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MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 1

MIM Notes

September 1, 2002, Nº 265 The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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On the web: www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext

hilippine President Gloria

Macapagal-Arroyo ordered

troops operating against the Abu

Sayaaf bandit gang to move against the

Communist-led New People's Army on

August 5. She also threatened militant

trade unions: "We will wage war against

criminals, terrorists, drug addicts,

kidnappers, smugglers and those who

terrorize factories that provide jobs."(1)

Macapagal-Arroyo unveiled her new

all-out war policy at a news conference

reminiscent of Corazon Aquino's "I will

unsheath my sword of war" speech. Both

Macapagal-Arroyo and Aquino came to

power making verbal concessions to anti-

fascist mass movements such as

promising land reform or sincere peace

talks with the Communists. Both have

now reneged on those promises.

The August 5 news conference came

just after U.$. Secretary of State Colin

Powell visited Macapagal-Arroyo. The

U.$. Attorney General placed the New

People's Army on a list of so-called

"terrorist groups" after September 11.(2)

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal,

spokesperyn for the Communist Party of

the Philippines, said the party would

"intensify the armed struggle" in

response to the declaration of all-out war

and the threat of Amerikan intervention.

He attributed Macapagal-Arroyo's

CPP Information Bureau

August 6, 2002

ommunist Party spokesman

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal

today declared that the

revolutionary movement "will defeat the

all-out war of the US-Macapagal-Arroyo

regime."

In a statement released to the media,

Rosal said that the CPP will "intensify

the armed revolution nationwide." The

revolutionary forces, he added, will

"continue expanding and strengthening

the revolutionary mass base and launch

tactical offensives especially against the

weak points of the reactionary enemy."

"It will launch a patriotic war the

moment American troops directly

intervene in the counterrevolutionary war

and enter the territories of the People's

Revolutionary Government," Rosal

declared.

"Macapagal-Arroyo's [regime] will

definitely suffer a backlash from her

declaration of all-out war against the

revolutionary forces," Rosal said. "The

correctness of the Party and the

revolutionary forces' stand against the

pro-imperialist and fascist policies of the

current reactionary regime is becoming

ever clearer to the people."

"Even before this declaration," Rosal

reveals, "there has been a marked

increase in the number of people, both

in the countryside and cities, wishing to

join the New People's Army and other

revolutionary organizations led by the

Party."

Rosal further stated that "Macapagal-

Arroyo's declaration of an all-out war

against the revolutionary movement is in

conformity to US instructions dictated to

her by US State Secretary Colin Powell

in their talks the other day."

Rosal said that such a declaration is

part of the "US-designed publicity

U.$.-Arroyo regime launches

`all-out war' on communists

Philippine

Communists:

We will defeat

reactionaries'

all-out war

aggressive policy to her Amerikan

handlers. "This declaration is tied to the

objective of ensuring the permanent

presence of American troops and paving

the way for their direct intervention in

the counterrevolutionary war." (See

articles on this page and page 4.)

It has been clear since hundreds of

Amerikan troops arrived on the

Philippine island of Mindanao in January

to "train" Philippine soldiers to fight the

The revolutionary forces are aligned against Arroyo and her Amerikan puppet-masters.

The mayor of Hiroshima criticized the

United $tates on August 5 while

commemorating the 57th anniversary of

the Amerikan nuclear attack on his city.

"Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi lamented the

world's growing tendency to forget the

horrors of the atomic bomb and told his

audience that the dangers of nuclear war

were rising.

"Akiba invited [U.$. President] Bush

to Hiroshima `to confirm with his own

eyes what nuclear weapons can do to

human beings' and lashed out at

Washington.

"`America has not been given the right

to impose a `Pax Americana' and to

decide the fate of the rest of the world,'

Akiba said. `Rather, we, the people of

the world, have the right to insist that we

have not given you [the United $tates]

the authority to destroy the world.'"(1)

MIM agrees with Mr. Akiba. MIM's

politics are driven by the simple

conviction that humyn survival rights--

including the right not to have the humyn

race blown up by crazy militarists--

come before

the supposed

right to

profit.

Capitalists

profit off of

war and the

divisions that

lead to war.

Their profits

even make

them willing to risk nuclear war, which

some of own spokespeople believe is

inevitable.(2)

Only the alternative of communism--

as difficult as that will be to achieve--

can eliminate the root problems of humyn

conflict: production for profit, the class

system, conflicts over

land etc.

Japan's defeat in World War II and the

nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and

Nagasaki in particular taught the

Japanese people some harsh anti-

militarist lessons. Mr. Akiba's charge that

the United $tates is risking world

destruction is one example of that, as is

the city of Hiroshima's museum

dedicated to eliminating nuclear

weapons.(3)

The United $tates is bound to suffer

similar defeats--indeed it already has, as

in Vietnam. These future defeats will

destroy the imperialists' ability to make

Mayor of Hiroshima blasts `Pax Americana'

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C ontinued on page 7...

C ontinued on page 4...

MIM Notes 265 · September 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
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

distribute, we suggest starting at 200 and
working your way up. If you are not willing
to distribute, 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.

Make anonymous money orders payable

to "MIM." Send to MIM, attn: Camb.
branch, PO Box 400559, Cambridge, MA
02140. Or write mim3@mim.org.

A call for MIM Notes sponsors and distributors!

Letters

Attention subscribers

MIM now sends MIM Notes

subscriptions to individuals in monthly

mailings, third class mail. If you have a

subscription and would like a refund for

the remaining months, please write to

MIM,PO Box 29670, Los Angeles, CA

90029-0670.

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.

Stop UC Berkeley's
inquisition

A New York prisoner wrote the

following letter to Chancellor Robert

Berdahl of the University of California

at Berkeley.

Dear Chancellor,

I recently read in MIM Notes

publication an article in regards to your

"zero-tolerance policy" at the University

of California. It seems that this policy

was directly targeted at the (SJP)

Students for Justice in Palestine

organization that were holding political

demonstrations to educate the public of

your university's direct contribution

through financial aid to the Israeli

occupation of Palestine. The Constitution

of the U.S. (Const. Amendment I) gives

the citizens of the country the absolute

right to petition for redress of grievances

and freedom of speech. These are two

distinct clauses within the First

Amendment. By arresting numerous

individuals and threatening suspension

from school to students these are fascist

acts that one could expect from Hitler or

Mussolini in order to quiet popular

dissent.

I'm asking that the charges brought

against these individuals be dropped, the

Inquisition put to a cease. Additionally,

I'm asking that any aid given to

companies such as Raytheon, Lockheed

Martin, General Electric Corp., etc. be

discontinued because these same

individual corporations are turning

around and using these funds to supply

Israel with the military capability to carry

out it's on going repression of the

Palestinian freedom movement for self-

determination. The senseless taking of

land ever since 1948 and displacing of

Palestinians has to stop. The hunger,

devastation, disease and hopelessness

that is caused by the Israeli occupation

has to cease. You can do your part in this

internationalist movement by advocating

and promoting the right to free speech

without worry of repression and the

divestment of all financial dealings with

companies named above and those that

support the Israeli occupation. I thank

you for taking the time out to read my

petition. God bless.

Respectfully submitted,

[a New York prisoner]

On June 7th all criminal charges

against the students were dismissed in

court and each protestor is to receive a

"factual findings of innocence." On

campus, the UC administration has lifted

the suspension of SJP thanks to many

supporters who expressed their disgust

at the administrations actions. However,

they continue to threaten 41 UC Berkeley

students who participated in the sit-in

with harsh student conduct charges and

severe academic sanctions, including a

year of academic suspension. So letters

such as the one above are still needed.

To get involved in the campaign to get

the UC schools divested from Israel you

can download a petition here: http://

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/cal/

DivestPetition.pdf

Leters can be addressed to:

Chancellor Robert Berdahl

200 California Hall #1500

Berkeley, CA 94720-1500

We constantly update MIM's

coverage of the U.$. war on

our web site, with news and
opinion, agitation materials,
articles in English, Spanish,

French, Chinese and

Russian!

Read and distribute the

newspaper -- and get the

latest:

www.etext.org/ Politics/MIM

MIM Notes 265 · September 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

Decision comes after

rejecting restrictions

on family visitation

The California Department of

Corrections (CDC) recently rejected

proposed restrictions on prisoners'

contact with family members at the end

of the period for public comment on

August 9. This decision came after

activists loudly criticized the CDC.

The CDC then added new limitations

on prisoners' contact with legal aid

workers. The new regulations limit

attorney-client privilege and bar law

students and legal aid workers who are

not lawyers from visitation. For most

prisoners volunteer legal help from non-

lawyers is essential to maintain their

access to the courts, needed to help fight

against repressive and inhuman

conditions in prisons.

MIM and RAIL collected petition

signatures and letters to send to the CDC

demanding that the CDC allow prisoners

their constitutionally guaranteed rights

to legal representation; that they remove

all new wording of the Attorney

Visitations and Consultations section;

and demanding that a public hearing take

place on these new regulations. However

the CDC approved the limitations after

a short comment period ending August

9 and no public hearing.

The rewrite of California DOC

visitation policies began in March. The

first round of proposed changes in the

CDC visiting rules made it very difficult

for people to visit their relatives and

friends in prison, cutting off visitation

entirely for inmates with more severe

sentences. The rules would have required

preteens to undergo federal background

checks before visiting their parents in

prison; required all inmate visitors,

including minors, to provide a completed

CDC Form 106 and obtain institution/

facility approval before being permitted

to visit an inmate; required minors over

the age of 7 to present picture proof of

identity before being permitted to visit

(only legal ID's, as with adult visitors);

and cut off family visits for higher

custody and life sentence inmates, those

in segregation or secure housing units,

or who have been found guilty of

violating certain regulations. These

restrictions were clearly counter to any

notion of rehabilitation as studies have

shown that regular visits reduce

recidivism among prisoners.

MIM collected hundreds of petition

signatures to protest these new proposed

policies, which were sent to the CDC.

According to the San Francisco

Chronicle, the CDC received more than

2000 letters of protest in response to these

new regulations. Most of the visitation

limiting changes were removed in the

second draft of the visitation proposals

California DOC guts legal aid visitation rights

The final UN report on the Amerikan

raid on the Afghan village of Kakarak

reveals that U.$. troops returned to the

scene right after the massacre to clean

up traces of blood, shrapnel and

bullets.(1) The July 30th report also says

the Amerikans tied the hands of Afghan

womyn behind their backs and filmed

dead bodies.(2) Amerikan planes

bombed a wedding party at the village

on July first, claiming they came under

anti-aircraft fire.(3)

Participants in Afghan weddings often

fire rifles in the air, but witnesses to say

the July first wedding party fired no

weapons. The Amerikans also argued

that the village was a Taliban stronghold.

However, according to the UN report,

"the affected compound [in Kakarak]

belonged to an active anti-Taliban

fighter."(4)

The imperialist military does not care

how many civilians it kills as long as it

accomplishes its mission: to ensure

world hegemony and continue extracting

super-profits from the Third World.

Bombing a wedding and then covering

it up were not just mistakes, they were a

part of the pattern of U.$. military

oppression throughout the world. Nor

was this attack the first to cause civilian

deaths since the so-called "war on

terrorism" began. Independent estimates

of Afghan deaths directly due to the war

range from 1,000- 3,000 people. The

number including deaths due to

starvation, exposure, illness, or injury due

to the war is up to 6,000.(3)

Mao said that "U.S. imperialism is the

adversary of the people of the world." As

proletarian internationalists we must

U.N. report Afghanistan massacre doesn't corroborate U.$. story

continually bring to light the horrific

nature of U.$. imperialism and unite with

the oppressed peoples of the world in

their struggle against it.

Notes:

1. BBC News, 30 Jul 2002.

2. BBC News, 29 Jul 2002.

3. MIM Notes 262, 15 Jul 2002.

4. Reuters. 29 Jul 2002.

MIM runs the foremost website

amongst all those calling themselves

Maoist on the Internet by number of users

and breadth of content. In fact, MIM's

struggle to support the People's War in

Peru and elsewhere has been unparalleled

on the Internet since the late 1980s (and

recorded by Google since 1992.)

The only website calling itself "Maoist"

that could claim higher traffic would be

the "Afghan Liberation Organization,"

ALO, which especially since September

11th has had a hand in web pages that are

in hot demand.

This has not stopped organizations such

as the "RCP-USA" from calling MIM

"small" and "isolated" every chance it

gets--as if size were the issue and not

political line. July comments at the "RCP-

USA"'s website www.2changetheworld.

info/home-en.php are indicative. We at

MIM encourage people not to pay

attention to MIM just because our web

readership is relatively high or highest

amongst the organizations calling

themselves "Maoist."

There are simply not enough MIM

members to be everywhere that they

should be. That is why organizations that

compare size instead of line and party

requirements end up as opportunists,

bourgeois infiltrators. By size alone, and

with the "RCP-USA"'s class line, the

"CP-USA" or the "Democratic Party"

would be better choices.

The "RCP-USA" is not the only small

organization pointing to other small

organizations and asking "where were

you on X day in Y city"? This is also a

favorite tactic of the Spartacist League,

which also demonstrates its opportunism

of reducing questions to one of numbers

of people. Marx, Lenin and Mao called

this kind of approach in general

"empiricism," because it hinges on one

fact (typically a favorite protest) without

generalizing correctly to a level of

principle.

The ONLY principled way for one

small organization to criticize another or

for a large organization to criticize a

small one is to compare party

requirements for membership. If in fact

MIM members do not have high work

requirements relative to the "RCP-

USA"'s, that might be worth discussing.

MIM raised this point on its Yahoo!

group "Maoism" only to receive

deafening silence from the "RCP-USA."

The very fact that the "RCP-USA" has

always raised the "small" thing against

MIM indicates that they are not Maoist,

but rather sizeist pragmatists.

Otherwise, without MIM's scientific

approach to this question, what happens

is that we assume that larger

organizations must be superior, when in

fact, they could be bourgeois

organizations like the Democratic Party.

Such a question has to be determined

scientifically, not by counting bodies.

The "RCP-USA" may be larger in a

membership sense than MIM, but its

influence is bourgeois influence,

influence representing the labor

`RCP-USA' runs from questions at

www.2changetheworld.info

C ontinued on page 9...

C ontinued on page 6...

MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 4

Statement by Gregorio "Ka

Roger" Rosal

Spokespersyn for the Communist

Party of the Philippines

August 6, 2002

Macapagal-Arroyo's declaration of all-

out war against the revolutionary

movement conforms to US orders

dictated to her by US Secretary of State

Colin Powell during their talks the other

day. This declaration is tied to the

objective of ensuring the permanent

presence of American troops and paving

the way for their direct intervention in

the counterrevolutionary war.

This declaration of all-out war is part

of an entire US-designed scheme that will

end with Macapagal-Arroyo

"solicitation" of US assistance in its

effort to fight the NPA.

Even before this declaration, the US

and Macapagal-Arroyo had already

planned the next "exercises" outside the

Abu Sayyaf areas, and in the territories

of the New People's Army and the organs

of political power of the revolutionary

movement.

After allegedly breaking the backbone

of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group, the US-

Macapagal Arroyo regime is now

focusing attention on the New People's

Army. Based on arrangements that have

undergone continuous modifications,

there are bigger openings for direct

intervention by US troops like what had

already been started in Basilan.

"The war on terrorism does not

distinguish between ordinary terrorists

and those espousing a political ideology,"

said chief puppet Arroyo, who insisted

on turning a blind eye to the difference

between the revolutionary people's army

on the one hand, and bandits and criminal

syndicates on the other. Chief puppet

GMA also insinuated that her all-out war

would encompass even the legal and

democratic mass movement. Said the

chief puppet, "We will wage war on

criminals, terrorists, drug addicts,

kidnappers, smugglers and those who

terrorize factories that provide jobs."

We were not at all surprised by

Macapagal-Arroyo's declaration of all-

out war. In fact, the AFP's all-out

counterrevolutionary war has been raging

in the countryside for several months

now.

As soon as she took power in January

2001, Macapagal-Arroyo secretly

ordered massive assaults by the terrorist

AFP and PNP on guerrilla fronts even as

she declared that her government would

pursue the peace talks with the NDFP.

Before long, Macapagal-Arroyo

discarded the peace talks.

Since the third quarter of 2001,

thousands of AFP troops have been

deployed by the Macapagal-Arroyo

regime against the revolutionary

movement. Along with the AFP's

rampage against the people of Basilan,

Sulu and Zamboanga, the fascist troops

have also been wreaking widespread

havoc on hundreds of thousands of

people in Southern Tagalog (particularly

in Laguna and Oriental Mindoro),

Cagayan Valley (especially in Isabela),

Central Luzon (especially in Tarlac and

Pampanga), Central Visayas (especially

in Bohol) and other areas where the

revolutionary movement is widespread

and strong.

In Southern Tagalog alone, hundreds

of ordinary civilians have been

victimized by rampant killings,

massacres and mass arrests and

imprisonment, with the hapless victims

always accused of being NPA members

or supporters. Most of the slain civilians

were activists and leaders of mass

organizations actively fighting for the

rights and welfare of their respective

sectors.

The revolutionary movement is ever

ready for the all-out war declaration of

any chief stooge of the puppet republic.

It has never been fazed by any threat of

brutal attack by the puppet republic's

mercenary troops and even by the

presence of, and threats of aggression

from, American troops.

The Party, the people's army and the

revolutionary movement will respond by

intensifying the armed struggle and

launching tactical offensives on the

weakest sections of the enemy.

The Party stands ready to lead a

patriotic war the moment American

troops wage direct intervention, which

includes entering the territory of the

People's Revolutionary Government.

The succession of out-and-out puppet

regimes-Marcos, Aquino, Ramos and

Estrada - all tried to destroy, crush and

annihilate the revolutionary movement.

They all failed miserably. Filipino

revolutionaries and communists are

certain that the puppet Macapagal-

Arroyo regime will likewise fail to

subjugate the Filipino people's

revolutionary and patriotic struggle.

Arroyo's declaration of all-out war dictated by Colin Powell

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.)

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?

campaign that will end with Macapagal-

Arroyo asking for US help in its effort to

fight the NPA."

According to Rosal, the US and

Macapagal-Arroyo governments want to

"justify the incursion of American troops

into the guerrilla zones." He said that this

will take the form of "exercises,"

extension of military support, setting up

of "infrastructures for military

campaigns" and "direct participation in

counter-guerrilla operations."

The all-out war declaration, he said, "is

tied to the objective of ensuring the

permanent presence of American troops

and paving the way for their direct

intervention in the counterrevolutionary

war."

"The US is itching to directly get

involved in the all-out war against the

CPP-led revolutionary movement--one

among those the US dreadfully fears,"

Rosal added.

Rosal said that the CPP and the

revolutionary movement are not at all

surprised by Macapagal-Arroyo's

declaration of an all-out war. In fact, he

added, the AFP's all out

counterrevolutionary war has been raging

in the countryside for several months

now.

He assailed the AFP for "wreaking

widespread havoc on the people" in

Oriental Mindoro, Laguna, Isabela,

Tarlac, Pampanga and Bohol where "the

revolutionary movement is widespread

and strong."

Philippine Communists: We will defeat reactionaries' all-out war

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 5

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www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM

Amerika sends more

military aid to the

Philippines

Just after the U.$. Congress approved

another $55 million in military aid for

the Philippines (1) an Amerikan soldier

shot a Filipino civilian. The soldier was

one of over 1,000 Amerikan troops in the

Philippines engaged in so-called training

exercises with the Philippine military.

Three soldiers armed with Armalite

rifles kicked open the door of the home

to the Isnijal family while they were

asleep in their beds around midnight on

July 25. There were eight civilians in the

house, including a baby, three children

and an elderly woman. The military had

no arrest warrant. One of the soldiers was

Amerikan.(2)

The soldiers ordered Buyong-buyong

Isnijal to lay on his back on the floor.

Without provocation the Amerikan

soldier shot him in the thigh. Isnijal's

wife Juraida then fought with one of the

soldiers and who struck her on her palm

and face with his rifle barrel. The soldiers

fired two more shots and all residents of

the house ran outside except the wounded

man.

According to doctors the Amerikan

soldier who shot Isnijal brought him to

the hospital accompanied by two other

Amerikans and fifteen Filipino soldiers.

The Filipinos later transferred Isnijal to

the Southern Command and he has not

been heard from since. No one is sure of

his whereabouts or whether he is alive.(2)

The International Solidarity Mission

(ISM), a group of 40 people from various

organizations investigating the

misconduct of the Amerikan military in

the Philippines, conducted an emergency

investigation into the shooting incident

and was the first to expose the shooter as

an Amerikan soldier. The ISM also

documented other incidents of human

rights violations perpetrated by the U.$.

troops.(3)

Filipino President Macapagal-Arroyo

accused the ISM and others investigating

the incident of defending the Abu Sayyaf.

The U.$. and Philippine governments

justify the presence of Amerikan troops

in Mindanao, saying they are there to

fight the small "terrorist" Abu Sayaaf

gang.

Philippine congresspersyn Satur

Ocampo responded, "[We] are not

defending the Abu Sayyaf. What we are

doing is defending the right of a Filipino

individual to due process and to be

considered innocent until proven guilty.

What we are against is the blatant

disregard for human rights; and the US

troops' reckless breaking of the Terms

of Reference. An American soldier shot

the unarmed Isnijal and the AFP allowed

it."(4)

The Terms of Reference are rules

allegedly governing Amerikan soldiers'

conduct in the Philippines. The U.$.-

Macapagal-Arroyo regime drew them up

to deflect correct criticism that the

presence of Amerikan troops in the

Philippines violates Philippine

sovereignty. The Terms of Reference

forbid Amerikan soldiers from

participating in combat operations or

firing their weapons, except in self

defense. This incident shows that the

Terms of Reference are a sham.

The lackey Macapagal-Arroyo regime

wants to extend military exercises with

Amerikan soldiers and recently allowed

more than 4000 Amerikan troops onto

Filipino soil. Macapagal-Arroyo and her

Amerikan handlers have

opportunistically used the tiny Abu

Sayaaf and the "war on terrorism" to

justify Amerikan intervention, but the

bigger target is the Communist-led

revolutionary movement. Macapagal-

Arroyo's order to re-deploy troops from

Abu Sayaaf to Communist-controlled

areas is an example of that (see page 1).

There is a strong revolutionary

movement in the Philippines, led by the

Communist Party of the Philippines,

which is fighting an armed struggle

against the imperialists. The Amerikan

government fears their power and pours

more and more aid into its lackey-

Filipino government. But the just

struggle of the people of the Philippines

will not be stopped. And those of us

fighting the battle within U.$. borders

must do our part to help this struggle by

demanding an immediate end to all

Amerikan military aid to the Philippines.

Notes:

1. Manila Times, July 26, 2002.

2. KARAPATAN Press Release,

www.karapatan.org , 29 Jul 29, 2002.

3. ISM News Release, July 27, 2002

4. ISM News Release, July 29, 2002

U.$. soldier shoots Filipino civilian

Abu Sayaaf that the New People's Army

would be next. Philippine General

Angelo Reyes admitted as much.(3) The

general staff of the Armed Forces of the

Philippines does not deny that troops

which operated with the Amerikans will

be deployed against the New People's

Army.(1)

(Amerikan soldiers have not limited

themselves to "training" Philippine

soldiers. They participated in at least one

raid and shot a Filipino civilian. See story

page 5.)

The Communist-led revolutionary

movement has made great advances since

it re-affirmed its Maoist roots in the mid-

1990s. According to the Philippine

military, "Barangays [villages]

influenced by the NPA increased from

445 in 1995 to 1,969 barangays in 2001

and to 2,262 this year. In the first six

months of the year, the NPA added five

new guerilla fronts, according to the

military."(1) The Communist Party of the

Philippines says the number of Red

fighters increased by 222 percent from

1980 to 2001 and 53 percent from 1994

to 2001.(6)

The Communists are not the only ones

wary of Amerikan intervention. Vice

President Philippine Teofisto Guingona

Jr. "said he feared the US military would

use the new doctrine [Bush's `first strike'

policy] to unilaterally go after communist

rebels or Islamic militants in the

Philippine countryside." "What example

U.$.-Arroyo regime launches

`all-out war' on communists

will the US give were she herself to

pursue the pre-emptive strike policy?"

Guingona. "Would this not negate

negotiations and inflame the two

countries (India and Pakistan) into open

conflict with nuclear consequences?"

Guingona recently lost his job as

Foreign Secretary over differences with

President Macapagal-Arroyo on the

presence of Amerikan troops in the

Philippines.

More and more despotic

The May First Movement (KMU), an

alliance of militant trade unions, blasted

Macapagal-Arroyo for equating

kidnappers, smugglers and other

criminals with workers. "Now she

regards legitimate and democratic

workers' activities like strikes and protest

mass actions as acts of terrorism," said

KMU Secretary for Federation Affairs

Joel Maglunsod. "These are brazen

violations of workers rights with

impunity. We are deeply alarmed with her

militarist attitude. She's becoming more

and more despotic everyday."

"But if Arroyo's militarist regime

wishes to inflict brutalities on the militant

workers movement then KMU is ready

to give her a good fight. We will continue

even more educating and organizing

workers. We will launch massive protest

actions until she is ousted from the

presidency."

In fact, if anybody deserves the

"terrorist" label, it's Macapagal-Arroyo

and her thugs who try hard to keep

workers unorganized and wages low.

"When workers try to organize genuine

unions, their leaders and organizers are

instantly removed from their jobs,"

continued Maglunsod. "When they resort

to protest actions and strikes to seek for

economic relief, they are met with the

most brutal forms of police and military

attacks, like getting clubbed, arrested and

detained. Some of their leaders are even

killed."(4)

Philippine police wounded more than

a hundred people as they tried to disperse

demonstrators during Macapagal-

Arroyo's State of the Nation Speech in

July.(5)

Notes:

1. Philippine Daily Inquirer,

www.inq7.net, 6 Aug 2002.

2. MIM Notes 247, 1 Dec 2001.

3. MIM Notes 253, 1 Mar 2002.

4. KMU News Release, 6 Aug 2002.

5. PESANTE Statement, 23 Jul 2002.

6. Central Committee, Communist

Party of the Philippines, Message on the

33rd Anniversary of the New People's

Army, 29 Mar 2002.

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 6

Despite trying hard to sound like MIM

on the question of identity politics, the

"RCP-USA" could not help using post-

modernism and identity politics to do the

ruling class's work on

www.2changetheworld.info. In July, the

"RCP-USA" said that the only difference

between our positions on the Black

nation's right to self- determination,

despite previous arguments contrary on

the www.2changetheworld.info is that

the "RCP-USA" actually has Black

members. Having baited MIM this way,

the "RCP-USA" on July 22nd, then goes

on to ask the racial background of all

MIM members, saying "correct me if I'm

wrong." The "RCP-USA" then cut off the

thread including postings from a MIM

supporter--as if to leave the impression

that MIM supporters were speechless

after such comments. (Postings continued

on www.yahoogroups.com/group/

Maoism.)

It is always the approach of the post-

modernists and identity politics people

to care about individual demographics

instead of scientific line struggle. The

police find this very useful, especially in

public forums like

www.2changetheworld.info. It is one

way to stir up resentment within

organizations and cause them to split with

college-educated on one side against

those who don't have college education,

gay versus heterosexual, young versus

old etc., etc.

Later, in regard to an interview with

Bob Avakian about whether white

proletarians exist or not, the "RCP-USA"

could not help pointing out that the

individual doing the interview was Black.

There was a special message just on that

point, all the while claiming to oppose

identity politics.

By the way, even if the "RCP-USA"

adopted MIM's line on national self-

determination, which it has not, the

"RCP-USA" would still oppose what we

have called the "re-civilization stage" of

the dictatorship of the proletariat or

preparation for such dictatorship of the

proletariat. We at MIM believe state

power is necessary to undercut the

chauvinism of the white oppressor

nation, by erasing the super-profits that

have caused the white population to be

an enemy of the international proletariat.

In contrast, the "RCP-USA" believes that

the people who let off Vincent Chin's

killer, the people who let off Rodney

King's attackers and the people who in

their 90% have favored bombing Libya,

war on Iraq and destruction of

Afghanistan can really change their

minds by "public opinion" or cultural

work without first erasing the super-

profits and other aspects of the relations

of production that give rise to their

chauvinism. That's why we call the

"RCP-USA" New Age idealists along

with their bolder version, the

"Progressive Labor Party." They do not

think state power is necessary to make

these people truly revolutionary and they

ignore what Stalin told the Germans after

World War II, that they were not ready

or qualified to build socialism right away.

Both the PLP and "RCP-USA" will

simply end up re-labeling reactionary

phenomena as revolution, putting some

new oppressor faces in power and

establishing social-imperialism.

The "RCP-USA" cannot emerge from

identity politics. There are many too

many obstacles for it. One is that it needs

to go on talking about a minority of white

workers in order to justify its overall line

that the majority is exploited. Any real

facts about the white majority would

quickly prove the MIM line, so the "RCP-

USA" needs to tell long and tall tales

about individual oppressed whites.

Secondly, it has always been the "RCP-

USA"'s practice to use the struggles of

Third World peoples to shield their own

revisionism. That is how RIM has

functioned and the "RCP-USA" has

found success in recruiting philistines

this way, people who want to use other

militant struggles for their own ends. The

"RCP-USA" is so used to this approach

that twice in trying to change the subject

from the u.$. class structure in

www.2changetheworld.info, the "RCP-

USA" raised questions about the Russian

Maoist Party. Finally, since the Black

Panther Party already proved the validity

of its approach, the "RCP-USA" needs

to sidestep that history and attack those

whites backing the Black Panther

approach while raising more pragmatist-

empiricist criteria such as whether or not

MIM is small or all-white.

As MIM has pointed out before, in its

web page FAQ, it is a cop tactic to divide

organizations based on identity politics

and demographic differences. People

who cannot keep their mouth shut when

baited with cop-tactics and people who

do not know how to promote unity in

such situations are ready prey for the

ruling class. MIM teaches people this,

while the "RCP-USA" ignores history

and practices something

indistinguishable from what cops have

always done against revolutionaries.

`RCP-USA' identity politics include security risk

aristocracy.

Someone calling him or herself

"Pancho Villa" observed at

www.2changetheworld.info the

following, posted July 25th in the

National Liberation section: "I've been

an activist, on and off, for about 10 years.

I've been involved in green, anti- war,

anti-imperialist, anti-cop, anti-prison,

activities over the years. I know that the

majority of posters here are associated

with the RCP and like to take jabs at those

like MIM or PLP who also claim to be

Maoist. But, claiming that MIM is

`clearly isolated,' implying that they are

an irrelevant sect, seems a bit funny to

us uninitiated folks. I don't consider

myself new to revolutionary politics, I've

been around, and I've never seen any

participation from any maoist groups in

any of our local struggles. Seeing the

RCP imply that MIM is a sect, just seems

like the same old game of the pot calling

the kettle black. Are you sure you aren't

Trotskyists -- arguing about who is and

who isn't a sect?"

The real point of the "RCP-USA"'s

criticisms of MIM on this question was

to change the subject. The "RCP-USA"

criticism occurred in a website thread that

is supposed to be about national

liberation, surplus-value and statistics on

the class structure. The "RCP-USA" has

gone on record refusing to detail the

inflow of surplus-value into the united

$tates through its polemics with MIM.

Several "RCP-USA" members are

members of MIM's Yahoo group on

`RCP-USA' runs from questions at www.2changetheworld.info

"Maoism" and one has even posted an

article there criticizing MIM, but no

"RCP-USA" member has ever posted an

article anywhere answering MIM's

pointed question to it: "how much

surplus-value is coming into the United

$tates from abroad; where does it come

from and what is the effect on the U.$.

class structure, quantitatively speaking."

Again and again, these social-

imperialist "comrades" from the "RCP-

USA" have dismissed the question as

either "academic" or not related to

"practice." Clearly the "practice" they are

talking about is not abolishing

exploitation. Their "practice" also

includes not being willing to disown the

German "workers" of 1943, 1944 and

1945 who never overthrew Hitler, and in

fact, fought for him to the bitter end and

demonstrated their parasitic, not

proletarian nature in the most clarifying

way possible. Quite the contrary, the

"RCP-USA" line pushed out on

www.2changetheworld.info opposes

foreign invasion of the oppressed to bring

down oppressors--a direct slap at Stalin

and also at Mao who had Lin Biao

published on this subject in 1965.

The definition of sectarianism is not

an organization that is "small." Sectarians

as Mao defined them put their

organization's interests above those of

the international proletariat, and in fact,

as the Chinese comrades pointed out over

and over again in their history, they also

started "small."

Sectarians typically break off united

action over bitterness regarding scientific

struggles of principle. Many people

calling MIM "sectarian" are in fact

"sectarian" themselves by this definition.

The "RCP-USA" and the "Marxist-

Leninist Party of Germany" (MLPD) are

both on record as saying that questions

regarding the leadership of the proletariat

affect what they say about the nature of

the class structure. That means they put

the handful in the organization above the

interests of the international proletariat.

The "MLPD" has openly come out to

say that it does not see a massive petty-

bourgeois majority in Germany, "because

that would justify having petty-bourgeois

leaders." Since the current leader of the

MLPD is an industrial worker, who wants

to claim not being petty-bourgeois, the

answer is sectarian, putting the needs of

the organization leaders first and the

scientific understanding of millions of

people second. Likewise, the "RCP-

USA" says it is "irresponsible" to tell the

truth about the U.$. class structure and

that it means that individual leaders of

the organizations are "capitulating."

In any case, we respond to this only

because of the variety of low-level

attacks by the "RCP-USA" on MIM at

the www.2changetheworld.info, attacks

that never enter the real questions of

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. We are sure

many readers grow tired of this, since

they do not care about the "RCP-USA"

anyway and question MIM on many

levels as well, but we simply conclude

that the only real standard for resolving

such questions is the comparison of party

requirements per member, not by

comparing size of organizations. With

this principle we hope to have provided

a helpful scientific approach to compare

parties that cuts through reformism and

pragmatism.

Continued from page 3...

No "RCP-USA" member has ever

posted an article anywhere

answering MIM's question: "How

much surplus-value is coming into

the U.$. from abroad; where does

it come from, and what is the

effect on the U.$. class structure,

quantitatively speaking?"

MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 7

On the dangers of nuclear holocaust

The Maoist Internationalist Movement

(MIM) passed the following resolution

at its 2002 Congress.

We of MIM believe that the

Amerikkkan reaction to September 11th

has increased the likelihood of the

explosion of nuclear weapons by those

attacking the United $tates. Rather than

seeing themselves as part of a long-

standing war, Amerikkkans reacted to

September 11th with what they knew

about politics and history, which isn't

much--and thereby angered the rest of

the world even more. Frankly speaking,

this is a weakness in the whole global

situation that the communists must face.

The Japanese population knows the

horrors of facing nuclear weapons

explosions and today any such explosions

are apt to be a thousand times worse

because of advances in weaponry. In

contrast, Amerikkkans really do not

know what the devastation of war is all

about. Amerikkkans know the most about

the benefits of pillage and war in the past

one hundred years, and only suffered a

small number of casualties relative to

other countries in those wars.

The oppressed will not and should not

have to wait for Amerikkkans to grasp

the evil of war. For this reason, the war-

mongering and chauvinism we have seen

from Amerikkkans since September 11th

has only increased the likelihood that

someone will try to teach Amerikkkans

a lesson they will not forget. Try as they

might, there is no way for Amerikkkan

security agencies to trace millions or

billions of people effectively. The scale

of the problem is too big for that. The

generosity of the oppressed and super-

exploited toward the willfully ignorant

exploiters of Amerikkka will not last

forever.

MIM will do its best to expand its

influence within U.$. borders in a last

ditch effort to avoid what is probably

inevitable. Those who see the

weaknesses of Amerikkkans should see

to it that MIM gets financial support to

expand. Even those who focus on more

"moderate" activities should realize that

changing Amerikkkan public opinion is

a multi-faceted task, and what is most

lacking is the determined,

uncompromising but highly visible

presence of MIM in favor of the global

rights of nations to self- determination.

Without MIM to blaze the way, there is

no one who is able to look "moderate" in

the current state of Amerikkkan opinion.

The proletariat must play its leading role

to untwist the minds of the Amerikkkan

public so that the Amerikkkan population

can get along with the rest of the world.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

war and prop up proxy dictators. They

will also give Amerikans some concrete

lessons about war--and the desire and

ability of the oppressed to struggle for

their liberation.

But suffering defeat in war is not

enough to re-civilize parasitic classes--

anymore than recession and depression

will themselves overthrow the capitalist

system. Even the Western allies gave lip

service to the idea that some sort of "de-

Nazification" needed to take place in

Germany after its defeat in World War

Mayor of Hiroshima blasts `Pax Americana'

II. This "de-Nazification" included

stripping Nazis and their supporters of

their political rights and some of their

property--and it extended to "apolitical"

Germans who adjusted to National

Socialism rather than struggle against

it.(4)

The Western powers did not complete

the anti-fascist struggle in either

Germany or Japan--to say nothing of the

anti-capitalist struggle. That is why both

German and Japanese militarism are on

the rise again today. According to Reuters

a "top" Japanese politician recently

suggested that Japan abandon its ban on

nuclear weapons.(1)

MIM believes a dictatorship of the

oppressed over the oppressor imperialist

nations analogous to the "de-

Nazification" struggle will be necessary

to completely defeat imperialism an re-

civilize imperialist-country populations.

Notes:
1. Reuters, 5 Aug 2002.
2. MIM Notes 260, 15 Jun 2002.
3. Hiroshima Peace Site, http://
www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/peacesite/
indexE.html.

4. The 50s Hollywood film "Judgment at
Nuremberg" e.g. touches on the issue of the
responsibility of "the common German" for
crimes of the Nazi regime. It also hints that the
United $tates sabotaged the de-Nazification
process because it needed the Nazis and the
Germans as allies in the struggle against the
Soviet Union.

This resolution passed unanimously at

the 2002 MIM Congress.

Pan-Africanism is an ideology for the

unity of Africa. Nkrumah said it was

necessary because the neo- colonialists

would rule in Africa through division of

Africans and because combined Africa

has a population and size more

comparable to the oppressors like the

United $tates. In Pan-Africanist thought,

Africans belong to Africa first, not tribes

or nations.

At least as far back as 1917, the British

imperialists are on record as fearing Pan-

Africanism, because it would make

dividing and conquering more difficult in

Africa. Today, the Zionists continue in the

same mold, by trying to create tensions

between North Africa and the rest of

Africa, by pointing to Arab slave-owners

in Somalia for instance. While there can

be no excusing slavery, opposition to

slavery does not mean that it is necessary

to make friends with I$rael in general.

The economic content of Pan-

Africanism is unity of exploited people

against exploiters--whether its advocates

or detractors know it or not. More than

95% of the people united by Pan-

Africanism are exploited or super-

exploited people. The target of Pan-

Africanism is those enemy oppressors

who would use divisions amongst

Africans against them.

MIM believes that Pan-Africanism

should be thought of as a strategic concept

like "Third Worldism." It is not worth

splitting communist forces over strategic

concepts. Comrades with good ideological

principles may nonetheless disagree on the

existing balance of forces in the world and

what is possible for progress, and we

believe Pan-Africanism is one of those

concepts, if properly conceived by

communists.

Historically, Pan-Africanism has been

the rallying cry of more progressive and

revolutionary forces in Africa. The

opponents of Pan-Africanism usually

oppose it for the wrong reasons and fall

into the reactionary camp much more

often than the supporters of Pan-

Africanism.

In particular, in southern Africa, the

conception of the revisionist "Communist

Party" of South Africa and the African

National Congress has stressed unity of

white and Black workers in opposition to

Pan- Africanism. In contrast, MIM would

say there is a qualitative difference

between the white petty-bourgeoisie

mistakenly referred to as "workers" and

the Black workers making 3 or 5% of what

whites make per hour.

While the rise to power of the ANC in

what we call Azania is progressive-- only

because what was in place before was the

extremely repugnant and backward

apartheid regime--it is now clear that the

ANC's approach of uniting with the white

petty-bourgeoisie and imperialists on an

equal plane has limited the ANC's ability

to drive the situation further forward in

southern Africa. For this reason, while

ANC rule is certainly more "normal" than

apartheid rule, it is Pan-Africanism that

correctly identified the economic basis for

socialism in Azania and elsewhere in

Africa. It hardly matters whether activists

call themselves Black African trade

unionists or Pan-Africanists, the economic

content of their struggle is the same.

Opposing or supporting Pan-Africanism

should not be a dividing line question,

unless we speak of the extremes. On the

one hand, the ANC and phony

communists oppose Pan-Africanism,

because they really believe there is a

united "working-class" composed of

Africans and settler whites who make 20

times as much per hour as the Africans.

These phony communists and their allies

have long ago abandoned the labor theory

of value, so their opposition to Pan-

Africanism must be attacked as a matter

of ideological principle. There will never

be global peace until all peoples

acknowledge each other's labor correctly.

On the other hand, the number of

reactionaries posing as Pan-Africanists is

much smaller in number than the number

of reactionaries opposing Pan-Africanism

on behalf of the exploiters. To be sure, as

with any idea, there are those who take it

up and ruin it. When Pan-Africanism turns

into cultural tokenism and opposition to

universal truth production through

science, then Pan-Africanism becomes

simply a wing of reactionary post-

modernism.

In application, it is the Trotskyists who

are most apt to take up the simplistic

approach that all nationalism is bad and

even Pan-Africanism is bad. These

Trotskyists have abandoned the labor

theroy of value and that is why they are

apt to equate white settlers and African

workers as classes to such an extent that

the Trotskyists see the whites and Blacks

in one class. Such Trotskyists really know

nothing about Marxism's approach to

class or nations.

How tribal, national and Pan-Africanist

questions appear in African conditions is

something for the African Maoist

scientists to determine. MIM does not

have any branches in Africa, and so it only

raises those questions of universal validity

and understanding. There is a long

historical tradition of Maoist Pan-

Africanism.

Note: A.M. Babu African Socialism or Socialist
Africa? London: Zed Books, 1981.

Resolution on Pan-Africanism

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 8

"Capitalism II"
by Trevor Chan
2001
www.ubisoft.com

Reviewed by mim3@mim.org

The user's manual for this computer

video game depicts a golden dollar sign

at the end of a major road leading into a

city. The advertising boasts that

"Capitalism II" is the business game for

people "who mean business" and though

it is written from the point of view of a

naive chief executive officer (CEO), the

game does have considerable value--

something that could be used in socialist

training in economics.

As the CEO of a company, in this game

players will try to make profit by

expanding their lines of business

including food items such as bread,

clothing items such as jeans, housing

complexes and luxury goods including

lipstick, eye shadow, toy dolls, gold rings

and televisions. CEOs can issue stock,

set dividend rates, borrow money, repay

loans and buy all sorts of buildings and

plants including the media.

Since there are no politicians and no

weapons or war in this simulation, one

may wonder why MIM would

recommend this game. There are also no

labor strikes (realistic for the united

$tates) and no complications from

borders while one operates in several

countries. We do not see military aid

arriving for death squads who kill trade

union organizers and keep wages down

to 50 cents an hour in most parts of the

world.

While it is true that "Capitalism II"

promotes a somewhat naive point of view

regarding capitalism, what it does focus

on it does well. The intention of the game

was to focus on the production process

from the point of view of corporate

executives in multinational corporations.

From the capitalists' point of view, the

CEO heroically detects and resolves

bottleneck problems for the company

including bottlenecks caused by

suppliers, technology, lack of corporate

training, marketing and sales.

Trevor Chan thought big and allowed

players to become CEOs of multinational

corporations that may own everything

from the supplier of iron ore to the TV

station advertising the final product--a

car for instance. If a player succeeds on

a colossal scale, s/he is bound to

understand that the economy is like a

gigantic set of algebra equations.

Resources cannot be wasted on factories

that do not produce anything desired and

there also cannot be too few producers

so that bottlenecks in supply develop.

Otherwise, competitors will make more

profit and drive you out of business

completely--and this aspect of modeling

business competition by computer

simulation is alone reason enough to

endorse this game.

Playing this game, one would be hard-

pressed not to feel that in fact there is

some element of competence in

organizing production in either socialism

or capitalism. In the Soviet Union, the

people proved able to develop rocket

launchers to defeat a Nazi invasion in

progress. Even much after the war

though, the Soviet people launched the

world's first satellite, but they were not

able to go anywhere to buy a loaf of bread

off a shelf without waiting in line. Even

in a state-capitalist country as under

Khruschev and Brezhnev, the problem

was not a lack of wheat to make bread

usually. What "Capitalism II" does is

make people think about the particular

competence of their leaders. While we

do not hold the heroic view of CEOs, it

is true that if a leader who happens to

come to power does not have certain

skills and drive, then elementary supply

problems may show up. Although the

quality of leadership is a political

problem, it is a problem for both

capitalism and socialism.

It probably was not the intention of the

author to provide any lessons in

socialism. There is little class struggle

evident in the game. However, it is still

possible to play the game in ways that

get at what socialists must do.

First of all, taking over from monopoly

capitalists is very similar to taking over

from the CEOs simulated in "Capitalism

II." These multinational corporations

could easily be the chaebol of southern

Korea for instance.

Secondly, this game allows one to vary

the conditions of economic competition.

When one has reached a monopoly

stage--probably by having a

technological edge and by having enough

retail outlets for one's product and when

one has enough monopoly advantages in

enough products, it becomes possible to

give away food, medicine, clothing and

shelter--even in "Capitalism II." Yes,

total profits will go down, and no there

is not a way to determine if advertising

free bread in a department store helps sell

other products there. Nonetheless,

monopoly advantages in luxury goods

make it possible to subsidize necessity

goods to the point where they are free.

Highly motivated people are willing to

pay high prices for wine, lipstick and

video cameras--compared with the labor

and resources that go into making these

products. By taking over a market in these

luxury goods and making enough profit

in them, it becomes easy to give away

milk, eggs, bread etc. In fact, this was a

question that Stalin insisted on turning

to in his leadership circles in the last two

years of his life. He called it "restricting

the operation of the law of value," which

is the proper Marxist terminology. He

instructed that it was not correct to run

the economy simply by where profit

could be made. Humyn needs should be

subsidized at the expense of luxury goods

according to Stalin, and the beauty of

"Capitalism II" is that it helps players to

see why this is not something a small

capitalist can do "out of his/her good

heart" and it is in fact something that

comes to mind more easily and within

the realm of probability once the stage

of monopoly capitalism has been

reached.

Providing necessities free or at

subsidized prices is akin to the capitalist

strategy of dumping, especially in this

simulation which knows no difference

between capitalist-minded and socialist-

minded CEOs. Even in the "Capitalism

II" world of no borders and various

competitors ranging from small local

"mom-and-pop" operations to foreign

countries not seen in the game itself, a

socialist chaebol leader has no one to stop

him or her. In fact, even a medium or

small corporate competitor--say a small

imperialist country--may continue to

exist while a socialist economy expands

its list of free or subsidized goods. A

small or medium sized competitor simply

cannot alter the terms of the economy to

stop a business/company/country with

the most advanced technology and largest

size.

When food and clothing are free, there

is no way for a capitalist to compete in

that area any longer. S/he must attack in

the luxury good sector to undermine

profits to such an extent that subsidies

have to be cut back. A capitalist-minded

competitor attacks by producing goods

and cutting prices in the luxury good

sector. That is why as Marx noted and

all Marxists noted until the early 20th

century when imperialism changed the

rules that it is easier to institute socialism

in the most developed economies.

Economies that are extensively

developed, high-tech and profitable in

many industries cannot be derailed from

a socialist path by smaller or more

backward competitors. Quite the

contrary, the smaller, more backward

capitalist competitors can be gobbled up

by a socialist economy--within a

bourgeois legal context by buying the

stock of the backward competitors.

The dynamics of luxury good

production in the game remind MIM of

how the imperialists set out to conduct

psychological war against the socialist

bloc. To demonstrate that socialist

lingerie was unstylish or shoddy was to

strike a blow for the whole capitalist

system. Commodities like designer

perfumes become key to the capitalist

strategy of restoration of capitalism and

this can be seen even in "Capitalism II,"

if one plays the socialist strategy I outline

here.

In fact, while socialists are giving away

bread in my simulation run in

"Capitalism II," some people still prefer

to buy it. Again, through no intention of

Trevor Chan, in the simulation I ran, we

see that free and superior quality bread

will not take 100% of a city's market

when the competitor uses extensive

advertising for inferior quality bread with

a price that makes its owner a profit! The

lazy and stupid will continue to be

conned by advertising, even if bread is

free and higher quality elsewhere. This

is something that again favors the

capitalist competitor. It raises the

question whether or not socialist

economies must advertise the obvious in

some commodities. One bright side to

this question is that the enemy cannot

make the most profit in this way. Rather

it is something to watch out for in the

overall culture of luxury goods.

Where there is demand and a legal

situation permitting, no moral conduct

can prevent profits in cigarettes or other

self-destructive commodities. If one

corporation refuses to produce and

advertise cancer-sticks, another will.

That is the nature of the capitalist system.

However, there is nothing saying that a

large and diversified socialist competitor

could not buy out the competitors or the

politicians and bring an end to cigarettes

that way. In the simulation I ran, I refused

to produce cigarettes, and the result was

that my main corporate competitor made

his/her largest profits there. Even driving

him out of business or attempting to buy

him out became more difficult because I

was not in the cigarette business. It shows

that there is no substituting for an

uncorrupted People's Army that can

really shut down harmful businesses.

People who think we are ever going to

solve the drug problem within a capitalist

system without an uncorrupted

communist police and army are just

talking like they were high on drugs

themselves.

In many regards, the development of

the leisure culture in the imperialist

countries comes as a set back or an

indication of the setback in the class

struggle. Emphasis on the luxury goods

in the culture and minute differences--

imagined or real--were an important part

of the imperialist attack and attempts at

capitalist restoration. An irrational

advertising culture is a distinct advantage

to pro-capitalist competitors. On the other

hand, "Capitalism II" holds out some

hope, because it proves possible to

motivate people with luxury goods and

then subsidize humyn needs production

with the revenue from luxury goods.

Rather than avoiding luxury good

production in the fear that it will corrupt

the proletariat, it appears that there is a

case to be made for plunging right in to

be able to expand subsidies for humyn

needs. Unless most people can be

motivated as communists, it may be that

luxury goods are important to the solution

of humyn needs problems.

In the real world, people who could be

fighting for a better world read Cosmo

magazine and play computer video games

instead. At the same time, games like

"Capitalism II" do have a major silver

lining for us scientific communists: what

would take several chapters in a book to

explain with mathematical formulas can

now be placed in a game simulation. This

is a major advantage that Karl Marx

never had. In the past, socialist

economists would have to labor in such

Virtual monopoly for fun and (educational) profit

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002 · Page 9

a way as to garner themselves the

equivalent of the Nobel Prize to

understand the impact that solutions of

simultaneous algebraic equations could

have in running the economy. Now much

of what was only of detailed concern to

planning experts and academics can play

itself out on a computer screen while

entertaining its user. While there is no

hard proof yet that computer video games

are improving education, "Capitalism II"

makes a good case that such a trend is

inevitable.

The problem with a large portion of

simulation computer video games is that

they simply crash and then the developers

or company disappears. Business has

found that it is possible to sell poorly

programmed games and then run with the

money before anyone returns the games

or realizes that they will crash before the

completion of very long simulations that

take days or weeks to run.

"Capitalism II" did not crash in the

simulation we ran, and thus seems better

than average in the programming

department. Used in proper context,

"Capitalism II" can provoke much useful

thought.

Sweet dreams no
consolation for bitter
reality

Happy Times (2002)
Directed by Zhang Yimou

After establishing himself with a series

of lushly-filmed, epic period pieces (Red

Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, To

Live, etc.) director Zhang Yimou's last

three films have focused on everyday

people in contemporary China and been

shot in an unobtrusive, naturalistic

manner. Like 1999's Not One Less,

Happy Times criticizes the Chinese

regime's capitalist reforms and the

accompanying development of capitalist

interpersonal relations.

Happy Times starts out following a

retired bachelor on his quest to find a

wife. It's clear his latest prospect is only

interested in getting money for herself

and her spoiled son--and getting rid of

her blind step- daughter. Our bachelor

pretends to be a rich manager at a rich

luxury hotel and agrees to hire the step-

daughter. He and his out-of-work friends

build a fake massage parlor for her in an

abandoned factory and then pretend to

be upscale clients. At first they do this to

keep up the bachelor's charade, but then

they become attached to the girl and can't

bear to send her back to her exploitative

step-mother. Of course, this can't last for

long, and doesn't.

The deus ex machina ending in Not

One Less told the audience that happy

Dear Sirs/Madams [in the California

Department of Corrections],

The Communist Party of the United

States of America's, Frederick Douglass

Club of Washington, District of

Columbia, and the State of Virginia, has

recently been informed by Comrades of

the Maoist Internationalist Movement,

that you are now demanding onerous

obligations in order that family and legal

representation be acquired by prisoners

in your charge.

For what reason do you pursue such

obstinacy? We know that many inmates

are guilty as charged, but we also know

that many may well be innocent; or,

subjected to penalties too harsh due to

poverty and race. Moreover, is our penal

system only to punish, or to reform? Your

brutality administered in prison will only

serve to justify the repeated hostility of

the inmates -- both in prison and upon

release.

Of course you must "control" your

Facility, but what good does it do to

appear so vindictive? We've got to "fix"

our already too large prison population,

not simply "smack heads."

Our Party thanks you for your kind and

released in mid-July. But they were

replaced by equally egregious changes

limiting prisoners access to legal help.

These regulations particularly target

prisoner-advocacy organizations.

Organizations and individuals who work

on prisoners appeals and prisoner rights

cases, such as fighting abuse in prisons,

rely on law students and legal aids. Even

full time employees of attorneys and

students who have been certified by the

State Bar of California to do legal work

will be denied access to prisoners to

discuss legal issues without an attorney

present. Those who can not afford

lawyers rely on these services.

According to the San Francisco

Chronicle, "Senate President Pro Tem
John Burton, D-San Francisco, said he

was concerned about the proposals and

was looking into them. Burton, chairman
of the Senate Rules Committee, approved

the confirmation of Edward Alameda as

director of the Corrections Department
in May after Alameda promised to scale

back the first proposed rule changes.

California DOC

guts legal aid

visitation rights

Monopoloy

from last page...

endings are the rule in film, but not

today's China. Similarly, the only happy

times in Happy Times require elaborate

deceptions; reality is decidedly less

cheerful. Unlike the Not One Less,

however, Happy Times can be quite

funny, and the bachelor's resourceful

friends have a warm camaraderie.

The careful viewer can also pick up

some concrete criticisms of

contemporary China, such as the fact that

the bachelor and his able-bodied friends

are out of work (and not getting any

pension) while a local factory stands idle.

patriotic attention.

MIM replies: We thank the CPUSA

and affiliated organizations for taking a

stand on this important issue. Although

MIM does not consider the "Communist

Party USA" a representative of

communist line or practice, we welcome

their support for the just battles of the

oppressed. We note a few disagreements

with them in this letter which we will

comment on here for our readers. It is

the nature of Amerika that patriotism

amounts to support of imperialism. And

with prisons used as a tool of social

control in this country, it is "patriotic"

for the California DOC to impose

repressive visitation rules. In fact,

keeping the prison population large is

also a part of the patriotism. Of course,

it is worthwhile to point out the

contradictions in the rhetoric and practice

of prison administrators (e.g. the rhetoric

of rehabilitation and the practice of

repression). But we should be clear about

their true interests and the real purpose

of the criminal injustice system: service

to imperialism.

Letter from "CPUSA" against

CDC's restrictive policies

`Why do they keep screwing around with

these things?' Burton said."

The Department of Corrections works

as a part of the Criminal Injustice System

as a whole. Prisons in this country are

used as a tool of social control. Building
more prisons, restricting prisoners legal

access so that they are locked up longer

and can not appeal their sentences, and
limiting prisoners ability to fight the daily

repression they face behind bars--this is

all part of the system. We should not be
surprised by the new proposed

regulations in California. But it is clear

that public protest can affect these
regulations. Many prison activists

including MIM and RAIL successfully

removed the family visitation
restrictions.

While collecting petition signatures

MIM and RAIL were frequently asked
why the CDC would want to enact this

restrictive regulation. This led to

interesting discussions about the nature
of the criminal injustice system. On the

face this policy makes no sense. A fair

prison system would want prisoners to
have access to legal help when needed.

A system devoted to rehabilitation would

encourage visitation. But the Amerikan
criminal injustice system is serving

imperialism, a system that causes

starvation, medical neglect, murder,
environmental destruction, unlivable

work conditions, and militarism

throughout the world. At home
imperialism locks up a vastly

disproportionate number of Blacks and

Latinos in prisons and then continues to
lengthen sentences, reduce access to

appeals, and increase repression within

prisons. Cutting off legal access to all but
the wealthy prisoners is a great way to

perpetuate this system.

For more information on the conditions

prisoners face, including lack of medical

care, physical abuse by guards, lack of

educational materials, restricted access
to legal research, censorship of mail, and

much more, check out the Under Lock

and Key section of MIM Notes (the
newspaper of the Maoist Internationalist

Movement). Back issues can be found

here: http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/
mn/index.html.

Notes:
SF Chronicle, July 25, 2002

MAOIST MOVIE REVIEW

Dong Jie in Happy Times.

Continued from page 3...

MIM Notes 265 · September 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

Slow death in cages

The struggle continues in my fight to break

the chains of oppression for me and my

people. Death is death and the worst kind of
death is a slow death in these caged KKK
prison cells. Your newspaper is a voice for

the trapped and caged brothers and sisters
whom the rulers of this country are trying to
keep silent... My sincere advice to the staff

there, keep up your good work and keep
pushing to inform the oppressed people of
the world.

--a Missouri prisoner, July 2002

Censorship in Elkton

I'm writing you to request your help in the

fight against the censorship in this prison (FCI
Elkton -- a federal prison located in the
imperialist-conquered land called Ohio). A

staff member has removed numerous
periodicals from the leisure library (the
Advocate, A&U, Burn, Coalition for

Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, FAMM Gram
newsletter, Fearless Mountain, Forest Sangha
Newsletter, Freedom, Gym, Modern Heros,

Out, the People, Snow Lion, Tibet News,
Tibet Press Watch, Tibetan Bulletin). I work
as a librarian in here so I can testify that all

these were donated by the inmates, already
came through censors in the mail room, were
all reasonably up to date, and were requested

frequently. I have already started the remedy
process (BP-8.5) but so far the only action
was the staff removing all the donated

periodicals from the library leaving but 14
for the prison of more than 2000 persons. ...

Please assist me in any way you can, but I

specifically ask for the letters to be written to
the following person with the demands to end
the censorship.

--a federal prisoner in Ohio, July 2002

People to send protest letters to:

David M Rardin, Director
Northeast Regional Office

US Custom House -- 7th Floor
Second & Chestnut Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19106

RL Morrison, Warden
FCI Elkton

P.O. Box 89
Elkton, OH 44415

Philip Geistfeld, Education Supervisor
FCI Elkton
P.O. Box 89

Elkton, OH 44415

A friend of MIM adds: MIM Notes has

long reported on the draconian censorship in
united snakes prisons. This is not because
Maoists are Libertarians who argue for the

principal of freedom of speech; it is because
we see that censorship in Amerikkka --
imperialist censorship -- is perpetuated as

part of the militarist campaign against the
oppressed. This sort of censorship assists the
imperialists in covering up everything from

the number of victims killed during the
bombings in Afghanistan, to the brutal wrath
of Amerikan police, to denial of basic needs

in prisons, to the collusion of banks and
corporations in billion dollar robberies.

Censorship is used by the imperialists to

thwart revolutionary organizing. This is the
reason that it must be fought fiercely.

This writer does not know about the content

of all of the magazines listed above -- at least
Tibet Press Watch and Tibetan News are
reactionary magazines. In this case, it looks

as if the prison wants prisoners to have less

access to information, regardless of the
content. In this case we are not so much
concerned about prisoners access to the

reactionary magazines as the censorship of
progressive magazines including several of
those mentioned above. In addition the

censorship policy of the prison should be
fought because it is the policy that can be used
against revolutionary newsletters. MIM Notes

has been censored at this prison in the past,
though it is not listed in the prisoner's letter.

Send letters to the above prisoncrats

explaining your opposition to the prison's
censorship practice and asking for legal
justification for it. On top of that, prisoners,

work with MIM to get genuine revolutionary
lit into the prison and supporters on the
outside, send money to help make that

happen.

MIM victory in
Oregon

Most mail sent by MIM to prisoners at

SRCI and TRCI prisons in Oregon (including
MIM Notes, MIM Theory and regular letters)
was being rejected by those prisons
throughout the summer. Working with
prisoners on the inside and supporters on the
outside we sent numerous letters of protest
to the mail administrators (some of which
were rejected without being opened). After
several months of returned mail and numerous
protest letters we received the following:

Dear MIM:
This is in response to your letter dated Jun

3, 2002 regarding MIM publications that have
been rejected from SRCI and TRCI. ....

MIM has been authorized to send

publications they publish. This was discussed
at a monthly mail operations meeting. SRCI
and TRCI incorrectly rejected MIM
publications, as they correctly understood
MIM was not an authorized distributor.
Although MIM is not an authorized
distributor, MIM is a publisher authorized to
send materials they publish. This oversight
has been corrected. We apologize for any
inconvenience.

You have requested permission to send in

new and used books to Oregon inmates. Our
Mail Rule (Inmate) requires new books to be
received directly from the publisher. We do
permit suppliers and distributors who have
been approved to send in publications, but
these cannot be open to the public.

We have the above requirement to mitigate

the possibility for the insertion of contraband
in the publications. We will be unable to
accommodate your request to send in new or
used publications that you do not publish...

Sincerely,
Jacy Duran, Central Mail Administrator
Oregon DOC
2575 Center Street NE
Salem OR 97310-4667

MIM responds: Forcing the prisons to

abide by their mail policies and stop
censorship of MIM literature is a significant
victory. However, we are still pursuing our
request to be approved to send in literature
not published by MIM to Oregon prisoners.
We responded to this letter explaining that
MIM Distributors has a 15 year history of
running a Books for Prisoners program in
prisons across the country, including
throughout the Oregon DOC, without a single
incident of contraband insertion into a
publication. In fact, we have a long track
record of helping prisoners to educate
themselves and reduce violence and
confrontation between prisoners. MIM's
Books for Prisoners program is one of only a
few in the country and we provide an
invaluable service of political education to
prisoners in Oregon and throughout the
country. We also requested a list of approved
distributors so that we might use this to further
our argument for allowing MIM onto the list.
We ask our readers (both inside and outside
the Oregon DOC) to write letters to Jacy
Duran at the address above, requesting that
MIM be added as an approved distributor.

Censorship in Oregon
continues

This is just a quick note to let you people

know I've been denied my April 15th issue
of MIM Notes.

Your news doesn't seem to go over too well

with the gal down in our mailroom here at
SRCI. As a matter of fact, the staff here at the
prison are real negative about handing out my
MIM Notes to me.

Now the inmates here are a whole different

story. I pass my MIM Notes off to at least 40
different people to read when I finished with
them. Your news is uplifting to all my close
friends, and their friends also.

Anyway, I thought I'd send you people a

copy of one of my mail violations that shows
what's going on around h ere. This is how
these people confiscate our mail. They call it
a mail violation. "A rule violation."

- a prisoner in Oregon, July 2002

MIM adds: This prisoner's mail violation

for MIM Notes #256 stated that it "Contains
STG-related material. Inside back page
portrays anarchist symbol." This is an
example of prisons attempting to censor MIM
literature for one reason, losing that battle,
and switching tactics to claim it must be
censored for other reasons. MIM clearly does
not advocate anarchism, in fact we are clear
that we think anarchism represents a failed
line and strategy. In fact, the issue of MIM
Notes in question has an anarchist symbol as
a part of an article on prison censorship of
MIM literature because of use of that symbol.
We also question how an anarchist symbol
could represent Security Threat Group (STG)
material. Especially when the content of the
material does not advocate anarchism in any
way.

Washington prison
covers windows and
gasses prisoners

Below are two grievances submitted by

prisoners to prison administration in

Washington after the prison guards covered

the cell windows and then sprayed gas

(presumably at some prisoners in a pre-

meditated attack) in the hallway.

I am claustrophobic and was

hyperventilating with chest pains due to the

exposure to C.O. gas and the emotional stress
of 3rd shift staff covering up my cell door
window and every inmates in the c-pod unit.

On 7/23/02 at approx 5:30pm and on 7/26/
02 at 7:30 with a magnetic cover so that we
could not see out our cell doors to be

witnesses to staff procedures at that time.

[Stafford Creek Corrections Center

Intensive Management Unit] F-unit staff are

violating their own WAC policy (1) not being
able to view in a cell at all times (2) not to
cover or place any items on windows. This

practice is in direct violation of DOC policy
and inmates due process to have or be on sight

MIM Notes 265 · September 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.

From the MIM "Frequently Asked

Questions" page, http://www.etext.org/
Politics/MIM/faq.

Internationalism is the ethical belief or

scientific approach in which peoples of
different nations are held to be or assumed to
be equal. Internationalism is opposed to
racism and national chauvinism.

We Maoists believe the nationalism of

nations experiencing oppression of
imperialism is "applied internationalism." We
oppose nationalism of oppressed nations
directed at other oppressed nations, because
the economic content of such nationalism is
intra-proletarian conflict. We seek a united
front of oppressed nations led by the
international proletariat against imperialism.

"I must argue, not from the point of view

of `my' country (for that is the argument of a
wretched, stupid, petty-bourgeois nationalist
who does not realize that he is only a plaything
in the hands of the imperialist bourgeoisie),
but from the point of view of my share in the
preparation, in the propaganda, and in the
acceleration of the world proletarian
revolution. That is what internationalism
means, and that is the duty of the
internationalist, of the revolutionary worker,
of the genuine Socialist."

V. I. Lenin, "What Is Internationalism?"

The Proletarian Revolution and the
Renegade Kautsky (Peking: Foreign
Language Press, 1965), p. 80.

What is internationalism?

witnesses other than staff who are present to
a medical, criminal, or infraction incident that

needs to be documented. This practice is an
obstruction of justice and a noted practice of
staff as a green light to do any criminal act to

inmate or non-staff, violating civil rights
without any inmates witnesses that could
dispute their reports and be credible.

Suggested remedy: that this practice and
procedure be stopped immediately, staff can
not have visual observation into any inmates

cell with windows covered.

-- a prisoner in Washington, July 2002

The cops were gassing an inmate who had

his window covered. On 7-26-02 at about
8:05 pm I had a medical emergency. I was

coughing up blood from the C.O. gas that the
F-unit IMU cert team was discharging into
an inmates cell F-N-C-1. I pushed my

emergency call button numerous times
without getting any response from the booth
offices. My cell door window had been

covered. Inmates on the tier had to yell "man
down in cell #C-10, medical emergency" for
over five minutes still staff did not respond. I

was choking and suffocating and f-unit staff
neglected my emergency medical needs.

-- another prisoner in Washington, July

2002

The prisoners at this institution ask for

support on this issue from people MIM Notes
readers. You can write letters protesting this
practice and asking why it is used in the first

place to:

Deputy of Corrections Eldon Vail

PO Box 411118
Olympia WA 98584-1118

OCO officer of correctional operations,

regional admin

Thomas Mackintyre

Southwest region
4317 6th Ave S.E.
Olympia WA 98504-1120

Superintendent Douglas Waddington
SCCC Stafford Creek Corr. Center

191 Constantine Way
Aberdeen WA 98502

Iowa prisons cut out
education and
rehabilitation

Fellow Comrades in the Struggle,
Since the terrorist attack on Sept. 11 the

Iowa prison system (and possibly other states)
have been cutting the budget to modify how
much money is spent on the prisoners. Just
recently the D.O.C. closed the school in the

prison and the drug treatment facility in the
other maximum security prison in Anamosa,
Iowa.

Yet this state continues to complain about

over-crowding and repeat-offenders, so the
obvious question that comes to mind is why
take out a drug treatment facility if the main
factor of a convict's crime deals with drugs
in some fashion or another? It goes to show
with this circumstance and closing of the
school that nobody involved in the
administration is trying to rehabilitate any of
us.

For example a "lifer" or "long term"

prisoner being given no education and unable
to transfer to another facility due to over-
crowding and security issues. By the time the
prisoner is available for transfer his hopes to
get a GED will be slim! Education used to be
state law for any prisoner without a GED.
Now education isn't too important.

This is a prime example of how we are

oppressed as prisoners. Then when we seek
and find means to a higher education through
organizations who wish to teach us about
reality, our books get denied and the only
excuse is "security risks."

Here and now we need to educate one

another, help one another and stop fighting
one another. Its not about race anymore, its
about social acceptability and as long as
Amerika can keep us ignorant and on drugs
then we all will stand as one and the bottom
while our oppressors remain on top of the
game they play.

Keep the fight alive.
-- In struggle, a prisoner in Iowa, July 2002
MIM replies:We join this prisoner's call

to stand together and fight back. And MIM
agrees this battle is not about race. However
the prison system is inherently a part of the
system of national oppression in Amerika. We
see the disproportionate imprisonment of
Blacks, Latinos and other oppressed
nationalities and we know that national
oppression must be in the forefront of our
battle.

IDOC clamps down on
prisoners' voices

written by an Indiana prisoner

In the aftermath of the 37 day hunger strike

waged by prisoners at the Westville, Indiana
Maximum Control Complex on September
23, 1991 to call local, national and
international attention to the human rights
abuses that were ramparn at this "supermax"
prison, those who controlled the IDOC
(Indiana Department of Corrections) had to
create new methods of censorship. This

censorship consisted of preventing prisoners
from effectively communicating about the
inhumane, exploitative, oppressive and
repressive aspects and conditions inside
prisons to society, their families and those
who provide moral support.

The Westville hunger strike of 1991 was

one of the most significant prison
demonstrations in Indiana prison history
because it brought attention to the prison
system. Prison officials and politicians alike
had never experienced something quite like
this and for the first time state politicians were
forced to question the legitimacy of the
counter-productive practices promulgated
and enforced throughout the prison system.

Many international organizations, such as

Amnesty International, the British Human
Rights Organization, Human Rights Watch
and various religious denominations came to
the aide of the hunger strikers and issued
letters, etc., of condemnation to the IDOC,
demanding change and the closure of all
existing supermax prisons.

The impact and influence this hunger strike

had in society caused alarm amongst the
oppressors. For this reason, the IDOC saw
the need to keep a similar disturbance from
ever happening again. They must have said
to themselves: "The more the prisoners are
allowed to freely communicate with society
about what goes on in prisons, the more
people on the outside will grow aware of the
conditions inside Indiana prisons that exist
on a day to day basis. If people outside grow
aware, then they'll act and engage in struggle
to change the prisons." [MIM adds: besides
the fear of public outcry against brutal prison
conditions, prison guards and wardens fear
the loss of jobs should the current exploitative
system change. The amerikan prison system,
according to MIM, is widely supported by
the labor aristocracy that operates it because
it sustains their parasitism.]

In order to clamp down on the prisoners'

capacity to communicate with society, the
IDOC intensified their program of
systematically withholding incoming and
outgoing mail. Prisoner political activists
were seriously targeted. When this practice
became all too obvious, the IDOC started
implementing arbitrary visitation policies to
discourage and prevent prisoners' families
and friends from visiting. When this policy
failed to do the job, the IDOC set up a new
telephone system in 1992 that was designed
by Science Dynamics based in New Jersey.

The system was first implemented at the

Indiana State Prison before becoming a state-
wide measure. The measure prevented calling
or accessing the phone unless the prisoner

acquired an approved personal identification
number (PIN). Phone timing limited calls to
less than 20 minutes, after which a computer
system terminated the call. Prison authorities
could block any phone number they
disapproved to prevent the prisoner from
communicating. A recorded announcement
warned the callee that the incoming phone
call came from within a prison. In February
2000 the IDOC, still not satisfied with the
current restrictions on phone calls,
implemented a phone list procedure, so that
now prisoners not only required a PIN
number, but an approved phone list as well.
No more than 20 phone numbers were
permitted on the list at one time, and the
addresses and relationship to the inmate had
to be included. A computer data base kept
track of the names and addresses of each name
on the list. This list was then forwarded to all
state and federal police agencies.

The current restrictions on prisoners'

ability to communicate via phone isolate
inmates from the masses and smothers their
so-called rights to speech and expression. The
restrictive measures also keep the outside
world ignorant of what transpires behind
prison walls, the inhumane conditions
prisoners are subject to. Furthermore, the
control of communication by the IDOC
attempts to hinder the creation and growth of
an anti-imperialist movement amongst the
prisoner masses. MIM, SLALA and RAIL
struggle on a daily basis to promote prisoners'
rights to free speech, holding the imperialist
to their own crummy constitution through
winnable legal battles. The result of this
struggle to inform and alert the outside
masses, we hope, will be the growth of United
Front against the u.$. injustice system.

MIM Notes 265 · September 1, 2002· Page 12

Notas Rojas

setiembre 1, 2002, Nº 265 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista Gratis

¿Que es el MIM?

El Movimiento Internacionalista Maoísta (MIM) es un partido revolucionario

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Traducido por Células de Estudio

para la Liberación de Aztlán y

América Latina

A lo largo de los últimos dos anos el

MIM se ha referido a aliados reforimistas

dentro de "la social democracia

internacionalista". El ano pasado el MIM

aprobó una plataforma capaz de interesar

a la social democracia internacionalista

a costa de la social democracia chovinista

tradicional. Sin embargo, los aliados

mencionados por el MIM han sido

actvistas con un enfoque unidimensional

que formaban parte del movimiento por

la protección del medio ambiente, el

movimiento por servicios médicos

accesibles y otras organizaciones. Un

grupo de expertos llamado Foro Mundial

Fabian de socialdemócratas fundado en

Inglaterra en mayo de 2002 ha estado

respondiendo al llamado de reorganizar

la social democracia europea.

Glenys Kinnock, un miembro del

Parlamento europeo, abogó por una

aceptación del comercio global exigiendo

al mismo tiempo que las reglas que

existen hoy día dejaran de favorecer a

los países ricos. Según dijo, "Los países

ricos deberían abolir las restricciones en

forma de tarifas y cuotas sobre

exportaciones provenientes de todos los

países pobres, así como reformar de una

forma radical el uso de subsidios a las

exportaciones, sobre todo referentes a

productos agrícolas. La iniciativa de la

Unión Europea denominada "Todo salvo

armas" aprobada en 2001 permite que

todos los productos excepto armas

procedientes de los países más pobres del

mundo entren los mercados europeos sin

impuestos ni cuotas. Este es un paso en

la dirección correcta, pero está claro que

habrá que tomar otras medidas para

asegurar una participación eficaz en el

proceso de globalicación por parte de los

países en desarrollo." (1)

Aunque el socialdemócrata Martin

Shaw y otros muchos se expresan sin

parar a favor de la defensa y la

exportación de "la democracia", ninguno

de los contribuidores del foro reconoció

el pasado de la social democracia desde

hace 80 años a partir del momento en que

intensificó el conflicto entre los países

imperialisas europeos en torno a

colonias.

Los socialdemócratas

internacionalistas pisan los terrenos del

MIM y del proletariado internacional

conforme van naciendo, pero lo hacen de

una forma diferente, por lo cual se

convierten en aliados ocasionales y no

en "camaradas". La grieta divisiva fue

la primera guerra mundial, cuando

activistas socialdemócratas asumieron el

papel de "representar" a los trabajadores

de Alemania, Francia, Inglaterra, etc. que

se habían convertido en aristocracia

obrera, así como decidieron respetar la

opinión de la mayoría de esos últimos a

favor de la guerra, mientras que los

comunistas se adjuntaron a una

definición científica de "proletariado" y

respaldaron una perspectiva

internacionalista a costa de votos en las

elecciones. Como resultado, los

socialdemócratas de cada país votaron

por la guerra que hizo que se chocaran

unos trabajadores de Europa contra otros.

Desde entonces, los socialdemócratas

han proclamado su apoyo a la democracia

en el sentido de la mayoría, mientras que

los comunistas han actuado a favor del

principio internacionalista aun a costa de

la popularidad y "democracia".

Hoy día, conforme vamos entrando en

una época donde la social democracia

internacionalista quizás tenga un limitado

grado de éxito, sería negligente fallar

mencionar la competencia implícita entre

Europa y Estados Unidos. Ya que hasta

"los conservadores" de Europa tienen

más respeto por la social democracia que

los políticos yanquis, una globalicación

encabezada por EE.UU. contempla una

dirección mientras que la enérgica Unión

Europea implica una perspectiva distinta

en torno a la política global. El

vicepresidente del Parlamento europeo

de Escocia se refirió a la visión yanqui

de la forma siguiente: "un libre mercado

sin restricción, en el que el capital es el

rey y se roba a los pobres mediante una

liberalización, privatización y un robo

por parte de brutas corporaciones

internacionales y políticos corruptos." (2)

Si uno considera el lío en que Europa

metió al presidente yanqui W. Bush en

torno al tratado de calentamiento global

rehuido por EE.UU. gracias al apoyo de

Bush, uno nota que los capitalistas

europeos deciden competir con EE.UU.

usando una fachada social democrática.

Mientras los yanquis respaldan la

contaminación con fines lucrativos, los

europeos toman un paso para atrás

diciendo que sabrán competir como

hombres de negocio respetando al mismo

tiempo regulaciones internacionales. Los

yanquis sostienen que la existencia de

regulaciones es una cosa negativa,

mientras la social democracia

internacionalista sabe apreciar su valor.

Los socialdemócratas

internacionalistas se encuentran en una

posición difícil. Mientras que brinden su

apoyo tradicional a Le Pen y "el ala

derecha", su alianza no será de mucha

confianza debido a su respeto por la

mayoría. Buscan carreras profesionales

en el Parlamento europeo, por lo cual

necesitan asegurar un voto mayoritario

en las elecciones y al fin acabarán

sacrificando los intereses del proletariado

internacional con fin de obtener un

respaldo de la mayoría gracias a su interés

y respeto por "la democracia".

El MIM está de acuerdo con la mayor

parte del argumento de Martin Shaw a

favor de la necesidad de reorganizar la

social democracia. Concluyó su artículo

en la nueva página de Internet de los

Fabianes de la forma siguiente: "La

social democracia llegará a ser

verdaderamente global sólo si deja de

considerarse como un rincón seguro y

relativamente cómodo de la política

europea e imagina su papel y el mundo

de una forma muy distinta. El desafío

global a la social democracia es profundo

y potencialmente incómodo. Habrá que

ver si puede ser entendido".(3) A la social

democracia le resultará bien difícil

alcanzar su pleno potencial

internacionalista sin que se respalden

guerras populares del tercer mundo. Eso

será un desafío; sin embargo, la social

democracia internacionalista tiene el

potencial de romper el velo fascista

tradicional en Europa. Si bien la social

democracia tradicional es nuestro

enemigo irreconciliable, tenemos muchas

posibilidades de aliarnos con la social

democracia internacionalista en torno a

nuestra plataforma compuesta por la

demanda de un salario mínimo

internacional, un límite internacional

sobre horas de jornada, derechos

internacionales a la educación, subsidios

internacionales a precios agrícolas, etc.

Notas:

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

global600/article001.html

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

global600/article002.html

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

forum/article001.html

Nace social democracia con

conciencia internacionalista