with death through imperialist-imposed starvation.
Where the United Snakes attempts to perpetuate the idea that
Amerikkkans help starving children around the world through the
IMF and World Bank and Sally Struthers programs, the reality is
that the United Snakes desperately needs to prevent the Third
World from develop self-sufficient means to meet the needs of
oppressed people.
If oppressed nations are successful in nationalist development,
the imperialists lose out on the interest from loans. They also
lose the ability to exploit and invest imperialist capital as
well as the political puppeteering power which comes with the
aid. Though its self-sufficient production of medicines does
not seem to be the most important reason for the imperialists
to destroy Al-Shifa, the imperialists battle against
nationalist self-sufficiency around the globe. If anything,
this loss of food and medicine production in Sudan further
benefits imperialist hegemony.
Notes:
1. AFP. 21 August 1998.
2. Reuters. 22August 1998
3. AFP. 22 August 1998.
* * *
CONTINUED U.$. ATTACKS AGAINST IRAQI PEOPLE
Saturday following the U.$. attack on Sudan and Afghanistan, an
Iraqi newspaper published documents which contradict the
Amerikkkan story of chemical weapons production. The documents
showed that Iraq had bought medicines from the plant. The
purchase of pharmaceutical products and medicine from Al-Shifa
had been approved by the United Nations. The documents were
initialed by the U.N. Security Council's sanction committee and
this was confirmed by the United Nations the day following the
cruise missile attack.(1)
As a result of the release of this information the United
Snakes was forced to change its story. It then claimed a link
between the bombed Sudanese plant and alleged development of
chemical weapons in Iraq. Countering the growing outrage at the
bombing, the United Snakes said that it "believes that senior
Iraqi scientists were helping to produce elements of the nerve
agent XV at [Al-Shifa]."
The U.N. stated that Al-Shifa had a $200 million contract to
provide Iraq with medicines.(2) This is under the oil-for-food
program which allows Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to
purchase badly needed basic living supplies.
During the 1991 attack against Iraq, the imperialists killed an
estimated 200,000 people and virtually demolished the entire
infrastructure of the country through direct bombings. But the
war did not end when U.$. troops stopped bombing the people.
The ongoing warfare waged through the economic blockade and
continuing military threat has lead to the death and suffering
of approximately 1.5 million Iraqi people.
The measly oil-for-food agreement to allow Iraq to sell about
$2 billion in oil a year to buy basic human necessities is
severely threatened by the recent events and U.$. proclamation
to intensify its war. (See MIM Notes #153 for information on
the affects of sanctions and MIM Notes 152, 157, 158 for more
information on the continuing U.$. war against the Iraqi
masses.)
Amerikan policy toward chemical weapons has been inconsistent
and hypocritical ever since these imperialist snakes first
refused to participate in the banning of chemical weapons in
1907. In the Persian Gulf War, Amerika used such weapons as
napalm and fuel-air explosives against both military and
civilian targets, in violation of the Geneva Convention. Even
after the formal end of the war, the United Snakes used
chemical and biological weapons against retreating Iraqi troops
and Palestinian, Jordanian and other refugees traveling on what
became known as the "Highway of Death" at the end of 1991.
While the United Snakes maintains that it is on a gallant
mission to end the accumulation of chemical weapons and
terrorist use, the facts show that it is the use of terrorist
force and such weapons by the United Snakes that has murdered
more of the world's people than any other organization or
country during World War III.
Notes:
1. Reuters. 22 August 1998.
2. AFP. August 21 1998.
* * *
U.$. IS BIGGEST TERRORIST IN AFGHANISTAN
Merely the day prior to the U.$. bombing of Afghanistan, the
United Snakes labeled Osama bin Laden a prime suspect in the
earlier bombings of the U.$. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
The Afghanistan Taliban stated immediately prior to the
Amerikkkan raids that if the U.$. produced evidence that bin
Laden was involved in the embassy bombings, the Taliban would
negotiate with Amerikan officials on how to diplomatically deal
with bin Laden.(1)
Osama bin Laden is one of many previously on the CIA pay roll.
During the 1980s, bin Laden and other groups received billions
of dollars from the CIA to conduct anti-Soviet operations
following the 1979 social-imperialist Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. It is the military infrastructure that was
developed during that time which the U.$. has stated is the
training camp it bombed on August 20.(2)
The United Snakes refused to deal diplomatically with the
Taliban despite the fact that it controls about 90% of
Afghanistan. The New York Times quoted one imperialist
spokesperson who said "they would not trade Mr. Bin Laden's
capture for American recognition of the Taliban's de facto
government. But the Administration was weighing other ways to
persuade the Afghans to cooperate."(3) The U.$. used 75
Tomahawk missiles within 24 hours of the Taliban offer to
negotiate to persuade Afghanistan and the rest of the Third
World that it is a hegemonic power not to be challenged.
The U.$. claims show that it would rather murder innocent
people, destroy a medicinal factory, damage food processing
plants and launch military strikes than hold talks with a
government it opposes. The U.$. still clings to the imperialist
recognized lackey government of Afghanistan which stated that
"it supported the fight against terrorism" but that it "doubted
that air strikes could totally eliminate all terrorist training
centers in Afghanistan."(2)
Insofar as it opposes imperialism, the Taliban can be a
potential ally of the oppressed during this stage. However,
genuine representation of the masses must come through armed
struggle and seizure of state power by the masses led by a
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party. As with all nations with dormant
or developing Maoist centers, MIM anticipates greater
politicization and Maoist-led anti-imperialist organization to
facilitate the quickest victory against imperialism.
The Chinese people led by Mao and the CCP showed that a
proletarian-led battle against imperialism is the quickest path
to liberation. There are times when Islamic revolutionaries and
other elements of the oppressed nation bourgeoisie can be
allies of the proletariat, but genuine liberation has only
occurred with the proletariat leading because other classes
vacillate in their opposition to imperialism.
Notes:
1. The New York Times. 20 August 1998. p.A1.
2. The New York Times. 20 August 1998. p.A6.
3. AFP. 21 August 1998.
* * *
DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM!
U.$. BOMBINGS SHOW IMPERIALIST LUST FOR WAR
by MC45
A Sudanese lawyer and member of the ruling Islamic party of
Sudan posed the question: why does the United Snakes attack
Sudan and Afghanistan to get to a Saudi businessman? If
shutting down the supposed terrorist operations of Osama bin
Laden is the genuine and only concern of the U.$. military,
"why don't you say everything he invested in in Saudi Arabia
should be bombarded?"(1)
While the Sudanese lawyer is not a representative of the
proletariat, he shows an instance in which the bourgeoisie of
the oppressed nations can have the same interests as the
proletariat -- the bourgeoisie too wants to expunge imperialism
from its midst. As MIM examines the recent bombings of Sudan
and Afghanistan by the U.$. navy, we ask the same questions as
this Sudanese bourgeois: why is Amerika bombing Sudan and
Afghanistan? And can Amerika's motives really have anything to
do with the claims it makes in public?
The answer is "No," imperialism is not concerned with what it
calls terrorism. It is concerned with exporting capital for the
purpose of repatriating profit, to dominate the world economic
system. The Amerikan imperialists are not distracted as they
seem to be by bombs exploding here and there. Cloaked in the
language of "making the world safe for democracy," the U.$. is
focused on a straight-line approach to unifying the world
economy in a way that makes the dollar stronger and U.$.
profits greater.
Just as anti-Communism and the supposed Red Menace were the
excuses for Amerikan imperialism following World War Two,
fighting terrorism is the excuse today. MIM calls out U.$.
imperialism -- export of capital and theft of Third World labor
and natural resources, supported by military domination -- as
the real terrorism. Imperialism is an international economic
and military system through which monopoly capitalists extract
wealth from Third World countries for the sake of enriching
First World countries. This system is propped up by military
force when it is necessary to kill resistance to this economic
plunder.
Imperialism is the real and only reason for the U.$. attacks on
Sudan and Afghanistan; Amerika resorts to state military terror
whenever oppressed nations show signs of getting out of line,
and of not acquiescing happily to the theft of their own
resources. MIM opposes imperialism in all its forms, and we
hold the struggle between imperialism and the oppressed nations
to be principal in the world today. So when we talk about
opposing two bombings in August 1998, we are talking about
opposing two events in an ongoing hot war that the imperialists
are conducting against the oppressed nations of the world.
Afghanistan -- finding a regime that will protect the oil
The U.$. has direct and specific economic interests at stake in
Afghanistan, in the form of the Central Asia Gas Pipeline--a
project still in the planning and negotiating stages that will
carry gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan for sale to the West.
While Afghanistan has no significant tapped petroleum resources
of its own, it is strategically located between a wealth of
central Asian gas to its north and the ports from which this
gas will ship to the south. This anticipated $2 billion project
represents a large chunk of change even for the monopoly
capitalists, and will mean much transfer of wealth from the
oppressed nations of central and south Asia to the U.$. and
other partners in this project.(2)
The Amerikan company, Unocal, heads the CentGas consortium of
seven big oil companies that will build the pipeline through
Afghanistan. But CentGas and the U.$. government have made
clear that they will not build the pipeline until Afghanistan
has a government that they are convinced is stable. Meaning
that until Afghanistan's government is willing to lick Amerikan
boots, Afghanistan will not have the benefit of hosting a
profit-making venture for the U.$.
Unocal officials have already met with Taliban representatives
to negotiate the pipeline deal. So while Amerika refuses to
recognize the Taliban, those with dollars to spend may be more
direct in negotiating with the people imperialists think will
make their profit possible.(3)
While Amerika and Amerikan-based multi-national corporations
manipulate and bully Afghanistan over future compliance with
imperialist orders, the system of imperialism continues to
exploit the Afghan people. The population, much of which is
still returning to Afghanistan after fleeing the social-
imperialist Soviet invasion of the 1980s, has a life expectancy
of only 46 years -- testimony to inadequate food, medicine and
other basic needs.
Regardless of whether the U.$. invests in specific new projects
in Afghanistan, that country is in a very weak economic
position relative to Amerika. Afghanistan's currency, the
Afghani, is traded on the "free" market at 17,000 per one U.$.
dollar. This 1997 figure is up from 7,000:1 in 1996, and 1,900
in 1994, showing that true to imperialism, Amerika's strength
continues to rest on the weakness of the oppressed nations'
economies.
Sudan -- lassoing an uppity Islamic state
In the case of Sudan, many people in authority there are openly
speaking out in defiance of U.$. terror. In response to
Amerikan economic sanctions on Sudan, the Sudanese President
Omar al-Bashir announced a policy of boycotting the Amerikan
dollar in transactions within Sudan. When he made this
announcement, he also pointed out that the American dollar
"owe[s] its existence and strength to the labours of Africans
and other oppressed people."(4)
Amerika cannot tolerate Third World countries that do not
behave as they are supposed to. So when Third World peoples
take the stance that "we will not be a puppet for another
country like the United States," that is cause for military
action.(1)
Like the rest of the Third World, Sudan is important to
imperialism for its inanimate resources and for the labor of
its people, both of which can bring wealth to the imperialist
nations. The largest African country, whose area is more than
one-quarter that of the U.$.,(5) Sudan has natural and human
resources that Amerika sees as potentially exploitable and is
generally a sore spot for the Amerikan imperialists as a Third
World country that will not give itself over to easy
domination.
Adding insult to the injury Amerika already perceives from
Sudan, Sudan has taken loans from the Islamic Bank for
Development in Saudi Arabia, while having rocky relations with
the U.$. The loans, totaling $23.4 million, were given to
rebuild a dam on the Blue Nile and to build health centers.(6)
The U.$. is only showing its murderous colors when it attacks
Sudan, a country that already suffers an estimated 133% annual
inflation rate, and whose official unemployment rate stood at
30% early in this decade.
Attacking the Third World, not Islam
MIM believes Amerika's insistence that it is not out to attack
Islam per se.(8) But we argue that there is more than a passing
coincidence between religious affiliation and these bombings.
Many peoples in oppressed nations are drawn very strongly to
Islam because the religion represents something that is very
different from the West. To align themselves with a non-Western
ideology is a correct and anti-imperialist impulse for the
majority of the people of the Third World.
Amerika seeks to dominate the Third World militarily and
economically, and Third World peoples righteously resist the
imperialist drive in many ways. Islam the religion is not the
specific target of imperialism, just like Islam as a religion
is not going to topple imperialism for good. But it is
definitely the goal of imperialism to quash the peoples and the
countries that are most drawn to Islam because these peoples
and countries are in many cases opposed to imperialist
domination.
In Sudan and Afghanistan today, we can see that as Mao said,
the reactionaries and the imperialists are only paper tigers.
They may make scary faces, but in the long run they will be
destroyed and it is the people who are truly powerful. We can
see this as people all over the Arab world in particular have
held anti-Amerika rallies since the bombings, and have burned
Amerikan flags in a direct rejection of U.$. imperialist
aggression.(8, 9)
A leader of Hamas in Palestine reminded demonstrators that
Amerika will "reap the harvest of its aggression,"(8) the
analog to our Marxist observation that capitalism in the form
of U.$. imperialism is building the tools of its own
destruction. In our support for national liberation struggles,
MIM supports all calls for genuine anti-imperialism, and
recognizes as correct all statements that draw attention to
Amerika's dominant role in stifling the self-determination of
the peoples of the world. We call on all genuine revolutionary
nationalists, Marxists and anti-imperialists to support the
peoples of the Third World in their struggles for liberation
against imperialist hegemony.Notes: 1. New York Times 23 August
1998, p. 9.2. "Trans-Afghan pipeline suspended," British
Broadcasting Service 22 August 1998. 3. "Taleban in Texas for
talks on gas pipeline," BBC 4 December, 1998; "Proposed Central
Asia Gas (CentGas) Pipeline Project,"
www.unocal.com/globalops/asiapipe.html 21 August 1998.4. "Sudan
to boycott Dollar," BBC 18 November 1998.5. CIA World Factbook,
1997.6. PanAfrican News Agency (PANA) 29 April 1997.7. New York
Times 25 August 1998, p. 6.8. New York Times 22 August 1998.9.
PANA 22 August 1998.
* * *
PEOPLE PROTEST IMPERIALIST MILITARISM
Daily protests have followed the U.$. strike against Sudan and
Afghanistan. Friday following the bombings, Sudanese masses
stormed the empty residence of the u.$. ambassador and stoned
the English embassy. The protesters tore down and burned
imperialist flags. "Foreign office staff in Britain contacted
the Sudanese authorities to urge them to draft extra police to
the building."(1)
Saturday, thousands demonstrated in Khartoum against U$
imperialism. Protesters shouted anti-imperialist slogans and
burned imperialist effigies and flags. Protesters also
delivered a memorandum to the UN office for Kofi Annan which
demands a fact-finding commission to investigate the U.$.
charge that Al-Shifa produced chemical weapons.
During Saturday's rally, Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-
Bashir, promised to "retaliate against aggression" and stated
that Sudan is "ready to return the blow in double." He compared
the fight against Amerikan imperialism to the battle which was
fought and won against English imperialism in the last century.
The Arab League held an emergency meeting on Monday following
the attacks. Sudan asked for an urgent meeting of the United
Nations Security Council. Sudan has withdrawn its diplomats
from the United Snakes and the imperialists still refuse to
show the evidence to justify (in the eyes of the imperialists)
the military strikes.
Even if the United Snakes produces fabricated or partially-
genuine evidence to show that Al-Shifa had the capability of
producing chemical weapons, its links to bin Laden or that the
bases in Afghanistan were really training camps for Islamic
revolutionaries, MIM opposes this and all imperialist military
attacks against foreign nations and attacks against nations
held captive within the United Snakes. Militarism enforces
Amerikan imperialist interests in economically controlling
other nations and using exploited labor and stolen wealth to
plump up Amerikkkans.
Progressives should also oppose all forms of intervention by
imperialist Amerika. Amerika does not represent the people of
the world that it controls and MIM supports the people around
the world in their protests against U.$. imperialism.
Notes: 1. AFP. 22 August 1998.
* * *
CIA TERRORISM GROWS IN ANGOLA
by RC68
The CIA financed terrorist organization UNITA has remobilized
in Angola. UNITA has begun forcibly conscripting men and wimmin
between the ages of 13 and 30 to serve in its army. It has also
resorted to killing people opposed to UNITA. Hundreds of
Angolan people have been murdered by these jackals. Over 64,000
Angolans have fled into Zambia to escape the slaughter being
carried out by the U$ backed UNITA terrorists.(1)
UNITA's renewed terrorist violence shows the shortcomings of
negotiated peace with U.$. backed terrorists. In 1994, in
Lusaka Zambia, the United Nations sponsored peace talks called
the Angola Joint Commission for Peace. Subsequently, an
agreement called the Lusaka Peace Protocol was reached and the
20 year long Angolan civil war was formally ended. But the war
was really only ended on paper.(2) Amerikan backed criminals
like UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi can hardly be expected to keep
any agreements they make.
As part of the peace process, the UN imposed an arms embargo on
UNITA. This has not stopped UNITA from re-arming itself. The
terrorists in the U$ government and organizations which it
finances will never respect peace and will almost never abide
by signed treaties.
Some of the weapons UNITA is currently using to massacre
Angolan people are from Bulgaria.(3) The recently privatized
Bulagarian arms manufacturers, with no Soviet social-
imperialists in power to supply with insane amounts of
murderous technology, are seeking new markets for the deadly
products.
UNITA has been bragging that it is now better armed than before
the Lusaka Peace Protocol.(2) This indicates that UNITA is not
the only group violating this peace agreement. UNITA was never
self-sufficient and has no legitimate economic base. It does
not have any real mass base of support and is not capable of
establishing its own independent means of production. UNITA's
income could only be from banditry and outside aid. UNITA has
in fact been raiding diamond miners and stealing money, food,
and equipment from African peoples.(4)
UNITA also has a long history of working directly with the CIA,
the world's #1 sponsor of international terrorism. The CIA has
proven in the past that it has no problem finding ways to
finance murderous militarists. One of the CIA¹s favorite ways
to do this is by smuggling drugs and using the profits to buy
weapons. On August 4, Angolan police seized 30kg of cocaine at
a Luanda airport being smuggled from Brazil.(5)
Like all U$ sponsored terrorist organizations, UNITA's campaign
of ghastly atrocities is horrifying. In one town, 200 people
were murdered by UNITA.(6) 88 of these people were burned
alive. The attack was carried out by 440 heavily armed men that
robbed the population of 700.(4) In another town, UNITA
soldiers murdered 145 people, including some foreign
citizens.(7) So far over 600 hundred people have been murdered
this summer by UNITA terrorists.
Besides the U$, particularly the CIA, UNITA's allies include
some of the most notorious criminals in Africa. UNITA is allied
with Mobutu's old guard and extreme right-wing former South
African security forces.(4) Any place Jonas Savimbi and UNITA
control will be a safe haven for these murderous terrorist
criminals, just as they provided UNITA with safe hiding places
when they were in power. In fact, Savimbi and Mobutu were such
good friends that UNITA tried to help Mobutu when Laurent
Kabila led a movement to topple the tyrant Mobutu. For several
years Savimbi, Mobutu, and the South African extreme right were
allies of the U$ in the crusade to rid the world of communism.
UNITA, the Israeli army, and other U$ backed terrorist
organizations show the urgent need for the people in the world
to oppose terrorism. The number one perpetrator of terrorist
violence is the United Snakes of Imperialism. People around the
world must not be fooled by amerika's hypocritical propaganda
against terrorism. Amerika's bombs in the Sudan and Afghanistan
did not discriminate between civilian and military targets.
UNITA terrorists do not either. Neither did the amerikan backed
Death Squads in El Salvador in the 1980s. 0pposing terrorism
means exposing the criminal anti-human behavior of the U$
government and its terrorist allies.
Notes:
1. The Times of Zambia. 3 August 1998.
2. Afrika News Network. 5 August 1998.
3. The Post of Zambia. 7 August 1998.
4. The Mail & Guardian. 7 August 1998.
5. Panafrican News Agency (PANA). 14 August 1998.
6. PANA. 4 August 1998.
7. The Mail & Guardian. 14 August 1998.
* * *
WHAT'S THE BIGGEST ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY?
THE FBI
Over the last year, the Boston Globe has provided several days
a week of coverage of a Mafia-FBI soap opera. It seems that
Irish FBI agents were working with Irish mobsters to crush the
Italian mafia. At best, the Irish mobsters were just as bad and
put into power by the FBI.
But it gets better. First, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi (who
is in police custody) and James "Whitey" Bulger (whereabouts
unknown) were long time informants for the FBI. Flemmi and
other Globe sources say the pair were allowed to commit any
crime short of murder, and the Globe has uncovered evidence
that the pair were killers and the FBI knew about it and did
nothing. Flemmi and Bulger regularly socialized with the Irish
FBI agents and gave them expensive gifts, including cash. The
FBI agents then scuttled or sabotaged other police agencies'
investigations of Flemmi and Bulger.
And as if the connection between "legal crime" and "illegal
crime" wasn't thin enough, Bulger's brother is former Senate
President and current UMass President William Bulger. William
Bulger is reported to have walked into social/business meetings
with his brother, Flemmi and the FBI.
Flemmi's revelations that he and Bulger were informants--a
story first publicized by the Globe in 1988--also jeopardizes
previous government convictions of mobsters. In the past,
accused mobsters would argue in their defense that the Mafia
doesn't exist. But in the last few years the FBI was able to
use a "roving wiretap" to tape an alleged Mafia induction
ceremony. But the police only got permission to use such a
wiretap by misleading a judge that they did not in fact have
informants inside the mob.
In 1995, indictments came down for Flemmi and Bulger. But
somebody tipped off Bulger and he disappeared. For the first
two years, the FBI could hardly be said to be seriously looking
for Bulger and who had appearances across the country.
August 20, Flemmi revealed who tipped off Bulger: FBI
Supervisor John Morris.
Flemmi is currently arguing in court that the charges against
him should be dropped because of his immunity agreement with
the FBI. RAIL doesn't care whether individual mobsters go to
jail when the FBI is a far more corrupt, violent and dangerous
enterprise. Prosecutors are trying to convict Flemmi anyway,
saying the immunity deal--if it even existed--was created by
"rogue agents" and shouldn't bind the government. This should
serve as a warning to potential informants within our own
movement: You might get some short term gain from the pigs, but
they'll leave you out to dry when they are done with you.
The largest lesson we can draw from this soap opera is that the
FBI and the Amerikkkan government have no moral authority to
say what's a crime and who deserves punishment, since they are
the biggest criminals of them all.
* * *
GUATEMALA SUES U.$. TOBACCO FIRMS
Guatemala is seeking $2.4 billion from U.$. tobacco firms for
smoking-related illnesses in Guatemala. 10.6 million people are
affected in that Central American country.
MIM has never had any reason to say anything good about the
Guatemalan ruling class, but we agree with Attorney General
Acisclo Valladeres Molina on this point.
Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, such reparations to
the Third World will be carried out across-the-board by the
socialist government and not piecemeal as in lawsuits.
Note: USA Today 13 May 1998, p. 11a.
* * *
OUTRAGE OVER RAPIST'S UNREPENTANT FRIEND:
DON'T RELY ON IMPERIALIST COURTS AND COPS TO END PATRIARCHY!
By late August over 20,000 petition signatures had been
collected urging prosecution of a man who failed to stop or
report the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl by his friend
at a Nevada casino. People are outraged that this University of
California, Berkeley student could have walked away from this
crime and done nothing. MIM shares this outrage, but we
strongly oppose any effort to increase prosecution within the
Amerikan criminal injustice system.
Prosecutors say they can't punish this student, named Cash,
because there is no law in Nevada that makes it illegal to fail
to report a crime. Among the plans of the activists in this
case is a new petition supporting a "Sherrice Iverson Memorial
Bill," making it a crime for anyone who witnesses or has
knowledge of a sexual attack against a minor to fail to report
it to police.
Activists fighting sexual assault frequently fall into the trap
of the criminal injustice system and seek greater police and
court involvement as a solution to gender oppression. But this
is no better than calling on the Klan to help stop violence in
Black neighborhoods. The end result is greater numbers of
Blacks and Latinos locked up and killed by the state in the
name of protecting wimmin and children.
The man who is the object of the petition drive has said in
interviews that he hasn't lost any sleep over the killing, and
that the notoriety has actually helped him get dates. MIM is
not surprised by this in a culture that eroticizes violence. It
is this sickening patriarchal culture which leads to the
violence rampant in romantic relationships and encourages men
to enjoy forced sex with young girls.
It is not help from the imperialist state that we need to fight
the patriarchy, we need to take on these battles without
looking to the current state for protection. Remember that this
is the same state that locks up Blacks and Latinos in
tremendously disproportionate numbers with disproportionate
sentences for the same crimes as whites. This is the same state
that condones rapes committed by its armed forces in Third
World countries in the name of the fight for democracy. Any
protecting done by this state will only be in the interests of
furthering the imperialist patriarchy.
We need to replace the current state, which serves the
interests of the imperialists and white supremacy, with a state
which truly serves the interest of the majority of the world's
people. Such a state would be able to prosecute the real
criminals - militarists, war profiteers, big-time pornographers
and the like - and also be able to effectively struggle against
patriarchal, anti-social creeps like Cash.
Notes: Associated Press, 24 August 1998.
* * *
PIG COLLECTION OF PRISONER'S DNA HALTED
On August 14, Massachusetts prisoners won a victory in the
courts, with Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein ruling that
the state's DNA database was unconstitutional. Forty-seven
other states have similar laws, and the prisoner's and
probationer's attorneys hope that precedent has been set to
strike down these other laws.
The principal grounds by which the law was struck down was of
privacy rights based on the Fourth Amendment. The judge argued
that "[r]egardless of the state's compelling interest, an
unjustified random bodily intrusion without any indication of
individualized suspicion is unreasonable and intolerable."
Typically privacy "rights" are reserved for those with power
and prestige to protect. We put rights in quotation marks
because unlike the bourgeoisie, we don't pretend that there are
certain rights that people have. Rather, we believe, as Mao
Zedong said, that "there are no rights, only power struggles."
The only thing that we can count on in this world is what the
masses themselves can fight to gain and retain.
The Bill of Rights in the U.$ Constitution claims to speak for
all citizens, even thought it is rarely that way in practice.
But it is a good tactic for progressive lawyers to try and get
the Bill of Rights to apply to everyone, especially prisoners.
An additional weakness of the Massachusetts law is that it did
not restrict what the DNA could be used for. It would have been
totally legal for the pigs to use it in their current state-
funded racist quest for a "crime gene." Nor was information
gleaned from the DNA--such as disease susceptibility--required
to be shared with the person from which it was snatched.
We oppose the DNA database because it is a potential weapon in
Amerika's war against the internal colonies. The database could
be (mis)used in many ways, but even as it relates to the fight
against actual crime, we don't want to see the pigs gain any
additional tools. As sixty years of government statistics show,
locking more people up doesn't affect crime.
We aren¹t saying that violent crime is Ok, although we rarely
fail to point out that such crime is a small portion of what
prisoners are incarcerated for. But we can't let this system
and its leaders point fingers at street crime when they are
guilty of far larger and more violent crimes each day.
Note: Boston Globe 15 August 1998, p. B1, B8.
* * *
RAIL RAISES CONSCIOUSNESS AND FUNDS AT WARPED TOUR
July 29, Northampton, MA -- RAIL attended the Warped Tour
concert in force this year. The Warped Tour is a skateboarder-
culture concert that annually stops in Northampton and other
cities across North America. RAIL was able to set up an
information table inside the concert, and a MIM Notes
distributor sold a large number outside the gates. This was the
first year that we had a presence inside the show, and it
represented a qualitative leap in terms of the quality of
political discussions we were able to have compared to when we
had a presence only outside the gates.
Inside, we had a lot of positive feedback and many good
discussions with the anarchist-inclined youth audience. Many
people stopped by to sign petitions to stop control units in
Massachusetts prisons as well as to bring back prisoners sent
to Texas. While we brought many blank sheets with us, we
underestimated the crowd and filled up all the petitions we
brought.
One concert-goer from Oklahoma responded to our appeal to aid
the prisoners transferred to Texas with the report that
prisoners from his state are also being transferred to Texas.
The list of states sending (or that have sent) prisoners to
Texas includes MO, MI, MA, LA and OK.
We talked to several anarchists from around New England who
want to work with RAIL in the fight against the prison system
which serves as a means of social control against the oppressed
nations within U.$ borders. Within Massachusetts, about 90% of
prisoners in the control units are Latino and put there because
they speak Spanish -- which the guards don't understand -- or
they have tattoos, which are taken to mean gang affiliation,
even if no affiliation exists.
Overall, the crowd was comprised of white anarchist-leaning and
non-political youth, many of whom responded to RAIL's message.
Being able to table inside the concert increased the quality of
our political interactions with the people, and we will expand
this type of effort in the future.
* * *
HAND-WRITING ANALYSIS IS LATEST MANAGEMENT
HOCUS-POCUS
In a country where the people live off all the hard-work
of other countries, it is no surprise that management
has a hard time figuring out how to be more effective.
After all there is no link between management and
getting more work done in the imperialist countries like
the U$A.
Two trends have arisen as a result. A high-tech firm in
Natick, Massachusetts named Cognex asks all prospective
employees to undergo handwriting analysis. According to
USA Today a Dallas public accountant agrees with the
practice: "'It's so accurate.'"
The handwriting analysts charge $75 to $250 per persyn
analyzed. These analysts are yet another parasitic
profession helping the ruling class choose who to spoon
out the gravy to.
Another trend has a mystical name "Six Sigma"-all
marketing hype. The concept is simply 99.9997%
perfection. Under capitalism, such a goal is impossible
because management has profit and career motives to lie.
A truly scientific approach to the economy would require
central planning and a thorough examination of work
organization. Such is impossible under capitalism.
The reason for the success of a company -- its ability
to tap into surplus-value, especially from the Third
World -- is shrouded behind many veils of secrecy and
ignorance. For this reason, not even the management of a
company really knows why it succeeds or fails. It comes
up with various stories not much different in writing
style and fictive imagination than the how-to-get-a-
boyfriend stories running in Vogue or Cosmopolitan.
Handwriting analysis and other management fads are all
examples of the mythology of the ruling class and its
labor aristocracy allies. It is necessary filling where
it would be dangerous to the property system for the
bright light of science to shine too much. MIM opposes
superstition everywhere including in so-called "business
school" where such mythologies of individualism and no
statistical analysis reign supreme.
Note:
USA Today 21 July 1998, p. 1B, 2B.
* * *
When you roll Snake Eyes, the white house wins
Review Snake Eyes 1998
This film starring Nicholas Cage stinks. Cage is a
corrupt Atlantic City cop. There are lots of corrupt,
scheming military officers. There is one boxer who takes
a dive. And behind it all is a military contractor who
kills just to get his weapons built and purchased by the
military. This movie stinks because even though the pigs
are portrayed in a justly negative fashion, it still has
patriotism at its core.
The military officers then have the Secretary of Defense
assassinated when the boxer pretends to fall.
Predictably for an Amerikkkan movie, the shooter is a
Palestinian nationalist, and everybody is willing to
believe the initial lie that he acted alone.
The Secretary of Defense was close to stopping
production of a missile defense system. The system is
flawed, but the contractor and some military officers
think the system is an improvement and can be fixed
later, so the flaws are covered up. To protect the
system, the Secretary is killed.
When Cop Cage starts to uncover the plot, he overcomes
his history of looking the other way for a bribe and
fights for the truth. There is no discussion of why
other countries want to shoot missiles at Amerikan
Navy ships. That's the appropriate question, not
whether the missile defense system--and the military
officers/contractors methods--are correct.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
Exposing False Security Threat Group (STG) System
...A struggle inmates have to deal with in the Michigan Prison
system is the administration and this fake program they started
called STG (Security Threat Group). I'm in an organization and
all someone (an enemy of mine) has to do is write a letter to
any officer (or administrator) saying I want to inflict injury
on them, or just say I hold rank. And for no reason the police
will put a person in this program.
The problem is once you are in this program; you can't get out
until you sign some renunciation papers (saying you won't be a
member no more). But when you sign these papers (if you do)
then you could get into a fight or anything that is not related
to gang activity and they'll place you in a Max joint for two
to five years. And if you don't sign the papers the same thing
occurs. So it's really a no-win situation. ...the way it's
designed in inmates get no justice.
There are two levels to this STG program - Level I and II.
Level II is supposed to worse, if you're in Level II STG you
can never go to a Level I prison until you sign those papers.
If you never sign these papers and you're released from prison,
the institution is supposed contact the nearest police station,
to where you are being released, and tell them that you're a
security threat....
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 9 May 1998
New Jersey Prisoners Targeted
I am writing this letter to enlighten the public on the
situation of the gang member unit at Northern State Prison
named the Security Threat Group Management Unit (STGMU). Over
300 inmates were targeted for this unit. Many inmates including
myself have not demonstrated any patterns of gang activities
inside the prison, yet were placed this status simply because
of being identified as a member. The administration's main
targets were Latino. 80% of the isolated inmates here are
Latino.
This program is NOT working. It's causing mental and emotional
anguish in a stressful environment. This program was designed
to segregate so-called "gang members" from the general
population for their beliefs. This is a violation of the 1st,
4th, and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. In reality
it's causing more hardships than creating resolution. For
example all sorts of violations against their own rules with no
remedy of matters. The administration is violating all sorts of
due process in the handling of the hearing procedures....
Meals that are called for to be served hot are served cold. No
social workers are assigned the unit STGMU to attend to our
personal matters. Inmates are being denied medical treatment.
Showers are given every three days. Visits with family are a
non-contact visit once a month. Phone calls are once a week.
The programs were supposed to start March 4, 1998 and now it's
May 5, 1998 and still there is no orientation or any types of
programs given. We are like dogs in a kennel cage waiting for
when they are ready. Recreation is in a fenced cage 26 feet by
24 feet for ten inmates at a time.
Officers are stealing and/or destroying the inmates' property.
In one instance, officers stole $700.00 worth of prisoner
property. And officers damaged a personal radio. Inmates are
NOT allowed to obtain educational, religious, or personal books
of any sort. The officers and administration are NOT treating
inmates respectfully, impartially or fairly. Officers are
taunting and antagonizing inmates, instigating incidents where
the inmates fall victim and pay for it. The officers are
causing an intensified atmosphere in this unit.
When an inmate requests for a shift supervisor to remedy the
situation with the officer, inmates are denied. If one is seen,
the supervisor justifies the wrongdoing of the officer.
Administrative remedies are filed without answer or avail of
rectifying the matter. Rights and privileges are being denied
and taken without due process procedures. Internal Affairs and
the Administrators (Mr. Barke and Mr. Sherver) are fully aware
of all this and yet they refuse to intervene but instead
condone what the officers are doing.
The officers are also interfering with outgoing and incoming
mail. Mail being sent out is not reaching its destination and
letters being mailed to us are not reaching our hands. Stamps
inside the envelope end up missing. These people are abusing
their authority in these matters, and nothing positive is
flourishing from this except spending funds and taxpayer's
money....
Respectfully,
-- A New Jersey Prisoner 5 May 1998
Threatened with STG for speaking out
...I've been threatened by the prisonkrats with being placed on
their STG (Security Threat List) for basically speaking out
against the system. I will continue to speak out and be active
by raising political awareness and engaging in activities of
struggle against oppression, injustice, brutality, etc. Even
though this is an uphill battle, the struggle will be endless
until be are able to revolutionize this korrupt system and
replace it with a humane system (socialism)....
i am, i remain relentlessly in struggle,
-- A New Jersey Prisoner, June 1998
Gulags use "Gangs" as excuse to Repress Latinos
In January 1998 the Hispanics were locked down on this unit!!
After investigation of (2) months all were released from not
[being] gang members. Thereafter all were put in field, forced
to work; as time went many were set up with cases for bullshit
set up lock ups. I will not give lists of names for their lives
are now in danger. I seek help for each of the men who are
suffering. In March a new round up was done; many of the same
offenders were locked back up even after being found not to be
gang members but it doesn't matter, they are Hispanic and that
alone makes them guilty!!! The warden has no proof, nothing to
show reason for the lock up of these men!!! The system says it
has not to answer to anyone, it does not have to go by any laws
be them federal TDCJ or any other law.
-- A Texas prisoner
Gang Label Used To Oppress Prisoners
I was furious about the article that I read in your newsletter
titled "Exposing New Gang Units in New Jersey" in the June 15,
1998 MIM Notes issue number 164 on page 10. It states that the
5%ers are a gang, which is not true. I know firsthand because I
am a 5%er. Also because the dungeon I am locked up in now
(Northern Uncorrectional Institution, NCI) just did a similar
investigation on the 5%.
Three pigs raided my cell, mishandled all of my property and
confiscated my 5% lessons. The excuse was we (the 5%) were
being investigated for gang classification. I argued that we
are not a gang, which our lessons even state so. And the Devils
who did the so-called investigation said that they were not
going to designate the 5% as a "Security Risk Group".
In addition, "Exposing New Gang Units" is also a false
statement because the Latin Kings originated in Chicago in the
early 60's or 40's. They are there to help the Latino Race.
...I know about the Latin Kings because I have friends who are
associated with them. As far as the NETA's, they originated
from Puerto Rico. So there's nothing new to them or the 5%
which came into existence in 1964. It's just the Devils who
need a reason to start building new control dungeons. It's a
divide and conquer technique to keep us fighting against each
other so they can start their poli-trick-ing.
I have a message to all those out there being oppressed in
these dungeons: Focus on the oppressor himself, not your
brother or fellow prisoners. Direct your energy into changing
things, not complaining about your environment. Because all the
complaining in the world is not going to change nothing. Action
and Revolution is what will change your environment. So stop
crying and start fighting your oppressors.
-- A Connecticut Prisoner, 18 June 1998
MIM Responds: Thank you for your letter and your criticism. We
agree that the term "Gang" is being used by prisoncrats to
target progressive, active and revolutionary prisoners. The
pigs use "gang units" and "security threat group" labels to
encourage prisoners to fight each other instead of the pigs. We
agree that prisoners should unite against their common
imperialist oppressors.
But the letter you criticize was exposing the "Gang Units"
which are being newly built in many prisons, not the
organizations they are built to house. The fact is that these
units really are built to contain members of groups such as the
Latin Kings and the 5%ers specifically because these
organizations pull together members of oppressed nations. This
is considered a serious danger and the prisons use the name
"gang unit" to justify the repression. New "gang units" are
being built in many prisons across the country. (Note, "new"
refers to the lock-up units, not to the organizations being
housed in these torture chambers.)
You are correct to criticize the prisoncrats for labeling
groups as gangs in order to repress them. We encourage all our
comrades behind bars to join in the effort to expose this
criminal injustice.
Experimental Drugs Offered for Isolation Induced Depression
...I'm angry because I'm disavowed the opportunity to be
individually productive among the population. Yet, I don't
cause any problems for my oppressor in which they can perceive
and use to justify their keeping me locked down.
However the psychological effect of this form of isolation is
counter productive to the conditions in which much displayed in
order to be released by their review board. To be released from
security detention one must stay disciplinary free from six to
twenty-four months, endure harassment from the pigs in every
form imaginable physical and psychological; yet remain obedient
and submissive and not let this be a cause of changing ones
actions. Yet this doesn't mean you will be taken off security
detention. After enduring this for 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 or 36
months -- only to be reviewed every six months as a possible
return.
...Even though the written policy is for inmates who display
assaultive behavior, the practice is to destroy those of us in
these units mentally and psychologically. [Their policy is]
kill the head and the body will fall.
I did a little testing of the system recently. I requested to
speak with a mental health worker. I explained to them that I
was very depressed due to being held in isolation for over 20
months. I told her this problem was caused by being isolated
and no other reason. As I expected she offered me some
experimental psyche medicine to alleviate the problem. Yet I
informed her that she had yet to understand. The alleviation of
the problem would only come with the removal of myself from
this depressive condition. She then stated that she had not the
power to change my condition physically but she could offer
psychological change. This is how I left her office a second
later....
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 9 July 1998
Exposing Oppression in Massachusetts
...I have filed [a suit] against these swines to shed light on
the injustice that is oppressed upon us as prisoners on a day
to day basis. I'm a Rastafarian prisoner who is currently
confined to the Departmental Disciplinary Unit (DDU). Which is
a separate building inside the MCI Cedar Junction- Walpole
State Prison Facility. About 120 other prisoners and me are
confined in this building.
...Each tier has ten cells and a dirty shower stall at the end
of the tier, which is seldom cleaned by correctional staff. We
are in leg shackles and handcuffed behind our back every time
we leave the cells. We are allowed one hour a day, five days a
week to go outside into fenced in dog kennels. We are allowed
no contact with any of the other prisoners
Prior to coming out of the cells we are subjected to strip-
searches which is nothing more than blatant sexual harassment.
After we put on our clothes and are handcuffed behind our backs
and leg shackled, we are then subjected to what they call "pat
searches" where we are groped by these pigs. I seldom go out of
the cell because of these harassment tactics. In addition,
while we are out of the cells the guards tear up our legal
documents, which is the only way out for those doing life
sentences.
The department of corrections allows them to sanction prisoners
to be confined in the DDU for up to ten years in one cell.
That's MADNESS! ...You have not even heard half of the shit
that goes on in this place! ...
Sincerely,
-- A Massachusetts Prisoner, 18 June 1998
New Policy Threatens Prisoners' Lives
I scribe you to introduce to you the new (Neo) DOC Policy
number: DC-ADM 201. Policy Subject: Use of Force. Below is an
excerpt from the Policy Bulletin:
IV. Definitions
Five Yard Rule: Staff Equipped with fire arms may use force,
including deadly force, if an inmate is within five yards and
is believed to be in a act of aggression, which will compromise
weapons retention.
V. Policy B-3-e Maintain weapons retention when an inmate is
within five yards.
The above is a death penalty for those the government missed on
its lethal injection list. With these robots (correctional
officers) in possession of firearms it is a forum of
megalomania for these weak minded and sadistic so- called
correctional officers (c/o's) providing the ability to exercise
their inner fantasies of their childhood icons such as Al
Capone, John Wayne, etc.
The inmates who have several bogus misconduct reports contrived
by the policy executioners (c/o's) such as threatening staff
assault (whistling too loud) will be legal target practice for
these Go-Bots (c/o's).
If you take a good look at this policy it states "if an
inmate...is BELIEVED to be in an act of aggression..."[emphasis
added by prisoner.] This asinine policy is legally stating that
actual fact doesn't have to be apparent--just assumption or
paranoia on the behalf of the over-worked, underpaid, sexually
agitated, low self-esteemed, biased and prejudiced young
correctional officer who is in dire need of counseling. This is
death at the hands of the already dead (mentally). It seems the
DOC is the real gangsters. They attempt murder and have
murdered under the banner of their own laws.
I guess there will be a lot more George Jacksons and Soledad
Brotha's in Pennsylvania's DOC in the upcoming years.
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 6 July 1998
Police-Coerced Confession Puts Woman In Prison For 17+ Years
I was sentenced to a term of 60 years in 1983, for the murder
of X in 1981. I was found guilty by an all-white jury with the
exception of one African American man--not a jury of my peers.
In this trial, no physical or scientific evidence from
fingerprints, weapon, or eyewitness existed. The only evidence
against me was an unsigned, un-court-reported statement, a
statement by Chicago police alleging that I confessed. I
testified at Court that I was detained by Chicago police who
had me held in interrogation with my children of ages 1, 4, and
9 years old, when the police assaulted me and threatened me
that if I did not confess, I would never see my children again.
I testified that at that point I had no access to an attorney
or any way to know that the police would not do as they
threatened unless I agreed.
At trial, I testified falsely that Y, a male suspect questioned
by Chicago police, was not at the crime scene. After my trial,
I testified that during my trial, Y and his family members had
contacted me and made threats upon my family's lives. I
presented the letters [containing these threats] to the Court.
After several years, Police Captain Z notified the Dwight
Correctional Prison and informed my counselor that Y had been
murdered and that his family members had confessed that he
committed the crime I was and am being held for. In spite of
appeals and testimony even to the Illinois Prison Review Board
after seventeen years both the Illinois Judicial System and
Governor Jim Edgar refused to investigate the case, in spite of
the credible witness--a police officer of the law.
I have served seventeen years of my 60 year sentence and would
like public support to assist me to get an investigation into
the case.
-- A Womyn Prisoner in Illinois
Prisoner Denied Medical Care, But Required to Pay For It
I have required medical assistance on more than one occasion
and been denied. I was in administrative segregation at a
previous prison (Michigan Reformatory). I had overdone myself
with push-ups and messed my bone up in my elbow. Every time I
moved my arm, the bone in my elbow would pop. The fake nurses
told me since I have belly-chains on (which Michigan
Reformatory requires you to wear when going to Health Service
while in the hole), they can't do nothing about it, so they
denied me medical care, but surely took my three dollars.
--A Michigan Prisoner, 27 May 1998
More to Offer Than a Life in Prison
I'm sorry I haven't written sooner, but it was impossible
because I've been at court. I have received the MIM Notes, and
I do share them with others as well as discuss the topics.
It's sad to say these pigs are forcing me to take one and a
half to three years more in prison. It's not much; it's the
principle of their injustice system that makes me so angry. I
really do wish to remain on the mailing list for MIM Notes.
The MIM Notes are very useful tools of education. In the New
York [state] prison system, there's been an outbreak of war
between Latinos and the Bloods. It's sad and I try through
educating the brothers about this "divide and conquer"
attitude. It seems at times things go smoothly, but it never
lasts for long.
It doesn't help that the pigs are using physical and
psychological torture to do as they wish. They only get away
with that shit because we are locked in our cells 23 hours a
day and we are in handcuffs and waistchains any time we leave
our cells. They play with the food and the grievance procedure
does not work, and it's impossible to get access into the
courts unless we go through their administrative avenues which
are impossible. You get the picture.
It just pisses me off that society thinks prisons are resorts
or country clubs. That's so crazy. The brutality is out of
control and when we defend ourselves we get more prison time.
My rage is boiling and it's only a matter of time before I lose
control. I know it will be and would be counterproductive. I
have more to offer to the cause than spending my life in
prison.
Well, comrades, I'll close for now. Peace to all those
oppressed.
--A New York State Prisoner, 4 June 1998
Notes on a South Carolina Prison
...I am on lockdown, so I don't have first-hand info on the
labor here, but I do know per order of the dictator
(commissioner) that no one gets paid for work anymore except
those who had a job before the new year, and if they lose their
job, they don't get paid anymore when they start back work, and
the law in this state is now mandatory 85% service of sentence,
so slavery is in again!
They just implemented the new system for health care this
month, and we're supposed to pay for all service and any
medical damage we do to someone else!
I don't know about AIDS medication and all that; that is
confidential, and those who do have the disease don't talk
about it. However, when I was on the supermax wing here, they
allegedly had an AIDS patient back there and they treated him
worse than a dying animal. He could not talk or focus well
enough to carry on a conversation. He was in need of serious
health care, but they gave him the opposite. Stripping him out
with no tissue or clothing or hygiene items and turning the air
conditioner wide open.
There is no educational materials on this lock-up that is
furnished by this prison. There was previously a book cart, but
it stopped coming around when the new system and changes came
in effect.
The only legal materials available is digests. Other books
(supplements, U.S. reporters, etc.) are only made available if
you request a specific book in that category. We are not
allowed to go to any law library room. They have law clerks who
often misinform people of the law, or they try to find ways to
hustle us.
The guards here are continuously assaulting brothers in cuffs.
I fear the same, not because of the pain, but because of the
response I may make that could enhance my sentence.
Recreation here has been very disturbing recently. They've been
constantly denying us our one hour recreation for no reason at
all (though they always create one).
The latest wave of condition or treatment that I've found
inconsistent with state practice in other prisons in this state
is mace/gas. Recently they have been macing prisoners for
hitting the door or stagging on the food flap hole in the cell
door, and they refuse to give us a shower afterwards. I've been
maced twice in the last two weeks. They allege it's a new
policy, but no one has it [in writing].
They will mace prisoners without even inquiring into the
problem that led to the hitting on the door or stagging on the
flap, and they refuse to get a supervising official. What's so
bad about this is, if you file a grievance, they will dismiss
it because of the write-up against the prisoner that has
nothing to do with him being denied a shower to get mace off of
him.
...We do not want to waste our energy or yours begging the
oppressor. We would rather channel this energy into building
and organizing a stronger force.
Pamoja Tutashinda! (Together We Will Win!)
Re-Build, --A South Carolina Prisoner, 8 June 1998
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