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MIM Notes No. 200 December 15, 1999
Wednesday 17 November, the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Daily, the campus student newspaper, ran a piece of editorial art parodying MIM's use of the spelling "Amerikkka." The art did not address the politics in MIM Notes, only our language. Here we reprint our response to the Daily. MIM Notes readers are welcome to share their thoughts with the Daily as well, you can reach the Daily letters editor at: daily.letters@umich.edu Please send us a copy of any letters you send to the Daily about this. Also of note is that the Daily choose not to run MIM's response, yet another reason to have a proletarian newspaper.
To the Daily:
Thomas Kuljurgis's editorial cartoon on Wednesday Nov. 17 posed a student saying he doesn't read MIM Notes because reading "Amerikkka" too many times makes him "feel like I'm stuttering." We'd like to thank the Daily for raising the question so publicly. Really it's two questions: why do we spell Amerika that way? and why don't we use a softer tone to get our point across?
MIM takes the spelling of Amerika with a "k" from the revolutionary movements of the 1970s. The term "United States" is inappropriate for a country that occupies thousands of First Nations, the Black nation, Aztlan and Puerto Rico. This country is not in fact "United" but is a substantial empire extending throughout u.$. borders and beyond.
We use angry language because the oppressed and exploited have a lot to be angry about, these are the people in whose interests we work. If you want an organization that uses calm tones, the Democratic Party or the Greens might be for you. Our middle-class critics are inclined to believe that there is a neutral educational tone appropriate for all communications. In reality, a neutral tone is not appropriate for the emergency situation that exists today.
The u.$. prison population is approaching two million, and you cannot find a statistic of greater per capita imprisonment of Black people anywhere including apartheid South Africa before Nelson Mandela was president. Amerika has occupied Puerto Rico and the Philippines for more than 100 years, and today imprisons Puerto Rican citizens for "sedition" against a country whose citizenship they never asked for. We communists seek to match our tone to underlying substance. We encourage any readers interested in discussing the substance of our line to get in touch. You can email us at mim52@mim.org
In struggle,
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)
U.S. Airborne and special forces got their start in World War II
and now there is a museum for them. This billboard correctly
identifies that spelling is political and implies Hitler
would have renamed the United $tates to "Amerika" without the efforts
of the World War II generation soldiers. In contrast, MIM believes
Hitler did not need to make the effort. Amerika is a decadent oppressor
nation and we spell it "Amerikkkan" in some contexts where the KKK
would be proud of Amerikan oppression.
