MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes

August 1, 2003, Nº 285

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

INSIDE: Harry Potter & Terminator 3 * Prisons * Una Página en Español...

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext

New inter-

imperialist

contradictions

coming to the

surface

by mim3@mim.org

July 18 2003

An unscientific poll by CNN shows that

over 80% no longer believe Bush's story

about weapons of mass destruction. Most

now think there were no weapons of mass

destruction (WMDs) in Iraq just before

the Amerikan invasion. For the first time,

WMDs matter to a majority of

Amerikkkans. "Less than a majority said

the war would be worth its costs if such

weapons were not found, down from 56

percent in May."(1)

Before the issue of Bush lying about

WMDs came up, oil for the SUV and

pick-up truck was good enough a reason

to go to war for Amerikkkans. But now

that it looks like the imperialists lied to

their labor aristocracy partners, a majority

wants to see those WMDs. It's not that

Amerikkkans cared what the WMD

issue meant for Iraqis or even U.$. troops

in Iraq. But add in the issue of imperialists

misleading the labor aristocracy, and

suddenly it all comes apart. Even

bourgeois business partners want the

correct business information from each

other, so there's nothing too radical or

surprising about the Amerikan public's

interest in this question.

Still, Bush's overall approval rating

remains around 60%.

As the Bush story on Iraq unravels,

MIM would like to point to further areas

BIG BROTHER

DOESN'T

ALWAYS KNOW

What the flap

over WMD in

Iraq reveals for

the underdog's

struggle

Often we at MIM hear an argument

that amounts to saying political struggle

is useless, because Big Brother spends

11 digit money each year to spy on

everyone with everything from satellites

to submarines. Arab media said that

Uncle $am knew the color of Saddam

Hussein's underwear. The website

"marxists.org"(1) recently said it is

possible to track every computer by

placing devices "upstream." The point of

such arguments is that it is futile to

struggle against Big Brother, a.k.a. Uncle

$am, so we must join Uncle $am in a

political fight by Uncle $am's rules--yet

the flap over the weapons of mass

CENSORED

Many prisons

keep MIM

literature out

This is the third of MIM's regular

reports on censorship in the Amerikan

prisons. MIM sends in our newspaper,

MIM Notes, free to prisoners who ask

for it. We also send political books and

pamphlets (by MIM and by others) to

politically active prisoners. We face

tremendous censorship in this work with

prisoners. Prisoncrats across the country

frequently refuse to deliver books,

magazines and newspapers. At the same

time we work with our comrades behind

bars, sending many letters back and forth

discussing politics, global affairs, the

criminal injustice system and organizing

work. Even these letters are frequently

censored.

This censorship is not surprising since

prisoners are a group of people in

Amerika with much revolutionary

potential. Prisoners are disproportionately

oppressed nationals, primarily Blacks and

Latinos. And their interaction with the

criminal injustice system and forced

confrontation with the political nature of

the system instills a strong interest in

politics and a drive for justice. The prisons

have to resort to censorship to keep

prisoners from learning more about politics

and applying their knowledge to fight the

injustice system. This is what the prisons

mean when they reject MIM literature

as "a threat to institutional security" or

"threat to legitimate penological

objectives" as the Washington state

Department of Corrections is fond of

stating. Nowhere in any literature MIM

sends to prisoners is there anything

advocating violence or illegal acts in the

prisons, contrary to many prisoncrats'

claims.

Frequently we get justification like this

one from Illinois: "Return to sender; Items

not permitted in institution" giving no

explanation for the censorship. MIM and

U.$. lackeys in Peru

scapegoat London

writer and speaker

revised July 18 2003

According to the newspapers in Peru

and the Yahoo! featured Europe Press,

Spanish authorities arrested Adolfo

Olaechea on July 4. We do not have

reliable details, but a number of sources

claim that Adolfo Olaechea was in Spain

on a business trip.

The ambassador from Peru asked for

Adolfo Olaechea's extradition to Peru as

a "terrorist" connected to the Communist

Party of Peru and the civil war in Peru

since 1980, an armed struggle that only

started years after Adolfo Olaechea left

Peru.

The headline on Yahoo! reads

"Peruvian terrorist Adolfo Olaechea . . "

So it is these days that the Yankee-

induced hysteria about "terrorists"

reverberates around the world--par for

the course in this whole "anti-terrorist"

fad of the rulers used to cover every kind

of opportunism and misdeed.

For most of 40 years Adolfo Olaechea

has not been in Peru. He has been a

permanent resident in England for 25

years. According to an interview in El

Comercio, and because he was not a

member of the Communist Party of Peru,

he had a document from the Peruvian

Embassy allowing him to travel in Peru

and consequently he had no difficulty with

travel to Peru for two weeks. So the

question arises, why does this charge of

"terrorism" come up now, if no Yankees

are pulling the strings. As the El Comercio

interview points out, the people heaping

abuse and charges on him in the past are

now in prison, in connection to the drug-

dealing, bribe-giving, mass murderer V.

Montesinos who was head of intelligence/

security under Fujimori and now in prison.

Given the recently rising discontent with

the economically failed regime in Peru,

U.$. tide turns on weapons

of mass destruction in Iraq

Spain arrests

Adolfo Olaechea

MIM reviews Summer

books, movies, music

Ah-nold and Harry Potter are back,

selling millions of movie tickets and books.

We review "Terminator 3" and "Harry

Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on

pages 6 and 7. We also review the new

release by alternative rockers Radiohead,

"Hail to the Thief."

Continued on page 4...

Continued on page 8...

Continued on page 9...

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 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
distribution and financial support. Annual cost is: 12 copies (Priority Mail), $120; 25
(Priority Mail), $150; 50 (Priority Mail), $280; 100, $380; 200, $750; 900 (Express
Mail), $3,840; 900 (8-10 days), $2,200. To become a sponor or distributor, send
anonymous money orders payable to "MIM." Send to MIM, attn: Camb. branch, PO Box
400559, Cambridge, MA 02140. Or write mim3@mim.org.

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>

Trotskyist website
reader perturbed

Dear MIM:

I hope that you people eventualy [sic]

realise [sic] the absolute babarity [sic] of

Mao and Stalin and get on board with the

rest of us communists. You are

discrediting everything that Marx - Engels

- Lenin - Trotsky - Luxembourg - and the

every other true communist out there has

done. Stalin and Mao were and are not

the way forward.

Mao and Stalin coming to power meant

the death of international socialism for an

indefinable amount of time.

The only thing that pleases me on your

web site is your admission at being a small

party - may it stay that way.

--Trotskyist

July, 2003

mim3@mim.org replies for MIM:

Barbarism is dying from hunger and lack

of medical care. Barbarism is not shooting

a small portion of society spreading

confusion and otherwise throwing up

obstacles to progress as the writer above

does by referring to a movement that has

produced no social change in the last 75

years. Whether he is objective enough to

know it, the above critic of us is a part of

the status quo.

Barbarism is also not having universal

education. Stalin and Mao fixed those

problems--hunger, medical care and

education. That's why the life

expectancies of their countries doubled

despite all the repression of liberal-radical

idiots.

What this sort of criticism always boils

down to is two things: 1) A defense of

the status quo in the guise of Trotskyist

(or fill in the blank) principles which have

failed to bring about changes like Stalin

and Mao did. 2) Valuing the lives of

liberal-radical dissidents at 100 or 1000

times that of the toiling peasants and

workers. There is no other explanation

for how people supposedly interested in

the Soviet Union's history could ignore

the progress there in the name of their

impotent principles.

Amerika's "war on
terrorism" hypocrisy

What's happening in California prisons,

along with prisons in general across

Amerika is a form of terrorism! It is very

sad what happened on 9-11. However, it

shows that people throughout the world

are tired of Amerikan oppression. It is

dangerous to divorce "terrorism" from

politics, yet u.s. media continue to talk

about an abstract war against terrorism

without mention of the issues or context

that lie behind them. In reality, terrorism

is a political act, a response to u.s. foreign

policy. It is an act of war waged by people

too weak to have a conventional army or

one large enough to take on Amerika. We

informed, conscious citizens of Amerika

must face it--u.s. foreign policy

contributes to acts of terrorism (a.k.a.

Freedom Fighting). Amerika participated

in creating a monster, now it has turned

against "us" and the world--16,000

Arabs were trained in Afghanistan, made

into a veritable killing machine. This is an

insane instance of "the chickens coming

home to roost." War is indeed hell, for

some. For others, it is big, and burgeoning,

business.

The united snakes of Amerika has

supplied Turkey, Israel, and Indonesia with

such weapons, and they have used them

against civilian populations. But the nation

most guilty is "our" own. No nation in the

world possesses greater weapons of mass

destruction than Amerika does, and none

has use them more often, or with greater

loss of civilian life. In Hiroshima hundreds

of thousands died, in Korea and south

Vietnam millions died as a result of

Amerika's use of such weapons. The

sheer hypocrisy of such a nation

threatening another nation on the basis

of its possession of "weapons of mass

destruction" is stunning. Asians and

Arabs must be shaking their collective

heads in mass disbelief! Clinton's lurch

to the right during his second term is now

mirrored by Bush as he recycles his

predecessors lie, the old "weapons of

mass destruction" tale, a justification for

Bush the younger's efforts to repair Bush

the Elder's failure to properly discipline

Iraq for daring to act as a sovereign state,

instead of a vassal-state (or client-state)

to the U.S. Empire. [If Clinton lurched to

the right at all, it was a small move within

the context of imperialist politics. Recall

that one of his first acts as president was

to bomb Iraq with cruise missiles. Clinton

steadfastly carried out Amerika's war

against Iraq and laid the basis for the

current expansion.--ed.]

To take the hypocrisy to an even higher

pitch, consider that some of Iraq's

weapons were indeed weapons of mass

destruction, a fact well known to

Washington because u.s. hardware was

delivered to the Iraqis, the better to kill

their Iranian enemies with. The U.S.,

London and other western (white)

countries made mountains of wealth

selling such weapons (divide and

conquer) not only to Iraq, but to Iran as

well. Amerika seeks to extend her New

Crusades to Iraq and whoever else. Don't

forget the oil folks! Why isn't that a crime

against international law? Ultimately, war

often has economic underpinnings, but

they are hidden. War is a tool of foreign

and economic policy!

--a prisoner in California,

July 2003

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 2003 · Page 3

Jordan is a country where a pro-U.$.

king rules. As Hillary Clinton explained

in her recent book "Living History," Uncle

$am takes Jordan very seriously and

sends presidents to funerals there.

However, a recent BBC poll of 11,000

people in 11 countries(1) shows that most

people in Jordan consider the United

$tates more dangerous to world peace

than Al Qaeda, the organization headed

by Osama Bin Laden.

The bourgeois news wire service

summed it up this way: "The poll, which

was carried out in May and June, will

make depressing reading for U.S.

officials charged with improving the

country's image. It surveyed people from

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Britain, France,

Israel, Indonesia, Jordan, South Korea,

Russia and the United States.

"Asked who was the more dangerous

to world peace and stability, the United

States was rated higher than al-Qaida by

respondents in both Jordan (71 percent)

and Indonesia (66 percent).

"It was also rated more dangerous than

Iran by people in Jordan, Indonesia,

Russia, South Korea and Brazil, and more

menacing than Syria by respondents in

all countries except Australia, Israel and

the United States. Israel beat Canada and

Britain to win the dubious accolade of

`most pro-American country.'"(2)

Au$tralia, I$rael and the United $tates

all have the fact of being settler dominated

imperialist countries. The petty-

bourgeoisie in those countries has the

particular hatred of oppressed peoples

driven not just by super-exploitation but

also the particularities of genocide to seize

land.

The International Herald Tribune also

summarized an even more pointed finding

from an earlier poll done by the Pew

Research Center: "In fact, feelings are

so intense in the Islamic world that

Osama bin Laden was chosen by five

Muslim publics--in Indonesia, Jordan,

Morocco, Pakistan and the Palestinian

Authority--as one of the three political

leaders they would most trust to `do the

right thing' in world affairs."(3)

The widespread support of Osama Bin

Laden in the Third World is an example

of false consciousness, because Osama

Bin Laden does not claim to be for the

average exploited and super-exploited

persyn of the Third World and more

importantly his analysis and strategy are

lacking. However, we gather from the

showing of Osama Bin Laden in the polls

that the people want to see a strong stand

against U.$. imperialism. It's the perfect

example of "false consciousness,"

because we can see what the Third World

people want, even as they fail in

pinpointing how they will accomplish it.

Any strong leader appearing to be anti-

U.$. would obtain the same support.

In contrast, the support for Bush in

On July 2 the 7th U.$. Circuit Court of

Appeals in Chicago ruled that federal

courts don't have the jurisdiction to

review discretionary decisions of the

attorney general. The case overturned a

federal judge ruling that Sabri Samirah

could return to the United $tates after

visiting his sick mother in Jordan.

Samirah, who had lived in the United

$tates for 15 years, was waiting for his

green card and received permission from

the Immigration and Naturalization

Service (INS) to visit his mother in

Jordan. In January Samirah tried to

return to the U.$. and the INS revoked

his "advance parole" and barred his re-

entry on behalf of Attorney General John

Ashcroft based on information that he

was a "security risk." Samirah appealed

the decision and in March U.$. District

Judge Michael Moran ruled that he should

Closed

borders kill

nineteen

Nineteen immigrants from Mexico and

Central America died of suffocation in a

truck trailer abandoned in the Texas desert

last May 14. Police have now arrested at

least three people on charges they were

smuggling the immigrants into the United

$tates. The local district attorney

"promised aggressive prosecution of the

smugglers responsible for the incident."(1)

Prosecuting the few smugglers who are

caught will do little to protect the

thousands of immigrants who risk their

lives to come to the United $tates to take

jobs few Amerikans want. As former

federal immigration official Benedict

Ferro put it, arresting smugglers "is treating

a symptom, not the disease."(2) Above

all, the United $tates and the sizeable

yahoo "put a fence on the border" crowd

are to blame for those who die trying to

cross the border illegally. To close the

borders and expect no black market in

humyn smuggling under capitalism is pure

hypocrisy.

Capitalism produces black markets in

everything. When people are able to profit,

they do so in arms, drugs and even

humyns. The more successful police are

in catching suppliers of black market

services, the smaller the supply of those

services. That only means that the price

goes up in the world of capitalist supply

and demand. Concretely that means drug

prices go up and new suppliers rush to fill

the need. In immigrant smuggling it means

that the smugglers charge more money.

In this case, it means that the humyn

smuggler may have used a cheaper but

more dangerous method to raise his

profits. People who advocate capitalist

systems know all this very well, but still

they blame the inevitable smugglers

produced by their capitalist system, instead

of opening the borders.

According to a 1999 Immigration and

Naturalization Service report, "alien

smuggling has grown in to a multibillion-

dollar-a-year industry." Security

crackdowns since September 11 have only

forced more immigrants to seek our

professional smugglers and forced the

smugglers to use more dangerous

methods. About 500,000 undocumented

immigrants enter the United $tates ever

year.(2) Hundreds die trying to cross the

desert into California alone.(3)

Within the imperialist countries, the labor

aristocracy is even more to blame than

the imperialists. The labor aristocracy

cannot imagine a better system and hence

the population within imperialist countries

fights to keep borders closed with the idea

of keeping living standards high for itself.

The economic nationalists in the imperialist

countries have the blood of the nineteen

victims in Texas on their hands.

Notes:
1. Washington Post, 15 May 2003.
2. Houston Chronicle, 15 May 2003.
3. www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/
gatekeeper/index.html.

be allowed to return to his U.$. home, but

the decision was put on hold until the

government could appeal.

Samirah was an outspoken critic of U.$.

support for Israel, Chairman of the Islamic

Association for Palestine, and head of the

United Muslim Americans Association.

The U.$. government has been

increasingly targeting politically active

Arabs since September 11, 2001. While

proclaiming themselves defenders of

freedom around the globe (by invading,

murdering and plundering), the

government is busy revoking supposedly

protected civil liberties at home. The

Patriot Act greatly expanded the

authorities of the government to act

without oversight and with this Appeals

Court decision the courts are falling into

line to support these actions.

Notes: Chicago Tribune, July 3, 2003.

Court: Attorney General free to oppress

I$rael and the United $tates is not "false

consciousneess," because it is enemy

consciousness. Marxists use the term

"false consciousness" to refer to those

situations where a class does not adopt

an ideology in its own interests and

instead adopts that of another class

because it has been duped. In I$rael and

the united $tates, a settler petty-

bourgeoisie has consciously taken up an

ideology of land-grabbing oppression. It's

not a case where some I$raeli and

Amerikkkan "exploited" are

unconsciously taking up the ideology of

exploiters. The I$raeli$ and Amerikkkans

are very active in their support for

predatory wars.

An example of this is that the

Amerikkkan lives in a country dependent

on the world for oil. For this reason, polls

show that Amerikkkans did not care

when "weapons of mass destruction"

(WMD) did not show up in Iraq as

promised during the war itself. They still

supported the war.

Slate author Michael Kinsley put it this

way on June 19th: "According to a Harris

poll out Wednesday, a majority of

Americans still think the Bush

administration was telling the truth before

the war when it said it had hard evidence

of WMD. A Knight Ridder poll released

last weekend reports that a third of the

populace believes that the weapons have

been discovered. A Fox News poll last

week found that almost half of

Americans feel that the administration

was `intentionally misleading' about Iraq's

weapons, but more than two-thirds think

the war was justified anyway. A Gallup

Poll released Wednesday concludes that

almost 9 out of 10 Americans still think

Saddam had or was close to having

WMD."(4)

Bush may very well end up in hot water

over the WMD, but it won't be because

Amerikkkans do not want to oppress

Iraqis. If Bush ends up in hot water, it will

be because Amerikkkans deem it

unseemly for him to lie to Amerikkkans

and because they figure out that the

premature press accounts announcing the

discovery of WMD in Iraq had been

wrong.

The fall in oil prices set a recent record

according to USA Today: "America

imported $11.21 billion in petroleum in

April, a drop of 10.4% from March.

However, all the improvement came in

lower costs, as the volume of crude oil

climbed to the second highest level on

record. But the average price of a barrel

of crude oil declined $4.25 to $26.02,

reflecting a fall in global oil prices as fears

of supply disruptions eased with the

successful conclusion of the U.S.-led war

in Iraq.

"It was the biggest one-month drop in

crude oil prices since a $4.59 decline from

January to February of 1991, as

America's success in driving Iraq out of

Kuwait eased oil supply concerns during

the Persian Gulf War."(5) Neither Osama

Bin Laden nor the Third World generally

have gotten what they wanted vis-a-vis

the united $tates, and that is why a claim

of "false consciousness" may be true. In

contrast, the Amerikkkan public is willing

to lie with Bush to the rest of the world

about WMD in Iraq, but it fought for and

got what it wanted with regard to oil.

Notes:
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/
2994924.stm
2. http://www.upi.com/
view.cfm?StoryID=20030618-060033-9862r
3. http://www.iht.com/articles/98482.html
4. http://slate.msn.com/id/2084602/
5. http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/
trade/2003-06-13-deficit_x.htm ; see also, http://
csmweb2.emcweb.com/2003/0221/p01s01-
usec.html

False consciousness and Al Qaeda

Third World looks for strong

anti-imperialist leaders

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 2003 · Page 4

destruction shows just how wrong it is to

be Liberal about struggle and security.

Ten months before George Bush's

mistaken "State of the Union" address

citing forged evidence that Iraq

supposedly obtained uranium from Niger,

the CIA told the Bush administration that

the information was false. Separately an

ambassador also told the Bush

administration the information was bogus.

What this means is that even having the

right information is no guarantee it will

be used.(2) There were countless other

false statements from the Bush

administration about the nature and

justification of war with Iraq.(3) There

was Tony Blair's statement (based on

U.$. sources) that Saddam Hussein was

ready to launch WMD with 45 minutes

notice--something that obviously did not

happen.(4)

Little did pro-war and neutral students

know that the English government's

intelligence dossier justifying the Iraq war

came largely from an American student's

publicly available paper that was not

cited.(5) In MIM Notes 274, we criticized

a student taking a typical monarchist line

justifying apathy and lack of struggle

against the war. The student said: "We

base opinions of foreign and domestic

policy on the knowledge we receive from

a biased media, from our friends' opinions,

and from our professors' leading

questions. Bush bases his opinions on Top

Secret intelligence data gathered from

multiple sources, national estimates from

senior intelligence officials, and advice

from experts. If even he does not have a

complete picture, ours must be a

minuscule piece of the puzzle." It turns

out that someone wanted to make a fool

of the Bush administration by forging

documents about Iraq's nuclear weapons

program which Bush used to further his

pre-2000 goal of war on Iraq. Thus having

"Top Secret intelligence" turned out to

be a drawback, not an advantage. Merely

having the "complete" information does

not guarantee its correct use.

Those struggling as the underdog for

justice should take note: even if the ruler

has all the means of information in his or

her hands, there is no guarantee that s/he

can use it. In fact, capitalism corrupts all

knowledge production ranging from

medicines sold for profit to analyses of

the effectiveness of weapons systems

that the Pentagon buys. As we pointed

out in our website FAQ on security: "U.$.

imperialism has no chance of being able

to afford all the work of sorting out true

information from false." For that matter,

MIM has also pointed out that collecting

information from a source is no guarantee

that that source is not emitting information

that amounts to a decoy.

The imperialists pursue knowledge that

helps them profit individually. As a

consequence, the imperialists will never

match the proletariat in its abilities in

finding the truth. Although the imperialists

spend much more money on intelligence

than the proletariat does, the imperialists

are not able to use what they collect and

when they do use what they collect they

come into conflict with other imperialists

with other property interests and

government agendas. For this reason, it

is always justified to struggle to make it a

little harder for the imperialists to spy on

the oppressed and exploited. As we said

in our review of the marxists.org website:

"The reasons not to surrender are

numerous: 1) Raising the cost to the

enemy, because even when s/he does

espionage correctly it costs him/her. 2)

The enemy must sort out true from false

once information is obtained. 3) The

enemy may not bother."

Notes:
1. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/links/
marxistsorg.html
2.http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/World/
iraq030616_uranium.html; see also, http://
politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/
0,12956,972651,00.html
3. See for example, http://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/
A43615-2003Jun11.html
4. See a former CIA director admit this here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/
0,2933,89923,00.html; see also, http://
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,89649,00.html
5. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/
0,12956,970035,00.html

Big Brother doesn't always know

Continued from page 1...

U$ tide turns on Iraq WMD

of interest, some of which are bound to

come up in the next few weeks. A Slate

article by Timothy Noah (2) answers why

the U.$. press has taken some notice of

uraniumgate (Bush's state-of-the-union

canard that Iraq sought to purchase

uranium from Niger). Noah cuts through

the naiveté and asks the question: under

what conditions does government

deception become front-page news in

Amerika? Answer: when the deceivers

own up to it. Bourgeois reporters are too

lazy or timid to do their own work and

take officials' words as gospel--unless

the officials themselves say their words

are not gospel. We at MIM would only

add that in many cases, journalists are

too poorly educated to know how to do

original journalistic work if they tried.

Both Bush and Blair now say that

Saddam Hussein had "programs" for

weapons of mass destruction. They leave

out the word for actual "weapons." It's

important to notice a change of spin like

that. Increasingly, even newspapers in

Amerika's hinterlands are noticing. The

fact that the 3rd Infantry has not returned

home yet and a soldier dies in an attack

every day assures that Amerikans from

the boonies where soldiers come from are

paying attention. This again proves the

nature of military power's relationship to

the truth. Had U.$. troops wrapped up

and all come home by now, the

Amerikkkan public would be hearing a

lot less truth.

More and more, with their own lies

falling apart, Bush and Blair rely on

Clinton's lies. They fall back to arguing

that Saddam Hussein kicked out the

weapons inspectors, when the weapons

inspectors themselves have pointed out

that in reality Clinton kicked out the

inspectors. Clinton then blamed the

expulsion on Iraq in order to have an

excuse for "regime change." When Blair

and Bush refer to past violations of UN

resolutions, the intelligent reader should

ask why China, Russia and France did

not agree since they were on the same

committees. The reason is that the United

$tates had an active role in forging Iraq's

non-compliance and other countries

noticed.

With the Iraq lies falling apart, we do

not mean to say there are no Amerikkkans

still buying the bologna. FOX News is

noticeably emphasizing that Bush's

statement in the "State of the Union" was

technically correct, because he cited a

source, the British government. For these

sorts of spin-masters, it no longer matters

if the source cited is wrong. Rather than

make it their job to get to the bottom of

this, FOX publishes a few sentences and

then lets FOX readers respond with their

Pavlovian monarchism.(3) Their words

boil down to "we love our king: leave it to

him." This would be fine and good if we

lived in a monarchist system advancing

beyond even more backward systems like

feudalism, but supposedly we live in a

"democracy" founded against monarchist

ideas of national security. We're left with

the hypocrisy and the twisted morality of

"pre-emptive" strikes, which should really

be called "re-emptive" strikes, because

the United $tates has never stopped

attacking its colony Iraq since 1991,

whether through missile strikes, no fly

zones or embargoes enforced by sea, land

and air. We are only waiting for someone

to take a picture of tea imported into Iraq

with the accompanying paper work for

Amerikan taxes.

Thus while the mainstream media

focuses on this one question of attribution

of sources, because it feels it must pander

to the monarchist Right of Amerikkka,

the rest of the world is wondering just

how many lies the Amerikkkans can

swallow and why. England signed onto

international resolutions and treaties which

require it to turn over its intelligence on

Iraq's nuclear programs to the UN;(4)

yet England continues to say it has

evidence of uranium purchases in Africa

that it won't share, because it does not

have permission from the party that gave

England the intelligence. Apparently

England is preserving its spy-first

protocols, because the issue of nuclear

weapons in Iraq is less important than

other things that England wants to obtain

from relations with other countries' spies.

Of course, that just leaves the question

of why England signed on to international

obligations regarding nukes and Iraq in

the first place, and why anyone should

care if England itself believes the

possibility of nuclear weapons in Iraq is

so unimportant that it won't divulge

sources and information. This is one of

those have-your-cake-and-eat-it-toos.

Either the information is important from

their own perspective (worth having a

war over) and should be released or it's

unimportant and does not sustain the case

Bush and Blair are making, in which case,

again they should shut up and take their

lumps.

In the past two weeks, the most popular

article in all our website agitation has been

our review of Bush's "State of the Union"

address in January. That review has

proved to stand the test of time and has

put some of the data being spun by

politicians in perspective. It also puts in

relief that major news media with the

professional resources did not put in the

time to do the research on any of the

WMD questions and in effect, one was

better off reading a few books from

different sources than counting on the

press to come up with important

information.

We will point out the obvious: Bush Jr.'s

cabinet is composed of those who wanted

an invasion of Iraq under Bush Sr. and

did not get one because of others in Bush

Sr.'s cabinet, such as Brent Scowcraft

and Howard Baker. Some have pointed

also to Vice President Cheney's business

ties to those who benefit from an Iraq

occupation. Certainly his sector of

business benefits even if his company

Continued from page 1...

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 2003 · Page 5

stays out.

However, beyond economic self-

interests and old arguments and

associated egos, the Amerikkkan public

should know that Bush Jr. is a politician.

It was always foolish since 911 to extend

the government the kind of trust that the

U.$. population has. Politicians are still

masters of spin, focusing on some subjects

only so the rest will be ignored. 911 did

not improve politicians: in fact it gave

them more covers to carry out more

opportunistic misdeeds. Among their

many misdeeds is to cover up the sources

of the 911 problem to divert attention from

their own previous actions and policies.

In contrast, MIM knows it is not

coming to power by Amerikan votes or

other method any time soon. Compared

with Bush who has friends in the oil

business, a father to vindicate in history,

officials to defend and a re-election

campaign requiring votes, we at MIM

have no reason to lie or mislead. We at

MIM can only err, which is why our

coverage has been much more accurate

and less misleading than that of anything

ranging from FOXNEWS to CNN to

CBS to the New York Times.

Our critics have said in the past we

would err because Bush should know

better with all his access to intelligence,

but that is a monarchist argument. Bush

claims to be president in a democratic

system in which voters are supposed to

be informed well enough to choose

politicians. Hence, there was never a

good reason to leave a question of war

"up to Bush." That's to leave aside that

we at MIM may have less intelligence

than the CIA but do a better job of

interpreting what we do have. Now we

see that even having all the intelligence

does not guarantee anything. There is no

way that politician Bush desired to be in

the present spot he is in now of explaining

cloak-and-dagger type things and

diplomacy. U.$. politicians need to

premise their own credibility on

explanations of why someone would

forge uranium export documents like they

need a hole in the head. Bush knows this

instinctively which is why he would

usually rather appear stupid than explain

anything overly complicated.

Yet complicated is what this has

become--not in the facts regarding

weapons of mass destruction--but the

diplomatic relations involved. The

Washington Post admitted as follows:

"Since World War II, U.S. and British

intelligence agencies have had an image

of intimate collaboration with each other.

But the portrait that emerges from the

British version of events concerning the

investigation of the reported uranium deal

is of agencies at times working at cross-

purposes and reluctant to trust the other

with sensitive information."(5) A critical

British official Jack Straw says the CIA

and State Dept. had not informed him of

their conclusion that the whole story of

uranium in Africa was phony. Thus far

England has covered Bush's back by

saying it stands by its uranium story, so

Bush would appear to have the right idea

for the wrong specific reasons.

Nonetheless, England can back off at any

moment--especially after the public stops

paying attention.

Now there are even better new twists

that call for even more complicated

decisions. In the first place, the whole

accusation of Niger points toward France.

However, just as the United $tates is

asking France to send troops to Iraq to

assist with occupation government, the

United $tates is threatening to make the

press notice that France is in control of

all uranium production in Niger. In

addition, France is on the hook for

refusing to show the United $tates its

evidence on these claims or so at least

some in England seem to hint.

France's role in this again leaves room

for interpretation. Has the fact that the

press has yet to focus on France's role in

officially running Niger's uranium

business through proper international

bureaucratic procedures (6) meant that

someone would like U.$.-French relations

to stabilize? Was the uranium info part of

France's warnings to Uncle $am before

the war not to take the risk of war? Were

these warnings politically motivated?

Let's recall that just before the war,

Cheney said, and Bush confirmed that

Iraq had "reconstituted nuclear weapons."

MIM reported these statements from

Cheney and Bush. Now a Washington

Post editorialist has remembered

Cheney's words as well: "`We believe he

[Saddam Hussein--MIM ed.] has, in

fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I

think Mr. [Mohamed] ElBaradei [the

IAEA director], frankly, is wrong. And I

think if you look at the track record of

the International Atomic Energy Agency

[on] this kind of issue, especially where

Iraq's concerned, they have consistently

underestimated or missed what it was

Saddam Hussein was doing.'"

Harold Meyerson then added: "The

point is not that an apology is in order,

though it plainly is. The point is that even

after the IAEA's revelation that the

forged agreement had been `signed' by

a Niger government official who in fact

had been out of office for the better part

of a decade, the vice president dismissed

this information out of hand and

disparaged its source. He did not,

however, refute it."(7) Meyerson and

many other unlikely people have noticed

that this pretty much defeats the purpose

of having government officials in charge

of collecting intelligence and reporting it

accurately to the public. Immature

relativists in charge of intelligence think

it is "all opinion anyway" and clear the

way for whatever politician-spin-doctors

might want to do.

Another possibility: will a country like

South Africa be dragged into this and

what political risks does this entail for the

U.$. imperialists? Blacks always opposed

this war and constitute a large part of the

army. How much does it hurt with Black

public opinion to be making up stories

about Africa giving uranium to Iraq?

Would France try to mislead England

about something that France itself would

get the blame for in the case of Niger's

uranium? Will it turn out that I$rael had

an interest in forging documents?

Supposedly the U.S. Congress and FBI

are already looking for answers

concerning who forged the documents.

Finally, one last twist, since Italy is the

one that seems to have started handling

the forged documents with the uranium

deceptions: how does Italy fit in? Is Italy's

stance on Iraq spying to please the United

$tates? Are Italian leaders in a

controversy over insulting Germans

purposefully trying to get Italian people

to dislike the Germans? Do they wish to

lean toward the United $tates instead and

is that why the Italians seem willing to

sacrifice German tourism in order to

make insults against the German

parasites?

We would like to point out is that MIM

is talking about a real world solution to

big problems. The media is talking about

the credibility of one politician concerning

one war in one country. In reality, the

United $tates did not just give Osama Bin

Laden and Saddam Hussein weapons,

money and military training in the 1980s

under Reagan and Bush Sr.; although

certainly that is important. The United

$tates gives out weapons, money and

military training to hundreds of "allies"

around the world at any given time,

including $50 million to the Taliban just

before 911. Often the justification is that

if the United $tates does not give out the

weapons and other "aid," someone else

will ally with X, Y or Z. Hence, the real

problem is to reduce geo-political

competition of all sorts, eliminate arms

races and secure world peace.

Otherwise, with all the allies receiving

U.$. weapons alone, there is a guarantee

that new enemies will arise--Osama Bin

Laden and Saddam Hussein being just the

enemies of the week. A real solution

would take into account U.$. military aid

practices around the world. That is

something that only socialism can do. If

the species stays on this course of slowly

figuring out the politics of weapons

proliferation under capitalism, one

politician at a time, the species will surely

doom itself in short order.

Notes:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/17/
national/17VOIC.html
2. slate.msn.com/id/2085737
3. http://www.foxnews.com/story/
0,2933,91958,00.html; http://
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,92071,00.html.
The fact that FOX News sees no issue as long
as a source is attributed demonstrates how little
faith we should put in FOX. Their approach to
truth seems to be that as long as someone
(namely their king) claims something is true or
someone the king cites claims something is true,
the rest is all just relative opinion and there's no
point in digging, in which case we do not need
"news" services like FOX News at all. Who is
the source of England's information FOX? What
is that information? How old is it? Or don't you
know what your job is with all those
professionals and millions of dollars and media
access passes to the halls of power? The FOX
approach makes much more sense as an
entertainment outlet for monarchists.
4. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/
story.jsp?story=425056
5. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A2445-2003Jul16.html
6. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3065165.stm
7. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A3469-2003Jul16.html?nav=hptoc_eo

Militarism is war-mongering or the

advocacy of war or actual carrying out

of war or its preparations.

While true pacifists condemn all

violence as equally repugnant, we

Maoists do not consider self-defense

or the violence of oppressed nations

against imperialism to be militarism.

Militarism is mostly caused by

imperialism at this time. Imperialism

is the highest stage of capitalism--

seen in countries like the United

$tates, England and France.

Under capitalism, capitalists often

profit from war or its preparations.

Yet, it is the proletariat that does the

dying in the wars. The proletariat

wants a system in which people do not

have self-interest on the side of war-

profiteering or war for imperialism.

Militarism is one of the most

important reasons to overthrow

capitalism. It even infects oppressed

nations and causes them to fight each

other.

It is important not to let capitalists

risk our lives in their ideas about war

and peace or the environment. They

have already had two world wars

admitted by themselves in the last 100

years and they are conducting a third

right now against the Third World.

Even a one percent annual chance of

nuclear war destruction caused by

capitalist aggressiveness or "greed" as

the people call it should not be tolerated

by the proletariat. After playing

Russian Roulette (in which the bullet

chamber is different each time and not

related at all to the one that came up in

previous spins) with 100 chambers and

one bullet, the chance of survival is

only 60.5% after 50 turns. In other

words, a seemingly small one percent

annual chance of world war means

eventual doom. After 100 years or turns

of Russian Roulette, the chances of

survival are only 36.6%. After 200

years, survival has only a 13.4%

chance.

What is militarism?

U$ tide turns on Iraq WMD

Continued from previous page...

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 2003 · Page 6

review by MC17

According to the American Library

Association the Harry Potter series

topped the most frequently banned books

last year. This is not because of

revolutionary content, the reason that

MIM literature is frequently banned from

prisons. The banning of Harry Potter is

instructive about mainstream political

sentiment in Amerika. Fueled by

advocates of religious education, the

fantasy content of the Harry Potter books

motivates the banning movement.

Christianity is at odds with the witchcraft

in Harry Potter, and specifically with the

lack of a biblical god in Potter's world.

This is a good start for MIM as a

recommendation for the Harry Potter

series. The Order of the Phoenix in

particular had much content related to

death and ghosts. The book implies that

after death spirits live on, but there is no

heaven or hell, and no god to worship or

answer to in the world of Harry Potter.

As a result of the lack of christian

religious content, the Harry Potter books

have a focus on people, or in this case

wizards and witches, having control of

their world, and there are some good

lessons for readers in this series. There

is no power to rely on but themselves and

the magical arts are only as evil as those

who use them. In the Order of the Phoenix

Potter at age 15 is now in his fifth year at

Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and

Wizardry. The focus is still on Potter and

his friends as they get caught up in the

fight against evil people seeking to take

power and rule the world as "purebloods."

As MIM has mentioned in its review

of the first Harry Potter movie, the evil

witches and wizards are a pretty clear

allusion to Hitler and his supporters. This

is a good political lesson in and of itself.

And in addition, the books empower kids

to take action and leadership in their world

rather than waiting for the adults to do

everything. The Order of the Phoenix has

the strongest adult in the book (the head

of Hogwarts, Aldus Dumbledore) admit

his failings because of his judgment being

blurred by age and emotions, implying that

youth are sometimes better fit to make

decisions.

This book devotes some attention to the

oppression of other races at the hands of

witches and wizards but this is a small

subplot at best. There are house elves in

the book who serve the humans. They

can only be freed by being given an item

of clothing and most of the elves

encountered do not want to be freed of

their servitude. Many humans treat the

elves very badly but one of the main

characters, Hermione, a classmate of

Harry Potter, is a strong proponent of

freeing all elves. She knits clothing and

leaves it lying around the school hoping

the elves will discover it and accidentally

be freed. But the elves refuse to clean

the area where she leaves clothes, not

wanting to be set free. Author J.K.

Rowling takes things further having Aldus

Dumbledore declare that elves have long

been mistreated by humyns and that this

relationship must change.

In addition to the elves, The Order of

the Phoenix expands on the oppression

of giants at the hands of humans, and the

mistreatment of Centaurs, offering both

criticism and hope. Humans determined

to effect change make some inroads

towards better relations with each race.

The Order of the Phoenix also does a

good job promoting the relative

importance of some work, such as saving

the world from evil. Repeatedly Rowling

has characters point out that some causes

are worth dying for, and Harry Potter is

reminded of the relative unimportance of

school classes, romance, and the opinions

of others in the context of the fight

against Lord Voldemort. Rowling turns

what would have otherwise been

uselessly obligatory teenage romance in

the book into a lesson in relative priorities

as Potter barely puts much attention at

all into the girl he is trying to date as he

focuses on other battles. And in the end

he realizes he has lost interest in her

entirely, after victory in a difficult battle,

as he enjoys the close support of his

comrades in the fight.

On the negative side, The Order of the

Phoenix, like its predecessors, is an

escapist fantasy novel that doesn't focus

on important real world issues of

oppression. While that's to be expected

in fantasy books under capitalism, MIM

holds culture up to a higher standard.

Overall this book should not be banned

after the revolution, but we are confident

that the people can do better and produce

fiction that takes on oppression and

exploitation head on with heroes devoting

their lives to fighting for a better world

for all people.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Hail to the Thief
Radiohead
EMI Records
2003

Although this album does not come out

from an independent corporation or

"label" and instead comes from a

multinational giant, it's easy to see how

Radiohead could be seen as alternative

music, almost the definition of alternative

rock. The use of instruments is

unconventional and the aggressive

attitude of hard rock and focus on rhythm

in dance music is missing.

The lyrics are also alternative because

they are not about boyfriends and

girlfriends. We see some political

references including the title of the album.

In Amerikkka we say "Hail to the Chief"

to refer to the president or any big boss.

We will give the lyrics a "B+."

On the radiohead.com website we see

links to Oxfam, Greenpeace, Z Magazine

and an organization for the abolition of

Third World debt--some good causes.

We also have the "Free Tibet"

organization listed, an illusion supporting

mystic slavery defenders that Radiohead

shares with Rage against the Machine.

(See our FAQ on Tibet.)

Decadence is there in the music and

even the sign-up for the website refers

to the organization for fans as

"W.A.S.T.E." The website offers to send

waste to members every so often.

The music is alternately pleasantly

sleepy, annoyingly phlegmatic and

dreamy--diffuse. The reviewer can see

what people like about this album and

we expect great things in the future from

this band--with fan websites in Russian,

Polish, Italian and Spanish to name a few.

The whole strategy of trying to reach

tired people looking for a break is quite

interesting. Radiohead deserves the

credit for this approach to outreach: not

everyone can always be Rage against

the Machine anyway.

Persynally, the reviewer questions

whether it is possible to communicate

with the asleep. For instance, one may

wonder if it is possible to have jarring or

grotesque communications about slabs of

meat hanging from the ceiling that work

while sleepy. Perhaps Radiohead has

found another way to celebrate the

decadence of imperialism. Someone stole

an election; someone is eating meat;

someone is sucking "young blood" and

speaking of "rivers poisoned"--but

Radiohead's reaction is diffuse and sleepy.

In this reviewer's opinion, Radiohead's

reaction to the world is rather too complex

in a way that is likely to backfire.

At MIM we emphasize matching tone

with substance, content with form. We

need to recognize that we live in a world

where people live lives as ridiculous as

Hollywood movies. It matters on a daily

basis how we educate ourselves and

others to be angry and when not to be

angry. The question about Radiohead is

whether it has juggled form and content

in a way that contributes to the sicknesses

Radiohead opposes. I was hoping to use

the Radiohead chat forum as evidence

one way or another, but the fans there

are often so silly as to defy categorization.

Mixed in with the comments of at least a

semi-serious nature such as to air-

condition the Middle East and Africa for

peace, we see a lot of reveling in

Radiohead gambles on re-directing the sleepwalkers

imperialist decadence. In defense of

Radiohead it could be said that

"everything happens at the margin":

Radiohead plunges in, attracts imperialist

decadence and then points in another

direction, at least in the links section of

its website.

In some ways "Hail to the Thief" is the

perfect reflection of the predicament of

the times: the stereotypically unmotivated

and whiny X Generation meets the 2000

elections and 911. We at MIM are more

than afraid that many of the formerly

apathetic and uninformed are now ready

dupes for fascism.

Radiohead seems to be saying there

may be signs of intelligent life even when

asleep. We only warn the whole "don't

have a cow" generation of Bart Simpson

that the rulers are quite prepared to

instigate wars--even on imperialist soil.

At least the sleepy may not feel great

motivation to make war on all the Third

World countries: at some point, the

imperialists are not going to find enough

young police to run every Iraq in the

world.

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 2003 · Page 7

Terminator III: The Rise of the
Machines
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
2003

As we would expect, this is an action

film with many digital effects. However,

although this is the film with famous lines

of three words such as "I'll be back" for

action actor Schwarzenegger, it still has

some science fiction elements for the

brain.

It's rather unavoidable to compare

science-fiction with religion. While some

religions teach ancestor worship, in

science fiction including the "Terminator"

series, agents from the future come back

to the past to alter it. In the current

moment of 2003 on Earth, we are not able

to go back and interfere with our

ancestors' lives, so ancestor worship is

both sterile and yet seemingly capable of

animating humyn imaginations, mostly in

unhealthy ways.

In contrast, descendant worship like

that in T3 is much more progressive. Dead

ancestors cannot do anything now, but

descendants who can time-travel have the

power to partake in the struggles of the

day. Thinking about descendants is an

exercise in the possibilities of the humyn

brain.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is famous as

a conservative Republican considering a

run for governor of California. Someone

should tell him his sci-fi films focus on

Enlightenment ideas rejected by his

conservative brethren. While

conservatives say the humyn is not

"perfectible" and therefore we should

stick with our "habits" and ancient

religions, in T3 fearsome robots from the

future travel backward in time to do battle.

"Not perfectible"--tell that to the

Terminator who can calculate in an instant

the probability of a humyn's actually

carrying out a suicide threat, 17% he says

in one moment with a man who has a

gun to his head. Such notions about the

future do not come from no where.

Obviously, someone with a few machine

guns or missiles if s/he could travel back

in time would seem like the Terminator in

the year 0, 1000 or even 1850. The

conservatives and various escapists are

in denial about the broad trend of history.

Yet while old military technologies have

been discarded, and while most people

imagine the future economically as not

having money, just very fancy machines

that produce whatever is necessary,

conservatives are here to tell us to

continue with the same social ideas over

the millennia. Their success in obstructing

social progress led to the realistic situation

in the film: humyns screw up and nuke

themselves, which is about where we are

right now in reality as well.

While the humyns focus on tracking

their weapons spread all over the planet

with elaborate technology, they have no

technology focused on tracking the

motivations for war and error. That is to

say the system has an engineering design

flaw that amounts to lacking a back-up

system or release valve. That's why MIM

insists on social engineering totally

intolerant to the risks and motivations of

war. We'd rather have some serious

surgery now than die later from the

terminal disease of capitalist-militarism.

In T3, even when humyns realize they

have erred, it's too late to undo all the

effects. Three billion people died in a day.

John Connor admits that he likes to think

sometimes that his mother's heroics in

previous episodes eliminated "Judgement

Day," but finding himself having to pick

up weapons his mother planned for him

to have when he grew up, he said, "I

never really believed it." Terminator

arrives to say, "you cannot eliminate

Judgement Day, only postpone it."

The horrible thing about these Christian

lines is that it will mobilize yet further the

peculiarly Amerikkkan Christian

population dedicated to the apocalypse.

Sure, fight it the last few hours, but

Judgement Day is going to come is the

message. Offsetting these lines is that the

main characters did fight hard at least a

couple hours to try to prevent apocalypse.

Prior to the arrival of the Terminator,

the humyn hero John Connor is a drug

junkie. He knows he is too militarily

valuable to partake in his current society.

So he hides and takes drugs to avoid

thinking about "Judgement Day."

In real life, we believe much drug use

stems from political-military conditions

that need to be abolished. The many who

think the species won't make it, especially

because of up-close examination of

society in the world's leading military

powers end up taking heroin-type drugs

as an escape from a decadent society

they feel has no hope. If society has no

hope, then there is no reason not to spend

all the day enjoying oneself in any fashion

imaginable or escaping it completely to

dull the pain.

Connor is what we Marxists would call

a "lumpen" hero. He does not work in

the factory or other setting typical of what

Marx called the proletariat. Connor has

no disciplined social setting and feels that

he must consciously avoid one or be killed

by agents from the future. As the movie

starts, he is drifting, sitting on a bridge

drinking a bottle of beer and then later

undertaking break-ins for drugs.

Our criticism of Connor is that he

suddenly becomes animated in the last

three hours of civilization's life to stop

catastrophe. However, prior to that, at

least he valiantly preserved himself for

future battles, but on the side he should

have found ways to get humyns somehow

to deal with their problems socially first.

Granted, no one would acknowledge the

truth about the future that he knew, but

that did not mean he could not still work

on getting humyns to improve.

Connor lacked this proletarian

perspective that Huey Newton tried to

instill in the Black Panther Party. Huey

Newton likewise criticized Eldridge

Cleaver and other lumpens for only living

for the glorious gun battle, almost as if

the lumpen glory was to get it over with.

In Marx's day, the proletariat disciplined

by work organization would have the

discipline to do day-to-day political work

and have that perspective. The lumpen

just does not have such a painstaking

perspective, so our criticism of Connor

boils down to class perspective.

By itself, this action film has a lot of

humor in it, just short of self-critical. So

arises the question of whether T3 is really

put together well enough to handle such

serious topics as nuclear holocaust. The

worst part is that it talks about people

surviving the launching of all nuclear

weapons, when the real question is how

many good hydrogen bombs it would take

to kill the whole humyn species, not from

the immediate blast, but from the damage

to the atmosphere. The second most

questionable part about the film is the

almost placid and dreamy depiction of the

end of most of the species from a vantage

point in the sky, the God's eye view, no

doubt. Combined with the action and

humor aspects of the film it is reminiscent

of the sick combination of sex and

violence that constitutes rape and

animates so much Amerikkkan

entertainment.

There is absolutely nothing exclusively

or narrowly feminist of interest about this

film; although, of course the toughest

character in the film is a robot in the

image of a womyn. In the pace of a few

hours, John Connor and the Terminator

kidnap a womyn while her fiancée dies.

By the end of the film, she has reconciled

with her kidnapper. However, the same

thing happens to everyone in the film. Our

heroes also mow through police and fire

officials. All the preconceptions about

junkies, kidnappers etc. prove not only

useless but harmful to the species. Given

the situation, of course the junkie-

kidnappers better get on with their

business and no one should stop them.

This is something we train people at all

times as well, to ignore "who" people are

and concentrate on whether they come

bearing the truth or not.

The funny thing is that almost all movie-

goers are now accustomed to this sort of

Hollywood trick--where no ordinary

persyn would believe or give credibility

to the heroes, but the heroes must fight

onwards whether or not the local police

believe it when the heroes tell them the

Blob from Mars has landed to eat the

town. By now, people know that when

humyns really focus on their goals and

move for them, a ton of bullshit has to be

put aside. In T3, even after the Terminator

catches a bullet in his mouth thereby

proving the truth, Kate Brewster runs out

and smiles as soon as she sees a traditional

cop car with flashing blue light, only to

discover that the cops are a Trojan Horse

for the ultimate evil. Fortunately in the

space of hours, Kate Brewster undergoes

transformation and puts her eyes on the

prize. Next thing we know she's mowing

down Pentagon robots. Our challenge to

Amerikkkans: be better than Kate

Brewster! Or are you going to wait till

three hours before the nukes drop before

you look at the causes of war and how to

eliminate them? Are you going to fight

desperately for just three hours and then

wish you had done more before that?

So many Amerikkkans think they are

better than heroin addicts, but when it

comes down to it, their avoidance of the

anti-militarist movement is no different

than the hopelessness of the junkies.

Many of the apolitical share the junkies'

exact sense of political hopelessness,

which in another time would just be called

a lack of "character." People like that

should at least do us all a favor and stop

dividing the humyn race by making it such

a high priority to look down on junkies

and the rest of the lumpen-proletariat!

And when we challenge Amerikkkans

to "look at" the causes of war, we mean

with the determination, speed and alarm

that our heroes show in T3. There is no

reason that people should identify so

closely with Hollywood action-heroes put

in a desperate spot while looking away

from or denigrating an all-out anti-

militarist effort in real life. MIM is

confident that if humyns really put their

eyes on the prize of world peace, they

can put a lot of bullshit aside and get the

job done.

It looks like there is room for at least a

T4 and in this reviewer's opinion, T3

could have been longer and done more.

It's tempting to take the film lightly, as

"just another action movie," but it has

footage of nuclear holocaust, so such

treatment would only be the kind of

obscenity so common and detrimental in

Amerikkkan life.

Review: Terminator 3

Don't wait to fight nuclear catastrophe!

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 2003 · Page 8

MIM Congress resolution

Amerikan

prisons censor

MIM Notes, MIM

correspondence

Excerpted from a resolution by the

MIM 2001 Congress.

President George W. Bush is not being

censored in prisons despite his philosophy

of violence as demonstrated in his

bombing of Iraq. Newspapers quoting

Bush or endorsing him or his opponent

[Al Gore] who also favored the war in

Iraq-these papers and television stations

are not so often censored. Hence when

prison wardens say we should be

censored for threatening "security"

through our "philosophy of violence," they

are attempting selectively to oppose

violence of the oppressed and exploited.

In addition, prison wardens are

contradicting the stated beliefs of the

authors of the "Declaration of

Independence" and Abraham Lincoln,

who said explicitly in his first inaugural

address that the people have a

"revolutionary right to dismember or

overthrow" the government.(1)

[Such hypocrisy] is inherent to the

injustice system as the Mumia Abu- Jamal

case proves. The prosecutor against

Mumia pointed to Mumia's quoting from

Mao Zedong that "political power grows

out of a barrel of a gun" as evidence

against Mumia in his court case.

Meanwhile, MIM has yet to hear of

anyone being accused by prosecutors of

distributing the New York Times despite

its backing of numerous wars and coups

and quoting from people like George Bush

Sr. and Jr. who bombed Iraq. As a matter

of compromise, MIM would agree not to

send its present literature to a prison if a

prison warden concerned with

rehabilitation only allowed pacifist

literature into prison. We would accept

that as a principled compromise, but there

is no prison warden proposing or

implementing such a policy.

the prisoners affected are then forced to

send protest letters demanding to know

why the literature was rejected and

attempting to appeal the decision.

Sometimes these letters succeed,

sometimes the prison bureaucrats respond

defending the censorship, but most often

our protests are just ignored.

Occasionally prisons are honest in their

reasons for rejecting MIM Notes such

as the California prison which explained

censorship of MIM literature because

"material has revolutionary articles and

articles based on or about violence." The

second half of this justification is

meaningless unless they are going to

censor all mainstream newspapers as

they contain stories about murder, war,

rape and all types of violence. But it is

the revolutionary content that sets MIM's

literature apart and singles us out for more

censorship than any other distributor in

the prisons.

Censorship differs from state to state

and within states from prison to prison.

In some states like Oregon they

consistently reject any mail that MIM

does not publish as well as some political

literature they don't like (such as the MIM

Theory on Anarchism). Other states, like

Illinois censored items include MIM

Notes, MIM Theory, Black Panther Party

literature, and letters from MIM

describing our organization and our

program. In some cases in Illinois, the

prisoncrats were deliberate about which

MIM Notes were censored (a few

different Illinois prisons censored the

same issue of MIM Notes at the same

time), but in more recent cases (May,

2003), there is a trend of blanket

CENSORED

censorship of all MIM materials including

the MIM standard prisoner introductory

letter which was returned with a stamp

on the envelope saying "Return to sender;

Items not permitted in institution".

Over the past 12 months we have record

of censorship of MIM Notes and/or MIM

Theory in the following states: Alabama,

Arizona, California, Georgia, Indiana,

Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan,

North Carolina, New Jersey, New York,

Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon,

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee,

and Washington.

The following states have been

censoring books or other non-MIM

published literature sent in by MIM:

California, Illinois, North Carolina, New

York, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania,

Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin.

In the six months prior to that the

following states (in addition to those listed

above) also censored MIM Notes. We

have no proof that these states stopped

censoring MIM Notes: Arkansas,

Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa,

Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri,

Montana, North Dakota and Ohio. In

Arkansas a victory was won to receive

MIM Notes again.

MIM has not given up sending MIM

Notes or MIM Theory to any states but

there are several states where MIM no

longer sends literature we do not publish

because of prison regulations. More and

more states are implementing policies that

require all literature to come from the

publisher or to come from a few selected

distributors like amazon.com. This is just

another excuse to censor revolutionary

literature and deny prisoners access to

alternative education. Amazon.com and

other similar big capitalist distributors are

not running books for prisoners programs,

and the price of books there (as well as

the inaccessibility from prison) keeps

virtually all prisoners from receiving books.

States where MIM no longer sends

literature it does not publish include:

Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Oregon.

Victories

A number of victories over censorship

were won this year. Of greatest note is

the victory in Pennsylvania at SCI Green

where censorship has been going on for

years and MIM had stopped sending in

MIM Notes. Green is one of the prisons

that admitted it censored MIM Notes

because of its political view that armed

struggle will be necessary to eradicate

oppression. The prisoner who pursued this

victory to the end wrote "the Department

has resolved the lawsuit [against

censorship of MIM Notes]. They

released to me on April 4, 2003 the

disputed MIM Notes. I would like to say

how persistence pays off to those who

are willing to make sacrifices for their

First Amendment rights to read MIM

Notes [and, MIM adds, our right to speak

to prisoners via MIM Notes]."

Attica prison was censoring all MIM

mail across the board, but this past year

we won a victory there with the prison

finally responding to our protests by

admitting that MIM is subject to the same

laws of all other incoming mail and each

item must be reviewed individually.

In Oklahoma both MIM Notes and

MIM Theory were censored in the past

year, but with protest letters from MIM

and a prisoner we succeeded in getting

both publications delivered.

In Alabama after receiving a rejection

notice from his prison for MIM Theory 8

(on anarchism) and MIM Theory 11 (on

the criminal injustice system), one

prisoner filed a protest and described what

happened: "I filed my protest on

September 9, I received it back the 16th

of September. It stated that

correspondence from MIM is denied and

that no mail from MIM will be allowed!"

He followed the battle through enlisting

the help of the Southern Poverty Law

Center, and in April of 2003 he wrote to

inform us "The

Southern Poverty

Law Center has

gotten it approved for

prisoners to receive

MIM Theory."

Prisoners in

California have been

very aggressive

about fighting the

censorship. In

Corcoran both in the

SHU and CSATF we

won censorship

victories to get MIM

Theory in after

prisoners filed

protests. But

elsewhere in

California we

continue to face

censorship of MIM

Theory and political

books. As one of our

comrades behind

bars explained "I have taken this matter

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."

For more details on prison censorship,

examples of the censorship notices we

receive, and up to date information on the

censorship battles we are fighting, visit

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

agitation/prisons/censor.

Continued from page 1...

Censorship from sea to shining sea

States known to have censored MIM-sent materials over the last year are colored

black. Those known to have censored MIM in the six months prior to that are colored

grey. Since prisoncrats don't always write to say they are censoring us, we can't say

for sure other states aren't censoring.

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 2003 · Page 9

the abysmal poll ratings of its leader

Toledo educated at Stanford University

and the global discontent with Toledo's

sponsor the United $tates, MIM is not

surprised that the scape-goating has

reached this level, though the details of

such news are always strange. While

people in Peru march against

unemployment and wonder why Toledo

does not carry out his election promises,

it's easy demagoguery to distract people

by claiming that a civil war in Peru

originated in London.

Caretas in its story referred to Adolfo

Olaechea as a "propagandist for Sendero

Luminoso." While sneering at him for

Spain arrests Adolfo Olaechea

denouncing Peru's regime from London,

Caretas called him a cultural worker who

should be punished even though he is not

an "historic leader" of the Sendero

Luminoso.

We'd suggest that Caretas writers get

out a little more--maybe tour the

conditions of the countryside in Peru to

understand how the armed struggle arose

instead of looking for easy answers such

as refugees in London. If a government

in Peru cannot withstand some essays

and speeches in London, that government

is going to fall anyway, and the sooner

everyone recognizes it and abandons such

a feeble government, the less bloodshed.

Some of Adolfo Olaechea's last actions

before being arrested were efforts to rally

Tories in England against the war on Iraq.

He urged that England "save our

democracy," in line with much opinion in

England that the majority in a country with

its own oil did not really want the war

and found itself dragged in by Bush and

his poodle Blair.

Mao said when the enemy attacks, it's

a good thing and an honor. In the case of

Adolfo Olaechea, he has received a

strange but significant honor, to be scape-

goated this way. Is it possible that the

regime in Peru is so afraid of his speaking

and writing that it would really take the

risk of looking so desperate in public?

The question arises of how slowly the

wheels of justice turn. How much of this

is just a holdover from previous Fujimori

rantings when there is now an

international order for his arrest remains

to be seen. The image Peru creates is

one of a "banana republic," capricious and

arbitrary. At one moment, Peru allows

Adolfo Olaechea in for a honeymoon of

two weeks says the El Comercio

interview. At another moment, it orders

the arrest of Fujimori/Montesinos for

corruption, drug-dealing and mass murder.

The next moment, we see Peru appear

to act on orders that might have come

from Fujimori.

MIM hopes to have more details of this

bizarre story later.

Continued from page 1...

by mousnonya@yahoo.com

What can we say about someone

whose most famous quote is: "all the laws

of Washington and all the bayonets of the

army cannot force the Negro into our

homes, into our schools, our churches and

our places of recreation and

amusement."?(1)

It seems pretty clear that Thurmond

would have made a great S.S. man--

lockstep in favor of war and racial

segregation. The amazing part is, rather

than seeing any mainstream journals

questioning all of this they practically are

falling all over each other to lick his blood

stained boots. This is why MIM says that

the principal task is to build media for the

oppressed: the mainstream media is just

as crooked as the corrupt politicians they

supposedly snitch on.

Strom Thurmond was a decades-long

U.$. Senator. He only retired in January

of 2003 at the age of 99. Why you may

ask? Because in the corrupt Amerikan

system superprofit pie stolen by

Washington is doled out to states based

on political favors and seniority.

Thurmond had seniority. This is why MIM

does not want to work within the system:

it is corrupt.

Thurmond's career represents exactly

what the system wants: a loyal good old

boy. While health not age should be the

guide to whether one is fit to hold office,

Thurmond clearly was getting weaker and

weaker and practically delegated

everything to his staff. This shows us that

our enemy is fixated on worshipping false

authority even where that risks leading

to errors.

Thurmond was from South KKKarolina

and so it is safe to say he defended the

murderous interests of big tobacco.(2)

MIM opposes tobacco staunchly not only

because it is leisure robbing the Third

World of resources, but also because it

kills people in the Third World and

wimmin in disproportionate numbers.

Thurmond also defended the interests

of the imperialists' military industrial

Strom Thurmond,

segregationist, dead at 100

complex. He was pro segregation,

pro war, and anti-communist.

All in all mousnonya has this to

say to the progeny of Thurmond.

Your daddy was a great

oppressor. And as a result the

Third World is going to bite back.

When are you going to wake up

and smell the burning flesh that

your military industrial complex is

roasting up? And when is it going

to make you puke--instead of

hungry for more? Requiesceat

in Pieces Thurmond. Mousnonya

is not at all sorry to see you go.

Could have been a hero -- chose

to be a zero.

Notes:

1. New York Times, 27 Jun

2003.

2. For example: Thurmond

voted against tax hikes on

tobacco. Los Angeles Times, 10

Jun 1998.

UNITED

FRONT

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

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 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

Tennessee jail designs
rules which support
inmates' ignorance of
law

During 2002 the Shelby county jail

administration implemented a policy

prohibiting excessive legal materials

possessed by inmates. The definition for

excessive they gave us is "any amount in

excess of a shoe box." The policy reads

as follows: "Legal material may not

exceed the size and width of a regular

shoebox; any amount in excess of a

shoebox must be kept in the property

room and may be exchanged out on

Sunday evening between the hours of

1900-2000 by the floor sergeant."

Many of us have enough discovery

material alone that is more than the size

of a shoe box. In order for us to get

additional research information, such as

cases out of law books, statutes, or other

law reference books, we have to exchange

some of the legal materials we already

have, and replace it with the new

information we need. This policy prevents

me from gathering new legal information

I need, for the purposes of studying the

new legal information with the legal

information I already have. In other

words, the administrative pigs don't want

us to learn too much of anything that

would cause a shortage of inmates.

I have written tons of grievances

challenging this policy and it seems that I

and maybe a very few others are the ones

that actually see the damage that this

policy does to each of us individually.

Over half of the inmates in the Shelby

county jail are represented by public

defenders, meaning that the ones who

have PDs should feel obligated to learn

as mush as they are able of the law. This

policy interferes with our individual

capacities to do so, especially when it

comes to time limitations imposed on us

for filing motions with the courts. What's

worse is that the officers are the ones

who go through and read our legal

materials and cases to find what we may

need to exchange. This undermines our

"so-called" confidentiality privilege.

I've begun attempting to attack and

change this policy by getting more inmates

involved in the grievance procedure. The

biggest hurdle isn't convincing jail

administration that this is an oppressive

policy, it is instead penetrating the ignorant

minds of fellow inmates who could care

less what goes on in here besides the

bullshit and games.

I encourage all comrades who are

incarcerated and oppressed by such

policies to attack them with our only

weapons - the pen and paper!!!

-- a prisoner in Tennessee, June 2003

California prison
restricts food and yard
time

Here at High Desert State Prison it is

being run by the mind-states of races and

bias individuals, from the warden to his

foot soldiers, they act and

function as any organized

gang does. Breaking all the

common rules of the DOC,

as if they're collectively

above the law in which

we're governed by.

Case in point, we can't

even get the yard time

we're entitled to for the

most part. Simply, due to

these so-called c/os

guard's being racist

assholes to sum it up in

short. Every few days at

this prison these same guard's claim

something is either missing, from where

one of the inmates work at just to justify

fucking us out of our yard time or day

room hours. And it's been that way ever

since I've been here, dating back to early

1996 when I first came.

The food here is about enough to feed

a baby cat, and the only way we can

maintain our natural weight is by going to

the prison store; or having our family to

send us a 30 pound package, for one of

the biggest money making industries in

the world/prison. But the guards here are

only worried about how much overtime

they can get to make extra money plain

and simple. It's not about the health or

well being of the inmate population at all,

trust and believe that. In closing take care

the armed struggle continues, but the

victory will be ours.

-- a California prisoner at HDSP, June

2003

Anti-Capitalist
BLOOD in New York

This letter is in regards to being placed

on your mailing list as soon as possible. I

was reading your paper and I saw a lot

of things that were very intriguing and

interesting. I respect that your paper had

the presence of mind to write about the

brutality that us prisoners are

circumstance to in Special Housing Units

(SHU) and the harsh reality that

resistance must start running through the

minds of all prisoners and be put into

action immediately. I'm a member of

Brothers Lead Out Of Darkness, a

militant conscious minded group that have

come together to join the fight against this

capitalist regime operating under the

machine known as government. It is

imperative that we should step up as the

vanguard for an oppressed minority who

are oblivious to the fact that they are

oppressed. It is with your paper that I

will use as an instrument to awaken the

minds of the unconscious to the fight that

is inevitable for our total liberation.

Please print this in your paper cause

we want the people to

know that Brothers Lead

Out Of Darkness are in

solidarity with the struggle

against this oppressive,

capitalist society!

--Uhuru "The Speaker",

Brothers Lead Out Of

Darkness, May 2003

Never give up

To get the message of the

oppressed people to the

public also I would like all

comrades to remember one

of our comrades who the pigs claim took

his life in Southport Correctional Facility.

To all comrades, never let the oppressor

get to your mind where you will give up

on the struggle. I am an oppressed

comrade trapped behind enemy cages,

but no matter where we are, we must

remember that we can never give up. I

am so upset with a lot of comrades in this

jungle because they are worse than the

pigs. I hold all comrades in my vision until

victory is won.

-- NY Prisoner, May 2003

Federal lockdown

From November to January I got locked

down on some bogus investigation. In

February, me & my boyz got sent to the

hole again. In May I got written up on

some trumped up petty issues that now

may ruin my transfer closer to home, and

now our entire unit is locked down `cause

one of the kops here got hurt by a prisoner.

They took all our property, even the

mattresses, threw out a lot of personal

belongings, and have kept us locked down.

Allegedly, we'll be locked down for a

whole month. We're eating sack

McNasties that consist of: one cookie,

four slices of bread, one slice of cheese

and one slice of turkey. That's it.

To top it all off, I caught a flu and can't

even get a nurse to see me. But I'm well

in spite of it all.

-- a Federal prisoner in Kansas, May

2003

More strife in NJ
Gang Unit

Now an incident jumped off at this

prison that I am in on 5/20/03, at 11:00

am in the Security Threat Group

Management Control Unit (STGMCU),

also known as the Gang Unit. Prisoners

refused to lock in protest against the

situation that goes on down here. So the

prison guards, males and females, got

suited up in their space suits with helmets

and shields and a fight broke out between

prison guards and prisoners. A couple of

them ended up in the hospital. The

prisoners were protesting how they are

being treated by prison guards and

employees. Sometimes they are denied

medical attention and other times prison

guards don't feed prisoners that they

don't like. Guards put prisoners against

each other. And when us prisoners

request soap or toilet paper or to make a

collect call the prison guards say they'll

give it to us when they feel like it.

Now I am the same person that put an

article in your MIM Notes about me being

in restraints to get my insulin injection.

Right after the prisoners in the Gang Unit

carried out a hunger strike on April 17th

2002. And the same thing that goes on

over there goes on here. Prisoners being

jumped by prison guards, male and female,

and being set up with all kinds of trumped

up charges. So you all see where there is

no justice there will be no peace.

-- a Political Revolutionary Prisoner

in NJ, May 2003

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 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.

I am enclosing with this brief notation the

results of an inquiry launched in regard to

the attempted banning of MIM materials. It
appears that I have won a victory/
understanding on our behalf. See the results

and ASAP forward MIM Theory #4 (again).

I am at a loss also for MIM Notes pages as

a tool to bring others to consciousness so

please send some right away. A lot is taking
place locally, nationally, globally. It's ironic
because it exposes the oppressive tendencies

of Imperialism. TIAA - Total Information
Awareness Act, to know who's doing what.
Soon public protest will be illegal under the

domestic security act of 2003. Under this act
FEMA will declare certain civil acts as
terrorism [and we will see the] use of non-

lethal weapons to suppress dissent, for crowd
control operations to disperse and separate
crowds to suppress the discontent that they

know is coming.

-- a California prisoner at SATF,

Corcoran, June 2003

With this comrade's letter was the following

letter he sent to the Community Resource

Manager (who had been censoring MIM

material because it is educational material!)

along with the response he received:

This notation is to notify you that numerous

publications/correspondences from MIM

Distributors have been labeled refused by
your office, and returned for no other reason
than the content not being something that

you or a reviewer disagreed with personally.
The materials in question are nothing more
than Theory journals which provide articles

of different opinions. These journals are not
study materials so therefore there is no reason
for them to continually be denied/refused/

returned. I hope that by sending this brief
notation that this will make you aware of
future decisions regarding these materials.

Currently Title #15 Section 3004 Rights and
Respect of others states:

(A) Inmates, paroles, and employees will

not subject other persons to any form of
Discrimination because of race, religion,
nationality, sex, political belief, age, or

physical or mental handicap.

Also 3135. Disturbing or offensive

California SHU battle gets

attention of Senator

Today Senator Gloria Romero and some of her

consultants visited Pelican Bay $HU. They
interviewed a few prisoners apropos of the issues
surrounding the $HU and CDC's arbitrary gang
validation policy. A legislative hearing on all this
will be taking place either next month or in the fall
sometime.

Let's see what happens. MIM and coalition

members (All People's Coalition) have definitely
been having an impact in this struggle. Indeed if it
wasn't for the efforts of MIM and coalition
members in this struggle Senator Romero would
not have given any attention to $HU issues.

--a California prisoner in PBSP, June 2003

California prisoners: no yard time, no

medical care, plenty of guard brutality

Received your form letter on May 14, 2003,

just got more indigent envelopes this month or I
would have written sooner. In your form letter it
says you'd like to donate books/publications to
the library. We prisoners here in SHU do not have
access to the regular library so I wrote a request to
Captain R. Vella and asked him if and how you
could donate them to the SHU here at CSP
Corcoran. So far I've got no response and most
likely will not get one either.

Enclosed you'll find the latest rules they have

come up with here in the SHU at CSP Corcoran. I
read some old issues of MIM Notes and a lot has
changed here. There have been no fights staged but
I have seen with my own eyes Sergeant Bear and
Sergeant Anderson beat down prisoners. I have
seen other C.O. officers and heard them brag about
it later, beat and kick a prisoner. As for the yards

Correspondence states:

(B) Disagreement with the senders or

receivers apparent moral values, attitudes,

veracity, or choice of words will not be used
by correctional staff as a reason for
disallowing or delaying mail. Correctional

staff shall not challenge or confront the sender
or receiver with such value judgments nor
shall such value judgments be considered in

any action affecting the Correspondents
except at described in section (c).

In closing I hope that you will be in

accordance with the current institutional
policies.

--[SATF prisoner]

The response he received is below:
June 5, 2003
I am sorry to hear that you have experienced

some problems receiving your
correspondences from MIM. This is a matter
that was discussed with the mailroom,

education, and the Community Resource
Manager. The CSATF Mailroom was being
overburdened with Educational mail as well

as Religious mail. We had tried to get all the
different vendors to get approval before
sending to try and cut down on the amount

of needless mail. But as you see this did not

work out. It seems that there is no needless
mail.

Since the last meeting with the mailroom,

Education, and Community Resource
Manager, the mailroom is now processing all
mail as before the problem occurred. I would

hope that tall your mail is getting through
now without any delay. Although you must
remember that all mail must met [sic] the

requirements set forth by the Warden of this
institution. As stated in the Operating
Procedures 129 (Mailroom Procedures). In any

case, if your mail is being denied by the
mailroom, you will receive a CDC 1819
Disapproval form explaining the reason why.

--C. Pugliese Mailroom Sergeant

MIM adds: When we re-sent the theory

journal to the prisoner it was again rejected

by the prison with the envelope stamped
"refused" and "not approved
correspondence." We will continue this

censorship battle, working with this and other
prisoners and we encourage people to send
letters of protest to:

Warden Darral Adams
SATF, Corcoran
900 Quebec Ave.

Corcoran, CA 93212

California censorship victory

cages, they are running every ay now except
Wednesday and Thursday. In May I got cage yard
one time, May 4th, and concrete yard seven times,
May 9,11,15,18,22,27,31. They do run concrete
yard on Thursdays. Depends on who is working
at the time. We all prisoners in SHU MA yard are
getting more yard time of the chance for more yard
time at least. But things are not all roses yet. The
602 appeal system sucks. The medical treatment
under Dr. Julian Kim MD and RN Edmond is
close to non-existent. I know several people have
and are continuing to file on Dr. Kim and/or RN
Edmond. RN Edmond receives a pay check for
coming by once a week when she feels like it with
her 3 famous statements. "I don't know", "I can't
do anything for you," "you need to see the doctor".
She does nothing else but still gets paid for being a
registered nurse. No matter your medical problem
or what question you ask you'll get one of the 3
above statements!

Hopefully you'll get this letter and new set of

rules but with me mentioning the employee's
names of CDC it may be doubtful. Oh well, won't
be the first time mail has disappeared here at CSP
Corcoran. I've filed on it with no response. I'm
now filing on the library/education CCR policy.
SHU is supposed to have access to these programs.
The magic words "supposed to".

I'm just waiting my turn to be beat down by

CDC employees right now. I've been threatened
by Sergeant Bear, falsely accused, and wrote a
CDC 115 by Sergeant Anderson, threatened by
the Senior Hearing Office. I've had my cell
destroyed several times. They are looking for a
signed receipt for a 602 I wrote on a female
employee, a psych employee gave me a signed
receipt for the 602 I turned in. The 602 has not
been responded to as of yet. They are supposed

to have 10 working days to respond. But...the
first one was turned in 4-7-03. The second one (5-
3-03, signed receipt).

--California prisoner, June 2003

Corcoran SHU reduces prisoner safety
Corcoran SHU is a maximum security facility

where the officer comes to the prisoner's cell door,
places him in handcuffs through a food port and
motions to the control booth officer to
electronically open the prisoner's cell to perform
the daily escorts (i.e. showers, exercise yard, law
library, visits, etc.)

On numerous occasions the control booth

officers have accidentally and repeatedly opened
the wrong door leaving the escorting officers open
for attack by prisoners who have not been
handcuffed. As a solution to this problem Corcoran
SHU has reinstated its deadly and infamous
gladiator policy of electronically opening the cells
without the officers being in the section.

If the prisoner is going to the shower he is only

allowed to wear his shower shoes on this risky
journey to and from the showers, thus reducing
the prisoner's ability to protect himself from an
attack.

If the prisoner is being escorted outside of the

section he is to go to the section door where officers
on the other side place him in handcuffs through
the food port and proceed with the escort. Upon
return from the escort the prisoner is placed back
in his section where the handcuffs are removed
through the food port and his cell door is then
electronically opened by the control booth officer
for him to return to his cell.

This procedure is only in theory. The age old

problem lies in the prisoner's return to his cell
from escort and/or showers because just like the
control booth officers have repeatedly opened the
wrong cell doors leaving officers open for attack,

it is just a matter of time before these same control
booth officers accidentally and/or strategically
open the wrong cell doors leaving the prisoner
open for attack from other prisoners. This is but
another chapter of Corcoran's same scheme
revisited all over again.

-- a California prisoner at Corcoran SHU, June

2003

New SHU cells in California prisons
We, the inmates, have been moved to this "new

ad-seg" which is designed like the SHU, except we
get no type of appliances, radios, TVs, etc. Our
cells are 7 feet in width and 8 1/2 feet in length and
the yard is small cages just like Corcoran SHU and
supposedly Corcoran has one of these new ad-
segs.

They are equipped and built like a SHU unit

with the hole in the wall for electrical appliances,
but we are denied such due to technically it is not
called a SHU. Our only natural light comes through
a sky light and then through a 3 1/2 foot long 4
inch wide glass window. This is inhumane. These
cells were built for single cell living with an added
bunk and they put two people in it. We cannot
properly shave because we are not allowed shaving
razors, only hair clippers which can only be utilized
in the shower, and they don't properly disinfect
the clippers.

We are fighting these injustices but the injustice

system is steady trying to push rules on us that
aren't even in a rules and regulations book (title
15) nor are any of these bogus rules operational
procedure. We are told both cellies have to go to
the shower together, we have to exit our cells. We
are told that if you are in a cell by yourself you
have to cell up with another inmate or you will be
cell extracted. These few things are examples (true
ones) of some of the oppression in these new ad-
segs. We can't even get a scrub pad to clean our
toilet bowl with nor finger/toe nail clippers. Maybe
MIM can exploit these things and these "new ad-
segs" CDC is building within prisons to make bed
space since the state won't build new prisons.
Plus it's just another way to punish us over and
over for one crime.

I have been confined in ad-seg for 10 months

now awaiting a transfer that hasn't even been
endorsed yet. All because some other inmate put a
confidential information on me saying that a certain
group will have problems with me being there.
These are false accusations and in the meantime I
am being deprived of credit earning contact visits,
and other mainline incentives and privileges. This
happens to a lot of us in this imperialist system.

-- a CA prisoner at Soledad, June 2003

Fighting Security Housing Units in California

MIM Notes 285 · August 1, 2003 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

agosto 1, 2003, Nº 285 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

¿Que es el

MIM?

El MIM difiere de otros partidos en tres

puntos basicos: (1) El MIM sostiene que
después que el proletariado conquiste el
poder estatal, existira aún el potencial para
una restauración de tipo capitalista, bajo
la dirección de una burguesía nueva dentro
del mismo partido comunista. En el caso
de la Unión Soviética, la burguesía se
apoderó del gobierno después de la muerte
de Stalin, en 1953; y en China después de
la muerte de Mao y del derrocamiento de
la llamada "banda de los cuatro' en 1976.
(2) El MIM sostiene que la Revolución
Cultural en China es la fase ms avanzada a
la que llegó el comunismo en la historia.
(3) El MIM afirma que la clase trabajadora
blanca de los EE.UU. es primordialmente,
una élite trabajadora no revolucionaria en
el presente. Es por esto que no es el princi-
pal vehículo para avanzar el Maoísmo en
este país.

MIM · P.O. Box 29670 · Los

Angeles CA 90029-0670

Por el MIM.

Traducido por Células de Estudio para

la Liberación de Aztlán y América Latina

A principios de julio la corte del

Perú declaró culpable al ex-activo de

la CIA, Vladimiro Montesinos,

acusado de "usurparción de

autoridad" por apoderarse del infame

Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional

cuando oficiaba como asesor de éste.

El juez le dictó lo que parece ser una

sentencia pesada por el detalle que

resultó en su enjuicio- una multa de

2.8 millones de dólares más una

cadena de 9 anos y 4 meses de prisión-

pero que en realidad es leve en

comparación con lo que se merece por

los crímenes cometidos al ejecutar la

ley marcial bajo dirección del ex-

presidente Alberto Fujimori. Cientos de

miles fallecieron a causa de la guerra

genocida del gobierno oficial en

contra del movimiento revolucionario

dirigido por el Partido Comunista del

Perú (PCP) o "Sendero Luminoso."

Este verano durante el juicio

Montesinos enfrentará cargos de

corrupción, narcotráfico,

contrabando de armas, homicidio e

incluso acusasiones de que él dirigía

un escuadrón de muerte paramilitar.

El hecho de que este títere de la CIA

estaba metido en todas estas cosas fue

reportado por el MIM y otros amigos

del PCP hace más de diez años.

Durante este tiempo los medios de

comunicación en Amérika y el

gobierno yanqui se mantuvieron en

silencio y hasta aclamaban a

Montesinos por sus sanguinarios

esfuerzos "contrainsurgentes." A

continuación imprimimos una nueva

traducción de un artículo que apareció

en MIM Notes detallando la relación

entre el gobierno yanqui, Montesinos

y como los portavoces burgueses

consetían a este último.

En la década de los 90 los

principales medios de comunicación

imperialistas difamaban al "Sendero

Luminoso" y a su líder, el Camarada

Gonzalo, con acusasiones de que se

asociaban con narcotraficantes.

Ahora son los imperialistas y otros

reaccionarios quienes admiten que el

gobierno del Perú estaba metido en el

narcotráfico tal como lo habia dicho

el "Sendero Luminoso."

En MIM Notes Nú. 216 le

informamos al lector que el Tío Sam

se había fastidiado con su entonces

lacayo y maestro de espionage

Vladimiro Montesinos. Este es un fin

común para los lacayos quienes llevan

a cabo el trabajo sucio de los yanquis

sólo para descubrir luego que ya no

le hacen falta al patrón. El problema

con lacayos tipo Montesinos es que

quedan descubiertos ante el pueblo -

como en el Perú- y luego sólo es

cuestión de tiempo antes de que el Tío

Sam se deshaga de ellos. Y claro, el

próximo lacayo cobrará más para

llevar a cabo las órdenes del Tío Sam.

En cada país existen personas como

Montesinos, listas para convertirse en

traidores y lacayos. Tanto el Tío Sam

como sus lacayos merecen ser

derrotados.
Los medios de comunicación
yanquis protegen a Montesinos

El día 10 de julio de 2001 CNN dijó:

"Después de ser expulsado de las fuerzas

armadas y un corto plazo en prisión por

vender secretos a la CIA, el licenciado

Montesinos abogó a favor de

narcotraficantes." (1) Cuando esto fue

anunciado por CNN Montesinos acababa

de terminar su huelga de hambre de 9

días en una prisión en el Perú después de

haber sido entregado por las autoridades

venezolanas. Ahora Montesinos enfrenta

varias acusaciones criminales las cuales

incluyen narcotráfico y homicidio.

Sin embargo, una búsqueda en las

páginas de internet del supuestamente

imparcial vocero CNN, revela que antes

de que Montesinos huyera del país, es

decir antes de que el Tío Sam se enfadara

con él, CNN no menciona nada en

relación con la protección que le ofreció

Montesinos a los narcotraficantes. Basta

con decir que CNN es una extensión del

gobierno yanqui. Cuando el Tío Sam pide

aclamaciones, CNN las entrega. Y

cuando el Tío Sam le pide que muerda,

CNN muerde.

Ya el día 19 de mayo del 2000 CNN

decía lo siguiente sobre Fujimori y, por

implicación, de su "mano derecha,"

Montesinos: "Será una difícil decisión para

EE.UU. soltar a Fujimori ya que él ganó

grandes aclamaciones durante los

primeros dos años de su mandato por la

eliminación de la producción de cocaína

en su país, por aplastar a la guerrilla

izquierdista de los movimientos de

Sendero Luminoso y los Tupac Amaru y

por controlar la superinflación." (2) Pero

ya que el gobierno yanqui decidió resistir

por completo a Fujimori y Montesinos,

CNN y toda la prensa del monopolio

capitalista cambió de tono y se le permitió

hacer la conexión entre éstos y el

narcotráfico.

La misma búsqueda en las páginas del

periódico New York Times demuestra que

desde 1996 este vocero nunca mencionó

a Montesinos en conexión con el

narcotráfico hasta después de la crítica

del gobierno imperialista en el año 2000.

Por cierto, uno de los pocos artículos del

New York Times en el cual se les critica

a los líderes peruanos se basa en fuentes

provenientes de medios de comunicación

israelítas en el Perú.

Los lectores de MIM Notes, al

contrario, conocían todo el panorama

desde 1994 por medio de MIM Notes no.

90 o artículos de Luis Arce Borja, quien

en el mismo año comenzó su exilio en

Bélgica. Periódicos al estilo Christian

Science Monitor o Houston Chronicle y

ediciones burguesas de Latinoamérica

como el Venezolano, Caretas, sólo sueltan

pequeños trozos de información.

Los periodistas lacayos sólo se atreven

a imitar la práctica del MIM y presentar

los hechos importantes ahora que el Tío

Sam se deshizo de Montesinos. Antes de

que se declarara "muerta" la Guerra

Popular en el Perú los lacayos voceros

del imperialismo temían perjudicar a la

guerra del Tío Sam en contra de ésta y

su jefe el Camarada Gonzalo y sus

seguidores, pero ahora la cuestión del

narcotráfico vuelve a tomar el escenario.

Ahora los voceros imperialistas hablan

sobre la separación entre el Tío Sam y

Montesinos y explican porqué

escondieron los hechos. Durante los años

90, la agencia estadounidense contra el

narcotráfico (DEA) y la CIA buscaban

continuar las relaciones con Montesinos,

mientras que la ex-Secretaria de Estado

Madeline Albright y el ex-Zar de

Narcotráfico Barry McCaffrey se

oponían a las mismas, según aseguran

ahora después de haber seguido una

disciplina de soldados fieles a la máquina

mentirosa de propaganda del Tío Sam.

De hecho, fue el FBI el que capturó a

algunos de los socios de Montesinos en

Miami y ayudó a tronar a Montesinos

mientras que ambas agencias- la CIA y

DEA- siguieron unidas hasta el fin.

El Tío Sam decide intencionalmente

apoyar a los traficantes de coca

Además de subrayar lo poco confiable

que son los medios de comiunicación

yanquis, el caso de Montesinos también

señala los huecos/vacíos en el gobierno

que se supone debería bloquear la

corriente de drogas que alcanzan llegar a

EE.UU. De por sí es una atrocidad que

la DEA favoreció las relaciones con

Montesinos pero también el mismo

McCaffrey, el jefe superior de EE.UU.

contra el narcotráfico, se vio rebajado al

nivel de un cabildero interno y tuvo que

mantener silencio mientras el gobierno

yanqui apoyaba a los que destinaban la

cocaína a EE.UU.

Sólo ahora se conoce todo esto ya que

los autores de Knight Ridder, Kevin G.

Hall y Lucien Chauvin han

desenmascarado los detalles y algunos

periódicos como el Boston Globe los han

publicado. Ahora el Boston Globe admite

que Montesinos enfrenta acusasiones de

que él dirigió escuadrones de muerte y

que traficaba la droga y las armas. El

Boston Globe imprimió el reportaje en la

cadena de Knight Ridder el cual decía

que Montesinos era "el hombre a quien

muchos creían ser el verdadero no elegido

líder del Perú desde 1990 hasta el 2000."

(3) No es sorprendente, entonces, que la

administración de Bush haya tardado en

soltar todos los asquerosos detalles del

trabajo de la adminstración de Clinton en

el Perú ya que temen que éstos puedan

poner en peligro al "joven gobierno

democrático del Perú." (3) La palabra

"democracia" en boca de los imperialistas

es una palabra clave que significa

narcotráfico, contrabando de armas y

otras cosas por el estilo que hacen del

mundo entero un lugar seguro para las

ganancias norteamericanas.

Notas:

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

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

index.html

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

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

3. Boston Globe 26June2001, p. a10.

Procesamiento de Vladimiro Montesinos

Justifica la Guerra Popular en el Perú