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MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 1

MIM Notes

December 15, 2002, Nº 272 The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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Hundreds attend

Scott Ritter's talk

at Cal Tech

Pasadena, CA,

November 13, 2002

t least 700 people turned out to

hear former UN Weapons In

spector Scott Ritter talk about

the growing danger of U.$. war against

Iraq and Iraq's alleged weapons of mass

destruction (WMD) capacity. Ritter's

principal arguments -- that war is deadly

and should only be taken up after the

gravest consid-

eration, and that

the Bush admin-

istration is only

using the threat

of WMD as a

pretext for war

-- met with

broad agree-

ment from the

crowd.

MIM also agreed with much in former

u.$. Marine Scott Ritter's presentation.

He called the Amerikan itch for another

war against Iraq "imperialism," and

criticized the u.$. as the "world's biggest

terrorist" for the fact that it is killing 3-

5,000 Iraqi children every month with

economic sanctions. Arguing correctly

that all Amerikans are responsible for

these deaths for as long as we fail to

prevent them, Ritter shot out: "we kill

kids by the hundreds of thousands. You

kill those kids, I kill those kids, we all

kill those kids."

Ritter also did his best to instill a sense

of the emergency facing Amerikans

today. He pointed out that the deadlines

laid down in the recent UN Security

Council resolution leave just enough time

for Iraq to make an inventory of its

WMD, have inspectors find this

inventory faulty, have another week-long

debate in the Security Council, and then

go to war by mid- to late-December when

the u.$. will have the overwhelming air

Uncle $cam

peeving Koreans

It's not Osama Bin Laden disrupting

relations on the Korean peninsula and

provoking war. The lead story November

17th on the British imperialist BBC

website was that the Kim Jong-il regime

in northern Korea just admitted in public

to obtaining nuclear weapons in response

to U.$. deployment of nuclear weapons

in Korea.

The Associated Press reported that it

Thousands in

Phila. march

against U$

war on Iraq

Philadelphia, PA,

November 23

housands of people converged

upon City Hall to protest

Amerika's escalation of the

ongoing imperialist assault against the

Iraqi people. RAIL members attended the

rally, and distributed hundreds of flyers,

circulated petitions and distributed copies

of MIM Notes. After the initial gathering,

protesters took to the streets and marched

down Market St., chanting anti-

imperialist slogans like "Hey Bush, what

do you say, how many kids have you

killed today?" and "No blood for oil".

RAIL helped to debunk various

imperialist generated myths about Iraqi

links to terrorism and possession of

weapons of mass destruction by handing

out information fliers to onlookers. The

flier listed facts on the ongoing genocidal

campaign against the Iraqi people and

included the following text:

"As a means of justifying the planned

invasion of Iraq, the Amerikan

Imperialists have concocted various

stories and myths: The two most often

cited are that Iraq is supposed to be linked

with Al-Qaida in some way and that Iraq

is said to have `weapons of mass

destruction' which it plans on using

against its neighbors and possibly the

United $tates.

"The first lie has been debunked by

British M15 and M16 Secret Service

agencies, who completely rejected the

idea of any connection, adding that

Saddam has stayed as far away as

possible from Al-Qaida. As Dr. Stephen

Zunes noted recently, `The State

Department's own annual study, Patterns

of Global Terrorism, could not list any

serious act of international terrorism

connected to the government of Iraq.'

There is absolutely NO evidence to

suggest that there is any link between the

Iraqi government and Al-Qaida- or any

other terrorist group for that matter. Even

Donald Rumsfeld has been forced to

modify his story from the U.$. having

`bulletproof' evidence, to: `they're not

photographs. They're not beyond a

Former inspector: Charges against Iraq baseless

Scott Ritter

Koreans have nukes,

Bush can't take it

was only one

press report

from the Kim

regime. Later

official reports

a p p a r e n t l y

qualified the

earlier report

by adding the

"entitled." A

commentary from the northern Korean

Central Broadcasting Station read, "To

safeguard our sovereignty and right to

exist, we are entitled to have powerful

security measures, including nuclear

weapons."(10)

Nonetheless, the U.S. Government had

come to the conclusion that Kim had

nuclear weapons back in 1994. What is

news is that this is now being discussed

in the open. What is disgusting is that

Bush already knows that northern Korea

has nuclear weapons and still he

grandstands against the peace. The

Korean move only exposes Bush to risk

from global public opinion, now that

global public opinion will know that Bush

is doing all of this to a state with nuclear

arms.

Bush cut off oil shipments to the

northern Koreans over the nuclear

weapons developments, but more

importantly he has refused thus far to

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 4...

Continued on page 6...

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 2

MIM Notes

The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement

ISSN 1540-8817

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
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Send to: Books for Prisoners, Inc. c/o the address below. Donations and books can be
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MIM

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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

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Make anonymous money orders payable

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A call for MIM Notes sponsors and distributors!

MIM Notes has seen a big spike in

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MIM Notes is a free and independent
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now knee-jerk patriots who believe
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chance to read MIM Notes. There are

other patriots and internationalists
who realize that at this time papers
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spectacle that Uncle Sam is creating
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distributors and officers. Sponsors pay

for papers; distributors get them onto
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distribution and financial support.

Distribute # Cost per year

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25 (Priority Mail)

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100

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200

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900 (Express Mail!)

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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

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raise the money to distribute 900
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sponsors and distributors!

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

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MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 3

Taking the "War on Terrorism" as its

carte blanche, the federal government has

unleashed a pack of restrictions on im-

migrants to the united snakes since 9/11.

During the summer, overseas money

transfer companies started requiring gov-

ernment- or employer-issued photo iden-

tification from all customers. Already

companies like MoneyGram, Western

Union and Lucky Money must report

even the smallest cash transfers to fed-

eral law enforcement, which will check

customer names against lists of known

or suspected terrorists.(1) This fall, the

FBI and CIA have begun reviewing all

visa requests for men aged 16 to 45 from

26 Arab and Muslim countries.(2) And

as MIM Notes has reported, many col-

leges and universities have turned infor-

mation on their foreign students over to

the feds, while students at other schools

struggle to keep their administrations

from doing so.(3)

These forms of surveillance are both

highly persynal and insulting; they make

a mockery of Amerikan pretensions to

friendship with immigrants in general

and Muslim and Arab peoples in particu-

lar. Tracking cash transfers is a targeted

attack on poor immigrants from the Third

World. While the petty- and bourgeoisie

have more sophisticated ways of send-

ing money home, it is largely proletar-

ians and those who have not yet made

their way into the middle class relying

on companies like MoneyGram to trans-

mit the kind of money they can only make

on this side of the u.$. border. Undocu-

mented workers now have to fear that

their information will get to the INS, and

that they could be deported for sending

home the very money they came here to

earn.

Malcolm X famously said: "I'm not

going to sit at the table and watch you

eat, when there's no food on my plate,

and call myself a diner." Well, listen up

Amerika because neither are the rest of

the people in the world. The u.$. economy

requires a closed market for labor to keep

labor aristocracy wages high, and an open

market for Amerikan goods overseas, to

Amerika, 2002: A terrible time to be an immigrant

complete the circuit of capital back to the

u.$. This country's borders are a nudge

and wink operation, where plenty of

people get in under the radar of the INS,

only to do the work Amerikans won't

while looking over their shoulders for la

migra. Socialism would make interna-

tional peace and cooperation possible

because it would mean fair prices for

goods and labor exchanged, and so do

away with the incentive to militarize bor-

ders.

Notes:
1. New York Times 12 November, 2002.
2. Washington Post 24 September, 2002.
3. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/
sept112001/uspies.txt.

On October 8 President Bush won a

federal court order to end the Pacific

Maritime Association's lockout of Inter-

national Longshore and Warehouse

Union workers. The Taft-Hartley Act al-

lows federal authorities to end a strike

or lockout for 80 days if it poses a "threat

to national security." The PMA locked

the ILWU out on September 27, in re-

sponse to a work slowdown and threat-

ened strike. This shutdown brought on

federal government intervention both

because of the economic impact of the

shutdown and because the ports are es-

sential to Amerika's terrorist war on the

people of the world.

The union and port operators came to

a tentative agreement on November 25,

averting a late-December strike or lock-

out.

The ILWU has a history of internation-

alist actions, including a one-day politi-

cal strike a few years ago in support of

Mumia Abu-Jamal. A work stoppage

now could have seriously compromised

Amerika's ability to wage a war of ag-

gression in Iraq. However, in this case

the ILWU let the opportunity slip. In fact,

ILWU members helped load military

cargo during the shutdown.(1) "The

commitment to loading military materiel,

to assuring the security of the residents

of Hawaii and Alaska as well as the

safety those who travel on cruise ships

out of West Coast ports is a long-stand-

ing practice of the union," the ILWU said

in a press statement.(4)

One of the central issues behind the

threatened strike was ILWU fears about

the implementation of new technology

to handle cargo at the expense of human

operators. This fear is justified: as capi-

talism advances the ratio between con-

stant capital (machinery and raw mate-

rials) and variable capital (labor) in-

creases, displacing workers. The fact that

these technological advances lead to un-

employment is a failure of capitalism.

Advances in production should lead to

greater abundance for the majority, not

greater poverty. In addition, capitalist

competition and intellectual property

laws slow down innovations.

Under the tentative agreement, the

ILWU accepts the new technology in ex-

change for a 60% increase in pensions

and a promise that the 400 clerks replaced

by the new tech will be given other jobs.

Rank-and-file ILWU members will vote

on the agreement on December 9.(5)

Just because a small number of dock

workers may lose their job to more effi-

cient technology does not mean dock

workers are exploited. In fact these work-

ers' salaries--$60,000 to $80,000 per

year--depend on the superprofits ex-

tracted from exploited workers outside

of U.$. borders. This is the imperialist

way to buy off the "workers" in the

United $tates generally, not just dock

workers. The capitalists still take an even

bigger share of the profits, but they are

not exploiting the Amerikan citizens.

A truly progressive union in Amerika

needs to stand with the exploited work-

ers of the world. These workers are

forced to labor for a few dollars a day

under the rule of Amerikan militarism.

The correct target of the international

proletariat is Amerikan imperialism.

Notes:
1. Washington Times, October 8, 2002
2. New York Times, September 20, 2002.
4. http://www.ilwu.org/solidarityday/20021002-
1PressRelease.htm.
5. New York Times, 25 Nov 2002.

Bush ends ILWU dock lockout in West

Berkeley, CA

November 23

Today MIM helped bring a mock "Se-

curity Housing Unit" or SHU to the Uni-

versity of California, Berkeley. The

SHUs are sensory deprivation torture.

SHU prisoners spend 22 hours a day in

windowless, 6x9 cells. Activists passed

out information on SHU conditions and

collected just over 100 new signatures

on a petition demanding the SHUs be

shut down.(1)

The mock SHU action preceded a No-

vember 25 meeting between state Sena-

tor Richard Polanco, the California De-

partment of Correction (CDC), and a few

select prisoner advocacy groups. This

meeting discussed the demands of SHU

prisoners in Pelican Bay, who have been

on hunger strike since October 19. Sena-

tor Polanco expressed support for the

striking prisoners.

MIM and its allies in this campaign go

further and call for the abolition of the

SHUs, which serve no legitimate pur-

pose. The Berkeley action followed a

week-long vigil in downtown San Fran-

cisco the first week of November, orga-

nized by MIM, the All People's Coali-

tion, the Barrio Defense Committee, the

Uhuru Movement and others.

The environment in Berkeley was dif-

ferent from that in San Francisco. In Ber-

keley the crowd was predominantly

white and well off; there were many

more homeless people e.g. in San Fran-

cisco. Nonetheless we met a number of

former prisoners in Berkeley and several

people who had worked in the prisons

in CA and knew firsthand the horrible

conditions.

We met one former prisoner who re-

ceived MIM Notes while on the inside.

He is currently homeless and organiz-

ing homeless people. He took a copy of

the petition to gather more signatures. A

defense attorney stopped to talk about

the conditions in prison, donate money

California SHU protests reach Berkeley

to our work, and sign the petition.

Several people working in the

prisons also stopped to support the

protest. And a number of high

school students taking SAT

classes at UC Berkeley stopped to

sign the petition on their lunch

break.

In a classic example of the in-

fluence of knowing someone in

prison, a MIM activist talked to

two young white men about the

issue. One of them said that ev-

eryone in prison is no good and a

criminal and deserves to suffer. The other

one said to him "hey, my dad's in prison"

and eagerly signed the petition proclaim-

ing how much he would hate to be locked

in the SHU. He then convinced his friend

to sign as well. At the rate imprisonment

is rising in the U.$., the number of people

who have been or know someone in

prison is reaching far into the population.

And this provides a significant base of

support for our fight against the criminal

injustice system. This is concentrated in

the Black and Latino communities which

are disproportionately targeted by the

criminal injustice system but reaches

many whites as well. This explains the

higher level of support for the protest in

downtown San Francisco relative to the

Continued on page 5...

Getting the word out in Berkeley.

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 4

Did you know?

There are more

than 200 back

issues of MIM

Notes available

on the MIM

website? Not only

can you browse

more than 15

years of the

newspaper, you

can also keep up

with the very

latest on MIM

agitation

campaigns,

prisoner news, all

the latest on the

U$ war, and much

more. MIM's

website is an

indispensable tool

for the

revolutionary

movement. Get

involved!

www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM

negotiate a peace treaty or nonaggression

pact as requested by the northern

Koreans. Not only is northern Korea still

technically at war with the United $tates

since the Korean War of 1950-3, but also,

it is clear from Bush's previous remarks

that he views northern Korea as a target

of covert war actions, similar to those

seen already in Yemen, Afghanistan and

openly in the Philippines and other

places. No self-respecting state in this

capitalist world can be expected to do

other than what northern Korea's regime

is doing, and young people in southern

Korea have already figured that out.

Although the southern Korean people

are on the pro-U.$. and pro-market

capitalist side of the border in Korea,

56.4% said in a poll that Bush's remarks

calling north Korea part of the "axis of

evil" along with Iraq and Iran were

"inappropriate."(1) We can be sure that

the opinion on the northern side of the

border was even more disgusted with u.$.

imperialism.

The 49.7% plurality of southern

Koreans said that the United $tates was

aggravating intra-Korean relations;

47.6% said Bush's own domestic

problems led him to make the remarks.(1)

For its part, according to the BBC, the

Kim regime has pointed out that it was

the united $tates that first put 1000

nuclear weapons in Korea. BBC did not

deny this and in fact, nutcase "Secretary

of Defense" Donald Rumsfeld had

already admitted a month ago that

northern Koreans might have one or two

nuclear weapons. Despite all that, the

united $tates has not made any moves for

a peace treaty.(2)

Although between 30 and 40,000 U.$.

troops are at risk in Korea, (38,000 being

the most recent figure) if any nuclear

weapons should detonate, the Korean and

Japanese people have concluded that

Bush does not have any civilians under

threat, because northern Korea's missiles

can only reach Japan, not the United

$tates. The United $tates has also made

it clear to the world that it hopes to have

Star Wars in place before Korean missiles

can reach the U$A--great for the stupid

Amerikkkans who think it will work, but

no use to Japanese and Koreans today.

Amerikkkan propaganda can only go

so far where real self-interests are at stake

and the pro-U.$. regime in southern

Korea was not able to make the most

basic facts of Korean self-interest go

away. The president Kim Dae Jung

repeatedly warns his people not to make

a diplomatic mistake in alienating the

united $tates, but the protests and

incidents keep happening. As a result, the

United $tates stands at a low in southern

Korean opinion, with only 33% holding

a positive view of United $tates, down

from 63.7% in 1994.(3)

In fact, Koreans have come to a whole

host of conclusions about the united

$tates since 911. While many Koreans

mourned with the Amerikkkans, in fact,

Koreans have nukes, Bush can't take it

it was a time when Koreans realized why

the united $tates sets itself up for so much

hatred. Popular songs in Korea were

found to be celebrating Bin Laden as the

one "most admired" and one Amerikkkan

in Seoul says she went jogging when a

group of young schoolchildren jumped

out in front of her to tell her they "love

Bin Laden." According to the Christian

Science Monitor, southern Koreans now

enjoy a "recent music video by popular

all-girl Korean band S.E.S. It features

cowboy-booted Americans being beaten

up, fed to dogs, and tossed off buildings."

Korean schoolteachers assigning

children to write letters to Bush after 911

found that half the children were writing

letters saying the united $tates deserved

it for war-mongering or must enjoy it.

How often it is that truth comes from the

mouths of small children!

A majority of Koreans believes Bush

makes speeches destabilizing the

peninsula in order to sell F-15 jets to the

southern Koreans.(4) This by itself is

reason enough to overthrow capitalism

in MIM's opinion. There should never

be any question of a diplomat's or head-

of-state's motivations being one of profit.

It's difficult enough to get along.

Almost half supported protests by

scores of protesters trashing the offices

of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in

Korea. 60% "don't like" the United

$tates.(5) Less than 24% of Koreans in

their 20s and 30s like the United

$tates.(6)

Up through the 1980s, the U.$. lackey

regime violently repressed all anti-

Amerikan protests and movements. It

took a change of generations, nuclear

weapons and a mediocre U.$. president

to wake up southern Koreans to U.$.

imperialism, but there is no way for the

imperialists to put the genie back in the

bottle now. It goes to show that there is a

profound relationship between power

and truth, that people will say one thing

in one set of circumstances and another

thing in another. For most of the last 50

years, the United $tates has twisted

Korean arms one way, but now that

northern Korea has nuclear weapons too,

the arm starts to twist back. In fact, the

youth in Korea do not regard northern

Korea as a threat, even after a small naval

battle that broke out with the Kim regime.

Also a factor is that the simplicity of

the anti- communist propaganda is

breaking down with China rising to south

Korea's number 2 trade partner, equal

with Japan. While stupid anti-

communists of yesteryear continue to call

China "communist," youth in Korea

today are figuring that north Korea's poor

economic status is not a result of its

"communism" but because of U.$.

imperialism's division of the peninsula.

MIM would point out that only places

on the front lines of revolutionary class

struggle succeeded in business like

southern Korea in recent years. The same

is now true for Taiwan and China. The

vast majority of the world's capitalist

countries--about 200 such countries--

are poor and have remained poor because

of a lack of advance in the class struggle.

Only where communism threatened did

the imperialists allow a few small

countries break through to better trade

relations and wealth. There is no other

way to explain why Taiwan and southern

Korea are economic successes while the

Philippines and Indonesia still suffer

typical Third World capitalist conditions.

The communists created the leverage for

major land reform and in Indonesia and

the Philippines, despite being pro-U.$.,

such land reform never happened.

It will take a while for southern

Koreans to shake off their colonized

mentality and figure out how they will

continue to prosper while throwing off

U.$. colonialism and militarism. The key

points are already in order. As of now,

polls published by the Korean Times

show a majority of southern Koreans

oppose supporting the U.$. war in

Afghanistan and 70% oppose helping the

war in Iraq.(7)

As MIM has said before, there is no

way to stop weapons proliferation in a

global capitalist system anymore than

there is a way to stop people from the

black market in drugs. Mao's China did

it--by cracking down on the profit-

system. The "war on drugs" has been

hopeless for decades in the capitalist

world, just as much as the war on alcohol

before it. The Bush & company dinosaurs

are fighting a hopeless rear guard action

that only endangers the whole world's

people, when resources would be much

better spent on resolving the underlying

causes of humyn conflict.

Even Amerikkkans know that. 51%

polled by an institute at the University

of British Columbia say a reduction of

global poverty would make the world a

safer place. The "United Kingdom" came

up with the same 51% figure. When it

came time to asking whether the United

$tates plays a "major role" in making the

world a safer place, the lowest scores

came from Japan and southern Korea,

29% and 33% respectively.(8)

When it comes to who is making the

world an unsafe place, even the British

rate Bush as more dangerous than Kim

Jong-il in Korea. Bush is third behind

Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden

for making the world an unsafe place--

according to a British public opinion

survey.(9)

Amerikkkans: your system has failed

profoundly. Not only do your rulers take

away the liberties that are supposedly part

of your way of life without bringing

safety, but also the system has allowed

people into power that would take

chances with war in a nuclear world. The

solution is not to give these rulers more

support. The solution is to crack down

on them hard while you still have a

chance. If you cannot see it yourself, look

around the world, and notice what other

people are saying about you. The

southern Koreans were your best friends

and now they tell you something only

friends can tell you.

Notes:

1. http://www.korealink.co.kr/times/

200202/t2002020917160840110.htm

See BBC statements such as http://

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/not_in_website/

syndication/monitoring/media_reports/

2486007.stm 2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/

2/hi/asia-pacific/2485829.stm

3. Choong Nam Kim, "Bush's

America is getting a bad name,"

International Herald Tribune,

September 26, 2002.

4. www.koreasociety.org (See the

Katrin Fraser report on anti-

Americanism.) The Los Angeles Times

cites a local Korean television poll.

ROBIN WRIGHT and BARBARA

DEMICK, "Students Aim to Give Bush

a Lesson in Diplomacy," 20Feb2002.

5. Christian Science Monitor, http://

www.csmonitor.com/2002/0911/

p02s03-wogi.htm

6. www.koreasociety.org/TKSQ/

FeatureArticles/V-3/

03_2_SUMMER2002-Oberdorfer-US-

ROK-under-stress.html Don

Oberdorfer, "Korea and the United

States: Partnership under Stress,"

August 2002.

7. http://www.fnfkorea.org/fnst_eng/

Liberal%20Times/liberal/times69.html

8. http://216.239.33.100/

search?q=cache:xULoeHlsCqUC:www.liucentre.ubc.ca/

surveys/media/releases/

160502release.pdf+Koreans+poll+Bush&hl=en&ie=UTF-

9. 2Sept2002 Daily Mirror. Also,

http://www.british-weekly.com/

columns/add.html

10. New York Times, 18 Nov 2002.

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 5

When it comes time to evaluating the

Bush "missile defense" plan, 74% of

southern Koreans and 80% of Brazilians

believe it makes the world more unsafe.

For those unfamiliar with the issue, the

prevailing opinion of the rulers till now

was "mutually assured destruction," in

the use of nuclear weapons. With the

United $tates trying to shoot down other

countries' nuclear missiles, it seems that

some countries will increase the arms

race as Russia and China have said, while

others may want to use their nuclear

weapons before the shield is really

effective.

The only country in the world where a

majority believes the "missile shield"

will make people safer is the united

$tates, with 64% holding that belief. In

addition to the Koreans and Brazilians,

majorities of "UK," Canadian, French,

Russian, Japanese and German peoples

believe the missile shield will make the

world more dangerous.

Meanwhile in the united $tates,

Amerikkkans live in a hypocritical dream

world where they accuse others of killing

unarmed civilians while forgetting their

own actions. A third of U.$. people do

not know that the United $tates dropped

nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and

Nagasaki, while 99% of Japanese, 92%

of Russians and 87% of Germans do

know. In the under 35 category, fully 39%

of Amerikkkans do not know that the

united $tates dropped nuclear weapons

on two Japanese cities. (That still leaves

no excuse for the two- third of the U.$.

public that does know.)

It's often said that the Amerikkkans just

suffer "false consciousness" and that in

fact they are just being stupid as war-

mongerers. The fact that 39% of young

Amerikans don't know about Hiroshima

and Nagasaki could be taken as proof,

but that would be a mistake, because

Russia and Germany are capitalist

countries too. They also have what Marx

called "superstructures" that brainwash

the oppressed and exploited.

The top three of Russia, Japan and

Germany may very well have superior

overall education especially at the pre-

college level, and they also have the

nationalist resentments of losing to the

united $tates in wars. Nonetheless, it is

not from a lack of money or printed paper

that makes Amerikkkans uneducated.

Russians live at a level less than one-

tenth the U.$. level economically.

The problem is that Amerikkkans and

the other "victor" countries of World War

II and the Cold War choose to block out

what they did as a part of national pride.

In the Anglo-Saxon case, it is also a

matter of the development of a gender

aristocracy, a sense of entertainment

developed in parasitic society that diverts

high school age children from learning

basic facts, even something so lacking

subtlety or complexity as the dropping

of nuclear weapons on Japan.

Note:

http://www.ipsos-reid.com/media/

dsp_displaypr_cdn.cfm?id_to_view=1525

Global opinion: Star Wars undercuts world safety

Prisoners in California's Security

Housing Units or SHUs face a number

of abuses besides being confined to their

small isolation cells 22 hours per day.

Guards shackle and strip search them

every time they leave their cell. Prisoners

receive all their meals in their cells; they

are not allowed to participate in training

or educational Activities; they are not

allowed contact visits and they have no

phone access. The exercise "yard" has

no exercise equipment and no view of

the outside world.

A prisoner in the Corcoran SHU wrote

to MIM in November: "I'm incarcerated

in a maximum security prison. I am in

my cell 23 hours a day, 7 days a week.

My only permitted luxury are books.

We're allowed to purchase them from

outside bookstores. But I have no income

to do so. The library here supplies books,

but only novels, which I derive no

pleasure from. I prefer books that have

intellectual value such as philosophy and

other classical literature. Unfortunately

they are in absence in the library here so

this brings me to you in hopes that you

can help me out with a few books." The

lack of educational materials is just one

aspect of the repression in the SHU.

A prisoner in the Pelican Bay SHU

wrote: "These prisoncrats are about to

implement another repressive policy:

effective Jan 1, 2003 all incoming mail

must be written on 81/2 x 11 inch paper,

on one side only and incoming letters

cannot be longer than 4 pages in length.

Handwriting or printing must be legible

so the fascist censor can screen all the

incoming mail plus we will be able to

receive only five letters per week. This

bullchet policy will be introduced for

`security reasons.' Yea right. Like all

other Pelican Bay policies this one is pure

crap. This policy is simply another

vehicle of oppression and social control."

For over 15 years the California

Department of Corrections (CDC) has

had a practice of placing prisoners in the

SHU under the guise that the prisoners

are prison gang affiliates or a threat to

the safety of others or institutional

security. The five California SHU's -

Pelican Bay State Prison SHU, Valley

State Prison for Women SHU, California

State Prison at Corcoran SHU, California

Correctional Institution at Tehachapi

SHU and Corcoran SATF - are the

lynchpin for the CDC's prison system.

They are the most brutal prisons in the

system and principally target those

prisoners who show the most resistance.

They are designed to break inmates'

spirit.

supposedly progressive Berkeley.

Readers should not take these ex-

amples of support as a sign that we

met no opposition. The SHU protest

was the same day as the "big" Berke-

ley vs. Stanford football game. The

crowds of sports fans were far from

sympathetic to the protest. Many of

them walked by commenting "I think

torture is good." This is no surprise as

the largely white petty bourgeois

crowds reflect the interests of main-

stream Amerika in general.

At the end of the football game (won

by Berkeley), a crowd of thousands

rushed the field and, after repeated

clashes with police, successfully

pushed their way through and tore

down the goal post. They then took to

the streets, shutting down traffic in

their victory march carrying the goal

post onto another part of the Berkeley

campus. According to a policeman

who stopped to ask what was in the

mock-SHU, no arrests were made in

connection with the crowd at the foot-

ball field.

This tolerance of blatant property

destruction and illegal activity dem-

onstrates the unity between the white

nation and the criminal injustice sys-

tem. Blacks and Latinos living in pov-

erty who steal food or other property

to feed their family are sent to prison,

and crowds of oppressed nation youth

demonstrating bring down serious

police repression. But white students

tearing down a goal post and taking

over the streets without a permit re-

sults merely in news camera coverage.

Media that was uninterested in the

SHU protest. As the crowd surged past

the mock-SHU we didn't see a single

police office anywhere nearby.

Notes:

1. The petition and an informational

flyer can be downloaded from

http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/

agitation/prisons.html.

Berkeley protest

Continued from page 3...

Prisoners describe Security Housing Unit conditions

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

w a r s

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?

The blatant repression of prisoners in

the SHU demonstrates the lack of real

security concerns and the use of these

units, as the Pelican Bay prisoner pointed

out, for social control. Join us in this

battle against control units in California.

Download the petition and flyer and get

out on the streets to collect signatures:

http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/

agitation/prisons.html.

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 6

power of four aircraft carriers in the

Persian Gulf region. MIM has not made

any predictions about when the u.$.,

alone or behind a UN veil, will attack

Iraq. We simply note in the words of Prof.

Jose Maria Sison that "the United States

is using the pretext of waging a war on

terrorism in order to wage a war of

terrorism against the revolutionary

peoples and against countries assertive

of national independence."(1)

The issue for people in the United

$tates should not be whether Iraq has

weapons of mass destruction, but

whether their own government does and

to what end it will wield them as a threat

against the world's people. As Ritter

correctly pointed out, it was never

possible for the U.$. and USSR to have

the bomb without China, Israel, India and

Pakistan acquiring it too. He even went

so far as to argue that Amerika's

willingness to launch a war against Iraq

counts as evidence that Iraq does not have

WMD, as the united snakes would not

walk into such a threat. MIM points out

that even if the United $tates is assured

that Iraq has no WMD, it remains a

horribly dangerous gamble to launch a

war of aggression. Bush's own Mad

Warrior Rumsfeld has admitted that

nuclear attacks against the United $tates

are inevitable, which to MIM means it is

past time for Amerika to be making its

reckoning with the international

community, not looking to piss off more

enemies and allies alike.

Our disagreements with Ritter relate to

definitions of imperialism and terrorism.

Ritter understands that people around the

world hate Amerika because "maybe the

way the U.S. dominates the globe

Former inspector: Charges against Iraq baseless

deprives others of the chance at life," and

that "no imperial power lasts forever."

Still, he is an Amerikan patriot and says

so. He rejects current U.$. policies

because he thinks they violate this

country's principles of democracy, which

in his opinion were basically intact before

the Persian Gulf War. Ritter thinks

Amerika is imperialist and terrorist now

because it is so blatantly planning a war

for control of Iraqi oil, and because it is

killing Iraqi civilians for no reason (i.e.,

using WMD as an excuse for war even

though Iraq has so few as to be

irrelevant).

While we certainly agree that these

things mark Amerika as imperialist,

terrorist, and an international criminal,

these specific conditions are not the basis

for our analysis. Where Ritter's analysis

leads him to think that the UN should

have pulled its inspectors out of Iraq and

begun a new bombing campaign back in

the summer of 1991, MIM says the

United $tates and the UN never had any

business in Iraq in the first place. This

country has killed millions of people

around the world through wars of

aggression and the daily violence of

imperialist exploitation. From the Indian

Wars to the conquest of Cuba, Puerto

Rico, and the Philippines, to the present-

day war against as many Arab and

Muslim countries as Bush can name,

Amerika has applied the infamous Dred

Scott decision to the rest of the world:

No country has a right to national

sovereignty that Amerika is bound to

respect.

MIM circulated its petition to Defend

the Rights of Prof. Jose Maria Sison at

the event. Prof. Sison is a political

refugee in the Netherlands and Chief

Political Consultant to the National

Democratic Front of the Philippines

negotiating panel in the Netherlands. The

u.$. and Dutch governments have

smeared Prof. Sison as a "terrorist" in an

effort to demonize him, and to terrorize

overseas Filipinos and the revolutionary

and anti-imperialist movement

internationally. While we were only able

to talk to a small fraction of the people at

the event, responses from those who

stopped to talk about the petition were

positive. Several people signed without

hearing MIM's pitch, saying they had

heard an interview with Prof. Sison on

the radio.(2) Most people who refused

to sign said they needed "independent"

or "objective" information on this case.

But even these people asked for a copy

of MIM Notes to read our interview with

Prof. Sison, and spent time discussing his

case and the so-called War on Terrorism.

Overall, we are heartened to see such

a big crowd for an anti-war event on a

weeknight. The crowd flooded the main

auditorium and an upstairs room with

audio-visual hook-up. The last two

hundred people arriving seated

themselves outside to listen to Ritter's

talk on outdoor speakers.

The black mark on this event for MIM

was when a CalTech security guy

snatched our comrade's clipboard, telling

h that s/he was not permitted to petition

at the event and hiding the clipboard

behind a locked door. After being told

that s/he was not even permitted to

petition outside the building, the comrade

started notifying people in line for the

event that s/he was being prevented from

petitioning. Our comrade continued to

hand out MIM Notes, and to discuss Prof.

Sison's case. S/he also polled the

audience informally to find out what

people thought of an activist being barred

from petitioning against the "war on

terror" at an event devoted to discussing

that war.

Roughly half the people we spoke to

thought the University's policy was

bogus and that the security guard was

wrong to interfere with our comrade's

work. The other half initially said that

because CalTech is a private university

it is the school's right to bar people from

petitioning or leafleting on the campus.

Though when pressed for their own

opinions, many of these volunteered that

they oppose the current U.$. war policies

and think these policies should be

opposed. Our comrade argued that the

country's war footing warrants breaking

the rules for the sake of preventing further

bloodshed, yet many held to their views

that CalTech can set its own anti-speech

policies for its own private property.

Fortunately, our comrade got h clipboard

back shortly after the event started, and

was able to continue petitioning out of

the security guard's view. People we

spoke to after the event seemed to reject

the CalTech policy much more readily,

perhaps because they had just finished

listening to Scott Ritter argue that in time

of war more than any other time, it is vital

that the people speak out, question and

argue against government actions they

disagree with.

Notes:
1. "Interview with Prof. Jose Maria Sison,"
MIM Notes 270 November 15, 2002.
2. Audio files of an hour-long interview with
Professor Sison are available on MIM's website.

reasonable doubt.'

"The second lie is just as fact-less as

the first. As Scott Ritter, Former U.N.

weapons inspector put it 2 years ago:

`Iraq has indeed been disarmed...The

chemical, biological, nuclear and long-

range ballistic missile programs that were

a real threat in 1991, had, by 1998 been

destroyed or rendered harmless.'

UNSCOM admitted in 1999 that the

overwhelming majority of Iraq's

weapons had been destroyed. Bush has

recently claimed that Iraq attempted to

import high-strength aluminum tubes `for

gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich

uranium for nuclear weapons.' Yet again,

British intelligence denies that there are

any facts to back this up. Lest anyone

has forgotten what context the discussion

of `weapons of mass destruction' should

be viewed in, the ONLY country to

EVER use an atomic bomb, killing

innocent civilians, was the United $tates.

"It is quite clear that there is absolutely

NO legitimate reason to go to war with

Iraq. In fact the ONLY reason a war

seems imminent is because Amerikan

Imperialism is intent on controlling the

Phila. march

region's vast natural resources and re-

drawing the map of the Middle-East to

suit the interests of Amerikan

Imperialism and its allies. When Bush

talks of a `regime change,' what is meant

is simply that the United $tates desires a

loyal puppet government that will aid in

the further plunder and oppression of the

Iraqi people."

After this text was written, the

bourgeois media has revealed a new twist

to the situation: Amerika is planning on

reverting to direct colonial rule and

installing General Tommy R. Franks or

one of his subordinates as the military

ruler of Iraq. The colonial government

will have supreme power and direct

control of Iraqi oil. After an un-specified

period of time, the imperialists will their

favorite comprador lackey(s) and thereby

continue to control the Iraqi economy in

their own interests.(1)

RAIL also talked to the masses about

distinguishing popular struggle and

terrorism. RAIL helped people

understand the link between the so-called

"War on Terrorism" and the brutal

treatment of political prisoners through

its petitions.

[RAIL comrades circulated petitions

supporting Memik Horoz and Joma

Sison. Mr. Horoz is a Turkish journalist

imprisoned for the "crime" of

interviewing a Maoist guerrilla leader--

a "crime" he did not even commit.(2)

Prof. Sison is the founder of the

Communist Party of the Philippines. The

United $tates recently declared him a

"terrorist," and several European

countries have followed suit, although

the Amerikans' charges are baseless. He

faces extradition to the United $tates

where he could be railroaded by a

military tribunal; reactionaries in the

Philippines have even hinted the CIA

might assassinate him.(3) Both Mr.

Horoz and Prof. Sison have been

harassed because of their militant

writings against U.$. imperialism. MIM

and RAIL's petition campaigns are one

way we directly support local resistance

to Amerikan imperialism in the Middle

East and Asia.]

One rally attendee felt RAIL's

"Fighting Imperialism is Not Terrorism"

poster advocated wanton violence and

sent the wrong message. A RAIL

comrade pointed out that oppressed

peoples do not choose violence but have

it thrust upon them by their imperialist

oppressors, and it would be suicide not

to take up the gun and claim their political

power.

RAIL was pleased to see the masses

hoist the banner of anti-imperialism as

opposed to liberal pacifism. Many

protesters seemed to grasp the concept

that it is not political violence itself that

is the problem but rather imperialist

interests which are the sole motivation

for the war on Iraq. However, many of

the people speaking against imperialism

did so from a national chauvinist

perspective. Revisionist organizations

and their front groups had signs

demanding "money for jobs; not war."

This erroneous line only contributes to

the further plundering of the oppressed

peoples throughout the third world. True

proletarian revolution cannot come about

through the further bribery of the

oppressor nation labor aristocracy.

By RAIL-Philadelphia. RAIL stands for

Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League.

RAIL is a mass organization led by the

Maoist Internationalist Movement. RAIL

members are not MIM members, but

agree with MIM that oppressed nations'

can only win their liberation through

armed struggle.

Notes:
1. New York Times, 11 Oct 2002.
2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/
horoz.html.
3. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/
philippines.html.

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 7

The feminist struggle suffered a series

of setbacks in the New England area

these past few months.

Harvard Law School caved in to the

U.$. Government, rather than continue

with its old policy of not allowing

military recruiters except at its alumni

organizations. Since the military refuses

to take up a policy of non-discrimination

against gays, it had been previous

Harvard policy to exclude military

recruiters from ordinary use of Harvard

buildings. Then the Bush administration

interpreted the law as saying that over

$300 million in federal aid would be lost

by Harvard if Harvard did not admit

military recruiters. Harvard caved in and

proved itself an extension of the

government yet again. A huge portion of

Harvard's research and overhead money

comes from the government.

Yale Law School has also capitulated;

although it claims to seek legal aid in

determining who is right, Yale with its

anti-discrimination policy or the

military.(1)

Meanwhile, 514 faculty and students

mostly at Boston University Law School

petitioned against B.U. President Silber's

abolition of a gay student group at a high

school that B.U. runs. The students

accused Silber of "bigotry," but Silber

points out that no sex-discussing student

groups are allowed at the high school,

not just gay ones.(2)

The student group in question was a

gay-straight alliance organization. Since

we do not believe the world is created

with equal individuals the way fantasy-

prone individualists like Silber are

inclined to think, we see an equal

implementation of rules as de facto

discrimination. Probably most children

realize that straight children do not face

harassment in school for being straight

per se. Gay students face taunting from a

very early age, much earlier than the

"early secondary school" age that Silber

is worrying about. Hence, being even-

handed in applying rules when reality is

discrimination/harassment by group is

not "even-handed" but a cover for

existing oppression. If Silber is unaware

that young students face the cruelest and

most open of gay-baiting harassment he

is merely dense. If he is aware, he is a

bigot, and that is what we suspect.

Nonetheless, we at MIM believe the

strongest argument on this point does not

concern sexual oppression but age. The

fact is that what Silber does will do

nothing to advance the youth. Hatreds

against "fags" and "queers" spread at a

very early, elementary school age in this

sick society. The action that young people

take on that should be left to them, not

adults with their ridiculous fantasies

about innocence in childhood. Even if

adults could be even-handed, youth

should have responsibility for their lives.

The reactionary "Parents' Rights

Coalition" applauded Silber saying that

homosexuality "is medically and

psychologically extremely self-

destructive, and they [the gay-straight

alliance organization] are telling kids that

they should feel good about doing it."(2)

The phrase "parents' rights" is pretty

much identical with the ideology of

"patriarchy" that MIM opposes.

Meanwhile, gay rights advocates and

Mitt Romney's major opponent in the

governor's race in Massachusetts noticed

that Romney's television advertising

boils down to saying he loves his blonde-

haired, red-lipstick-using wife and has

kids. We consider this a setback, because

apparently some major political leaders

believe such a strategy can work in

Massachusetts or it would not be used.

Indeed, Romney won the race despite

having little to say in such ads.(3)

Romney's major opponent in the

governor's race, Shannon O'Brien

stepped forward to endorse gay

marriages, provided the state legislature

writes such a law, despite early

expectations that she would avoid the

issue. Not only did Romney not endorse

gay marriages, but he is a Mormon who

gave $1 million in 1998 to Brigham

Young University. BYU bans gay/lesbian

conduct and does not allow any faculty

that disagrees with Mormon Church

teachings, as illustrated in the following

anecdote:

"Konchar Farr, an assistant professor

of English, was personally opposed to

abortion but supported its remaining

legal-- just as Mr. Romney did. She had

been hired by the English department to

fill a need for a feminist scholar, but

during her third-year review was turned

down for a second three-year term

leading to tenure on the grounds that she

had spoken at a pro-choice rally at the

Utah capitol and, what's more,

`politicized the classroom.' The

administration claimed that she had

violated BYU policy, which explicitly

endorses full academic freedom except

where `faculty behavior or expression

seriously and adversely affects the

University mission or the Church.'"(4)

An ex-professor at BYU went on to say,

"In another incident, two sociologists,

Karen E. Gerdes and Martha N. Beck,

were ordered not to publish their study

of Mormon women whose sexual abuse

as children had been ignored by Mormon

churchmen."(4) Other professors got the

boot for being pro-choice or challenging

accepted gender roles in the Mormon

Church--and all of that is public

knowledge coming from professors who

are Mormons themselves!

What the Mormons tell us is not half

the story and unfortunately, most of those

calling themselves "feminist" in

Massachusetts are Dalai-Lama-loving,

posing-as-feminist pc-liberals, so no one

raised the issue of Mormon polygamy

and abuse of children and backward

young wimmin when Romney came

forward as an active Mormon.

MIM will explain: it's not pc to pick

on others' religion in Massachusetts.

Much of the Christian Establishment has

succeeded in convincing conservative

individualists that religious oppression is

good and liberal individualists in

Massachusetts merely believe that the

right to religion is higher than the right

to a violence-free world. It's typical of

how Amerikkkans have everything

screwed up--a right to religion but no

right to eat guaranteed anywhere.

Supposedly the Mormon Church

abolished the practice of multiple wives

in its religion way back in 1890 despite

its earlier history of advocating

polygamy. Discussion of the subject

seems only to titillate. At first glance, one

might think that the matter of having

multiple wives is really a private matter,

despite what the law says. There is even

something pornographic about how

people amuse themselves talking about

Mormons.

MIM is not going to say that the

Mormon Church is a great threat to the

capable adult womyn. The problem is the

children and the backward.

Slavery was part of the Dalai Lama's

version of Buddhism when he practiced

it in Tibet. It was not part of the Panchen

Lama's Buddhism in Tibet; even though

the Panchen Lama was in charge of

spiritual affairs when the controversy

over slavery in Tibet erupted in the 1950s

in China.

Just as many forgive slavery because

the Dalai Lama says it's religion not

slavery, many are unwilling to separate

Mormon religion from abuse of wimmin

and children. It goes back to the

Liberalism of a court case in the 1953

that the state lost on polygamy. Since that

time, the state has treated Mormon home

life as a private and religious matter.

Only last year did a Utah man receive

the first polygamy-related conviction in

50 years--and he caught himself

attention for not paying child support to

31 children. As we speak, a case against

a womyn is going forward for the first

time in over 100 years. Suzie Stubbs

Holm told her 16-year-old sister that she

would burn in hell if she did not marry

the same older sister's husband. She now

faces 10 years for abetting bigamy and

illegal sex. Unfortunately, the girl's

parents said the marriage had their

approval consistent with their religion--

another example of the very definition

of patriarchy.

An offshoot of the mainline Mormon

Church with 6000 members who call

themselves "fundamentalist" Mormons

openly practice polygamy in Hildale-

Colorado City--including Suzie Stubbs

Holm.(5) By the way, the polygamous

husband in the criminal case is a police

officer. 70% of Utah is Mormon and that

is why no prosecutions occur.

Now there is an organization of former

wives calling for prosecution of

polygamous wives called "Tapestry

Against Polygamy." Rowenna Erickson

says prosecution helps wimmin to think

of themselves as responsible for their

lives. Another ex-plural-wife named

Flora Jessop sensibly said, "`People don't

understand this has nothing to do with

religion. It's a human right violation, a

civil rights violation.'"(5)

People like Erickson and Jessop have

Gender roundup

A series of reactionary setbacks

Continued on page 9...

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 8

"Trade Empires"
2001
Eidos Interactive

"Trade Empires" is another in the

relatively small niche of complex strategy

games. The assumptions that the

programmers put into the game are

typical of the bourgeoisie's view of itself.

The basic strategic premise of business

competition is the same as in Trevor

Chan's "Capitalism II," but Chan's game

is the far more realistic and instructive.

As in Trevor Chan's "Capitalism II,"

Eidos Interactive takes up the bourgeois

view that trade leaders are heroes who

ease bottlenecks in the economy. Those

players who bring goods that are in

demand to the market make the most

money--and the goal of this game is

making money and owning other forms

of wealth. As such, the game is actually

a step up from other games by the same

company such as "Commandos 2," which

are just the usual mindless militarism

games.

In "Trade Empires," if heroic business

leaders do not see to supplying cities, the

cities themselves will dwindle to no

population. The variety and price of

goods made available by merchants is

what determines the population size of a

city, and then also the amount of business

it can do.

Players in this game fantasize that they

are leaders of a major trading "house" or

merchant family. One player is capable

of flooding the market to the point where

business is unprofitable but possibly

causing growth in population and further

demand. In fact, the trade empire itself

pays for palaces, temples and barracks.

These items are important for stimulating

demand, raising prices and making trade

profitable according to Eidos

Interactive's view of the world. There are

no taxes or government in the game, but

it is easy to see how government-like

functions can be in the interests of a well-

to-do merchant family.

Since trade empires last hundreds of

years, it is very possible that it is

profitable to the trade house to fork out

the cash for establishments that produce

nothing while creating demand for the

merchant family's goods. It may cost

2000 monetary units to build a palace,

but if the merchants sell the occupants

of that palace enough jewelry over the

years, the palace can pay for itself several

times over just by raising demand and

thus profits.

It was not that hard for the

programmers to throw in that little

simulation of the "demand side" of the

economy, but it is too bad that libertarians

and anarcho-capitalists cannot

understand even this basic point in

"Trade Empires," namely that the

wealthy can in every way afford to

imitate a government. The only question

is whether the government will try to

claim independence of the merchant

family to be even more effective.

Contrary to sterile thought that holds that

governments form for their own sake, for

"power for its own sake," it is clear even

in this simple game that the origins of

modern day government are in class

differentiation. Without the legal

possibility to make profit in the manner

that they do, merchants would not hire

guards or troops and nor would they build

palaces and temples. Proto-government

arises because of the private interests of

the bourgeoisie and earlier propertied

classes. Libertarians and anarcho-

capitalists who think the state can be

eliminated without the underlying

conflicts in society that give rise to the

state are fooling themselves.

On the plus side, regarding the realism

of the game's assumptions, it is clear that

there is a whole sector of the economy

that appears as unproductive even to the

trader bourgeoisie. For example, in

addition to having temples and palaces

sitting there demanding products, while

traveling amongst countries, merchants

need to hire military protection or face

the wrath of pirates. This military

protection costs money and what could

be a profitable trade route might very well

not be thanks to military and transport

expenses. At the same time, a properly

equipped trade outfit may do some

marauding of its own and rob pirates of

their treasures. This too helps the bottom

line of profit for the merchant. It all

depends on whether equipping military

units costs more than the raiding profit

they can obtain.

The militarism angle in the game is

useful if properly understood.

Occasionally in real life we hear some

deluded pacifists or social-democrats

argue that war is not profitable. The

question is really profitable "to whom?"

The fact is that in a society with private

property someone is making a profit out

of militarism--namely the better-

equipped military units that attack others.

In real life, there are military contractors

and mercenaries making money from

war. This is what Marxism helps us to

see in this and many other facets--that

what is profitable for the individual is not

necessarily beneficial to the society as a

whole. Pirates/troops do not produce

anything in their military capacities.

When they are done fighting there can

only be less wealth total than there was

before the fighting, never more tangible

wealth. Capitalism and the merchant

class do not concern themselves with this

fact: they see only what is profitable at

the individual level and if that means

equipping merchant traders with some

military firepower to raid other

merchants or pirates, then so be it!

Some of the more questionable

assumptions in the game are: 1) that

prices can only range from half to double

the normal price. Unsold goods cannot

cut prices more than 50% and will go to

waste. 2) There is only a limited number

of merchants available to hire!

One benefit of the above assumption

made is that we see that some goods will

go to waste, simply because there is no

demand even at half off the original price.

In fairness to Eidos Interactive, the

difference between a sale price and total

waste is merely a question of proportions.

Wasting more goods may result in higher

prices for the remaining goods after all.

With the game's assumptions,

merchants will also face time pressure

to sell their goods, both because attending

to low-demand markets means that it will

take longer to sell goods and because

there are only so many merchants to hire,

so each merchant should be assigned the

most profitable trade route possible.

Each merchant hired by the merchant

house can be thought of as a transport

worker. We do not see that any profit is

shared with the individual merchant. The

greater the supply of merchants (transport

workers), the more work they will do for

less profit. In fact, we can even imagine

from this game that having too many

transport workers might make them all

unprofitable. That is something Marx

pointed out, that labor has to be for

something "socially necessary" and that

there is such a thing as an average profit

or average method of production. There

is nothing in capitalism that guarantees

there is not an excess supply of labor;

even though, from a strictly physical

point of view or a socialist point of view,

society can always benefit from the

creation of more wealth, no matter how

many workers there are (assuming we

have the planetary-environmental space).

It is not as if Karl Marx disagreed with

so trivial a notion as "supply and

demand." In fact, he spelled out that

bourgeoisie would be unaware of the real

workings of the capitalist system,

because it would only concern itself with

what it has to do to make profit on an

individual level.

While Chan's game has the possibility

of at least involving some labor struggle

over wages, there is absolutely no sense

of class struggle in "Trade Empires."

Like the vulgar bourgeoisie, it would

seem the Eidos Interactive people would

say there is nothing else to know other

than how to make money.

Those who prefer games in ancient

settings may enjoy the graphics,

geography and music from ancient

cultures better in "Trade Empires" than

in "Capitalism II." On the other hand,

there are fewer realistic assumptions put

into this game than "Capitalism II," even

though both are about "supply and

demand."

"I don't know what rice is, I just know its price." "Trade Empires" interface guides

players' quest for personal wealth.

It's all about the Benjamins for bourgeois trade sim

What questions do YOU have?

Wasn't Mao a butcher? Why do you spell it "Amerika"? Shouldn't

you try non-violence first? What is internationalism? Isn't hating white
people reverse racism? Why don't you leftists work together? Why
don't you tone it down? What is a cardinal principle? What is your

program? What is necessary to join MIM? What concrete actions can I
take? How do I write articles for MIM? What is your copyright policy?

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

and get real answers to these and other questions.

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 9

seen through Liberalism--by which we

mean individualism, whether

conservative or left-leaning. It's not

surprising that it is the people involved

who see through oppression. The Dalai

Lama's ex-slaves opposed him; even

though the West gives them no attention

whatsoever, while hanging on every word

of the Dalai Lama.

MIM believes we have heard enough

of Romney and other pc people who

avoid the facts. On July 9th, 2002,

Tapestry against Polygamy sounded the

call for a real feminist cause against an

ex-bishop in the Mormon Church: "Luis

Gonzales has been charged with 20

counts of child molestation, battery, rape,

bigamy, stalking, and fraud. The victim,

alias Tammy Doe alleges, `The Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has

been fully aware of this man's illegal

activities since 1998 and failed to do

anything until the child molestation

became public.'"(6)

As in Tibet, the people on the front-

lines do the best exposing the lies of

religion to cover for oppression. Ex-

plural wives have explained some of the

scams: 1) Divorce repeatedly while

continuing the life before. 2) Take

welfare aid while claiming to be "single"

mothers. 3) Form a splinter church from

the Mormon Church that no one will

touch. 4) Hide within the sanctity of "the

family." As absolom.com says, "It's not

really the practice of polygamy that is

punishable, but the flaunting of it to the

rest of the world."

One problem the scams run into is that

it is illegal in Utah for unmarried wimmin

who are 16 or 17 to have sex with men

more than 10 years older. Thus, attention

tends to focus on the cases involving

children. In 1998, a major case involved

the beating of a teenager by a father

seeking to force the teen daughter to

marry his brother.

MIM has never met "Tapestry against

Polygamy." No doubt we disagree on

some things. However, the following

statement of theirs is a right-on statement

regarding the bulk of the feminist cause

within U.$. borders: "Is polygamy a

healthy lifestyle for children? No.

Children are the real victims of polygamy

because they have no choice. There are

no watchdogs for children born into

polygamy because they are kept isolated

from mainstream society for parents and

leaders to groom innocent children for a

polygamist life. Minors suffer from these

various forms of abuse within the

polygamous subculture: Statutory rape,

incest, denial of public education, child-

slave labor, trafficking of minors into

different countries for sex, arranged

marriages, marriages to close relatives,

medical neglect, poverty etc."(6) MIM

would say that it is children who bear the

brunt of gender oppression within U.$.

borders--not glass-ceiling obsessed

professionals of the gender aristocracy.

"Andrea Johnson was married at age

14 to her half-brother. She died a painful

and unnecessary death giving birth at age

15 from medical non-treatment of pre-

clampsia, an easily treated medical

condition."(6)

Rather than smashing openly

polygamous religions, politicians back

down under pressure. In February, 2001,

almost 100 polygamists of the Apostolic

United Brethren openly lobbied in just

one meeting in the state capitol. The

result was politicians talking about

polygamous marriage as a

misdemeanor.(7)

Meanwhile, an independent candidate

for governor in Arizona named Mahoney

has tried to raise the non-prosecution of

open polygamy as an issue. However, the

fatuous Liberals of the Anti-Defamation

League objected: "`It's not fair game,

ever, to try to label an entire group, a

religion, a race, a classroom, a state, a

city, by the actions of a few of the more

fanatical elements of that group,'" the

ADL said.(8)

The ADL fantasy requires that there

only be a few fanatic individuals.

Unfortunately the truth is that a whole

town on the Utah-Arizona border consists

of a fundamentalist Mormon church

living in open polygamy and no law

enforcement doing anything about it in

either Utah or Arizona. When 6000

people live in open polygamy and when

polygamists even lobby in the state

capitol for their rights, and when Tapestry

against Polygamy has estimated between

80,000 and 300,000 men involved in

polygamous marriages, it is not a

question of a "few fanatic individuals."

It is law enforcement turning a blind eye,

because the governor who last tried to

enforce the law in 1952 lost the following

election. That's not a few fanatics. That

is the entire state talking.

As a result not even Tapestry against

Polygamy supports raiding houses.

Attacking polygamy is some kind of

novelty: " The Mormon fundamentalist

tradition has been interwoven into Utah's

culture for so long that today it is being

protected by the ACLU, local NOW, and

much of the state of Utah as a religious

freedom without any regard for the

polygamous women and children whose

human rights are being violated," says

Tapestry against Polygamy.

The idea of polygamy is so intertwined

with the spiritual doctrine and the

practice of Mormon leaders such as

Brigham Young who had 55 wives, that

most papers written on the subject do not

bother venturing past the history. " In

1843, Joseph Smith told the press that

Mormons did not practice polygamy. He

LIED! Smith was already married to 12

women, taking a 17 year old orphan as

his second wife back in 1835. (The

Twenty-seventh Wife, Wallace, Irving,

NY, Simon & Schuster, 1961)."(9)

"Mormon teaching today does forbid

the practice of polygamy, as compliance

with the laws of the land. However, never

has the Church acknowledged doing

wrong in the practice of this principle,

nor has it ever acknowledged the

principle itself to have been wrong or

morally reprehensible. To the contrary,

it still teaches that `plural marriage' is a

divine principle and holy institution

ordained of God, the practice of which

is held in only temporary abeyance. The

so-called revelation commanding that the

principle be practiced is still printed by

the Church as scripture binding on the

consciences of its members (Doctrine and

Covenants, sec. 132)."(10)

One Arizona columnist says

independent anti-polygamy activist

Mahoney has no chance of winning the

governor's office. Nonetheless, E.J.

Montini says, "But on the matter of

young women and girls being abused in

certain parts of Arizona and us not doing

much about it, he's right."(11) Nor is it

just Arizona and Utah. Canada admits

that plural wives of the same church on

the Arizona-Utah border have entered

Canada with government knowledge of

their illegal practices.(12)

Tapestry against Polygamy claims that

the polygamists are raising babies faster

than anyone else. The Miami Herald

provides the overall demographic

picture: "Nationally, the Hispanic interest

in the faith has helped make the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the

fastest-growing denomination in the

United States. In the '90s, the number of

U.S. followers mushroomed 19.3

percent, to more than 4.2 million, the

biggest jump of any major denomination,

according to a decennial survey, 2000

Religious Congregations & Membership,

released last month.

"The survey found the Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be the

country's sixth-largest denomination,

behind only Roman Catholics, Southern

Baptists, United Methodists, Jews and

Evangelical Lutherans. There are more

Mormons than Presbyterians or

Episcopalians in this country."(13)

Republican and Mormon Mitt Romney

echoes the Liberal view of churches:

"`BYU is a religiously oriented

university,' Romney said. `I just don't

think religion should be part of a

campaign. I've indicated what my

position is with regard to gay rights in

Massachusetts. I want to preserve and

protect those."(14) Romney is a bishop

in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-

Day Saints.

Our take on religion that includes

oppression is different. MIM agrees that

Mormonism should not be a campaign

issue, but because people who are

Mormons should not be allowed to hold

office. If Romney is really so opposed to

discrimination, he should be an ex-

Mormon--someone of Mormon

background, but not a Mormon anymore.

There is simply no two ways about it:

BYU discriminates. Rather than being

shut down for its open beliefs banning

gay/lesbian conduct and hushing up

sexual abuse of children and wimmin,

BYU receives private donations and

government aid.(6)

In MIM's view, feminism is not

Shannon O'Brien's professional career.

It is not having four out of five of the

candidates for governor being wimmin.

Feminism is shutting down oppression

of wimmin and children. Feminism is

putting an end to patriarchy and that is

the exact opposite of Liberal fantasies

about gay children getting an even shake

from their peers in today's schools or

religions as some sort of oppression-free

zone. Unfortunately too many people

calling themselves feminists are nothing

of the sort, just Amerikkkan

individualists.

Notes:

1. newsweekly 16Oct2002, p. 16.

2. Ibid., p. 1, 16.

3. Boston Globe 30Oct2002, http://

www.globe.com/politics/

4. Scott Abbot, "Does Brigham Young

University pose a threat to academic

freedom?" http://www.globe.com/

politics/ 30Oct2002

5. Patty Henetz, "In a groundbreaking

case, Utah woman is charged with aiding

and abetting polygamy," Associated

Press 14Oct2002.

6. http://www.polygamy.org/

7. http://www.polygamyinfo.com/

plygmedia%2001%2027trib.htm

8. Howard Fischer, "Mahoney drags

polygamy, religion into governor's race,"

Arizona Daily Sun 11Oct2002, http://

w w w . a z d a i l y s u n . c o m / n o n _ s e c /

nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=50566

9. http://ww2.moriel.org:8004/

d i s c e r n m e n t / m o r m o n i s m /

mormon_tv_ads.htm

10. Timothy Oliver, "Mormon

Polygamy Still Bearing Fruit in Utah,"

Watchman, 5Jun99.

11. 15Oct2002, http://

www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/

articles/1015montini15.html

12. Globe and Mail 8Oct2002, p. a4.

13. Miami Herald 12Oct2002, http://

www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/

4263330.htm

14. Stephanie Ebbert, "Romney:

Religion should not be campaign issue,"

Boston Globe, 18Oct2002.

15. Any good college administrator

will deny receiving government aid at

one time or another, as part of political

posturing for independence from the

government, but after counting student

loans, support to research etc., it always

turns out false. See for example, http://

w w w . a e c t . o r g / E v e n t s / A t l a n t a /

Presentations/detail.asp?ProposalID=30

Gender roundup: A series of reactionary setbacks

Continued from page 7...

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 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

California SHU denies
"luxury" of
educational books

I'm incarcerated in a maximum security

prison. I am in my cell 23 hours a day, 7 days
a week. My only permitted luxury is books.
We're allowed to purchase them from outside
bookstores. But I have no income to do so.
The library here supplies books, but only
novels, which I derive no pleasure from. I
prefer books that have intellectual value such
as philosophy and other classical literature.
Unfortunately they are in absence in the
library here so this brings me to you in hopes
that you can help me out with a few books.

-- a prisoner in California, November 2002

California denies
rights in gang
investigations

I'm writing to let you know I've been

placed in Administrative Segregation Unit
(ASU for allegedly being a member of a gang.
The Institution Gang Investigator (IGI) came
to my cell on 10-28-02 and took all my
property (with no explanation at all). I kept
asking all officers on all shifts about my
property. They stated that IGI had the power
to do these things. I also asked if I could get
a receipt for my property. I was told it's up to
IGI. Two days later I was rolled up and placed
in ASU. Now I await charges that could
possibly lock me down for years. I have been
doing time since 1997 and have never been
involved in any gang activities and until 1999
had not had any writeup. In 11-1-99 I was
attacked by a confessed gang, that told the
corrections officers that they wanted to rollup
so they attacked Blacks. Since 2001 I've been
on this yard with no write-ups. This prison
has a history of falsifying papers to place any
outspoken individual in lockup. And now I've
fell victim to these claims.

-- a prisoner in California, November 2002

Building more
SHU prisons

By December of this year, or as late as

January, they will have finished constructing
the SHU at High Desert State Prison. This
means no one will be getting transfers, which
just escalates the already high tension around
here. You would think that due to the way we
are all being treated (Black, Red, Brown,
white, yellow) that we would come together
against our captors - it's just the opposite.
There is too much tribalism and asinine
politics, ideologies that conflict.

These people have achieved results from

their nefarious plan to keep us locked
mentally and fighting each other. Our captors
are the only ones who gain from any
dissension among us. Until we overstand this

we will remain in this pit of oppression.

-- a prisoner in California, October 2002

Corcoran SHU
conditions deteriorate

Conditions here have gone from bad to

worse. We are being systematically denied
exercise yard periods. The federal mandates
are ten hours weekly, we probably receive that
in a month! In February of 2002 they started
work on water-cannons/pepper spray hybrid
robotic controlled weapons that they have
installed in the concrete SHU yards to control
and repress. This is not to mention the 347
MM block, gun and AK10 that are in plain
view while inmates exercise, socialize or
practice their religious freedoms under the
scrutiny of the Department of Corrections.

During installation of the water/pepper

spray cannons no contingency plan was put
in place in order to accommodate inmates
exercise yard privileges. We were just shut
up in our cells for months while overpaid state
flunkies installed this massive weapon system
with attached camera to intimidate, degrade
and shock our consciences. Needless to say
the water cannon/pepper sprayer received
demonstrations by staff and other flunkies as
to this weapons efficiency, and we continue
to sit in our cells suffering daily denials of
yard due to last minute adjustments to the
water cannon. So life goes on in the SHU.

-- a prisoner at Corcoran, November 2002

Pelican Bay limits
mail, increases
repression

These prisoncrats are about to implement

another repressive policy: effective Jan 1,
2003 all incoming mail must be written on
81/2 x 11 inch paper, on one side only and
incoming letters cannot be longer than 4 pages
in length. Handwriting or printing must be
legible so the fascist censor can screen all the
incoming mail plus we will be able to receive
only five letters per week. This bullchet policy
will be introduced for "security reasons." Yea
right. Like all other Pelican Bay policies this
one is pure crap. This policy is simply another
vehicle of oppression and social control.

-- a prisoner in CA, November 2002
MIM responds: California currently has

Control Units, known as Security Housing
Units (SHU) in five prisons in the state. There
prisoners are locked up 23 hours a day, in
isolation conditions without access to
education or other programs. These
conditions, described in the letters above,
cause many prisoners to go crazy. Further, the
prisoners are confined to the SHU after secret
gang membership hearings based on false
evidence targeting prisoners who are
organizing politically, as is described in the
second letter above. And limiting their one

outside stimulation, mail, just furthers the
oppression in these institutions. MIM calls
these SHU prisons for what they are: torture.
And we have a campaign going on in
California to abolish the SHU. Look for
stories in this and future issues of MIM Notes
about how to get involved or check out our
web page: http://www.etext.org/Politics/
MIM/agitation/prisons

Magazine illegally
censored by WA DOC

Outlaw Biker Magazine is not known for

its obscene or sexually explicit material. At
most there is nudity to go along with scooters
and all those bikers who live a free and loose
life style in our society. Nevertheless issue
145 was rejected by mail room staff working
at the correction center in Shelton,
Washington.

In a notice of rejection officials claimed

obscene or sexually explicit content was
portrayed in the magazine. But they failed to
identify what it was or why this was a
violation of incoming mail policy.

On appeal Captain Trauscher upheld their

rejection for the same reason given by the mail
room. But Deputy Directory Lynn Delano
exposed this as nothing more than a criminal
conspiracy. By reviewing the publication and
finding no obscene or sexually explicit
material in this magazine.

While Delano settled this she proved

honesty wasn't her strong suit either because
she acquiesced in their rejection for other
reasons which were proven untrue. She asserts
Bill Riley, her "gang expert", found a gang
related advertisement in the magazine. This
claim was debunked when someone checked
the ad and it proved to be about the Hells
Angeles Motorcycle Club, a group which has
nothing to do with gangs or the prisons in
Washington State.

Prisoners or their correspondents may

appeal any time mail is rejected. Outsiders
do this by writing to the Director at the
Department of Corrections Headquarters in
Olympia, Washington. Prisoners may do the
same after seeking review by the warden.

Although favorable decisions aren't always

possible, your efforts help to expose those
who would violate our first amendment rights
and force us to suffer even more oppression
by stopping our magazines, or mail merely
because we're in prison and their in a position
to do that.

-- a prisoner in WA, November 2002
MIM responds: We agree with this

prisoner's assessment of the value of
appealing censorship. And we take this one
step further, urging people to send stories
about their censorship and appeals to MIM
Notes so that we can print them and more
widely educate about and expose the
censorship.

Georgia prison
medical "care" is
dangerous

Dear MIM,
[This prison] fails to provide adequate

medical care services to inmates. There are
serious deficiencies in each major component
of this facility, including staffing, intake, sick
call, and emergency care. As a result of these
deficiencies, inmates frequently do not
receive adequate evaluation or treatment for
their illnesses, and there exists an ongoing
potential for serious harm or death. For
instance, this camp houses over 1100
prisoners and has no 3rd shift medical
personnel after 10:00 p.m.

In dealing with mental health and suicidal

inmates there is a systemic deficiency at this
institution, including inadequate screening,
lack of counseling and crisis intervention, and
lack of on-site mental health personnel, which
could lead to inadequate suicide prevention.
This creates a lack of mental health input into

California SHU: repression and social control

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 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.

both the identification and treatment of
suicidal inmates.

--A prisoner in Georgia, November 2002

Oregon denies MIM
distributor status

Dear MIM,
This is in response to your letter dated

August 3, 2002 regarding authorizing MIM
as a distributor of publications they do not
publish

You have requested that MIM be

authorized to distribute publications which
they have not published. As stated in my
previous letter our Mail (Inmate) Rule
requires new books to be received directly
from the publisher. However, we do permit
suppliers and distributors who have been
approved to send in publications, but these
cannot be open to the public.

You asked what was the criterion for

selecting these distributors. These distributors
must not be open to the general public, must
have a tax/business id number, must have a
wide distribution, and may only distribute
new publications.

You may work through Amazon.com or

Barnes & Noble.com to make available
publications you do not publish. These large
distributors have met the strict criteria
required by the Oregon Department of
Corrections for distribution of publications
to Oregon's prisons

I trust you will be able to work through

other approved publishers/distributors to
ensure the distribution of publications MIM
does not publish.

--Jacy Duran, Central Mail Administrator

for Oregon, October 2002

MIM responds: The policy prohibiting

prisoners from receiving books from
distributors like MIM means that prisoners
in Oregon can not receive literature from
Books for Prisoners programs. MIM's
program, and others across the country, rely
on donations of books and money, and can
not afford to purchase books for prisoners
through pricy distributors like Amazon.com.
We have been pursing authorization for MIM
to send in books but continue to meet up with
ridiculous arguments like those from the mail
administrator printed above.

The "strict criteria" are both meaningless

and not enforced. First, Amazon.com
distributes used publications. Second, any
distributor can get a tax/business ID number,
there is no restriction on this, it just costs
money. Third, having a "wide distribution"
is very subjective but we're certain that MIM
has a wider distribution in prisons across the

country than either Amazon.com or Barnes
& Noble.com. But in reality there is no reason
for the Oregon DOC to care about a
distributor having a wide distribution since
they are only concerned with books being sent
to Oregon prisoners.

These criteria (possibly fabricated for the

sake of a response to MIM's insistent
requests) clearly have nothing to do with the
security of the Oregon prisons and can only
be seen as a way to restrict prisoner's access
to educational material. Unlike MIM, Barnes
& Nobles and Amazon.com do not accept
labor in exchange for books. They charge high
prices and do not work with the prisoners to
study the books they send in. The only
possible outcome of this policy is to limit
educational opportunities for prisoners in
Oregon.

Prisons Can't Follow
THEIR Rules in NY

I am in the box with some good brothers,

one of them a couple of years ago stabbed
the deputy sup. in the head and a couple of
officers. All the brothers down here try to
stand strong however these pigs make it hard.
They deny brothers stuff they're supposed to
have by their directive 4933. You're supposed
to be able to change your linen and towels a
minimum of 2 times per week. You don't get
to change it once. You write to grievance and
they take like 20 days to answer when by their
rules and regulations they're supposed to
answer in 12 days. You have this [womyn]
Mrs. Reams who throws them in the garbage
when she feels.

The C.O.s down here do their best to

antagonize brothers to fight. They deny them
the bare necessities when they need them like
toilet paper, writing paper, etc. You follow
the chain of command like you're supposed
to and they still do nothing. They have a real
secret society going on in this spot also. If
you talk back to them they put a plexiglass
screen on your door. Not to mention they
already have you in a plexiglass cell. The only
part to your cage that is not covered is the
door. They let people throw human feces on
people. [One prisoner] has been here 7 yrs.
and for the past 3 yrs. they let this white boy
throw shit on him. Listen brothers, if there is
anything I can do to help the struggling
brothers in Attica holla at me. I'm going to
bring this letter to a close on a balcony of
trust that I will hear from you brothers again.

I remain a comrade in struggle,
--a NY prisoner, October 2002
MIM responds: This letter shows that if

we can just get prison officials to follow their

own rules we can improve the conditions for
comrades who are trying to lead the struggle
on the inside. The struggle mentioned in
Attica is similar in that the mail room staff
has been censoring virtually all mail MIM has
tried to send in without abiding by the usual
procedures of censorship in NYS. While
MIM opposes all censorship, at this stage we
are just fighting for Attica to follow their own
rules because that would be a concrete step
forward, as evidenced by other prisons in
NYS where most of our mail reaches our
comrades. So far prisoners inside and
supporters outside Attica have written to the
superintendent to protest the situation there.
We have been discussing this campaign with
NY comrades in prison for some time and
encourage others to help us expand our
efforts. People on the outside can get more
information on the Attica campaign on the
Albany RAIL webpage. Letters of protest
should be addressed to Chairman Edward
O'mara or Deputy Superintendent of
Programs R. Savage at Attica Correctional
Facility Box 149 Attica, NY 14011-0149.
Please send copies of your letters to MIM.

Censorship in
California

It appears that I am not receiving your MIM

Notes nor a rejection slip from the mailroom.
This does not surprise me because employees
of the state perpetuate their personal agenda's
when it comes to censoring our mail, which
results in our mail, newspapers and magazines
either being trashed, returned to sender, or
held over for long periods of time without
notice, cause or reason.

There are cases in which we do not receive

periodicals upon receipt by mailroom.
Personnel there will let them accumulate until
there's a bunch or a specific day arrives when
they process them, so you end up receiving
them up to a week or more out of date. Mail
also arrives weeks late, longer if you're
housing is not located on outside of
envelopes. As it stands now we are not even
allowed catalogs to order books out of such
as the Oklahoma press, tightwad magazines,
or any book clubs. I feel this policy is in place
to discourage us from obtaining literature and
ease the mailrooms workload. There is a
method to the department's madness, because
we are not allowed to possess more than three
books at one given time due to the
department's policy (security reasons).

-- a prisoner in California (Corcoran),

October 2002

Prisoners: build USW!

I would be honored to be MIM conduit and

USW [United Struggle from Within]
representative here in this neo-plantation. As
for me, my goal and desire in regards to prison
is not to make the material conditions better
because easy or soft conditions cause one to
get comfortable, lessen ones awareness and
changes the intensity of ones focus which is
vital to my desire to break down the walls of
the neo-plantations and with all intensity
crush and obliterate this oppressive and
injustice system, but that is just me. I will
consult with the others and get their opinion
and ideas and hopefully send them for you.
One love and we will triumph in the struggle.

--a prisoner in CA (Imperial), November

2002

MIM responds: We need organizers in

prison to take up the leadership of the MIM-
led prisoner mass organization, United
Struggle from Within (USW). This group
focuses on fighting against the criminal
injustice system and educating prisoners
about anti-imperialism. We do wage battles
for better conditions, both to make conditions
more bearable, and to make it possible for
our comrades behind bars to more actively
take part in the anti-imperialist struggle.
Censorship and other repression makes it very
difficult for prisoners to educate themselves
and work with MIM.

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?

MIM Notes 272 · December 15, 2002· Page 12

Notas Rojas

dec 15, 2002, Nº 272 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

Por el MIM
Traducido por Células de Estudio para la

Liberación de Aztlán y América Latina

A principios de julio la corte del Perú

declaró culpable al ex-activo de la CIA,
Vladimiro Montesinos, acusado de
"usurparción de autoridad" por apoderarse
del infame Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional
cuando oficiaba como asesor de éste. El juez
le dictó lo que parece ser una sentencia
pesada por el detalle que resultó en su
enjuicio- una multa de 2.8 millones de
dólares más una cadena de 9 anos y 4 meses
de prisión- pero que en realidad es leve en
comparación con lo que se merece por los
crímenes cometidos al ejecutar la ley marcial
bajo dirección del ex-presidente Alberto
Fujimori. Cientos de miles fallecieron a
causa de la guerra genocida del gobierno
oficial en contra del movimiento
revolucionario dirigido por el Partido
Comunista del Perú (PCP) o "Sendero
Luminoso." Este verano durante el juicio
Montesinos enfrentará cargos de corrupción,
narcotráfico, contrabando de armas,
homicidio e incluso acusasiones de que él
dirigía un escuadrón de muerte paramilitar.
El hecho de que este títere de la CIA estaba
metido en todas estas cosas fue reportado por
el MIM y otros amigos del PCP hace más de
diez años. Durante este tiempo los medios
de comunicación en Amérika y el gobierno
yanqui se mantuvieron en silencio y hasta
aclamaban a Montesinos por sus
sanguinarios esfuerzos "contrainsurgentes."
A continuación imprimimos una nueva
traducción de un artículo que apareció en
MIM Notes detallando la relación entre el

gobierno yanqui, Montesinos y como los
portavoces burgueses consetían a este último.

En la década de los 90 los principales

medios de comunicación imperialistas
difamaban al "Sendero Luminoso" y a su
líder, el Camarada Gonzalo, con acusasiones
de que se asociaban con narcotraficantes.
Ahora son los imperialistas y otros
reaccionarios quienes admiten que el
gobierno del Perú estaba metido en el
narcotráfico tal como lo habia dicho el
"Sendero Luminoso."

En MIM Notes Nú. 216 le informamos al

lector que el Tío Sam se había fastidiado con
su entonces lacayo y maestro de espionage
Vladimiro Montesinos. Este es un fin común
para los lacayos quienes llevan a cabo el
trabajo sucio de los yanquis sólo para
descubrir luego que ya no le hacen falta al
patrón. El problema con lacayos tipo
Montesinos es que quedan descubiertos ante
el pueblo -como en el Perú- y luego sólo es
cuestión de tiempo antes de que el Tío Sam
se deshaga de ellos. Y claro, el próximo
lacayo cobrará más para llevar a cabo las
órdenes del Tío Sam.

En cada país existen personas como

Montesinos, listas para convertirse en
traidores y lacayos. Tanto el Tío Sam como
sus lacayos merecen ser derrotados.

Los medios de comunicación yanquis

protegen a Montesinos

El día 10 de julio de 2001 CNN dijó:

"Después de ser expulsado de las fuerzas
armadas y un corto plazo en prisión por
vender secretos a la CIA, el licenciado
Montesinos abogó a favor de
narcotraficantes." (1) Cuando esto fue

anunciado por CNN Montesinos acababa de
terminar su huelga de hambre de 9 días en
una prisión en el Perú después de haber sido
entregado por las autoridades venezolanas.
Ahora Montesinos enfrenta varias
acusaciones criminales las cuales incluyen
narcotráfico y homicidio.

Sin embargo, una búsqueda en las páginas

de internet del supuestamente imparcial
vocero CNN, revela que antes de que
Montesinos huyera del país, es decir antes de
que el Tío Sam se enfadara con él, CNN no
menciona nada en relación con la protección
que le ofreció Montesinos a los
narcotraficantes. Basta con decir que CNN
es una extensión del gobierno yanqui. Cuando
el Tío Sam pide aclamaciones, CNN las
entrega. Y cuando el Tío Sam le pide que
muerda, CNN muerde.

Ya el día 19 de mayo del 2000 CNN decía

lo siguiente sobre Fujimori y, por implicación,
de su "mano derecha," Montesinos: "Será una
difícil decisión para EE.UU. soltar a Fujimori
ya que él ganó grandes aclamaciones durante
los primeros dos años de su mandato por la
eliminación de la producción de cocaína en
su país, por aplastar a la guerrilla izquierdista
de los movimientos de Sendero Luminoso y
los Tupac Amaru y por controlar la
superinflación." (2) Pero ya que el gobierno
yanqui decidió resistir por completo a
Fujimori y Montesinos, CNN y toda la prensa
del monopolio capitalista cambió de tono y
se le permitió hacer la conexión entre éstos y
el narcotráfico.

La misma búsqueda en las páginas del

periódico New York Times demuestra que
desde 1996 este vocero nunca mencionó a
Montesinos en conexión con el narcotráfico
hasta después de la crítica del gobierno
imperialista en el año 2000. Por cierto, uno
de los pocos artículos del New York Times
en el cual se les critica a los líderes peruanos
se basa en fuentes provenientes de medios de
comunicación israelítas en el Perú.

Los lectores de MIM Notes, al contrario,

conocían todo el panorama desde 1994 por
medio de MIM Notes no. 90 o artículos de
Luis Arce Borja, quien en el mismo año
comenzó su exilio en Bélgica. Periódicos al
estilo Christian Science Monitor o Houston
Chronicle y ediciones burguesas de
Latinoamérica como el Venezolano, Caretas,
sólo sueltan pequeños trozos de información.

Los periodistas lacayos sólo se atreven a

imitar la práctica del MIM y presentar los
hechos importantes ahora que el Tío Sam se
deshizo de Montesinos. Antes de que se
declarara "muerta" la Guerra Popular en el
Perú los lacayos voceros del imperialismo
temían perjudicar a la guerra del Tío Sam en
contra de ésta y su jefe el Camarada Gonzalo
y sus seguidores, pero ahora la cuestión del
narcotráfico vuelve a tomar el escenario.

Ahora los voceros imperialistas hablan

sobre la separación entre el Tío Sam y
Montesinos y explican porqué escondieron
los hechos. Durante los años 90, la agencia
estadounidense contra el narcotráfico (DEA)

y la CIA buscaban continuar las relaciones
con Montesinos, mientras que la ex-Secretaria
de Estado Madeline Albright y el ex-Zar de
Narcotráfico Barry McCaffrey se oponían a
las mismas, según aseguran ahora después de
haber seguido una disciplina de soldados
fieles a la máquina mentirosa de propaganda
del Tío Sam. De hecho, fue el FBI el que
capturó a algunos de los socios de Montesinos
en Miami y ayudó a tronar a Montesinos
mientras que ambas agencias- la CIA y DEA-
siguieron unidas hasta el fin.

El Tío Sam decide intencionalmente

apoyar a los traficantes de coca

Además de subrayar lo poco confiable que

son los medios de comiunicación yanquis, el
caso de Montesinos también señala los
huecos/vacíos en el gobierno que se supone
debería bloquear la corriente de drogas que
alcanzan llegar a EE.UU. De por sí es una
atrocidad que la DEA favoreció las relaciones
con Montesinos pero también el mismo
McCaffrey, el jefe superior de EE.UU. contra
el narcotráfico, se vio rebajado al nivel de un
cabildero interno y tuvo que mantener silencio
mientras el gobierno yanqui apoyaba a los
que destinaban la cocaína a EE.UU.

Sólo ahora se conoce todo esto ya que los

autores de Knight Ridder, Kevin G. Hall y
Lucien Chauvin han desenmascarado los
detalles y algunos periódicos como el Boston
Globe los han publicado. Ahora el Boston
Globe admite que Montesinos enfrenta
acusasiones de que él dirigió escuadrones de
muerte y que traficaba la droga y las armas.
El Boston Globe imprimió el reportaje en la
cadena de Knight Ridder el cual decía que
Montesinos era "el hombre a quien muchos
creían ser el verdadero no elegido líder del
Perú desde 1990 hasta el 2000." (3) No es
sorprendente, entonces, que la administración
de Bush haya tardado en soltar todos los
asquerosos detalles del trabajo de la
adminstración de Clinton en el Perú ya que
temen que éstos puedan poner en peligro al
"joven gobierno democrático del Perú." (3)
La palabra "democracia" en boca de los
imperialistas es una palabra clave que
significa narcotráfico, contrabando de armas
y otras cosas por el estilo que hacen del
mundo entero un lugar seguro para las
ganancias norteamericanas.

Notas:
1. http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/

americas/07/10/peru.montesinos.reut/
index.html

2. http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/

americas/05/19/peru5_19.a.tm/index.html

3. Boston Globe 26June2001, p. a10.

Procesamiento de Vladimiro Montesinos Justifica la Guerra Popular en el Perú