MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 282 · May 15, 2003 · Page 1

MIM Notes

May 15, 2003, Nº 282

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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INSIDE: Dixie Chicks * Gaza * Under Lock & Key * Una Página en Español...

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

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he United $tates and its partners
the European Union, United
Nations and Russia presented

I$raeli and Palestinian leaders a "road
map to peace" on April 30. According to
hype, this is a new plan that will demand
equal concessions from both I$raelis and
Palestinians. In fact, the "road map"
rehashes earlier failed proposals. In
particular, it demands the Palestinians
renounce armed struggle unconditionally,
ignoring the basic reality that I$rael's
settlements make it the aggressor--and
aggressor with massive military
superiority.

Some neo-conservatives and Zionists

believe the "road map" is different
because the geopolitical situation has
changed. The recent Iraq war showed
the world that resistance to the United
$tates is futile, they argue. Oppressed
peoples like the Palestinians should just
suck it up and accept whatever crumbs
Uncle $am wants to give them. Such
arguments reveal what kind of "peace"
these war-mongers want--secure
domination of the oppressors over the
oppressed. They do not want to justly
address the roots of conflict: in this case,
the unfulfilled right of the Palestinians to
self-determination.

The "peace" these warmongers seek

is chimeric. Just like the "success" of
covert operations in Afghanistan in the
1980s led to September 11, and like the
"success" of I$rael's military and political
moves against the first Palestinian
intifadah led to the current uprising, the
current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will
lead to future tragedy and war. In their
own long-term interests--to say nothing
of the interests of humynity as a whole--
Amerikans need to break with their
leaders who have proven incapable of

Rai and

Chomsky give

`ten reasons

against war

on Iraq'

This review was written just after U.$.

ground forces invaded Iraq and

published on our website. It remains

relevant, as the Amerikan war-mongers

have turned the deceitful rhetoric they

used against Iraq towards other

countries, such as Syria and North

Korea. For example, there is this lie that

Amerikan military aggression can stop

the spread of "weapons of mass

destruction" ...

War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons
against War on Iraq
by Milan Rai & Noam Chomsky
London: Verso, 2002, 240pp. pb

his book contains pleas for peace

from 911 victims, photos of

potential Iraqi victims, a chapter

by Noam Chomsky and a thorough

account of the background leading to the

war in 2003. Milan Rai helps us refute a

number of myths being spread by the war-

mongers right now:

1. Myth: there was 12 years time

for diplomacy to work in disarming

Saddam Hussein. Now it's time for

"action."

Fact: The United $tates never backed

disarming Hussein and ordered the end

of UN inspections in 1998 just before they

were going to certify Hussein free of

weapons of mass destruction.

In the whole 12 years, Iraq was under

military occupation with no-fly zones in

the north and the south. Also thanks to

ongoing military action unreasonably

extended, Iraq was not able to trade

without the use of smugglers. Although

most Amerikkkans were not paying

attention to any news at all before 911,

the war in Afghanistan and now Gulf War

II, the military all along said it was in

charge of Iraq's infrastructure. Colonel

John Warden explained how the United

$tates was using humanitarian disaster to

U$ Plans for Palestine

`Road' to Nowhere

Southern Culture

Reviewed

MIM never shies away from

unpleasant tasks, so when debates over

pro-slavery symbols in the Georgia state

flag and the Dixie Chicks grab headlines,

we speak up. Nor is nostalgia for open

white supremacy limited to the South,

as seen in recent comments from Cal.

Republican Bill Back. The lesson

communists take from these incidents

is that "supporting majority rule when

the majority could well be Back or Lott

supporters is unacceptable." We also

review the film Gods and Generals,

aimed at the Civil War reenactment set.

See pages six and seven.

finding a just solution to the problem of
peace and security.

As a public service we review

propaganda guidelines put out by the pro-
I$rael Wexler Analysis (see page nine).
While admitting privately that I$raeli
settlements in Palestine are I$rael's

"Achilles heel,"
the guidelines
aim to place the
blame for the
inevitable failure
of the "road
map" on the
Palestinians.

Continued on page 4...

MIM Notes 282 · May 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.

People who want to receive newspapers should become sponsors and distributors.

Sponsors pay for papers, distributors get them onto the streets, and officers do both
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Mail), $3,840; 900 (8-10 days), $2,200. To become a sponor or distributor, send
anonymous money orders payable to "MIM." Send to MIM, attn: Camb. branch, PO Box
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Most back issues of MIM Notes are available free on our web site. The web site con-

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

long as we are credited.

For general correspondence, contact:

MIM

P.O. Box 29670

Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670

eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

MIM writes truth
about imperialism and
Iraq

MIM gives us the truth behind U.S.

imperialism and its dynamics. It is true

that anyone who supports the policies in

this country and its jingoism supports the

blood thirsty killers who are bent on totally

colonizing the Middle East to enrich

themselves even more with the Middle

Eastern natural resources. To even

further my statement, it is true that

anyone who perpetuates the economics

of the u.s. thru whatever way receives

blood money. Not only has the Middle

East been colonized but 90 countries have

been invaded by the filth of western

culture. Iraq is to be sucked into the

vacuum of America in this war in Iraq.

What is amazing to me is that there is

not one Muslim in this country even

attempting to at least protest this war. It

seems there are more whites protesting

the war in Iraq. A percentage of these

whites protest the war but they support

the decision to have Hussein removed

from office by the U.S. when the U.S.

has no business trying to dictate to anyone

but themselves. Domestic problems of this

country have not been addressed but yet

the taxpayer's money is going towards

this war in Iraq.

Another issue that is disturbing is the

Arab countries in the Middle East are

allowing the destruction of Iraq as we

speak. People in the world have their

priorities hideously mixed up. Anyone

with any sense of politics knows that this

war in Iraq is behind oil and Iraq's

geographical location to spy on Iran and

other neighboring Middle Eastern

countries. Organizations like MIM know

the real truth. This disease of the white

predatory political economy that must

create war must do what it does because

murder is a dynamic of the capitalist

system. Thanks to your organization's

publication we are kept abreast of those

facts.

-- A prisoner in California,

April 2003

MIM responds: We have seen many

Muslim individuals and organizations on

the streets protesting the war in Iraq.

Many Arab Muslims in particular

correctly tie this war to the situation in

Palestine where Amerika finances

genocidal colonialism by Israel. And by

making these ties they push the anti-war

movement to a broader understanding of

imperialism.

Aside from the anti-imperialists who

have led the anti-war organizing, the anti-

war movement has a liberal pacifist

character. This keeps it from addressing

the colonization of internal (and external)

oppressed nations--and in that sense, the

anti-war movement is indeed white and

held up by its compulsion to appeal to

middle Amerika. Spokespeople for the

liberal "anti-war" majority have ruthlessly

criticized the radical minority for failing

to reach out to the chauvinist white

majority--yet it's the anti-imperialist

minority that's actually accomplished

something. More proof that political line

and umph are what counts, not mere

numbers.

How does Uncle $am
spell relief?

Well, the U.$. has finally invaded Iraq

and as we know a win will guarantee a

long term oil supply for the capitalists'

economy. It's not only for profit but also

control as to foreign policy and oil

companies here in the u$. The capitalistic

government knows that Saudi Arabia will

begin to use its resources as influence

since they are the biggest exporters from

this oil rich region. So instead of seeing a

repeat of the oil embargo of 1973, the

capitalists jump on the chance to make

billions of dollars for Texaco, Chevron and

Exxon Mobil by waging war and give the

people the impression that they are

deposing a tyrant with weapons of mass

destruction and penchant for violence.

Also the stolen petroleum will help rebuild

the country it bombarded with its own

weapons of destruction.

--a New York prisoner March 2003

Keep up the good
work!

Dear MIM,

Greetings to all. First and foremost,

thank you for MIM Notes and the RAIL

website. These are sources of

information vital to the struggles around

the world and here in Amerika. With

today's mass media being the center of

censorship, it's nice to have REAL news!

Being an avid reader of MIM Notes, and

being somewhat of a writer myself, I have

written some poetry inspired from reading

MIM [printed on page 6]. I am not entirely

sure about your policies on submissions,

but I thought I would write and send you

these poems anyway. I have noticed a

few printed by you from prisoners in the

last few issues, I thought I would pass

them on. Delete them, print them, or

critisize them, I don't mind. I thank you

for your time, and your efforts. Your a

wealth of information, and I will continue

to read MIM and RAIL always.

Thank you,

--an Internet reader

MIM Responds: We welcome

submissions of news articles, short poetry

and artwork. Guidelines for news

submissions can be found at http://

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/

mnstyle.html. Ideas for artistic

submissions are also available: http://

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/art/

frustart.html.

MIM Notes 282 · May 15, 2003 · Page 3

Table 1. Summary statistics: April 2003 vs. April 2002

Statistic

April, 2002

April, 2003

% change

Number of different MIM web page files actively chosen from 3,784

3,436

-9

Avg. MIM pages served per day

1,977

3,735*

MIM data transferred

99 Mb/day

214 Mb/day

114

Number of different computers MIM served

22,875

51,029*

123

Amazon visitors sent from web page

213

677

218

Number of Art page users

Unknown

6,355

N/A

MIM Notes printed copies compared with pre-911

211

MIM prison circulation averaged over two months Jan 2002

112

*This report excludes all art, and most robots and developer hits for 2003 but not 2002

Table 2. Web traffic: March vs. April, 2003

Department

Mar-03

Apr-03

% chnge

Agitation

2,145

7,209

236

Bookstore

5,342

10,764

102

Albany

104

Chinese

787

1,204

Russian

135

FAQ

4,084

5,674

Classic quotes

564

763

New York City

Movies

1,482

1,995

Turkish

Contemporary controversies/countries page

842

1,088

What is MIM?

4,089

5,089

California

883

1,062

Black Panther page

4,303

5,101

Notas Rojas

1,127

1,318

Study packs

103

118

French

975

1,103

MIM Theory

2,882

3,240

Maoist Sojourner

223

248

German

207

230

MIM Notes

5,614

6,213

RAIL

2,350

2,570

Finnish

166

168

RAIL fliers (within RAIL page)

603

562

-7

Art

7,369

6,355

-14

April, 2003 Central Task Report

by PIRAO Chief, May 1, 2003

Again, thanks in part to the heroic

struggle of the Iraqi people against

imperialist invaders, April was a big

breakthrough month for the web page and

MIM Notes distribution. It's difficult to

celebrate when we know that much of

the interest in our web page arose from

the brutality of the war on Iraq and when

we also know we did not succeed in

stopping the terrorism of our government.

We did not maintain the blistering pace

of the first few days of April, because

the population largely concluded that the

"war is over." Attention dropped off and

then resumed at a higher and steadier

level toward the end of the month. For

MIM, the brightest spot is the

improvement of our agitation numbers

from low levels. Especially in the past

year, we seemed to be attracting people

more and more consistently for historical

and theoretical purposes. People were

reading more material and deepening

their understanding of MIM. Now we

have a "widening" trend going on with a

large influx of people looking at our web

page.

In this report we compare March with

April. We have to remember that March

has one more day than April and thus we

expect our monthly totals of people visiting

a web page to be lower if a department

merely stagnated. If number of visitors

only shrunk 3% over March in a

department, then the department was

stagnant, not actually shrinking on a per

day traffic basis.

This month, the Black Panther page,

MIM Notes 1-250 and the arts page each

had more hits than the home page. The

above table counts the languages all the

same way, based on number of visitors.

It reveals that Spanish is now language

MIM media keep growing

number two, Chinese third and French

fourth for our web page.

Of note on the agitation page, the first

article listed was not the most popular.

The most popular new April article was

"Amerikkkans: The Redcoats of the 21st

Century" with 503 hits.

We expect May will be another big

month for MIM. We are also working

again this year to see what we can do to

avoid the summer slump we usually see.

At the current pace of growth, MIM

would achieve the suggested Five Year

Plan for web page growth in less than

three years. If there are a number of

wars going on, perhaps MIM would

achieve the goal sooner. There are both

external factors beyond our control and

internal factors within our grasp. MIM

has never had a better understanding of

what it is that increases our web page

traffic. There is continuous demand for

our documents. Although at some points

in our history we have had trouble giving

out papers and articles fast enough, we

are definitely now in a position where we

cannot write material fast enough or find

enough money to get the material out

there.

On February 24 about 150 students

from the California State University

system's 23 universities rallied on the

steps of the capitol in Sacramento

protesting increased student fees. There

has already been a 10% increase in fees

this year and Davis has proposed

increasing them by another 25%.(1)

As MIM Notes reported recently,

Davis announced sweeping budget cuts

in January in response to a huge budget

deficit. However, after cutting funds from

nearly everything in the state, Davis

announced a proposed 1% budget

increase for the Department of

Corrections. Davis has accepted more

than $3 million in campaign contributions

from the prison guards' union, so it is no

surprise Davis wants to increase funding

for the powerful union. Contrast this

increase to his proposed reduction in

spending on education: a 4.2% decrease

for the University of California and a

4.5% decrease for California State

University.(2)

On March 1 MIM and RAIL attended

a conference on social justice for social

workers at Cal State Sacramento to

collect signatures to shut down the SHU

(Security Housing Units) control units in

California prisons, at the invitation of one

of the organizers. Several people

connected the issue of Davis' proposed

increase in the prison budget to cuts in

education funding.

The audience was largely supportive

with several attendees working in the

prison system and many people quickly

agreeing to sign the petition and

encouraging their friends to do the same.

Those who challenged us, claiming that

violent prisoners need to be punished and

isolated, were quickly shot down by

arguments from their fellow conference

participants who had worked in prisons

or studied the issue. They pointed out that

the SHU is used to target politically active

prisoners, that California prison guards are

notorious for setting up the violence and

gang fights they claim to be stopping, and

that the SHU only drives prisoners crazy.

The Third World Forum, a publication

by students at UC Davis, provides useful

information on a connection between the

prison and education issues: "The UC

employed Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street

investment bank that has become the

major financial backer of the U.S. prison

industry, to sell $196 million of bonds in

1999, $132 million in 2001, and $45 million

in 2002. This makes the UC one of

Lehman's biggest clients. Lehman made

a profit of approximately $2 million from

those deals. That is profit that was made

from capital which mostly came from

OUR student fees. A movement calling

for the UC to divest from it's stake in

Lehman is already underway.... This fight

is not impossible, recent history has taught

us that the University can be forced to

put People over profits when it was forced

to have Sodexho divest it's 10% state in

Corrections Corporation of America."(3)

This refers to the victory in 2000 when a

student movement on 60 campuses

forced campus caterer Sodexho-Marriott

Services to sell its leading stake in CCA.

MIM calls on education and prison

activists to connect these issues and join

us in the fight against the criminal injustice

system. Since 1984 California has built

21 prisons and only one public university.

The state ranks #1 in prison spending and

#43 in spending on public education.(3)

In California and across the country

Amerika is imprisoning more and more

Black and Latino youth while cutting

educational opportunities. To get involved

in the fight check out the latest news and

actions at http://www.etext.org/Politics/

MIM/agitation/prisons

Notes:
1. The State Hornet, CSU Sacramento, Feb 26,
2003.
2. MIM Notes #275, Feb 1, 2003
3. Third World Forum, Vol 24 #2, Feb. 2003.

California slashes education

budget, boosts prisons spending

MIM Notes 282 · May 15, 2003 · Page 4

shape Saddam Hussein's behavior:

"`Saddam, when you agree to do these

things, we will allow people to come in

and fix your electricity.'"(p. 139) The war

in Iraq never ended; hence to blame

failure on "diplomacy" as if military

means were not in use the whole time is

misleading.

In March 1997, Bill Clinton's U.$.

Secretary of State Madelaine Albright

said that even if Iraq complied with the

UN resolutions,(p. 47) the United $tates

would not lift economic sanctions against

Iraq, contrary to Paragraph 22 of the UN

Resolution 687 on Iraq. Needless to say

this gave Iraq little reason to cooperate

with UN arms inspectors and Iraq had

no choice but to consider war to end the

sanctions and deter the United $tates,

which clearly indicated that weapons

inspections were secondary to some other

U.$. goal in Iraq.

In 1998, Russia, China and France

asked the United $tates to uphold

Paragraph 22 if Iraq disarmed. On

October 30th, the United $tates said "no"

again.(p. 48) At this time, many (including

U.$. employees) realized that the United

$tates was stabbing the UN in the back,

and trying to force the UN to fail in order

to justify U.$. pursuit of other interests

besides weapons inspections.

In fact, the United $tates was caught

using the weapons inspectors to infiltrate

with a team of CIA spies attempting to

overthrow Saddam Hussein.(pp. 55, 201)

Whatever it was the United $tates was

trying to achieve, it was willing to sacrifice

the weapons inspections to stage a coup

against Saddam Hussein. Of course, Iraq

had no choice but to oppose inspections

that were not inspections.

Twice in 1998, the UNSCOM weapons

inspectors had to all withdraw from Iraq,

because the United $tates told Richard

Butler it was about to attack Iraq. When

Butler withdrew, he did not even tell his

boss--the UN Security Council--and

thus Russia, France, China and England

had no chance to stop the United $tates

from ruining the weapons inspections

process again. After the second time and

U.$. bombing of Iraq, the UN weapons

inspectors did not return. Richard Butler

temporarily covered up for the United

$tates by making up some lame excuses

for why the inspections had failed. Russia

and China exposed Butler to the whole

world in the UN Security Council in 1998

as U.$. bombing was going on. By his

own admission, when the United $tates

attacked, Butler was 6 to 8 weeks away

from completing all inspections and

certifying Iraq free of weapons of mass

destruction.

A US intelligence officer admitted in

February 2002 that the U.$. strategy was

"not to take yes for an answer" from

Iraq.(p. 61) Finally in April, 2002, Bush

and Blair held a press conference in the

open where they said "regime change"

was their goal. In such a circumstance, it

is useful for the imperialists to pretend

the weapons inspections failed when they

did. They can then justify "regime

change."

As we go to press, it's been over a week

of war, but the U.S. Government failed

to meet one of its stated objectives.

Planners had said they would have 48

hours to get Saddam Hussein before his

deployments of weapons of mass

destruction took place.(p. 161)

2. Myth: France stabbed the United

$tates in the back.

Fact: Going back several years, France

voted to enforce the existing UN

resolutions consistently, along with Russia

and China and occasionally England. The

French vote against war is consistent with

its earlier stances, the United Nations

charter and the relevant UN resolutions

on Iraq.

The United $tates did not want to allow

Iraq to resume oil exports or allow

weapons inspections to succeed, so there

was no way for the United $tates to vote

along with the other members of the

Security Council. Those members of the

Security Council wanted the original UN

resolution enforced but were unable to

enforce it, because the United $tates and

England had veto power. It is now a

matter of public record that the United

$tates all along had another agenda

besides enforcing UN resolutions.

3. Myth: Democrats would not have

carried out this war.

Facts: Bill Clinton was the one in charge

when the United $tates intentionally

sabotaged UN resolutions on Iraq

including Paragraph 22 of Resolution 687.

He also carried out military operation

"Desert Fox" against Iraq and attempted

a coup against Saddam Hussein by using

weapons inspectors for purposes other

than those declared by the UN. The

"Desert Fox" bombing in December, 1998

was against international law even

according to a one-time British Minister

of "Defence," Lord Healey.(p. 145)

Clinton's bombing of Iraq ended UN

weapons inspections until just before the

2003 war. As Colin Powell correctly

stated, the goal of "regime change" really

started under Clinton: "`We have had a

policy of regime change, which really has

been there all along but was crystallized

by President Clinton in 1998 at the time

of Desert Fox."(p. 75)

Under Clinton, there was also the 23

Tomahawk cruise missiles launched

against Iraq for a faked bomb plot against

Bush Sr. in 1993.(p. 132)

4. Myth: The Labour Party's soul

is against the war, so Blair cannot win

a vote by using democratic methods.

Facts: A March 2002 survey showed

that Labour Party supporters had higher

percentages in favor of war than either

the Conservatives or the Liberal-

Democrats. Labour and Conservatives

were essentially equal in their support of

the war.(p. 167)

Milan Rai said in 2002, "hence Mr.

Blair's decision not to put the invasion of

Iraq to a vote of the House of Commons.

The Prime Minister is determined to

launch what US hawks call a `war for

democracy' in Iraq by undemocratic

methods."(p. 7)

In 2003, we see that Milan Rai was

wrong: Blair did hold a vote and he won

it despite a defection of a minority of his

party. If the Labour Party were so

concerned, it could have removed Blair

in 2002, never mind 2003. True, the

Labour Party felt that this issue deserved

more discussion than any other issue in

recent decades, but in the end, it voiced

some qualms but went along with the

prime minister and Bush.

Milan Rai correctly pointed out that

Blair had a self-interest in making more

ridiculous claims than Bush did, because

Blair had more of a public opinion poll

gap to make up.(p. 118) All along, Blair

correctly perceived which way the public

would go. Once at war, 54% of the public

swung around to support him, up from

36%.(1) Blair had said about previous

polls in April 2002: "`It's hardly surprising

frankly if people are concerned about

military action at this present time because

we are not suggesting it at this present

time.'"(p. 165)

The reason for all this is that the peace

movement has too many bourgeois

democratic prejudices to be able to

understand the true nature of the power

struggle going on. That is why Blair won

it. Even if England eventually retreats

under repeated blows, the fact remains

that the English peace movement was too

weak to stop Blair's throwing the dice,

and taking a chance with the whole

world's survival.

On the question of "democracy," the

more relevant problem than fools who do

not understand electoral politics as well

as Blair does was the Conservative

Minister justifying support for the war by

"secret intelligence reports."(p. 119)

Justifying a war with "secret intelligence

reports" is fine in a monarchy or fascism,

but in "democracy" the citizenry is

supposed to be informed.

5. Myth: Colin Powell is a moderate

without influence in the Bush

administration.

Facts: Powell won the strategic battle

against Perle, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.

The United $tates went to the United

Nations and feigned interest in weapons

inspections one last time before

unleashing war in 2003. More crucially,

contrary to New York Times propaganda

attempting to protect and manipulate

Powell through his putative future

electoral base as a presidential candidate,

the basic military strategy in Iraq was

Powell's.

The "cakewalk" faction of

reactionaries so reactionary that they are

"radical" favored using Amerikkkan air

power to back an invasion of Iraqi exiles.

They believed that the Iraqis would greet

them with "flowers and song" while

throwing rice to their "liberators." The

"radicals" of the Bush administration

Rai and Chomsky give `ten reasons against war on Iraq'

Continued from page 1...

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 282 · May 15, 2003 · Page 5

believe that Amerikkka is so loved and

Saddam Hussein so hated that toppling

Saddam Hussein would be like toppling

the Taliban despite the fact that everyone

knew Saddam Hussein has several

divisions of regular troops and equipment

that the Taliban did not.

Ironically, Milan Rai shares the

assumptions of the Pentagon

"revolutionaries." He said the revolt of

the people to be liberated should have been

supported at the end of the first Gulf War

and the whole Republican Guard

annihilated when U.$. forces had the

chance.(p. 86) Some of the press

predictions about targets of the war that

said the United $tates would not attack

the Republican Guard in Gulf War II (p.

95) have proved wrong as we write this.

In contrast with the Pentagon

"revolutionaries" today, Powell argued for

use of overwhelming force (250,000

troops) and no reliance on "half-assed"

people with schemes about Iraqi exiles.

Even a compromise position of 80,000

troops fell to the wayside, so complete

was Powell's victory in the Bush

administration. 250,000 troops ended up

going and more may be on the way as

we write this.

An article in the New York Times

called on Powell to resign and another

New York Times article incorrectly

concluded Powell did not get what he

wanted on Iraq strategy, but Powell

replied that Gallup polls show he is still

popular for the job he is doing. Powell

himself answered the New York Times

on March 26, 2003: "`Personally, I'm very

much in sync with the president and he

values my services,' Powell told National

Public Radio."(2)

6. Myth: Nothing else works but

military force.

Facts: Nothing else has failed but

military force. All through history, the

United $tates has used the same means

it is using now and that has not stopped

terrorism, war and economic disaster.

The CIA created Saddam Hussein and

Osama Bin Laden and now we hear idiots

globally calling for the same means to be

used to rid the world of Saddam Hussein

and Osama Bin Laden, who themselves

were only the means of destroying

previous enemies.

The same reactionaries who said

Saddam Hussein was so evil and assured

us that he has chemical, biological and

nuclear weapons are now counting on

Saddam Hussein's good intentions not to

start a five or six digit slaughter of

Amerikkkans and possibly I$raelis. It

looks like something other than military

force is involved, because the United

$tates did not kill Saddam Hussein within

the first 48 hours as planned.

Saddam Hussein got his start with the

CIA by assassinating a "communist"

relative and providing lists of

"communists" to the CIA.(p. 97) Now

when something goes wrong with

Saddam Hussein the same reactionaries

are saying to use the same methods as in

the past. Once again the CIA is in there,

with Special Forces. Once again, the

United $tates is trying to make some deal

with the Kurds inside Iraqi borders, but

in 1963, the CIA supported the Kurds and

then spit them out. It delivered weapons

to Turkey and Iran to crush the Kurds.

(That's how Saddam Hussein's party

came to power in the first place. Junior

Saddam Hussein only climbed the ranks

with more of the same and won especial

favor from U.$. masters for his war in

the 1980s with Iran.)

Likewise, in 1991, Bush Sr. called for a

revolt of the people against Saddam

Hussein. The Amerikkkans allowed the

revolt to be crushed by Saddam Hussein.

In particular, they refused to let one Iraqi

rebel batallion have its weapons to fight

Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein

promptly slaughtered the rebel batallion,

once again with U.$. assistance.

We are told repeatedly thanks to a

computer programming glitch lasting more

than a week at www.abcnews.com that

the FBI is rounding up Saddam Hussein

supporters in the u$A. When will the FBI

start arresting the CIA? When will Bush

Sr. be put in the clink?

This should teach all Third World and

former-Soviet bloc people that solidarity

against U.$. imperialism has to come first

and foremost before everything else. The

U.$. uses its friends and then spits them

out. Ask Manuel Noriega or Saddam

Hussein.

What the peace movement in the

imperialist countries should learn from all

this is that the government is not serious

about ending terrorism. The only

beneficiaries of this continuous CIA/

military action are the arms dealers and

manufacturers. Give the weapons to one

side and then the other--make profits off

both.

People globally should also learn that

the United $tates will assume ANY guise

to get a job done. In the past and now the

CIA is posing as the most militant

communists in order to avoid being

detected. In order to install a king and

overthrow parliamentary democracy in

Iran in 1950s, the CIA organized a mob

of "communists," so that the military could

find a justification for seizing power in

August, 1953.(p. 100) We have to learn

when communists are getting things done

and support them, even if we cannot be

sure who they are exactly.

We of the peace movement have the

radical idea that we can actually PAY for

gasoline and thereby get along with

people, expand trade and create global

prosperity. We also see no reason to trust

our government officials to weapons

manufacturers and dealers willing to bribe

anybody for a short-run profit. Our means

to prosperity may not be as obvious as

selling weapons to opposing sides of a war,

but we believe the communist plan of

peace and prosperity is much more sound

for the long-run.

Noam Chomsky

In contrast with some other more

wilting writing of his recently, MIM

appreciates the chapter in this book. In

concrete form, Chomsky expresses

internationalism.

Chomsky points out that Bush is a

criminal even on bourgeois legal grounds.

Ironically, now that there are Amerikan

POWs held by Iraq, Rumsfeld is all

rhetoric about Iraq's respecting the

Geneva Conventions on war crimes, but

before the war started, Chomsky was

already criticizing the United $tates for

undermining the Geneva Conventions in

the Middle East. Even Bush Sr. as a

diplomat in 1971 admitted that I$rael was

violating the Geneva Conventions.

Despite this and numerous UN

resolutions, the United $tates never

enforced the relevant resolutions. "As

High Contracting Parties, the US and the

European powers are obligated by solemn

treaty to apprehend and prosecute those

responsible for such crimes, including their

own leadership when they are parties to

them. By continuing to reject that duty,

they are enhancing terror directly and

significantly."(p. 30) Just remember

Amerikkkans, when you see those

POWs on TV, what goes around comes

around.

Criticism of the book

We have a a few complaints about this

book. This goes for any book that attempts

to handle the details of war and imperialist

"foreign policy": in the process of refuting

lies or bringing forward history now

ignored in today's headlines, we have to

be careful about ending up sharing the

unspoken assumption of our opponents.

Quoting at length from former U.N.

weapons inspector Scott Ritter--who

voted for Bush after all--is an example.

To understand what the rulers are really

trying to do, we do have to read Ritter

and Milan Rai; however, if we end up

arguing forever in the Ritter vein, that Iraq

has no weapons of mass destruction or

that the best way to find out is to send in

inspectors (and not troops who may be

the victims of those weapons of mass

destruction), we will lose out on a

theoretical level.

For the public, we understand "theory"

often means "speculation" or "values,"

but for MIM, following Marx, Lenin and

Mao, "theory" is something even more

valuable than an individual fact, because

theory is a generalization about facts that

tells us how facts are linked together.

There are two keys theoretical aspects

missing from both the works of Ritter

and Milan Rai: 1) capitalist economic

organization as it ties to militarism. 2)

internationalism and how it is an

expression of the social forces capable

of bringing global peace.

We can see ignorant nationalism

masquerading as bourgeois democratic

prejudice in Milan Rai's statement, when

he calls the United $tates and England

"two of the freest societies ever to have

existed."(p. 189) Quite the contrary, the

United $tates imprisons more people

percentagewise than any other country

and England does more than anyone else

in the European Union.(3)

Milan Rai says "in the case of Iraq,

inspection is an option, and almost

certainly the only effective one."(p. 74)

This includes the assumption that the

causes of war and militarism cannot be

addressed effectively, so the United

$tates may continue to use weapons of

mass destruction while Iraq cannot. It's

quite ironic to see Donald Rumsfeld sing

the glories of capitalism and then fret that

northern Korea could sell nuclear

weapons for profit. Now the United

$tates is trying to stigmatize Russian arms

sales to Syria and Yemen as going to Iraq.

Russia replies that it sold arms quite

legally to Syria and Yemen. The United

$tates says those weapons then ended

up in Iraq. Anyone looking at Uncle $am

has to ask: "What are you bitching about?

Capitalism is the system you asked for!"

That is all details of one bourgeois

telling another that his or her sales are

illegitimate. The fact is that weapons

production is profitable all across the

world. Where there are sanctions as in

the case of Iraq, there are smugglers.

When it comes to smuggling, there are

people of all nationalities willing to take

risk for profit. That means there will be

attempts to supply demand wherever it

is.

On the demand side, there are also

more than a few bourgeois with an

interest in seeing the United $tates slowed

or defeated in Iraq. To think it is only Iraq

defending itself is a big mistake of

narrowness in thinking. That is why the

Arab League finally did condemn the U.$.

war in Iraq, with many quietly saying the

United $tates better suffer some in Iraq

or everyone will be tempted to knock off

Arab regimes at the drop of a hat.

All of the smuggling of arms and

expertise to Iraq is inevitable under

capitalism. Only a global socialist order

would eliminate the incentives to arms

smuggling. This raises another point: to

think for some reason that the

Amerikkkan bourgeoisie should have the

right to own and use weapons of mass

destruction while the Iraqi bourgeoisie

does not is not internationalist. Such a

thought cannot bring peace. Large

portions of the Milan Rai book and the

Ritter book carry the underlying

assumption that Iraq should be disarmed

but not the United $tates. At best, these

authors share a belief in international law

and the United Nations, a kind of

bourgeois internationalism which in

practice means hands off the United

$tates as the greatest bourgeois power

that cannot be stopped or brought to order

anyway.

Only socialist internationalism is the

ideology that can organize the forces that

can bring U.$. imperialism to order. There

is no other slumbering giant capable of

the task without fatal bourgeois

divisiveness.

Notes:
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/
2883171.stm
2. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-
iraq-usa-powell.html
3. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/
freecoun.html

Continued from previous page...

MIM Notes 282 · May 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.

U n d e r

c a p i t a l i s m ,

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

c a p i t a l i s t

aggressiveness

or "greed" as

the people call

it should not be

tolerated by

the proletariat.

After playing

R u s s i a n

Roulette (in

which the

bullet chamber

is different

each time and

not related at

all to the one

that came up in previous spins) with 100

chambers and one bullet, the chance of

survival is only 60.5% after 50 turns.

In other words, a seemingly small one

percent annual chance of world war

means eventual doom. After 100 years

or turns of Russian Roulette, the

chances of survival are only 36.6%.

After 200 years, survival has only a

13.4% chance.

What is militarism?

"Bill Back, a candidate in next month's

[February 2003--MC5] election for the

chairmanship of the California Republican

Party, has issued a statement apologizing

for distributing an article that suggested

the country might be better off, in

everything from race relations to

international affairs to morality, had the

South had won the Civil War."(1)

Back was already Republican Party

vice-chairman for California when he sent

out the article by William S. Lind of the

reactionary Free Congress Foundation in

1999.(1) Back's newsletter did not

comment against the article in editorial

notes either.

Despite the article that Back distributed

in his newsletter, some California

Republican Party members continued to

support him for chair of the California

party. Instead Duf Sundheim, the former

chair of the Lincoln Club of Northern

California won the position.(2)

The Republican Party in particular plays

on white fears of Blacks in most close

elections, because the U$A is crawling

with Amerikkkans like Lind. As a result,

some people suggest that we vote for

Democrats. However, Democrats

tolerate politicians like Back and Lott,

often by hushing up criticisms. At the very

least, they all hold that it is legitimate to

alternate office with the Trent Lotts and

Bill Backs of the world. In contrast, we

at MIM are intolerant of racism and

national chauvinism. We do not believe

that such people as Back and Lott should

have the right to vote--and that's one of

the reasons we favor the "dictatorship of

the proletariat," not bourgeois democracy.

These reactionary scum like Back and

Lott should serve only as a negative

political example in public discussion.

Supporting majority rule when the

majority could well be Back or Lott

supporters is unacceptable. All people, all

minorities have to have certain guaranteed

minimal rights before democracy (a.k.a.

"majority rule") can be non-threatening

to basic freedom.

The difference between those who

tolerate racism in a system of majority

rule and those who do not nicely separates

Liberals from communists. Whether they

call themselves communist or not, Liberals

tolerate racism and national oppression

one way or another at the highest levels

of state power and the economy. Truly

opposing racism means recognizing the

enemy when we see him or her--calling

a spade a spade instead of adjusting to a

power imbalance created by "majority

rule" in a majority Amerikkkan state.

Many people make excuses for racism

saying that it's an "ignorance" thing or a

"false consciousness" thing. However, in

fact, in the united $tates today, it's an

active enemy behavior.

To prove MIM right, on April 8th

Georgia's state government voted 111-67

to offer voters a chance at two state

flags, both with full-scale Confederate

pasts.(3) In 2001, the state government

voted to change the flag to put in a

miniature emblem of the Confederate past

instead of allowing the flag to serve as a

symbol of continuity with the

Confederacy. In MIM's opinion, even the

miniature emblem is a violation of minimal

minority rights that should exist in any

society.

This is not an example of "apathy."

Georgians elected Governor Sonny

Perdue over the issue of the changed flag.

The Georgian whites actively had to have

back their symbols of the slave South that

betrayed the Union in the U.S. Civil War.

Now Georgians will get a referendum

in which they will get to pick a new

Confederate flag or go back to the old

one in a subsequent referendum if the new

Confederate flag fails. Reverend Joseph

Lowery pointed out that the vote had the

support of white Democrats and Blacks

had to walk out in protest.(3) Nonetheless,

Black Democrats continued to say there

would be a Black-white alliance in the

Democratic Party.

This is where majority rule fails utterly.

There should not be a Black Democrat

left in the whole country after an event

like that in Georgia. Some will say that

the solution is for Blacks to form their

own nation; yet it's clear that with such

an attitude, white Georgia would continue

to menace a Black nation. The only

solution is the dictatorship of the proletariat

of the oppressed nations of the Third

World over white Amerika. There are

certain minimal "rights"--food, clothing,

shelter, medicine, freedom from racism

and national chauvinism--that only

intolerance can guarantee at the moment.

That's why we should all be communists

and seek allies in the Third World to bring

about the changes everyone needs.

The real friends of oppressed people

are not white Democrats, but the

oppressed people internationally. The war

on Iraq shows this clearly. Globally,

national oppression and white racism is

in the minority.

Notes:
1. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
4880564.htm
2. http://www.marinij.com/Stories/
0,1413,234~24407~1248596,00.html
3. http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/
politics/0403/10flagback.html

Georgia heads for Confederate past; another Lott gets caught

This lily-white, almost-four-hour-long

movie glories in commonplace, pompous

"historical" shibboleths: the kind of "wink-

wink" racism Trent Lott would enjoy. The

Civil War, the line goes, was not about

slavery, rather about northern industrialists

looking for a profit and southern patriots

fighting for their "self-determination"--

never mind that this included the "right"

to buy, sell exploit and torture other

humyn beings.

There are only two black characters in

the film, despite the fact that Blacks

played central political and eventually

military roles in the war. One is the slave

of southern General Stonewall Jackson,

who naively takes Jackson at his word

when Jackson claims the Confederacy

will someday free him.(1)

"Gods and Generals" is Ted Turner's

second multi-million dollar love gift to the

Civil War reenactment crowd--the racist

throng which uses their tacky parades to

glorify continuing war of attrition against

the oppressed peoples of Third World

nations in the guise of "cultural celebration

of their (white) ethnicities." The first was

1993's bore-fest "Gettysburg." In both,

slaveowners and those fighting to

preserve the "rights" of slaveowners are

"humanized"--while thousands of extras

are slaughtered for no apparent reason

than some old greybeard's "honor."

Stonewall Jackson--a raving

superstitious loon--is "Gods and

Generals'" central character. He is a

copy of Mel Gibson's "We Were

Soldiers" role: praying to god so he can

kill all his enemies. Like other Pentagon-

Hollywood axis movies, such as

"Blackhawk Down," "We Were

Soldiers," and "Collateral Damage,"

"Gods and Generals" is just another

psychological warfare movie to prepare

the minds of the American public to

patronize war the U.$.-Bush War of

Terror against the oppressed peoples of

the world in the United States and the

whole world.

Notes:

1. Yes, yes, we know, some southern

rebel leaders did eventually propose

freeing the slaves. But (a) they didn't,

and (b) it took serious military defeats at

Vicksburg, Gettysburg, etc. and Lincoln's

Emancipation Proclamation to force even

a few rebel leaders to consider such

"drastic" measures.

Gods and Generals: A

Racist Warmonger's Movie

Another Amerikan lunatic: Jackson.

MIM Notes 282 · May 15, 2003 · Page 7

there is evil among us

There is Evil among us.

Not what you may think,

not what you may dream,

but what remains unseen.

It is not in the minds,

of those who fight.

It is not in the minds,

of those who write.

It is not in the minds,

of those who spite.

There is Evil among us.

They dress nice;

white shirt,

red tie,

and blue eyes.

Breeding all those lies.

This Evil I speak of;

lives in a white house,

not in a bunker,

is a christian warrior,

not a jihad supporter.

This Evil deceives us,

blinds us.

Manipulates what we hear,

see,

and feel.

This Evil is real.

It extends its many arms,

to obtain what it desires.

This Evil bombs nations

It pretends it's for "freedom",

to obtain what it desires.

There is Evil among us.

Not what you may think,

not what you may dream,

but what remains, unseen.

--by an internet MIM Notes reader

what the flag
means to me

A growing trend inside Amerika,

red, white, and blue propaganda.

Pasted to belching deaths bumper,

reprinted in record number.

I can't turn away, for all I see,

is this display of national purity.

Can't anyone recall the party,

the banners hung from every house.

A genocidal christian plan,

to purify a nation.

They too hung flags for all,

this nationalism has gone to far.

Patriotism for corporate terrorism.

If you saw what some have seen,

or heard the blasphemous things;

you'd burn that flag in a hurry,

you'd question their authority,

you'd raise your fists loudly,

you'd demand the whole fucking

story!

These red, white, and blue bars,

hold us back inside its walls.

For freedom they say.

For those lost that fateful September

day.

Fuck you, I say.

I turn my flag to the symbol of distress,

I don't take pride in this fucking mess.

Murder, corruption, imperialism, and

greed.

This is what the flag means to me.

So wear is proudly, fiend.

Because I don't, I am your enemy.

--by an internet MIM Notes reader

"Home" (Sony 2002)

Dixie Chicks

The "Dixie Chicks" only caught our

attention because of controversy on their

stand on the Iraq War of 2003. Singer

Natalie Maines told a London audience,

"Just so you know, we're ashamed the

president of the United States is from

Texas."

For those who do not know, "Dixie" is

a word referring to the southern region

of the U$A. The U.S. Civil War was

about Dixie's attempt to form its own

country apart from the U$A. A "chick"

is a light-hearted but offensive reference

to a young adult female.

Originally the "Dixie Chicks" said on

March 12th, "We've been overseas for

several weeks and have been reading and

following the news accounts of our

governments' position. The anti-

American sentiment that has unfolded

here is astounding. While we support our

troops, there is nothing more frightening

than the notion of going to war with Iraq

and the prospect of all the innocent lives

that will be lost."

Maines further stated, "I feel the

President is ignoring the opinions of many

in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the

world. My comments were made in

frustration and one of the privileges of

being an American is you are free to voice

your own point of view."(1)

Unfortunately, "Dixie Chicks"

apologized on March 14th: "As a

concerned American citizen, I apologize

to President Bush because my remark

was disrespectful. I feel that whoever

holds that office should be treated with

the utmost respect. We are currently in

Europe and witnessing a huge anti-

American sentiment as a result of the

perceived rush to war. While war may

remain a viable option, as a mother, I just

want to see every possible alternative

exhausted before children and American

soldiers' lives are lost. I love my country.

I am a proud American."(1)

MIM was very sorry to hear the March

14th apology, because a war criminal and

the world's greatest international terrorist

deserves no respect whether he was

pseudo-elected or not. He wasn't

pseudo-elected to carry out "regime

change" in Iraq, only the U$A. Now we

at MIM understand that most "Dixie

Chicks" fans don't care enough about

politics to have investigated why MIM

says this about Bush, but surely they

realize that elected officials handed

power to Hitler and Hitler himself was

elected to office, so we cannot always

just respect people in office. We have to

be right about respecting them or majority-

rule will boil down to whoever

manipulates the ignorant best.

According to the "Dixie Chicks"

manager Simon Renshaw, the "Dixie

Chicks" won't be making more apologies

and stated they are in a no-win

situation.(2) Meanwhile, reactionary big-

mouth www.rushlimbaugh.com called for

a boycott of "Dixie Chicks." Rush

Limbaugh wondered whether they were

trying to spur European sales. MIM does

not know the motivations of the Dixie

Chicks, whether or not they were

frustrated with not being able to get their

kind of music to breakthrough in Europe.

"In response to outrage from many Bush

supporters, the country trio's songs were

pulled from several radio stations'

playlists, despite Maines' public

explanation ("My comments were made

in frustration ...") issued almost

immediately after the news broke. The

controversy took its toll at retail, as sales

of Home fell by more than 42 percent,

from 123,000 copies to 71,000. The LP,

which has resided near the top of the

chart for 30 weeks, will slide three spots

to #7."(3) (On the other hand, the first

few days of the controversy saw the

album go up two spots to #4 according to

Yahoo. "Dixie Chicks" were due to fall

anyway after being on the charts more

than 30 weeks.)

On TV, redneck protesters took "Dixie

Chicks" merchandise and used a steam-

roller to crush it all on the street. It's a

typical reaction in the united $tates when

fans don't like something their band did,

going back at least to when John Lennon

made some comments about god and

Jesus that the redneck public did not like.

Anyway, we checked out "Home" to

see if it has any content to it. Musically,

it's the standard southern jangle. There's

nothing innovative about it. It could have

been done in 1850 except for mentions

of the Vietnam War.

Fans report liking "Home," because it

sounds like angels singing in harmony and

has that "bluegrass feel," again another

Kentucky/southern reference. Strangely,

one reviewer is so enthusiastic he says

the "Dixie Chicks" "rock," which most

assuredly they do not, but this is the fan

perception of her music. Yes, this music

is polished. It will turn out that the

emphasis on harmony goes for the sexual

values espoused in the music as well.

The reason that "Dixie Chicks" are so

popular is that they are nothing new or

threatening. They are wives and mothers,

so even though they benefit largely from

their pictures of themselves [including

posing "naked" on a magazine cover in

the name of "free speech], they give off

the family aura at the same time. What

we mean is that if we took the same

music by a band of wimmin who were

just ordinary-looking it would not sell so

well. Then if we added in some lyrics with

some discontent in them, the result would

be disastrous for sales. "Dixie Chicks"

music is uncontroversial to its audience,

reactionary even.

"Travelin' Soldier" is now a famous

song about a womyn who stays in love

with a much older man who goes to war

in Vietnam. The song fell from #1 to #3

on the country charts (a popularity

measure) after the flap about Iraq.(4) In

love with the military, much of the rural

South and rural areas of the North which

are similar still believes that it was wrong

to treat returned soldiers from Vietnam

as war criminals when they were just

"serving their country." MIM does not

believe the returned soldiers got nearly

as bad a treatment from the population

(leaving aside government programs and

benefits) as the war-mongers say. If the

treatment were as bad and radical as they

make out, the world would have entered

socialism by now. For this sort, having

the sexy wives of "Dixie Chicks" soothe

their souls and promise to be loyal even

after war crimes was just the ticket to

popularity.

"Truth No. 2" may have mentioned

domestic violence, but it's surrounded in

the usual romance pop and not

threatening. "White Trash wedding" talks

about a man without the money to buy a

diamond ring and how father is not happy,

but a baby is on the way. It's an ancient

subject with no new angle from the "Dixie

Chicks."

The formula for wimmin pop stars

continues to the letter with "A Home"

the title of the album. Although it does

not mention genders or sexual

preferences, with the Dixie Chicks

singing it reads as a heterosexual womyn

regretting that she turned away the love

of a man who could have built her a

"home." Now she spends her time

wondering what the "home" would have

been like.

Then there is "More Love" and "I

Believe in Love." "Godspeed" also

mentions love and "Top of the World"

mentions Jesus. There's not a word of

intelligent discontent on this album and

that's what makes it popular.

We are not saying the patriarchy is any

Dixie Chicks: it ain't easy being bland

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 282 · May 15, 2003 · Page 8

more fierce in the South than the North.

There are some reactionary patriarchal

religions such as Mormonism that are

above average in oppressiveness.

Mormonism promotes child abuse masked

as polygamy, but a large swath of

Country-listening Amerikkka is probably

not that excessively religious.

Being in harmony with patriarchy like

the "Dixie Chicks" has its downsides, but

most of what calls itself "feminism" is

really more of the same, sometimes

worse. It's an open question whether

southern wimmin will be able to make the

transition to communism more easily than,

say, pseudo-feminist Northern wimmin.

The problem with this audience that used

to buy "Dixie Chicks" albums is that it's

a lot easier to say you are for "true love"

and "support our troops" than to know

what's wrong with gender relations

generally or what caused 911. It's clear

that albums like "Home" are actually

working hard to avoid "politics."

It's not easy to come up with this

material that is so consistently non-

controversial to southern whites. Our

questions to "Dixie Chicks" are as

follows: What if you love someone who

was a mass-murderer in Vietnam? What

if he was one of the troops going around

raping and killing wimmin and children?

What then Dixie Chicks? What if "support

Dixie Chicks: it ain't easy being bland

our troops" becomes a substitute for

addressing the causes of war? What if

every country supported war just because

its troops were in a perilous position on

the border of another country? These

"support our troops" types claim to be

non-political, but they are not. Their

emotions support war. We say "support

our troops" emotions and naive patriotism

in past wars actually caused 911.

Even though the "Dixie Chicks"

apologized and their music is ultra-

conservative, they oppose the war. For

that, we love them. People who are going

to buy this sort of tripe anyway might

want to keep that in mind. It is our hope

that the "Dixie Chicks" manage to remake

themselves, maybe abandon their musical

roots on the next album if they have to. If

they go beyond the pure emotions of love,

maybe they can keep a fraction of their

old audience and build for an audience in

Amerikkka and Europe ready to hear

some discontent.

Something the "Dixie Chicks" are going

to have to realize is that what they are

talking about is way beyond the vast

majority of Amerikkkans who choose not

to know more about politics, because of

their contentment, ironically expressed

partly as obsessing over Dixie Chicks.

According to UPI, "A Knight-Ridder poll

asked, `How many of the Sept. 11

hijackers were Iraqi citizens?' Only 17

percent gave the right answer: none."(5)

The war-mongers are the ones who buy

Dixie Chicks albums: "Overall, those

sectors of the public that supported Bush

in 2000 have been most eager for war

today. White evangelical Protestants and

rural citizens, for example, are big Bush

advocates today, as they were in

2000."(5)

People who do not understand the 100

million people of the Amerikkkan "Bible

Belt" and other rural evangelicals should

really encounter some before assuming

that all people are the same in Amerikkka,

which is a huge territory with 290 million

people and with more justification for

having more countries than some of those

in Eastern Europe or the Arab world

created by British colonialism.

Our advice to "Dixie Chicks" is that

the trouble with marketing music is that

marketing political discontent is not easy.

However, it would not be hard for the

"Dixie Chicks" to change to folk singers.

They could write peace songs for the

world and not be tied down to the country

music audience. That is our most realistic

and best hope for the Dixie Chicks.

Not all Amerikkkans care that much

what the Europeans say: "One reason for

this was suggested by the Pew analysts:

`In the U.S., college graduates are much

more supportive of maintaining close ties

with Western Europe compared with

those with no more than a high school

education (77 percent vs. 55

percent).'"(5) The "Dixie Chicks" are

proof that the criticism of Amerikkkans

by Europeans does count. If we can find

some whites in Europe to say the right

things, it does matter: keep it up

Europeans. Whether it is Mumia Abu-

Jamal's case or the Iraq war, there is

definitely a little adjustment that

Amerikkkan people can make from

looking at Europeans. Although France

and Germany are major imperialist

powers, the people there can sometimes

help whites to see themselves a little more

objectively in Amerikkka.

Notes:
1. www.dixiechicks.com
2. http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/
entertainment/2065117/detail.html http://
www.mtv.com/news/articles/1470769/20030326/
50_cent.jhtml?headlines=true
3. http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/
entertainment/2065117/detail.html
4. http://www.nynewsday.com/entertainment/
local/newyork/ny-
3194944mar30,0,2866443.story?coll=ny-nyc-
entertainment-headlines
5. http://www.upi.com/
view.cfm?StoryID=20030314-022023-3781r

Continued from previous page...

Gaza Strip (2002)
James Longley
2002

"Gaza Strip" is a film with a clear

political message delivered without any

filmmaker narration. The camera acts as

silent observer and documenter of the

atrocities experienced by Palestinians at

the hands of the Israeli government and

its military. As the director explains on

the film's website: "The Gaza Strip is

essentially an open-air prison for

Palestinian refugees, guarded on all sides

by the Israeli military. Barely 28 miles long

and 4 miles wide, it contains more than

1,200,000 Palestinians -- over one third

of them living in squalid refugee camps

built in 1948 to hold the people forced out

of their homes by the creation of modern-

day Israel. It is one of the most densely

populated places on the planet. Nobody

can pass through its borders without the

permission of the Israeli soldiers. Like the

West Bank, the Gaza Strip has been under

Israeli military occupation since 1967."(1)

Filmed in the first four months of 2001,

"Gaza Strip" focuses on a 13-year-old,

well-spoken paper boy, Mohammed

Hejazi. He explains the situation with the

occupation, the deaths of many of his

friends at the hands of the Israeli military,

and his reason for repeatedly returning

to throw stones at the Israeli tanks across

the barbwire fences.

During the filming Ariel Sharon was

elected prime minister (an event that

Mohammed denounces while also ranting

against Arafat) and the Israeli military

stepped up attacks in Gaza. In addition to

following Mohammed, the film includes

interviews with Palestinian women and

children whose homes were bulldozed,

and with many who witnessed the I$raeli

military's controversial gas attack in the

Khan Younis refugee camp. There the

military threw canisters of an unidentified

gas which hospitalized hundreds of

Palestinians. Friends also recall those who

died before the filming, particularly

children, many of whom were killed while

trying to collect scrap metal to sell, either

shot by Israeli soldiers or blown up by

bombs.

The film also includes scenes of

resistance, ranging from Palestinians

driving around a roadblock to marching

in political protests. The Palestinian

people in the film express hopelessness

about the current situation and a longing

for peace. They speak about how things

must change and how the Palestinian

people will not give up the fight.

This film is a stark reminder of the

hypocrisy of Amerika which denounces

Saddam Hussein for having weapons of

mass destruction (of which they can't

even produce evidence) while financing

the Israeli government as it terrorizes the

Palestinian people. Although it never

directly addresses the form of the

Palestinian resistance, after Mohammed

Hejazi talks about the deaths of all his

friends and speculates that he himself

would probably be better off dead the

audience can form a clear picture of why

Palestinian youth martyr themselves in

Life under occupation, up close and personal

suicide attacks on Israel.

Although Europe is broadcasting this

film, it has been turned down by all the

major TV outlets in the United $tates.

MIM recommends this movie for its

historical documentation of the situation

in the Gaza Strip in 2001.

Notes:
1. Gaza Strip web site, http://
www.littleredbutton.com/gaza/about.html

MIM Notes 282 · May 15, 2003 · Page 9

The Electronic Intifada recently

published a copy of a leaked

"communications manual" for allies of

I$rael in the United $tates. The manual

advises keeping Saddam Hussein alive as

a bogeyman for at least a year and voicing

sympathy with the Palestinian people

while blaming their poverty on the

Palestinian Authority. The Wexner

Analysis also admits that I$raeli

settlements on Palestinian land are the

"Achilles heel" of the pro-I$rael lobby and

says that the bad news in the "roadmap

to peace" is that the Amerikans expect

I$rael, not just the Palestinians, to abide

by roadmap's provisions. The 17-page

Wexler Analysis is available at http://

e l e c t r o n i c i n t i f a d a . n e t / v 2 /

article1395.shtml. We print some choice

excerpts here, with our responses:

Why the United $tates still needs

I$rael

"With all the anti-Americanism across

the globe and all the protests and

demonstrations, we are looking for allies

that share our commitment to security and

an end to terrorism and are prepared to

say so. Israel is just such an ally."(p.1)

By slala12@mim.org

Students greeted internationally

recognized pro-Palestine author and

activist Edward Said with a standing

ovation at a talk on 20 February at the

University of California, Los Angeles.

Said's speech then drew fire from Zionists

for its realistic assessment of I$rael's

attacks on Palestinian humyn rights since

the creation of the settler state in 1948.

Said said the misnamed Oslo Peace

Accords were "designed to postpone

Palestinian self-determination." While

concrete discussion of Palestinian

statehood was put off throughout the 90s,

United $tates and I$rael made facts on

the ground. They "partitioned and

appropriated Palestine in the name of the

`peace process,'" for example by building

illegal settlements.

Said also criticized the imperialist U.$.

media for intentionally distorting the

occupation of Palestine and making it

seem that the resources and military

power of Palestinians are equal to that of

I$rael. He said this is a gross

misrepresentation because the United

$tates funnels billions annually into I$rael,

to the tune of $18 million per day, in

support of the occupation.(1) This is in

contrast to the exaggerated clamor and

protest from u.$. warmongers and

Zionists which erupt whenever

Palestinians try to acquire weapons for

self-defense.(2)

Said likened I$rael to an apartheid state,

saying that Palestinians in I$rael were like

Indians under British rule and Blacks in

South Africa. The wall being constructed

around the West Bank and the electric

fence that surrounds the Gaza Strip turn

these territories into prisons, crisscrossed

by I$raeli-controlled roads and

settlements. At the same time,

Palestinians continue to be politically

powerless in I$rael proper. For example,

the I$raeli Law of Return grants

automatic I$raeli Citizenship only to Jews;

there is no such law for non-Jews.

Pro-Palestinian activism is growing

around the world, Said noted. "Free

Palestine" is a recognized progressive

demand; every recent demonstration

around the world against the [then]

impending war U.$. war on Iraq had a

pro-Palestine element. He said that at a

time when I$raeli forces are breaking into

offices and universities, destroying

computers, archives and destroying

Palestinian newspapers, university divest

campaigns are an important part of

fortifying Palestinian national identity and

actively showing solidarity with the people

of Palestine.(3)

When an audience member asked what

could be done now to end the I$raeli-

Palestinian conflict, Said said bluntly, "End

the occupation [of Palestinian lands seized

by I$rael in 1967]." He encouraged

everyone to continue to struggle and said

that people in the United $tates must stop

funding I$rael to shut down the I$raeli

war machine.

Said blasted the tired I$raeli tactic of

justifying I$rael's crimes against

Palestinians by invoking past injustices

against Jews and making it seem as if

I$raelis are the victims. He said that

humyn rights violations occur in proportion

to the military capacity of the belligerent

parties and that the vast inequity in

economic and military power between

I$raelis and Palestinians is reflected in

the scale of I$rael's violations of

Palestinians' humyn rights.

Said's closing remarks centered around

his concern for purely "humanitarian

interests independent of ideology" and the

promotion of his solution to the conflict

between I$rael and the Palestinians. He

envisions a single secular state in

Palestine where I$raelis and Palestinians

enjoy equal rights and equitable cultural

and economic ties. As proof that this is a

realistic goal in the present situation, he

pointed to his work organizing music

workshops in Europe with I$raeli,

Palestinian, and other Arab teenagers.

He argued that there is always some

intermingling of cultures and that building

walls is foolish, because ignorance of one

another is not progress.

What Said failed to realize is that the

walls erected around occupied Palestine

are not only cultural filters but I$rael's

real means of violently holding another

nation in bondage. (Furthermore,

Palestinians are not ignorant of I$raelis

and their culture. Palestinians and I$raelis

"intermingle" every day at military

checkpoints and the workplace--or they

did, before border closures kept

Palestinians from taking jobs in I$rael.

Such "everyday human intercourse" has

not fundamentally changed Palestinians'

problems, such as occupation,

landlessness and unemployment.) The

problems of rebuilding and economy and

putting an end to war in the Middle East

cannot be reduced to cultural differences

and will prove insurmountable for those

who distrust political programs in general.

Only a political program grounded in the

interests of the Palestinian masses and

the means to enforce it can achieve

democracy and peace.

Zionists disrupted Said's talk since the

beginning and attempted to deceive the

crowd by handing "programs" slandering

Said by claiming that he is a violent

individual and not really a "peace activist."

Many people crumpled up the flyers and

tossed them into the isle, others simply

shoved them back into the hands of the

Zionists. Other disrupters provoked

shouting matches and minor fistfights. But

they failed to shut down the event and

only succeeded in discrediting their own

position, which rests on ignorance (or

conscious distortion) of the truth.

Notes:
1. Zionism: The Forgotten Apartheid, 2nd Ed. P.
13.
2. "Imperialists find Excuses for War Against
Palestine" http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/
mn/mn252/Palestine.html
3. University of California Divest Campaign.
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/cal/
divestisrael.htm
4. "A Real Mideast Peace Initiative Owed by
the U.$."
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/cong/
mideastpeace2002.html

Author Edward Said speaks against I$raeli occupation

MIM responds: If Amerika wants

genuine security, it should cease its wars

of aggression and acquisition. A policy

of war towards the majority of people in

the world is no way to promote peace at

home.

On Saddam Hussein

"The day we allow Saddam to take his

eventual place in the trash heap of history

is the day we loose [sic] our strongest

weapon in the linguistic defense of

Israel."(p. 4)

MIM responds: In other words: let's

keep the war-time lingo alive as an excuse

for keeping Amerikan military aid flowing.

On the settlements

"`SECURITY' sells. Security has

become the key fundamental principle for

all Americans. Security is the context by

which you should explain Israeli need for

loan guarantees and military aid, as well

as why Israel can't just give up land. The

settlements are our Achilles heel, and the

best response (which is still quite weak)

is the need for security that this buffer

creates."(p. 3)

MIM responds: The settlements in the

West Bank and Gaza are in violation of

international law and scores of U.N.

resolutions. Their presence, and the

I$raeli army's defense of them, robs the

Palestinian people of their security.

Palestinians are unable to travel, work,

attend school, shop for food or obtain

medical care without passing I$raeli

checkpoints. Apartheid for the

Palestinians would be too high a price for

I$raeli security--and in fact it undermines

I$raeli security, just as U.$. military

adventures undermine Amerikans'

security.

Lip-service to the Palestinians

"You need to talk continually about your

understanding of the `plight of the

Palestinians' and a commitment to helping

them. Yes, this IS a double standard (no

one expects anything pro-Israeli from the

Palestinians) but that's just the way things

are."(p. 3)

MIM responds: I$rael has a state, and

an army that helps deprive the Palestinian

people of their own state with U.$.3 billion

per year. On top of this I$rael needs kind

words from the people whose necks are

under its boot?

Anyway, it's not true "no one expects

anything pro-I$raeli from the

Palestinians." The U.$. government has

always insisted that Palestinians recognize

I$rael and its security before substantive

peace talks begin--never mind that their

favorite whipping boys like Yassir Arafat

have long conceded these points in

principle.

On Mahmoud Abbas

"The emergence of Mahmoud Abbas

as the new Palestinian Prime Minister

comes exactly at the wrong time. His

ascent to power seems legitimate. He is

a fresh face, and a clean-shaven one at

that. He speaks well and dresses in

western garb. He may even genuinely

want peace."(p. 13)

MIM responds: This is the same sort

of racist claptrap that I$rael uses to justify

keeping its own "security" at the expense

of the Palestinian people. In truth, the pro-

I$rael lobby doesn't want a just peace

any more than the I$raeli government

does.

The pro-I$rael propaganda machine: a peek behind the curtain

MIM Notes 282 · May 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

California plans to
build SHU in every
prison

Dear MIM Notes,

Respects extended to you and all those

in struggle. I write in appreciation of

receiving MIM Notes Dec/Jan issues

together. Yes, to a surprise I received

them with not a problem from this place.

I've shared the MIM Notes you sent with

other comrades and they've enjoyed it,

and say they will be writing to you as well.

Currently I'm in an Administrative

Segregation Unit (ASU). Within the past

year or so they have opened up new

buildings of ASU in Corcoran which I've

personally went through. Here in SVSP

they're about to open up one of those new

ASU buildings here. And they're going

to start housing SHU inmates in those

buildings. Rumor has it that each prison

will now house their own SHU, ASU and

General Population inmates.

-- a prisoner in California, April 2003

MIM responds: We have also heard

this rumor about the CDC building

Security Housing Units (SHU) in every

prison. MIM is waging a campaign to

abolish all SHU units in California as

brutal torture chambers used to punish

prisoners who advocate for their legal

rights. Prisoners are sent to these isolation

cells for years at a time, and many of

them go crazy and become physically ill

from the sensory deprivation and

inadequate facilities and recreation. To

get involved in this campaign contact us

or visit our web site at http://

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

prisons/campaigns/ca/ca.html.

California SHU
visitation `rights'
revoked

Effective March 20, 2003:

* No more prisoner "right" to personal

or attorney visits

* All non-contact visits for prisoners in

administrative segregation (AD-SEG) and

security housing unit (SHU) shall be

limited to one hour (see new title 15 CCR

section 3170.1(f))

* There will be no visiting for

prospective visitors who have suffered:

a felony conviction within three years, two

felony convictions within six years, three

felony convictions within ten years. (see

new title 15 CCR section 3172.1(b) (2))

* Prospective visitors shall be subjected

to contraband detection devices (see title

15 CCR section 3173.2 (c ))

Visits are now considered a "privilege"

and not a "right", even attorney visits!

-- a prisoner in California SHU, March

2003

California prisoners
study group grows

I send salutation and greetings to you

in the great desire that your efforts may

accomplish your noble goals. First and

foremost I would like to express my desire

to participate in your group study (MT11).

I am more than able to receive and meet

the four requirements for this course. I

plan to share these studies with all that I

can reach. I am sending $10 to donate

and to help cover any cost in this study

and possibly help someone who may not

be able to afford it at this time. I believe

this study is greatly needed in California's

Enslavement system. Over the last few

years in California prisoners have

forgotten that the struggle that prisoners

went through in the 60s and 70s to obtain

the few rights that we prisoners have in

this state. Now California and the courts

are systematically taking every right that

was fought for. I firmly believe that

education is the only way to empower

prisoners so that we may achieve any

realistic goals.

-- a prisoner in California, April 2003

MIM responds: United Struggle from

Within (USW), the MIM-led prisoner

organization, is leading a MIM Theory 11

correspondence study group in California

prisons. We asked all participants to send

$3 to help cover the cost of the group

and appreciate some comrades sending

more money to help those who have

nothing to send. By running study groups

like this one we educate and organize

prisoners in the fight against imperialism

in general and the criminal injustice

system in particular. To organize a study

group in your state contact MIM.

Study group material
censored in California

Dear MIM,

Revolutionary greetings. Thought I

would inform you of the developments

after round 1 in the fight against CCI for

the illegal censorship of your invitation to

join the USW study group. Captain

Stradley is a real devil. The procedure: I

receive an invitation to join. I then contact

him, and the education department for

approval. I do not need their approval to

receive an invitation to join; only to

participate. He understands this fully. As

you can see from his response on this

request I sent for an interview, he is

starting to shovel a lot of shit! This

administration is like that from top to

bottom, as wrong as two left shoes. But

make excuses that don't fit with the facts.

--a prisoner at CCI Tehachapi, April

2003

MIM adds : the request for an

interview was returned to this prisoner

stating "according to the letter sent to us

by [MIM], they sent you information

about a correspondence course, which

was apparently returned to them as

`unacceptable at CCI.' The attached

letter with my signature is to explain to

MIM the process you must follow to be

approved for the course. You may contact

the SAI via this type of request and obtain

the necessary form for approval to

participate in the course." Of course if

the prison will not allow us to send in a

letter to invite this prisoner to participate

in a course, he can't get permission to

participate.

More recently the prison at Tehachapi

censored a letter sent to another prisoner

who had joined the study group which

contained study questions for him to

answer. It included a note stating that this

material required approval of the

education coordinator. The prisons do not

provide any education programs

themselves and then make it impossible

for prisoners to participate in the few

programs available to them like study

groups offered by MIM. To protest this

censorship send letters to Warden Art

Calderon, California Correctional

Institution, PO Box 1906, Tehachapi, CA

93581.

Fighting censorship in
California prisons

I have taken this matter [a mail

problem] to the director's level in

Sacramento, California in a 602 inmate

appeal process. Informal, formal, first,

second and third levels. The outcome

ended in denial. This mail issue is filed

and pending in court under civil rights act

42 U.S.C 1983. My complaint so far is

mail tampering (especially legal mail),

refusal to give access to legal and regular

mailing supplies, and censoring certain

mail.

If there are any more complaints in the

mail area, please file and help this struggle

on this part. This is a very important thing

so people on the outside and inside let's

work to win our mail rights inside prison.

--a prison in California, April 2003

MIM responds : We need our

comrades behind bars in California to take

up this censorship battle. As our

organizing has expanded in California

prisons so has the censorship. Books and

magazines we send in to prisoners in

Tehachapi are being censored, and letters

as well as other literature are being

censored at CSATF in Corcoran. We have

also experienced sporadic censorship at

other prisons in the state. MIM does not

have the resources to fight this censorship

alone. We need prisoners to appeal the

censorship, and pursue it to the courts if

necessary. We will always notify you if

we learn our mail to you has been

censored, and we can send you our

resource guide to fighting censorship, but

we need your help to win this battle.

Censorship victory in
Alabama

The Southern Poverty Law Center has

gotten it approved for prisoners to receive

MIM Theory. So please forward me MT8

and 14. Your protest letters also had

something to do with the lifting of the ban

on MIM Theory and the justice

Department investigating my case and

other acts of brutality at Limestone. They

visited the day after I returned. But I don't

expect too much from them. But it helps

document the brutality here. I'm also

awaiting trial on 3 charges of 2nd degree

assault against DOC officials. The same

charges from the incident I mentioned a

while back. They are trying to cover their

asses by charging me instead of losing

employment. Nothing I didn't expect

though.

-- a prisoner in Alabama, April 2003

MIM adds : This prisoner was sent

MIM Theory in July 2002 and it was

censored and the prison told him that no

MIM Notes 282 · May 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.

mail from MIM would be allowed in. He

took up the fight, got the support of the

SPLC and pursued it until victory. We

need more comrades like this to help

secure prisoner's rights to receive

literature.

Resistance from
within Management
Control Units

I extend greetings of solidarity and

strength to those who remain intransigent

in view of the ongoing onslaught of

oppression. Brothers and sisters, due to

the fact that MIM does not publish the

names of comrades, all my

communications will be addressed to you

as Matulla. I will also be submitting future

articles on a variety of issues, and petition

you all to become or remain active with

MIM as we strive for a revolutionary

vanguard to defeat imperialism and this

repressive prison industrial complex.

I have been reading of your struggles

against our oppressors, even as you are

interned deep within the belly of the beast,

i.e. MCU, SHU, etc. This isolation and

its barbaric nature are common to you

and I. However our seclusion must solidify

our opposition to repression, and must not

cause you to become dispirited. We must

continue to resist and withstand the force

and effect of their deceptive practices.

I have been subjected to every form of

terrorism and brutality that the state can

throw at me. I've been beaten and

tortured, starved and whipped. They've

tried to break me, and desired to see me

crawl. Instead I decided on resistance by

any means possible. Don't get me wrong,

I am no hero, and sure as hell would like

to have been someplace else, but like

many of you, I understand why it is so

important to defy our captors, even while

we fight to survive, literally in hell. It is

also important that you have the support

of those on the outside, which is the

primary reason I've been effective.

In spite of my circumstances, my

resolve is steadfast, because I fully

understand why I'm being subjected to

the draconian degrees of selective political

persecution that I have been forced to

endure over the past 4 1/2 years. I am

innocent of all the repressive

administrators' false allegations. Because

I am militant, I am being subjected to

selective political persecution by the state

for merely entertaining such militant

thoughts.

I'm aware of many of the conditions

you speak of at your facilities, if not all.

Many prisoners, here as throughout the

united $tate$, are placed in these

[isolation] units without having broken any

prison rules. Prisoners who have been

identified as being politically subversive,

or incorrigible (political), and possess or

display leadership qualities or potentials

are assigned to the prison's repressive

"MCU" and/or "SHU" unit(s).

Many of these placements are based

solely on uncorroborated administrative

or confidential informant reports that are

never provided to the prisoner before or

after the classification hearings so they

can prepare some type of defense against

the confidential informants

uncorroborated allegations, or seek some

kind of redress after the fact, via the kourt

system (which often sides with the

repressive prison administrators).

Some prisoners (political and apolitical)

are placed in the MCU, SMU or SHU

before they are convicted or right after

they are sentenced on the charges they

are arrested for. In general, these units

will base its decisions to intern a prisoner

in these units upon its evaluation of the

following factors: records of past

imprisonment, disciplinary records, prison

records on work assignments, adjustment

to prison programs, records on past

housing assignments, attitude toward

authority, psychological makeup, and

involvement in political, social and criminal

activities while in prison. In many

instances prisoners are isolated due to

their involvement or alleged involvement

with street organization.

We must also begin to take an in depth

look at the goals of these units and how

they achieve these goals. Politicized social

prisoners, political prisoners, some

radicalized religious prisoners, prison

lawyers, apolitical prisoner leaders or

potential leaders are isolated from the

general population with the goal of

reshaping their beliefs or to

psychologically break us.

During my years in the MCU, SHU and

SMU units I've seen prisoners renounce

their political, religious and "gang"

affiliations in order to win their release

from these repressive units. It has long

been my position that convictions are not

a matter of convenience, because if an

individual is serious about his or her

convictions, no matter the consequences,

he or she will remain true to them. I have

seen prisoners suffer emotional

breakdowns because they could no longer

cope with the constant lockdown. They

sometimes start taking the mind-

controlling psychotropic drugs

administered by the psychiatrist, to escape

the realities of this never ending insanity.

Brothers and sisters, being in captivity

is a terrible adversity. Many prisoners are

affected in different ways. I've witnessed

many become complacent in an

institutionalized way, capitulate, or they

become more rebellious and speak of

vengeance. Other prisoners start

identifying with their oppressors, the

guards, and start seeing them as being

humane instead of sadistic. They develop

hostile tendencies towards other prisoners

who recognize and expose the true sadistic

nature of the guard. It all depends on the

individual prisoner and his internal

composition over a protracted period of

time.

My petition to you is that you withstand

the direct frontal assaults being unleashed

against us. We must all continue to

struggle, even while interned in the belly

of this most relentless beast.

I too am subjected to the same

deprivations as you, which are designed

to make us kow-tow. Restricted contact

visits, restricted law library access, "no"

work and education privileges, restricted

religious access, as well as having my

correspondences and reading materials

carefully scrutinized (more so than the

prisoners in general population.) In

addition, we are carefully searched every

time we leave the control unit (going and

coming ) in the presence of two armed

security guards carrying black night sticks

that they call "nigger beaters." We are

subjected to restrictive outside recreation

and 24 and 23 3/4 hour days locked down

in these cages year-round.

In reading your missives to MIM, many

of you have been given the same options

as I to obtain release from these

repressive units. They have advised me

that I need to improve my social profile

and abandon my oppositional stance prior

to release consideration from the MCU.

Renouncing my politics will never happen.

I've never contemplated the thought of

being apolitical again in my life because I

have suffered so, and to pay homage to

the late George L. Jackason, I want to

say there is no turning back from

awareness because it is our obligatory

duty to act once we become aware of

what is, as well as what must be done

and not just spoken about.

MIM has been active when it comes

to about the history and reality of control

units, i.e. SHU, MCU, SMU etc.,

especially in the state of California. We

must do our part as prisoners, to organize

and form a collective behind the walls to

assist them. If this means resisting

physically we must resist. If we must die,

let it not be like hogs, hunted and penned

in an inglorious spot.

Other prisoner support organizations,

and most advocates, lose interest after a

while because combating the existence

of SHUs and control units necessitates a

protracted commitment and most people

are not willing to make such a

commitment. In addition, prisoners around

the country who have experienced the

fascist repression of these units and prison

existence do not stay the course upon

release. Many ex-prisoners don't help

those who helped them and stayed the

course with them when they were locked

down deep in the repressive confines of

some state or federal SHU and/or control

unit. Once released they failed to act upon

the promises they previously made about

advocating the propaganda of serious

struggle in the community at large.

I encourage all of you to remain strong

and uncompromising. We must work

relentlessly to replace the bourgeois

injustice system with proletarian justice.

-- Matulla, a prisoner in Alabama, April

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 282 · May 15, 2003 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

mayo 15, 2003, Nº 282 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

¡Opongase a

la ley

patriota!

Algunas secciones de la Ley Patriota que fue ratificada en Octubre

del 2001, serán vigentes sólo hasta el año 2005 si el congreso no elige

reintegralas. Ahora el gobierno de Bush busca hacer permanentes

éstas secciones de la ley.

La Ley Patriota aumentó los poderes del gobierno para poder espíar

en secreto por medio de conexiones telefónicas, diriguir busquédas

secretas de casas u oficinas, emplear evidencias conseguidas

ilegalmente por medio del cateo y desposesión y también permité

encarcelar y deportar a extranjeros sin evidencia de delito.

El Senador Orrin Hatch redactó una propuesta para hacer

permanentes éstas cláusulas de la Ley Patriota. Segun el New York

Times "muchos Demócratas se han frustrado por lo que ellos

interpretan como la falta de información del Departamento de Justicia

sobre cómo sus agentes usan éstos nuevos poderes, y dicen que

necesitan más tiempo para saber si los agentes han abusado éste

poder." (1) El MIM dice que ya se sabe como usa el Dapartamento

de Justicia éstos poderes. No hace falta más tiempo para asesorar a

los agentes y se deben revocar de inmediato.

El Washington Post reportó "que segun el testimonio de funcionarios

y otros documentos el FBI ha mandado muchas "cartas de seguridad

nacional" que exijen que negocios entregen registros electronicos de

sus archivos finacieros, registros de sus llamadas telefónicas, de su

corréo electronico y otros datos personales. Segun los funcionarios,

éstas cartas son un típo de citación administrativa que el FBI envía y

que sólo son revisadas por un juéz si el asunto llega a las cortes.

Segun el testimonio del congreso, el Ministro de Justicia, John D.

Ashcroft ha firmado más de 170 "ordenes de emergencia sobre el

espíonaje extrangero," el quivalente a tres veces la cantidad de éstas

que han sido autorizadas en los últimos 23 años. La ley federal permite

que bajo especificas circunstancias el Ministro de Justicia levante

éstas ordenes secretas para espíar por telefóno y llevar acabo

busquédas de sospechosos terroristas y otras amenazas a la seguriadad

nacional. Éstas ordenes se pueden imponer por 72 horas antes de ser

revisadas por un juez de la super secreta "Corte de Investigaciones

de Espionage Extrangero." (2)

Otra nueva propuesta del Senado eliminará el control que requiere

que los agentes federales demuestren que un sospechoso esta

relacionado con un gobierno o agente extranjero para poder recibir

una orden de de investigación secreta. De hecho los agentes podrán

justificar el espionaje sobre cualquier persona sólo por decir que la

persona es un terrorista. Los republicanos quieren unir la propuesta

de Hatch para hacer permanentes las cláusulas de la Ley Patriota

con ésta nueva propuesta del senado. Algunos republicanos dicen

que ésto es sólo una amenaza para que los demócratas no enmienden

la propuesta del senado. Pero ésta bien claro que antes del 2005

habrá un esfuerzo para hacer permanetes ciertas cláusulas de la Ley

Patriota.

Si el gobierno yanqui quiere que éste pais permanesca fuera de

peligro no debería de bombardear a personas inocentes alrededor del

mundo en su frnética busquéda por más riquezas y la hegemonía

mundial. Éste típo de agresión levanta la ira de los pueblos del mundo

y ninguna cantidad de espionage ni controles domésticos al estilo

fascista podrán lograr la paz y la seguridad.

Fuentes consultadas:

1. New York Times, 9 Abril, 2003.

2. Washington Post, 24 Marzo, 2003.

¡Defienda las libertades civiles en contra

de el ataque "anti-terrorista"!

Al congreso de EE.UU.:
Con el proyecto de la Ley de Refuerzo de la Seguridad Doméstica de 2003-Domestic
Security Enhancement Act of 2003- (DSEA), o la "Ley Patriota II", el Departamento de
Justicia propone aniquilar la libertad de expresión y de asociación, la protección contra el
cateo y la desposesión injusta, el derecho de ser libre de castigo cruel y raro, el derecho
de asesoramiento y de un proceso justo, rápido y público en los procedimientos judiciales.
También eliminará los controles y balances entre las agencias policiales y las cortes y le
quitará al público su derecho de enterarse de lo que hace el gobierno.

Al ser aprobada el proyecto de ley Patriota II:

· autorizará detenciones secretas incluyendo detenciones de testigos materiales
que no han sido enjuiciados por ningún crimen;
· prohibirá que los abogados de defensa desafíen el uso de evidencia secreta;
· prohibirá el derecho de demandar bajo la Ley de Libertad de Información con el
fin de conseguir información sobre personas detenidas;
· autorizará detenciones y extradiciones de ciudadanos, residentes legales y
extranjeros a países sin tratados de extradición y sin tomar en cuenta su record
de derechos humanos;
· revocará el estatus de residente legal e incluso la ciudadanía de las personas
que participen o apoyen las acciones legales de organizaciones que el gobierno
denomina "terroristas;"
· bajo una neuva clasificación para las investigaciones del terrorismo llamada
"vigilancia de seguridad domestica" se rebajarán los estándares de investigación
criminal;
· proporcionará penas mayores para los extranjeros que cometen ofensas
comunes de inmigración; y
· permitirá la rapida deportación de personans a cualquier país del mundo e
incluso aquellos países sin gobierno.
La Ley Patriota II sacrificará las libertades básicas garantizadas por la Constitución y de
hecho hará daño a la seguridad de la gente que vive en E.E.U.U. Nosotros nos
oponemos a esta legislación.

Atentamente,
Los Abajofirmantes

Nombre

Ciudad

Edo.

Código Postal

__________________________________________________________________