MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 1

MIM Notes

July 1, 2002, Nº 261

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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INSIDE: Israeli refuseniks * MIM web traffic doubles * Una Página en Español...

espite rhetoric for "free trade,"

U.S. President George W. Bush

signed a massive bill for farm

subsidies over 10 years, providing $57

billion in price supports to U.$. farmers

and $133 billion in other aid. Such

subsidies give an unfair advantage to U.$.

farmers and are contrary to the "free

trade" principles Bush, Gore, Clinton,

Carter and others of the internationalist

bourgeoisie claim.

MIM has to give great credit to the Los

Angeles Times for following up on the

details.(1) The principle behind U.$. farm

subsidies is called "price supports." If

prices fall below a certain level, the

government makes up the difference with

subsidies. This way prices stay up and

supply rises. The same general concept

is behind destruction of farm

commodities seen from time to time and

leaving of land fallow if prices are too

low--the logic of capitalism that people

should starve while food is destroyed to

keep prices up.

Delegates

call UN food

summit a

`waste

of time'

elegates from poor countries

called the U.N. World Food

Summit which met in Rome the

second week in June a "waste of time"

and a "failure."(1) They criticized

wealthy countries' farm subsidies, which

make potentially agriculturally-rich

countries dependent on food imports

from wealthy developed countries. They

also criticized wealthy countries for not

taking the problem of hunger seriously.

"The entire leadership of western

Europe and North America was here in

Rome two weeks ago to discuss NATO,"

said South African President Thabo

Mbecki. "They all came without

exception, but they don't come now.

"I suppose that's because they don't

think the problem of 800 million people

going hungry in the world is

important."(1)

About 24,000 people die every day of

hunger and its related causes--one every

3.6 seconds.(2)

The United $tates again refused to

recognize a global right to food.

Recognition of such basic survival rights

is at the center of MIM's politics. MIM

does not recognize the right of a handful

of people to profit from hoarding food

or organizing food production to make

food unaffordable for the poor.

Six years ago the United Nations set

out to reduce hunger by half by 2015.

This year's food summit was called

largely because progress towards that

goal was much too slow. Hunger has only

been reduced 3% from 840 million in

1996 to 815 million today, according to

the BBC. Assuming the same reduction

rate over the next 13 years, there will still

be 760 million hungry people in the

world--360 million over the goal of 400

million.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO) estimates that $24

billion is needed every year for

investment in agriculture and rural

infrastructure in poor countries to meet

the U.N. goal. Compare that to the

roughly $18 million yearly in subsidies

Congress just gave Amerikan farmers

(see Farm bill story, this page).

According to the head of the FAO,

Jacques Diouf, "[T]ransfer of funds from

[rich countries] to the rural population

of the developing countries amount to

he jury in the case of Earth First!

activists Judi Bari and Darryl

Cherney against four FBI agents

and three Oakland police officers

awarded the plaintiffs $4.4 million for

violation of their constitutional rights.

The jury found that six of the seven

defendants violated the first and fourth

amendments of the Amerikan

constitution, which claim to protect

freedom of speech and prohibit

unreasonable search and seizure,

respectively.

After a bomb exploded in Bari's car--

while she and Cherney were in it--the

defendants arrested the activists, charged

them with planting the bomb themselves,

searched their homes, carried out a smear

campaign against them in the press, and

so on.

In their fifth day of deliberations, jurors

asked for a copy of the two relevant

amendments of the U$ constitution. The

lawyers for the defense objected to the

request and motioned to keep the jury

from reading the relevant parts of the

constitution. The judge overruled the

Bush signs $190 billion farm bill

opposing `free trade'

Subsidized exports destroy Third

World farming, create famine

motion and read the amendments to the

jury. This request by the defense to keep

the jury from hearing constitutionally

protected rights is no surprise given the

actions of the FBI and OPD in this case.

According to a press release from the

prosecution at the outset of the trial "Bari

and Cherney are suing the FBI and

Oakland Police for violations of their

First Amendment rights. FBI officials

knew the victims were innocent yet

blamed them of being guilty of bombing

themselves. The FBI is also being

charged with violations of the Fourth

Amendment by conducting false arrest

and illegal search and seizure. These

charges have withstood the rigors of

eleven years of challenges in federal

court. In out-of-court settlement

conferences prior to trial, Bari and

Cherney have asked for: an investigation

of the bombing, an investigation of the

investigators, the Oakland Police to cease

spying on peaceful political groups, an

apology, and $20 million. The defendants

turned down all demands and made no

counter offer."

The trial showed that the only evidence

connecting Bari and Cherney to the bomb

was fabricated by either the FBI or the

Oakland cops. But the media and the

police and FBI used the incident to smear

Earth First!

In 1991, the year after Bari's car was

bombed, Bari and Cherney sued the FBI

and OPD. In April of this year the case

finally made it in front of a jury. The jury

trial revealed ongoing COINTELPRO

(counterintelligence program) activities

on the part of the OPD and the FBI

including surveillance of local activists,

fabrication of evidence for search

warrants and the disappearance of FBI

documents.

In 1990 an OPD unit in charge of

keeping tabs on local activists and sharing

that information with the FBI had a

database of more than 600 people Bari

and Cherney called on the phone.

Hopefully anyone who thinks MIM is

paranoid for being careful about who we

call and what we say on home phones

will take this information seriously. When

or under socialism, MIM favors

international price supports paid for by

the united $tates and other rich countries.

International price supports are part of

our party platform of internationalist

reform demands. If there are going to be

price supports, they should be for all

farmers in all commodities that can end

starvation--not just for Amerikkkan or

French farmers. It is much more

important to subsidize African farmers

than Amerikkkan farmers, who averaged

over $20,000 in subsidies a year from the

government in the year 2000.(1)

Progressive internationalist and rock

star Bono has gone on tour in Africa with

a conservative Treasury official Paul H.

O'Neill. Here is what Bono said, "`We

can't have people in Congress who agree

with debt cancellation and want to do

something on AIDS, and then sponsor the

farm bill.'"(1)

The unfairness is the

fact that subsidized food

then gets exported

contrary to U.$. rhetoric

about subsidy-free "free

trade." The exported

food destroys farmers

around the world,

including in Africa

where a huge famine is

now brewing.

Until the day no one is

hungry under capitalism

Earth First! activists win $4 million lawsuit

over violation of constitutional rights

Continued on page 5...

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 5...

MIM Notes 261 · July 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
papers; distributors get them onto the
streets and officers do both distribution and
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Distribute

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If you know you have some good places

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Make anonymous money orders payable

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A call for MIM Notes sponsors and distributors!

Letters

To mourn or not to
mourn: summing
up 9/11

A Revolutionary Salute!

As you know I am an avid Maoist and

reader of MIM Notes and MIM Theory.

I am an intransigent communist

revolutionary. I'm writing this letter in

response to the pitiful and numerous

things I've heard and read regarding "9-

11." Most of these things center around

the "innocent" victims and how it is an

atrocious loss of innocent lives. To be

honest my initial reaction was not

revulsion but rather a cold sense of "you

can't hide forever." Being a dialectical

materialist I had to put the event in its

historical context. I could not bring

myself to mourn, from a political

standpoint, the loss of however many

reactionaries. Objectively it is

recompense, although if I was a

bourgeois-type subjectivist I would only

view it as a loss of life, but I'm not. I am

a Maoist, so I am forced to lay my

feelings aside and deal materialist

analysis.

Now, my contention, which many find

"cold-hearted," is that those people were

*not* innocent. They were accomplices

in the imperialist war against the Third

World. To my eye they were like scouts

who scouted out conquerable portions of

the Third World and then mapped out an

effective strategy to exploit. Now, we

know that only one thing really allows

for the gross super-exploitation of the

Third World -- the gun. When I began

thinking of all of the corporations who

had personnel in the World Trade Center

I didn't see the meager 5,000 Yankees

and Yankee conspirators killed. If I am

"wrong" so be it. But I began to see the

14 million children's deaths each year in

Capitalist Asia. I thought of one-half of

all children's deaths in the world

associated with malnutrition, the 13

billion people who don't have access to

clean water. I saw the hundreds of

thousands killed in Indonesia,

Guatemala, El Salvador, Nigeria, South

Africa, the Congo, the Philippines. I

thought of the labor conditions of

Malaysia, Honduras, Kenya, Ehthiopia,

Zimbabwe, Colombia and many other

countries. I know that in each and every

one of these countries imperialism,

imperialist-funded and -equipped armies

and imperialist comprador regimes and

classes are all responsible for more

deaths in one month than 10 WTC

bombings. And again those imperialist

minions were complicit in each and every

one of those deaths. So I'm reminded of

what Mao said about reactionary deaths

being as light as a feather.

Now, I am well aware that there may

have been some innocents, but when

weighed against he death toll caused by

Amerikkka, objectively the answer is

explicit. There is an old Afrikan proverb,

"When he cat dies, the mice rejoice," so

I don't blame anyone for rejoicing over

"9-11." I even rejoiced, not for the loss

of human life but for the destruction of

two of imperialism's symbols and

administrative centers (even if the

destroyers were far from revolutionary).

I can do that even though I recognize that

the acts ended up being counter-

revolutionary due to the conditions of the

struggle here. It did weaken the U.$.

economy, even though it's coming back.

I just wanted to write and give you my

thoughts, especially since no one seemed

to see it in this light. And although I an

not a Castroite (i.e., state capitalist), I'll

end with a quote from him: "End the

philosophy of plunder and the philosophy

of war will be ended as well."

In revolutionary solidarity,

A Texas Prisoner, May 11, 2001

MIM responds: In its statement

released on the day of the attacks, MIM

mourned the deaths of the civilians at the

World Trade Center and Pentagon.

"Their deaths are as lamentable and were

as preventable as the deaths of millions

of children who die every year of

starvation and disease, victims of

militarism and imperialism," we wrote.

At the same time, we agree with this

comrade that such attacks were

inevitable--and remain so, as even

bonehead War Secretary Rumsfeld and

billionaire Warren Buffet admit. As long

as the United $tates retains the right to

oppress others by military force,

"terrorists" will strike back. Advances in

technology only make this easier.

Reprisal bombings, assassinating

putative "terrorists," invading so-called

"rogue states," or cracking down on civil

rights at home cannot prevent future

attacks. Yet this is all Amerika's current

rulers have to offer. Both Democrats and

Republicans represent a class of people

that profits from world war. Therefore

they are afraid to work aggressively for

long-range peace.

It's time to break with old thinking to

get at the root causes of humyn conflict

--production for profit, the class system,

conflicts over land etc. These can only

be addressed by communism, as difficult

as it will be to achieve. This is the harsh

lesson MIM seeks to teach Amerikans

from the events of September 11--and

any future attacks.

This system is
fucked--what can I do
to fix it?

Hello,

I just wanted to write and let someone

out there know that I looked up Walpole

Mass, on a google search and all of these

things [articles by MIM and others on

the conditions at a prison in Walpole]

Continued on page 9...

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 3

MIM Notes has seen a big spike in

circulation since the "war on

terrorism" began. It's not surprising:
MIM Notes is a free and independent
newspaper. Yes, there are especially

now knee-jerk patriots who believe
everything Bush says and pass by a
chance to read MIM Notes. There are

other patriots and internationalists
who realize that at this time papers
like MIM Notes can undo the huge

spectacle that Uncle Sam is creating
for its own benefit.

Sure, you have seen MIM Notes

around, but MIM Notes needs people
to do two simple things: 1) Pay for it
(postage and printing), 2) Distribute

it!

MIM is looking for sponsors,

distributors and officers. Sponsors pay

for papers; distributors get them onto
the streets and officers do both
distribution and financial support.

Distribute # Cost per year

12 (Priority Mail)

$120

25 (Priority Mail)

$150

50 (Priority Mail)

$280

100

$380

200

$750

900 (Express Mail!)

$3,840

900 (8-10 days)

$2,200

If you know you have some good

places to do distribution, we suggest

starting at 200 and working your way
up higher. If you are not willing to do
distribution, just send money. If you

are not willing to pay, then request
papers after somehow proving to the
party that you are serious (words

won't count). You who will cough up/
raise the money to distribute 900
papers each issue and then do the

distribution, you are what drives this
party forward.

A call for MIM Notes

sponsors and distributors!

Make anonymous money orders payable to "MIM." Send to MIM,

attn: Camb. branch, PO Box 400559, Cambridge, MA 02140. Contact

MIM in regards to this campaign by writing mim3@mim.org

U.$. armored vehicle struck and

killed two Korean girls during

military exercises in a suburb of

the south Korean capitol Seoul on June

13. The commander of the U.$. 8th Army

promised to "vigorously investigate" the

incident. Sure, just like the army

"vigorously investigated" the charge that

U.$. base commanders recently dumped

toxic chemicals into Seoul's main river:

it found the charges true but exonerated

the commanders.

The crash occurred three days after

200 protestors demanded compensation

and an apology over the death of a

Korean worker who died after suffering

an electric shock on a U.$. military base.

The girls' deaths also put a damper on

Koreans' celebrations of a 1-1 tie with

the outplayed United $tates in the World

Cup. South Korea's unprecedented

success in the tournament--the Korean

soccer team beat Poland and favored

Portugal to win their group and advance

to the second round--as well as its bid to

co-host the tournament are somewhat

indicative of its bourgeois economic

success.

Setting aside the fact that south Korea's

relatively prosperous economy is

U.$. armored vehicle kills two Korean girls

exceptional and uncertain, this recent

crash and other deadly slip-ups and

abuses by the Amerikan military make it

all for naught. What use is a world-class

soccer team when the 36,000 U.$. troops

on Korean soil can provoke a war at the

whim of the Amerikan government?

Leave it to Amerikan imperialism to

spoil a good game.

Note: Reuters, 14 Jun 2002.

eadlines in print and on-line

media over the last two months

have claimed that the Nepalese

army has killed hundreds of Maoist

guerrillas in several clashes. But those

with enough patience to read to the end

of these reports discovered that the

bourgeois mouthpieces themselves don't

believe the hype.

"The government routinely reports

high rebel casualty figures from battles

and low army death tolls. Casualty

reports cannot be independently verified,

as gunbattles often occur in remote

mountain areas. Neither human rights

organizations nor journalists can go to

the regions of fighting without military

permission...

"[T]he guerrillas usually do not

comment on casualties."(1)

Certainly it was no coincidence that the

first reports of the army's success against

the rebels came when the head of the

Nepalese government was visiting the

Wa$hington and £ondon asking for

military aid as part of the so-called "war

on terrorism." He got the aid. The United

$tates gave $20 million.(2)

To its credit, the Christian Science

Monitor ran an article describing how

an army patrol posed as Maoists when it

entered an apparently Maoist-controlled

village. "`They said, lal salaam,

comrade, but I knew they were army so

I didn't respond, otherwise I knew I

would be dead," said one villager. The

army did assassinate six villagers,

allegedly members of the local

revolutionary government. "Villagers

were so afraid of being identified as

family members of the dead men--either

by informants or army spies--that they

left the bodies unburied for a day."(3)

Unlike the bourgeois media--which

has an interest in spreading lies or in

selling more newspapers with eye-

catching headlines--MIM doesn't report

on the Nepalese government's victory

declarations--except to say we have no

idea of the truth behind them.

We do know, however, that the

protracted people's war led by the

Communist Party of Nepal is not

"terrorism," contrary to the opportunistic

pleas of the Nepalese government. The

Maoists target police, army and

government officials as part of their

struggle to overthrow the corrupt and

reactionary Nepalese government and

replace it with one that serves the people's

interests. They do not use violence to

intimidate the populace--as the current

government does, if the Christian Science

Monitor is to be believed.

The current government has done

nothing to eliminate basic problems

facing the majority of Nepal's citizens,

such as semi-feudalism. Semi-feudalism

is the system of land ownership

Bourgeois mouthpieces on Nepal: Psy-war hand-in-hand with irresponsibility

concentrating power in a few landlords'

hands that also puts the peasants in a

position of exploitation. Farming under

capitalism is done through a wage

system, but under semi- feudalism, most

peasants do not own land and cannot

choose their exploiters. Poverty and

government also contribute to terrible

public health problems: Nepal has the

fourth highest maternal death rate in the

world, for example, 77 times that of the

United $tates.

Since the current government uses

force to defend the status quo--with all

the violence inherent in exploitation,

malnutrition, and disease--the Nepalese

are justified to use violence to overthrow

the current government.

Notes:

1. Reuters, 14 Jun 2002.

2. Reuters, 15 May 2002.

3. Christian Science Monitor, 8 May

2002.

Liberal "peace" lobby
hampered by its basic
assumptions

by a Studies for the Liberation of

Aztlan and Latin America comrade

BEVERLY HILLS, Cal.

n Monday May 20th SLALA sat

in talks by two I$raeli

"refuseniks"--I$raeli soldiers

who have refused to serve in the Occupied

Territories. The speakers were Ram

Rahat, a senior spokesperson for Yesh

Gvul, an I$raeli peace group, and Ishai

Sagi, an artillery Lieutenant who was

jailed a year ago for refusing to lead

occupation forces in the Territories. Ishai

spoke for most of the time with Ram

Rahat making a support pitch for Yesh

Gvul at the end and saying that he served

for 20 years in the I$raeli military and

was one of the first Refuseniks during the

I$raeli invasion of Lebanon. His main

work now is to rally support for the

Refusenik movement in I$rael and raise

funds for legal fees for soldiers behind

bars for refusing.

The format of the talks was auto-

biographical. Ishai Sagi began by

explaining his roots as the son of a 25

year veteran of the Israeli Defense Force

(IDF) and of the war against Lebanon

who was raised in the tradition of

"defending Israel" and in the belief that

the IDF is "the most humane army in the

world," whose purpose is to defend

I$raeli lives.

I$raeli Refuseniks criticize occupation,

draw fire from reactionaries

MIM Theory

calls for

articles,

testimonials

MIM's theory magazine is preparing

for future issues. We are looking for

well-researched articles on Nazi

Germany and eastern Germany,
especially in the 1945 to 1953 period.

Please follow some footnote format.

Another area we are working on is

research on psychics. If you stopped

paying psychics, please send us a letter

telling us how you did so and give us
your permission to use your statement

as a testimonial. We also would

appreciate any statistical research or
articles on the subject of the

effectiveness of psychics.

Continued on page 7...

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 4

or the last few years, MIM has

talked about reformist allies in

"internationalist social-

democracy." Last year, MIM passed a

platform with potential to appeal to

internationalist social-democracy at the

expense of traditional chauvinist social-

democracy. However, the allies that MIM

pointed to have been single-issue

activists in the environmental movement,

movement for affordable health-care and

elsewhere. Now there is a think tank

based in England formed in May 2002

called Fabian Global Forum of social-

democrats that is consciously taking up

the call to reshape European social-

democracy.

Glenys Kinnock, a member of

European Parliament talked about how

accepting global trade is positive while

it is necessary to make sure the rules do

not favor the rich countries as they do

now. She said, "Rich countries need to

phase out quota and tariff restrictions on

exports from all low-income countries,

and radically reform their use of export

subsidies particularly for agricultural

production. The European Union's

`Everything but Arms' Initiative, which

was adopted in 2001, lets all products

except armaments from the very poorest

countries in the world enter European

markets duty and quota free. This is a

step in the right direction, but clearly

much more needs to be done to ensure

that developing countries can effectively

participate in the globalisation

process."(1)

Although social-democrat Martin

Shaw and others talk endlessly about

defending and exporting "democracy,"

none of the contributors to the forum

make a clean admission about social-

democracy's past since inter-European

imperialist conflict over colonies

severely intensified 80 years ago.

Internationalist social-democrats, as they

come into existence, enter onto MIM's

turf, the international proletariat's turf,

but they do so with a difference, which

is why they are occasional allies and not

"comrades." The crucial and historical

divide was World War I when social-

democratic activists decided to

"represent" workers of Germany, France,

England etc. which had become a labor

aristocracy and respect their majority

opinion favoring war while the

communists stayed with a scientific

definition of "proletariat" and held up

internationalist principle, at the expense

of support in elections. As a result, social-

democrats in each country voted for war

which pitted the workers of Europe

against the workers of Europe. Since that

time, the social-democrats have had a

better claim on supporting "democracy,"

meaning majority rule, while the

communists have favored internationalist

principle even at the expense of

popularity and "democracy."

Today as we go into an era where

internationalist social-democracy has

some limited prospects of success, we

would be remiss not to point out the

underlying competition between the

united $tates and Europe. Since even

"conservatives" in Europe have greater

natural respect for social-democracy than

the politicians of the united $tates, an

Amerikkkan-led globalization looks one

way while an assertive European Union

means something else in global politics.

The Vice-President of the European

Parliament from Scotland depicted the

Amerikkkan-led vision as follows, "an

unregulated free market where capital is

king and the poor are being ripped off by

de-regulation, privatisation and the

plundering by rapacious global

corporations and corrupt politicians."(2)

Conscious internationalist social-democracy emerging

Continued on page 7...

cientists from China, Japan, the

United $tates and other countries

published draft genomes for the

two main strains of rice in the 5 April

2002 issue of Science magazine. These

new data give researchers an idea of

where the 45,000-55,000 genes that

influence rice plants' characteristics are

and what they might do. Researchers

have already used this information to find

several genes that control flowering time.

The new data will also aid the study of

other grains like wheat and maize, as their

genomes are similar to that of rice.

Just as it hailed the draft humyn

genome last year as the cure for all

diseases, the bourgeois media touted the

rice genome as the solution to all the

world's agricultural problems. "Could

[genetically modified] rice feed the

world?" asked the Independent (UK)--

clearly a rhetorical question, judging

from the puff piece that followed.(1)

Never mind that both the published

humyn and rice genomes are draft

sequences, with much work yet to be

done before they are complete. (Some

researchers worry that all the hype might

backfire, with funding drying up before

the projects are complete.) Never mind

that even when the genomes are

complete, it will take decades to make

sense of all that information. Never mind

that there are some important

characteristics and applications that

capitalists will not investigate or develop,

because they are not profitable.

Never mind all that, science is cool,

dude, it will save the world. Ironically--

dialectically--by pushing this hyperbolic

view of science and technical advance,

devoid of its limitations under capitalism,

the bourgeoisie is pushing idealism and

metaphysics, not materialism. No wonder

the bourgeoisie has a hard time defeating

all kinds of mystical bugaboos like

creation "science."

As the other articles in this issue of

International researchers publish rice genome

No wonder the

bourgeoisie has a

hard time defeating

all kinds of mystical

bugaboos like

creation `science.'

MIM Notes make clear (see page one),

the major barriers to eradicating hunger

are not technological. If poor farmers

can't afford new high-yield technology,

what use is it to them? If farmers from

poor countries can't compete with

heavily subsidized rich-country farmers,

many won't even be farmers for much

longer.

The historical experience of the first

"green revolution" is relevant here.

During the '60s and '70s, agribusiness

and chemical monopolies promoted new

seeds and techniques with dramatically

higher yields. They claimed that this new

productivity would eradicate hunger and

alleviate poverty.

Food production did increase in those

countries which adopted "green

revolution" techniques--but hunger did

not decrease. "The total food available

per person in the world rose by 11 percent

[from 1970 to 1990], while the estimated

number of hungry people fell from 942

million to 786 million, a 16 percent drop.

This was apparent progress, for which

those behind the Green Revolution were

understandably happy to take the credit.

"But these figures merit a closer look.

If you eliminate China from the analysis,

the number of hungry people in the rest

of the world actually increased by more

than 11 percent, from 536 to 597

million..."(2)

"Nor was it increased population that

made for more hungry people. The total

food available per person actually

increased. What made possible greater

hunger was the failure to address unequal

access to food and food-producing

resources.

"The remarkable difference in China,

where the number of hungry dropped

from 406 million to 189 million, almost

begs the question: which has been more

effective at reducing hunger-the Green

Revolution or the Chinese Revolution,

where broad-based changes in access to

land paved the way for rising living

standards?"(2) MIM adds that Deng

Xiaoping's capitalist reforms are eroding

the basis of these gains: land reform and

collectivization. Large class disparities

are re-emerging in the Chinese

countryside as wealthy farmers, often

with government connections, buy up

poor farmers' lands.

In the rest of Asia, where 75% of rice

areas used the new seeds by the '90s,

hunger is as bad as it ever was.(2)

"According to Business Week magazine,

`even though Indian granaries are

overflowing now,' thanks to the success

of the Green Revolution in raising wheat

and rice yields, `5,000 children die each

day of malnutrition. One-third of India's

900 million people are poverty-stricken.'

Since the poor can't afford to buy what

is produced, `the government is left trying

to store millions of tons of foods. Some

is rotting, and there is concern that rotten

grain will find its way to public markets.'

The article concludes that the Green

Revolution may have reduced India's

grain imports substantially, but did not

have a similar impact on hunger."(2) The

Amerikan government also destroys

grain or pays farmers to leave land fallow

on order to keep grain prices high.

Green Revolution techniques depend

on fertilizers and machinery, which many

poor farmers cannot afford. As Peter

Rosset et al. from the NGO Food First

correctly sum up, "If the very basis of

staying competitive in farming is buying

expensive inputs, then wealthier farmers

will inexorably win out over the poor,

who are unlikely to find adequate

employment to compensate for the loss

of farming livelihoods." In poor

countries, this often means former

farmers cannot afford food for their

families. "Hunger is not caused by a

shortage of food, and cannot be

eliminated by producing more."(2)

Although they will not be the principal

weapons in the fight against hunger, MIM

believes that biotech advances like the

publication of the rice genome could help

feed people--if they are in the hands of

Continued on page 6...

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 5

Stickers with this graphic on them are available for sale and distribution. Contact
rail@mim.org or write to MIM at PO Box 29670, Los Angeles CA 90029-0670. ("Kills" is
red, and there's red blood on the blade.)

Bush farm bill opposing `free trade'

Organizations including the World

Bank, the IMF and Oxfam have all

admitted that despite U.$. rhetoric the

United $tates is destroying "free trade"

around the world and thus the economies

of Africa.(1) The World Bank and IMF

are especially hypocritical in this regard,

because they enforce "free trade," by not

lending development or emergency

money to countries that do not open

themselves to subsidized exports from

rich countries--all in the name of "free

trade."

Nor is all of this just Republican

hypocrisy. Clinton also continued a long

line of farm subsidies by signing a farm

subsidy bill in 1996. It is just further

proof that the bourgeoisie, the capitalists

cannot accomplish this "free trade" thing

they have been talking about for over 200

years. The capitalist ruling class is simply

unable to rise above the politics of money

in the current system. Of course the

House representatives and Senate

members from states with big farms make

it politically impossible to abolish farm

subsidies and any candidate in the

dumbocracy going against the monetary

interests of these farm states will be

punished by those farm states. It's

another reason that MIM opposes

majority rule of exploiters and favors

minority rule by an internationalist

communist party which will have strict

rules against pursuing its own self-

interests.

MIM will explain further. The U.$.

banks benefit when the United $tates

cancels African debts with taxpayer

money; although debt cancellation is in

some ways contrary to the underlying

logic of capitalism. These banks can then

get their money back more easily and can

lend out more money. Congress's

thinking about canceling $10 billion in

African debt but then passing a $190

billion farm subsidy bill is consistent in

one way--favoring U.$. corporate

interests.

The news of the farm bill arrives at the

same time as horrible news on the

starvation front. The United Nations has

already backed off its goal of reducing

malnutrition in the year 2015 to 400

million people. Now it seeks additional

funding of $24 billion a year so that 600

million people will not go hungry by

2015.(2) What the U.N. seeks and what

the U.$. Government provides in just one

farm bill are not far apart. If the

international proletariat forced the U.S.

Government to spend its existing

subsidies equally on farmers around the

world instead of just Amerikan farmers,

this would be a huge gain in the fight

against hunger and poverty.

Meanwhile another United Nations

agency is reporting that 10 million people

in southern Africa are on the brink of

starvation. "The U.N. World Food

Programme and the U.N. Food and

Agriculture Organization say about four

million tons of food will need to be

imported to Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho

and Swaziland over the next year."(3)

Even more could starve in upcoming

years just in southern Africa. In the world

as a whole, an eight-digit figure of people

starve to death each year thanks to the

poor distribution of food caused by

capitalism. While such people are

starving, the same rich countries then

wonder why there is "terrorism."

United Nations, Oxfam, Christian and

other charities destroy agriculture in the

Third World to benefit U.$. corporations.

When food arrives free, of course, local

farmers go out of business. While Oxfam

has at least raised its voice against

Amerikan trade hypocrisy, none of these

organizations has the political will or

knowledge to solve the real problem. In

fact, even MIM's call for the meager

reform of international price supports is

not widely heard. This is another reason

why the international proletariat must

organize itself politically with Maoist

internationalist parties at the head.

True free trade can only occur under

communism, a world without borders,

property interests and governments

favoring one faction of the humyn race

over another to such an extent that a

portion dies from starvation each year.

We call the transition to the world of

communism "socialism." Socialism is in

some ways an incremental development

beyond capitalism. In the case of

internationalist price supports, there are

some planks in MIM's platform that even

capitalism can implement. For MIM the

point of socialism is to implement the

survival rights of the people through any

means necessary, including "dictatorship

of the proletariat." Once those rights have

been implemented and no one is starving,

we may then proceed to a world without

coercion, communism.

Notes:

1. Warren Vieth, "U.S. Exports Misery

to Africa With Farm Bill" Los Angeles

Times, 27May2002.

2. http://www.cnn.com/2002/

WORLD/europe/06/04/food.hunger/

index.html

3. http://www.cnn.com/2002/

WORLD/africa/05/30/africa.famine/

index.html

Continued from page 1...

Food summit

some eight billion dollars per year,

against over 300 billion to their own rural

populations."(3)

In other words, for every $1.00 the rich

countries give to farmers abroad in poor

countries, they give $37.50 to farmers at

home. In terms of fighting hunger, this

ratio is upside down. (Of course, in terms

of more profits for Amerikan businesses

and cheesy vote-buying, it's about right.)

MIM favors "price support" subsidies for

all farmers everywhere growing food that

can help end world hunger--not just

farmers in Amerika and France. It is

much more important to subsidize

African farmers than Amerikan farmers

Even a high-ranking European Union

official admitted that E.U. subsidies to

European farmers violated principles of

"free trade"--although he reserved his

harshest criticism for the recently-passed

Amerikan farm bill, which he called,

"highly deplorable."(3)

The United $tates main contribution to

the conference was a clause in the final

document promoting research into

genetically modified crops.(4) The

United $tates alleges that such new crops

could bring about a second "green

revolution" to feed the world. Of course,

huge technological developments in

agriculture over the last century,

including the first "green revolution" in

the '70s, did not solve the hunger

problem (see also "International

researchers publish rice genome" on page

4). In fact, agricultural production in

many poor countries dropped as a result

of the first "green revolution," which was

driven by rich nations' business interests,

not poor countries' needs.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio

Berlusconi, one of the only two heads of

states from rich countries to attend the

summit--although he left early to watch

the World Cup--somewhat

opportunistically linked the summit to the

"war on terrorism." "The problem of

hungry people in the world is, after

terrorism, or indeed alongside terrorism,

the most serious problem facing the

world community. One must remember

that a starving man is a desperate man,

perhaps even a dangerous one." His

priorities are skewed--more than six

times the number killed in the World

Trade Center die every day of hunger,

making this priority number one in

MIM's book--but he is correct to link

the two problems. What he and other

capitalist leaders cannot provide is a

solution to either problem. As MIM said

in its Septemer 11 statement, "It's time

to break with old thinking to get at the

root causes of humyn conflict --

production for profit, the class system,

conflicts over land etc. These can only

be addressed by communism, as difficult

as it will be to achieve."

Notes:
1. BBC, news.bbc.co.uk, 13 Jun 2002.
2. The Independent (UK), 8 Apr 2002.
3. AFP, asia.news.yahoo.com/020612/afp, 12
Jun 2002.
4. Reuters, 13 Jun 2002.

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 6

Earth First! activists win $4 million rights lawsuit

asked whether they still track the

activities of activists the OPD refused to

comment.(1)

Earth First! is a radical anarchist

organization devoted to direct action to

protect the environment. Bari, who died

of breast cancer in 1997, helped lead civil

disobedience campaigns, such as the one

to stop redwood logging in Humboldt

County. During these campaigns activists

blockaded sawmills, chained themselves

to bulldozers and otherwise disrupted

logging. These actions pissed off the

timber industry, mill workers and

lumberjacks.

Bari received many death threats for

her efforts, so the bombing was not

entirely a surprise. That the FBI and OPD

were all over the crime scene within

minutes of the explosion suggests that not

just the timber industry had it in for Bari.

And their failure to investigate or even

take seriously the death threats, instead

focusing on pinning the bomb on Bari

and Cherney reveals the motives of the

FBI and OPD. Trying to explain away

their lack of investigation, Phil Sena, the

FBI case agent said "Threats are in the

eye of the beholder."(2)

One of the first pieces of "evidence"

used to arrest Bari and Cherney was the

conclusion that the bomb was in the back

seat of the car and so they must have been

aware of the explosive. But it is obvious

even to the inexperienced eye looking at

the car wreckage that the bomb exploded

under the drivers seat, a conclusion that

an FBI lab technician finally reached

three weeks later. Among fabricated

"clues" linking Bari and Cherney to the

bomb were nails discovered in the car

(not surprising since Bari was a

carpenter) which were supposedly

identical to the nails in the bomb. This

evidence was used to justify a search

warrant for Bari's residence, but in fact

the two sets of nails bore no resemblance

to each other at all. Then after a raid on

Bari's house the OPD again discovered

nails that supposedly matched exactly to

the nails in the bomb. And again this

evidence was used to authorize a second

search warrant for Bari's house. But

again this supposed match between nails

was completely false.

On the stand FBI agents and Oakland

police officers contradicted each other in

their testimony. And in sworn testimony

agents admitted they were either lying or

would be willing to lie. One of the key

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?

Continued from page 1...

FBI investigators, Frank Doyle, said

"Perhaps in the deposition I agreed to

things I should have said were

otherwise." The FBI agent in charge of

the case took a more evasive tactic saying

"I have no recollection of anything I

authored." And he went further to claim

he really shouldn't be blamed because "I

had no idea what was going on in the

case, and furthermore, I wasn't all that

interested."(2) These quotes lend

themselves to the conclusion that this was

just a case of bungling and

miscommunication, the argument of the

lawyers for the defense. But the bigger

picture makes it clear that this was a

targeted operation against Earth First!

activists by the FBI and Oakland Police

Department.

Activists should pay attention to this

case and understand that the police and

FBI continue active surveillance of

activists and will seize any opportunity

to frame and arrest those under

surveillance. The U.$. government takes

threats to capitalism seriously, and the

freedoms supposedly ensured to people

in this country do not extend to those

threatening the system. We can learn

from the history of the FBI attacks on

the Black Panther Party that it is capable

of murdering, imprisoning and

destroying militant anti-imperialist

leaders and organizations. This is not just

a strategy of the past. In Oakland, the

birthplace of the Black Panther Party,

surveillance and attacks against activists

continue. And we can be certain that they

continue elsewhere in the country as well.

MIM advises activists to take basic

precautions when organizing. Don't

make the pig's job easier. Avoid talking

about organizing details on telephones

which can be tapped. Wear a hat and

other coverings to make it harder to take

your picture and identify you when doing

public organizing. And don't give out

your name, phone number or address to

people you don't know. Fear of the FBI

and police should not keep us from

organizing, but activists need to be

realistic about the rights we do and do

not enjoy in this country.

Notes:

1. San Francisco Bay Guardian, May

29, 2002.

2. Indymedia web site:

sf.indymedia.org

International

researchers publish

rice genome

people who put humyn interests first, not

profit. Monopoly capitalists like

Monsanto, DuPont etc. not only control

who applies new technology and how, but

they set the research agenda.

"In 1999, one coporation, IBM, had

more patents (2756) than 134 countries

combined (2643)."(4) These patents are

used to enforce companies' monopolies.

This is an example of how "intellectual

property" can be transformed into "a non-

tariff barrier to trade" as the Wall Street

Journal would say.(3)

"[O]f the 1233 drugs that have been

approved in the last decade, only 11 of

these were for treating tropical diseases,

and of these half were intended for

livestock, not humans."(5) This bias

away from the most pressing global

human needs towards profit can also be

seen in two of the heavily-publicized

"genetically modified organisms:" One

seed line from Monsantos which made it

impossible for farmers to set aside part

of the yield for the next year's crop, and

another variety which improved the

effectiveness (and hence the sales) of a

particular pesticide.

When it comes to humyn needs like

food or healthcare, MIM is in favor of

pitting the Third World bourgeoisie

against the imperialist country

bourgeoisie, in the name of "free trade"

and against "intellectual property."(3)

This can lead to reforms such as when

imperialist-country drug companies

waived their patents and allowed Third

World countries to make cheap versions

of anti-HIV drugs.(6) Under socialism,

MIM would have the state pay

researchers fixed sums for discoveries

relevant to meeting humyn needs. This

would provide a material incentive for

those still backwards enough to need it

while at the same time making the fruits

of their research available to all.

Notes:

1. The Independent (UK), 5 Apr 2002.

2. Tikkun Magazine, Mar 2000,

www.foodfirst.org/media/op-eds.

3. "On utilizing contradictions in the

bourgeoisie and the principal

contradiction in 2001," MIM Notes 238,

15 Jul 2001.

4. Science, 5 Apr 2002, p. 57,

www.sciencemag.org.

5. Science, 5 Apr 2002, p. 55,

www.sciencemag.org.

6. MIM Notes 234, 1 May 2002.

Continued from page 4...

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 7

Immediately this was disproved when

he described some common practices of

his unit. This involved carrying out

nighttime raids into Palestinian homes

and "securing" (at gunpoint) families

while his superiors interrogated the men

and threatened them with the removal of

work-permits if they did not give names

of neighbors as supposed terrorists. Also

on the list of the "most humane army in

the world" was sacking and looting

Palestinian homes under the pretext of

"confiscating weapons" so that "not a

single kitchen knife is available in the

West Bank."

Ishai joined IDF at the age of 18 and

began policing the borders. From there

he went on to the Golan Heights, the

border with Lebanon and then to Nablus

in the Territories. Here he was given the

following "Firing Orders:" "Any

Palestinian that picks up a stone, shoot

him." The absurd reasoning behind this

was that while army convoys travel at the

bottom of ravines and through tunnels,

stones inadvertently dropped from the top

would gain such momentum so as to

shatter the glass of a military vehicle, kill

or distract the driver and cause an

accident that could claim or endanger

I$raeli lives. That is why they had to

shoot anyone, including 6-year-old

children, who pick up rocks. Ishai called

this reasoning "occupation logic" where

the principle of "protecting Israeli lives"

is used to justify any action in support of

I$raeli settlers and their military

defenders.

At this point an aspiring mass-murderer

in the audience could not contain himself

and could not wait for the conclusion of

Ishai's argument and gave himself away

by enthusiastically leaping up and

clapping as Ishai explained how

occupational logic demanded that

I$raeli Refuseniks draw fire from reactionaries

Palestinian children be irreverently

machine-gunned for the sake of

defending I$raeli lives. He quickly sat

back down when he noticed that his blood

lust had gotten the best of him. There

were a few hushed "yeahs" from the

opposition contingent in the back.

Another example of "Occupational

Logic" involved stone-throwing settlers

in the Occupied Territories. The I$raeli

army doesn't have authority over I$raeli

citizens, and therefore cannot order them

to stop throwing rocks at Palestinians. On

the other hand the I$raeli army is bound

to defend I$raeli citizens against anyone

so their orders were "Defend Settlers

when they are the ones throwing rocks."

Ishai recalled that one of his soldiers

handed him a leaflet explaining why the

I$raeli occupation was in violation of

international law and that he shared this

information with others under his

command because "It is my job to protect

my men and did not want them to do

anything illegal that would have

consequences for them." For this his

superiors reprimanded him. He

concluded his talk by saying how he

refused a second tour of the Occupied

Territories and was sent to prison.

In addition to the 100 or so participants

(mainly members of the Synagogue and

press) there was a loud opposition

contingent of 20 outright reactionaries

and their infants lined up along the far

wall of the hall each carrying signs

bearing the slogans "Traitors to Israel"

and "Terrorists!" These reactionaries

were outraged that opposition to the

I$raeli occupation would manifest itself

in "their temple" but did little to argue

about anything said by the speakers (for

they did not wait around for the Q&A

part of the program). Instead they spent

most of their time booing mention of the

words "peace" and "justice" when these

were mentioned.

Shouting matches ensued between

participants and disruptors before

Beverly Hills Police showed up to ask

the disruptors to keep quiet during the

event. One particularly frenzied

reactionary, a young womyn who spent

much of the time shouting and inciting

the infants present to cry finally shrieked

that she could no longer bear to listen to

Ishai's tales and stormed out of the

building, at which time everyone else

began clapping and booing.

During the Q&A period, Ram Rahat

said in answer to a question about U.N.

peace proposals that Yesh Gvul favored

the two-state solution with I$rael

retreating to its 1967 boundaries, while

Ishai said he thought the IDF should

police the borders and pull out of the

Occupied Territories.

During his time at the border Ishai says

he realized that border checkpoints were

"ineffective" in stopping the movement

of Palestinian laborers into Israel. He said

that it was possible for the military to stop

and harass some laborers, but that in the

meantime 10 others would get by. Ishai

declared himself a staunch supporter of

border checkpoints and claims that they

are necessary to keep "terrorists" out of

I$rael and that the reason so many

"terrorists" get through is that the army

is in the territories defending a handful

of fanatical settlers. His "solution"

implies more military buildup along the

border between I$rael and the Gaza Strip

and the West Bank. [Which he well get,

as I$rael just announced plans to build a

70-mile long fence along its border with

the West Bank.] During the discussion

of "Occupational Logic" people in the

audience questioned why I$raeli convoys

were in the Territories to begin with and

both the audience and Ishai blamed the

fanatical settlers.

When one considers how much trouble

Europe gave U.S. President George W.

Bush over the global warming treaty that

the Bush backed the united $tates out of,

a picture emerges where the capitalists

of Europe decide to compete with

Amerikkkan capitalists by using a social-

democratic facade. While Amerikkkans

stand for polluting for profit, the

Europeans step back and say that they

can compete as business people while

respecting global regulations.

Amerikkkans and neo-liberals say

regulation is bad while internationalist

social-democracy can point to the value

of having global regulations.

The internationalist social-democrats

are in a difficult spot. As they surrender

their traditional support to Le Pen and

the "right-wing," the social-democrats

will make unreliable allies because of

their respect for majority rule. They seek

careers in European Parliament and thus

So on the one hand, some of the I$raeli

opposition to occupation recognizes that

I$raeli convoys and settlers have no

business in Palestine. But on the other

hand both the war-mongerers and this

opposition share the some of the basic

principles of "Occupational Logic".

These people are so consumed by the

mythology of "the democratic state of

I$rael" and so used to living off the backs

of the oppressed that they

unquestioningly buy into the rhetoric of

"protecting I$raeli lives from terrorists"

and arrive at conclusions like increased

military buildup at the border.

At a time when the ruling party in I$rael

has made it a point of principle that there

"will never be a Palestinian state" peace-

minded people in I$rael and in the United

$tates should not seek to achieve peace

through half-measures about the

"obvious need for security" because this

is the inroad for war mongering and

fascism. The Liberal "peace" lobby in

both I$rael and the United $tates

continues to dodge the real issues of

reparations, socialism, and the removal

of settlers--most likely by force of arms.

The question Liberals should be asking

is why they're willing to let I$rael

continue its hegemony over the

oppressed nations while turning a blind-

eye to the historical consequences of their

democratic chatter.

The event was sponsored by the

Progressive Jewish Alliance, an

Amerikan Jewish organization with good

views on the Death Penalty and U.$. drug

laws (www.pjalliance.org); the Los

Angeles chapter of the international vigil

group, Women in Black (www.wib-

la.org); the I$raeli peace group, Yesh

Gvul ("There is a Limit!" www.ywsh-

gvul.org); and The Shefa Fund an

Amerikan Jewish fund-raising

organization (www.shefafund.org).

Continued from page 3...

Conscious internationalist social-democracy

Continued from page 4...

need a way to put together majority

support in elections. In the end they will

sacrifice the interests of the international

proletariat in order to obtain majority

support, because of their respect for and

self-interest in "democracy."

MIM agrees with most of what

professor Martin Shaw had to say about

the need to remake social-democracy. He

concluded his article on the new Fabian

website the following way: "Social

democracy will only become genuinely

global if it can see itself as something

very different from a safe and fairly

comfortable corner of European politics,

and can imagine a very different role and

a very different world. The global

challenge to social democracy is deep and

potentially uncomfortable. It remains to

be seen if it can be grasped."(3) Social-

democracy will have a hard time reaching

its full internationalist potential without

supporting the People's Wars in the Third

World. This will be a difficulty, but

globalist social-democracy has some

potential for staving off traditional

fascism in Europe. While traditional

social-democracy is our entrenched

enemy, we have many prospects of unity

with globalist social-democracy on our

platform of an international minimum

wage, international limitations on hours

worked, international rights to education,

international agricultural price supports

etc.

Notes:

1. http://www.fabianglobalforum.net/

global600/article001.html

2. http://www.fabianglobalforum.net/

global600/article002.html

3. http://www.fabianglobalforum.net/

forum/article001.html

Did you know?

There are more

than 200 back

issues of MIM

Notes available on

the MIM website?

Not only can you

browse more than

15 years of the

newspaper, you

can also keep up

with the very

latest on MIM

agitation

campaigns,

prisoner news, all

the latest on the

U$ war, and much

more. MIM's

website is an

indispensable tool

for the

revolutionary

movement. Get

involved!

www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 8

by Web Minister

May 2002 was a blockbuster month for

MIM's website in terms of achieving

MIM's central task of "creating public

opinion and the independent institutions

of the oppressed to seize power." Rather

than declining as in May 2001, readership

increased sharply in May 2002 from both

a year ago and a month ago. We believe

this is proof that we can beat the usual

summer trend of a precipitous drop-off

in readership. May 2002 showed that it

is possible to accelerate MIM web traffic

growth beyond it's 80 to 100% annual

rate seen the past year.

Top ten non-U.$. locations
receiving 100 or more MIM web
pages

Ranked by total kilobytes transferred

(not number of pages)

Location Pages served
Germany 3,865
Canada 2,721
Australia 2,312
France 780
"United Kingdom" 1,912
Sweden 643
Japan 477
Belgium 279
Netherlands 637
Italy 1,069

Other big users included "South

Africa" (254 pages), the Philippines

(125), China's Taiwan province (220),

Finland (430), Brazil (215), and

Singapore (154).

May 2002 was the first month in which

we had an article in Farsi (spoken in Iran

and western Afghanistan). Our objective

was to let the Farsi-speaking world know

that there is a MIM and what it stands

for. MIM does not attempt to organize

parties in the Third World.

Our culture pages also continued to

expand.

Movie reviews read over 500
times in May

Movie Readings
The Matrix 2,312
Blackhawk Down 900
Moulin Rouge 661
Star Trek 568
Truman Show 538
A Bug's Life 532

Most popular music reviews

Band Times requested
Metal in general 110
System of a Down "Toxicity" 70
Tool 68
Tupac 59
Hatebreed 58

The web site--especially its art and

movie review pages--is leading the party

into the cultural work that should always

precede revolution.

Just some selected other reports:

* Once again, the top read September

11th story is in Chinese and second place

goes to the Spanish translation of the

definition of terrorism.

* The Tiananmen article in Chinese

was served 815 times.

* MIM served the most popular Black

Panther article 666 times.

* Readers read 443 pages in MIM

Notes 257 in .pdf format.

Standard disclaimers

1. The numbers in these reports are

conservative estimates for a number of

reasons.

a. The number of computer users refers

to number of computers. The number of

users could be higher or lower, because

some computers serve pages to more than

one individual, because individuals share

computers and because conversely

individuals use computers in more than

one place.

b. The number of pages served should

by Web Minister, June 16, 2002

After a record-breaking May, the MIM

website fell back as expected in the first

two weeks of June. Nonetheless, there

are two odd silver linings to the June

statistics already.

First, although the number of readers

is down, the size of files, such as books

and .zip files is up, double on average

thanks to large files being downloaded.

Hopefully this means readers are

seriously studying the MIM website,

even if there are fewer readers.

The really big news is that over 60%

of MIM's readership comes from outside

U.S. borders, as measured by megabytes

of data transferred. Exactly one-third of

all MIM data transferred the first two

weeks of June went to the Asia-Pacific

region. Another 27% went to Europe.

These figures refer only to known hosts

served in certain regions. After certain

.com and other hosts have been

accurately counted, the figure would be

higher than 60%, but we do not know

how much higher. At least 4954 requests

came from Europe and Asian/Pacific

people requested files that are on average

larger than those chosen by Europeans

3323 times in the first two weeks of June,

2002.

We checked our past reports, especially

the August, 2001 report since it was

before September 11th. At that time, there

was as yet no such trend evident at all.

Host geographies were widely dispersed

and hugely dominated by U.$. readers--

at least we assume since the task of

tallying those websites would be very

difficult. We will have to keep an eye on

whether or not the European and Asian/

Pacific readership will remain dominant.

In August of 2001, MIM served only

8617 distinct host computers an average

of 909 pages a day. As we focus on

August, 2002 and measuring our

response to September 11th, we hope to

beat that figure by as large a margin as

we can, even more than by 80 to 100%

as we usually expect on an annual basis.

It remains unclear whether MIM will

be able to accelerate readership later in

the summer as hoped. Further analysis

of May, 2002 figures and why they

accelerated so much showed that some

of my initial enthusiasm for having

uncovered the secrets of the Internet

proved incorrect: a pornography site had

decided to link to us briefly and produced

a large part of our gains. MIM

infrastructure volunteers like myself are

familiar with being in this position. (See,

"Against lifestyle idealism: The PIRAO

and porn" at http://www.etext.org/

Comparing May 2001 to May 2002

2001 2002 %change
Avg. MIM pages served per day 1010 2361 +133.8
Number of different computers MIM served 11,217 28,050 +150.1
Number of different MIM files actively chosen from 2,401 3495 +45.6
MIM data transferred average per day (Mb) 62.4 102.3 +63.9

be thought of as a minimum, because

statistics do not count re-readings or re-

servings from local computer memory.

Nor do they count sharing of pages once

downloaded.

c. Most but not all graphics served are

excluded from the figures to cut back on

increasing "page" averages just by

calling up various graphics.

2. Tracking where computers are from

is bound to have some error as many wise

users intentionally surf the web and leave

a false trail. On the other hand, we doubt

that such error means that non-U.$.

readership is lower than reported, given

that we do not count .com, .net and .edu

readership.

Notes:

1. As in past reports of this format,

these statistics exclude most graphics.

2. Excludes non-U.$. computers that

have .com, .edu or .net suffixes--a very

common occurrence. We also exclude

another quarter with non-identifiable

addresses.

MIM website readership doubled over last year

Politics/MIM/wim/cong/piraoporn.html)

Comrades can contribute to our goal

of solidly thrashing the August, 2001

figures in many ways--by giving money,

by doing the hard real-world labor of

MIM website gains international audience

Subscribe to Notas Rojas!

One copy: $1

One year, four issues: $4

Two years, eight issues: $7

100 copies to distribute in your area: $20

Send name, address, and cash, check, stamps, or money order to:

MIM Distributors, PO Box 29670, Los Angeles CA 90029-0670

distributing newspapers, by translating

articles, by writing music reviews and by

coming up with new interest areas that

would be appropriate for the MIM web

page.

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 9

We Were Soldiers (2002)
Directed by Randall Wallace

We agree with many movie critics that

the movie "We Were Soldiers" departed

heavily from critical Hollywood Vietnam

war movies like "Full Metal Jacket" and

"Platoon" or the highly personalized

"Born on the Fourth of July." "Soldiers"

not only tried to make the men of the 7th

Airmobile Division look professional--

"just doing my job, ma'am, nothing

personal"--but it portrayed them as

deeply patriotic, in an almost religious

sense, devoid of politics. In this the film

builds on the other recent war film,

"Black Hawk Down," which also

emphasized soldiers' personal

commitment to each other over any

discussion about what the soldiers were

doing and why.

Thus, behind the weekly list of box-

office hits--"biggest opening in a month

beginning in `J' in an odd-numbered year

ever"--is the unseen hand of the

Pentagon, White House and their super-

patriot conspirators in Hollywood. They

want to hype Amerika's sense of pride

and unity.

In order to look objective, the

"Soldiers" tried to strike a balance by

showing the human side of the

Vietnamese People's Army (NVA), the

Amerikan adversary in the war. The film

tried to recount the NVA struggle against

the French--if only to differentiate the

"freedom-loving" Amerikans from the

colonizing French

But ultimately the film just made the

Vietnamese look stupid to highlight the

Amerikan technological advantage in the

air and in firepower. Thus the film only

justifies and escalates the awesome terror

war machine that we witness today in

Afgahistan and the Philippines.

Counterproductive self-
glorification

Actually the film echoed all the anti-

communist pictures in the past. "55 Days

in Peking" (1963), "Sand Pebbles"

(1966), "The Green Berets" (1968) and

other racist films that depicted Asian

peasant-based revolutionaries as

mindless suicidal hordes, doomed to be

defeated by smarter, stronger Westerners.

But if the movie viewer will only be a

keen observer one may ask: Is it not the

height of desperation for a ground

commander to order his air and artillery

support to fire on his perimeter for the

fear of being overrun by his enemies?

Only a commander on the brink of defeat

would give such an order.

Moshe Dayan, the Zionist defense

minister in 1967 said, "The Vietnam War

is a helicopter's war, so the U.S. will win

this war." How wrong he was. In 1975,

the US withdrew all its forces in Vietnam

and until now is trying to exorcise the

ghost of its terrible defeat in that war. All

of the Amerikan imperialists'

technological superiority could not save

them from defeat in Vietnam, any more

than it can stop "terrorist" attacks at

home.

You'd think the Amerikan imperialists

would have learned their lesson and quit

meddling in other nations' affairs; quit

backing corrupt politicians allied with

feudal lords; quit exploiting the world's

majority. But they can't. It's in their

nature, as Mao said. They are driven to

conquer greater and greater profits, so

they "make trouble, fail, and make

trouble again" until the proletariat puts

them down for good.

Hollywood makes this kind of movie

to pacify ruffled hearts and minds.

Movies will not exorcise the ghost of

Amerika's defeat in Vietnam. It will take

more than a wall of remembrance in to

turn their defeat to victory.

Yes, Virginia, if the United $tates could

not win in China, Vietnam, Cuba or any

part of the world they want to, at least

they can win in their movies like "We

Were Soldiers."

--MZ276, a friend of MIM; edited by

MC206

Yes, Virginia, we were mercenaries...

MAOIST MOVIE REVIEWS

popped up on the screen! I am outraged,

animals are treated better then most of

these people. Its not fair I know, but all I

can do is write and just let you know that

someone out there really does care about

you guys.

I printed out about four pages and put

it on the kitchen table so that someone in

my family would read it, and was actually

hoping that my father would read them

and try to do something about it. He is

probably just as ignorant as all those

stupid fucks out there that make all these

fucked up laws! He "has never even heard

of Cedar Junction"! I just don't get it!

My ex-husband, went all through the

system so I have heard a lot about it and

have also been through a small part

myself. Like a lot of the inmates who

have been locked up for a long time he

started out in Walpole! He actually told

me one time that the old Salem Jail,

where if you had to use the bathroom you

had to use a bucket and then throw it in a

big "well" of some kind. Which he also

said was right by where the weights were,

was the best jail that he had been to!

For him to have said that to me

something isn't right. I could probably

tell you stories all day long that he has

told me, just like I know you could do

the same.

That is not the point of this letter

though.

I just want you to know that if it matters

at all, I feel bad for all the people that are

suffering right now for the wrong

reasons. If there is anything that you think

a 23 year person could do then let me

know. If not at least you know that

Letters

someone out there doesn't look at a cop

driving down the street, and think that

he is out driving around trying to help

out the community. I know exactly what

those stupid shits are up to ,and it is

driving around aimlessly all day long

looking for someone who he might think

just might be up to something "against

the law". They actually go out and look

for shit like that.

Just one example, I was in Middleton

the other day and there was an old lady

holding a shopping bag standing and the

corner waiting for a light to change so

that she could cross the street, and what

do I see fly past the right of me? Yep, a

fucking pig not paying any attention to

the old lady or thinking anything about

maybe getting her across that busy street

safely, no, he was more concerned about

getting in front of me so that when it

changed to become one lane that he

would be one car ahead in line!

Fuck `em all thats what I say, I know

that won't change anything but, still. I

would say have a good day, but I know

that ain't gonna happen. Try and make

that best out of your day and hopefully

you will think of something for me to do

for you.

Take care,

-- a reader in Massachusetts,

June 2002

MIM responds: Thanks for your letter.

We definitely do want to hear from

people like yourself who think the system

is messed up and needs changing. We see

the problem with the prison system as

part of a larger problem with this country.

It is a symptom of an imperialist system

which uses social control to maintain its

power, both in this country and in the

Third World. In Third World countries

the U.$. takes resources and cheap labor

for profit, and uses the military (and

puppet militaries and governments) to

keep the people from rising up and taking

power for themselves. In this country the

majority of the people have been bought

off and so choose not to see the

oppression going on. Still, the internal

semi-colonies (e.g. Blacks, Latinos, and

First Nations) are oppressed, and more

likely to rebel. One of the clearest

examples of this oppression is the fact

that the United $tates disproportionately

imprisons these groups. The United

$tates imprisons Blacks at a higher rate

than Apartheid South Africa.

There are many things that a 23 year

old persyn can do to fight this injustice.

In fact that is why we put the information

out on our web site, we want people to

read about the injustice and be inspired

to take action. First, we will point you to

the agitation section of our web site

where there are lots of campaigns

described with potential actions that

people can take. You can find that at http:/

/www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/

and included on that page is a section on

prisons. There is a lot of work to be done

around the criminal injustice system

which, in this country, is used as a tool

of social control to keep the imperialists

safely in power.

Many of the campaigns listed on our

web page target just the kind of problems

you mention in your e-mail: the terrible

conditions and treatment of prisoners

across the United $tates. There is also

information about MIM's Books for

Prisoners program which offers political

education to prisoners, providing free

literature and also the opportunity to

work and struggle with comrades on the

outside.

Continued from page 2...

UNITED

FRONT

Get the new issue of MIM Theory, #14, and read the latest
theory on building the movement to overthrow
imperialism once and for all, in 174 pages. Articles include
MIM congress resolutions, history from the Spanish Civil
War to Puerto Rico, Kenya, and Stalin -- plus international
documents, reviews, and much more. Send $7.50 to the
address on page 2.

MIM Notes 261 · July 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

IL prisoner brings
lawsuits and press
coverage; IDOC
clamps down hard

After 17 years in maximum security, I

decided to sell out for myself, settling a

four year Federal lawsuit to go to a

medium security facility. I signed a

contract after my court-appointed

attorney assured me that nothing would

go wrong as long as I obeyed the rules.

After my arrival, I learned that the IDOC

had adopted a new ranking system,

making my new prison one step away

from a maximum security one. I tried to

get the settlement reversed, but the judge

threw it out.

As I adapted to my new environment,

I found the health care system to be a

death sentence. A young first-timer kept

being misdiagnosed about his stomach

complaints and finally died of cancer. I

started publishing articles in a Chicago

newspaper about all these prisoners'

sufferings, and I was finally shipped out

to a "punishment prison," Shawnee

Correctional Center. Shawnee normally

accepts parole violators and prisoners

from other facilities with disciplinary

problems.

When I tried to get the breach of

contract heard in court, the same judge

threw out my case. I then filed a

complaint against my attorney with the

Attorney Disciplinary Commission, but

the lawyer claimed he never advised me

that my transfer was permanent. I'm

sending a copy of a letter my attorney

sent to the Assistant Attorney General

who also signed my contract with me as

proof that my lawyer is full of shit. I'm

now too far from home for visits with

my elderly father. The IDOC will not

even honor my father's doctor's note,

advising that I should be moved closer

to my father for visitation, as my father

is in failing health.

During my stay at this punishment

camp, I have been exposing the prison

for what it is and have been cussed out

and threatened by the warden. In fact, my

MIM Notes were confiscated and I was

made to either mail them back or destroy

them. In all of this struggle, I received

the address of a lawyer who is looking

for prisoners who have been abused in

IDOC health care, for participation in a

possible class action suit. He is:

Benjamin Wolf, Legal Director, ACLU,

180 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL

60601-1287

-- an Illinois prisoner, May, 2002

LA Kops' old tricks

I'm intimately familiar with the pains

and tribulations of the struggle. When I

was merely a 13 year old kid, L.A.

Sheriff's deputies caught me horsing

around on the roof of a supermarket.

They came up onto the roof, handcuffed

me at gun-point, beat me, called me many

niggers, and then they threw me off the

roof of the supermarket whilst I was still

handcuffed behind my back.

--a California prisoner, 24 May, 2002

Protest prison
brutality

Below is a protest letter written in

response to one of our campaigns in

Under Lock and Key. We encourage all

readers, prisoners and non-prisoners

alike, to join us in sending letters to

protest the conditions at Limestone

Correctional Facility.

Albert N Muskowitz Section Chief

Civil Rights Division US Department of

Justice 950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington DC 20530-6018

4/11/02

Re: Limestone Correctional Facility

Lockup Unit

Mr. Muskowitz,

My name is ABC XYZ, and I'm

presently confined at XXX Correctional

Facility. I'm writing you due to some

very disturbing news that I read in a

recent publication. The news that I read

was in regards to the horrific conditions

at Limestone Correctional Facility

Lockup Unit. The article described in

detail the deplorable conditions that the

prisoners are subjected to at the facility.

Mainly the fact that prisoners on

numerous occasions are beaten beyond

recognition and without mercy for

nothing what so ever. I'm writing you in

hopes that the purported illegal abuse will

stop and those directly and indirectly

responsible alike be brought to justice. I

thank you for your attention to this

matter and I hope to hear from you

shortly.

Yours etc., A New York Prisoner

Fighting prison
censorship

Dear MIM,

I just got MIM Notes for April and I

wanted to touch base and let you know.

There were several articles I really

enjoyed reading, namely "Amerika - the

real nuclear rogue state", "Thousands

support Palestinian self-determination",

and of course everything dealing with

prison censorship of inmates First

Amendment liberties. The latter of the

three subjects is of great interest to me

because I have recently been studying up

on the facially overbroad regulation of

publications due in no small part to the

fact that these capitalist swine rejected a

book I ordered entitled Peristroka from

the U.$. book club (they're cheap and I'm

broke). There is little doubt that mail-

room officials may conclude certain

publications, though seemingly

innocuous to laymen, have significant

implications for the order and security

of the prison. However, it is equally

certain that prison walls do not form a

barrier separating prison inmates from

the protection of the constitution, nor do

they bar free citizens from exercising

their own constitutional rights by

reaching out to those on the inside -

Turner v. Safely, 482 U.S. 78 96 LED

2nd 64, 107 SC&2254.

The limitations placed upon First

Amendment Freedoms must be no

greater than necessary or essential to the

protection of the particular governmental

interest involved. These swine (read

mail-room officials) are sweeping their

censorship too wide, and therefore are

placing unnecessary burdens upon many

inmates rights. The first question a

prisoner should ask himself is whether

the actions of the officials is reasonably

related to penological interests.

--a prisoner in TN, May 2002

Dear MIM,

I just received your letter with

information on how to fight prison

censorship. I'm certainly gonna read up

on it in the law library (I don't know

anything about the law stuff but I'm still

going to read up on it.)

I did put in a grievance on the 20th

asking why [my MIM Notes] were held

for that long and not letting me know any

reason or get any kind of notice. I notice

these prison workers want to reject mail

that they don't agree with. Instead of

being staff prison workers they want to

be police officers, investigators,

inspectors, nosy low lifes thinking

everything is a threat when I know for

sure that MIM Notes and all the other

publications you guys have are very

helpful and they do help us prisoners to

educate ourselves because I've seen it

before.

I am in a lockdown facility, segregation

maximum, 1 hour out so I'm going to start

reading and checking up on that law

library because I know these prison

workers are doing some shady thing and

are evil.

I did receive my appeal back for the

appeal on "MIM Notes" and "What is

the Maoist Internationalist Movement"

and it says: "the MIM magazine and

MIM Notes have been sent for

headquarters review. Should

headquarters support the rejection the

MIM magazine and MIM notes will be

barred state wide. Should headquarters

not support the rejection, the magazine

will be returned to CBCC and forwarded

to you."

I think these people reject it because

they seen where it says "Internationalist

Movement," and when they seen that

they just reject it because like you said,

there was no "evidence to support their

claim." There were no details on the mail

rejections.

--a prisoner in WA, May 2002

Tennessee Warden arrested

Dear MIM,

We are going through some changes at

this prison right now. Hell we don't even

have a warden no more! Yeah the U.$.

Marshall came a few weeks ago and

escorted him from the property,

handcuffed and all. They reported on the

local news that the warden, James M.

Dukes, and his associate Warden Bruce

Westbrooks had several criminal and

civil complaints filed against them by

prison employees and former employees

for a number of reasons. Interestingly

MIM Notes 261 · July 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.

enough, all of the complaints were of a

sexual nature; i.e. sexual-assault, sexual-

battery, fondling, sexual harassment, etc.

Fucking perverts, I hope they get just

what they deserve too. Unfortunately,

officials like them enjoy some sort of

immunity, plus they'll just get probation

if they get anything at all. I expect the

Attorney General to settle on a monetary

basis with the employees just to avoid

liability if the cases were to instead be

litigated. They are always gonna look out

for their own.

-- a prisoner in TN, May 2002

United Struggle
from Within

As Washington USW member #1 and

leader I will address a couple of issues.

Issue 1: Clallam Bay Censorship. [In

response to reports of recent censorship

there] Clallam Bay has a long history of
rejecting publications and literature.

Censorship has been successfully won

once in this state. CBCC is steep in
racism, nepotism and repression. I think

and know the censorship issue can be

won there because MIM Notes has not
been banned statewide. The comrade and

MIM have to appeal the mail rejection

to the Office of Corrections Operations
at DOC, PO Box 4129, Olympia WA

98504-1129. They review all materials,

books, publications, and make the
decision to accept or reject subject

materials.

DOC policy states that publications

can't be rejected based on political or

religious ideology. MIM has been

accepted at WSP, MICC, WCC, SCCC
and WSR. I know because I have been to

those facilities within the last year and a

half. There should be no problem as long
as the comrade is not on any mail

restrictions. I would suggest that until the

institution accepts MIM Notes that you
send him material off the web site, it

would be easier.

The comrade must also be, if need be,

ready to fight the mail rejection all the

way to the top, even if it means a law

suit. I and another comrade have already
lost (for now) a civil suit on the strip cell

abuse at CBCC. I went all the way to the

Ninth Circuit. I have not given up. I will
try to file a motion for reconsideration

but it has almost been 60 days.

Issue 2: McNeil Island Correction

Center rejected a USW cover letter
[stating that the slogan in the letter "Arms

Up, Fist High" was the reason.] I think

the sleeping giant is starting to wake up.
A lot of comrades are starting to respond

to the USW call. The enemy reads too. I

think they may be a little upset about the
article in MIM Notes 249, Jan 1, 2002

Under Lock and Key. I sat in that IMU

for six months receiving MIM Notes and
other publications and books with no

problem. That is where in the belly of

the beast I came up with the slogan Arms
Up, Fist High, I'm not the first or the last

that will use it. It is something that

surfaced from the heart so if you want to
revise the letter and add the significance

of the slogan you can, and tell them I

came up with it.

Arms up, Fist high has two levels of

understanding. 1) When the arm is raised

it is standing up, reaching out apart from
the body, independence. The clenched

fist is a symbol of strength and solidarity.

2) Arms up: to arm oneself with any tools
one needs by any means necessary to

connect to the fist. Fist high: Is a clenched

hand of five digits, freedom, equality,
justice, humanity, and environment raised

to its highest levels unity.

Issue 3: Point platform
I would like to first salute revolutionary

prison comrades in Oregon and South

Carolina for being leaders nationwide
with organizing techniques and a point

platform. I was trying to wait and

coordinate with the NAACP and BPC,
Black prisoner Caucus, prison club. The

NAACP plans to set up prison chapters

at all Washington facilities. I was taken
to the hole so I did not make the meeting

on May 9th which was to elect a

membership board. We are ahead of them
in that we already have a base of contact.

But soon they will have physical contact

and the administration approved to set
up meetings, dialogues and share issues.

There are close to a hundred policies

and serious issues that we need to be
addressed. I don't think censorship is one

of them right now. I know that many

comrades in other states face this serious
obstacle but we are dealing with only one

wild racist institution for right now. Just

as Indiana prisoners, we face an illegal
price fixing too. We pay $234 for a $84

13 inch color TV. But with 35% we are

paying $325 so we pay four times the
price, plus a $10 hold that is mandatory

insurance shipping cost. So when you are

transferred to another facility, i.e. IMU
to IMU every six months, you have to

pay the $10 again if you want to receive

your TV appliance. If you do not have
the fee your TV or radio, which the fee

for shipping that is $7.50 but sales for

$54 prison price, street value $9.99 for a
cassette AM-FM radio you will lose,

have destroyed, or donated after 30 days.

So if you have no money you lose your
appliance. That is just one crazy

corrupted issue, it is like a rain barrell

full of holes. You don't know which to
plug first to stop the leak.

But the repressive capitalist penal

system of Washington has not stopped
the beginning in of revolutionary

awareness. Comrades are starting to step

forward in letter writing. I challenge us
to do more by centralizing our efforts on

organizing and educating politically. I

know a lot of us prisoners have no
background in political ideologies or

science. That did not stop others. We

must establish study groups, even if its
just one other person. Some basic books

we are fortunate to find in our facility

library or from other state libraries. Other
comrades in other states don't have that

opportunity. We are moving forward,

growing as a movement. Continue the
struggle against the odds.

Arms up, fist high!

--USW prisoner #1, Wasington State
MIM responds: Our only point of

disagreement with this comrade is over

the relative importance of the anti-
censorship struggle. If even one prison

in a state is censoring MIM then we have

to make that battle something of a
priority. Not necessarily state-wide, but

it is something that USW in that state

needs to take on. This is because our
ability to get literature and letters into the

prisons is central to our organizing and

educating work. If we can not reach our
comrades behind bars we can't help you

organize any campaigns or provide

materials for any educational work.

United Struggle from Within (USW)

is an anti-imperialist prisoner mass

organization within the MIM-led United
Front. All prisoners interested in leading

our organizing work behind bars should

get involved. Help to set the agenda for
our work in you state and get involved

organizing and educating others.

Political struggle

I was passing out MIM Notes today in

the recreation yard to the new brothers

who either came from other prisons or

the streets. A few understand their
conditions. But the majority of brothers

today keep saying that they ain't into

that political shit. ... As long as you're of
a different organism other than these

white racists in Amerikkka your struggle

in society will always be political.

-- A Pennsylvania prisoner, May 2002

Only in Amerikkka

Greetings from the [Pennsylvania]

Department of Correction. I am writing
to publicize how and why the pigs here

get away with beatings, harassment and

refusing prisoners medical care. They get
away with it because the PA DOC

Handbook says it is OK. DC_ADM 001,

Inmate Abuse Allegation Monitoring
Policy states that the following are

excluded from the definition of

"ABUSE":

- CONDITIONS OF

CONFINEMENT;

- CLAIMS OF INADEQUATE

MEDICAL OR INTENTIONALLY

DENIED MEDICAL CARE;

- HARASSMENT OR

NONPERFORMANCE OF DUTY BY

STAFF MEMBERS; AND OR;

- ABUSE BY ANOTHER INMATE.
Only in Amerikkka could such a rule

exist. I ask you if that isn't abuse what

is?

-- A Pennsylvania prisoner, May 2002

What to do about the
parole board?

I was so thankful to receive the paper

again. I'm presently in the hole. I passed
the papers from MIM to the brothers here

and their attitudes towards each other

have changed a lot. I guess the truth does
change perspectives.

I'd like to ask one serious question.

How do we incarcerated get people

from outside to put an end to this racist

parole and probation board?

-- A Pennsylvania prisoner, May 2002

MIM responds: We pose this questions

to our readers as well. Amerika leads the

world in per capita imprisonment. Rates

in the oppressed nations--which do not

control the prisons system, a tool of their

oppressors--are particularly high.

Onerous parole regulations contribute to

this. Thus there is the possibility of

reforms in this system which could aid

the revolutionary movement. MIM leads

struggles for such reforms, and we

welcome input from our readers about

winnable battles we can take on.

MIM Notes 261 · July 1, 2002· Page 12

Notas Rojas

julio 1, 2002, Nº 261 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

PLAN "ALUVION EN

LOS ANDES" Y

ASESINATO DEL

PRESIDENTE

GONZALO

Por Luis Arce Borja

El Diario Internacional N° 59

Bruselas, 17 de mayo del 2002

En 1994 publicamos (El Diario

Internacional) el artículo Operación
capitulación, Historia secreta de las "cartas
de paz". En dicho texto señalamos que las

"cartas de paz" que Fujimori y Montesinos
falsamente adjudicaron al Jefe de la guerrilla
peruana, fueron formuladas "bajo una

concepción criminal y siniestra que implicaba
el asesinato del presidente Gonzalo". Dijimos
entonces, que "antes o después" él se

convertiría en la principal víctima de los
verdaderos autores de las cartas que
calificamos de vulgar patraña fabricadas en

las oficinas del Servicio de Inteligencia
Nacional (SIN). A la luz de esta denuncia
incontestable afirmamos que a partir de la

publicación de la primera "carta de paz"
(octubre 1993) sólo existían dos posibilidades
en torno al destino del presidente Gonzalo:

La primera se refería a que él habría sido
asesinado después de abril de 1993 cuando
fue trasladado de la isla San Lorenzo al penal

militar del Callao. La segunda, consideraba
que el presidente Gonzalo seguía con vida
pero que su existencia transcurría bajo

condiciones carcelarias brutales y de
exterminio físico y mental.

¿Cuál de las dos hipótesis que

desarrollamos en 1994 ha sido la más

acertada?

La idea de que el presidente Gonzalo fue

ejecutado clandestinamente después de abril
de 1993, y más exactamente antes del mes de

octubre del mismo año ha cobrado cuerpo a
partir de una serie de elementos secretos
hechos públicos después de la caída de

Fujimori y Montesinos. Existen muchos
indicios, incluso algunos testimonios, que
conducen a una verificación más exacta de

esta hipótesis. Por ejemplo, se conoce ahora
que las "cartas de paz" pidiendo una
negociación de la guerra popular no fueron

redactadas por el presidente Gonzalo como
propagandizó el gobierno. Su autor, de
acuerdo a una auto confesión, fue Rafael

Merino Bartet, quien reivindica la autoría de
las mismas. (Declaraciones a Caretas, 9 de
mayo 2002). Las declaraciones de Merino,

no sólo descubren al verdadero autor de las
misivas de paz, sino que revelan también las
incongruencias en el manejo y montaje de las

mismas. Como se verá más adelante, las
afirmaciones de Merino al ser entrecruzadas
con los testimonios de Montesinos

(vladivideos) no dan ningún resultado
coherente, y eso es producto de las mentiras
con la que el gobierno ha intentado ocultar

durante 9 años la desaparición del jefe
guerrillero y presentar como cierto un
"acuerdo de paz" que nunca existió.

Ahora se sabe también que el plan que

elaboró y ejecutó el Servicio de Inteligencia
Nacional (SIN) para "hacer capitular a

Gonzalo" se denominó "Aluvión en los
Andes" como dice Vladimiro Montesinos, o
"Tempestad en los Andes", como ha dicho

Merino a la revista Caretas. Según la versión
de Merino, este plan tuvo dos partes: La fase

A destinada a buscar información del
prisionero y: fase B, dirigida a convencer al

presidente Gonzalo "que su captura había
significado el descabezamiento de la
organización", y que no tenía más camino que

la capitulación. Lo que oculta Merino son los
métodos que se utilizaron para lograr ambas
fases. No cabe duda que dicho plan se ejecutó

en los sótanos del SIN y sus ingredientes
fueron la tortura, el crimen, el montaje
fílmico, la falsificación de cartas y una

abundante publicidad en los medios de
comunicación. Los videos sobre el presidente
Gonzalo y las "cartas de paz", que tanto

Fujimori, así como Montesinos y Merino han
presentado, para dar muestras de veracidad a
la "capitulación de Gonzalo", fueron los

elementos ejes que sustentaron al plan
"Aluvión en los Andes". Merino es un civil
de 69 años de edad, 34 de ellos dedicados a

servir a los militares. Desde 1968 se enganchó
con las sucesivas dictaduras militares. Sirvió
al general Velasco alvarado y después lo hizo

con el general Morales Bermúdez. En 1980
(fin de las dictaduras directas de las Fuerzas
Armadas) inició su carrera en el Servicio de

Inteligencia Nacional (SIN) y a partir de 1990
se puso bajo las ordenes de Montesinos.

Se conoce también ahora (de acuerdo a

testimonios que entregamos en este mismo
artículo) que el presidente Gonzalo al ser
desaparecido fue reemplazado por un

personaje que ha doblado en el aspecto físico
al presidente Gonzalo. Es sobre la base de
este montaje teatral que se construye la vida

virtual del presidente Gonzalo. Es esta
"resurrección" de laboratorio, la que sirve
ahora para propagandizar la "huelga de

hambre de Gonzalo", o el reciente "diálogo"
(1° de mayo) entre el presidente de la
"Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación" y

el jefe guerrillero. Ha quedado descubierto
también que Montesinos era el que dirigía el
"comité central del Partido Comunista del

Perú" que desde 1993 el SIN hizo funcionar
en la Base Naval del Callao. De esto da cuenta
el mismo Montesinos, que a través de los

vladivideos muestra como convocaba y
dirigía los "debates" del "comité central",
integrado entre otros por Osman Morote,

Edmundo Cox, María Pantoja, y otros
capituladores que han venido trabajando para
Montesinos y el SIN.

"Cartas de paz": dimensión estratégica

y muerte del Dr. Guzmán

Las "cartas de paz", constituyen el

elemento clave para entender por qué
Fujimori y Montesinos ejecutaron

clandestinamente al jefe de la guerrilla
peruana, en lugar de fusilarlo como lo habían
planificado en setiembre de 1992, y que

incluso estaba aprobado en un consejo de
ministros. ¿Por qué estas cartas?. Ellas fueron
construidas como parte medular de un plan

estratégico antisubversivo de largo alcance,
cuyo propósito fundamental fue la aplicación
de una estratagema policial dirigida a liquidar

la armazón ideológica-política (pensamiento
Gonzalo) de la guerrilla maoísta. Como lo
dijo el propio Montesinos, la aplicación de

este operativo psicológico era para "asegurar
la derrota estratégica de sendero luminoso".
En efecto, tanto los expertos americanos que

desde 1980 venían participando activamente
en la lucha contra la guerrilla maoísta, así
como la policía peruana, estaban convencidos

que la captura del presidente Gonzalo
(setiembre 1992) siendo un hecho importante

en la lucha contrainsurgente, estaba lejos de
constituir el fin de "sendero luminoso".

La propaganda oficial que identificaba la

captura del presidente Gonzalo con una
derrota estratégica de la guerra popular, se

desinfló tan rápido como aumentó la actividad
subversiva en Perú. Según cifras oficiales de
la policía y el ejército si para el año 1992 se

registraron 2,992 acciones subversivas, en
1993 estas aumentaron a 3,760. Esta realidad,
que resultaba diametralmente diferente a la

propaganda que hablaba de la "derrota de
Sendero Luminoso", no pasó desapercibida
ni para la policía ni para los funcionarios

norteamericanos. El coronel Benedicto
Jiménez Bacca, uno de los ex jefes de la
policía antiterrorista del Perú (DINCOTE) y

que formó parte del equipo policial que
capturó al presidente Gonzalo, dijo: "La
detención de Abimael Guzmán Reinoso el 12

de setiembre de 1992, conjuntamente con tres
miembros del Comité Central, constituyó una
victoria importante, pero sólo desde el punto

de vista táctico, no estratégico...".(Benedicto
Jiménez Bacca, Inicio, Desarrollo y Ocaso
del Terrorismo en el Perú, Tomo II mayo

2000). ¿Qué hacer entonces?, para que la
captura del jefe maoísta se transforme, de
triunfo pírrico en "derrota estratégica" de la

subversión. Esta pregunta fue planteada en
los términos más solemnes por la
Subcomisión de Asuntos del Hemisferio

Occidental del Congreso de los Estados
Unidos. En efecto, el 23 de setiembre de 1992
a pocos días de la captura del presidente

Gonzalo, esta instancia del congreso
americano efectúo una reunión
específicamente para analizar el "fenómeno

senderista". Dicho evento presidido por
Robert G. Torricelli, se hizo una sólo
pregunta: "La preocupación más inmediata

sin embargo, es qué hacer con Guzmán, y
cómo asegurar que su captura signifique el
final de la organización guerrillera, Sendero

Luminoso". Es a partir de interrogantes como
la formulada en el senado de los Estados
Unidos, que surgirá el plan (Aluvión en los

Andes) para "demoler el pensamiento
Gonzalo, y tratar de liquidar de esta forma la
fibra ideológica de la revolución peruana.

Y en efecto, tal como lo anotamos en

"Operación capitulación" , el propósito
político de las cartas de paz fue romper la

unidad entre el pensamiento Gonzalo y su
gestor. Era claro que el cuestionamiento de
los fundamentos ideológicos y políticos del

PCP no podía provenir directamente de algún
organismo del Estado, menos de la policía y
las fuerzas armadas que por naturaleza y

formación intelectual son incompetentes para
enfrentar a la subversión en este terreno. En
este campo habían fracaso los partidos

políticos oficiales, así como sus más famosos
intelectuales (senderólogos, etc.) que desde
1980 hicieron vanos intentos de oponerse a

la teoría y planteamientos doctrinarios de los
maoístas peruanos.

La única forma de alcanzar este propósito

era enfrentando a Gonzalo contra Gonzalo, o
mejor dicho haciendo que el jefe de la
guerrilla peruana rechazara todo el camino

teórico práctico que había recorrido desde la
primera mitad de la década del 60 hasta su
captura. En lo fundamental se buscó

presentarlo renegando de sus principios
ideológicos-políticos y de su militancia en la
doctrina marxista. Mediante el truco de las

"cartas de paz", el presidente Gonzalo, que
hasta antes de su captura había calificado a

Fujimori de pobre diablo , "taimado y cínico
^Å chumbeque enganchado en la punta de

las bayonetas... no es un hombre de
principios.." (Discurso y comentarios acerca
del golpe de Estado, II Pleno del Comité

Central, abril 1992), ahora halagaba sus dotes
de presidente triunfador con quien incluso se
podía establecer negociaciones de paz. Así

mismo, si antes había dicho que la guerra era
la única vía para resolver el problema de los
pobres del Perú, ahora decía que la "paz era

una necesidad insoslayable de la nación y de
la sociedad peruana". Si en setiembre de 1992
(discurso en la jaula) llamó a continuar la

guerra popular, ahora decía que la abandonen
para entregarse en los brazos de la policía
fujimorista. Si antes había dicho que el

capitalismo burocrático no tenía viabilidad,
ahora decía que Fujimori sentaba bases para
el desarrollo económico del país y

naturalmente del capitalismo burocrático. Si
antes había dicho "el mando nunca muere",
ahora decía que el partido había sido

descabezado y que no valía la pena seguir en
la lucha por el poder. Si en su último discurso
llamó a la formación del Ejército Popular de

Liberación, ahora pedía la disolución del
mismo. Y así sucesivamente, perdido en la
negación de su vida y obra, el presidente

Gonzalo de gran estratega político y
revolucionario de primera fila en Perú y en
América Latina, aparecía como un político

de baja monta que estúpidamente analizaba
al revés y patas para arriba los problemas
políticos del país y del mundo.

La dimensión estratégica de las "cartas de

paz" provinieron de un régimen mafioso que
gobernó el país sin el más mínimo escrúpulo

moral, donde el arte de la mentira, la trampa,
el montaje, el chantaje y la patraña política,
se convirtieron en la alquimia para convertir

el día en noche y la falsedad en verdad. Una
de las características principales del marco
político del país en el cual se fabricaron las

"cartas de paz", fue el manejo dictatorial y
policial del Estado, del poder judicial y de
los medios de comunicación. Ahora, al

haberse revelado los vladivideos, se conoce
los millones de dólares que la mafia de palacio
de gobierno distribuía en diarios, revistas y

canales de televisión. En esta realidad, el
Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (SIN) y
otras instancias militares y policiales, tuvieron

el control absoluto de la información y la
noticia. Es aquí en este terreno, propicio para
el montaje mediático, donde brotan las "cartas

de paz", que desde comienzo a fin estuvieron
rodeadas de incoherentes mentiras que fueron
fabricadas por Vladimiro Montesinos y el

Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (SIN). Hay
que anotar que absolutamente todo lo que la
prensa peruana informó desde octubre 1993

sobre las "cartas de paz", se nutrió
exclusivamente del SIN y de las propias
manos de Vladimiro Montesinos. No se

conoce una investigación independiente del
periodismo peruano respecto a este hecho. Es
por ello que la información sobre las misivas

de paz y la "capitulación de Gonzalo",
tuvieron desde inicio a fin una orientación
policial y antisubversiva.

Continua en la edicón siguiente...