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MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 1

MIM Notes

April 15, 2003, Nº 280

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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INSIDE: AWOL interview * Elizabeth Smart * Prisons * Una Página en Español...

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THOUSANDS RISE AGAINST U.$. INVASION

NEW YORK

RALLIES

AGAINST

THE WAR

Manhattan,

March 22

emonstrators packed more than

20 blocks of Broadway and

marched toward Washington

Square on a sunny and comfortable

Saturday afternoon. Three wimmin

stepped forward to help MIM Notes

distribution at the rally. The Manhattan

demonstration marked a record month for

MIM distribution and the day after it, the

MIM web site showed that weekly

website traffic was up 50% over the

previous month.

As usual there were a lot of bullshit

arrests at the demonstration, but

compared with the previous New York

demonstration, this one went much more

smoothly with much less police cost.

Perhaps New York City found itself

embarrassed how Washington DC

managed to run a rally with thousands

fewer cops than New York did.

One police source estimated over

200,000 demonstrators,(1) and that is

evident from the ground level; however,

without a helicopter, it would have been

impossible to see the whole

demonstration, so MIM offers no official

estimate. Estimates ran from over 100,000

to one million. Even on some of the same

television stations, headlines varied based

on who they quoted.

Illusions about Democrats

According to CNN, the vast majority

of Democrats in Congress voted yet

again to support the war on March 21st:

"The House resolution, approved on a

392-11 vote, `expresses the unequivocal

support and appreciation of the nation' to

ANTI-WAR

ACTIVISTS

SHUT

DOWN SAN

FRANCISCO

San Francisco,

March 20

housands of anti-war activists

took to the streets of San

Francisco starting at 7am this

morning, staging civil disobedience

throughout the downtown area to shut

down streets and prevent business as

usual. Organized by the anarchist Direct

Action to Stop the War, the protest

focused on 20 key intersections from

which organizers encouraged people to

pick and put together their own groups

for a protest. Over 1,000 arrests are

estimated by 7pm and some

demonstrators are still in the streets. This

followed a demonstration attended by

thousands who marched through pouring

rain the night before deploring Bush's 48

hour deadline to Iraq. Most of these

protesters were still in the streets on the

19th when we got word from passers-by

that the bombs had started falling.

Activists in San Francisco are showing

the world that they understand the

seriousness of the imperialist war on Iraq

and they are willing to make sacrifices,

stay out all day and night, to stand up

against the Amerikan empire.

Throughout the day groups of people,

ranging from groups of 20 to several

thousand, picked intersections and sat

down. These protests gathered strength

as others joined in. The police then moved

in to the intersections, surrounded and

arrested those who refused to move from

the street. Some intersections were held

by protesters for hours as police were

unable to get from one location to another

or gather together enough troops to take

on the crowds. Some protesters chained

themselves to cement blocks to make it

harder for police to move them. After

several attempts protesters finally were

able to get past police in the evening to

blockade the ramps to the bridge across

the bay, a key source of after work traffic.

Protests also shut down key businesses

Global anti-Amerikanism

is just and necessary for

eventual world peace

People often ask us at the Maoist

Internationalist Movement, "how can you

make any political headway by insulting

the people you should be organizing?" We

get this question most often when we

speak of the "Amerikkkan," who we

accuse of national supremacist ideas.

In 90% of the world's countries and

historical situations, our critic is right, just

not in the case of U.$. imperialism and

imperialism today generally. In most

countries, it makes no sense to insult the

majority of the population or tell them to

their face that they are today's equivalent

of Nazis or other repugnant national or

racial supremacists.

George W. Bush is repeatedly

mentioning the word "appeasement"

when speaking of those who oppose war

on Iraq. The term "appeasement"

referred to England's stance toward Nazi-

Last spring, following a series of

bombings on the southern Philippine island

of Mindanao, Philippine President Gloria

Macapagal-Arroyo convinced

lawmakers to pass a tough "anti-terror"

bill. While several of the groups charged

with the bombings denied any

involvement, evidence is mounting against

one group Macapagal-Arroyo has not

charged: the United $tates government.

Amerikan Michael Meiring lost both his

legs and suffered second and third degree

burns over 40%

of his body

when a bomb

exploded inside

his Davao City

hotel room on 16

May, 2002. He

was eventually

charged with

terrorism. "City

prosecutor Raul

Bendico said ... Meiring apparently

attempted to set up explosives intended

to blow up Evergreen Hotel when the

explosion went off..."(1)

Meiring was under police guard at a

Davao City hospital when agents of the

U.$. Federal Bureau of Investigation and

National Security Agency whisked him

to a chartered plane and a hospital in

Manila. Amerikan vice-consul Michael

Newbill paid Meiring's Davao City

hospital bill. While in Manila, only

Meiring's doctor, handpicked by the U.$.

Embassy, had access to him. Meiring was

later flown to San Diego.(1)

According to one of Meiring's friends,

the U.$. Embassy claimed "that Michael

would never be charged with a crime in

connection with the explosion. The

investigation will end up at a stone wall.

Michael will be protected and eventually

taken back to the safety of the United

Anti-Amerikan

protests in

Seoul, Buenos

Aires, Zurich,

Pakistan,

Greece, and

Paris were

among

thousands

around the

world.

Tidal wave of public opinion against Iraq war

U$A fakes terror in Philippines

Continued on page 5...

Continued on page 4...

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 8...

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 2

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

Letters

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

Notes is the official Party voice; more complete statements are published in our journal,
MIM Theory. Material in MIM Notes is the Party's position unless noted. MIM Notes
accepts submissions and critiques from anyone. The editors reserve the right to edit
submissions unless permission is specifically denied by the author; submissions are
published anonymously unless authors insist on identification (prisoners are never
identified by name). 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. The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is an anti-
imperialist mass organization led by MIM (RCs are RAIL Comrades). MIM's ten-point
program is available to anyone who sends in a SASE.

The paper is free to all prisoners, as long as they write to us every 90 days to confirm

their subsciptions. There are no individual subscriptions for people outside prison.

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tains thousands of documents, with ordering information for many more.

MIM grants explicit permission to copy all or part of this newspaper for any reason, as

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For general correspondence, contact:

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eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

MIM gets it right on
Democrats

Dear MIM,

Fabulous analysis on Kerry and other

Southern democrat races in Dec. '02

MIM Notes [MN271]. The essay told me

more than I'd ever get from sources like

"The Nation," which now appears to be

nothing but a smokescreen of nonsense

put out by political writers barking at each

other--a mere diversion for persons who

have not yet learned that both parties are

a meta-party of elite I like to call "gluttons

of privilege."

-- an Oklahoma prisoner,

15 March 2003

NDF comrade says
`Carry on the Maoist
thought!'

Dear MIM:

I am a revolutionary cultural worker in

the philippines. I admire your support for

the philippine national democratic

revolution. ... Anyway, it was nice to know

that there are other marxist, leninist and

maoist people in the world under the

MIM. Long live the international working

class movement!

--Comrade X,

March 2003

Anarchist says not to
support Amazon

Dear MIM:

I'm writing in regards to your movie

review section on your website. First, I

must say that I'm impressed by the

amount of movies you've been able to

review and find them very entertaining. I

do, however, have one concern. You

recommend many movies to the public

and even supply a link to a website that

distributes the particular movie. My

concern is that the distributor is almost

always amazon.com. It seems curious to

me that anti-capitalists would encourage

others to buy from a huge corporation who

is a known union-buster. It would be great

if alternatuves could be found and used

instead of relying on capitalists at amazon

to bring the revolution.

Take the struggle to the people!

--an Anarchist reader, March, 2003

Web Minister responds for MIM:

MIM is recommending a number of

Hollywood movies, by which we mean

movies financed by imperialism through

monopoly controlled-banks. This has to

do with our take on applying a dialectical

materialist view.

We at MIM do not believe all good

things come from alternative lifestyles

somehow outside the system. Nor do we

necessarily love the petty-bourgeoisie

more than the "huge corporation."

Instead, we believe capitalism

dialectically gives rise to its grave-diggers.

That means we believe in this case that

Hollywood does give rise to some

movies--maybe 5% or 10% (an estimate

is something we have yet to vote on at

MIM)-- that tend to undercut capitalism.

If we target Amazon, it does not stop

the fact that the monopoly capitalist film

producers have their monopoly capitalist

distribution networks. The IWW

incorrectly targets monopoly capitalists for

boycotts based on raising the status of

the petty-bourgeoisie instead of the

interests of the proletariat.

The IWW has disproportionate

presence in bookstores in the U$A. Thus,

we receive letters like this one asking us

to support reform struggles for bookstore

wages.

However, if we boycott Amazon, it

means that people will buy more of their

movies at malls. The same malls throwing

out people for buying and then wearing

peace t-shirts will benefit if we boycott

Amazon. Read for example about the

Crossgates Mall near Albany, New York

that had some t-shirt wearers arrested.

That's the nature of the capitalist system.

Hence, in fighting reform struggles like

the IWW is fighting for bookstore workers

makes it even more crucial to correctly

define friends and enemies. A strike can

only succeed within such a system by

playing one capitalist faction against

another while also mobilizing the workers.

Boycotting Amazon necessarily benefits

another faction of capitalists: that's why

we call it a system.

That means that every struggle that

rewards the Amerikkkan petty-

bourgeoisie leaves us one less faction of

capitalists to play off on behalf of the

international proletariat. MIM would

rather at this moment be punishing the

mall capitalists for illegally stopping peace

movement activities on their premises

than punishing Amazon for busting a

petty-bourgeois union.

Such choices have to be made all the

time--even in our reform struggles. At

root, the oppressed and exploited of Iraq

should carry much more weight in our

minds at the moment than the bookstore

unions of the u.$.A. The security guard

lost his job for arresting the t-shirt wearers

in the Crossgates Mall. We say good

riddance. Let the monopoly capitalists

come down from their offices and arrest

people in the mall themselves and let all

security guards heed this example. We

don't need any sympathy for the petty-

bourgeoisie that is going to stop us from

correctly focussing our fire.

Note: http://www.timesunion.com

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 3

AWOL youth

challenges

Amerikan

military

In February MIM interviewed a young

man who is AWOL from the Amerikan

military and is actively seeking

conscientious objector status in opposition

to the U.$. wars. Joe (not his real name)

is not just seeking to avoid combat, he

has become an activist speaking out

against the Amerikan military and its

imperialist wars attending marches and

rallies.

Joe explained his current situation: "I'm

supposed to be down in Camp [X]

relieving the active people there and

sending them on their way. I'm supposed

to be down there going `go shoot

someone for me, rah rah.' From what

they tell us, we would probably have been

[there] for a year and then who knows

where they would send us. They would

send us to wherever the war is at then.

The CO status I am applying for is for

someone who is opposed to all war. I

don't want to participate in any war

whatsoever."

Many youth in Amerika, especially

oppressed nation youth, join the military

looking for direction, money or a job. Joe

explained why he joined the military: "Like

other people trying to get out of a difficult

situation; I was at a low point, I was

depressed and a lot of recruiters take

advantage of that. And I needed money

for school, it was just things like that.

Nothing was going right in my life and I

wanted a direction, and I think that was

the main reason I joined."

MIM: How have your views on the

military have changed, why do you now

want to get out?

Joe: I decided I wanted to get out while

I was still in training. I never realized how

hypocritical it had been for me to join; I

thought I was just a reservist so I can

just be there on the weekend. When I

was in boot camp I was exposed to so

many things about what the military does.

How they train people I think is crazy.

Beforehand I think the only strong

feelings I had was that I was anti-violence

and pro-civil rights. But then when I was

exposed to everything I learned that I

really was anti-war and that's their

business. Plus they were trying to teach

me to hate myself and dehumanize

people. My convictions against these

things are so strong now.

Some of the training is really crazy.

We'd have combat training and every

time we made a blow we had to shout

out "Kill." And we had to fight each other,

we had to hit each other hard and I never

could really do that. If we didn't hit each

other hard we were punished because we

had morals about violence. The changes

that I saw in other people that were going

along with the program; you'd see them

break down and all of a sudden they have

Continued on page 9...

LOS ANGELES, Saturday, 22 Mar

2003--Protestors have taken to the

streets here every day since President

Bush ordered the Amerikan military to

expand its war on Iraq. On Thursday

more than 3,000 protestors gathered in

front of the Westwood Federal Building

and shut down busy Wilshire boulevard

for several hours. On Friday actions

snarled traffic in several widely-spaced

locales, including downtown and

Westwood. Today around 10,000 people

marched to the CNN building in

Hollywood and then sat down in the

world-famous intersection at Hollywood

and Vine.

MIM finds the pace of events

encouraging. As we wrote in January:

"There are many movements that can

sustain a one demonstration event, but

sustaining energy over consecutive days

is more difficult. If the situation with Iraq

continues into the spring without decisive

U.$. victory, we can predict that it should

be a hot one politically based on the

upswing in determination and numbers

seen in the streets." There are more

events planned here for tomorrow and

another large rally scheduled next

weekend.

MIM, RAIL and SLALA passed out

over 1,100 copies of MIM Notes today

and collected over 600 signatures on a

petition opposing John Ashcroft's

proposed Patriot Act II.

Organizers of today's march focused

their ire on CNN as a propaganda tool

for U.$. imperialism. They passed out

signs saying, "CNN: War is not

entertainment" and "CNN: Afraid to show

us REAL reality TV?" MIM saw a hand-

made sign with the slogan, "Embedding

or in bed with?" This was a reference to

the U.$. military's practice attaching

journalists to military units in the field and

regulating their communications

equipment. The Pentagon warned

journalists that unauthorized transmissions

"are likely to be fired upon."(1)

A SLALA comrade rebuked a local TV

news cameraman for showing up at the

end of the rally to cover the arrests of

protestors engaged in civil disobedience.

Local coverage has typically focused on

confrontations with police to the exclusion

of the protestors' politics, while giving flag-

waving soccer moms five minute segments

to blather on about "my country, right or

wrong." When asked what kept him from

the bulk of the protest, the cameraman

answered, "I had a little league game"--

indicative of how serious mainstream

Amerikan media takes its supposed role

of keeping the public informed.

Other hand-made signs included explicit

denunciations of Amerikan imperialism,

which MIM liked. As usual there were

also lots of signs and t-shirts attacking

George Bush's arrogance and supposed

stupidity, such as, "`Yee-hah' is not a

foreign policy." MIM is less into the anti-

Bush thing, except to the extent that

Bush's bumbling thuggery exposes the

systemic nature of Amerikan imperialism

(see e.g. the article on the protests in

Washington D.C. in this issue). To borrow

Amerikan General Tommy Franks'

phrase, this is not about one man, it's

about a corrupt and brutal system.

Many of the protestors knew of Patriot

Act II, Attorney General John Ashcroft's

proposal to close the "loop holes" in the

original Patriot Act. Patriot Act II would

remove judicial oversight of search

warrants, allow secret evidence and

secret trials, etc. etc.(2) One persyn who

signed MIM's petition likened the new

Patriot Act's provisions for stripping

Amerikans of their citizenship to the

Nazis' "Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship

and Race" of 1935. These laws

proclaimed, "A citizen of the Reich may

be only one who is of German or kindred

blood, and who, through his behavior,

shows that he is both desirous and

personally fit to serve loyally the German

people and the Reich."(3) The "logic" of

the Patriot Act II is that Amerikans who

Boston,

March 20

Several thousand people demonstrated

against the war today in the afternoon

and early evening. A group of student-

aged people started events with a rally

and march at 3:00. Then by 5 and 6pm,

thousands packed the Government

Center plaza where TV cameras had

awaited their presence the whole

afternoon.

Anti-terrorist sentiment strong

Signs reading "Bush is the terrorist"

and "Bush: War Criminal" also appeared

at the rally. A speaker at the rally who

admitted to preparing his speech days

ago said, "You cannot stop war crimes

by committing them."

Many people carried signs pointing out

that the bombing of Iraq would produce

terrorism, just as the first Gulf War

produced an anti-Amerikkkan Osama

Bin Laden.

Anti-Bush sentiment strong

The U.S. President George W. Bush

continued to face difficulties for being a

minority-elected president that much of

the public doubts both in temper and

intelligence. "Stop Mad Cowboy

Disease" is a sign making its way around

Massachusetts rallies. Other signs said:

"US: Hijacked by a Moron" and "W is

for War."

One man carried a sign saying,

"Impeach Bush: Which is worse, this or

oral sex?" The sign referred to the fact

that the House of Representatives

impeached Bill Clinton over oral sex with

Monica Lewinsky. At the same time, the

Bush administration fabricated evidence

about nuclear weapons in Iraq only to be

exposed by UN weapons inspectors.(1)

The government is not supposed to be

using taxpayers' money to lobby the public

with fake information stirring up public

opinion. It's supposed to be the other way

around, the public lobbying the

government, so that is another reason

Bush should indeed be impeached. As

MIM pointed out in its review of a book

co-authored by a UN weapons inspector,

Bush also played loose with the facts

about weapons inspections up through the

1990s in his "State of the Union"

address.(2)

Many in the world have concluded as

one sign-carrier in Boston did: "The

greatest threat to America is Bush."

Another sign in the Boston rally read: "I

want dumb bombs and smart presidents."

Despite all that, and despite the fact that

it is obviously true that Bush administration

diplomacy failed to bring even traditional

allies and right-wingers such as Chirac

fully on-board, the anti-Bush sentiment

does not really float MIM's boat. Above

all, we do not care for the anti-Bush

sentiment, because the Democrats voted

to support the war and passed the

resolution authorizing the funding for it.

As one by-stander noted about the sign

mentioning oral sex, Clinton also attacked

Iraq.

True, activists for anti-war Democrat

Howard Dean distributed fliers at the rally.

They seek to gather enough activists to

gain him the Democratic nomination for

president in 2004. Like many other

bourgeois, Dean wants a multilateral

bourgeois approach to Iraq and problems

of international law in general. He said,

"this is a job for the United Nations and

not for the United States of America."(3)

Fortunately, others at the rally pointed

out that Vermont governor since 1991

Howard Dean did nothing about the police

murder of Robert `Woody' Woodward in

Brattleboro Vermont on December 2,

2001 in front of several witnesses in a

church. The attorney general did not

prosecute the cops who shot him.(4)

It could be that with Bush in power, the

Amerikkkan people may learn a lesson

faster than ever before. The yahoos who

voted for him will only make political

progress if they see Bush carry out a true

Anti-war protests in Los

Angeles achieve steady pace

Continued on page 7...

Boston continues rallies against war

Continued on page 5...

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · 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

Local news media demonized the

recent anti-war protests in San Francisco

as "violent," even going so far as to claim

that demonstrators were using their

children as humyn shields. Those who

attended the protests know that the

demonstrations only became violent when

police attacked and beat protesters. Local

news media gave equal time to the 100

or so pro-war protesters and the tens of

thousands of anti-war protesters.

This is why alternative media sources

are so important to activists. It is not a

successful strategy to rely on coverage

by mainstream media. Instead activists

need their own media, both to educate

and inform their ranks and to provide

information to the rest of the population.

The internet provides activists with an

excellent opportunity for alternative media

at low cost and in real time.

MIM's website (www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM) has grown exponentially

since September 11, 2001 as people look

for information, news, and alternative

analysis. The anarchist-run indymedia.org

has also taken off in the last few years.

The San Francisco indymedia site

explicitly works "to encourage a world

where globalization is not about

homogeneity and exploitation, but rather,

about diversity and cooperation."(1)

Particularly in Amerika, where the

majority of the population has a firm

economic interest in imperialism, our

protests are not going to easily gain the

support of the majority. But we can

educate many people about our reasons

for opposing imperialism. We gain their

attention when we protest and need to

take advantage of this to offer information

from our perspective. We cannot allow

corporate media to mis-interpret our

actions. We also need independent media

to educate activists who get involved in a

very narrow way. We can broaden their

understanding of the connection between

imperialism and oppression and give them

more opportunities to get involved. To join

MIM in making independent media

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext).

Notes: 1. indymedia.org sites generally allow
anybody to post articles. The downside to this
is it allows reactionaries to publish
disinformation and bait progressive activists.

Media bias in Iraq war coverage

Many of the photos posted to indymedia also
include faces of activists, which might be used
against them by the cops. MIM's site is

moderated and hence is more secure and
accountable. MIM of course also puts forward
political line.

This photo by Eric Wagner, posted on sf.indymedia.org, exposes San Francisco's finest

whooping it up at a pro-war rally March 29.

including Bechtel Corporation which is

presently developing earth penetrating

nuclear weapons specifically designed for

use in Iraq to destroy the very weapons

Bechtel had supplied to the country. The

Federal Building was also surrounded for

most of the day with all four entrances

blocked by protesters. At these locations,

and in many intersections, police arrested

groups of protesters only to have waves

of others replace them.

Several incidents of police brutality

were documented including one attack on

a man videotaping a protest. His arrest

received national media attention after

cops dragged his young son off his

shoulders and proceeded to beat him with

billy clubs.

Demonstrators were almost entirely

peaceful with most people only committing

the crime of failing to obey traffic laws

(walking in the streets). There were minor

acts of property destruction or just street

obstruction with demonstrators moving

trashcans and newspaper boxes into the

streets. In several of the marches through

streets MIM witnessed demonstrators

removing the trashcans and newspaper

boxes back to the sidewalk.

In response to our questions asking why

they did this two people said they wanted

the protests to be non-violent. A MIM

activist pointed out that putting newspaper

boxes in the streets is no more violent

than blocking the streets with people. One

young womyn responded that she feared

the mainstream media would focus on the

boxes in the streets and people would get

the wrong message. To this MIM

responded that she should work to build

independent media because that is the

only solution to mainstream media

misinformation and misrepresentation of

protesters. It also shows a lack of vision

in the "non-violent" mainstream peace

movement MIM has criticized. Those

angling for votes for supposed "peace"

Democrats and wringing their hands over

a few overturned trash cans show a

remarkable tolerance for the marauding

nincompoops running this country.

The lack of literature at the protest was

also a problem with the anarchist style of

leadership. Both participants and

bystanders were without information on

the purpose of the protests or analysis of

the war. The few people carrying signs

provided the only propaganda for those

greeted by these demonstrations when

they showed up for work today.

Likely because of this lack of literature,

MIM found those attending the protest

were eager for any analysis and quickly

accepted copies of MIM Notes. Even

after MIM activists ran out of current

issues and started handing out old copies

they were taken as quickly as we could

hand them out at the intersections being

blockaded. The issue from 1999 with a

cover story on Amerikan humyn rights

abuses was popular and recipients agreed

it was still very relevant today. MIM

spoke with many activists who stated their

disgust with the war and criticized Bush

for his actions. We pointed out that Bush

would not be able to act without the

support of the government. The 1999

MIM Notes provided evidence that

Clinton was just as much an imperialist

with its story about his invasion of Kosovo.

Throughout the day civil disobedience

protests were conducted in other parts

of the Bay Area as well. One student at

the downtown protests reported that 50

students were arrested at Stanford

University. Thousands of students at

University of California, Berkeley held a

demonstration and took over a building.

Protesters marched and blocked streets

in Oakland, Richmond, Santa Rosa,

Sonoma and other surrounding cities.

MIM applauds the devotion and

enthusiasm of those who have taken the

streets of San Francisco over the past

week and we will work to turn this energy

into sustainable anti-imperialist organizing

as the U.$. moves from this imperialist

war on Iraq to others throughout the

world. Not all imperialist wars are as

sensational or involve overt bombing,

ground troops and such a publicity

campaign. Amerika carries out similar

operations every year. From CIA

operations to overthrow leaders unfriendly

to Amerika, to training and financing of

friendly militias, to funding military

dictatorships, to active military

ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS SHUT DOWN SAN FRANCISCO

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 5

the members of the U.S. armed forces

and their families. And it also commends

the president for `his firm leadership and

decisive action in the conduct of military

operations in Iraq as part of the ongoing

global war on terrorism,' a line that

generated anger among some

Democrats."(2) 11 voted against, but

there are 205 Democrats and 229

Republicans in the House.

Despite the vote the day before, people

at the rally were carrying signs that

continued purely anti-Bush sentiments. In

fact, in sections of the march, the

demonstrators were chanting slogans

from the 2000 presidential campaign about

"staying out of the Bushes" etc.

The present reporter has to admit that

the funniest sign of the day was: "Yee-

hah is not a foreign policy." Yet if this

war is just a stupid Texas cowboy thing,

then we have no explanation why for

example Massachusetts Senator Kerry

voted for it. The fact is that Democrats

are more on-board than not and even the

best of them tolerate war-mongering that

should not be tolerated for the species to

survive.

People who see this war for what it is

do not tolerate it: they leave the

Democratic Party. There is no other way

to show intolerance for pre-emptive

strikes and predatory wars. People who

stay in the Democratic Party, because

they believe it is important to implement

gun control or nominate pro-choice judges

show a complete lack of proportion and

a lack of understanding how fascism

across-the-board comes about through

war. Staying in the Democratic Party

says that the lives of Iraqis, U.$. troops,

Palestinians and other Arabs involved are

less valuable than Amerikkkan lives, and

that is the recipe for eventual global

nuclear catastrophe. There is no people

on Earth that is going to put up with that

treatment, so the first step for any political

party has to be internationalism.

We will have to learn to fight outside

the Democratic Party for reproductive

rights and against crime including the

crimes of how criminals are punished. It's

not enough to fight for the select few

Amerikans and their welfare, education

NEW YORK RALLIES AGAINST THE WAR

and abortion rights. Without an answer

providing security for all people in the

world, more war and terrorism are

inevitable and that will lead to a steady

march down the fascist road, with the

likes of the Patriot Act (which Democrats

voted for) and Patriot Act II.

Let's be clear that we support the signs

that say: "Bush: War Criminal" and

"Bush: International Terrorist," but this

war needs to be defeated with more than

rehashed campaign slogans from 2000.

As MIM circulated in the crowd, we said,

"we have to improve this movement, gotta

get tougher" and variations on that theme.

We spoke with one demonstrator who

said, "I don't need this [MIM Notes]. I've

got it all up here [pointing to his head]"

for why he opposes the war. MIM pointed

out that the movement failed to stop the

war, so we have to improve. Improving

requires more study of more material and

learning more about power struggle.

Having the majority in England did not

stop Tony Blair and having over 80% of

the people against the war did not stop

Spain and Bulgaria from making a major

endorsement of it. With the "Labor Party"

in England in power in favor of the war,

Democrats are kidding themselves if they

think Democrats would have stopped the

war. The "Labor Party" is more "left" in

that tepid bourgeois spectrum than the

Democratic Party.

In "democratic" Australia, the people

opposed the war in over 80% of the

population, but the government still sent

2000 troops into battle. This is a lesson

that the people themselves must learn the

art of power struggle, and not leave it to

their elected representatives. We

followers of Marx, Lenin and Mao say

we know something about power struggle

outside of parliament and recommend the

experience of Lenin in getting Russia out

of World War I. Mao also defeated

financially better off, technically better

equipped enemies during World War II

despite the fact that the conventional

political parties of his day were much

bigger than the communists to start with.

With our numbers globally and in the

imperialist countries, the anti-war

movement should have succeeded, but we

have a problem with the desire and

knowledge of power struggle in our

movement.

The leaflets

MIM received a leaflet saying that

Islam does not condone "terrorism."

According to the leaflet there is a

difference between "Holy War" and

"jihad." Jihad could be just an internal

struggle in the mind for self-improvement.

From MIM's point of view,

www.WhyIslam.org showed that Islam

has a lot in common with Christianity and

Judaism. Muslims just added one last

prophet, Muhammad. One thing for sure,

if Amerikkka is going to claim to be a

"free" country, it has to figure out how to

integrate Muslims and not profile them.

Currently the United $tates is failing along

these lines, which is why we say that the

causes of war have to be addressed for

real freedom to exist. Since the U.$.

soldier in Kuwait fragged his officers

(killed some), there have been talk show

calls for more profiling of Muslims,

because the attacker Sgt. Asan Akbar

may have been Muslim.(3)

We received another leaflet titled "The

U.S. and Iraq in Historical Perspective"

from the International A.N.S.W.E.R. and

International Action Center organizer

Richard Becker. Although the leaflet

contains illusions about "socialism" even

under Gorbachev, it points out the history

of Iraq's being a colony, with Britain,

France, Holland and the United $tates

evenly splitting the oil there with none of

the oil being owned by Iraqis. It was not

until a 1958 revolution in Iraq that

pressure for Amerikkkans to pay for oil

actually succeeded.

The Revolutionary Worker handed out

of a leaflet pointing out that the new

20,000 pound bomb of Uncle $cam is

named MOAB on purpose, because "the

judgment of Moab" in the Bible refers to

destruction of cities and soldiers east of

the Jordan river.(4)

Another leaflet connected the attack

on civil liberties by the federal government

to the war. We could hardly disagree with

the material from the www.nyclu.org on

civil liberties. It also referred to "Citizens

for Peace."

A popular item at the rally and in some

towns today is the 911 money that looks

like one dollar bills. USA stands for

"United States of Aggression." Instead

of George Washington we have George

Bush titled Big Brother and a host of links

to websites about the events of 911 and

propaganda since then.

Another leaflet from the Batay-Ouvriye

Solidarity Network mentioned the struggle

in Haiti against U.$. domination and linked

it to the situation in Iraq. Here is how it

correctly reasoned: "The United States

supported the Iraqi Government in its war

against Iran by supplying it with money,

intelligence and military supplies, including

biological and chemical weapons. So long

as this government was doing what the

United States wanted, they closed their

eyes even when they knew the Saddam

government was using these weapons."

One last item we will mention was a

flier by the Kings County Green Party

pointing out that New York State's two

senators, both in the Democratic Party

voted for the war. They organized a

demonstration for March 27th at 9

Prospect Park West, 5:30-7pm where

Senator Charles Schumer lives.

MIM handed out 2550 copies of MIM

Notes before running out in New York

City. If you think you could send MIM

money for papers, take them to rallies in

your area, hand them out, take notes and

write a story for MIM Notes about the

rally like this story, please do it. See our

web page at: http://www.etext.org/

P o l i t i c s / M I M / p i r a o /

mndistrocampaign.html for information on

the approximate costs. Just doing this

would be a great support to the party and

the movement.

Notes:
1. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/22/
sprj.irq.protests/index.html
2. http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/
03/20/sprj.irq.congress.reax/index.html
3. http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/03/24/
101.attack.ap/index.html
4. See also this explanation for why the
imperialists announced the bomb in advance for
psychological warfare purposes: http://
www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/
main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/03/23/
wpsy23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/03/23/
ixhome.html; http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/.

Continued from page 1...

disaster. MIM is not saying it will happen

soon, but the possibility is there.

Economic system to blame

The reason that both Democrats and

Republicans line up for predatory wars is

the economic system. Big money goes to

candidates to support war for profit.

Those candidates then have better

campaigns with which to reach the public,

which mostly shares in the plunder of the

Third World like Iraq.

Of course there was a sign against

"Blood for Oil," but in general we did not

see catchy signs attacking the economic

system. Instead, speakers from a sound

truck brought out that theme, with one

saying that the speed with which the anti-

war movement developed "took the

corporate criminals completely by

surprise."

Some local flavor

MIT students showed up 600 strong.(5)

They carried a sign saying: "MIT is for

peace."

There was also a sign that said,

"Harvard students want peace." Students

walked out of classes, but we saw little

evidence that any city-wide strike by

workers had occurred as asked by anti-

war organizers.

MIM handed out 1250 copies of MIM

Notes before running out. If you think you

could send MIM money for papers, take

them to rallies in your area, hand them

out, take notes and write a story for MIM

Notes about the rally like this story, please

do it. See our web page at: http://

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/pirao/

mndistrocampaign.html for information

on the approximate costs. Just doing this

would be a great support to the party and

the movement.

Notes:
1. http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/
03/12/cf.opinion.un.relevance/index.html ; http://
www.austin360.com/aas/news/ap/ap_story.html/
Washington/AP.V6606.AP-US-Iraq-
Forgery.html
2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/
bookstore/books/violence/ritter.html
3. From the flier mentioning http://
www.DeanForAmerica.com
4. www.justiceforwoody.org
5. http://www.globe.com/news/daily/20/
mass_protests.htm

Boston continues rallies against war

Continued from page 3...

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 6

Militarism is war-mongering or the

advocacy of war or actual carrying out

of war or its preparations.

While true pacifists condemn all

violence as equally repugnant, we

Maoists do not consider self-defense

or the violence of oppressed nations

against imperialism to be militarism.

Militarism is mostly caused by

imperialism at this time. Imperialism is

the highest stage of capitalism--seen

in countries like the United $tates,

England and France.

Under capitalism, capitalists often

profit from war or its preparations. Yet,

it is the proletariat that does the dying

in the wars. The proletariat wants a

system in which people do not have

self-interest on the side of war-

profiteering or

war for

imperialism.

Militarism is

one of the most

important reasons

to overthrow

capitalism. It

even infects

oppressed nations

and causes them

to fight each

other.

It is important not to let capitalists risk

our lives in their ideas about war and

peace or the environment. They have

already had two world wars admitted

by themselves in the last 100 years and

they are conducting a third right now

against the Third World.

Even a one percent annual chance

of nuclear war destruction caused by

capitalist aggressiveness or "greed" as

the people call it should not be tolerated

by the proletariat. After playing Russian

Roulette (in which the bullet chamber

is different each time and not related at

all to the one that came up in previous

spins) with 100 chambers and one bullet,

the chance of survival is only 60.5%

after 50 turns. In other words, a

seemingly small one percent annual

chance of world war means eventual

doom. After

100 years or

turns of

R u s s i a n

Roulette, the

chances of

survival are

only 36.6%.

After 200

years, survival

has only a

13.4% chance.

What is militarism?

States. The incident will be shortly

forgotten, if you're willing to forget it."(2)

Shady past

Meiring moved to the Philippines in

1992 and described himself alternately as

a treasure hunter or a doctor searching

for medicinal herbs. He "had close ties

to well-placed government authorities in

southern Mindanao, national government

officials and Philippine National Police

officials."(1) He also dealt with the Abu

Sayaaf, the bandit gang with CIA links

which Macapagal-Arroyo has used to

justify increased U.$. military presence

in Mindanao.

"He spent millions of dollars while in

the Philippines, the source of the funds

unknown." Charred U.$. federal bank

notes were found in his hotel room.

Meiring claimed he was looking for boxes

full of Federal Reserve notes lost during

World War II.(1) The Manila Times

traced his financial backing to investors

in the United $tates with white-

supremacist and CIA links.(2)

"Highly reliable sources" told the

Philippine Star that Meiring "was deployed

by the CIA, sometime in the early to mid

90s, on assignment in southern Mindanao.

"`He overshot his mandate. That was

why the Americans had to find a way

yhat he could be spirited out of the country

fast...'"(1)

If this is true, it would not be the first

time Amerika's hired thugs had set up

shop for themselves. "Philippine Senator

Aquillano Pimentel describes the Abu

Sayaaf as a CIA monster. [Abu Sayaaf's]

original members were organized, funded

and trained by Ronald Reagan's secret

agents in the 1980s and sent to

Afghanistan to help kick out the Russians.

Twenty years ago, that skullduggery was

overseen by exactly the kind of people

Michael Meiring hung out with, in exactly

the same part of the country."(1)

`Anti-terror' hypocrisy

Regardless of whether the Abus are

still on Uncle $am's payroll or Meiring

was under CIA orders when he blew

himself up, the reactionaries in the U.$.

and Philippine governments bear the

responsibility for this kind of terror. After

September 11, pro-spy creeps argued that

the CIA should have greater freedom to

enlist "bad guys" to go after other "bad

guys"--somehow forgetting that exactly

this strategy led to September 11 itself!

State agencies do carry out terrorist

incidents and the ordinary public cannot

usually know who is to blame. The

solution for this can only be the abolition

of governments in the distant future of

U$A fakes terror in Philippines

communism, when people cooperate

economically, culturally and politically, so

that no nation has secret services like the

CIA. These secret services are

themselves an irritant in relations amongst

nations and must be eradicated for a

completely secure world.

In the case of the Philippines, the United

$tates is using the Abu Sayaaf and other

manufactured incidents (3) to justify a

permanent military presence.(4) "Months

before September 11 ... a Rand

Corporation Study advised Donald

Rumsfeld that he must re-base American

forces in the Philippines in order to retain

U.S. military dominance in Asia."(1) The

United $tates also worries about the

revolutionary movement. "The US is

itching to directly get involved in the all-

out war against the CPP-led revolutionary

movement," said a spokesperson for the

Communist Party of the Philippines.(3)

Popular opposition recently forced the

U.$. and the Philippine government to

shelve plans for U.$. soldiers to

participate in combat operations in the

Philippines.(5) But the reactionaries are

still trying to justify their plans in the name

of "fighting terrorism."

An explosion on 4 March 2003 killed

24 people and injured another 150 at the

Davao international airport. A month later,

a bomb at the Davao wharf killed 16.

Macapagal-Arroryo immediately flew to

Davao to make her pitch: "This is a total

war that requires full attention and

resources of the community."(6)

The Philippine government blamed the

Moro Islamic Liberation Front for these

latest attacks. The MILF, in on-again-off-

again peace talks with the government,

strenuously denies any involvement.

Notes:
1. Several news articles on this case are compiled
here:
http://www.defendsison.be/archive/pages/0303/
030309Fake.html.
2. See The Manila Times' three part series on
Meiring, 29-31 May 2002, www.manilatimes
.net/national/2002/may/29/top_stories/
20020529top5.html, www.manilatimes.net/
national/2002/may/30/top_stories/20020530
top6.html, www.manilatimes.net/national/2002/
may/31/top_stories/20020531top6.html.
3. U.$.-backed Philippine military slanders New
People's Army, MIM Notes 253, 1 Mar 2002.
4. Over 1,500 U.$. troops deployed across
Philippines in name of "war on terror," MIM
Notes 256, 15 Apr 2002.
5. Pentagon plans to send 3,000 more U.$.
combat troops to Philippines, MIM Notes 278,
15 Mar 2003.
6. Italics added, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 3 Apr
2003.

Continued from page 1...

UNITED

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Los Angeles, March, 22: Keepin' the burger joint free of protesters.

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 7

15-year-old Elizabeth Smart returned

to her parents in Utah in March 2003,

after what the press called an "abduction"

since the age of 14 on June 5, 2002. The

media showed pictures and film clippings

of the blonde-haired youth all over the

television the day of the announced return.

Then the media followed with pictures of

Elizabeth hugging her family.

Of course the media makes the most

money selling papers, magazines and tv

news with the story that this was a

"kidnapping." The truth is that the united

$tates is so twisted that most child

abductions are not child abductions but

property disputes politely referred to as

"custody battles" or other more mundane

occurrences, as we reported in MIM

Notes 268.(1)

The Elizabeth Smart case was not a

custody battle, but it has all the markings

of being a normal occurrence in a twisted

society. If the polygamist drifter-preacher

who was with Smart when police found

her has to go to prison, then most of Utah

does too. Rather than arrest the preacher

and his wife who were with Elizabeth

Smart, the dictatorship of the proletariat

would put the Utah religious hierarchy in

prison and any police who failed to

enforce the laws regarding polygamy and

child abuse in Utah. It is the religious

hierarchy that has failed in educating the

public. We Marxists believe that religion

will gradually disappear, but there must

be immediate repression of any religions

that do not respect the non-negotiable

rights of all people.

As we reported in MIM Notes, TV

viewers gradually received the picture

from CNN. First it was the uncle who

said that the return of Elizabeth Smart

was proof of "miracles." Then the father

thanked God, instead of criticizing God

for allowing this or the Mormon church

for teaching that polygamy begins with

uneducated 14-year-olds. Yes, the Smart

family is Mormon. The supposed

abductor was also a Mormon, just too

radical and thus ex-communicated.

For those unfamiliar with the original

Mormon teachings, they are polygamist

and permit abuses of wimmin and

children. Whenever there is a conflict on

these points, the true-believers take their

ex-communication as proof of their

devoutness, but the ones more

"moderate" and doing the ex-

communication are also frauds for not

denouncing the founders of their own

religion. They often do the same things

just without flaunting it in public. This

guarantees that what happens in Utah

with the Elizabeth Smart case and more

violent cases will continue to occur.

"The Seattle Times, citing a police

source in Salt Lake City, said Brian David

`Emmanuel' Mitchell told investigators

that he wanted Elizabeth to become his

wife after first laying eyes on her while

he did a one-day stint as a handyman at

the Smart's suburban home in 2001.

"`It was a religious thing,' the source

told the Times. "This guy just wanted

another wife, and God told him this was

the one.'"(2) Even if the media got this

story wrong, or the police source lied, the

fact remains that the description is typical

of Mormon practice.

Smart did not try to get away

Then we learn that Smart herself told

police that her case was one of running

away: "`I know'" you "`think I'm that

Elizabeth Smart girl who ran away.'"(3)

Smart heard her uncle calling for her,

but she did not respond to him during his

outdoor search.(3) She stayed one block

from the police station for a week and

freely walked about; her captor was even

in jail for six days and she did not escape;

100 people saw her at a party, but she did

not leave or contact anyone about

escaping.(4) Smart was also a regular at

a grocery store where she spent hours

freely to herself without trying to

"escape."(5) Witnesses living near her

say she was not restrained and could have

escaped anytime.(6)

When the police found her, she spoke

in Biblical verse, adopted medieval poses

and wore a veil.

Conservatives got what they
wanted

"You will be handed over to the local

councils and flogged in the synagogues.

On account of me you will stand before

governors and kings as witnesses to them.

. . Brother will betray brother to death,

and a father his child. Children will rebel

against their parents and have them put

to death. All men will hate you because

of me, but he who stands firm to the end

will be saved." (Mark:13:9, 12, 13)

"I have come to bring fire on the earth,

and how I wish it were already kindled! .

. . Do you think I cam to bring peace on

earth? No, I tell you, but division. From

now on there will be five in one family

divided against each other, three against

two and two against three. They will be

divided father against son and son against

father, mother against daughter and

daugther against mother." (Luke 12:49,

51, 52)

It is difficult for the foreigner to

understand, but the united $tates, as

modern as it is, has a solid 30% living in

utter religious stupor. The conservative

political movement is based on that 30%.

Elizabeth Smart grew up Mormon in a

Mormon state. Her "captor" was a

preacher with a little more dedication than

average. That's why when police found

her, she used Biblical phrases to try to

escape.

The conservatives will try hard to

weasel out of taking responsibility for the

whole Elizabeth Smart case from

beginning to end, starting with Elizabeth

Smart's education. To cover for himself

and his state's religion, the father said

merely that his daughter was

"brainwashed." At MIM we would

agree, but we would say it started a lot

earlier than June 5, 2002. In the United

$tates thanks to conservatives and the

liberals who tolerate them, we cannot be

sure what basic education Elizabeth

Smart received, including her sex

education in a Mormon community that

regularly marries off teenage girls before

they've had an appropriate education.

Liberals kow-tow to conservatives
& mushy middle

There is of course a secular and

Western liberal segment of society as

well. As MIM pointed out in its MIM

Notes 272 article on Mormons, these

same liberals who love the former slave-

holoder Dalai Lama so much naturally

protect the religions abusing wimmin and

children as well. It's not so much that

liberals are going to practice Mormonism,

but they will elect Mormons such as Mitt

Romney to be governor of the most liberal

state--Massachusetts.

For the foreigner the image of

Amerikkka is all Hollywood and

pornography and thus all open sex; even

though, such a stereotype applies more

to Western Europe than the United

$tates. The Elizabeth Smart case is not

so much about that as it is about good

`ole conservative religious conversion.

Again on 14-year-olds

There is no reason a 13 or 14-year-old

cannot be an adult except for his or her

lack of education prior to that date. The

Mormons believe both in early teen

marriages to much older men and lack of

education for children and the result is

abuse of children.

The Elizabeth Smart case underlines

why MIM is in favor of moving up

children's education, accelerating it

across-the-board to make children more

self-reliant. Of special concern is that

Elizabeth Smart grew up in an

environment tolerating multiple wives

including "child" wives. Thanks to that

education, Elizabeth Smart truly was a

child when she left home. At her age,

she should not have been a child, mentally.

That's why under the dictatorship of the

proletariat, a bracing education will be

required and anyone standing in the

way--parents or preachers--will go to

prison. In the event that a child dies in a

kidnapping or from a disease like AIDS

thanks to ignorance, those causing the

ignorance will be executed. That's the

only way to ensure that adults do not abuse

children.

Notes:
1. "Child abuctions fill the U.$. headlines," p. 3,
MIM Notes 268.
2. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/
2003/3/13/163308.shtml
3. USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/
nation/2003-03-13-smart-cover-usat_x.htm
4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A23106-2003Mar13.html
5. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/03/13/
smart.supermarket.witness/

support certain types of lawful political

organizing demonstrate by their actions

that they have no desire to remain

citizens.

Still, around half of the protestors

approached with MIM's petition had not

heard of Patriot Act II. MIM, RAIL, and

SLALA handed out hundreds of flyers

analyzing the proposal.

The mercenary hypocrisy award for the

day goes to Amoeba records, across the

street from CNN. Amoeba records

sported a "Give Peace a Chance" banner

while barring groups from setting up

literature tables in front of the store.

(CNN at least had the honesty to drape a

huge Amerikan flag over its entrance.)

MIM overheard a few choice quips from

the store's staff. "Why do so many peace

demonstrations turn violent?" "If they're

going to demonstrate for peace they

should be consistent: if you get hit in the

The case of Elizabeth Smart

Conservatives like it that way, liberals tolerate it

face, turn the other cheek."

This is a misunderstanding promoted by

sloppy bourgeois media reporting. Most

of the anti-war protesters are not

pacifists. For MIM's part, "turning the

other cheek" is what the imperialists are

telling the exploited to do. "Please ignore

our rampage through your territory and

work happily as slaves for our MNCs,"

they counsel. MIM upholds the right of

the oppressed to armed struggle in self-

defense against reactionary violence.

Notes:

1. www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/

29750.html

2. MIM Notes 279, 1 Apr 2003;

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

civlib/index.html

3. Italics added; www.mtsu.edu/

~ b a u s t i n / n u r m l a w 2 . h t m l ;

www.btinternet.com/~ablumsohn/

laws.htm.

L.A. Anti-War Protests

Achieve a Steady Pace

Continued from page 3...

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 8

leader Hitler in the 1930s. It arose when

Neville Chamberlain made a deal to let

Germany take over Czechoslovakia and

turned down a Soviet offer to attack

Germany in unison instead. It's a measure

of poor high school education and the

twisted nature of Amerikkkan "thinking"

that this Bush tactic is even politically

conceivable and not a source of

embarrassment. Saddam Hussein is not

occupying other countries right now. He

is gone from Kuwait. It is George. W.

Bush playing the role of today's Hitler by

moving to occupy Iraq (Czechoslovakia).

It is others who tolerate Bush who are

"appeasers." It is the countries who

oppose Bush but do not put their militaries

on the line to stop him that take the role

of appeasers in 2003.

Our critics would be right about not

insulting the Amerikkkans, if what we

needed today is to run a candidate for

office. Many advise us to join the left-

wing of the Democratic Party and then

seek numbers to back that "left-wing" up.

Obviously, one cannot insult the

"Amerikkkans" and then win an election,

at least not in the short-run.

The thinking behind elections is behind

most of the questions MIM receives

regarding organizing in the United $tates.

The media focuses all attention on

Congress and presidential candidates

when it comes to politics. Much of the

media cannot operate outside the few

questions judged important in electoral

politics today. That is one reason MIM

insists on building independent media and

other institutions as the best thing we can

do right now.

Hence, the first scientific question is:

can world peace come about by winning

an electoral struggle inside the

Democratic Party and other such parties

globally? MIM says: "No, it is not

concretely possible to achieve

internationalist peace through the

Democratic Party and winning elections

as they exist now." People in the anti-

war movement right now need to ask

themselves over and over again: is their

goal to elect someone or to obtain peace?

These questions are not one and the

same. We have to work on our ideas about

power and power struggle. Ask the

Spanish people: only 13% support the war

on Iraq, but the government still managed

to endorse Bush. That has to do with the

power struggle by the other 87%. It is

not just a question of getting numbers.

Over 90% of Germans supported Hitler

to the bitter end. In such a circumstance,

organizing for an election or to find more

"moderate Nazis" misses the point. The

Germans were going to have to go

through a most difficult transformation

even to support a non-Nazi party. That is

the kind of situation we have in the United

$tates, not for one party but for a system

of imperialism. It would do no good not

to call Germans "Nazis" to avoid insulting

them and likewise it does no good to let

Amerikkkans and similar European

imperialist country populations avoid the

truth about their ugly war-mongering

nationalism.

Telling a country's majority to their face

that they are politically ugly enemies of

the world's people becomes especially

necessary in some historical contexts.

Ingratiating tactics can only help when

they achieve a goal worth the cost of the

tactics. In the case of the United $tates,

England and I$rael, the truth is the key. It

is impossible for the populations of these

places to reform their thinking if no one

tells them how far off it is from what is

necessary for global peace and economic

cooperation. The alleged "scientists"

wishing to spare the feelings of the

Amerikkkans, British and I$raeli$ do

neither the world nor the imperialist

country chauvinists themselves any

favors. They only slow down what has

to happen.

Most people in the world can raise their

proletarian consciousness and say "I used

to be a ready dupe of the imperialists and

local reactionaries and then through

political struggle and study, I overcame

naivete and other kinds of false

consciousness."

In the Western imperialist countries, the

average Joe should face the socialist

future more like this: "I used to be an

enemy of the people. I am still working

to overcome my tendencies to national

chauvinism and violence toward the Third

World people. I actively voted for

imperialists and avoided countless

chances at political education in the

interests of peace, because I used to

believe my country could escape the

consequences of imperialism. I used to

speak for throwing immigrants out of the

country and I believed jobs were being

sucked out of my country; even while the

communists said their goal was to employ

the whole world, I scorned them and

wrapped myself up in a petty struggle to

deprive others of jobs. I acted on

economic fears instead of taking up the

confidence the party advised me to have

in economic matters both as a matter of

truth and international peace. I vaguely

knew that my government was killing

people around the globe on a daily basis,

but I happily preferred to watch `Married

with Children' instead of raising my own

political consciousness and figuring out

how to oppose my government. In a word,

I expressed my political and cultural

contentment with a genocidal system

headed for environmental disaster. Even

though I had not been paying much

attention to politics, I leaped up after 911

to call for war on Afghanistan. Again I

quickly expressed fear and aggression

but without much knowledge. The lives

of people in Third World countries meant

so little to me that I did not bother

seriously investigating the claims of the

politicians I elected. I do not want to say

that I was just ignorant. I had a chance

to know more, but I preferred to take the

most comfortable way out." That's what

a self-criticism of an enemy might look

like. Self-criticism and transformation

cannot succeed if revisionists take over

and deny that Amerikkkans are enemies

and no one asks that the Amerikkkans

admit that they were enemies.

It's all fine to wish that 70, 80 or 90%

of the people in every country opposed

the war with Iraq. We could wish that

the proletariat were evenly distributed

globally. It is not--and that is a matter of

not wishing away dialectical development.

Life would be simpler if the exploited

constituted the majority in every country

and merely had to come to some way of

stopping their war-mongering rulers. The

path to global unity would be much

simpler, but since the time of Lenin we

have had to adjust to the fact that a

country can become a majority of

enemies to the world's people.

We love all people active in the anti-

war movement, as long as they are

studying and working on the problem.

However, we must say that there is no

major organization other than MIM and

possibly one other that recognizes anti-

Amerikkkanism as necessary for global

progress. The various liberals whether

they are in the Democratic Party or

parties calling themselves communist

believe that it is OK to criticize Bush and

the pro-war Democrats, but not the voters

who tolerate or elect these scum.

The French are being pretty belligerent

to Amerikan tourists these days, and

that's an excellent thing. However, a

survey shows that most French still stick

with the tired old formula of blaming

Amerika's "leaders" and not the

"American people." The New York

Times reported a typical and insightful poll

this way: "Most noticeably anti-Bush

were the French, three-fourths of whom

said the problems created by America

were `mostly Bush,' while only a fraction

15 percent faulted America in general.

Russia and Turkey were the only nations

that were inclined to blame America in

general rather than the president."(1)

This poll reinforces the results of

countless other polls and the investigation

of serious proletarian investigators. In the

countries where a labor aristocracy

predominates because that country

partakes in global exploitation, the majority

actively supports or covers for

imperialism. The oh-so tough French still

see this "just" as a Bush thing; even

though at the very least we have to point

out that a sizable minority voted for Bush,

Tidal wave of public opinion against Iraq war

Continued from page 1...

(MIM art)

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 9

and one would think the Europeans could

conclude something about a country with

a sizable minority like that and an even

larger super-majority that tolerates what

Bush does.

In contrast, Turkey and Russia are two

countries with more super-exploited and

exploited people than the other seven

countries in the poll mentioned by the

New York Times. These two countries

correctly blame "America in general"

more than their Western imperialist

counterparts. Only 15 percent of the

French blamed the Amerikkkans in

general. It will be impossible to build

socialism with active imperialist country

participants if the imperialist country

populations continue believing such things

about themselves.

The source of difference, the reason

why most countries are more than 80%

opposed to the war while some countries

are more evenly divided is that some

countries have large middle classes that

benefit from imperialist exploitation.

Newsweek admitted that anti-

Amerikkkanism has spread very far since

911. "In fact, while the United States has

the backing of a dozen or so governments,

it has the support of a majority of the

people in only one country in the world,

Israel. If that is not isolation, then the word

has no meaning."(2)

Coincidentally, as MIM has pointed out

before, I$rael is another imperialist

country with a "settler" base like the

United $tates. However, in England,

support for Amerikkkan war has ranged

in the high 30s to the 40s. Meanwhile, in

countries like Hungary, opposition is in the

80% range, even if the UN endorses the

war.

Recently, I received a letter from a

young Khmer (Cambodian) from a U.$.-

lackey family who was seeking someone

to stand in for the Khmer Rouge, so he

started criticizing MIM as if we were the

Khmer Rouge. He told us that people

could be punished under the Khmer

Rouge for having a Disney book. We can

see that the aim is to create some kind of

strange arbitrary image of the dictatorship

of the proletariat.

Yet, there is a real question here. MIM

does not think the world should oppose

rock music just because Amerikkkans and

British are the main or original producers.

Rock music is a form that any country

can adopt and actually using electricity in

music to its full effect is an important

aspect of modernization for any country.

On the other hand, a boycott of all

no heart. You don't see them, you see a

deprogrammed persyn and then all of the

sudden they have another persyn's

agenda. So that free will is taken away

and that part about military training is

crazy. And then when we actually got to

use weapons and train with them, the

amount of dehumanizing of the enemy

they taught, you know it's just like killing

an ant. You don't have to consider people

more than just a bug."

MIM: Did they talk about specific

regions of the world or other peoples?

Joe: I went in just after September 11

so the enemy was Osama Bin Laden and

Saddam Hussein and Muslim people. And

everybody in there that was Muslim had

to constantly defend themselves,

renounce their religion. And any enemy

we have ever had... everybody in the

world, we have been ruining their lives, if

you were of a country like that you had

to defend yourselves. But especially

Muslim people, they would really make

fun of their customs.

MIM: Did they give you reasons why

you should be fighting?

Joe: They did try to instill that [the

enemy] is wrong because they are not

capitalist and they are not the same, but I

think mainly the training was about making

enemies seem like anybody that is against

the U.$. is completely worthless and not

human and therefore it is OK to kill them.

MIM: You may have read the news

lately about the U.$. sending troops to

the Philippines, they say to fight against

Abu Sayaaf, a small terrorist band. [There

is more evidence linking Abu Sayaaf to

the Philippine military and the Amerikan

CIA than to Al Queda, and Abu Sayaaf

membership has dwindled to under 200.]

But in reality the U.$. uses their troops in

the Philippines both to train the Filipino

military and to actively suppress the

revolutionary movement there. What do

you think about what's going on with the

U.$. military there?

Joe: I think that the U.$., it isn't just in

this situation, they don't have the right to

do whatever they want, they're not the

leaders of the world. They're going in

there against the will of the entire country.

And putting a different name on it than

what their real intentions are. I think U.$.

involvement in the Philippines has always

been about having their own power and

because of that I think the leaders there

are really corrupt, but I don't think that's

a result of the country itself, that's a result

of the U.$. involvement. The more U.$.

involvement in the Philippines the worse

people turn out. All their resources are

getting stolen, all the people are being

exploited for low wages. Meanwhile

they're not doing anything to help people.

They make them reliant on Amerikan

involvement so that they won't want them

out. And then generations pass and they

won't realize that it could be different.

That makes a movement for the U.$. to

be out a lot harder as if it's always been

like that.

MIM adds: Joe's application for CO

status is based on his moral opposition to

war. He is firm in his pacifist stance

stating that he would never use violence.

MIM, on the other hand, points to the

example in the Philippines to explain why

war, on the part of the oppressed people,

is necessary. This is revolutionary

violence, a just peoples war to throw off

their oppressors. These are oppressors

who have demonstrated that they won't

back down without a fight. And they

leave the people no choice but to starve,

dye of preventable diseases, be killed in

imperialist wars, or fight back.

MIM: What do you hope to gain by

publicizing your case?

Joe: I know it's really idealistic but the

other day I was thinking about what is

going to happen. I really don't know

AWOL youth challenges Amerikan military

what's going to happen to me, I'll

probably go to jail for a little while. But if

I'm going to go to jail, everything's going

to be the same anyway, why not get more

... to rethink things. I know when I was

in active duty I was always talking to

people, whenever I could, about their

views and why they have their views and

are you sure that's not just training, to

just get people to think because I don't

think there's a lot of that in the military.

You're taught not to think. And maybe

some people will change their mind.

MIM: I would add that it's not just about

educating people in the military but also

you can educate people on the outside.

Joe: Who knows, this is a crazy war,

it's not just this war, and they might re-

implement the draft. People who aren't

in the military can still apply for

conscientious objection. People can apply

for that beforehand. I think in your

newspaper most people will probably

already be in that viewpoint.

MIM adds: We stand with Joe and

others who have gone AWOL or are

trying to get out of the military to avoid

participating in this imperialist war on Iraq

and other Amerikan militarist excursions

around the world. We applaud his courage

in taking this stand publicly to help build

the anti-war movement. Although MIM

does not agree with Joe's pacifism, we

unite in supporting the just opposition to

Amerikan imperialism around the world.

And MIM hopes that all pacifists will step

forward to promote an anti-imperialist

message and condemn U.$. militarism.

`I think mainly the

training was about
making enemies

seem like anybody

that is against the
U.$. is completely

worthless and not

human and
therefore it is OK to

kill them....'

Continued from page 3...

Amerikkkan and British music may be

entirely appropriate. I have to scratch my

head: Amerikkkans are bombing your

country (Kampuchea) and you expect

your parents to be trusted when they give

you (as a child) Disney books to read in

the midst of that. Where there is no war,

there is no big deal, but where there is

war, a child may want a Disney book, but

parents should know better as a matter

of an adult and realistic sense of priorities.

Scoring points against MIM over a

Disney book while not rebutting that the

United $tates cut off food aid to

Kampuchea in 1975 shows a twisted

sense of priorities befitting only of

lackeys.

The Third World is in the underdog

position. For the Third World to correct

Amerikkkan imperialism at the source,

some "excesses" are going to happen.

We should not dampen anti-

Amerikkkanism, but instead fan it until

decisive change comes about. In San

Francisco, activists are talking about

shutting down 70 buildings and institutions

when war with Iraq starts. Yet, in

Indonesia, the masses are talking about

shutting down U.$. business operations.

The Indonesian proletariat should shut

down Freeport and Exxon-Mobil(3)

without fear that declining profits or

merely shuttered business will cost

Amerikkkan "workers" their jobs. The

bourgeoisie constantly seeks to dull the

struggle against U.$. imperialism by

painting some sympathetic picture of the

average Amerikan, but it's just more war

propaganda: there is no Amerikkkan

proletariat. Amerika is one large exploiter

mass.

The rising tide of anti-Amerikanism (and

not just anti-Bushism) is a correct and

just expression of the global proletariat.

Increasingly that expression leaves

behind the politically hobbled calling

themselves "Marxist." Anti-Amerikanism

is a vague but broadly correct sentiment

based in the precise economic reality that

Amerikans and their closest allies benefit

from exploiting the rest of the world and

that the Amerikkkans are the main prop

of that international order of exploitation.

Notes:

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/

19/politics/19CND-POLL.html

2. http://www.msnbc.com/news/

885222.asp?0cv=KB10

3. http://www.upi.com/

view.cfm?StoryID=20030319-070053-

4046r

Tidal wave of public opinion against Iraq war

Continued from previous page...

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · 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

Illinois prisoner wins
censorship battle to
read MIM Theory

Revolutionary Clenched-fist salute,
I've won battles against censorship of MIM

Theory 9, 11, 12 and 13. The victory was on
August 21, 2002 -- 31 years from the date of
Comrade George Jackson's assassination.
The only exception was they took two pages
out of the MT11 about a prison work strike,
but still provided me with the detached pages.
So please let the prisoners in the IDOC know
that they can use Schneider v. Menard
Correctional Center Publication Review
Committee via the Administrative Review
Board to receive MTs 9, 11, 12 and 13.

The Administrative Review Board has not

rendered a decision regarding a grievance I
filed concerning the Central Publications
Review Committee of the IDOC denying me
MIM Theory 2/3, 8 and 10, and I am pressing
for those things. The funds I have spent for
copies and postage fighting the censorship
of these MTs are well worth it. The fascist
pigs label me Communist, Subversive, anti-
Amerikkka, etc., because of how hard I fight
and have fought the censorship of
Communist material, but fuck `em.

I stayed in general population for nine

months after doing three years in segregation.
Now I'm back in segregation. It's political.
They are intentionally filing false charges and
segregating revolutionary, politically active
and conscious prisoners. They were
especially anxious to segregate us when they
anticipated that Governor Ryan would
commute the sentences of prisoners on Death
Row, because they do not want revolutionary
elements to mix with each other. So they have
some former Death Row prisoners surrounded
by agents and passive prisoners. Some former
Death Row prisoners are also being
segregated on false charges. Also, the u.s.
government is ordering the prisons/captors
to identify and segregate/isolate dissident
prisoners, but I have the Maoist ideology
when it comes to being attacked by the enemy.

In struggle,
-- an Illinois prisoner, 28 February, 2003
MIM adds: Mao wrote "I hold that it is bad

as far as we are concerned if a person, a
political party, an army or a school is not
attacked by the enemy, for in that case it
would definitely mean that we have sunk to
the level of the enemy. It is good if we are
attacked by the enemy, since it proves that
we have drawn a clear line of demarcation
between the enemy and ourselves. It is still
better if the enemy attacks us wildly and paints
us as utterly black and without a single virtue;
it demonstrates that we have not only drawn
a clear line of demarcation between the enemy
and ourselves but achieved a great deal in
our work." ("On the Third Anniversary of the
Founding of the Chinese People's Anti-
Japanese Military and Political College," May
26, 1939)

Why MIM gives free
subscriptions to
prisoners

An associate informed me that it would be

in my best interests as a seeker of knowledge

and truth that I contact MIM... I am in a
situation now where I can get my hands on
very limited reading materials unless it comes
through the mail in the form of newspaper,
pamphlets or copied papers. Books aren't
allowed, not even softbacks. I'm in what they
(Department of Corrections) call the SMU
(Special Management Unit), in layman's terms
locked down 23&1 [confined to his cell 23
hours per day]. Truthfully speaking it's not
so harsh as some joints but it has it effects.

Now I've been in prison since I was a 15-

year-old boy. I'm now on my 8th year of a life
and no parole sentence--so compared to my
overall dilemma this unit I'm in is nothing.

Thank you kindly,
--a Pennsylvania prisoner

Every bit counts

Dear MIM,
This notation is in response to the

continuous injustice that's being done to my
fellow prisoners who are being treated unfairly
by the county, state and federal prison
systems. Our problems behind these walls
include [lack of] mail privileges, parole,
education and staff harassment.

In order to change the racist and biased

policies of this corrupt system, we have to:

1. Get our families, friends and loved ones

involved in our struggle.

2. Stop spending on wants behind these

walls and spend on our needs.

3. Support MIM and organizations who are

trying to support us and stop supporting the
commissary and stores which make us even
more dependent on the system.

Eldridge Cleaver said, "You're either part

of the solution or you're part of the problem."
Brothers and sisters behind these walls spend
millions of dollars a year on wants and cry
about our needs. If we start helping the
struggle more, we can make a change. If every
inmate just sends five dollars to MIM, imagine
the materials that could be bought.

--a Pennsylvania prisoner
MIM responds:

Donations are

indispensable to MIM's work. Without them
we could not send the newspaper free
prisoners, to take one example. Generally
speaking, a higher proportion of prisoners
than non-prisoners contribute-- and they
give a higher percentage of their income. So
MIM extends this prisoner's challenge to all
non-prisoners reading this page: we need
your support! Make checks or money orders
out to "MIM Distributors," and send to PO
Box 29670, Los Angeles, CA, 90029-0670.

Prisoncrats steal MIM
Notes

Comrades,
I apologize for being under the impression

that you had forgotten about me. What you
surmised was correct. The prisoncrats held
#264, #272, & #273 about a week and a half

ago. So there's no doubt that they probably
have some more that they haven't given me
and most likely won't give me.

One thing the prisoncrats haven't done

was give me a notice of what came and what
I wasn't allowed to have. They just robbed
me and expected me to never find out.

Respect,
--a Pennsylvania prisoner

MIM's take on Black
Panthers censored

Greetings,
I have received three MIM papers from

you... However, the Black Panthers' literature
[MIM's pamphlet "Maoism and the Black
Panther Party"] is being held and I'm now
fighting it with the Inmate Grievances
Committee.

--a Pennsylvania prisoner

Texas budget cuts for
prisoners

Many prisoners are writing to report the

ill effects of budget cuts on prisoners in their
states, due to the weaker U$ economy and
budget problems facing state governments.
For example, a Virginia prisoner recently
reported that they are only getting two meals
a day now on weekends and holidays, to
save the prison system overtime pay. Here is
a recent report from Texas. -MIM

Texas is in a $11.2 billion hole and has cut

everything back for so-called rats like us,
including the state cheese. Security claims to
be short of funds, and that has a hold on
hiring people (or, shall I say, fellow Klansmen),
and our movement becomes more limited
every day. Every plantation master (warden)
is going to have fewer crumbs to throw us,
and have to cut some jobs -- and they will
have to close some of the 144 plantations
statewide -- in order for the governor to feel
good about the state's downsizing state
programs.

As far as slave labor, it continues, even on

lockdown. President Bush hurt his fellow
Texans because he ruined not only the
country's budget surplus but Texas's as well.
We're lucky to get a piece of meat around
here; they're cutting back on everything,
such as vocational programs, GED for
prisoners, food, clothes, bath towels, soap,
medical needs, family phone calls, pictures
during visits, commissary privileges,
recreation time, gym time, television time, and
time to eat the little food they do care to serve.

The only things that are improving are

security harassment, threats, censorship,
limited movement...I am afraid because the
more Texas does to TDCJ, the more these
employees get revenge on us -- it's a true
domino effect. Commissary prices are sky-
high for a state that doesn't pay its prisoners
one red penny, but hey, that's one advantage

that TDCJ seldom acknowledges: no matter
what shorts they face, or lack of personnel,
they still have the largest free labor force in
this great country of God's. We are the mighty
Texans of slavery, and everybody who resists
will be disciplined accordingly, as a slave.

--A Texas Prisoner, February 2003

Mother of Texas
prisoner exposes new
forms of repression

I am writing to you in regards to my son's

situation in a maximum security prison in
Texas, the Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony.

He has told me that the Feds are now out of

the picture in the Texas prison system, which
now leaves the state to do whatever they
choose. He has raised a couple of key issues
for himself and all his fellow inmates. They
are as follows:

1) Visitors from a long distance (there's a

certain number of miles or hours of travel
which determines whether a visitor is

MIM Notes 280 · April 15, 2003 · 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.

considered as a long distance visitor) have
been allowed a 4-hour visit on both Saturday
and Sunday of the same weekend when
prearranged as a "special" visit. My son has
recently informed me that it is now a new
prison policy that the prison can cut short (at
their discretion) a "special visit" if there are
many visitors trying to get in. This is an
infringement on the "rights" of the inmates
and their families. I visit from [another state]
and can only make the trip twice a year. I'm
very concerned about the possibility of them
cutting my visit short. My son is in the
Administrative Segregation section of the
unit. Since the 4-hour visits use up critical
space in the very limited 8 booth visiting
section for all the inmates in the
Administrative Segregation section, I can see
where the guards may decide to deem it
necessary to cut our visits short. What rights
do we really have?...

2) Since the Feds have been pulled out of

the Texas prisons, my son tells me that
whenever he asks for grievance slips to write
something up, he is denied access to these or
they never get processed. This whole
procedure seems totally ludicrous to me --
having to ask a prison authority, a guard, for
the "privilege" of obtaining the special
documentation necessary to send in a
complaint about one of them or their co-
workers. What recourse is there?

The whole system of how they are running

their Ad. Seg. units IS cruel and unusual
punishment. There are many aspects of it that
could quite easily be improved upon. And
many areas that would need major overhaul
efforts. The general public is NOT aware of
the conditions present in the prison system. I
am furious that there are no rehabilitation,
education, life skills training, anger
management, communications, conflict
resolution or work training possibilities for
Ad Seg inmates. They can earn almost no
privileges. In fact, if the inmate is indigent
and has no family who will visit, then there is
absolutely NO privilege they can ever earn
that they can take advantage of. These
inmates are locked in a cell alone for at least
23 hours a day 7 days a week, most days for
24 hours. They are taken out briefly for
showers and if they have "earned" it, then
they can be taken out for recreation. The
recreation space is another space where they
are totally alone. There is no system set up
for them to "earn", by their good behavior, a
phone call or access to television (educational
programming shows), contact visits, or any
form of rehabilitation/education/training.
Those privileges would not be dependent

upon the inmates' financial status. These are
only a couple of ideas that I believe would
make a tremendous difference. If you have
any ideas of how these issues can be
addressed I would really appreciate hearing
them.

--Mother of Texas prisoner March 2003
MIM Responds: Thank you for writing --

you provide an excellent "outside" view of
what our comrades behind bars describe all
the time. Prison is not in fact about
rehabilitation, but social control -- and, we
argue, national oppression.

MIM doesn't provide legal assistance for

individual cases. Rather, we agitate more
broadly about the kind of prison conditions
you describe (not to mention the criminal
injustice system that jails a disproportionate
number of poor people and oppressed
nationalities to begin with) with the aim of
building public opinion on the outside to
oppose Amerikan imperialism in general, and
prison oppression in particular.

Toward that end, we use our bi-monthly

newspaper - MIM Notes - to print stories
exposing injustices in prison. We print your
letter to highlight these issues of visitation
and bogus grievance procedures. We have
several current active campaigns to collect
petition signatures, hold public events and
write articles about prison issues including
the following:

* ending Secure Housing Units (SHUs) in

California prisons

* ending the practice of forcing prisoners

with medical conditions to work in Texas

To view news, petitions, etc. of these and

other prison-related campaigns, see: http://
www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/
prisons/campaigns/campaigns.html

FL prisoner wins
small victory

Remember I told you I had mail problems in

my last letter. Well I achieved through
grievance channels to still get a free letter off
this month. I won approval against the mail
room who didn't want to send my letter.

I have had a lot of success filing grievances

because I spend my days and nights
studying the system before I file. MIM has
played a key role in how I think on filing
against institutions. I never had no will to
fight the institution with ink until I started
reading MIM. [...]

--a Florida prisoner, 19 March 03

California plans to
expand brutal SHU
program

California Security Housing Units (SHU)

are notoriously known for their civil rights
violations. Maltreatment of prisoners does
not have to be limited to physical abuse.
Although, in the past California's SHU were
the epitome of human rights abuse in the
United $tates prison system. The effects of
an environment of sterile isolation (like found
in California's SHUs) on social animals has
been known since the 1960s in the research
of Harry Harlow: Harlow's studies proved that
constant isolation in sterile environments led
to antisocial behavior and that this treatment
had severe negative emotional and
psychological impact on the test subjects.
California's SHU programs show this same
result.

Mental illness is higher than normal prison

poplation. The mental illness in California's
SHUs is as high as 1/3 or more of the prison
populations in these housing units. Although
an exact proportion of the prison population
would be hard to determine, because most
prisoners refuse to be stigmatized with a
negative label of mental illness. The effects
of being locked in a cell 24 hours a day in an
isolated environment has been known for
decades.

California Department of Corrections plans

to increase and expand these SHUs. California
is not only expanding its current prisons by
building more yards, it is changing the criteria
for indeterminate SHU placement, meaning
that it is easier for CDC to place prisoners in
these units with little justification, for life.
California prison populations are already
growing at an alarming rate due to this state's
mandatory sentencing laws. Due to CDC
mismanagement of these prisons, it can be
expected that California's SHU programs will
increase at an even higher rate.

The fact that California's prison system is

a failure is easily demonstrated in it's 87%
recidivism rate. But the effects of California's
SHU program on human life is impossible to
calculate. The psychological effects of
California's SHU programs on prisoners is a
well known fact.

These prison conditions affect prisoner's

emotionally, and diminish prisoner's mental
capabilities, especially in verbal expression
and connotative abilities. Alienation from
social groups and inter-family relationships
is common over extended periods of time. The
extreme isolation over long periods has been
proven to produce delusions and forms of

psychosis in prisoners that are predisposed
to these conditions. The constant isolation
in these sterile environments of California's
SHU programs have been proven to increase
antisocial and violent behavior in prisoners.

The cruelty of these SHU programs have

been known for years and CDC plans only to
expand these conditions in their SHUs. CDC
efforts to stop corruption in their own
department have led only to more harsh,
severe, and strict living conditions in these
HSUs. California's prisons are a multi- billion
dollar business that expand only at cost of
great human suffering. California's SHU
programs have been proved to be the epitome
of this humyn suffering. The expansion of
this governmental business of California's
prison system will go on unchecked until
enough people take an active stand against
such practices like conditions found in
California's SHUs and the United $tates prison
system in general.

-- a SHU prisoner in California, February

2003

IL prisoners support
& share CA struggle

I read with great interest about California's

supreme court giving the governor carte
blanche authority to deny individuals' parole,
as I have been experiencing a similar problem
here in Illinois. I've been appearing before
the parole board yearly since 1977, with no
success. Your articles on the brutality of
supermax prisons were also well received, and
I will soon be sharing them with friends in
Europe who are shocked by the abuses
committed in the name of the state every day.

Thank you for your continuous support

for those of us who are caught in the vise of
the viper.

-- an Illinois prisoner, 16 March 2003

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 280 · April 15, 2003 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

avril 15, 2003, Nº 280 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

Por el Ministro de Relaciones
Internacionales del Movimiento Maoísta
Internacionalista (MIM)

Hoy, al extenderse la larga guerra contra

Irak hacia Bagdad como resultado de los
primeros ataques de misiles después del
vencimiento del plazo otorgado a Irak por el
ultimatum de Bush, el MIM lamenta de
antemano la pérdida de vidas en Irak. No
importa si EE.UU. logra la victoria en sólo un
día o si el pueblo iraquí se esfuerza por
pulverizar a cientos de miles de soldados
invasores. Esta pérdida de vidas no es
necesaria; la especie humana podrá lograr la
paz sólo a través de una perspectiva mundial.

Falta de argumentos morales
Condenada hasta por los reaccionarios

como el Papa y el presidente de Francia Chirac,
esta guerra claramente no tiene ninguna base
moral sea cual sea la procedencia social de
uno. Al fin y al cabo, tanto Chirac como Bush
pertenecen a la misma ala reaccionaria de la
burguesía. Chirac proviene del equivalente
francés del Partido Republicano de EE.UU.

La mera verdad es que la paz mundial se

dara sólo cuando el internacionalismo se
apodere de nuestra especie. El eje central de
esta idea se explica en términos cristianos
como la "ley dorada"- es decir, la necesidad
de ponernos en el lugar de nuestros prójimos.
Si se ignora la aplicación internacionalista de
la "ley dorada" entre las naciones no
dejaremos de sembrar la guerra y cosechar el
terrorismo.

Sin embargo, no somos pacifistas. La

violencia de Bush no contribuye a una
solución internacionalista. Al contrario, la
violencia de Bush consiste en parte en la
difusión del pánico frente a las armas de
destrucción masiva. Pero estas armas son tan
sólo un síntoma de otra enfermedad. Los
amigos de Bush dicen: "Las armas no matan.
La gente mata." Pero existen razones por las
cuales se desarrollan armas de destrucción
masiva que después se usan en Hiroshima y
Nagasaki. Bush ha ignorado estas causas y
sólo las ha hecho más agudas.

Una cuestión científica: ¿Qué tipo de

violencia puede hacer que se evite más
violencia?

Lo que hace Bush es un perfecto ejemplo

de la violencia reaccionaria y opresiva. Ésta
desencadena un furor en torno a un síntoma
de un problema pretendiendo al mismo tiempo
solucionar el problema. El fascismo se puede
interpretar como un enorme esfuerzo por
arreglar los problemas que surgen a causa
del capitalismo. Pero el fascismo no puede
ganar porque es incapaz de reconocer la raíz
de su propia existencia. Por el contrario,
Abrahm Lincoln también usó la violencia
represora pero esta violencia resultó

progresista porque el plan de Lincoln
consistía en acabar con la esclavitud y otras
causas de antagonismos nacionales. Lincoln
usó la violencia en contra de las causas de la
violencia. El tipo de violencia que usa Bush
no hace más que avivar la furia de los pueblos
del mundo. Los que entienden esto
entenderán fácilmente cómo es que Stalin usó
la violencia para reprimir a tanta gente mientras
que la expectativa promedio de vida de su
pueblo aumentó. Siendo reaccionario, Bush
no tiene ningún tipo de plan o capacidad para
utilizar la violencia con el fin de reducir la
violencia. La falta de tal plan es tan evidente
que muchos creen que la verdadera causa de
la guerra es intercambiar "sangre por
petróleo."

Cuando se trata de problemas

internacionales y de la paz la única cosa
"moral" es lo que promueve la continuación
de las especies. En términos convencionales,
si el estado de I$rael fuera un país "moral"
hace mucho se hubiera logrado la paz en el
Medio Oriente ya que las fuerzas armadas de
este país son mucho más poderosas que las
de otros países a su alrededor. Al igual que el
acercamiento de I$rael, los esfuerzos de Bush
por convertir a todo el tercer mundo en una
gigantesca Franja de Gaza están condenados
a un fracaso.

A primera vista parece que la cuestión de

la paz y la guerra se puede plantear fácilmente
en términos morales y tácticos. Pero esto es
una equivocación. Un hecho científico es que
I$rael no está en paz con sus vecinos. EE.UU.
gasta más en sus fuerzas armadas que todos
los países del mundo combinados y también
tiene la economía más grande del mundo. Sin
embargo, EE.UU. sufre ataques terroristas por
personas que si fueran oportunistas,
escogerían blancos más fáciles. Estos también
son hechos científicos que señalan algo sobre
el método de I$rael y EE.UU.

Bush busca aliviar las preocupaciones

morales cuando dice que el Tío $am quiere
que la guerra sea lo más corta posible y que
espera dejar a Irak con una feliz democracia
después de la guerra. Los que conocen el
amor que los pueblos del tercer mundo
profiesan hacia la autodeterminación y los
que saben algo sobre Irak entienden el porqué
del odio iraquí hacia los yanquis. La capacidad
de Bush para establecer una "democracia"
en Irak aparenta ser una cuestión de "táctica"
pero de hecho se confunden las cuestiones
tácticas (utilitarias) con las cusetiones
morales. A menudo se oye decir que el debate
ideológico es más desordenado que el debate
científico pero en este caso la moralidad de la
"paz mundial" no es un tema controversial.
Lo controversial es la ciencia de cómo lograr
la paz mundial.

Lamentamos la muerte de los inocentes

iraquíes.

El pueblo iraquí es una victima de la más

espantosa potencia imperialista durante toda
la historia: Los E$tados Unido$ de Amérika.
Lo que busca el pueblo de Irak es una
autodeterminación -- un motivo saludable y
natural perseguido por George Washington.
Por esta razón el nacionalismo iraquí no se
puede comparar con el nacionalismo torcido
de los yanquis que se oponen a las "papas a
la francesa" y utilizan el nacionalismo como
pretexto para asesinar a la gente de Irak.

También lamentamos la muerte de los

soldados yanquis que son demasiado
jóvenes e ignorantes y que no entienden los
asuntos mundiales ni tampoco saben porqué
tienen que morir en Irak (claro, algunos ya
han muerto entrenando para esta guerra). Sin
embargo, a diferencia de los iraquíes, los
soldados yanquis han tenido la oportunidad
de evitar este fin. A lo mejor pasaron
demasiado tiempo viendo
www.nakednews.com (el noticiero principal
entre hombres entre los 18 y los 34 años en el
cual las representadoras salen desnudas) y
no prestaron atención a los asusntos
políticos. O quizás se la hayan pasado leyendo
historias románticas de aventuras militares.
Sea cual fuera la razón, los soldados yanquis
han tenido la oportunidad económica de
aprender más y poder sacar a su país de la
guerra. Pero en esto han fracasado.

La capacidad y el crecimiento económico

de la humanidad son casi ilimitables pero la
población de EE.UU. se la pasa leyendo
novelas románticas de baja calidad y jugando
juegos electrónicos en vez de dedicarse a la
cooperación económica que lograría la paz
mundial. Una y otra vez los líderes yanquis e
i$raelíes dicen que la solución es asesinar a
más gente del tercer mundo. Logran asesinar
a mucha gente, incluyendo a los suyos
mediante el "fuego amigable" y no logran
conseguir la "democracia" ni la paz ni la
cooperación económica.

De cualquier modo, tanto los líderes

yanquis como el 70% de la población de
EE.UU. que los apoya, (1) le están "buscando
tres pies al gato." Está bien claro que los
yanquis no respetan más que la fuerza: no
respetan las leyes internacionales, ni los
tratados que han firmado, ni la ONU ni
tampoco los "derechos humanos" de los que
tanto se habla. El problema es que estos
traficantes de guerra imponen un sistema que
causa el terrorismo sobre el resto de
Norteamérica. El presidente Regan y el
vicepresidente George Bush entrenaron y
regalaron armas a Bin Laden para que luchara
contra la Unión Soviética. Después, la
mayoría sanguinaria lanzó una guerra contra
Irak impulsando a Bin Laden a atacar EE.UU.
Sin embargo, los yanquis siguen sin entender.
Ahora están a favor de una guerra contra Irak

por los supuestos lazos de Irak con el
terrorismo. ¡Vaya lógica! Ellos mismos han
creado estos

lazos.
Pero la estupidez no termina ahí. El

vicepresidente Cheney dijo el día 16 de marzo
(y fue apoyado por Bush) que Irak tiene armas
nucleares. Sin embargo, Cheney es el que
desde el principio ha luchado a favor de la
guerra. (2) ¡Esto sí que es buscarle tres pies al
gato! La verdad es que cada habitante de este
planeta vive gracias a la tolerancia de otros-
una regla que adquiere mayor importancia
conforme va encogiéndose el planeta.
Estaremos mejor cuanto más pronto
entendamos esto.

Mientras algunas empresas se ganan la

vida vendiendo bombas, nosotros, los
participantes del movimiento estadounidense
de paz, vivimos bajo la eterna amenaza de la
guerra y el terrorismo a causa de lo que hace
la mayoría yanqui. Pero los que componemos
la minoría estamos hartos de sus guerras por
el petróleo, su apoyo a las diarias masacres
i$raelíes en contra de los palestinos. Estamos
hartos de sus ganancias en el mercado de
armas y de todo lo demás que nos priva el
derecho de vivir en paz y sin el terrorismo. Si
la mayoría imperialista de EE.UU. quiere
cambiar las cosas ("cambiar el régimen") en
Irak, que se muden a Irak. Bajo la democracia
la mayoría sólo determina lo que pasa entre
los que votan, y no en países a miles de
kilómetros de aquí. Si los tontos yanquis
cabezudos quieren un "cambio de régimen"
en Irak, que se muden a Bagdad.

Nosotros que somos la minoría que busca

la paz tenemos un derecho no-negociable a
vivir sin la violencia causada por el deseo de
la mayoría de estructurar el mundo según la
imagen de Ronald McDonald. Si los yanquis
quieren una guerra para quitarles el velo a las
mujeres afganas y creen que saben cómo
lograrlo, que se muden ahí también. Si los
yanquis no quieren que Kim Jong-il fabrique
armas nucleares para venderlas les sugerimos
que le paguen más que los otros
consumidores porque bajo el capitalismo no
hay otra lógica que esta. Cualquier cosa que
quieran hacer estos yanquis, deberían hacerla
sin poner en peligro el derecho del resto del
mudno a vivir en paz.

19 Marzo, 2003. Traducido por Células de

Estudio para la Liberación de Aztlán y
América Latina (CELAAL)

Fuentes consultadas:
1. http://www.wahingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/

articles/A52020-2003Mar19.html

2. http//www.msnbc.com/news/886806.asp;

Tambi?n en Reuters, Marzo 17 2003.

Http://www.washintonpost.com/wp-dyn/

articles/A42837-2003Mar17html.

Declaración de pricipios con

respecto a la guerra contra Irak