MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 1

MIM Notes

April 1, 2002, Nº 255

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

INSIDE: Che on Africa * INS abuse * Police brutality * Una Página en Español...

by MC12 and

a MIM correspondent

March 15, 2002

The timing was perfect. If you want to

understand how Amerika pulls the

strings, pays the bills and supplies the

weapons to achieve hegemony in the

Middle East, just trace the events of the

middle of March.

On March 14, The New York Times

editorialized that the Israeli army's giant

invasion of Ramallah in the occupied

West Bank was "unwise,"

"unacceptable," and even "utterly

counterproductive, undermining Israel's

own interests and immensely

complicating American diplomacy."(1)

Israel had brought some 20,000 troops

to Ramallah, killing dozens, rounding up

hundreds of men on the basis of age and

nationality alone, cutting off water and

power to the main hospital in the city,

and preventing ambulances from

evacuating the wounded.(2)

The choreography was obvious.

"Frankly," said U.$ President Bush, "it's

not helpful what the Israelis have recently

done in order to create conditions for

`Rebuke' of Israel belies U$ support for war on Palestine

peace ... I understand someone trying to

defend themselves and to fight terror. But

the recent actions aren't helpful." You

know the diplomats are in charge when

Bush uses the same phrase over and over.

The "not helpful" comment was judged

a "harsh rebuke" in the New York Times

headline on page one.(1)

The Times editorial concluded:

"Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon,

needs to realize that while Washington

remains fully committed to Israeli

security, it cannot accept a policy that

relies increasingly on military force alone

and seems indifferent to American efforts

to help negotiate an early cease-fire as a

first step toward an eventual fair and

lasting peace."(3) So, Israel should back

out of Ramallah, so the U.$. can get back

to supporting the occupation of Palestine

and the destruction of Palestinian

national self-determination.

While Israel was making "facts on the

The
Israeli
army
beats
down the
Palestinian
people, as
U.$. pulls
the
strings.

Continued on page 6...

by Luis Arce Borja

Luis Arce Borja is the editor of El

Diario International, most known for

interviewing comrade Gonzalo at length

-- an interview MIM has distributed for

over a decade now. He currently live in

exile.

Much has been written about the social

upheaval in Argentina that began on the

19th and 20th of December and the

events deserve the attention they've

received. The poor masses in this country

have discovered, in only a few days, that

by struggling inflexibly and going

beyond the legal order and the laws of

the state, it is possible to topple ministers

and presidents. The valor of the

Argentinean masses is impressive, and

their actions in the field of class struggle

are an example for all of Latin America.

By means of an intense struggle they

toppled several presidents there. On

December 21st De la Ra went out with a

bang. Then, following him, they toppled

the interim president Ramon Puertas.

And later they made Adolfo Rodriguez

Saa give up his power. A private

consulting firm specializing in Argentina

fixes the socio-economic context of this

struggle as the mounting economic and

political crisis in Argentina by pointing

out that every 24 hours "more than eight

thousand people" become trapped in

hunger and absolute impoverishment and

Argentina: So what comes after the pot-banging?

more than one million people have to

survive on one peso per day."(Consultora

Privada Equis, published in El Diario de

Argentina, p. 12, July 2001)

This article is not intended to analyze

the elements of the economic and social

crisis in Argentina, a crisis that, it is well

known, is fundamentally due to: First,

the politics of looting and pillaging

imposed on the so-called `Third World'

countries by the world's superpowers,

especially the United States. The looting

takes place by way of debt (high interest

rates and means of payment), and unequal

commercial and economic exchange. In

the second place the crisis is due to the

political vandalism of the social classes

that take turns leading the State. Here, as

in most Latin American countries, the

social classes (big bourgeoisie and

landlords) that hold power are

figureheads of international superpowers

and their domestic role is limited to

administering to the well being of

transnational corporations. From the

beginning these classes are completely

dependent (politically, economically and

culturally) on the imperialist countries.

Historically, in more than 180 years of

by MC206

The Los Angeles Times reported on

March 10 that the U.$. government is

preparing for nuclear attacks on at least

seven countries. The Bush

administration's classified Nuclear

Policy Review (NPR) says that the

United $tates should be ready to use

nuclear weapons in retaliation for attacks

with nuclear, biological, or chemical

weapons; "against targets able to

withstand nonnuclear weapons"; or just

"in the event of surprising military

developments." The NPR names China,

Iran, Iraq, north Korea, Libya, Russia,

and Syria as potential targets.(1) Of these

countries, only China and Russia possess

nuclear weapons.

A wide range of people -- from

bourgeois diplomats to nuclear-

disarmament lobbyists to genuine

internationalists and proletarian

revolutionaries -- immediately

denounced the NPR as a provocation, a

sure way to increase the probability of

nuclear war. For example, as a

prerequisite to signing the nuclear non-

proliferation treaty, 182 countries quite

understandably demanded that countries

with nuclear weapons pledge never to use

them against nonnuclear countries.(2)

The United $tates has now publicly torn

up that pledge -- not that it paid such

pieces of paper much attention in the past.

Even former Secretary of Defense

Robert McNamara -- one of the arrogant

fools who led the U.$.. war of aggression

against Vietnam -- correctly criticized

the NPR. "[T]he basic implication of the

NPR -- that the U.S. reserves the right

to target any nation [for nuclear attack]

whenever it chooses to -- is itself likely

to increase the risk for nuclear

proliferation... A quote attributed to

Indian George Fernandes provides some

insight: `Before one challenges the

United States, one must first acquire

nuclear weapons.'"(2)

North Korea denounced the NPR as

"an inhuman plan to spark a global

nuclear arms race" and said it would take

"strong countermeasures." Bourgeois

pundits were quick to take this to mean

north Korea is developing nuclear

weapons.(3) MIM has no idea if this is

true -- but we will point out that it is

extremely arrogant and hypocritical for

the United $tates to openly bully

nonnuclear nations with nuclear attack

and expect them not to take steps to

defend themselves.

MIM is not surprised to learn that the

Amerika: The real nuclear rogue state

Continued on page 4...

Continued on page 9...

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 2

MIM Notes

The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement

MIM Notes is the bi-weekly newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement. MIM

grants explicit permission to copy all or part of this newspaper for any reason. Please
credit MIM Notes where appropriate. The paper is free to all prisoners. Overseas airmail
is $2 per issue. MIM Notes is the official Party voice. Material in the paper is the Party's
position unless noted to the contrary. MIM Notes accepts submissions and critiques from
anyone. The editors reserve the right to edit copy unless permission is specifically denied
by the author. Back issues of MIM Notes are available for $1 per issue. A bound volume
of the original MIM Notes 1-34 and MIM Theory 1-13 (old numbering) is available for
$15, post-paid. MIM has a complete literature list of progressive books and pamphlets.
Send $2 for a copy. MIM's ten point program is available to anyone who sends in a
SASE. MIM is an underground party that does not publish the names of its comrades in
order to avoid the state surveillance and repression that have historically been directed at
communist parties and anti-imperialist movements. MCs, MIM comrades, are members
of the Party. RCs are RAIL Comrades. The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL)
is an anti-imperialist mass organization led by MIM. MIM runs a books for prisoners
program which provides Maoist and general political material to prisoners for free. Make
checks or money orders payable to "Books for Prisoners, Inc." Federal EIN: 04-3475938.
Send to: Books for Prisoners, Inc. c/o the address below. Donations and books can be
sent to the address below. Send cash or check payable to "MIM Distributors".

MIM

P.O. Box 29670

Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670

eMail: <mim@mim.org>

WWW: <http//www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext>

What is MIM?

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is 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 Maoist Internationalist
parties in Belgium, France and Quebec and the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking
Maoist Internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.$. Empire.

MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-speaking
parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM upholds the revolutionary communist ideology
of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and is an internationalist organization that works from the

vantage point of the Third World proletariat. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all
groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possibly 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 humyn history. (3) As Marx, Engels and Lenin formulated and MIM has
reiterated through materialist analysis, imperialism extracts super-profits from the Third

World and in part uses this wealth to buy off whole populations of oppressor nation so-
called workers. These so-called workers bought off by imperialism form a new petty-
bourgeoisie called the labor aristocracy. These classes are not the principal vehicles to

advance Maoism within those countries because their standards of living depend on
imperialism. At this time, imperialist super-profits create this situation in the Canada, Quebec,
the United $tates, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland,

Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Israel, Sweden and Denmark. 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.

Editor, MC206; Production, MC12

MIM is looking for distributors and

sponsors to step forward. Sponsors pay for
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streets and officers do both distribution and
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Distribute

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Make anonymous money orders payable

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Letters

Attention
subscribers

MIM now sends MIM Notes

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Ooops... those MIM
bureaucrats fucked up
again

A prisoner correspondent informed us

that we misspelled a word in his letter

published in the 15 December 2001 MIM

Notes, significantly changing the

meaning.

Here is what we published:

"I know some people who read the

Bible read MIM Notes and I would like

to say the following: Tell me, you readers

of MIM Notes who believe the Bible,

how can you really continue to follow

Fallwell, Graham, Copeland, etc. etc.? .

. . As far as I'm concerned the people

who are acting as real shepherds of God

are the MIM Notes staff, even though

they may not believe in God, they are

more compassionate towards the people,

for educating them about the evil

government so that they can perfect

themselves."

That should read: "... educating them

about the evil government so that they

can protect themselves."

Wishywashy
Wimps?

Dear MIM,

It has been almost six months since the

WTC, Pentagon attacks and almost five

months since the U.S started bombing

Afghanistan. What the current world
situation indicates is that there will be

greater conflicts in the coming years

between the "First World" and "Third
World" nations. The Trotskyists will

continue to insist that the workers in the

imperialist countries will have to lead the
world revolution. You and I know that

they will continue to support imperialism

wholeheartedly as the U.S and Britain
continue their wars. This is because they

benefit from imperialism as did most of

those who died in the WTC. I am not
saying that they "deserved to die".

Although their deaths were lamentable I

don't see why MIM would "mourn" for
them when thousands of people starve to

death every day for the profits of the

imperialists and to maintain the lifestyles
of the WTC victims and other "First

World" people (including myself).

As you may know some Trotskyists

groups have been debating whether or not

to call for the military defeat of the

imperialists. Although many do indeed,
all of them still insist that the U.S

working class must lead the revolution.

That, they insist is the only way to
actually defeat imperialism. I don't

believe that you share this position which

gives you the opportunity to side with the
oppressed of the world by calling for the

defeat of U.S /British imperialism

without any illusions in the mythical
revolutionary tendencies of the labor

aristocracy. So far however, you have

frankly been sounding like a bunch of
wishywashy wimps.

In struggle, a reader
MIM responds: MIM mourns all

unnecessary deaths that result from

imperialism. This reader is correct that
most of the people who died in the WTC

benefit from imperialism. And as the

reader says, their deaths are lamentable.
So it is important that we put this out

there to our readers: All these

unnecessary deaths are the fault of
imperialism. We mourn for their deaths

because we can envision a society in

which these deaths would never happen
and instead these people would be

leading productive lives contributing to

the betterment of humanity.

This reader is correct that MIM takes

a strong stance in support of the

international proletariat as the leadership
of the revolution. We know that the vast

majority of workers within u.s. borders

are benefiting from imperialism and are
not proletarian but rather petty bourgeois.

Imperialism will never be defeated by

relying on these so-called workers who
are actually parasites living at the

expense of the international proletariat.

They have a material interest in
supporting imperialism. When we call for

the defeat of imperialism we do not have

any false illusions about the petty
bourgeoisie in the imperialist countries

joining the revolution en masse.

Within imperialist countries we have

to build an anti-imperialist movement

from what is at hand. This means uniting

with the oppressed nations, organizing
the proletariat and lumpenproletariat, and

trying to recruit as many petty bourgeois

individuals in imperialist countries as
possible, appealing to their interests in

avoiding unnecessary deaths like those

at the WTC.

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 3

INS agents

brutalize and

murder Latinos

at illegitimate

u.s.-Mexico

border

The U.$. Border Patrol stepped up

attacks on people crossing the

illegitimate U.$.-Mexico border in

February. They arrested more than 200

undocumented immigrants in raids on

public trolleys and busses in San Diego

over several weeks. Activists with the

Raza Rights Coalition have been

protesting these raids and documenting

the abuses.

One activist, Benjamin Prado, was

arrested on February 25 while he was

filming the raids at the trolley's college

station. Prado was talking to someone

who was injured by an agent when he

was attacked by a group of about 12

agents. He was beaten and then thrown

in jail and charged with assaulting the

agents. After public demonstrations, and

a phone calling campaign the local

prosecutor's office dropped the charges

and released him.

The day before Prado was attacked by

INS agents, Mexican immigrant Serafin

Olvera died from injuries received at the

hands of INS agents in March 2001. INS

agents severely beat Olivera after

arresting him in a raid in Texas. One

agent broke Olivera's spine with his knee.

Olivera was paralyzed from the neck

down and was hospitalized for nearly a

year before doctors declared him brain

dead and his family took him off life

support February 24th. All eyewitnesses

to the beating were deported before they

could be interviewed.

In both cases activists are working on

filing civil cases against the INS. These

cases present an opportunity to expose

and oppose the brutality of the particular

agents involved, and the systematic

violence along the u.$.-Mexico border.

This is but one part of the complex

system of repression that lowers wages

outside of imperialist countries - and in

industries dominated by "illegal"

immigrants -- while inflating wages in

the imperialist mainstream.

Just as MIM supports reforms under

capitalism to would improve oppressed-

nation worker's rights and real wages

through a WTO-like body, MIM uses the

imperialists' "free market" rhetoric to

demand a "free" labor market: One where

workers could choose to work inside U.$.

border without risking their lives. Under

socialism, MIM would open the borders.

Jobs would be guaranteed -- indeed,

required -- for all able to work, so there

would be no need to cry about

immigrants stealing "American" jobs.

Note: Immigration News Briefs, Vol. 5, No. 9 -
March 1, 2002. Immigration News Briefs is a
weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on
the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity
Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY
10012, wnu@igc.org

On March 5th, Yahoo! published a

stupid article on the situation of wimmin

in Nepal.

The article cited the International

Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)

which apparently said that the Nepalese

monarchy has not had a chance to pass

a new law more tolerant of abortion. The

blame goes to the Maoist guerillas for

making the monarchy too busy, so the

article says.

No where does the article mention the

Maoist stance on abortion or how

Maoist China performed the best

amongst all countries of its level income

per head--the vast majority of countries

in the world--when it came to maternal

and child mortality. The progress under

Mao meant that tens of millions of

infants in India and elsewhere died each

year for not keeping up with communist

China--the regular and sustained

bloodbath of the world's capitalist status

quo.

"Nepal has the fourth highest maternal

death rate in the world, with 539 women

in every 100,000 of reproductive age

dying from pregnancy-related

complications each year, compared with

seven annually in the United States.

United Nations agencies estimate that half

of these women die from unsafe

abortions."

Then they wonder why there is a Maoist

revolution.

Note:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/
news?tmpl=story&cid=655&u=/oneworld/
20020305/wl_oneworld/1032_1015329043

Yahoo! earns its name in Nepal news

On February 27 over 100 people

gathered at the San Francisco Hall of

(in)Justice to protest the beating of Black

children by police on Martin Luther King

Day (see MIM Notes 254). The attack

occurred at Hunters Point, a relatively

poor and predominately Black

community in San Francisco.

Cops brutalized four youth between 12

and 14 years of age sitting in a car,

listening to music. The pigs fondled the

young girls; they beat one young boy

after he asked why they had a gun to his

cousin's head. The cops then refused to

give out their names or badge numbers.

When asked why they were doing this,

one pig said "As long as you people are

here, we will act like this." The police

have not charged any of the kids with any

crime.

The demonstration outside the Hall of

(in)Justice building preceded a

community speak out at the public Police

Commissioners meeting. Protesters filed

into the building past metal detectors and

pigs, who searched bags and arbitrarily

limited the number of signs anyone could

carry to two.

In spite of -- because of -- advance

warning of the large turnout planned, the

commissioners held their meeting in a

room with very little public seating. The

commissioners were late; after waiting

15 minutes for a commission that clearly

serves the pigs and not the public, the

crowd started to chant "Stop police

brutality in the Black community."

When the commissioners finally

showed up they asked everyone to stand

for the pledge of allegiance. Most of the

audience was already standing, packed

into the small isles of the meeting room.

At this point most of those in attendance

sat down on the floor in protest, refusing

to recognize allegiance to a flag that

stands for national oppression.

The police then announced that the

cops responsible for the brutal beatings

and harassment of the youth in Hunters

Point had been reassigned to other

communities. Until that day, these cops

had been seen driving slowly by the

houses of the kids they had brutalized,

further terrorizing them. The community

members were clear that they wouldn't

stand for these same pigs harassing and

beating kids in some other neighborhood.

When it was announced that the cops had

been reassigned, the audience broke out

chanting "Off the Force."

But the commissioners weren't

listening. At the end of the meeting they

decided that the abusive officers should

stay on the streets.

The protest brought out a broad range

of supporters from the Bay Area including

the president of the San Francisco NOW

chapter, who called for the prosecution

of the cops.

Clearly concerned about the public

outcry, the police announced that the

incident was under investigation. But, as

the parents of the kids who were attacked

pointed out, there should not be a need

for more investigation over a month after

the incident happened. There is no dispute

about what happened. Many people saw

the cops attack the kids; parents were kept

from helping their children with the threat

of being shot. Photos were taken of the

kids after they were beaten and of the cops

who participated. Doctors reports are

readily available for the boy who was

San Francisco Police Commission

turns blind eye to police brutality

Continued on page 8...

Los Angeles

Self-described "former drug warrior"

and author of the book Why Our Drug

Policies Have Failed Judge Jim Gray

spoke to an audience of 70 medical

students, researchers and professionals at

the University of Southern California on

March 7.(1) Judge Gray echoed many of

the things MIM has said over the last

decade.

Despite the rhetoric about this being

the "land of the free," the United $tates

imprisons more people per capita than

any other country in the world.

(Depending on whose estimate of the

number of prisoners in China you

believe, the United $tates may also lead

in absolute numbers.) The more than

2,000,000 people in Amerikan prisons

are disproportionately people of color,

because of the racism inherent in

Amerikan laws and how they are applied

-- or, as MIM would say, the Amerikan

(in)justice system helps maintain national

oppression within U.$. borders. The huge

increase in the Amerikan prison

population over the last 15 years is

mainly due to the so-called "war on

drugs."

The "war on drugs" has not worked.

The supply of drugs like heroin and

cocaine has increased; drug prices have

dropped. Rates of crimes associated with

drug use -- e.g. petty theft -- have not

decreased.

Despite its obvious failure, the war

on drugs continues for opportunistic

economic and political reasons. As Judge

`Former drug warrior' Gray

denounces Amerika's drug policies

Gray puts it, the "war on drugs" is not

winnable, but it is fundable. Bourgeois

politicians use the "war on drugs" as an

excuse to throw money at political

backers. Conversely, groups which

benefit from the "war on drugs" and the

associated incarceration craze buy

elections. The prison guard union is the

biggest campaign contributor in

California, for example. MIM

investigated the political economy of

prisons in MIM Theory 11. Besides being

a front for corrupt parasitism, prisons

provide capitalists a literally captive

market and labor force.

There is a simple reason the abuse of

drugs like heroin and cocaine remains a

problem in U.$. borders: Profit. The fact

that these drugs are sold on the black

market drives up the profit margin --

under capitalism this means that

somebody will produce and supply these

drugs, whatever the consequences to

users. (Just like as long as there are

restrictions on immigration, somebody

will make money smuggling people

across borders -- whatever the risks to

Continued on page 8...

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 4

Argentina: So what comes after the pot-banging?

running the State they have been unable

to structure even a national bourgeois

project. They've only been concerned

with preying upon the wealth of the

country and super-exploiting

wageworkers. Their incredible profits

don't depend on developing a productive

system, but on looting, theft, bribery,

contraband and other crimes that

originate with in the State.

What is this article about?

The point here is to analyze the

trajectory and the political course of the

process of struggle that began last

December 19th and 20th and that remains

vigorous today. Essentially we want to

make some comments about the

spontaneous character of this movement.

Along with this, we want to investigate

its political perspective and determine if

this movement can go beyond toppling

presidents and other government

officials.

Is the force of this movement capable

of generating a fundamental change in

the State, in political rule, and in the

relationship between the social classes

in Argentina?

Lenin notes that the spontaneous

movement of the masses represents the

"embryonic form of their conscious

movement" and a "type of waking of the

revolutionary consciousness of the

masses." At the same time, Lenin noted

that while never underestimating the

importance of the spontaneous element,

this element is insignificant without

partaking in a process of consistent

struggle for political power. For his part,

Frederick Engels, while talking about the

conscious and the spontaneous struggle

pointed out (on September 21, 1871) that

revolution is a supreme act of political

consciousness and that this is due to

"education about revolution", that

without which, "on the day after" the

workers and other oppressed masses will

"have been victims of deceit." The

theoretical conclusion, from the point of

view of Marxism, on the spontaneous

movement in Argentina or anywhere else

in the world is that this type of struggle,

no matter how much energy and

selflessness is expressed by its

participants, does not in itself have a

genuine position towards power and its

immediate future will be to squander its

forces and to debilitate popular protest.

This type of eclectic, directionless

movement will lack the steadiness

required not only for winning even

modest political goals but also narrow

reformist goals.

The frailty of the spontaneous

movement (its lack of consciousness)

will place it on the sidelines of the

genuine struggle for the political power

of the State. So long as there is no broad

relationship, no insoluble unity, between

the conscious element (i.e., revolutionary

organization) and the spontaneous

movement, the workers' struggle and

their mobilizations will no doubt have

spectacular effects -- but these will be

chance events and will be incapable of

transforming into the strategic movement

of the oppressed. Latin America is

remarkable in producing dozens of

concrete examples regarding the

spontaneous mass struggle and its

objective difficulty in uniting with the

conscious element. The movements that

were on the margin of the conscious

element eventually lost the popular

perspective and were finally manipulated

and used for the benefit of this or that

big-bourgeois faction or else to endow

the electoral process with a carnival-like

tempo. Ecuador is a good example of this.

In 1999 the reactionary government of

Yamil Mahuand was overthrown by a

popular indigenous insurrection. The

masses formed a "Popular Parliament"

and "the People's Congress." A so-called

"Junta for National Salvation," that did

ultimately did not save anything and that

relied on the participation of a group of

military officials that were innocently

labeled by some as "patriotic

nationalists." (Later these officials

backstabbed the masses and went on to

take turns leading the government). The

collapse of Hamuand did not in the least

affect the State or the classes that lead it.

Quietly, the toppled president was

replaced by another and now, in 2002,

the peasants and other popular classes

remain as poor and exploited as in 1999.

Not so much as the memory remains of

their "Popular Parliament" and all the

other "popular" flair that was organized

in the clouds (without so much as

touching State power).

In Ecuador as in Argentina today, the

fundamental problem has to do with

knowing if there is an organization

capable of contributing to the

development of the conscious element in

the mass movement. In contrast to the

desperate revolts that now and then

spontaneously erupt, the conscious

element rises out of the long road of

theoretical and practical exertion in the

arena of class struggle. The conscious

element is not abstracted from thought

or from political discourse. It has to do

with the revolutionary theoretical aspect

that only a genuine proletarian Party is

capable of delivering to the masses. Only

a revolutionary organization can

transform the spontaneous movement

into a formidable weapon to liquidate

exploitation and imperialist domination.

Consciousness of the struggle for power

and definite systemic change arises

exclusively from a vanguard that is

theoretically and practically disposed to

organize and lead the masses towards

class confrontation with the bourgeoisie,

the landlords and imperialism.

Those who believe that the internal

dynamics of a spontaneous movement

can, in and of itself, generate the

conscious element are mistaken. Neither

in theory nor in practice will this ever

happen. It's no big thing when different

left organizations in Argentina holler and

proclaim on their red banners that the pot-

banging and nationalist demonstrations

will cash out in an inevitable

"revolutionary situation." We should not

wait around for the consciousness and

direction of this movement to spring forth

from the spontaneity of the masses. In

the best cases, depending on the objective

circumstances of the moment, the

spontaneous movement will typically

produce economist councils and leaders.

Without the direct guidance of an

organization (a revolutionary party), the

spontaneous movement will continue to

navigate the sea of confusion. And while

there is no qualitative change in the

ideological, political and organizational

orientation of the workers, the actual

spontaneous movement in Latin America

will continue to unfold sporadically (here

now, gone tomorrow) as a phenomenon

inherent to the intensifying systemic and

state crisis.

By means of the spontaneous mass

struggle, as is the case in Argentina, it is

possible to shake-up the leading classes.

It is also possible to topple presidents and

ministers but you can't even dream of dis-

empowering the landlords and the

bourgeoisie. Another overtone associated

with the struggle for power has to do with

the elements fundamental to social

struggle and of the historical process of

the class struggle. Here we are essentially

establishing the problem of revolutionary

leadership (the Party), and the problem

of People's Army and of the United Front

of the oppressed classes. Only by

employing these three instruments along

with a correct political and military

strategy can the workers and the other

oppressed classes (both in theory and in

practice) set before themselves the task

of annihilating the State, exploitation and

imperialist domination.

It's far-fetched to believe that the

oppressed can tear power away from the

powerful by means of spontaneous

movements and by using, of all weapons,

kitchen pots and pans. In the struggle for

the political power of the state, pots and

pans (a great invention of the mobilized

masses), can play an interesting role by

sounding-in the mobilization, but will be

insufficient to stop the State's repressive

forces--forces that shoot to kill

whenever the stability of the State and

the system are endangered. In countries

that are dominated by the world

economic powers and by a decadent

ruling class it is impossible to conceive

of altering the social position of the poor

without first liquidating the State's

repressive apparatus (the armed forces,

the police and paramilitary groups). This

is in addition to abolishing the bourgeois

parliament, judicial power and other

institutions administered by the ruling

classes and imperialism. Fundamental

change in the plight of the oppressed in

the poor countries hinges on a violent

struggle for state power (call it armed

struggle, people's war or insurrection).

Because of its strategic scope, this

struggle cannot be left up to the

spontaneity of the masses. Either the

spontaneous struggle gets consciousness

and political direction or it will end up

dispersing popular struggles.

Peaceful "pot-banging" and the
crisis of political direction

The spontaneous character of the

movement in Argentina has endured and

its greatest weakness (the absence of

revolutionary direction) has deepened in

the days following the 19th and 20th of

December of last year. We can surmise

that within this mass movement the

manifestation continues of a majority

opinion that bows to spontaneity and that

sets itself up against political violence

and keeps a distance between the political

organizations in the country. For

example, a message sent (on January

2002) by unemployed laborers to the

leaders of the mass movement explains

how any type of "political suggestion

from the outside" must be rejected while

they proclaim themselves partisan

towards the horizontal development of

organizational problems and for plain

"autonomy towards any external

organization." In the same sense the

leadership of the mobilizations in

Argentina has begun an intense

propaganda campaign (through the

internet and other media) to

institutionalize "peaceful pot-banging" as

a form of struggle against the State.

(Don't be manipulated...peaceful pot-

banging. Say no to violence!--Statement

on the web page of "Cacerolazo").

This movement's mistrust towards

parties and groups that consider

themselves on the left is the logical effect

of the backwards conduct of that left --

that before and during the upsurge of the

December mobilization remained

looking up at the clouds and waiting for

a ray of light to illuminate the elections.

In Argentina, as in most of Latin

America, the self-proclaimed "Marxist-

Leninist", "Maoist" or "Guevaraist" etc.

groups have, for many decades, been out

of sync with the popular struggle. The

workers spontaneous struggle has

eclipsed them and their small role is now

limited to organizing the famous "broad

electoral fronts," setting up points of

unity with cats and dogs, and hollering

along with any slogan about how this or

that official should get out. This left does

not approach the masses with intend to

lead them, but only to manipulate them

and separate them from the conscious

struggle for power. For example, in a war

of communiques between the Party for

the Liberation of Argentina (PL) and the

Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR)

the latter is accused of characterizing the

instigators of the December upsurge as

"elements at the service of state

intelligence." PL also claims that the

Communist Party of Argentina (PCA),

the United Left, the Socialist Worker's

Movement and other organizations seek

to cloak the country's crisis by means of

an electoral or parliamentary solution.

It is clear that political consciousness

will not fall from the sky, and much less

Continued on page 9...

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 5

Ernesto Che Guevara
The African Dream: The Diaries of
the Revolutionary War in the
Congo
New York: Grove Press, 1999,
(2000, English translation),
244pp.

These diaries are about the military

operation of Che Guevara and

approximately 200 Cubans in the Congo

in 1965. Che sought to give battle to the

Belgian and Amerikkkan colonialists and

neo-colonialists. The owners of the

diaries only released published them in

1999, because Cuba's role in the

intervention in Congo was a secret. When

the diaries came out in 1999, they were

hot news because Che saw himself as

serving as a military assistant to young

Laurent Kabila, who finally did come to

power in the 1990s before his

assassination in 2001.

Kabila

The picture that Che paints of Kabila

is someone like many other

"revolutionary" leaders who spends

much time in diplomatic consultations

with African heads of states. In fact,

Kabila did not visit the front of the armed

struggle and constantly showed up late

or never to promised meetings with Che.

It was apparently mostly Kabila's job to

keep aid flowing to the front.

Nonetheless, of all the people he met

in the Congo, Che found himself most

impressed by Kabila and he said in

January 1966: "The only man who has

genuine qualities of a mass leader is, in

my view, Kabila."(p. 244) At the same

time, Che believed Kabila was not quite

serious enough for a revolutionary, "he

is young and it is possible he will

change."(p. 244)

Che's opinion: fiasco

In Che's own opinion, the adventure

he led in the Congo was a fiasco. This

book is an unvarnished account of what

he saw as flaws in the Congolese and

Rwandan revolutionaries he met.

In fact, in the difficult terrain of the

Congo, Che came to conclude that even

"good" Cubans with prior experience in

the Cuban Revolution were not good

enough to serve in the Congo. He

repeatedly said he'd rather have 6 or 8

"super-humans" to start with than

hundreds or even thousands of troops

who would end up getting sick, running

in battle and shooting each other down.

Che's military strategy for revolution

starts with the assumption that conditions

for revolution are overripe and all that is

needed is the stout example of heroic

leaders--what he called "armed

propaganda." The first group of 8

comrade revolutionaries is a "foco," and

"focoism" is Che's theory; however, there

is not much theory to this book. Most of

it is simply an account of what Che

experienced in military operations in the

Congo. He gives us details of ambushes

and base defenses including some of the

gory details of injury and death, drinking

bouts of various troops, tropical diseases,

the food and the constant ideological

struggle of revolutionaries required to

continue with the armed struggle and not

degenerate politically. It is perhaps this

last existential strain that Che covers in

the raw that continues to give Che some

appeal to youth today. Even in bourgeois

history there are heroes and Che

encourages others to become one.

Sino-Soviet split

Che kept quiet about the Sino-Soviet

split in the book and he often mentioned

the Russians and Chinese together. There

is much speculation about where Che

stood in relation to Castro, Mao and other

figures. Much of what Mao said about

"People's War," Che put into a book of

his own on military strategy. In both

military matters in the Congo and in

economic matters in Cuba, Che

distinguised between "moral" incentives

and "material" incentives. At the

beginning of the Congo adventure, the

threat to send someone back to Cuba was

Che's moral threat to keep discipline

amongst the soldiers. He also talked

about not letting troops have weapons

until they earn their "state of grace."(p.

242) The odd thing about Cuba's role is

that while Khruschev in the Soviet Union

was calling for "peaceful transition" to

socialism, Castro always supported him.

At the same time, Castro was making

speeches about Mao being a "fascist."

(See our web page.)

It was apparent to Che in the Congo

that the Chinese had supplied the various

revolutionary groups. They had the

material they needed, more than what

they used when it came to weapons. It

was one of his major complaints that the

Congolese in particular did not like to fire

their weapons, especially in battle while

weapons were pointed at the enemy.

In fact, by the end of the book, Che

was arguing that strings should be

attached to aid, because according to Che,

the Congolese did have adequate

weapons to fight. In fact, in a very

unusual turn-about, the revolutionaries

had more advanced weapons than the

Belgian mercenaries and Black troops

setting up the regime.(p. 229) Despite

higher technology weapons and great

monetary support, Che said that the

Congolese revolutionaries lost from

superstition and lack of motivation. Their

leaders spent money from abroad on wine

and wimmin while staying in hotels and

traveling at the expense of China and

other countries.(p. 128) Che said this had

the effect of detaching leaders from their

front lines.

"They [the Africans--ed.] cling to me

when they feel hard up and certainly

won't pay me any attention if the money

is flowing freely,"(p. 129) said Che. It

raises for MIM the question of why Che

picked the Congo to go to if the situation

was going to come down to attaching

strings to aid.

Che's lack of political economy

At the end of the book in an epilogue,

Che backed up from the details and

explained that there was no land hunger

in the area he was fighting.(p. 223)

Peasants supported his struggle more as

a matter of tribal history. Certain tribes

backed certain political leaders and

sought military protection from other

tribes. Kabila had the backing of one

region in the Congo and peasants in that

region would often treat the soldiers well.

On the other hand, when his troops lost

battle and could not protect peasants, the

peasants criticized him. Thus, the

political capital of the revolution could

be squandered by an incorrect approach

to revolution.

From his conclusion that the industrial

workers -- the tiny number that there

were -- were satisfied and not

revolutionary (p. 238) and from his

observation that the peasants suffered no

land hunger, Che said that more serious

thought had to go into making revolution

in African conditions.(p. 224) He

suggested that the petty-bourgeoisie

would have to come into play and lead

the revolution, but even the middlemen

of trade were hardly very developed.

Throughout the book, Che explains

that the Cubans picked to go to the Congo

were all Black with the exception of

himself. Yet Blackness did not guarantee

mixing of Cubans with Africans and the

Cubans came to regard it as a mistake

that they sent all Blacks. So, there was

Review: Che Guevara on African struggle

no land hunger; troops did not believe

they would be fighting the Amerikkkans

and race was not a sufficient motivating

factor either. For Che it was already clear

cut that Belgian and U.$. imperialism had

to be fought in the Congo, but for the

Africans he met, it was not so clear, and

Che himself admitted this. What MIM

does not understand is how a stout

military example could overcome such a

complete difference of opinion on goals.

Again and again he pointed to a lack of

leadership amongst the Africans and a

terrible disorganization (e.g, p. 90), but

it is also clear that the goals of the

Africans were much different than his,

and we doubt that any number of

successful ambushes and battles could

have changed that.

Che does not claim that he knows all

the relevant leaders in the Congo and he

also openly says he does not have the

answer to how to adjust to the concrete

conditons in Africa. While we disagree

with Che's "foco" theory because it can

only work in conditions where there is

slight military resistance and conditions

are ripe, we also don't think he should

have been silent about the split between

the U.S.S.R. and China. This book makes

very limited claims and seems quite

reasonable: For this reason it cannot be

strongly condemned or supported.

by a prisoner in NJ

More than 4,000 small farmers in San

Salvador Atenco, Mexico are protesting

the construction of a new international

airport on their land. San Salvador

Atenco is northeast of Mexico City.

During a protest on January 14, pro-

government goons beat the protestors and

fired shots into the air.(1)

The government offered the protestors

a small amount of money (based on the

land's agricultural value, not its value as

commercial property), which the farmers

refused. "But San Salvador's residents

say this fight is not about money. They

simply want no part of [the Mexican

government's] vision of progress."(2)

The Mexican government says that the

new development will bring jobs and an

increased standard of living to the

farmers. The farmers aren't buying it.

"Ezequiel Hernandez, a 27-year-old land

owner, says that as Mexico City

continues to creep closer to his village,

he wants no part of the new factories

opening nearby. They pay $8 a day,

Hernandez says, and barely give their

workers time to go to the bathroom.

"`We want our land and our freedom,'

he says. `The government wants us to be

taxi drivers and luggage-handlers.'"(2)

The January 14 attack is just a small

part of the violence the neo-colonial

Mexican state uses against the oppressed

and exploited every day. The

"development" the Mexican government

and its Amerikan masters are pushing

serve only the Mexican elite and foreign

-- principally Amerikan -- imperialists.

Internationalists in the united $tates have

a responsibility to fight u.$. imperialism

in Mexico and stand united with the

Mexican people in their fight to get their

land back.

These small farmers are willing to

fight. "Men, women, even children, we

all have our machetes. The whole town

is armed," said one farmer. "We will not

sell."

"Our land was bought at the price of

our ancestors' blood," said another. "It's

with the price of our own blood that it

will be defended."

Notes:

1. Weekly News Update on the

Americas #625, January 20, 2002.

2. Houston Chronicle.

Mexican people

fight for land

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 6

`Rebuke' of Israel belies U$ support for war on Palestine

ground," the Amerikans -- politicians

and media -- were criticizing the actions,

asking for Israel to back down a little.

Combining military strategy and

diplomatic maneuvering, what Israel and

Amerika were doing was creating

something for Israel to stop doing. Then

Amerika could say they took a stand

against Israel, just as Vice President Dick

Cheney toured Arab countries coercing

support for the next phase of the war

against Iraq. When Israel grudgingly said

it would pull out of Ramallah, their

"concession" was just to go back to the

situation before the invasion -- except

for the loss of life and the destruction of

Palestinian property and public

infrastructure, which cannot be replaced.

The strategy was backed up by a United

Nations Security Council resolution

suggesting that there should be two

states, Palestine and Israel, side by

side.(4) This is what former President

Clinton said he was offering when the

U.$. tried to get Yassir Arafat to accept a

"state," that would have existed in

permanent subordination to Israel,

including Israeli settlements within its

borders. U.$ cynicism in the use of the

U.N. insults the intelligence of

Palestinian supporters, who know that

previous U.N resolutions unambiguously

require that Israel unconditionally end the

occupation begun in 1967. Every day

Amerika pours money and weapons into

Israel without honoring that requirement

makes a lie of all Amerikan claims to

support a just solution to the war.

San Francisco protest

Fortunately, the Amerikan-backed

Israeli aggression has many active critics,

including in the U.$.A. On March 13,

hundreds of people marched in

downtown San Francisco to protest the

escalating Israeli massacre of Palestinian

people being financed by the U.$.

government. Many people carried signs

demanding an end to the occupation and

an end to U.$. aid. There were also more

pointed signs opposing the massacre

being carried out against Palestinian

towns and refugee camps, including one

carried by a Palestinian womyn which

showed a picture of a young boy sitting

in his house on the ground next to blood

splattered across the floor and walls from

the murder of his father by Israeli troops.

The sign asked "Would you be surprised

if this boy became the next suicide

bomber?" Another poster passed around

featured photos of the extra-judicial

killing of a Palestinian man in custody

by Israeli police. Death and destruction

are daily realities for the Palestinian

people, but the violence in March truly

has escalated to horrific proportions.

According to the flyer distributed by

the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

at the rally "In the past 2 weeks, Israel

has launched a massive assault in which

20,000 Israeli occupation forces have

invaded Palestinian towns and refugee

camps. More than 150 Palestinians have

been killed in the last week, most of them

unarmed civilians. Over 1,160

Palestinians have been killed and 18,307

Palestinians have been injured in the

West Bank and Gaza Strip since

September 29, 2000...

"Since September 2000, 5 medical

workers have been killed, over 130

injured, and 71 ambulances (68% of the

fleet) have been attacked by the army. In

one case on March 8, Dr No'man,

director of Yamama hospital, left the

hospital after prior coordination with the

Red Cross and Israeli army. He was shot

at by Israeli forces near the hospital, and

returned inside. After further

coordination with the Red Cross and with

the Israeli forces headquarters he was

given permission again to leave the

hospital, and promised safety. Outside the

hospital he was shot dead, in his car, by

Israeli forces.

"Israel's latest tactic [is] arbitrarily

rounding up hundreds of men and boys

(ages 15-45) in the West Bank and Gaza

Strip an holding them in makeshift

prisons. In the refugee camp of Dheishe

and town of Qalqilya, specifically, Israeli

forces arrested over 1,000 young men and

boys who were forced to take off their

shirts and jackets before being

handcuffed, blindfolded and placed in

prison camps."

The day before the rally this MIM

reporter watched a young womyn tear a

flyer off a pole in Berkeley. The flyer

called for an end to Israeli aggression

against Palestine, stating that it was

written by a Jewish persyn. The womyn

told MIM she tore down the poster

because she did not like to see things like

that from people who have never been to

the Middle East and know nothing. When

asked how she knows who put up the

poster she replied "I just know." This is

ridiculous since there are clearly many

people from the Middle East, even some

from Israel, who would agree with the

flyer.

This is not to mention that this womyn

(who walked off before any more

discussion could be pursued) would most

likely claim to have a valid opinion about

the holocaust and many other historical

events in spite of never having been there.

People do not need to experience the

Israeli occupation of Palestine, or the

current massacre in Palestine, to know it

is wrong. But those supporting the

occupation should be clear that they

currently have the power in this country.

The media reports from the perspective

of Israel and the U.$. state department.

The only source of news about what is

really going on in Palestine is alternative

media. When someone tears down a

poster because she disagrees with it she

is making a statement not only about the

poster but also about her power to silence

opposition to her views, and her belief

that if people see the poster they will be

unable to distinguish truth from lies.

Amerika makes it possible

The San Francisco protestors are

correct to target Amerikan support for

Israel as the principal source of the

imperialist problem in the Middle East.

Whatever the Israeli government's

aggressive intentions, without Amerikan

support the scale of their domination

would severely limited in the short run,

and ended much sooner. Amerikan

hegemony over the Middle East has

expanded greatly since the collapse of the

Soviet Union, leaving Arab countries

with limited ability to manipulate

competing imperialist powers. That is

why some notable governments, such as

Egypt and Jordan, are kow-towing to the

U.$ position against Iraq.(5) With Arab

governments dependent on Amerikan aid

and economic support, and hemmed in

militarily, the imperialist machine is

tightening its grip on the Middle East

people and resources.

Notes:

1. New York Times 14 March 2002, p.

A1.

2. New York Times, 13 March 2002,

p. A1; 15 March 2002, p. A9.

3. New York Times, 14 March 2002,

p. A30.

4. All Security Council resolutions are

online at http://www.un.org/documents/

scres.htm.

5. New York Times, 14 march 2002, p.

A19.

Continued from page 1...

George Bush appointed former admiral

John M. Poindexter to head the

Pentagon's new Information Awareness

Office. Poindexter was national security

adviser under Ronald Reagan from 1983

to 1986, when the U.$. government

illegally created and supported the

terrorist "contras" to overthrow the

government of Nicaragua. The United

$tates was secretly selling arms to Iran

and using the profits to supply the contras

in Nicaragua. Poindexter, along with his

subordinate Oliver North, was forced out

of office after this scheme became public

in 1986. He was convicted of conspiracy,

obstruction of justice and destruction of

evidence in 1990, but the conviction was

overturned on a technicality on appeal

in 1991.(1)

Poindexter was also the mastermind

behind a disinformation program aimed

at destabilizing Libya's Muammar

Quadaffi in 1986. He wrote false reports

in the foreign press about an impending

conflict with the United $tates. This

strategy backfired when the Wall Street

Journal picked up the story and the

Poindexter lies were revealed.(2)

This trustworthy man has now been

appointed to a job which is supposed to

"counter attacks on the US." As The

Guardian reported "You want to know

what that is? Think, Big Brother is

Watching You."(1) This agency will

supply federal officials with instant

analysis of what is being written on email

and said on phones across the united

states.

Anyone who thinks the u.s.

government doesn't spy on its citizens

has their head in the sand. The creation

of the Information Awareness Office is

just a more open opportunity for the

government to gather intelligence now

that it has created sufficient fear in the

Amerikan public to allow for violation

of even the most basic of civil rights.

Activists in particular should be careful

about their e-mail and phone

conversations. Always assume the

government is listening and give them as

little information as possible.

Poindexter is not the first prominent

figure from the Iran contra scandal to be

appointed to a post in the Bush

administration. John Negroponte, US

ambassador to Honduras during the

contra war, is now US ambassador to the

United Nations. Otto Reich, who headed

domestic operations to smear US

opponents of the contra war, is assistant

secretary of state for Western

Hemisphere affairs. And former assistant

secretary of state Elliott Abrams, who

pled guilty in 1991 to two misdemeanor

counts of withholding information from

Congress, directs the National Security

Council (NSC) Office for Democracy,

Human Rights and International

Operations.(3)

Notes:
1. The Guardian, February 18, 2002.
2. Christian Science Monitor, March 1, 2002.
3. Weekly News Update on the Americas, Issue
#631, MARCH 3, 2002, wnu@igc.org.

Thieves, spies and murders: running the U.$. government

Poindexter (center)
with Schultz (left) and
Weinberger (right) in
the Reagan days.

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 7

Three-quarters of
Amerikan public is
unfavorable to Islamic
countries

Two in three Amerikans interviewed

by CNN/USA Today/Gallup said that the

Muslim countries would be better off if

"they adopted U.S. and Western

values."(1) In a way, MIM cannot

disagree: Enslaving a continent and

stealing another continent from

indigenous peoples does make a people

"better off" economically, if twisted

spiritually. Of course, if every country

tried to do the same thing, we would be

in a perpetual state of war, so by that

measure of the "golden rule," the united

$tates is no model for the world.

The USA Today article about the polls

was typical in covering pro-U.$. views

and a pair of token Arab assimilationists

who love the West. There were no quotes

from the Islamic peoples radically

opposed to U.$. values in the USA Today

article.

Instead, we heard the usual false

propaganda from Amerikans: "`They

resent our freedom,' says Kim Schuyler,

35, of West Allis, Wis." Schuyler merely

parroted what Bush said. Earth to

Schuyler: The United $tates leads the

world in imprisonment per capita.

Therefore, it is not a "free country." See

the statistics printed on our prison page.

"`They don't like our ways, but if they

get a chance to come here, they come,'

says Charles Plumley, an operating room

technician in Glen White, W.Va." is

another typical statement in USA Today,

not mere propaganda but a common view

heard in the U$A. Well Mr. Plumley,

bombing countries certainly does

persuade the people in those countries to

leave and seek shelter elsewhere. Try not

to pat yourself on the back for that. Again

it's not something that all countries can

do to make their own country more

attractive: bomb others. When a country

acts like it owns another one, as the united

$tates does all over the world, it is not

surprising for a minority of people to

want to become overseers for the

slavemaster or simply to move around

within the same conglomerate.

The "Amerikkkan" model is a prison-

state that bombs countries for oil and

other resources.

Note: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/
2002/03/05/poll.htm

Global Exchange to
tour Afghanistan

We saw an ad in the "Sojourner: The

Women's Forum" that made us worry that

after bombing Afghanistan and feeding

the Northern Alliance troops with

parachute food drops, now the United

$tates is going to drop pseudo- feminists

on Afghanistan. "Meet the women, learn

the facts, make a difference" the tour ad

says. Furthermore, it says, "help Afghan

women reclaim their basic human rights

and establish their role as equal citizens

by participating in rebuilding their

nation." A tour of the Global Exchange

web site shows that its posture is petty-

bourgeois internationalism. Like the

typical petty-bourgeois, Global Exchange

throws around the term "democracy."

However, to its credit Global Exchange

also admits that the united $tates is not

the model democracy and like us points

out that the united $tates is the world's

number one prison- state.

Global Exchange's internationalism of

the wavering sort makes it an

organization MIM would like to work

with. We agree with its efforts on "fair

trade" in some contexts while we do not

share their strategy of opposing the

NAFTA, WTO etc. We too want to see

higher prices for Third World exports to

the imperialist countries, and less

influence by the military dictatorships set

up in those countries by the united $tates.

However, Global Exchange puts forward

a vague sort of radicalism denouncing a

lack of democracy in today's WTO,

NAFTA etc. while cheerleading for the

Zapatistas above all. People who are

aware as Global Exchange is that

Leonard Peltier is in prison and that the

united $tates is the world's prison leader

with extensive "human rights" violations

should come to communist conclusions

and not dodge them. There is a reason

"democracy" does not "work" or occur

in a country where it is so often preached

and the reason for that is found nowhere

other than Marxism.

Note: http://www.globalexchange.org/

Afghanistan:
Russophiles still
don't get it

Hard as it may be to believe, those

calling themselves "communist" are least

likely to understand that Afghanistan did

not make forward progress in the last 23

years and is now in a mess. The hatred

of Islamic backwardness often seen in the

West by the common labor aristocrat

expresses itself well in two organizations

that loved Brezhnev Russia and do not

demarcate against the labor aristocracy

in the imperialist countries--"Northstar

Compass" and "Internationalist Group."

The Russophiles abroad have a

publication to restore the Soviet Union

in its Brezhnev era glory--"Northstar

Compass." The "Northstar Compass" has

started publishing some Maoist material,

but it has also published the following:

"The Taliban: Product of Imperialism. . .

Maoism."

This sort of cheerleader for the

Brezhnev invasion of Afghanistan in

1979 still exists despite the collapse of

the Soviet Union and despite the now

obvious fact that the invasion

accomplished less than nothing. Within

Russia, advanced political forces have

already realized that the social-

imperialist U.S.S.R. was inherently

incapable of advancing the situation in

Afghanistan and hence Brezhnev's

invasion was a waste of toiler blood.

What Mao knew was how to advance

the class struggle including in its

manifestations involving national

struggle against foreign exploiters. He

succeeded in ending semi-feudalism in

eastern Asia and kicking out imperialists.

He did this by prioritizing the national

struggle against Japan first and then the

struggle against landlords afterwards. In

contrast, Trotskyists and Brezhnevites

ended semi-feudalism and imperialist

occupations nowhere.

What should have been a

technologically superior Soviet army

operating in a smaller place than China

-- Afghanistan -- was not able to

advance Afghanistan. The only

conclusion consistent with the Marxist

idea that change was possible in

Afghanistan is that the invading "Red

Army" was not politically advanced

enough to carry out the change needed.

Instead of pissing on Mao, those seeking

progress in Afghanistan should have

learned from Mao instead of inflaming

the national contradiction in Afghanistan

without resolving it favorably.

The Russophiles of various kinds

including Amerikkkan chauvinists

identifying with the projection of

European influence into Afghanistan still

do not get it: Mao accomplished in China

what the Russophiles shouted about but

did not accomplish.

Here is what a hard-line Trotskyist

group has to say to this day about

Afghanistan: "Revolutionaries hailed the

Red Army intervention in Afghanistan,

one of the few progressive acts by the

Stalinists, and one that went sharply

against their strategy of "peaceful

coexistence" with imperialism. The

Soviets did not lose that war on the

battlefield, but instead the Kremlin

bureaucracy abandoned the effort in vain

hopes of reaching a deal with

Washington. The ignominious Soviet

withdrawal in 1989 set the stage for the

collapse of the multinational degenerated

workers state."(2) We will ignore for now

that these Trotskyists are calling

"Stalinist" people who had denounced

Stalin and that those same people who

denounced Stalin came up with the "three

peacefuls" including "peaceful

coexistence" as the general line of the

CPSU.

Again, the Trotskyists do not seem to

realize that to advance a political

situation, one must be advanced oneself

in political thinking. Neither the

Trotskyists nor Russophile "Stalinists" fit

this bill. They seek to drag Marxism and

hence the humyn species to a premature

death.

Notes:
1. Northstar Compass, December 2001 issue, p.
34.
2. "Internationalist Group," /
www.internationalist.org/
defendafghanistan1101.html

New and traditional missionaries

rush to "help" Afghanistan

Militarism is war-mongering or the

advocacy of war or actual carrying out

of war or its preparations.

While true pacifists condemn all

violence as equally repugnant, we

Maoists do not consider self-defense

or the violence of oppressed nations

against imperialism to be militarism.

Militarism is mostly caused by

imperialism at this time. Imperialism

is the highest stage of capitalism--

seen in countries like the United

$tates, England and France.

Under capitalism, capitalists often

profit from war or its preparations.

Yet, it is the proletariat that does the

dying in the wars. The proletariat

wants a system in which people do not

have self-interest on the side of war-

profiteering or war for imperialism.

Militarism is one of the most

important reasons to overthrow

capitalism. It even infects oppressed

nations and causes them to fight each

other.

It is important not to let capitalists

risk our lives in their ideas about war

and peace or the environment. They

have already had two world wars

admitted by themselves in the last 100

years and they are conducting a third

right now against the Third World.

Even a one percent annual chance of

nuclear war destruction caused by

capitalist aggressiveness or "greed" as

the people call it should not be tolerated

by the proletariat. After playing

Russian Roulette (in which the bullet

chamber is different each time and not

related at all to the one that came up in

previous spins) with 100 chambers and

one bullet, the chance of survival is

only 60.5% after 50 turns. In other

words, a seemingly small one percent

annual chance of world war means

eventual doom. After 100 years or turns

of Russian Roulette, the chances of

survival are only 36.6%. After 200

years, survival has only a 13.4%

chance.

What is militarism?

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 8

S.F. turns blind eye to police brutality

`Drug warrior' denounces drug policies

the people being smuggled.(2)) Judge

Gray told the story of a former federal

judge who quit his job to become a drug

smuggler -- and was caught. Rather than

argue that this persyn was morally

flawed, Judge Gray correctly pointed out

that the temptation of an immense, quick

profit is going to lure somebody to take

the risks involved in the illegal drug

business.

The "war on drugs" has international

implications. Drug money can corrupt

entire Third World governments -- just

like oil, fruit or coffee money can. Judge

Gray correctly decried the arrogance of

the United $tates government drug

certification procedures as a case of the

pot calling the kettle black. The inability

of the United $tates government to shut

down the drug economy inside its own

borders -- to say nothing of government

officials own involvement in that trade

-- make drug production in Third World

countries deliriously profitable and funds

hospitalized with a concussion, teeth

shoved up into his gums, requiring

stitches both inside and outside his

mouth.

Parents and community members

stressed over and over that if they had

beaten their kids they would be in jail,

but when the cops do it, it takes

community outcry to even start an

investigation.

The father of the boy who was badly

beaten spoke of his many years living in

the community befriending and

supporting the police force. He said "my

son was maliciously beaten for asking

`why have you pulled guns on my

cousin.'" The police had to go around

people to get to him, he didn't attack,

threaten or even approach them but one

of the cops gave the order to take him

down. The father continued "I taught my

three children to trust the SFPD. I have

now rescinded my trust. I told my son

that if you have trouble just deal with it

because you'll be better off in the long

run."

The father of the beaten boy expressed

the belief that this was an isolated

problem saying that "we have a few bad

apples in the barrel." Many members of

the Hunters Point community echoed this

view. But they were clear that there was

no trust in the police force as a whole

which does not respond to their problems

when called, yet is quick to harass their

community.

The mother of a young Black man,

Idriss Stelley, who was murdered by the

SFPD last year (see MIM Notes 241,

September 1, 2001), spoke out as a

resident of the Bay View/Hunters Point

community. She noted the connection

between the police brutality against these

kids and the killing of her son and said

"I see it happen under my window all the

time." As a French citizen she is

organizing an international protest

against the SFPD.

One community member represented

the view that the police are an occupying

army in the oppressed nations. "Whips

and chains have been replaced with guns

and cuffs. The police are running through

all kinds warlords. Of course, that's often

what the United $tates wants, c.f. Chiang

Kai Chek's involvement in the heroin

trade, or the Nicaraguan contras

supporting themselves by running

cocaine.

Aside from these particular scientific

and political points, MIM found much

to admire in Judge Gray's tone and

approach. He didn't try to present "both

sides" and ponder them dispassionately

-- in part because he correctly

recognized that any meaningful criticism

of the "war on drugs" is banned from

bourgeois mass media. He didn't speak

in technical or academic jargon. He spoke

bluntly and forcefully. He called

Amerikan politicians' refusal to

implement needle exchange programs

"criminal." (The viruses responsible for

AIDS and hepatitis C can be transmitted

by dirty needles. Perhaps 30% of

intravenous drug users are infected with

the AIDS virus -- a proportion much

higher than the general population.) He

talked about wanting to grab people on

the street by the shoulders and shake

them, to get them to realize what it means

that 2,000,000 people are in jail in the

United $tates -- and do something about

it.

Of course, MIM doesn't have complete

unity with Judge Gray, a Republican from

Orange Country, California. For

example, he repeats discredited slander

that the Communist Party of Peru funds

itself by selling drugs, without

mentioning the CIA-Contra-cocaine

connection or the U.$.-backed Peruvian

military's involvement in the drug

trade.(3) But the truth is the truth, no

matter who says it, and MIM agrees with

Judge Gray on the particular issues of the

"Amerikkkan lockdown" -- mass

incarceration -- and the "war on drugs."

Judge Gray's alternative to the "war on

dugs" involves decriminalization -- not

throwing people in jail for possession of

small amounts of drugs for persynal use

-- and deprofitization. These are sensible

our neighborhoods like overseers were

running through plantations." MIM

agrees with this speaker and we know

that removing a few bad cops from the

police force won't make for a better

system. But we unite with the community

and activists in calling for the prosecution

of these cops who brutalized the Hunters

Point kids. We must demand that they be

held to their own rules and use the legal

system to our advantage whenever

possible. Prosecuting these pigs will both

punish these criminals and help further

expose the criminal injustice system for

what it is, educating and mobilizing more

people in the ongoing struggle against

police brutality serving imperialism.

Continued from page 3...

reforms which MIM would fight for

under capitalism. In fact, the latter plays

to our strengths; deprofitization can only

be thoroughly implemented under

socialism. This will help increase the

prestige of communism among

imperialist-country middle classes.

Judge Gray's talk was sponsored by

Health Science Students for Social

Responsibility, a student group at USC.

They collected signatures on petitions

opposing proposed restrictions on

California prisoners visitation rights (4)

and demanding a repeal of a federal ban

on financial aid for students convicted

of a drug offense.

Notes:
1. James Gray, Why our drug laws have failed
and what we can do about it: A judicial
indictment of the "war on drugs," Temple
University Press, 2001.
2. MIM Notes 251, 1 Feb 2002.
3. www.judgejimgray.com.
4. MIM Notes 254, 15 Mar 2002.

Continued from page 3...

We constantly update

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Politics/MIM

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 9

Argentina: So what comes after the pot-banging?

from organizations that confuse fiction

with politics and which hold that by way

of "pot-banging," and that by simply

"broadening" the spontaneous mass

movement it is possible to achieve

substantial changes in the concrete

political situation of this country. So we

must become alarmed when they demand

the establishment of a "national

government of popular unity" at the same

time as a "sovereign constitutional

assembly" without signaling the path of

struggle necessary to reach these goals.

We have to pinch ourselves to wake up

when the PCR (in its communique of

December 20-30, 2001) announces that

in Argentina, a situation is germinating

similar to the one antecedent to the

revolution of October 1917 when the

Communist Party of Russia conquered

power and established a proletarian-

peasant government. This comparison is

an absurd, mechanical comparison of

history and does nothing to elevate the

consciousness of the masses; and on the

contrary, it sows confusion in the

spontaneous movement in Argentina.

And its worse still when the PCR, that

wants to pull a fast one, deduces that in

Argentina it's impossible to talk about a

"successful insurrection" without

winning over the "patriotic and popular

sector" of the armed forces while

"neutralizing the other half". This

proclamation (see the PCR's

communiqu, December 20-30, 2001),

which stands on the opposite end of the

latest popular rebellion in Argentina, is

in essence the negation of revolution and

armed struggle for power, that in

Argentina, Peru, Ecuador or in whatever

other country will necessarily lead to a

violent and decisive confrontation with

the military and other state repressive

forces. You cannot speak of liquidating

the exploitative state and much less about

establishing a "popular government"

without first violently destroying the

military institution, which, as everybody

knows, is the fundamental military pillar

of the State. Without the armed forces,

the big bourgeoisie and the landlords

would be unable to keep themselves in

power for a minute. Saying that in

Argentina it is impossible to have a

"successful insurrection" without the

favorable intervention of the military is

an old story that leads, amongst other

things, to covering up the reactionary

character of the armed forces and to

seeking reconciliation with them.

Finally, we must affirm that a

movement of the magnitude of the events

in Argentina, whatever its previous

results, leaves the people a rich

experience in struggle and in the

conviction amongst the workers that the

strength of the oppressed resides in a

direct mass struggle against the

representatives of the State. This

struggle, on condition that it surpasses

its spontaneity, has a great perspective

and broad horizon in the struggle for a

better world.

February 14, 2002,

Brussels

MIM disagrees with the term "left"

used in this context. We prefer to use the

term as a relative one, not one denoting

a political unity of forces that does not

exist. It is correct to speak of a left within

a party or a position more left than

another. The article here seems to use the

term "left" to refer to everyone who is

claiming to be socialist except for the

people actually in favor of People's War.

It could be that the term "left" refers to

a swampy mass that Maoists are

completely apart from. Such a usage

would be correct.

Amerika: The real nuclear rogue state

United $tates is planning to use nuclear

weapons against nonnuclear countries.

After all, the United $tates remains the

only country ever to use nuclear weapons

in cold blood, killing hundreds of

thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It

has also regularly threatened to use

nuclear weapons since. The U.$.. military

drew up plans during the Korean war to

use nuclear weapons and radioactive

fallout to turn north Korea into an

uninhabitable wasteland.(4) It also

offered to give the French two atomic

bombs -- "Neither one nor three: Two,"

recalled George Bidault, French Prime

Minister from 1949 to 1950 -- when the

French were fighting a communist-led

national liberation movement in

Vietnam.(5)

The U.$. nuclear arsenal has always

been an offensive weapon, something

some reformist lobbyists do not

recognize. "[The NPR] clearly makes

nuclear weapons a tool for fighting war,

rather than deterring them," according to

Joseph Cirincione at the Carnegie

Endowment for International Peace.

Similarly, John Issacs, the president of

the Council for a Livable World said,

"They're desperately trying to find new

uses for their nuclear weapons, when

their uses should be limited to

deterrence."(1) The imperialists' drive

for new sources of raw materials, cheap

labor and markets forces them into

conflict with each other and the

oppressed nations they exploit. By their

own admission, they must compete or

die, and hence will use any advantage

they have to win. They could never use

nuclear weapons just as a deterrent.

Not that we completely disagree with

Mr. Isaacs. The military sector of the

Amerikan economy -- which includes

nuclear weapons research and

development, and with which the Bush

administration has close ties -- is one of

its most profitable. Again, this is a

consequence of monopoly capitalism and

the crisis of overproduction. To maintain

their profits, the monopoly capitalists are

occasionally forced to destroy the means

of production by letting plants sit idle,

through "planned obsolescence," or

literally destroying them with bombs.

Imperialists like the military sector

because "planned obsolescence" is built

into it -- to say nothing of the chance to

blow shit up. They are eager to justify

its continued expansion.

The anti-militarist movement in the

imperialist countries needs to connect

with the masses on how the system is

irrational for them. Even if capitalism

were as efficient in making people work

as the capitalists say, it is not worth the

war that comes with it. The people with

a self-interest in having wars are the

people who do not fight the wars and the

elderly rich who are willing to

compromise with the devil to live a few

years of luxurious life. We must think

more of future generations.

Many Euro-Amerikans spend

thousands of dollars on suburban homes

and burglar alarms and commute many

miles to avoid just a small probability of

street crime. George Bush beat Michael

Dukakis in 1988 elections just by

mentioning a Black rapist. Yet when it

comes to war risks, Euro-Amerikans

hardly raise a peep that cost them nothing

but maybe an hour of their time at a

demonstration.

If there is a five percent chance of

nuclear annihilation each year, there is

only a 7.7% chance of surviving 50 years

from now. (That is .95 raised to the 50th

power.)

If it is only a two percent chance we

face each year, then after 50 years the

probability of surviving is 36.4%. (That

is .98 raised to the 50th power.)

Socialism is outlawing production for

profit. If socialism could reduce the

causes of war just one percent each year,

it could prove to buy us the time we need

as a species to learn to cooperate.

If socialism got us from a two percent

chance of annihilation to a one percent

chance each year, our probability of

survival after 50 years would rise from

36.4% to 60.5%.

By the standards of the Iroquois people

who do not do anything that would have

negative implications for people seven

generations from now, a one percent

chance of nuclear war would mean only

a 17.2% chance of humyn survival 175

years from now.

The fact that even a mere 1% chance

of nuclear annihilation each year spells

doom is something known to engineers

who design systems and to people who

study processes involving entropy. It is

actually very difficult to design a system

that fails only 1% of the year.

The proletariat and oppressed masses

are being far too generous in withholding

violence against this system that

threatens humyn existence.

Notes:

1. Los Angeles Times, 10 Mar 2002.

2. Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar 2002.

3. New York Times, 14 Mar 2002.

4. Bruce Cumings, Korea's Place in the

Sun , New York: W.W. Norton and

Company, 1997. pp. 290-293.

5. Peter Davis, dir., Hearts and Minds,

1974.

Continued from page 4...

What questions do YOU have?

Wasn't Mao a butcher? Why do you spell it "Amerika"? Shouldn't
you try non-violence first? What is internationalism? Isn't hating white

people reverse racism? Why don't you leftists work together? Why
don't you tone it down? What is a cardinal principle? What is your
program? What is necessary to join MIM? What concrete actions can I

take? How do I write articles for MIM? What is your copyright policy?

Go to http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq

and get real answers to these and other questions.

MIM Theory 2 and 3

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MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 10

MIM on

Prisons & Prisoners

MIM seeks to build public opinion

against Amerika's criminal injustice sys-

tem, and to eventually replace the bour-

geois injustice system with proletarian jus-

tice. The bourgeois injustice system im-

prisons and executes a disproportionately

large and growing number of oppressed

people while letting the biggest mass mur-

derers -- the imperialists and their lack-

eys -- roam free. Imperialism is not op-

posed to murder or theft, it only insists that

these crimes be committed in the interests

of the bourgeoisie.

"All U.S. citizens are criminals--

accomplices and accessories to the crimes
of U.$. oppression globally until the day
U.$. imperialism is overcome. All U.S.
citizens should start from the point of view
that they are reforming criminals."

MIM does not advocate that all

prisoners go free today; we have a
more effective program for fighting
crime as was demonstrated in China
prior to the restoration of capitalism
there in 1976. We say that all prisoners
are political prisoners because under
the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all
imprisonment is substantively
political. It is our responsibility to
exert revolutionary leadership and
conduct political agitation and
organization among prisoners --
whose material conditions make them
an overwhelmingly revolutionary
group. Some prisoners should and will
work on self-criticism under a future
dictatorship of the proletariat in those
cases in which prisoners really did do
something wrong by proletarian
standards.

Under Lock & Key

News from Prisons & Prisoners

Censorship
crackdown on Islam

I received the scribe on the censoring of

the prisons - that literature hit dead on. I
myself an going through the same ordeal here
at the plantation - so is my brovah down at
his plantation. When you spoke of
"threatening security" I couldn't agree more.
Get this, I am not able to contact my brovah,
nor is he allowed to contact or write me,
because this fucked up Texas Prison System
is shook!

By the September 11th drama they feel

everyone who shows love toward Islam is a
threat or a terrorist. I received a "truck mail
envelope," which states:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Programs and Services: Directors Review

Committee Decision

Form for Outgoing Correspondence
Offender: [my brovah]
The Director's Review Committee has

rendered the following decision regarding
your appeal:

The Unit decision not to allow you to mail

the correspondence not in accordance with
the rules for the following reasons:

#1(e) - "Security Threat Group related

letter"

To: [me] has been upheld. You will not be

allowed to mail the above referenced
correspondence.

This is what was sent to me. Me and my

brovah are supporters or MIM. Forward in
the struggle! Before this I was contacted by
my brovah. His cell was searched and all his
Islamic and other literature was taken and not
given back. There was nothing threatening in
any of the letters we sent me of I sent him.
All letters were motivating, uplifting, to
succeed in the everyday struggle, based on
Islamic beliefs, the 5 pillars of Islam. That is
why I believe we were censored.

-A Texas Prisoner January 2002

IL prisoners' anti-
censor suit heard in
court

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am writing to give you an update on my

pending litigation against the Illinois
Department of Corrections in which we
challenged the overly restrictive rules relating
to inmate possession and retention of reading
materials.

After numerous delays, a hearing was

finally held in Chicago's Federal District
Court before Judge Charles P. Kocoras from
November 13-21, 2001. At this time, we were
able to set forth before the court numerous
infringements upon our ability to receive
literature through the mail from visitors.
Several inmates provided documented proof
that they were denied the right to have family
members drop off books and magazines on
visits, although this is clearly authorized by
departmental rule. Called as adverse
witnesses, the wardens from the Tamms and
Stateville prisons were forced to acknowledge
that they had in fact allowed this to occur at
their facilities.

During the course of the hearing, it was

discovered that a preliminary study had been
undertaken to potentially eliminate our ability

to receive packages of literature through the
mail. When confronted with this evidence, the
defendants attempted to disassociate
themselves from the plan by attributing it to
a prior administration.

One of the main focal points of the hearing

was the issue that the DOC has written rules
pertaining to publications that they simply
don't follow. For example: they withheld two
issues of MIM Notes for ten months, for being
"gang-related." The newspapers were
supposed to be promptly examined by the
Publication Screening Committee, but they
never were. Only by continuous complaints
by our attorneys were they finally released.

The court has now taken the case under

advisement and a final ruling could be issued
at any time. When it is, I'll let you know where
we stand.

In solidarity,
--an Illinois prisoner, December, 2001

Censorship in Oregon

Revolutionary Greetings,
Thank you for sending me some material.

I am sending you some information on what's
happening here. I realize that prison escapes
can turn ugly, but nowhere have they proven
that escape was due to any magazine. [His
"Stuff" magazine was denied because of an
article about prison escapes.] I wrote "Stuff"
and told them about my problem. Also I
talked to our mailroom. Just the steps I took
to get to the bottom of this.

We were locked down due to attempted

escape. So these people think everyone will
try to escape because of an article in "Stuff."

--a prisoner in Oregon, January 2002

Censorship stops (for
now) in North
Carolina

Just writing to let you know that I have

received the November 1 and 15 MIM Notes
[as of mid-December]. I guess they see some
prisoners will stand together and fight and
also I guess they know they are in the wrong.
Maybe they just do not like the accuracy of
MIM Notes, you know the truth hurts pigs.
They did not get back with me on my appeal
statement or the grievance. They just let the
MIM Notes back in.

--A North Carolina prisoner, December

2001

Censorship in
Colorado

As a revolutionary who is committed to

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism ideology, I have
often read in MIM Notes, and other materials,
about censorship in capitalist amerikkka,
particularly in the calaboose, but I never even
imagined I'd be a victim of censorship.

I was informed through party members that

material that was forward to me was returned

to sender. If our strong comrades had not
informed me, I would have never known, as
these prison officials never informed me that
my mail was returned. The counter-
revolutionaries in capitalist amerikkka will
always try to neutralize a true voice of the
people!

I am proud to say that MIM is a true servant

of the people. I am proud to be with people
who are for the people. The U.S. imperialist
and neo-colonialist are afraid of Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism! How do we know? Why
the censorship?

To all of the naysayers who say Marxism-

Leninism-Maoism is a thing of the past, why
then do we see thousands protesting
imperialism? Scientific socialism is
mathematical in nature. If the people are
against globalization (international capitalism
or imperialism) then mathematically they
must be for communism. Make no mistake
about it!

The penal colony is a breeding ground for

consciousness and political education. To all
of the revolutionary brothers and sisters!
Comrades! Keep movin' forward! All Power
to the people!

-- A federal prisoner in Colorado

Long sentences, low
pay in Klan's Angola

I'm trapped here at the Louisiana State

Penitentiary (plantation) along with other
brothers who have a lot of potential to truly
make a difference within the Afrikan
communities. But the raw facts are that these
snakes who oversee this plantation are
unconcerned about the brothers and sisters
down here. It's all about the might dollar bill...

I have a life sentence, plus 90 years and

here in Louisiana, there are more brothers
here who are serving more time than
anywhere else on the face of this earth. See
the real-life documentary "The Farm" for
proof.

I read an article in your MIM Notes where

a brother mentioned that the inmates were
getting $85 a month? Here at Angola, we
receive 4 cents an hour. The most possible is
20 cents an hour. All field workers are getting
4 cents an hour!!! Can you picture this shit?

Pardons are unheard of in Louisiana. The

Klan runs this plantation with an iron fist.
Anyone who attempts to organize a study with
regards to implementing a program that will
convert the unconscious brothers to
revolutionary souljahs, these devils would
immediately close in on the head organizer!

I've been down since 1994 and have been

understanding nothing but positive material
that keeps me in check with the real struggle.
"The old pork chop in front of the wolf's
eyes" won't entrap me ever again in the event
I return to society again. To hell with their
materialism and capitalist concepts!

Written in my blood,
--Comrade Vicious

Washington
prisoners pay

Dear MIM,
Here in Washington the tax payers are

paying for us to be in prisons, yet we pay for

everything here. They won't deny medical,
hygiene or dental, they will just charge you
and if you don't have any money then they

will charge it as a debt to be paid off the first
time you get any money on your account. We
have to pay 50 cents a month for TV/cable

even if we don't have TVs. We have to pay
the cost of incarceration, crime victim
compensation (that does not go to the victim,

and if there is no victim you still pay.) All
money being sent in besides native american
checks and refund checks they take 35% out

of before they put it on your account. This is
a statewide thing.

I work in the kitchen and everything is

being cut back because of "budget cuts." We
as a prison system are 90% self reliant. We
make our own clothes, mattresses, towels,

blankets, socks, even most of our food is made
by us (made in one prison and shipped to the
rest.) The kitchen is filthy due to two things,

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 11

Facts on U$ imprisonment

The facts about imprisonment in the United $tates are that the United $tates has been the world's leading prison-state per capita for the last

25 years, with a brief exception during Boris Yeltsin's declaration of a state of emergency.(1)

That means that while Reagan was talking about a Soviet "evil empire" he was the head of a state that imprisoned more people per capita.

In supposedly "hard-line" Bulgaria of the Soviet bloc of the 1980s, the imprisonment rate was less than half that of the United $tates.(2,3)

To find a comparison with U.$. imprisonment of Black people, there is no statistic in any country that compares including apartheid South

Africa of the era before Mandela was president. The last situation remotely comparable to the situation today was under Stalin during war
time. The majority of prisoners are non-violent offenders(4) and the U.S. Government now holds about a half million more prisoners than
China; even though China is four times our population.(5)

The rednecks tell MIM that we live in a "free country." They live in an Orwellian 1984 situation where freedom is imprisonment.

Notes: 1. Marc Mauer, "Americans Behind Bars: The International Use of Incarceration 1993," The Prison Sentencing Project, 918 F. St. NW, Suite

501, Washington, DC 20004 (202) 628-0871 Reference: SRI: R8965-2, 1994
2. Ibid., 1992 report.

3. United Nations Development Programme, "Human Development Report 1994,:" Oxford University Press, p. 186.

4. Figure of 51.2 percent for state prisoners there for non-violent offenses. Abstract of the United States 1993, p. 211.
5. Atlantic Monthly December, 1998.

we are not governed by the health department
and because of this "budget cut" the kitchen

manager refuses to buy anything new as far
as cleaning supplies go. They are about to
dye all white cloths, sheets, towels and pillow

cases gray so that they don't have to use
bleach. They are also going to stop washing
in hot water. Another heath issue. This is all

due to "budget cuts."

Someone is getting all this money they are

extorting out of us and the tax payers. Now

don't get me wrong, I know I have it better
than a lot of other prisoners, but I fail to see
the difference between me robbing someone

and them robbing me and the tax payers. I
am also including an account statement so you
can see how we are taxed.

--a prisoner in Washington, February 2002

MIM responds: The issue of financing

prisons is an important one. As we see the

growth of the private prison industry we can
see profits driving the building of new prisons,
a frightening prospect in an already prison-

crazy growth country. But currently prisons
do not make a profit: they are subsidized by
the government. So this prisoner is correct

that tax payers are covering the cost of
imprisonment in Washington.

However, we disagree that the tax payers

are being robbed. In imperialist Amerika
prisons serve as a tool of social control. The
united states is the number one imprisoning

country in the world (we have a higher per
capita imprisonment rate than any other
country). This does not mean that the u.s. is

not made up of genetically flawed people who
are more likely to be criminals, it is about the
government using prisons to control the

people. The population being controlled is
principally the oppressed nations: the
incarceration rate for Blacks and Latinos is

dramatically higher than for whites. And
political activists are also targeted for
imprisonment regardless of nationality. This

benefits the white nation as a whole which as
a group lives as parasites off the profits stolen
from the Third World and brought home to

Amerika. This white nation has an interest in
the use of prisons as a tool of social control:
this helps preserve their parasitic way of life

as much as it helps keep the imperialist
government stable. So these tax payers are
actually contributing to a system that supports

them.

When that system charges prisoners for

services, making it even more impossible for

anyone to make it out and back into society,
this also serves the white nation. In addition
to keeping the oppressed nations behind bars

and controlled, any money that the prisons
can take from the oppressed can be used to
hire more guards and other workers. These

jobs are very much in demand among many
white communities.

So while we agree that prisoners are having

both their lives and their money stolen by the
criminal injustice system, we see the tax

paying Amerikans profiting from this system.

Brutality in Colorado

While in yard one day, I got into an

argument with a guard about my way of

dressing. He promised me that I "would
regret" my actions! Later that day, at evening
yard, I was approached by three so-called

convicts and told that they were there to do
the bidding of the guard I had argued with.
At that time, I was brutally attacked and left

unconscious in the corner of the yard. I
believe that they meant to kill me and failed
their mission.

Today, after extensive tests and

rehabilitation, I am permanently crippled. I
have talked with lawyers and they are afraid

of the DOC. I have a wife and two lovely girls
and now they have a broken-down, crippled
husband and father at the age of 26. Since I

was transferred to this prison, one nurse has
lost her job for trying to help me walk again.
I have been put in segregation for being a

management problem. They are now sending
me to a Maximum security prison.

I have guards come to my cell and threaten

me and my family. And I have no one who
will listen. I fear for my life!

A fellow prisoner receives your paper and

let me see a copy. I would like to also receive
your publication. We need to stop the "Reich"
type of system that the DOC is running and

the only way to do so is by taking and eye for
an eye.

Stand up brothers and sisters and make

yourself heard among the throngs of injustices
that are running you into the ground!

Down with Imperialism! Power to the

People!

--a Colorado prisoner.

More medical
abuse in Texas

I really enjoy your publication very much

but there are times when I can't write you

when the prisoncrats retaliate against me. Last
time I went on a medical to Montford Unit
for complaining of my hepatitis C virus

infection and I end up in the crazy ward in a
strip cell without any clothes. They took my
false teeth, I could not eat. They took my

hearing aid, I could not communicate for my
medical needs. They took my prescription
glasses, I had no control over the light. At

Montford nut ward no newspapers or
magazines are allowed. They refused to give
me my legal papers. When I complained they

told me that that was my problem. At
Montford Unit you are allowed a toothbrush
and toothpaste, no more. I know you are busy

so I will let you go and I remain.

-A Texas Prisoner January 2002

MIM adds: The medical abuse of Texas

prisoners continues. Once they make a
diagnosis - or refuse to make a diagnosis -

there is no recourse for prisoners, and the
medical system is subject to no accountability.

This is why we have focuses the Texas prison
labor campaign on the issue of medical abuse
of prisoner workers. Write to MIM for a copy

of the petition we are circulating inside and
outside of prisons.

Lockdown at CSATF

They locked down the whole prison to find

out who beat on or attacked a couple of pigs.

They determined who it was and have
checked that out, but other people [who were
not involved] are still on lockdown. They

came and searched everyone's cells and let
me add the searches were very disrespectfully
done. This incident [the beating] happened

December 10th and we are still on lockdown.
I would understand if it was my group
involved, but we weren't. For them to keep

us on lockdown is not right.

They tell us to keep out of trouble and

follow the prison rules. If we do this we will

get what's coming to us which is phone calls,
showers, canteen, quarterly packages and
yard time. We have followed the rules but

continue to be on lockdown. Even prior to
December 10th we were on lockdown for two
weeks and the day we came off, this

happened. It seems they want to fuck us every
time something goes on, even the slightest
thing. And they wonder why we don't respect

them!

-- a Corcoran, CA prisoner 24 January,

2002

STG restrictions and
medical co-pay at
Menard

They banned The Source magazine [on hip-

hop music, culture and politics] here. There
is now a $2.00 co-payment for sick call. And
in segregation we can't come out of our cells

with our hair braided. Not for the shower,
doctor or anything.

-- a Menard, IL prisoner 25 January, 2002

MIM adds: Opposing national interests

continue to duke it out within u.$. borders,
and the burden of proof is on anyone who

believes otherwise. Prisons use braided hair,
baggy pants, magazine subscriptions and
ghetto slang to identify so-called Security

Threat Groups or STGs. In MIM's book, an
STG is a fancy word for oppressed nationals
who enjoy their own cultures.

More Jails,
More Money

For the past 10 years jail overcrowding

have been a hot issue in Memphis, TN. and
Shelby County. This overcrowding problem
stems from inmates who are being detained

and denied speedy trials. Most of these

inmates belong to the "Major Violators"
courtroom, where the most violent cases are

preassigned to Judge Dailey. Between 1995-
2001, 65% of the inmates who were in this
courtroom waited at least 14 months and up

to a total of 5 years before having a trial. As
a result, this one courtroom alone stays
backlogged with hundreds of cases and thus

you have an overcrowded jail.

Shelby County has had an annex built next

to the old Memphis Jail. To the public, the

reasoning of the new jail is to ease
overcrowding, curb violence, and improve the
conditions. The true motive is more tax

dollars. In Tenn., the cost per inmate in county
jails is somewhere in between $55 and $65
each day. Considering the poor conditions of

the old ail, along with the inmate capacity
being way overboard, it's easy to see that the
tax dollars allotted for the housing of inmates

are purposefully being misused.

In 2000, the Tenn. Criminal Court of

Appeals denounced the major violators

courtroom, which the Shelby County Justice
system adopted, as unconstitutional but still
voted in favor of it. Since the state had already

appropriated tax dollars for the courtroom to
persist, they decided to let it continue though
they openly professed it unconstitutional. So

while an annex will be for the easing of the
overcrowded jail, what is the remedy for the
new jail when it inevitably overcrowds?

Another jail, more tax dollars.

The real issue is why are inmates being

denied speedy trails, which is a violation of

the 5th amendment? A record high, 35% of
the convictions made in the Shelby County
Criminal Courts over a 6 year period, were

overturned by the criminal courts of appeals,
which means hundreds of convicts were re-
tried and released. While this may seem

appalling, it actually coincides with the whole
capitalist spectrum. What we have in Shelby
County is a judicial system which preys upon

tax dollars through the facade of criminal
justice.

National stocks dealing with the jails reap

immense profits. In fact, it's one of the few
guaranteed stocks that will never fall short of
stability. so who profits more from crime? The

criminals or the government who reaps
massive amounts from prison industrial labor
and easily accessible tax dollars? If crime

were to take a dramatic decline in the u.s.,
the economy would undoubtly suffer a great
deal. Jails are an asset to the capitalist

structure of this country.

--a prisoner in TN, February 2002

MIM responds: We have much unity with

this prisoner but MIM would not say that a
decline in crime would hurt the economy of
the u.s. because the criminal injustice system

is not about punishing crime. The biggest
criminals are running the government. The
u.s. does not have the largest per capita prison

population in the world because it has more
crime. People are locked up for reasons like
those described above: by a system designed

to imprison large numbers of people. This
serves a purpose and it is not (yet) to enrich
the government. The criminal injustice system

is used as a tool for social control. Those who
profit from it are not so much the government
officials, who are just spending tax dollars

on one imperialist project or another, but all
those employees of the criminal injustice
system in general from pigs on the streets to

guards in the prisons. The huge criminal
injustice system ends up serving two
purposes: social control for the oppressed

nations and parasitic jobs for the labor
aristocracy.

MIM Notes 255 · April 1, 2002· Page 12

Notas Rojas

avril 1, 2002, Nº 255 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

¿Que es el MIM?

El Movimiento Internacionalista Maoísta (MIM) es un partido revolucionario

comunista que ejerce el Marxismo-Leninismo-Maoísmo. El MIM es una organización
internacionalista que trabaja desde el punto de vista del proletariado del Tercer Mundo;
es por esto que sus miembros no son amerikanos sino ciudadanos del mundo.

El MIM lucha para acabar con la opresión de todos los grupos sobre cualquier otro,

naciones por naciones, clases por clases, y géneros por géneros. La revolución es una
realidad para los Estados Unidos mientras su ejército continúa extendiendose en su
esfuerzo por asegurar la hegemonía mundial.

El MIM difiere de otros partidos en tres puntos basicos: (1) El MIM sostiene que

después que el proletariado conquiste el poder estatal, existira aún el potencial para una
restauración de tipo capitalista, bajo la dirección de una burguesía nueva dentro del
mismo partido comunista. En el caso de la Unión Soviética, la burguesía se apoderó del
gobierno después de la muerte de Stalin, en 1953; y en China después de la muerte de
Mao y del derrocamiento de la llamada "banda de los cuatro' en 1976. (2) El MIM
sostiene que la Revolución Cultural en China es la fase ms avanzada a la que llegó el
comunismo en la historia. (3) El MIM afirma que la clase trabajadora blanca de los
EE.UU. es primordialmente, una élite trabajadora no revolucionaria en el presente. Es
por esto que no es el principal vehículo para avanzar el Maoísmo en este país.

El MIM acepta como miembro a cualquier individuo que esté de acuerdo con estos

tres puntos basicos, y que acepte al centralismo democrtico, el método de gobierno por
la mayoría en lo que se refiere a cuestiones de línea del partido. El MIM es un partido
clandestino que no publica los nombres de sus miembros para evitar la represión estatal
dirigida históricamente contra los movimientos revolucionarios comunistas, y anti-
imperialistas. Si Ud. desea una suscripción para cualquiera de nuestros periódicos o
libros teóricos, en español o en inglés, por favor mandar dinero en efectivo o un cheque
al nombre de MIM a esta dirección:

MIM · P.O. Box 29670 · Los Angeles CA 90029-0670

Los ataques del 11 de septiembre en Nueva

York y Virginia han servido como una señal
para que los yanquis y el régimen EE.UU.-
Macapagal-Arroyo de las Filipinas avancen
la guerra contra las masas filipinas.
Inmediatamente después de los ataques, la
presidenta de las Filipinas, Gloria Macapagal-
Arrollo prometió el apoyo de su gobieno a
favor de la tal llamada "guerra contra el
terrorismo". Ahora los yanquis han regalado
un montón de ayuda militar a las Filipinas.

Ambos gobiernos han aumentado sus

esfuerzos para apoderarse de la isla de
Mindanao como propiedad comercial y
militar. El día 10 de enero llegaron veinticinco
"asesores" miltares yanquis al oriente de
Mindanao para acompañar a otros ocho
oficiales. Las fuerzas armadas yanquis
ofrecieron mandar todo un batallón -de 500
a 1000 soldados. Oficialmente los soldados
yanquis sólo deben entrenar a los soldados
del gobierno . (8)

Sin embargo, las experiencias de Vietnam

y El Salvador (dos ejemplos entre muchos
otros) nos enseñan que se desdibuja la
distinción entre "asesores" y participantes. En
estos dos países los asesores yanquis
acompañaron a sus `aprendices' en
operaciones militares. El paquete yanqui ya
incluye un avión de carga tipo C-130, una
colección indefinida de 16,000 libras de
equipo militar pesado, rifles especializados
para tiradores escondidos, morteros, lanza-
granadas y más. Todavía se esperan 100
camiones militares y "aproximadamente"
ocho helicópteros tipo Huyey, y más dinero
para fortalecer las fuerzas armadas
nacionales. (3) El gobierno de las Filipinas
además se ha reunido con funcionarios de

Indonesia y Malasia para planificar la tal
llamada "fuerza de reacción rápida" para
"combatir el terrorismo" con la ayuda de
EE.UU. (2) La amenaza popular reiterada por
en todos los encabezados proviene de la
pandilla Abu-Sayaaf que se ha dado a conocer
por todo el mundo por secuestrar a
extranjeros. Pero hasta Macapagal-Arroyo
dice que más le preocupa permitir que los
yanquis permanezcan en las Filipinas que la
amenaza inmediata de la pandilla Abu-
Sayaaf. Dijo: "lo importante es que se ha
reafirmado y redefinido la alianza estratégica
... y la amistad como en los viejos tiempos
cuando éramos aliados inequívocos." (1)

Mindanao es un territorio que se ha

debatido por mucho tiempo. Cuando el
gobierno anterior de EE.UU.-Estrada lanzó
una ofensiva en contra del Frente Moro
Internacional de Liberación (MILF) y el
Nuevo Ejército Popular (NPA) el MIM dijó
" está claro que el régimen de Estrada está
usando la atención alrededor del Abu-Sayaaf
desacreditar a MILF y NPA y para justificar
la ley marcial. Quizás no sea una coincidencia
el hecho de que EE.UU. está fijando su
atención sobre Mindanao como un sitio para
bases militares bajo el Acuerdo de Fuerzas
Visitantes." (7)

Además, la compañía estadounidense

multinacional Dole opera una enorme
plantación de piña en Mindanao. Los
reaccionarios en las Filipinas han dicho
abiertamente que la presencia de tropas
yanquis fortalecerá la guerra contra la
guerrilla popular del NPA, liderada por el
Partido Comunista de las Filipinas (CPP). (4).
La estrategia militar del gobierno reaccionario

de las Filipinas en contra de la pandilla Abu
Sayaaf principalmente consiste de ataques de
bombardeo a larga distancia. La gente ha
huido de sus aldeas porque temen ser
aniquilados. Aproximadamente 10.000
civiles fueron evacuados en el mes de octubre
del año pasado. (5) Las fuerzas armadas se
han apropiado de varias parcelas y las aldeas
se han convertido en bases militares de
vanguardia para los soldados. "Las Fuerzas
Armadas de las Filipinas han confesado que
mataron a 4 ciudadanos. Los refugiados que
huyen de la operación dicen que cientos de
ciudadanos han sido aniquilados, y que 10
de ellos fueron bombardeados mientras
participaban en una boda." (5) EE.UU. busca
justificar su apoyo del régimen adulador de
Macapagal- Arroyo por medio de colocar al
NPA en una lista de organizaciones terroristas
internacionales originada por la nueva "Ley
Patriota" . José María Sisón ha señalado que
no es la primera vez que EE.UU. busca
defamar al NPA con fin de descarrilar la lucha
del pueblo filipino. (6) La gente en este país
no debe tragarse la mentira. Los yanquis
deben abrir los ojos y reconocer que los
filipinos tienen sus propias aspiraciones
nacionales. Las masas filipinas (el pueblo
filipino) podrán realizar el deseo de acabar

con el terrorismo y los reaccionarios
desalmados sólo cuando los imperialistas
hayan sido ahuyentados. A fin de cuentas, lo
mejor que puede hacer la gente de EE.UU.
es organizar un movimiento antiimperialista
doméstico. Debemos rechazar
determinadamente las transas de aquellos que
buscan convertir la guerra internacional
yanqui en una guerra de `autodefensa'.
Pónganse en comunicación con el MIM para
unir nuestras voces y ponerle fin a esta locura.

Notas:
1. "U.S. Use of bases in Philippines renewed,"
Los Angeles Times, 18 diciembre, 2001.
2. "3 Southeast Asian nations draft anti-
terrorism accord," LA Times, 29 diciembre,
2001.
3. "U.S. Arms arrive for Philippine army," LA
Times, 20 diciembre, 2001.
4. "Wimmin's movement leader from the
Philippines speaks out against the Visiting
Forces Agreement," MIM Notes 185, 1 de
mayo, 1999.
5. MIM Notes 220, octubre 15, 2000.
6. The U.S. and its puppets cannot terrorize the
NDFP, 10 de diciembre, 2001. http://inps-
sison.freewebspace.com/
US%20and%20Its%20Puppets.htm
7. MN 216, agosto 15, 2000.
8. CNN, 11 de enero, 2002.

Nueva York, El Paso, Chapel Hill/

Greensboro Carolina del Norte, Madison
Wisconsin, Champaign/Urbana Illinois: ¡No
dejen de recibir la cantidad de MIM Notes
que les corresponde!

Desde el comienzo de la "guerra contra el

terrorismo" la circulación de MIM Notes ha
aumentado rápidamente. El hecho no es
sorprendente: MIM Notes es un periódico
gratis e independiente. Claro, en estos
tiempos hay más patriotas impulsivos que se
tragan todo lo que dice Bush, y se les pasa la
oportunidad de leer MIM Notes. Pero hay
otros patriotas e internacionalistas que se dan
cuenta de que ahora periódicos como MIM
Notes pueden desenmascarar el gran
espectáculo que el Tío Sam está poniendo a
su favor.

Claro, Uds. han visto MIM Notes en las

calles pero MIM Notes requiere que las masas
hagan dos cosas fáciles: 1) sostener el
periódico (pagar por su imprenta y envío) y
2) ¡distribuir el periódico!

Buscamos a personas para concretar los

avances en la circulación por todo el país y
estamos dispuestos a dialogar con gentes
fuera del país para extender la distribuición
al extranjero. Dentro de las fronteras de
EE.UU., ¡la ciudad de Nueva York puede
mejorar su distribuición! Y todos los demas
también deben tomar un paso adelante para
distribuir en su área porque Uds. pueden
garantizar que se cumpla el trabajo.

El MIM busca patrocinadores y

distribuidores. Los patrocinadores pagan por

los periódicos y los distribuidores los llevan
a las calles mientras los oficiales hacen las
dos cosas.

# Cantidad de MIM Notes

Costo

para distribuir

anual

12 (Correo de Prioridad)

$120

25 (Correo de Prioridad)

$150

50 (Correo de Prioridad)

$280

100

$380

200

$750

900 (Correo Expressl!)

$3,840

900(8-10 días)

$2,200

Si Uds. conocen algún lugar bueno para la

distribuición les sugerimos empezar con 200
ejemplares y avanzar desde ahí. Si no están
dispuesto a ditribuir, sólo mándennos dinero.
Si no quiere Ud. pagar, solicite ejemplares
después de demostrarle al partido de una
manera u otra que de veras está Ud. interesado
(¡las palabras no valen!). Los que juntan el
dinero para distribuir 900 ejemplares de cada
eddición son los que avanzan alpartido.

Dirijan giros postales anónimos hechos a

la orden de "MIM" :

MIM

Atención: Rama de Cambridge,

P.O. Box 400559

Cambridge, MA 02140

Para más información, o para dirigir sus

preguntas: mim3@mim.org.

EE.UU. le envía un montón de ayuda militar al gobierno de las Filipinas

Docenas de tropas yanquis aterrizan en Mindanao; se esperan 1000 más

¡Campaña para aumentar la

circulación de MIM Notes!