MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

Jan. 15, 2004, Nº 295

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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ussian president Vladimir Putin

put his stamp on the Russian

parliament called the Duma in

elections December 7. The only party

receiving at-large delegates that does not

support Putin gained 12.7%--the phony

communists led by Zyuganov.

In the days leading up to elections,

MIM received a credible report which it

did not confirm that pro-Putin activists

associated the Yabloko ("Apple") party

with Chechen "terrorists" in the media.

Putin controls most of the mass media,

so outside observors criticized the Russian

election campaign for the information that

voters received.

The pro-Western Liberal parties

received no at-large faction rights in the

Duma by virtue of falling below 5% of

the vote. However, Zyuganov claims that

an independent tally shows that Putin's

party stuffed the ballot box to deprive the

Liberals.(1) On the other hand, none of

the critics are saying the two Liberal

parties received much more than 6%

apiece in any case.

We received the following report from

Chairpersyn Dar Zhutayev of the Russian

Maoist Party. "Only four parties made it

to the Duma, out of which 3 are 100%

pro-Kremlin and far-right politically:

`United Russia'--the official pro-Putin

party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky's `Liberal-

Democratic' Party (you must have heard

about it), and a new bloc called `Rodina'

(`Motherland'), artificially composed by

the Kremlin's political technologists out

of ex-Soviet generals and industrialists,

Orthodox clericals and Russian fascists

plus some bought-off labor leaders and

espousing an ideology they call `people's

patriotism.' The fourth party is

Zyuganov's `Communist' Party that has

suffered a very serious setback as

he New York Times recently

published excerpts from an FBI

memo that confirmed what many

anti-war protestors already knew:

Amerikan police have stepped up

surveillance and harassment of anti-war

protestors.(1) In an effort to rebut the

Times' article, the FBI published the full

text of the memo along with a point-by-

point response.(2) However, close reading

of the memo only confirms the suspicions

of activists and the Times (see the memo

on page 9).

The FBI memo outlined a number of

"tactics which have been observed by

U.S. and foreign law enforcement

agencies while responding to criminal

activities conducted during protests and

demonstrations." These "tactics"

included "[using] the internet to recruit,

raise funds and coordinate [protestors']

activities prior to demonstrations" and

"surveillance of sites prior to

demonstrations." The FBI also cited

"videotaping" as an example of what it

called "intimidation techniques" used by

protestors. The memo closed with an

exhortation to report suspicious activity

to the FBI's Joint Terrorism task force.

FBI officials quoted in the Times' article

admitted some of the information in the

memo was gathered using informants.

The FBI's response argued that the FBI

did not advocate spying on political

protestors per se, rather, it had focused

on "identifying anarchists and `extremist

elements' [allegedly] plotting violence."

Even if this were the case, the memo's

broad definition of "violence"--including

peaceful civil disobedience tactics such

as humyn chains and sit-down strikes--

as well as its insistence that legal protests

could be used as a cover for "violent"

actions is sure to have a "very serious

chilling effect," as a professor of

Shut Down the

Control Units!

More on the

ongoing campaign,

pages 3 and 4.

Police, with FBI, step up

surveillance, harassment

of anti-war protestors

constitutional law quoted by the Times

put it. "If you go around telling people,

`We're going to ferret out information on

demonstrations,' that deters people.

People don't want their names and faces

in FBI files."

Although the FBI claimed, "we do not

investigate or maintain dossiers on

persons because of their `political

activities,'" it did not deny gathering

information on individuals who attended

rallies that could potentially facilitate

"extremist activity" (in the FBI's

judgment). This is a formalistic argument,

since once the information has been

gathered it can be used for any purpose.

Protestors are right to suspect such

information will be used for no good, given

the COINTELPRO-era abuses of the

FBI (up to and including murder), the

domestic spying of past presidents like

Nixon, as well

as the record of

the current chief

of "law

enforcement,"

John Ashcroft.

Furthermore,

since the FBI is

Continued on

page 9...

Continued on page 6...

VLADIMIR

PUTIN LINES

UP SUPPORT

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 2

What is MIM?

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is the collection of existing or emerging

Maoist internationalist parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their English-

speaking internal semi-colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Maoist Internationalist
parties in Belgium, France and Quebec and the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking
Maoist Internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.$. Empire.

MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-speaking
parties or emerging parties of MIM. MIM upholds the revolutionary communist ideology
of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and is an internationalist organization that works from the

vantage point of the Third World proletariat. MIM struggles to end the oppression of all
groups over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possibly by
building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. Revolution is a reality for

North America as the military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to
maintain world hegemony. MIM differs from other communist parties on three main
questions: (1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the

potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within
the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the
death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of the "Gang

of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance
of communism in humyn history. (3) As Marx, Engels and Lenin formulated and MIM has
reiterated through materialist analysis, imperialism extracts super-profits from the Third

World and in part uses this wealth to buy off whole populations of oppressor nation so-
called workers. These so-called workers bought off by imperialism form a new petty-
bourgeoisie called the labor aristocracy. These classes are not the principal vehicles to

advance Maoism within those countries because their standards of living depend on
imperialism. At this time, imperialist super-profits create this situation in the Canada, Quebec,
the United $tates, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland,

Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Israel, Sweden and Denmark. MIM accepts people as
members who agree on these basic principles and accept democratic centralism, the system
of majority rule, on other questions of party line.

"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should

regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of
learning terms and phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution."

- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208.

Editor, MC206; Production, MC12

Letters

MIM Notes

The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement

ISSN 1540-8817

MIM Notes is the bi-weekly newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement. MIM

Notes is the official Party voice; more complete statements are published in our journal,
MIM Theory. Material in MIM Notes is the Party's position unless noted. MIM Notes
accepts submissions and critiques from anyone. The editors reserve the right to edit
submissions unless permission is specifically denied by the author; submissions are
published anonymously unless authors insist on identification (prisoners are never
identified by name). MIM is an underground party that does not publish the names of its
comrades in order to avoid the state surveillance and repression that have historically
been directed at communist parties and anti-imperialist movements. MCs, MIM comrades,
are members of the Party. The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is an anti-
imperialist mass organization led by MIM (RCs are RAIL Comrades). MIM's ten-point
program is available to anyone who sends in a SASE.

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

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

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

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

long as we are credited.

For general correspondence, contact:

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eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

Kucinich not so bad?

I read in your Nov. 1, '03 MIM notes

that you interviewed Dennis Kucinich last

month and found him to be "the most

dangerous" because he would "fool

otherwise progressive people into serving

imperialistic goals." And that Dean also

has a following among progressives.

WHAT? Please go look at Dennis'

website at www.Kucinich.us. Nowhere

does it say he supports imperialism!! He

voted against the Iraq war, against the

Patriot Act, against NAFTA, against

GATT. He is for peace, a Peace Dept.,

for the US signing treaties with the rest

of the world, for being a good world

neighbor, and for every progressive cause

you can think of, including workers'

rights. So what are you talking about?!

Also, Dean is in support of imperialism

thru his support for the war. I would really

appreciate a response from someone,

because I think your statements about

Dennis are unfounded.

--Incredulous on the INTERNET

MIM responds: If only reactionaries

wore t-shirts saying, "I'm a reactionary!"

Of course they don't. Some of them even

find it useful to wear t-shirts saying, "I

am most assuredly NOT a reactionary.

Really." In fact, our lengthy review of

Kucinich (which the letter-writer

apparently has not yet read) was inspired

by a confrontation with a Kucinich

supporter who claimed to be "practically

a communist" (see MIM Notes 288, 1

Oct 2003, pp. 3-5).

Kucinich supporters who honestly

consider themselves anti-imperialists need

to do some serious re-thinking on a

number of issues, a few of which we list

here.

First, whatever his rhetoric, consider

Kucinich's track record. As we recapped

in MIM Notes 288, "Kucinich voted for

the `Iraq Liberation Act of 1998' that

declared it should be the policy of the U.$.

to remove Saddam Hussein's regime from

power. Further, on his web site Kucinich

reprints speeches in which he declares

his support of the state of Israel in its

terrorist war against the Palestinian

people. And of course, like all the other

good imperialist governing officials in

congress (with the sole exception of

California Democrat Barbara Lee),

Kucinich voted for the September 14,

2001 resolutions authorizing the

administration to use nearly unlimited

force in response to the September 11

attacks."

Then there is the deeper issue of

Amerika-first chauvinism in the name of

the rights of "labor." MIM's problem with

Kucinich on this issue is the same as

MIM's problem with the anti-NAFTA and

anti-WTO movements in general. They

focus on the Amerikan workers getting a

bad deal because jobs are going to other

countries where labor is cheaper. This

position fosters national chauvinism, telling

workers here they deserve to keep their

jobs at high wages. MIM says the

capitalists need to be stopped from

exploiting Third World workers, but it is

not trade agreements that are causing this,

and we certainly don't think Amerikan

workers deserve better jobs and higher

wages than the rest of the world.

Kucinich falls just short of calling for

sealed borders to protect Amerikan jobs

from those damn immigrants. As a

"progressive" candidate he is walking

dangerously close to the extreme right

protectionist wing of the bourgeoisie on

this question.

MIM has written extensively on the

"anti-globalization" movement since 1995

(see e.g. MIM Notes 96, Jan 1995) and

the political economy of the Amerikan

"working class" for well over a decade

(see MIM Theory 1 and "Imperialism and

its class structure," http://www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM/mt/imp97/index.html).

Finally, as we discuss in the review of

Kucinich and the article on overall

imperialist political reality that appears on

page 4 of this issue, it is unrealistic to

expect to be able to make long-lasting

anti-imperialist gains in the Amerikan

electoral arena. Even the mealy-mouthed

Kucinich has no chance at the

Democratic nomination. Anti-imperialists

have to consider where their time would

be better spent: working on a campaign

that at best will get a few half-hearted

rhetorical flourishes on C-SPAN and at

worst will be "progressive" window-

dressing for a decidedly non-progressive

party, OR doing their own thing the right

way. It is better to start small and

unpopular and develop the anti-imperialist

movement than to trade scarce resources

for small temporary political gains.

And for the record, MIM agrees that

Howard Dean also supports imperialism.

MIM does not endorse any presidential

candidates from any party.

Kucinich with AFL-CIO leaders Rich Trumka (left) and John Sweeney.

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 3

by Web Minister

December 7 2003

You may have noticed the home page redesign that

we just initiated. It's an example of a typical process

going on at MIM involving input.

A volunteer sent in the home page redesign. At first, I

was skeptical--above all because the belief that home

pages or how they arrange the "real estate" is important

tends to be misguided. I would estimate that over 90%

of our users do not go through a logical process of

starting at the web home page and going through the

content from there.

The plus side of the redesign that it takes up less space

has the down side that visually impaired people will not

see some of the smaller items. In the old home page

there was an excellent chance that the reader would

never scroll down to see all the items, but there were

big graphics relative to the new page.

Finally, I put this whole idea in cold storage a couple

months when I realized that the proportion of the "real

estate" dedicated to non-English languages was less

than in the previous home page. The big advantage of

organizing into subtopics seemed offset by the difficulty

that non-English languages were growing faster and

becoming more important than English.

Nonetheless, the redesign is here finally put into

practice. This gives an example of the reality of decision-

making I do. I did not have a strong opinion one way or

another on the new home page idea. I'm predicting that

you the readers do not either, but if you do, go ahead

and send your opinions to mim3@mim.org. Also, if you

want to look at the old home page, it's at http://

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/oldstyleindex.html

MIM unveils new internet home page

MIM's online petition against isolation

prisons or Control Units has garnered

widespread support. People from nine

U.$. states have signed and commented

favorably on the petition. At least two

people from abroad (Italy and UK)

havealso signed.

As the petition explains, "Control units

may vary from prison to prison but they

can be generally characterized as:

Permanently designated prisons or cells

in prisons that lock prisoners up in solitary

or small group confinement for 22 or more

hours a day with no congregate dining,

exercise or other services, and virtually

no programs for prisoners. Prisoners are

placed in control units for extended

periods of time.

"Prisoners are usually placed in control

units as an administrative measure, with

no clear rules governing the moves. This

makes it virtually impossible for prisoners

to challenge their placement.

"While conditions vary from prison to

prison, the goal of these units is always

to achieve the spiritual, psychological and

physical breakdown of the prisoner."

Many of the signatories had persynal

experience with Control Units.

My boyfriend is currently dealing

with the isolation issues of the imu

units. --A signatory from

Washington

My son was sentenced to a one

year SHU term at Corcoran that

lasted five and a half years. Inmate

testimony disproved his accusation

but it didn't matter ... He was

released from SHU in July, 2003 and

is still recovering from the

dehumanizing treatment. --A

signatory from California

I have dealt with having a husband

in Ad-Seg now for almost 2 years for

charges the prison has brought up on

him while in the hole. He has often

told me of misuse of authority within

Pelican Bay State Prison. He has

often been denied the small amount

of time allowed to be outside of ad-

seg along with other inmates. The

officials feel as though they can run

their own justice system within the

prison and it is not fair. Now he states

that they are building smaller more

confined cells to further demoralize

the prisoners. I on the other hand have

to find and sign petitions to stop this

when it should be done by

government officials who obviously

do not care about what is happening

in California's Prison systems. This

is not the first and will not be the last

petition I sign. How come only the

prisoners and their loved ones see

what is going on and not government

officials? -- Another signatory from

California

Other signatories commented on the

hypocrisy of pro-Amerikan, "land-of-the-

free" rhetoric when Amerika imprisons

more people per capita than any other

nation. In fact, it has led the world in per-

capita imprisonment for most of the last

25 years--so when the rednecks tell us

we are lucky to live in a "free country"

we have to think they live in an Orwellian

situation where freedom is

imprisonment.(1)

Is this what we all call America?

Liberty and Justice? -- Hawaii

No matter what name you call it,

Petition: `Shut Down All Prison Control Units'

Continued on next page...

http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/prisons/controlunits/

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 4

The Exonerated
written by Jessica Blank
and Erik Jensen

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen wrote

this off-Broadway play after traveling

across the United $tates interviewing

former death row inmates who were

found innocent after spending between

two and twenty-two years on death row.

Six of these interviews formed the core

of The Exonerated, supplemented with

information from courthouse records to

create a compelling story of Amerikan

injustice.

The play sounds much like the stories

we read on the pages of Under Lock and

Key in each issue of MIM Notes. The

three Black men featured in the play were

arrested and convicted solely because

they were Black with either no evidence,

or clear evidence proving their innocence.

Two men were tortured or tricked into

confessing to crimes they didn't commit.

And one womyn was convicted because

the man who committed the crime (and

who subsequently kidnapped her family)

struck a plea bargain in return for

testimony against her and her husband.

In each case the eagerness of the police

and others in the criminal injustice system

to get a conviction, for the sake of

publicity, clearly contributed to the

wrongful convictions. If nothing else the

cases demonstrated the inability of the

criminal injustice system to give anyone

a fair arrest, trial, or sentencing.

But the play is not just about injustice,

it is also a story of hope as several of the

former death row inmates tell of their

successful struggle to get off death row

even after years behind bars. Several of

those wrongly convicted were not

released immediately after evidence

surfaced clearly proving their innocence,

but instead they had to fight for years to

get out.

The lives of those wrongly placed on

death row are not the only ones affected.

As The Exonerated demonstrates, the

families of the prisoners suffered as well.

And upon release, after years of lockup

for their wrongful conviction, the prisoners

were given no compensation. And their

return to society was anything but easy.

Several spoke of the difficulty they had

even interacting with other people. One

man who rode horses for a living before

being wrongly convicted of murder was

unable to get a license to ride again

because on his application he said he had

never been convicted of a crime (they

claimed he had lied even though his

conviction had been overturned).

The play is a good education for those

unfamiliar with the Amerikan criminal

injustice system. And it's a good argument

the hole is still the hole and violates

the 8th Amendment. -- Oregon

One signatory said s/he agreed with

Control Units in principle, but disagreed

with them in practice.

I was for Prison Control Units--

until the misuse and abuse spread to

other non-heinous and much-less-

dangerous inmates and prisons. Until

there's an active, effective

government board or control

organization to regularly oversee, and

stop abuse on innocent (non-violent

and/or non-heinous-killer inmates), I

want all P.C.U.'s shut down. I have

no problem with murderous gang

killers of innocent people and child

murders being regularly sent to the

P.C.U.; I protest innocent people and

non-violent people being sent to that

place. Remove them. -- California

This persyn has made an important leap

that most Amerikans have not: s/he's

looked past the rhetoric to the reality.

Even accepting the bourgeoisie's own

definitions of freedom and democracy,

capitalist reality falls far short of these

ideals.(2) Prison administrators say

control units in particular aim to reduce

violence among prisoners and prisons in

general aim to reduce crime. The truth is

Petition

Continued from previous page...

Death penalty play exposes injustice system

for why the Amerikan system is in no

position to be administering the death

penalty to anyone. It should be easy for

people to take the short step from these

stories of death row inmates to the stories

of other people sentenced to prison to

realize that there are many people

unjustly locked up. This is what leads

MIM to the conclusion that all prisoners

are political prisoners: arrests, trials, and

sentences are all a part of a political

system that is at root entirely unjust. For

MIM the next step of logic is clear: the

entire system cannot be fixed and must

be overthrown. In the short run we fight

battles for reforms to improve the lives

of our comrades behind bars, shorten

sentences, and stop the death penalty in

Amerika, but in the long term we must

overthrow the entire criminal injustice

system.

"The Exonerated" opened in New

York in 2002 and played throughout

the United $tates in 2003. Venues

scheduled for 2004 include Phoenix

and Fort Worth.

Actors who have performed or are scheduled to appear in the play include Brian

Dennehy, Marlo Thomas (left), and Alanis Morisette.

that control units do not reduce violence

in prisons, evidenced by the infamous

guard-organized "humyn cock fights" in

California's Corcoran prison. Nor are

control units reserved for "the most

violent prisoners." The rules governing

control unit censoring are arbitrary, and

guards use the threat of transfer to silence

criticism.

Further, the imprisonment rate in

Amerika is not correlated with the crime

rate--meaning "tough on crime"

imprisonment policies do not reduce

crime. Economic factors such as

joblessness are correlated with the crime

rate, however. This is why those

Amerikans willing to make a fearless

examination of the facts will see not only

that the Amerikan injustice system is not

addressing the roots of crime while

imprisoning many innocents--but also

that socialism is superior to capitalism

when it comes to solving these problems.

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?

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 5

"Measure of Man" (2003)
BMG

reviewed by MC5,

November 2003

For those readers lucky enough not

to be bombarded by the Amerikan FOX

channel's press releases, Clay Aiken

was runner up in a popular televised

singing competition. His album is also

a big hit. We review him here because

of this popularity.

Upon first listening to this album one

could think that if only the words changed

a little, Clay Aiken would be another

Christian rock effort. The music tries to

be uplifting and innocent relative to

pornopop. There are no lyrics to any

religious effect: they are all silly love

songs.

When one opens the CD album jacket

suspicions are confirmed. The jacket

starts out "Thank you, God the Alpha"

and ends "and again, Jesus Christ, the

Omega, for giving me gifts far beyond

what I deserve, and allowing me to do

what I truly enjoy doing. my life is in your

hands."

This is predictable because there is

such a thing as a science of political

matters which include religion and social

attitudes. The music is 1980s. One will

hear Cher belting out a ballad without the

benefit of being an early female rock star.

"Journey" is another sound one might

think of. This sort of music has received

a level of acceptance in the soft to medium

rock category.

The point is that the music is a music

of a contentment and even when

discussing a girlfriend's depression or

disappointment, the song is upbeat and

supportive. Though Clay Aiken is 24, his

hairstyle is boyish and we imagine he has

some following among teenage girls. He

came to fame through that unusual

method of winning a TV amateur contest

on "American Idol." Looking even more

boyish than on the CD, an interview for

Fox News(1) says that the last concert

he went to was James Taylor, another

singer of contentment. As MIM has

pointed out, one need not be a capitalist

or even a petty-bourgeois to be content

with the existing patriarchy--romance

culture--especially if one is young and

considered attractive.

Upbeat, innocent and content music

points disproportionately to Amerikan

Christians. Jesus Christ himself was a

revolutionary, but today Christianity is a

culture of contentment. Evanescence

tries to walk that line between Christian

contentment and conservatism on the one

hand and edgy music on the other hand

and found it does not work. The band's

"Metamorphosis" (2003)
Buena Vista Records

reviewed by MC5

November 2003

With Britney Spears becoming

definitively adult and her teeny-bopper

days receding in memory the capitalists

decided there was room for another

younger one. So they created Hillary

Duff.

In the formula for the creation of a

pornopop diva, the teenager or 20ish

singer has to have a sweeping popularity

among teens. After the albums that a

teenager can turn out are done, the pop

star turns to more adult themes when it

becomes necessary.

That's why this album is titled

"Metamorphosis." The emphasis is on the

teenager becoming the adult.

For those young people in love with

Hillary Duff or her music, it will be

difficult to understand that she is nothing

new. We do not mean that by any way of

persynal insult (and we do not know Duff

at all, so there could hardly be anything

persynal about it) as that is standard for

the industry raking in the millions.

For the young persyn, his or her

awakening to music or rock in particular

may be new and a profound experience.

That does not make Hillary Duff new.

She is just playing the exact same role

played by others before her. Rock coming

out in the 1950s and early 1960s was

"new." There is nothing new lyrically or

musically in Hillary Duff's 2003 album.

The instrumental background is much

more involved and a faster kind of rock

than what will come later in a J. Lo type

album. It reflects energy, awakening and

vitality. The lazy lounging aspect of sex

as in much pornopop where we hear only

a drum beat accompanied by what could

be misconstrued as phone sex is not here

in Hillary Duff's "Metamorphosis."

As is fitting for someone with a Disney

contract, "Metamorphosis" is low on the

pornography quotient relative to

Amerikkkan standards; although even so,

it will be too much for many Third World

parents thinking about their teens.

"So Yesterday" sounds pretty innocent,

but it could be construed to be about a

boyfriend who left and now she is keeping

his pants, which makes you wonder how

she got them. There is no definitive

answer and that is the point in this album.

If there is any sexual innuendo, it is

indirect.

"Come Clean" seems to be about

strivings for change and going out--young

people socializing. "Workin' It Out" is

moody flightiness: "Some days I want to

fly/Some days it all makes sense to me/

Some days I just don't want to know

why."

"Little Voice" is about the power of her

interest in a boy that appears like a voice

in her head. Apparently they've broken

up and "there are some things a girl won't

do."

The same thing occurs in "Anywhere

But Here." "Trying to catch your eye . .

. When you look at me suddenly it's

clear."

"Metamorphosis" is basically about

teenage girls with interest in boys. As

many Amerikkkan parents

are oppressively afraid of

gays/lesbians, they often hope

that their teenage daughters

will have a social experience

like that promoted by Hillary

Duff. Some of these same

backward parents would be

the first to say that public

discussion of homosexuality is

"pushing" homosexuality,

while constant airplay of

songs like Hillary Duff's are

not "pushing" heterosexuality.

For MIM, the truth is that

heterosexuality is "pushed"

much more and from an early

age than gay/lesbian lifestyle.

Overall, there is not much

to say about this album positively or

negatively. While Iraqi teenagers are

figuring out how to kill wealthier and

technologically superior U.$. troops

occupying their country, most

Amerikkkan teenagers are like Hillary

Duff singing, "Sweet sixteen/Gonna

spread my wings. . .Drivin' down to the

club where we go to dance. . . Bright

stars shine above me/My blonde hair is

everywhere." Although change is the

subject of the album, it is the contented

sort distracting youth from real challenges

that require their energy.

Hilary Duff: contentment for teenage girls

vocalist Amy Lee is now trying to move

her band over to her real audience. At

the moment, we do not know how well

that is going to work going forward.

Despite his own upbeat and straight

music, Clay Aiken was the product of a

failed marriage and a father that called

him a "mistake."(2) People like Clay

Aiken are exactly the proof that

Christianity does not provide solutions to

real problems. Amerikkkans are much

more devout in their Christianity than

Europeans, but Amerikkkans still have

the huge and growing problem of

disappearing fathers. Preaching obviously

has not worked and in this strange world

with so many children of broken families,

the Amerikkkans are not ready to go on

to communal or even more socialized

child rearing. There are still lots of doubts

about leaving children with daycare, so

Amerikkkans are stuck in their

conservative thoughts unable to move

forward but also unable to sustain the

family their Christian preachers tell them

about--having the worst of both worlds

in doubts about socialism and inability to

do things the old way. These preachers

are only prolonging the agony of transition

to what has to come through revolution.

Clay Aiken calls himself a "nerd" and

his former job was taking care of autistic

children. We don't find anything

intellectual in the album. The least silly of

the songs on the album is "Measure of a

Man." It could be taken as a criticism of

heterosexual wimmin as they exist in the

imperialist countries today or anywhere

that money is the reason for attraction:

"If one day you discover him/

Broken down he's lost everything/

No cars, no fancy clothes to make him

who he's not/

The woman at his side is all that he has

got/

Why do you ask him move to heaven

and earth/

To prove his love has worth?"

The references to cars and fancy

clothes could be taken to mean that Clay

Aiken is asking wimmin why they care

so much whether a petty-bourgeois

becomes a little higher in class standing.

MIM pushes this question further and

asks whether desire is really a

construction of capitalism, since we know

that capitalism intertwines sex and money

even more than previous class societies.

This is something about people today that

will not disappear with criticism of

lifestyles. It will require the armed

criticism of revolution.

Clay Aiken's silly love songs

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 6

One of the leading obstacles to a

proletarian internationalist line in Russia

is the belief that Russians became poor

because they subsidized the rest of the

republics in the Soviet Union and

WARSAW as a whole. When it came to

why the Brezhnev Soviet Union was not

social-imperialist, revisionist fools stepped

forward to say that the Russian people

subsidized poorer countries like Cuba and

even richer ones like Czechoslovakia.

This line took hold in the Russian labor

aristocracy and spread false

consciousness among the Russian

proletarians. The same revisionists are no

where to be found today to explain why

the Russian economy collapsed so badly

when all its inter-republic and international

trade agreements collapsed.

It's very similar to the line of many and

maybe most deluded Amerikkkan labor

aristocrats who believe the United $tates

is the most generous country in the world.

Without much concern, they believe that

Amerikkkan military aid is some kind of

benefit to starving Third World peoples

provided out of the largesse of overtime

shifts of tax-paying Amerikkkan truckers,

instead of a subsidy to U.$. corporations

that receive the purchase orders for

weapons and services delivered to select

scoundrels in governments around the

world willing to serve the Amerikkkan

master.

Within bourgeois economics concerning

the division of labor--and bourgeois

economics is all we can reference in

connection to the Soviet Union in the

Brezhnev era--all economies do better

the more they trade, if each trader exports

goods that it is relatively (not even

absolutely) efficient in producing. When

nationalities go off to their republics to

stare at their navels and trade agreements

fall apart because of associated national

conflicts and the overall collapse of the

USSR, the bourgeois economy suffers

and that would be true of any economy,

socialist or bourgeois. We would only

point out that periodic national conflicts

causing a contraction in the economy are

inevitable under capitalism and only

communism is the sure-fire basis for free

trade.

When MIM says it is for national

liberation struggles, that means genuine

national liberation struggles that weaken

imperialism and create operating room

for smaller nations. We are not for

switching imperialist partners and cutting

off economic relations with neighbors.

One's neighbors will always be the most

logical trade partners in a bourgeois or

socialist world until transportation is free

as in a Star Trek transporter beam.

Currently, the ex-Soviet people are in

the stranglehold of various ideas of

political economy spread by the West and

Brezhnev revisionism. A decade of wild

capitalism did not produce the overnight

economic success that many thought it

would based on a simple comparison of

U.$. living standards and Russian living

standards. That comparison in the back

of the minds of the Russian people and

people around the world is the wrong

comparison. The United $tates was also

richer than Russia before 1917. It is not

a fair race where one competitor starts a

step from the finish line while the other

starts 1000 meters away. The many

Chinese, Russians and others who thought

that the Gorbachev road would bring a

better living standard to Russia should by

now confess to their scientific error and

do more to study relative economic

development.

The reason for the popular

misconception is a misunderstanding of

how U.$. and Russian wealth came

about. Had the Russian economy sprinted

to affluence in the last decade, we would

have seen Gaidar-type Liberals succeed

instead of falling to around 5% of the vote.

In fact, even if Russia had been instantly

accepted as a partner of imperialism like

Germany, it is doubtful that it would have

achieved overnight success from super-

exploitation of the Third World. As our

FAQ page on Stalin shows though, the

Soviet Union was catching up with the

West very quickly when Stalin was in

power, without exploiting any other nation.

Western-style development is an

economic mirage created only in two city-

states--Singapore and Hong Kong, and

two provinces, Taiwan and southern

Korea. The other rich countries in the

world were also in the top 20 richest

before Bolshevism existed, if we exclude

the tiny and artificial Arab states that

enrich every citizen thanks to wealth only

in oil. The examples of the new rich

countries cannot be copied elsewhere and

they involve a tiny percentage of the

world's population. As the world exists,

the United $tates is not big enough to make

Russia, China and India rich through the

same preferential trade terms granted to

its anti-communist allies on the one-time

front-lines of war. This is the question

Mao referred to as "the way out."

Imperialism simply does not have the

capacity to absorb the economic

aspirations of the whole world. It can only

bribe people that are a minority on the

global scale.

Though it be a cause of much bitterness

to some bourgeois-oriented Russians

today, the Russian bourgeoisie was too

late in developing to bring the Russian

people complete imperialist wealth with

an entirely bourgeoisified country and

nothing can be done about it now. The

chance to become a top-dog imperialism

arose in the late 1800s. By the time the

Russian bourgeoisie's day was dawning,

the German bourgeoisie was already

developed enough to flex imperialist

Missing in Russia: proletarian internationalism

muscle. That's why the Russian people

concluded --and only by trying every

other possible political approach first--

that only Lenin and Stalin were answers

for dealing with what imperialism had in

store for Russia. Though imperialist itself,

Russia was the weak link and socialist

revolution broke through.

Today, the relative military power of

Russia tempts the bourgeois-minded to

militarist-fascism to make up for Russia's

relatively weak economy, which is in

essence still a "weak link" in the global

capitalist system. When the Russian

people realize that neither Putin nor the

Amerikkkans nor the EU are coming with

real bribery involving the

bourgeoisification of Russia, they will turn

again to socialism. Bush's most recent

exclusion of Russia, China, Kanada,

France and Germany from business in

Iraq is only the most recent proof that

complete Russian bourgeoisification under

imperialism is a pipe-dream. While he

gains himself votes in the United $tates,

Bush speeds up the revolution in Russia.

The Russian Maoist Party's

internationalist voice and other Russian

internationalist voices may seem isolated

now, but imperialism is bound to hand the

internationalists some gifts on the silver

platter.

Note:

In trade, "relative" efficiency of

production is important. If two countries

trade with each other and there are only

two commodities, but one country is

superior in producing both goods, for

example as in four times better at

producing commodity A and only three

times better at commodity B, it remains

true that the more backward country

should produce B and trade for A--in a

bourgeois economic situation or possibly

within a socialist camp.

compared to the previous elections and,

though not explicitly pro-Kremlin, cannot

be even defined as a revisionist

organization, but as a pro-imperialist party

with elements of fascism. No workers'

deputies in this Duma and extremely few

bourgeois democrats. The extremely

rightist and authoritarian presidency has

now been complemented with an

extremely rightist and compliant Duma."

Comrade Dar Zhutayev commented

further: "Our position on it was to call

upon the people to vote `against all

candidates' and quite a few people did

so (approx. 4.5% of the voters)."(2)

Initial reports indicated some fluidness

in the political situation after the election

with Yabloko (Apple) (led by Grigory

Yavlinsky) and Union of Right Forces (led

by Anatoly Chubais) parties preparing to

ditch their leaders. There was a lot of

hand-wringing about it from Liberals

ranging from Gorbachev to the

Washington Post. As long as Putin faced

Zyuganov's having most of the Duma

power, the Western media was all for lop-

sided state control of the media. Now that

Putin's allies have crushed the Liberals

too, they all cry foul. Many mentioned a

return to the Brezhnev era given the

ideological unity of the new Duma. (The

irony of this is probably lost on those

Western pundits and most Kremlinologists

who thought the Brezhnev era polity was

monolithic and "totalitarian.") The

Washington Post even aired a view that

the makings of a new Hitler are in

place.(3)

Although it is well-known that the

Kremlin did everything possible to split

its opposition, less well-known is the extent

of Western intelligence agencies'

assistance to the Kremlin. MIM is

uncertain on that point. However, the

Kremlin claims that Bush congratulated

him on his "impressive victory." Whether

true or not, it makes friendly politics with

the West to say so.

It's an ugly picture. In three months,

the Kremlin split Zyuganov's party in half.

To counter the pressure, the phony

"Communist Party"'s top of the ticket

included anti-Semites. It's an ugly picture,

because it shows the Russian people

allow themselves to be manipulated in

politics. The various disgusting

combinations of backward ideas have

rushed in to fill the vacuum left by a

destroyed proletarian internationalism.

Notes:

1. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/

stories/2003/12/11/002.html

2. This can be confirmed in a poll in the

Moscow Times as well. http://

www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/

12/11/012.html

3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/

wp-dyn/articles/A49744-2003Dec9.html

VLADIMIR PUTIN LINES UP SUPPORT

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 7

The most popular thing that Putin did

lately was arrest oligarch Mikhail

Khodorkovsky. In no way was that arrest

getting ahead of public opinion, and so

Putin retains rightist credentials. Some

members of the Western business press

also celebrated Putin's victory and the

Russian industrialists recently greeted

Putin at a meeting in unity.

When the Soviet Union dissolved,

instead of handing over state assets to all

individuals for private ownership equally,

under the corrupt advice of Western

"economic" consultants, people like

Gaidar and Chubais allowed certain

individuals to become overnight

billionaires. Ever since that time, Russia

has been one giant competition of mafias

and the people are stuck wondering if

there is any capitalism that is not corrupt.

The people wonder if there is any dividing

line between a capitalist business deal and

a bribe.

It does not take much of a push for the

Western media to adopt an outsider's-

Liberal, oppose-the-barbaric-foreigner

posture. Western papers were full of

stories supporting corrupt business leaders

in Russia and egging on the most corrupt

to challenge Putin for political power. Any

Russian who happened to be reading was

sure to punish the Liberal parties in

Russia. Rarely have phrases like "human

rights" and "democracy" so directly

correlated with the fate of a single corrupt

capitalist such as oil magnate Boris

Berezovsky or the more recent

Khodorkovsky arrest. Western articles

seemed calculated to connect

"democracy" to white-collar crime, while

also leaving out the blood and guts

involved in the Russian mafia's rise. On

the other hand, while admitting

Khodorkovsky's corruption, the Western

press rarely admitted that he was the

major funding behind their beloved

Western-Liberal style parties, Apple and

Union of Right Forces. In other words,

the corruption they admit to have occurred

was the reason for the success of their

beloved parties.(1)

In a very rare feat of materialism, in an

article we recommend, old-style-

Republican/libertarian Justin Raimondo

crushed the numerous weenies of the

Anglo-Saxon press who complain about

a lack of democracy in other countries

without comparing what is happening in

their own or others: "When the

Republicans run television ads featuring

Bush's Top Gun landing on that aircraft

carrier, I wonder if these same monitors

will lodge complaints about inappropriate

use of taxpayers' money."(2) Although

Justin Raimondo single-handedly

demolished these chauvinist Liberals,

Ralph Nader also could tell these weenies

a thing or two about getting media

coverage in the United $tates, when

government regulated media allow

exclusion of candidates from debate

counter to their own by-laws.(3) That's

not to mention the countless media outlets

whose profit margins rest on government

ads. Google censors MIM while taking

military and Republican Party advertising,

which means that the government is

giving tax-dollars to partisan media.(4)

This is not to mention that after Florida in

2000, it seemed that the Anglo-Saxon

world should have kept its mouth shut a

good decade. As MIM always stresses

there is no truth about any grand concept

whether "democracy" or "liberty" or

"communism" that is valid without a

comparison of realities.

It goes to show that the propagandists

running the Western media indulge far-

flung fantasy as long as it can be done

safely at the expense of a bourgeois

several time zones away. For those that

honestly do not know it's not any better

in the United $tates or England, we feel

only pity. In some aspects the Russian

government is more at Putin's campaign

disposal and in other aspects it is less

compared with other "democracies."

MIM's position on corruption is this:

yes, it's unfair to arrest just Mikhail

Khodorkovsky and a couple other

oligarchs. Western consultants like Jeffery

Sachs, Liberal lap-dogs like Gaidar and

Chubais and of course their political

sponsors Gorbachev and Yeltsin would

have to be arrested too. The transfer of

wealth took corruption at the highest

levels of government. Yet, MIM would

not stop there. In truth, someone in the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union put

those scum Gorbachev and Yeltsin in

power. So, there would need to be an

arrest of the bourgeoisie in the party, inside

the highest ranks of the communist party

itself.

Upon thinking of all the people who

would be arrested, though a relative

handful compared with the murderous

mafias now running wild that made Russia

as dangerous on the street as the United

$tates, many proletarians lose their nerve.

State power is indeed an awful thing that

will always repel the refined sentiments

of the proletariat. Yet the choice is

between better and worse. Arresting

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is not enough. A

decisive struggle against the bourgeoisie

in the party in the Brezhnev era would

have prevented the massive death of men

and the elderly that has occurred in

Russia, not to mention inter-ethnic wars

brought on with the collapse of the Soviet

Union. Arresting and preventing the

development of the bourgeoisie in the

party is not a simple matter either, but we

have the example of Mao's Cultural

Revolution as a starter to address that

problem. Mao's critics whined about the

repressions and brutalities of the Cultural

Revolution when the people became more

fully politically active, but say what they

may, the Cultural Revolution did not lop

off a fraction of the people's life

expectancy. Capitalist corruption in

Russia did.

Notes:

1. The bourgeois Anglo-Saxon line in

which Khodorkovsky is a political dissident

challenging Putin and upholding

"democracy":

http://www.boston.com/news/world/

a r t i c l e s / 2 0 0 3 / 1 2 / 0 8 /

pro_putin_party_headed_for_big_win_in_russian_vote/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/articles/A47807-2003Dec8.html;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/

dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A33557-

2003Dec3¬Found=true;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/articles/A33166-2003Dec3.html;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/

article/0,2763,1102230,00.html.

We do not know all of whom

Khodorkovsky gave money, but the two

Liberal parties seemed most dependent

on the aid.

One paper noted that Amerikkkans

moved in to take over the Yukos oil

company as managers with

Khodorkovsky out of the way, but they

may be more willing to pay corporate

taxes than Khodorkovsky was and hence

more "patriotic" as Russians than

Khodorkovsky. http://msnbc.com/news/

998436.asp?0sl=-13&cp1=1

A similar story arose in connection to

RUSSIA: Corruption central for many voters

Alex Konanykhin, another Russian

millionaire banker who lost his visa in the

United $tates under Russian pressure.

The Sun (Baltimore) again equated

corruption with democracy while

admitting how Kononykhin came about

his money while complaining about the

corruption of Russian justice (25Nov2003,

p. 12a).

2. http://www.antiwar.com/justin/

j121003.html

We disagree with Raimondo generally,

for example, for his adherence to the

Republican Party's opposition to Uncle

$am's joining World War II.

3. Just some escapades by Ralph

Nader that could be by anyone organizing

a third party in the United $tates: http://

www.commondreams.org/headlines02/

0416-06.htm ;

http://www.commondreams.org/

news2000/1005-07.htm ;

h t t p : / / w w w . d e b a t e t h i s . o r g /

nadervscpd.html

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

agitation/censor/ads/index.html.

Arresting Mikhail Khodorkovsky doesn't begin to solve the corruption problem.

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 8

What questions do YOU have?

Wasn't Mao a butcher? Why do you spell it "Amerika"? Shouldn't
you try non-violence first? What is internationalism? Isn't hating white

people reverse racism? Why don't you leftists work together? Why
don't you tone it down? What is a cardinal principle? What is your
program? What is necessary to join MIM? What concrete actions can I

take? How do I write articles for MIM? What is your copyright policy?

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

and get real answers to these and other questions.

Right now, much of the Western and

Russian media is sounding a note of

sadness regarding the Putin party's

electoral success. Many are concerned

that Zyuganov and the Liberals lost so

much power. There seems to be

something disconcerting on how Putin can

will something and it will be done, because

if he can really get what he wants in the

superstructure the way he did, many

conclude that the political fight is useless,

possibly because the people are too stupid.

We at MIM have dialectical optimism.

Zyuganov's alleged "Communist Party"

was so far off the mark, it would be better

for the Russian mind to start from the

wildly unpopular pro-gay/lesbian, anti-

Chechen war and pro-Stalin and pro-Mao

line of the Russian Maoist Party. The

Russian people have not had a period of

study sufficient yet to have a critical mass

of people able to separate from both

Western bourgeois politics and Brezhnev-

era bourgeois politics. It is better to be

unpopular and start the development on

that path of thought than to trade scarce

resources for small temporary political

gains.

In other countries, such as the

Philippines, the national liberation forces

can even decide which landlord puppet

of imperialism comes to power, but in the

united $tates and Russia the political

temperature is lower and obtaining quick

political gains depends on knowing

crucially the answer to the question

"relative to what." Without the correct

question "relative to what," answers will

tend in extreme right opportunist and left-

idealist-nihilist opportunist directions right

from the beginning of a party's existence.

The temptation will be to be the tail

wagging the dog and so we have to insist

on materialism in even the most abysmal

situations. The "left" opportunists will say

we can do more than we can only to

make us the tail on the imperialist dog.

The right opportunists will deny that we

can improve rapidly from our abysmal

positions. At MIM we believe our Central

Task Report nicely encapsulates this

problem. In our Central Task report we

are not tracking figures on how many

members of Congress MIM has. Chasing

after Congress seats would be ultra-left

opportunism ending up in dogshit right

opportunism. Giving up completely and

endorsing Democrats would be regular

rightist opportunism that dissolves the

reason for the existence of a vanguard

party. This is an important distinction,

because the threat comes from both

sides--the "left" and the right. People

who come to us and say that MIM can

keep its principles and win seats in the

Congress, grow its faction and seize

power are ultra-left. It's important when

confronted with such a belief to spread

"pessimism" and say "it cannot be done."

That's part of having a grip on the fact

that MIM at this point does not have

multiple billions of dollars to unsettle

everything in Congress. Having multiple

MIM seats in Congress might be nice,

but people who leave questions at that

level are not as yet scientific.

The trick is to capture what the party

is doing now and then adopt measures to

improve on that quickly. All this is to say

that the Bubba vote in the United $tates

is depressing and the vote in the Russian

parliamentary elections is depressing, but

we have to stick to improving our forces

and their influence. If Zhirinovsky, Putin

etc. decide to go off the fascist deep-end,

the species may have earned it, and it is

doubtful that the Russian Maoist Party

could stop them today, but fretting about

that and wondering if we can be the tail

on the dog does not make anything better.

That's why the Russian Maoist Party

found itself opposing all the candidates.

Often, outside observors transfer their

conditions to those of others and cause

political mistakes as when the Moscow-

trained Bolsheviks landed in China in

Mao's day and did not study China's own

conditions. Recently, MIM faced a

ridiculous criticism from someone quoting

Stalin on the nature of vanguard parties.

The passage quoted was on principles

Stalin used to choose among various

European parties, especially the German

ones. This was at a time in the 1920s

when Stalin was talking about how to

choose among parties wanting Comintern

recognition that already had hundreds of

thousands of members and millions of

voters. Here was Stalin in his day trying

to choose among these parties and

factions and our contemporary dogmatists

do not realize that those same principles

from Stalin do not apply when there is no

such choice available in the material

world. Stalin enunciated principles for

dealing with the material reality he faced.

Those principles on sorting out the

European socialists becoming Bolsheviks

do not apply in a situation when there are

no Bolsheviks or Bolsheviks are just

starting parties. Measuring rods of

progress have to be appropriate for the

situation they are applied to. That is basic

materialism. It is very easy for dogmatists

to be the ones who cause a breakdown

in dealing with reality that leads to both

"left" and right opportunism. Once a

breakdown in the materialist method

occurs, the dogmatist will also end up

clearing the way for an opposite of

dogmatism which is eclecticism, an

opposition to taking sides and applying

science--taking up random ideas instead

of theories and changing overall strategy

day-to-day.

With regard to anyone claiming to bring

qualitatively new ideas to the party, we

also ask people to prove them in practice,

whether their own practice or even better,

some group of people's practice. In

situations as in most countries in the world

where the vanguard party is as yet weak

and undeveloped, usually one persyn can

start (or more likely, point to) a political

practice, the way Mao did in the

countryside before the Communist Party

of China made him a leader. It's not that

Mao started the peasant revolt. He only

noted it and said the communists should

lead it better. For him, it was a relative

question of how the authorities could not

successfully repress the reds in the

countryside. Mao did not just read a novel

and one day decide that peasant rebellion

is what strikes his fancy relative to other

strategies.

In MIM, we did not always have prison

outreach either. Others started sending

in MIM publications to prisons and

prisoners circulated them quite a bit

before MIM started directly sending MIM

publications into prison. So what MIM did

is note someone else's practice as proof

that something could be done and its

usefulness as demonstrated by all the

letters of high political consciousness that

MIM received from prisoners before

starting a prison outreach program.

So as the example with Mao and the

peasant rebels or MIM and the prisoners

demonstrates, when we say "practice is

principal," it does not mean "my practice

is principal." People who approach the

party advocating unproven ideas should

be encouraged for thinking but upbraided

for not proving.

Mao and others in the countryside gave

the party ideas and thorough studies on

how things could be done. Mao went so

far as to know the names, business,

consumption items, taxes etc. of every

persyn in a single village.

Political participation for its own sake

in the party is not positive, especially if it

ends up unsettling proven strategies and

tactics that are advancing the central task.

Such participation is ulta-democracy

founded on ultra-left ideas on the merit

of ideas for their own sake or participation

for its own sake. That is for anarchists or

Titoites.

The task of the party is to settle down

on a common framework of admitting

what it is doing now and how is it

improving or can improve over time. From

there, that framework must be defended

against right opportunism and ultra-left

nihilism. When Mao has peasants

marching armed for land, it does not do

much good to say it cannot be done. If

bandit bands are expropriating landlords

without even the benefit of a vanguard

party, and surviving years and decades

at a time as some of the famous ones did

in China, again, it becomes right

opportunism to say the peasants cannot

carry out a revolution for land reform

strictly because the armed aspect is not

possible. We know overall that the class

system is headed for a fall. So the question

is what we can do to see to getting on the

best road for that fall.

We do not become too depressed both

because we have strategic confidence in

imperialism's fall and because we have

adopted our own materialist approach.

That means in any tactical situation, the

enemy may in fact win an overwhelming

victory. That's what Mao called "strategic

confidence but tactical respect" for the

enemy. If we dwell on the enemy's

dominance too long, we are likely to lapse

into right opportunism of the Menshevik

paralysis sort. If the anti-slave rebels

dwelled on slavery's existence for

thousands of years, they may have

become depressed too, but their

depression only delayed the downfall of

slavery, which is now only occupying a

small percentage of the globe. It is key to

materialism to recognize what progressive

capabilities already exist.

Dealing with the psychological depression

regarding overall imperialist political reality

The Russian people

do not yet have a

critical mass of

people able to

separate from both

Western bourgeois

politics and Brezhnev-

era bourgeois politics.

It is better to be

unpopular and start

the development on

that path of thought

than to trade scarce

resources for small

temporary political

gains.

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 9

not as vigilant in gathering information on

the organizers of other large, raucous

gatherings that could potentially be used

as covers for "terrorist activities," such

as sporting events, mainstream political

functions or gun shows, it is de facto

investigating people because of their

political activities. The FBI memo even

admits, "the FBI possesses no

information indicating that violent or

terrorist activities are being planned as

part of these protests," yet it still calls on

police to "be alert" to legal protest tactics

and report "potentially illegal acts

[MIM's emphasis]" to the FBI.

Consider the Miami antiglobalization

protests, where "2,500 police officers in

millions of dollars of new body armor and

crowd control equipment" met 10,000

protestors.(3) As we reported earlier,

despite claims that the police were

responding to "disruptive elements," the

cops' mass-arrest tactics were

preemptive and unprovoked.

"Many demonstrators reported that

police ordered groups of demonstrators

to disperse while circling the protesters,

making it impossible for them to escape.

Police then arrested these people for

failure to obey a police order. Several of

Police, with FBI, step up surveillance,

harassment of anti-war protestors

those arrested were brutalized in jail,

Blacks and Latinos bearing the brunt of

the abuse.

"[One National Lawyer's Guild

observer] stopped at a corner, by himself,

to call for directions when a group of

bicycle cops rode up. He was handcuffed

and arrested, and his tape recorder, which

was recording at the time, was taken by

cops and never returned."(4)

The FBI memo (issued one month

before the Miami protests) says, "Post-

demonstration activities can include

fundraising in support of the legal defense

of accused protestors and demonstrations

of solidarity calling for the release of the

accused." Both activities are of course

perfectly legal, but citing them in a memo

concerned with "terrorist activities"

makes them seem nefarious.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Miami

police attacked a jail solidarity rally.

"A producer of the Democracy Now!

radio show wrote a statement while sitting

in jail in Miami. `I was arrested because

I had not embedded myself with the Police

Dept before doing my job of covering the

protests for the nationally syndicated

public radio and TV program Democracy

Now! Instead, I was swept up late Friday

afternoon with about 70 others as we tried

to obey an order to disperse from an

`unlawful' jail solidarity rally.' She went

on to explain that police arrested four

other independent reporters with her, and

she knew of several other arrested

reporters..."(4)

In a related story, South Carolinian anti-

war protestor Brett Bursey "was arrested

for refusing to move to a `free speech

area' a half-mile away" from the speech

by President Bush he was picketing. U.$.

Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. later

charged Bursey under a law that allows

the Secret Service to restrict areas to

protect the president. However, this case

and others like it have nothing to do with

"security." The American Civil Liberties

Union filed a lawsuit against the Secret

Service, citing a pattern of "selective

removal of anti-Bush protesters," or "the

removal of all who are engaged in political

speech while passersby are allowed to

keep using the sidewalk."(3)

The FBI, the Department of Homeland

Security, the Attorney General and other

police agencies are painting a picture of

"terrorist activities" in broad strokes to

justify repression of anti-government

protestors, immigrants, and anybody else

they don't like. The politically naive say,

"if you have nothing to hide, why should

you fear giving up your civil liberties?"

What these people do not understand is

that civil liberties protect against corrupt

and dishonest people in government. It is

not a question of hiding something. It's a

matter of preventing government-

sponsored terrorism. It is a matter of not

trusting the government and giving it

unaccountable power. This was at the

core of the racist Amerikan founding

fathers' philosophy having suffered the

oppression of a tyrannic government. And

despite the slavery and genocide against

the First Nations rampant at the time,

MIM would say that that idea is still more

advanced than what we hear today about

the need to sacrifice freedom for safety.

The founding fathers had a "theory" of

how to keep government under control

of the people. We at MIM do not think

that theory is exactly right, but we

recognize and share concern for the

question that drove that theory. Most of

what we hear today on the subject is pure

emotion driven by fascist agitators in the

media and government.

Notes:
1. New York Times, 23 Nov 2003.
2. www.fbi.gov/response.htm
3. Boston Globe, 14 Dec 2003.
4. MIM Notes 293, 15 Dec 2003.

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · 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

Join the fight

against the

injustice

system

While we fight to end the criminal

injustice system MIM engages in

reformist battles to improve the lives

of prisoners. Below are some of the

campaigns we are currently waging,

and ways people behind the bars and

on the outside can get involved. More

info can be found on our prison web

site: http://www.etext.org/Politics/

MIM/agitation/prisons

Stop Censorship in Prison: Prisons

frequently censor books, newspapers

and magazines coming from MIM's

books for prisoners program. We need

help from lawyers, paralegals and

jailhouse lawyers to fight this

censorship.

Books for Prisoners: This program

focuses on political education of

prisoners. Send donations of books and

money for our Books for Prisoners

program.

End the Three Strikes laws: This

campaign is actively fighting the

repressive California laws, but similar

laws exist in other states. Write to us

to request a petition to collect

signatures. Send articles and

information on three strike laws.

Shut Down the Control Units: Across

the country there are a growing number

of prison control units. These are

permanently designated prisons or cells

in prisons that lock prisoners up in

solitary or small group confinement for

22 or more hours a day with no

congregate dining, exercise or other

services, and virtually no programs for

prisoners. Prisoners are placed in

control units for extended periods of

time. These units cause both mental

and physical problems for prisoners.

Write to us to request a petition to

collect signatures. Get your

organization to sign the statement

demanding control units be shut down.

Send us information about where there

are control units in your state. Include

the names of the prisons as well as the

number of control unit beds/cells in

each prison if that is known. Send us

anti-control unit artwork.

MIM's Re-Lease on Life Program:

This program provides support for our

comrades who have been recently

released from the prison system, to help

them meet their basic needs and also

continue with their revolutionary

organizing on the outside. We need

funds, housing, and job resources. We

also need prisoner's input on the

following survey questions:

1. What are the biggest challenges

you face being released from prison?

2. How can these problems be

addressed?

3. What are the important elements

of a successful release program?

On lockdown in
Oklahoma

I am writing on behalf of myself and one

other inmate. We are both women in a
Maximum Security prison. She is 23 and I am
32. We write constantly about conditions

here and in other countries. We both write as
a hobby/career, and to right what's been
wronged. We write about government

induced diseases, hunger, and underground
issues. We've attempted to reach the papers,
the broadcasting centers, TV & radio, but

none have taken an interest. We also write
about prison conditions, theory, research on
any law or policy that is inhuman, degrading

or is a problem or could result in a future
problem. We are now working to pass a law in
Oklahoma to ban long-term segregation (more

than 90 days) in an 8' x 10' cell. As of November
I've been confined for one year, and my
comrade for 19 months. This is not the first

time either of us has done a long stretch for a
minor infraction. We are on 23-hour lockdown,
when we are taken to our showers we are

handcuffed. When we go out for our one hour
exercise, we have on leg chains, belly chains,
black box and cuffs. But we won't conform.

What's right is right and what's wrong is
wrong.

--a prisoner in Oklahoma, December, 2003

MIM responds: Don't be shy, send us your

writings! Under Lock & Key and the rest of
MIM Notes can always use your thoughtful

anti-imperialist and anti- militarist
contributions.

MIM Program makes
the rounds in Arizona

Soldiers of the struggle,
First & foremost I'd like to thank you for

responding as quickly as you did.

Unfortunately, the hands of oppression
removed me, an outspoken revolutionary, from
general population to bunk with two others

in a room really designed for two. It takes
more than what they have to break me down
though, so I continue to press on. One pro

was that I was able to circulate and make
copies of MIM's program, "What we Want;
What we Believe," so you should receive mail

from others interested in revolution. I am most
definitely interested in receiving MIM Notes
and being a part of the Books for Prisoners

program. Any contributions that I can make
to your organization, let me know. I am more
than willing to participate in writing for all

MIM publications, as well as anything else I
can do to be of service. Currently my funds
have been depleted since I no longer slave,

but I should be able to contribute monetarily
in the coming months. Any literature that you
can send in regards to the struggle for

freedom, and literature on Stalin, Marx, or
Lenin would be greatly appreciated. I would
also like more info on Mao. Until then, I salute

you and continue to support your efforts to
get people free. Uhuru Sasa! Freedom Now!

Loyalty and respect,

-- an Arizona prisoner, November 2003

MIM Release
program threatened
by parole conditions

Comrades, my parole date is approaching

within 42 days and I just received my special

parole conditions from my parole agent - one
of my conditions is to stay away from political
groups because I am on High Control Parole.

This means they could search my place of
residence at any given time or my person. I
know they'll be keeping a close eye on me 24/

7. But I will not, I am not, and I shall not give
in to the oppressors and their unreal, infantile
games they played.

-- a California prisoner, November 2003

MIM adds: As we work to build our prisoner

release program and ensure that our

revolutionary comrades behind bars can
continue their political activism on the outside
the criminal injustice system looks for more

roadblocks to put in our way. We recently
heard from another comrade in California who
was released and then picked up on a parole

violation one day later because they changed
his release location at the last minute, making
it impossible for him to find housing within

the restrictions of his parole. The pigs were
waiting for him to go to a relative's house so
they could pick him up and toss him back in

jail. This is why we need to do careful pre-
release planning, as the comrade from New
York suggested, so that we can provide the

necessary support to keep our comrades on
the streets.

OH Prisoner spurs
humyn rights
investigation at
Richland CI

I was transferred from Richland Correctional

after: I prompted two state Senate
investigations; Three human rights abusers

were fired or "relieved" of duty; I spent 144
consecutive days on lockdown, 44 of that on
a hunger strike and 17 of that on a hygiene

strike; and I received a mild concussion, a
separated shoulder and lost 30 pounds in five
months.

A prisoners' rights group is considering

filing a lawsuit on Richland and the state
Senate re-assembled the Corrections

Institution Inspection Committee, complete
with two senators I sent affidavits to about
abuses at Richland Corruptional. One of the

three issues you sent is already circulating
and I'm reading the second.

In the struggle of the proletariat of the

world,

-- an Ohio prisoner, December 2003

MO prisoners: total
vindication or no
remedy at all!

We prisoners in Missouri and at Crossroads

Correctional Center in particular are
experiencing a vast disregard for most of our

constitutionally protected rights.

Administration and classification staff here
in the Administrative Segregation units are

denying prisoners IRR and grievance forms
as a means to keep our complaints from being
processed in the system. Caseworkers here

are unlawfully protecting corrections officers
who prisoners file complaints on. If a prisoner
is lucky enough to obtain an IRR or grievance,

it may wind up in the trash or otherwise
disposed of once the prisoner hands it over
to a caseworker.

The U.S. District Courts require that to bring

a 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 civil action, a prisoner
must first attempt to resolve his/her issue by

exhausting the grievance system. So when
caseworkers refuse to give prisoners IRR and
grievance forms, or destroy these forms once

prisoners fill them out, they are denying us
the "access to the courts" afforded us by the
U.S. Constitution.

The uphill battle of the oppressed only

inclines more steeply. Those of us here at
CRCC who turn to outside organizations like

the ACLU or NAACP about the wrongdoings
of staff come face to face with the obstacle of
our mail being obstructed. Staff interfere with

our mail to keep the numerous incidents of

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · 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.

abuse, criminal circumvention, denial of court
access and other reprisals under wraps. We

are forced to give our mail to correctional
officers who throw our outgoing mail in the
trash or otherwise make sure it does not get

out.

In the very few instances where a prisoner's

IRR/grievance is processed, he usually faces

retaliation for complaining. Prisoners may be
subjected to reprisals such as macing without
provocation, beatings in violation of policies

against "offender abuse" (see RSMO217.410),
being kept off the sick call list, doctor's list
and dental list. Guards show "deliberate

indifference to necessary medical/dental
treatment."

So you see, "in an ocean of obstruction,

being hounded by the waves of injustice,"
we have yet to be provided a raft, much less
see the coast guard or rescue ship! We are

glad for such allies as MIM Notes in a
struggle that never ends. We wage appeals
for "total vindication" or no remedy at all.

-- a Missouri prisoner, December 2003

Missouri: Double
celling in Ad Seg

Missouri prisoners are being subjected to

torture whenever they refuse to double cell
with another prisoner in isolation. In June
when I arrived at Northeast Correctional

Center, guards tried to put me in a cell with
another prisoner in administrative
segregation. When I refused, they sprayed

mace in my face, kicked me, stomped me, beat
me. They broke my eyeglasses, tightened the
handcuffs to the breaking point then twisted

them viciously. They put shackles on me, then
twisted them to cause me pain.

These guards carried me to a strip cell

(where a camera is mounted on the wall). They
beat me, kicked me, stomped me, and twisted
me some more. They kicked my right shoulder

and damaged nerves in my wrist. They
accused me of kicking one of them: Rule 2
assault against staff and Rule 19 creating a

disturbance by refusing to accept a cell mate
in Ad Seg.

I was kept in a cell with no sheets, no

blankets, no mattress, lying on a cold,
concrete slab for three days, when guards
threatened to beat me up again if I refused to

accept a cellmate in Ad Seg. My body
couldn't stand another beating like that so I
went into a cell with a man who was mentally

ill and had full-blown TB.

When I wrote to the superintendent of that

prison and told him what had happened, he

had me placed on special security orders --
it's a kind of punishment, but it guaranteed
me a single cell and protected me from further

assaults by guards. Three months later, a
specialist diagnosed nerve damage to my
wrist and prescribed a splint and surgery to

repair the damage.

Prisoners are being tortured by guards and

given infractions when they refuse to double
cell in administrative segregation 23 hours a

day, every day, for months on end. In 1999, a
prisoner killed his cell partner in Ad Seg at
Potosi. Recently, another prisoner there was

killed.

In 1987 the eighth circuit court of appeals

ruled that it is cruel and unusual punishment

to double cell prisoners with a history of
violent behavior, 23 hours a day, for months
in Ad Seg. The same court ruled that the only

way it would not be cruel and unusual
punishment to double cell Ad Seg prisoners
is if they sign a consent form agreeing to

double cell.(See Tyler v. Black, 811 F. 2d 4 24
(8th cir. 1987).) Double celling of inmates in
segregation unit in small cells with solid

"boxcar" type doors was cruel and unusual
punishment in violation of eighth amendment.
Inmates with a history of assaultive behavior

were placed in closed cells for up to 23 hours
a day for periods of several months. (USCA
Const. Amend. 8 5. Criminal Law - 1213.10(4).)

Double celling of inmates in special
segregation unit was not cruel and unusual
punishment, where inmates were double celled

only if they signed consent form. (USCA
Const. Amend. 8)

Now I have to go and have surgery for the

nerve damage caused by the attack.

-- a Missouri prisoner, December 2003

MIM responds: Unfortunately, this

prisoner describes the outcome of court
decisions like the one that calls
nonconsensual double-celling in

administrative segregation cruel and unusual
punishment. With minimal oversight of prison
conditions, guards were able to gain this

prisoner's "consent" by giving him two
beatings and locking him in a bare cell for
three days. This proves only that prisoners

can be "convinced" to sign over their rights
once their hands are tied behind their backs.

California censorship
battle: court

Here is the latest on the battle against

censorship of MIM Theory 11 here. The appeal
I filed was denied at the directors level, which

exhausted my administrative remedies. They
determined that the institution is in compliance
with departmental policies. As soon as I can

obtain a copy of the denial I will send one to
MIM for your review. The next step is to file
suit. I would like to bring a lawsuit against

the director of corrections as opposed to just
the institution so that a favorable ruling by
the court would effect departmental policy

state-wide, not just an order against an
individual institution. I'm not sure I can file
suit against the director so I am looking in to

it. I will keep you informed of all
developments.

-A California prisoner, Tehachapi,

December 2003

CA conditions
inhumane

I appreciate your understanding that ad-

seg units are no different than Security

Housing Unit (SHU) programs. Inmates who

are housed in these facilities are subject to

the same inhumane treatment. We are forced

to suffer through having our constitutional

rights violated and are covered by the use of

the institution saying it is because it threatens

the safety and security of the institution. This

carries a lot of weight and is CDC's way of

trying to justify the conditions of ASU and

SHU.

Being forced to use the ASU rec yard in t-

shirt and boxers and socks while it is raining

is cruel and unusual punishment. Issuing

adequate clothing does not threaten the

safety and security of the institution at all

which leaves the fact that it is structured to

oppress and depress inmates, which in turn

creates hostility within inmates.

CDC has now created a new method of

punishing inmates with indeterminate SHU

programs by saying if you have been in the

SHU three times it's off to the SHU for

indeterminate term. If you've been in a riot

twice it's an indeterminate SHU. This is just

another way to keep beds in the California

SHUs filled. My cellmate has been given an

indeterminate SHU because a confidential

witness alleged he was attempting to bring

explosives into the institution. Yet the facts

of proof were never discovered to show that

the allegations were true, nor did he receive

disciplinary action to support his being placed

in a SHU indeterminately.

CDC is making no apologies in their act

against inmates in ASUs or SHUs, they are

just warehousing inmates and saying "appeal

it" if you don't like it! These lockdown units

serve no purpose only that they lock inmates

away for long lengthy periods in ASU

awaiting a transfer and have been in ASU

non- disciplinary, non-adverse for five months

since 6-11-03. Yet there has been no effort to

transfer me. I am aware of the wrongs and

would love to see them righted, but it will

take those who are willing to see the end to

these control units, and in order to make

changes one has to stand up strong within

the struggle to make it happen, and I am

willing to do all I can in my reach of doing.

- a ca prisoner, November 2003

Presently I am in Ad-Seg facing an

indeterminate SHU term. The Institutional

Gang Investigators (IGI) unit has been on a

massive terror over the past year, locking up

and seeking to "validate" (as prison gang

members - `BGF' - Black Guerrilla Family - all

revolutionary conscious minded Black men.

Under their (admin) rules, they can

"indeterminately" lock BGF members/

associates up.

The wickedness of their plot is that they

are knowingly `validating' people that they

know `are not' BGF, as BGF. The sleeping

giant of the low masses within HDSP (and

CDC) are stirring, and moving to demand what

is rightfully theirs - freedom, justice, equality

and independence. These illegal actions by

IGI are a desperate attempt at counter-

revolution, and to extinguish (remove from

people) any spark, that may ignite the people

into raging fire - which both destroys and

purifies.

-a California prisoner, December 2003

Repression at Salinas

Here in Salinas Valley $tate Pri$on,

California I've witnessed our mind-set and

living conditions deteriorate beyond

explanation. On every General Population

yard here it is difficult to receive yard with

any consistency, much less on time. The

reasons given are: They're understaffed,

staff-training, a staff's birthday or some type

of celebration for them. Their favorite one is

"something is missing," which more than

once that "something" was found to have

been in the possession of a C.O. the entire

time; very few times have there been

something actually missing. Over the past

year they've gotten so bold as to sometimes

tell the truth that they just "didn't feel like

running yard."

In the hole (or "ad-seg"), where I'm writing

from, you only get 2 pair of socks, underwear,

shirts, and towels, and your shower shoes.

That's it as far as clothing. You might get to

the cages once a week for a two hour period,

that's the most exercise time we get. They

completely eliminated giving us any mini-yard

(or "concrete yard"). Everyone is on "walk

alone", no exceptions. They tell us that this

is enforced $tate-wide now, however no paper

saying such has ever been seen. There are

only 10 usable cages outside, which 2 1/2

buildings use, which is why it takes a week or

two to complete a rotation. Whenever you

do get those two hours, you're in the cage

with no access to water or to a urinal. It's like

that rain, sleet, or snow. And if said weather

conditions occurred, you have no over-head

protection from the elements. And remember,

at the most, you've got on 2 pairs of socks,

underwear, and tee shirts (that's everything).

Let's not forget the secret SHU building

that they tried to erect here. They did complete

building it, but they didn't have approval from

the $tate capitol to do so, initially, so after

they finished building it they couldn't even

use it. So they waited until the first riot since

Its construction happened, then filed

whatever papers seeking permission to use

that building as an "ad-seg" due to

"emergency circumstances" . . . permission

granted. Now they have inmates housed in

this SHU building, with everything built as a

SHU, however they get no TV or radio

because, hey, it's not "officially" a SHU

building. Never mind the fact that there's a

lot of people in there who've been given SHU

terms and area "awaiting transfer" to a SHU

unit. But if you have less than a year left to

do once you've been given the SHU term

you'll remain right there for your SHU term.

Of course, the whole time you're there you'd

have been "awaiting transfer," until your term

is over.

Here in Cali, our food portions have been

reduced. The percentage of money taken from

those who owe restitution has increased to

33%. That means if you were sent $100, you

would only receive $67 of it. And it's rumored

that they're going to cut prison spending more

and increase that current 33% to 52% by new

year. We need drastic change here.

-- born struggler, a CA prisoner, Sept 2003

MIM adds: We are waging a campaign to

shut down the Security Housing Units in

California and Control Units across the

country. See page 3.

MIM Notes 295 · January 15, 2004 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

jan 15, 2004, Nº 295 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

¿Que es el MIM?

El Movimiento Internacionalista Maoísta (MIM) es un partido revolucionario

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

El lío en torno a las armas de

destrucción masiva en Irak: una
revelación para luchadores que llevan

las de perder.

Traducido por Células de Estudio

para la Liberación de Aztlán y América

Latina.

A menudo oímos la aserción que la

lucha política es inútil porque cada año el

Tío Sam gasta miles de millones de

dólares con el fin de espiar a todo el mundo
a través de satélites y submarinos. Los

medios de comunicación árabes dijeron

que el Tío Sam sabía de qué color era la
ropa interior de Saddam Hussein. Hace

poco el sitio de Internet "marxists.org"

(1) dijo que era posible identificar cada
computadora por medio de equipo

colocado en servidores remotos.

Semejantes argumentos apuntan a la idea
de que cualquier tipo de lucha contra el

Tío Sam es futil y que, por lo tanto, hay

que unirnos a la lucha propagada por el
Tío Sam y respetar sus reglas del juego;

sin embargo, el lío en torno a las armas

de destrucción masiva (ADM) revela el
fallo de asumir una actitud liberal hacia

el tema de la lucha y seguridad.

Diez meses antes del discurso

equivocado sobre el Estado de la Unión

en el que George Bush citaba pruebas

falsas sobre la supuesta venta de uranio

por parte de Níger a Irak, la CIA le dijo a
Bush que dicha información era falsa.

Aparte de la CIA, un embajador también

informó a la administración Bush que
esta información no era cierta. Esto

significa que hasta la posesión de

información correcta no garantiza el uso
de la misma. (2) La administración Bush

ha emitido un sinfín de otras declaraciones

falsas sobre la naturaleza y la justificación
de la guerra contra Irak. (3) Basándose

en fuentes de información

estadounidenses, Tony Blair declaró que
Saddam Hussein estaba listo para utilizar

ADM 45 minutos después de un aviso-

algo que jamás sucedió. (4)

Los estudiantes probélicos y los que

asumieron una postura neutral

desconocían el hecho de que el archivo
de inteligencia compuesto y utilizado por

el gobierno británico con el fin de justificar

la guerra contra Irak, provenía en gran
parte de un trabajo no citado de un

estudiante estadounidense disponible para

el público. (5) En nuestro periódico MIM
Notes 274, criticamos a un estudiante

quien asumió la típica postura monárquica

que justifica la apatía y la falta de lucha
contra la guerra. Según el estudiante,

"Basamos nuestras opiniones sobre la

política externa e interna en la información

que recibimos de coberturas parciales de
medios de comunicación, opiniones de

nuestros amigos y preguntas de nuestros

profesores. Bush basa sus opiniones en
datos secretos de inteligencia obtenidos

a través de múltiples fuentes, estimaciones

nacionales de altos funcionarios de
servicios de inteligencia y consejos de

expertos. Si ni siquiera él tiene la

información completa, nuestro
entendimiento de la situación equivale a

una pieza insignificante del

rompecabezas". Resulta que a alguien le
entraron ganas de tomarle el pelo a la

administración Bush mediante una

falsificación de documentos sobre los
programas de armas nucleares de Irak;

éstos fueron utilizados por Bush con el

fin de promover su plan bélico contra Irak
diseñado antes del año 2000. Resulta, por

lo tanto, que la posesión de inteligencia

secreta fue un impedimento más que una
ventaja. La mera posesión de la

información "completa" no garantiza el

uso correcto de la misma.

Los luchadores por la justicia que llevan

las de perder deberían tener en cuenta

que un acceso a todas las fuentes de
información no garantiza el uso de las

mismas por parte de los que los que están

en el poder. De hecho, el capitalismo
corrompe toda la producción del

conocimiento, desde el conocimiento de

medicinas cuyas ventas se someten a
fines lucrativos hasta los análisis de la

eficacia de sistemas de armas adquiridas

por el Pentágono. Como ya hemos
mencionado en la sección sobre la

seguridad en nuestra página web: "El

imperialismo estadounidense de ninguna

manera se puede permitir el lujo de filtrar
la información correcta y separarla de la

falsa." En este sentido, el MIM ha

señalado que la acumulación de
información proveniente de una fuente no

garantiza que el propósito de dicha fuente

so sea el de desviar información.

Los imperialistas buscan un

conocimiento que les otorgue ganancias

individuales. Como consecuencia, los
imperialistas jamás podrán alcanzar la

capacidad que tiene el proletariado para

encontrar la verdad. Aunque los gastos
monetarios de los imperialistas en

servicios de inteligencia sobrepasen los

del proletariado, los imperialistas son
incapaces de usar la información

obtenida, y si la llegan a usar, entran en

conflicto con otros imperialistas cuyos
intereses de propiedad y agendas

políticas son distintos. Por esta razón,

cualquier tipo de lucha que dificulte el
espionaje de los oprimidos y explotados

por parte de los imperialistas es siempre

justificado. Como ya hemos mencionado
en nuestra reseña del sitio marxists.org,

"Hay múltiples razones para no

someterse: 1) Existe la posibilidad de
aumentar el costo del enemigo ya que

cualquier forma de espionaje correcto

cuesta. 2) Una vez que se obtenga
información, el enemigo tiene que separar

la información correcta de la falsa. 3)

Puede que el enemigo no haga nada. "

Fuentes consultadas:

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

links/marxistsorg.html

2.http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/

World/iraq030616_uranium.html; también
véase http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/

story/0,12956,972651,00.html

3. Véase por ejemplo http://

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/

articles/A43615-2003Jun11.html

4. Para leer el testimonio de un

exoficial de la CIA véase: http://

w w w . f o x n e w s . c o m / s t o r y /

0,2933,89923,00.html; véase también
http://www.foxnews.com/story/

0,2933,89649,00.html

5. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/

story/0,12956,970035,00.html

El Tío Sam no siempre sabe