MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

April 1, 2004, Nº 299

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

INSIDE: Return of the King review * Dating advice * Una Página en Español...

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext

ith the election of pseudo-

socialists to power in Spain on

March 14th, the Anglo-Saxon

imperialist press went into overdrive

saying it was a vote for terrorism. MIM

would say of course it was a vote for

terrorism: terrorism was the only choice

on the Spanish imperialist ballot. On the

one side was giving the Spanish

government what it wanted: a vote for

the war in Iraq. And on the other hand

was giving Al-Qaeda what it wanted --

withdrawal from Iraq. Spaniards suddenly

voted overwhelmingly for withdrawal.

(Whether or not the "Socialist Party"

actually carries through with promises to

pull out of Iraq by the end of June is

another question.)

The definition of "terrorism" is violence

or the threat of violence against civilians

to achieve a political goal through

intimidation. Bush with Spain's help killed

thousands of Iraqi civilians to remove

Saddam Hussein. The troops are still

killing Iraqis and preventing freedom of

speech.(1) Likewise, somebody killed 200

Spaniards in the subway to achieve a

political goal, maybe one of Al-Qaeda's

goals since Al-Qaeda reportedly claimed

responsibility.

The Popular Party led by outgoing

Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar sent

1300 Spanish troops to help Bush in Iraq,

even though over 90% of Spaniards

oppose the Iraq war.(2) Until bombs in

Madrid killed about 200 Spaniards on the

subway, it looked like the Spanish people

were going to be bought-off for another

round of war.

The reasoning of the public prior to the

bombing appeared to be that Aznar had

brought prosperity to Spain, so it would

keep quiet about the war in Iraq. In reality,

Spain has benefited from the European

Union through economic growth in

conventional bourgeois terms. The

European Union (EU) has the historic task

of consolidating majority-exploiter rule,

especially in Ireland, Portugal, Spain and

Greece, but also eventually eastern

Europe, where MIM is not so sure the

EU can actually succeed in creating a

parallel competitor to the United $tates.

Currently parts of Europe like France,

Belgium and England are solidly bought-

off imperialist states while other parts look

spotty. The EU is aiming to fix all that.

The Madrid bombing derailed the EU-

Bush combination that we saw in Spain.

Combining a European economic outlook

UNCLE SAM

STIRS

TROUBLE IN

EQUATORIAL

GUINEA AND

ZIMBABWE

Bush teams up with

old apartheid buddies

to pick new neo-

colonial lackeys in

Africa

The United $tates, England and Spain

have conspired to overthrow the

government of Equatorial Guinea.

Mercenaries caught in the act confessed

on television March 10th.

The mercenaries sought to replace

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema

Mbasogo in Equatorial Guinea with a man

in exile in Spain, Severo Moto. Equatorial

Guinea used to be Spain's colony. With

money from the U.$. Government and

multinational corporations and a promise

of oil interests, the mercenaries went into

action.

Equatorial Guinea caught 15 people, the

advance party: "The 15 people detained

comprised white South Africans, black

South Africans of Angolan origin, a

German and others from Kazakhstan and

Armenia, officials said on Tuesday."(2)

It is only fitting that Zimbabwe holds

most of those captured, some 64

mercenaries. England lately criticized

Zimbabwe to the point where Zimbabwe

withdrew from the Commonwealth

England heads.

"Some of the men were said to have

been former members of the notorious

32 Commando of the South African

defence force, a clandestine unit of the

apartheid regime who went on to join the

equally controversial private military

company Executive Outcomes, which

carried out military operations for the

governments of Sierra Leone and Angola

in the 1990s. It was formally disbanded

in 1999, largely in response to South

Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act,

which outlaws mercenary activities."(1)

An English gent providing a cover for

March 6

Protesters took to the streets across

the state of California to demand

California prisons shut down the Security

Housing Units (SHU). Like other control

unit prisons across the country, the SHUs

are prisons within a prison. They are

solitary confinement cells where

prisoners are locked up 23 hours a day

for years at a time. The one hour a day

these prisoner sometimes get outside of

their cell is spent alone in an exercise pen

not much larger than their cell, with no

direct sunlight. This long-term isolation

causes serious mental and physical health

problems for many prisoners. And these

torture cells are used to target politically

active prisoners using a system of

classification that makes it impossible for

prisoners to appeal their assignment.

Activist groups in California have

initiated a united front to shut down the

Security Housing Units. Organizations

and individuals have come together to

coordinate our actions and raise the

struggle against the SHU. The united

front recently convened a meeting that

included the Barrio Defense Committee,

the Maoist Internationalist Movement, the

African People's Socialist Party, Aztecs

of North America Inc, African People's

Solidarity Committee, Justice for

Palestinians, Zami! Cooperative, and

California Prison Focus. Participants also

include family members of SHU

Spanish people try to vote down Iraq War

Elections pit terrorist factions against each other

Spanish peace protestors (madrid.idymedia.org)

First Monthly Demo Against

SHU; Protests Across California

prisoners and former prisoners

themselves.

In cities across the state, participants

in the united front will be holding protests

the first Saturday of every month. We are

collecting petition signatures and

educating people about the SHU torture

and why it must be shut down. Participants

in this united front see the fight against

the SHU as part of a larger battle against

the criminal injustice system as a whole.

And many participants also have an

understanding of the corrupt system of

Amerikan imperialism that uses prisons

as a tool of social control and national

oppression. We bring these lessons to the

people on the streets as we build this

movement to shut down the SHU.

In the city of San Francisco MIM led

the protest against the SHU this month at

the corner of Powell and Market streets.

We set up a literature table with flyers,

newspapers, magazines and petitions. Our

signs demanding the SHU be shut down

caught the eye of many passersby who

stopped to ask about the campaign. Many

of the Black men walking by stopped to

support the struggle, having experienced

the prison system first hand. And many

Black wimmin also stopped based on their

experience of having relatives locked up.

Continued on page 8...

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 4...

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 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.

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

Sponsors pay for papers, distributors get them onto the streets, and officers do both
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Most back issues of MIM Notes are available free on our web site. The web site con-

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

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

long as we are credited.

For general correspondence, contact:

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eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

Reader takes MIM to

task on Abraham

Lincoln

Dear MIM,

It is indeed shocking to read in "MIM

Notes" that you are singing the praises

of George Washington and Abraham

Lincoln. Washington was not an "anti

colonist". The genicide against Native

People and Africans began before the

"revolution"and continued well after.

Washington just laid the basis for the white

priviledge we see today. That is why he

is "beloved" by Amerikans. Lincoln was

concerned with preserving the "Union".

He would have preferred to do so without

the "Emancipation Procomation". Slavery

did not end because Lincoln and white

Amerika found it "intoleritable" as you

have said, but because the Slaves found

it intoleritable. A true example of a

revolutionary hero from the past would

be Nat Turner. If the Trotskyists had been

around back then they would have

denounced Turner as an "indiscriminat

killer of ordinary white folk" including

"Women and children"(one of their

favorite terms).

mim@mim.org responds : Many

people have written to us, disappointed

with our recent comments on Abraham

Lincoln, George Washington, and other

American "founding fathers."

We are trying wrest certain terms and

ideas away form the reactionaries. We've

done this for years by spelling Amerikan

with a "k"--we've recently broadened

this campaign to undermine more of the

reactionaries bogus rhetoric (http://

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/cong/

noamericans.html). That's why you've

seen more references to George

Washington, Abraham Lincoln et al. in

MIM Notes recently. The point is: the

"principles" the reactionaries say these

"founding fathers" stood for contradict

their actual principles. In fact, the

"founding fathers'" principles are in many

important cases much closer to MIM's.

We're saying that if these boobs really

wanted to live up to the legacy of earlier

bourgeois revolutionaries, then they

wouldn't censor MIM Notes because we

uphold the principle of armed revolution;

they wouldn't set up secret courts and

further restrict civil liberties; etc. This does

*not* mean we think Abraham Lincoln

was a great proletarian revolutionary; we

are careful to make this clear. It's an old

story: when the bourgeoisie was young

and out of power, it took progressive

stances, talked about the "unity of all

mankind," etc. Now that it is old and in

power, it has to oppose those progressive

stances it once took. We are trying to

highlight that.

We'd agree with you that Black

resistance to slavery was principal to

slavery's overthrow. Lincoln did not free

the slaves; slavery was overthrown in a

revolutionary process, the largest part in

which was played by Blacks, especially

in the electoral and armed struggles of

Reconstruction. The failure of

Reconstruction and the counter-revolution

that followed has a lot to do with the fact

that the North's principal aim in the Civil

War was not the emancipation of Blacks.

That said, whatever his motives, Lincoln

did some very good things that objectively

aided the revolutionary struggle against

slavery. He stood up to the slave states

and called their bluff of armed action;

previous governments (all the way back

to George Washington) had always

backed down in the face of that threat.

Despite severe criticism at home, he both

emancipated the slaves and armed blacks

to fight against the South. These were

important factors in the South's eventual

defeat (and their experience under arms

helped Blacks fight for their rights during

Reconstruction). He stuck with a bloody

and unpopular war when he realized that

it was the only way to break the political

clout of the Southern planter class. Thus,

in several key moments, Lincoln was

presented with the choice of intra-white

unity or abolition of slavery--and he chose

the right side. Of course, he would rather

have abolished slavery peacefully, but

when events proved that peaceful

abolition was a pipe dream, he stuck by

his guns and toughed it out.

The point of all this: Lincoln took the

political principles of the rising bourgeoisie

seriously ("Our progress in degeneracy

appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a

nation, we began by declaring that `all

men are created equal.' We now

practically read it `all men are created

equal, except negroes," he once said).

However, the bourgeoisie can no longer

realize those principles--in fact it must

oppose them at every turn. This is the

hypocrisy we hope to unmask by

comparing Bush, Clinton, et al. to

Washington and Lincoln.

I should emphasize, though, that if on

further reading and thought you change

your mind and believe that MIM still truly

upholds its white-working-class line

[which this letter-writer had questioned

in an earlier letter], but disagree about

George Washington etc., you should work

with us as closely as possible. There will

always be disagreements on tactical and

strategic matters among revolutionaries.

Lest we degenerate into an anarcho-Trot

debating society, it's important to not let

those differences get in the way of action.

Nat Turner: Now that's a revolutionary hero.

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 3

by PIRAO chief,

March 15, 2004

Just a note, I keep forgetting to credit

people in our central task reports.

PIRAO5 deserves credit for doing the

work that makes our circulation upsurge

possible. We can call that kind of work

Deputy Minister of Distribution. The work

for the all-time records in circulation can

be chalked up to PIRAO5. HC123's job

contributing to MIM internationalism is

difficult to describe. For all practical

purposes, HC123 does the vast majority

of actual work in our International

Ministry (and our International Minister

is limited in time by party resolution) and

it is HC123 providing a good gob of the

The current writer removes hundreds

of spam messages per week from his/her

email inbox. Yet, the solutions under

capitalism are worse than the disease of

spam. Bill Gates has now suggested that

all email cost money like postage stamps

in order to slow down spam.

MIM's platform on the Internet opposes

any solution using Big Government under

capitalism. We want no charge per email

and no state sales taxes among other

retrograde ideas.

There are only two ways Gates can

accomplish his goal of charging per email.

One is to go to the government to get a

For his stupid supporters, George Bush

is tweaking his words only so slightly so

as not to be noticed. Now he does not

claim there were nukes or any other

weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that

justified the war for Baghdad.

Now he and others refer to "programs"

or the "ability" to produce such weapons.

"`I'm not just going to leave him in power

and trust a madman,'" he says.

Many of the Iraq war supporters will

not notice the change in words. Others

won't notice what a ridiculous position

Bush is in: to say that Saddam Hussein

was a nasty madman who had the

capability to produce weapons of mass

Although Black legislator Dianne

Wilkerson made a clear statement

supporting gay marriage and some college

clerics supported the gay marriage effort

in Massachusetts, there has been a

backlash in the Black church. "The Black

Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, the

Boston Ten Point Coalition, and the

Cambridge Black Pastors Conference--

jointly called for the Legislature to amend

the state constitution to ban same-sex

marriage."(1) Signatories on another

Black political establishment divided in Mass.

statement for banning same-sex marriage

included ex-radical Rev. Eugene Rivers

of his Azusa Christian Community

church. Orthodox Jews and Muslims also

signed. By the end of February, polls

showed that a majority opposes gay

marriage even in Massachusetts when

earlier the same polls showed a plurality

in favor in November 2003. Now the

figure nationally and in Massachusetts is

53% opposed to gay marriage.(2) The

change in public opinion shows that

struggle does matter.

Ironically, as the Catholic Church

blasted same-sex marriage, statistics

came out that 4% of active clergy in the

Amerikan Catholic Church is involved in

abusing children as measured in the 1950

to 2002 period.(3) "My pedophile priest

supports traditional marriage" is an

example of a protest sign up in Boston,

which teemed with small demonstrations

for and against gay marriage over the

course of days in February. We cannot

help but wonder if the Catholic Church's

clergy would be of higher quality if some

had had openly gay marriages instead of

deviant lifestyles hidden by black robes.

MIM would warn that 4% would be

much higher than the portion convicted

and in prison and very high by police

standards generally, but the actual

proportion of society involved in sexually

abusing children is a subject of much

debate and little clarity because of the

Oppose Big Government power: Gates suggests spoiling the Internet

cumbersome regulation. The other is to

arrange a conspiracy of service providers

connected mostly to telephone and cable

companies. Such a conspiracy would try

to accomplish Gates's goal by

achievement of monopoly power.

On this point, MIM shares a self-

interest with all the small entrepreneurial

companies working on softwares that

know how to toss out spam automatically.

Bill Gates made his billions by starting as

a small software company and by

copying the redeeming features of the

Apple Macintosh operating system that

served customer needs and spreading it

far and wide. Now there are many small

companies working on anti-spam

software and Gates is pulling the rug from

underneath them. He of all people should

have some faith in the entrepreneurial

spirit of capitalism.

Under socialism, no one would have

motivation to send out spam in the first

place, just as there would be no motivation

to trade in pornography, weapons and

drugs. Now under capitalism, when a

spammer sends email and makes a sale,

that actually counts as increasing the

income of the country. Furthermore, all

the income of companies and company

divisions working on the spam problem

also counts as part of the economy--the

Gross National Product. It's an example

of how much of the capitalist economy is

just waste. Capitalism creates a problem

and then brags how it solved it and made

everyone "richer." Still this waste is better

than the kind where the government gets

involved in turning email into an extension

of the Post Office.

Note: http://www.cnn.com/2004/

TECH/internet/03/05/spam.c harge.ap/

index.html

destruction but somehow did not produce

them and did not use them. What is it

Herr Bush? Saddam Hussein was a nice

guy or not? Perhaps your whole approach

that ends in that inevitable question is

wrong.

While we wait for Bush to consult his

staff of psychologists on Saddam

Hussein, we at MIM point out that the

whole approach of judging individual

leaders' sanity is a poor substitute for

addressing the causes of war and

militarism. There is no government leader

in the world without access to at least a

black market in weapons of mass

destruction. That's as guaranteed as the

law of supply and demand under

capitalism. The solution is for the people

globally to unite to take down the global

gendarme of capitalism and put in its place

a strict dictatorship of the proletariat in

which no one is able to profit from

weapons dealing. There is no justified right

to trade in weapons of mass destruction

or to have cash or other wealth that make

such transactions possible. That's a lot to

swallow for our bourgeois ideologues like

Bush and Rumsfeld, but no other approach

is worth taking seriously.

Note: Washington Post in Boston Globe,

8 Feb 2004, p. a25.

Bush still weaseling

glue that keeps our web page together

and going forward in foreign languages.

Deputy International Minister does not

even give full credit to what HC123 is

doing. If there would be such a thing as

Minister of Internationalism, it would be

HC123. The only reason we don't give

that title out is that everyone in MIM is

supposed to be an internationalist and we

don't want to create an impression it can

be one department. HC123 deserves the

credit for coordinating and doing the work

while doing it in a fashion in line with

MIM's goals including its central task.

It's safe to say anyone can learn

someone else's job, but right now, HC123

is unique in contributing to MIM.

It's important for us to acknowledge the

contributions of the comrades whenever

we can figure it out how to describe it.

This is especially true because MIM does

not have labor bureaucrats. We have no

one making a career out of advancing the

international proletariat. That fits in with

our notion of the role of the majority-

exploiter country comrades and it also

makes a virtue out of a weakness that

would only change if we suddenly had the

money the Sierra Club has for instance.

I know other comrades right now who

are also working on things or attempting

to work with MIM. As we get into regular

working patterns I will figure out how to

credit you too.

PIRAO gives credit where credit is due

Reading

comprehension

problem on taxes

States and courts can't

read the U.$.

Constitution

The U.$. Congress is under pressure

to allow state taxation of the Internet. 20

states have put lines in their income tax

forms requesting money for items

purchased out of state, most recently

California and New York.(1) The request

for taxes at the state level represents an

attempt to create a capitalism even worse

than the variety originally conceived by

the "founding fathers" of the United

States. Without the required legal

permission, which is not supposed to be

granted in any case, the states have gone

ahead with their plans taxing interstate

commerce.

There is a connection between this

question and the sovereignty struggle of

the indigenous peoples, because the same

states wanting to tax the Internet also

believe they have the right to tax people

who do business on First Nation territory

usually referred to as "Indian

reservations." No one questions taxation

of people within state territory, but taxing

interactions between people on the

Internet or between states and the First

Nations should be off-limits-- whether

or not that business hurts the business

interests of tax-paying businesses within

a state.

Businesses in New York or anywhere

Continued on page 5...

Continued on page 8...

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 4

with Bush's foreign policy was never

going to work 100% because of the

inherent competition among imperialist

powers. In this regard, France and

Germany probably bet correctly on the

trajectory of the EU. French reactionaries

in particular made the calculation that the

European pseudo-left would contribute to

setting apart Amerikkkan and European

interests.

Suddenly the deal being offered by

Aznar to the Spanish labor aristocracy

did not look so good. The anti-war

movement in Spain had been so wimpy

that even with 90% public support it could

not stop Aznar. All it could do is force

Aznar to calculate what would happen if

he sent too many troops.

Without an armed struggle in Iraq, the

anti-war movement in Spain would be

nothing at all. However, combined with

the Iraqi armed struggle, even a very

weak peace movement can cause a flip-

flop of the petty-bourgeoisie under the

right circumstances. That can mean

trouble for imperialist military

interventions. The fact that Spaniards are

a tad less bought off with the redistributed

spoils of imperialism than Amerikkkans

are made this occurrence more likely.

To the credit of the Spanish, they

figured out the political motivations of the

Aznar regime and held it accountable in

the days after the bombing to tell the truth

about the bombings. Aznar's government

tried to blame it all on local terrorists called

the ETA when the evidence also pointed

to Al-Qaeda. Unlike Amerikkkans, the

Spanish are not so sanctimonious to think

that killing civilians in Iraq is unconnected

to killing civilians in Madrid. Had Bush

opted for a covert mission to capture

Saddam Hussein he would not have had

this problem, because the public would

have ignored it. It was having an overt

war that caused the Madrid versus

Baghdad trade-off in the Spaniards'

minds.

It goes to show that if we can succeed

in making all the covert wars overt wars,

the petty-bourgeoisie in the imperialist

countries may from time to time flip-flop

in such a way that there is a backdown

from war. What is killing us is the situation

in the United $tates, where a thoroughly

corrupt people does not have its own

numerous overt and covert wars shoved

in its face. Currently, the Amerikan petty-

bourgeoisie can have the luxury of

thinking 911 was "out of nowhere," which

is why even though MIM has no people's

army, the central task of creating public

opinion is important.

Uncle $am is going to twist the truth by

twisting arms, which is why a people's

army is necessary. However, in the

meantime wherever people resist

imperialism through armed struggle there

is hope that the petty-bourgeoisie may

flip-flop.

While Aznar voted in front of cameras,

class-conscious Spaniards carried protest

Spanish people try to vote down Iraq War

Elections pit terrorist factions against each other

signs saying, "your war, our dead."(3)

Most of the people who died opposed the

war in Iraq and did not even vote for

Aznar's government, because the

neighborhood they came from opposed

Aznar.

Stupid Polish lackeys rushed in to back

Bush's war, by saying they will retain

command responsibilities where the

Spanish were supposed to take over. The

Polish lackeys still think they will be

keeping the Bear off their back and

shopping in Bloomingdales if they attack

all the other countries in the world

Amerikkka asks them to. We won't be

surprised to see purse strings loosen in

the West to pay for rent-a-troops from

eastern Europe in Iraq. The Polish and

other eastern Europeans are going to have

to think harder about what could possibly

bring global peace.

Into the European fray came those

pundits who merely repeated what they

read in the latest neo-conservative Zionist

book--namely, that the West refuses to

believe the stated reasons by Al-Qaeda

for its war. The Daily Telegraph in

England said, "De-ideologized,

postmodern man is particularly bad at

grasping the ideological nature of its foes.

. . .The desire not to take our enemies at

face value, in word and deed, is the

hallmark of much of contemporary

Europe."(4) Yet, the Al-Qaeda videotape

picked up in Spain did say that Bush's

war in Iraq was the reason for this

bombing, so in fact, it is the neo-

conservatives not taking Al-Qaeda at face

value.

It's a sad reflection on the Anglo-Saxon

exploiter population that the Daily

Telegraph, Joe Lieberman and Edward

N. Luttwak can get away with a cultural

argument as if Muslims have been suicide

bombing Amerikans and Zionists for

thousands of years straight. The Muslims

may think that is what they are doing, but

in fact they pick among their doctrines

and interpreters of Islam those that seem

relevant to their time. That's what

Muslims have always done; that's what

people in all religions do and that's what

gives one religion an edge over another,

not some timeless command from some

god.

Of course there are documents and

doctrines that support Luttwak's claim

that Islam is fighting the same battle since

the Crusades. However, those doctrines

would have no popularity if their material

causes were removed. This is something

the religious of the world do not want to

hear, but it is obvious and necessary to

world peace. Religion is a divisive force

for the species, because it rests on ideas

that cannot unify the public through mutual

scientific verification. Religion is the

perfect justification for war in the hands

of people like Joe Lieberman and Edward

N. Luttwak. At the same time, religion is

not so powerful that it can serve as a real

and permanent cause of war unaffected

by material events. Some permanent

ideology of hate is a myth.

In all the hoopla about "extremist"

Islam, the West has managed to conjure

up Hitler as well, clear evidence of a

twisted demonization dynamic going on.

David Brooks of the New York Times

attacked Spaniards this way: "The Spanish

government was conducting policies in

Afghanistan and Iraq that Al Qaeda found

objectionable. A group linked to Al Qaeda

murdered 200 Spaniards, claiming that the

bombing was punishment for those

policies. Some significant percentage of

the Spanish electorate was mobilized after

the massacre to shift the course of the

campaign, throw out the old government

and replace it with one whose policies

are more to Al Qaeda's liking.

"What is the Spanish word for

appeasement?"(5)

MIM did an Internet search for "Spain"

and "appeasement" and found 45 news

articles--all of which turn out to be by

papers in English-speaking imperialist

countries--the United $tates, United

KKKingdom and Au$tralia. We can

speak of an Anglo-Saxon opinion on this

question.

In case we did not get it, the New York

Times ran two columnists both saying the

same thing, Edward N. Luttwak in

addition to David Brooks. Connecticut

Senator and Democrat Joe Lieberman, a

Jew, also raised "appeasement," but we

are disgusted by the upside-down usage

of the word. It's an example why we

have to remember the truth and forget

who is saying it. Joe Lieberman's coming

from a family that suffered in the

Holocaust does not change what the

historical policy of "appeasement" was.

"Appeasement" refers to a British and

French policy in World War II

spearheaded by Neville Chamberlain that

sought peace with Hitler in 1938 by letting

him occupy Czechoslavakia instead of

taking up the offer from the Soviet Union

to attack Germany in concert. Of course

we all know now that Hitler did not "settle

down" after Czechoslavakia and went on

to make a huge international war anyway.

The propaganda is so thick in the Anglo-

Saxon imperialist countries that many

have convinced themselves that it is

actually Al-Qaeda being appeased. Yet

Al-Qaeda is not occupying any foreign

countries. And just like Osama Bin Laden

said, there were U.$. troops in Saudi

Arabia since the 1991 Gulf War. It is the

United $tates occupying Iraq and it is the

United $tates that is the superpower that

cowardly politicians around the world

serve as lackeys. "Appeasement" in 2004

is going along with U.$. war plans and

assisting in U.$. terrorism in Iraq and

elsewhere around the globe.

Notes:

1. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/

Articles7/Fisk_US-Censorship.htm ;

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles8/

Fisk_Iraq- Censorship.htm ; A newspaper

closely linked to British military

intelligence has reported it all. There is

no dispute of fact: "Two months after

`liberating' Iraq, the Anglo-US authorities

have decided to control the new, free

press." www.independent.co.uk

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/

16/international/europe/16SPIN.html

3. http://kutv.com/topstories/

local_story_075114846.html

4. http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/

opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/03/

15/dl1501.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/03/

15/ixopinion.html

5. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/

16/opinion/16BROO.html

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 5

The Amerikan environmentalist club

called the "Sierra Club" is having an

election at the end of April. The former

governor of Colorado, Richard Lamm, is

running on a platform opposing

immigration to the United $tates. The

same Lamm had considered running for

president as a candidate in Ross Perot's

Reform Party.

White nationalist hate groups are

advising members to send the Sierra Club

$25 for the right to join and vote.(1) The

Sierra Club has 750,000 members, but the

issue has come up before and the racists

believe the vote is close enough that they

might win. (2)

One may wonder what immigration has

to do with environmentalism. Although

closing the U.$. borders is not as extreme

as what Hitler did, the basic reasoning is

the same: that racism is the solution for

everything. Whatever problem arises, the

racists have a simple "solution."

Sierra Club targeted by white nationalists

MIM would say that the rise of the

racist movement in the Sierra Club is

proof of MIM's assertion that the

environmentalist movement is the least

effective social movement of the last 100

years. Every year Amerikans give

environmentalist organizations not just

millions but several billions of dollars.(3)

Yet those organizations do not get the job

done and the result is frustration and

people calling for simple and stupid

answers.

The Christian Science Monitor backed

up the racists this way: "Most new

migrants to the US use up more resources

and do more ecodamage than they did

back home (where they most likely didn't

own a car, for instance). They take on

the consumption patterns of the world's

biggest polluter."(2)

What the racists do not point out is that

once in the United $tates, the birth rate

of immigrant families gradually declines,

thus supporting the Sierra Club's goals

on population growth. In agricultural

lands, peasants have children to support

themselves in old age. That is not as

necessary in the United $tates and that is

one reason why the birth rate is lower in

the United $tates than most countries.

Furthermore, strictly speaking, the Sierra

Club's goals of smaller populations and

reducing ecological impact of humyn

activity are not the same.

Even better, we have the following

solution for the Christian Science Monitor,

Richard Lamm and the KKK. We

suggest that they sell their cars and move

to Iraq, where certainly the U.$. puppet

government will find them jobs with

Halliburton. Once there in Iraq, all the

racists will do much less "ecodamage"

and have a smaller "ecological footprint."

With any luck, they'll all be shot by

indignant Iraqi nationalists and their

ecological footprint will become smaller

still. The only problem with such a strategy

is that it is based on the false premises of

the white nationalists. In fact, war and

the racial/ethnic hatreds causing it are the

most immediate threat to the environment

and capitalism is the long-term cause of

environmental destruction.

Notes:

1. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4522557/

2. http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/

0311/p08s03-comv.html

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

bookstore/books/enviro/dowie.html

questioned reliability of childhood

memories in very young children. The

Catholic Church reported that only 6%

of the victims were age 7 and younger

and 78% aged 11 to 17,(2) but of course,

that might be just what people can

remember. It's not a simple matter to say

that the Catholic clergy are more abusive

than the public at-large.

The joint statement with the Catholic

Church issued details on how gay

marriage is bad for kids: "The marriage

of one man and one woman is the basis

for family life, into which children are

born, nourished, and educated. This

understanding of marriage and family

predates and precedes the authority of

the state."(4) No one told the clerics that

older is not necessarily better.

Within Amerikkkan capitalism today, it

is true that children face oppression from

parents who abandon their families. This

would not happen in a socialist country

with public norms for day-care and

education, but in the United $tates, we

have not adjusted yet to wimmin's

working. We have neither a non-

oppressive family nor public institutions

fulfilling their role. We have the worst of

both worlds when it comes to family

issues. As a result, studies show that

children in families without fathers have

a host of problems that children in other

families do not. We can also predict

psychological difficulties for boys and girls

raised without a father--some of which

may be a stigma thanks to those defending

"traditional marriage." Black families

have suffered disproportionately on

account of Black men missing because

of prison and premature deaths from heart

disease and other causes. Thus, the

ministers did not err when they said, "The

court's re-definition of marriage explicitly

divorces the institution of marriage from

the procreation and education of children.

Despite the experience of all human

cultures and the empirical data of

sociological studies, the court ignores the

fact that the stable, permanent relationship

of a husband and wife is the optimal basis

for child rearing. "(4)

Despite this truth, we see no reason to

link a stand on the Amerikkkan family or

the Black family problem in particular to

gay marriage law. Reality has developed

far beyond where it can be stuffed back

into a neat box called the traditional family.

Single wimmin head families now and it

is not against the law. For the ministers

to be consistent they would have to

advocate legal discrimination against

single mothers heading families and

married couples who never have children.

Combined, the single mother families and

couples without children are approaching

majority status throughout the imperialist

world, places like the United $tates and

Au$tralia for example. The "traditional

family" is already a small minority. The

ministers did not take a consistent stand

on behalf of children, so we find them

ideologically abhorrent. They disguise their

oppressive ideology in the name of

children and pseudo-sociological study.

The fact that lesbian couples may tend

to have the traditional mother but not a

traditional father to raise children is indeed

questionable in the current context and

perhaps even more important than the

whole marriage issue. However, that is a

separate issue. Raising the breakdown of

the Amerikkkan family or the Black family

in particular in this context is just

discrimination.

For that matter there is no proof that

gay marriage weakens marriage. To the

extent that gay/lesbian behavior is in the

open, heterosexual relations may also

improve by way of clarity.

Whether the ministers like it or not, in

an increasingly prosperous society, sex

for its own sake--whatever that is and if

it really exists at all--has motivated

behavior ranging from pornography to

divorce to "Sex in the City" to gay

marriage.

Many of the changes in life having to

do with increased life expectancies and

longer leisure time with more money are

negative. The leisure time activities of

Kobe Byrant and his accuser spring to

mind as symbolic of what happens in

leisure time at the expense of children

still. Divorces with children involved are

still harmful because the rest of society

has not adjusted yet. However, the notion

that sex should be something traded for

a living by most wimmin or accepted as

part of a "traditional marriage" involving

children is falling by the wayside. As

wimmin no longer have to have sex to

have a family--in other words no

permanent relationship with a man--

because wimmin will not starve and their

children will not, things change. The hoary

past was a past of coercive sexual

relations and as wimmin escape those

relations as the studies show, men also

innovate in their relations. It is this period

of transitional change that the ministers

are now condemning. They put their

finger on a problem but not a solution.

MIM does not mourn the fall of the

"traditional family," because we are

confident that people everywhere can

find new and positive ways to relate in

solidarity and raise children in new and

better ways than before. For examples

of public roles in raising children we

recommend the culture of Stalin's Soviet

Union and Mao's China. Amerikkkans

will probably never go back to having as

little leisure life as in Stalin's or Mao's

societies, but we still can see some

Black political establishment divided in Mass.

Continued from page 3...

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than 200 back

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Notes available

on the MIM

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can you browse

more than 15

years of the

newspaper, you

can also keep up

with the very

latest on MIM

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the latest on the

U$ war, and much

more. MIM's

website is an

indispensable tool

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revolutionary

movement. Get

involved!

www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM

examples of how public life can be more

positive for raising children.

Notes:

1. Boston Globe 8Feb2004, p. b1.

2. Boston Sunday Globe 22Feb2004

repeated here: http://www.boston.com/

news/nation/articles/2004/02/25/

bush_seeks_marriage_amendment/

3. USA Today 17Feb2004, p. 4a.

4.http://www.boston.com/news/local/

massachusetts/articles/2004/02/07/

l
eaders_and_members_of_over_3000_churches_mosques_and_synagogues_issue_joint_statement_in_support_of_constitutional_amendment_initiative/

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 6

In the United $tates, doctors supposedly

compete for patients. Mostly they do this

through managed care organizations,

corporations that insure patients at work.

For this reason, a survey shows that

63.5% of 904 Massachusetts physicians

would prefer a single-payer system.

Single- payer is another phrase for

national health insurance and in any case,

single-payer would in effect be national

health insurance. Only 10.7% chose

managed care as the best way to organize

medicine.

Statewide Organizing

Meeting to Shut Down

the Security Housing

Units in the California

Prisons

When: Saturday, April 10,

12-to 2pm

Where: Uhuru House,

7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

On Saturday, April 10, 2004, the United Front to Shut Down the Security

Housing Units (SHUs) in California will hold its second statewide meeting

at the Uhuru House at 7911 Mac Arthur Blvd in Oakland to organize legal,

political and organizing efforts to shut down the security housing units in the

state of California.

The United Front to Shut Down the Security Housing Units recently

convened a meeting hosted by the Barrio Defense Committee in San Jose

included MIM (Maoist International Movement), the African People's

Socialist Party, Aztecs of North America Inc, African People's Solidarity

Committee, Justice for Palestinians, Zami! Cooperative, and California

Prison Focus (CPF). Participants in the meeting also included family

members of SHU prisoners and former prisoners themselves.

The United Front calls on all justice-loving people to uphold human rights

and support an end to the brutal isolation cells used to torture predominately

Raza and African prisoners.

The United Front will hold monthly public actions on the first Saturday of

the month in locations across the state and is building for a mobilization to

coincide with the legal battle regarding the first amendment and the Security

Housing Unit so-called "gang" classifications and regulations. This

mobilization will take place at the Federal Court in San Francisco on April

26, 2004 at 450 Golden Gate Avenue.

To attend the April 10th meeting or more information on the United Front

to Shut Down the SHUS, contact:

San Francisco: mim124@mim.org (415) 267-4879

San Jose: barriodefens@earthlink.net (408) 885-9785

Santa Cruz: rufus4you@yahoo.com (408) 471-9098

Los Angeles: lizm9698@sbcglobal.net (818) 848-0402

Chico: diana.sottana@sbcglobal.net (530) 864-2134

Prisons are tools of social control which

are being used to perpetuate this national

oppression. Amerika locks up a higher

proportion of Black men than were in

prison in South Africa under the openly

racist system of apartheid.

In recent petitioning work in the Mission

district, where there is a large number of

Mexicanos, MIM has also found

significant interest in supporting the fight

against the SHU. In California the SHU

is disproportionately made up of Latinos.

As many prisoners have reported to us,

being Mexicano/Latino/La Raza

immediately gets you classified into a gang

when you get into prison, which can lead

to lockdown in the SHU because of the

CDC's gang classification policy.

Students from the University of Santa

Cruz tabled on Pacific Ave, the heart of

downtown Santa Cruz. They collected 75

signatures and handed out flyers to Free

Jose Luis Avina, who is currently in a SHU

in Corcoran State Prison. While

incarcerated for defending himself

against a North Amerikan in 1995, Jose

Luis participated in the November 1999

hunger strike in New Folsom Prison

during which 68 prisoners exposed the

brutality there. Governor Gray Davis

responded by shipping Jose Luis to the

SHU along with six other hunger strikers.

His mother, Quetzaoceloaciua, started the

Barrio Defense Committee in San Jose

to protect their neighborhoods from police

assault and to free her son.

In San Jose the Barrio Defense

Committee and Justice for Palestinians

set up a mock SHU at the Berryessa Flea

Market in San Jose from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30

noon, collecting signatures for the Petition

to Shut Down the SHU and to Free Jose

Luis Avina from the SHU. Comrades

handed out fliers with a bulleted list of

SHU conditions, shortening the extensive

explanation by MIM, which was very

effective. They also advertised for a

community discussion around the SHU

at the Pena Cultural de la Raza the next

day.

The display in San Jose was

strengthened by a mock SHU

constructed of wood, matching the 6' x 8'

First Monthly Demo Against SHU; Protests Across California

dimensions of an actual cell. The mock

SHU is very effective because people can

better imagine the effects of these torture

units. Being big enough to attract a lot of

attention, once people find out what it is

they are usually shocked at how small it

is. We successfully made contact with

people who want to support the Campaign

to shut down the SHU. The first Sunday

of the month, the Barrio Defense

Committee organizes cultural programs

within the Mexican community and the

discussion of the SHU was had within

the community following this

demonstration. This meeting was

effective in recruiting people to collect

signatures and hand out fliers in Sonoma.

In addition to the reports above, activists

were out in Los Angeles and will be out

in Oakland next month. SLALA & RAIL

did a two-locale petitioning drive to shut

down the SHU in Los Angeles. They

petitioned first in MacArthur Park--a

good place to go if you speak Spanish,

not so good otherwise--then moved on

to an anti-"Three Strikes" protest in

Inglewood that was extremely friendly

and pretty correct in overall orientation.

Demo organizers read our petition over

the PA system in the park where the

protest was held and told demonstrators

not to leave without signing.

For the next Saturday (April 3), we are

planning to petition at the Silver Lake

Farmer's Market at Sunset Blvd. and

Griffith Park Blvd. (south of Santa Monica

Blvd., north of Silver Lake Blvd., across

from the 99-cent store, accessible by the

Silver Lake Blvd. exit of the 101). We'll

be there from 10am to Noon as the market

ends at noon.

The united front will be holding its next

statewide meeting in Oakland on

Saturday, April 10th at noon at the Uhuru

House on 7911 MacArthur Blvd. People

in California can also join our email list to

get involved in these organizing efforts.

Information, petitions and fliers regarding

the Abolish the Control Units campaign

across the country can be found at MIM

s website at: http://www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM/agitation/prisons/

controlunits/index.html.

As a result of the hodgepodge of

corporations, medical practices vary and

paperwork varies from corporation to

corporation and doctor to doctor. Even

within the same corporation, paperwork

can vary and there are no uniform

standards, thanks to a lack of political will

both in corporate management and U.$.

politicians.

Paper work and standards are essential

in the medical profession and that fact

cannot be hidden very easily the way it

can in other capitalist businesses.

67% of doctors surveyed also said they

would take a 10% pay cut to get out of

some paperwork. Thanks to a lack of

political will in the United $tates for

centralized standardization out of a fear

of socialism, medical doctors waste a lot

of time and deliver sub-standard care

given the money spent, even compared

with other capitalist countries. It's another

case where individualism creates chaos.

Note: Boston Globe 10Feb2004, pp. d1,

d5.

Competition creates waste in health care

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 7

A stupid magazine for wimmin that we

generally count as part of a patriarchal

conspiracy has a columnist offering dating

advice counter to a whole culture's fears.

We have to applaud at least in part Elle's

E. Jean Carroll when she advises single

heterosexual wimmin to give out a phone

number to 20 men per week. Quite

correctly, she advises that by meeting

large numbers of men, probability is on

the lonely heterosexual womyn's side.

The book "Mr. Right, Right Now! How

a Smart Woman Can Land Her Dream

Man in 6 Weeks" advises wimmin to let

go of their fears of meeting men. Men

are at sports bars on Sundays watching

games, so she says go to one and have

French fries instead of watching "Sex and

the City" at home.

The point is that where people are in

public, that is where to meet men--the

gym, cigar bars, bookstores, animal

shelters, the baggage carousel at airports,

and yes, even walking down the street.

She says wimmin must squash their fears

and "hunt" just like men do. The proof,

she says, is that wimmin like shopping, so

why would they not like hunting for men?

Put that way, it does seem rather odd that

wimmin would search for commodities

more aggressively than boyfriends--on

this MIM would have to agree.

MIM approves of the plan for

heterosexual wimmin, even if we do not

think it requires purchasing a book for $24

to figure it out. Too much of pseudo-

feminism is involved with criticizing men

for where they approach wimmin, with

what class's language. The list gets so

long that it's not surprising wimmin

reflexively say "gross" to just about every

idea for meeting men.

The heterosexual pseudo-feminist

becomes the most contradictory animal

in the world. After rejecting every possible

avenue in some form of politically correct

language masking fear, the pseudo-

feminist finds herself stealing her friends'

boyfriends, going out with her boss or

getting recommendations from parents in

a step just barely above arranged

marriage. In contrast, E. Jean Carroll

takes a bird's eye view, a social approach.

No doubt countless educated wimmin

and most of the wimmin interested in

Maoism at this point do not want to be

approached by men in as many places as

E. Jean Carroll advises wimmin to hunt

men. Thus the rights of one group of

wimmin end up pitted against another. E.

Jean Carroll says she receives thousands

of letters from lonely hearts and decided

to write the book based on them. Frankly,

this is something involving not thousands

but millions of wimmin, because E. Jean

Carroll is just one columnist in touch with

a fraction of the problem. On the opposite

side we are sure there are also millions--

and in some cases with some overlap in

the lonely-hearts club.

For MIM and revolutionary feminism

this dilemma cuts to a core issue--why

we are unable to unite wimmin and move

forward. Quite the contrary, almost every

attempt at a moderate feminism is in fact

pseudo-feminism and a bundle of

contradictions. The key is there is almost

no attention to theory and its analyses of

groups of millions of people in pseudo-

feminism.

On the one hand, from the point of view

of the lonely hearts (and all the problems

that come with that, including single

mothers and children without fathers), the

restrictions placed on wimmin in the guise

of prohibitions regarding sexual

harassment language amount to one thing:

a form of business regulations that favor

one group of wimmin over another. Every

time a womyn says "gross" on how to

meet a man and calls for some ban or

another, we should see a combination of

fear and competition for men.

The politically correct womyn with the

word "gross" on the tip of her tongue asks

whether her sisters are crazy. "Do you

want your bosses to hit on you? Do you

seriously want to encourage men to ask

you for dates as you walk down the street

by following E. Jean Carroll's advise and

asking men for dates that way?"

In reply, the lonely heart can then say,

"ah, I see, you non-working wimmin want

to meet our bosses after work, so you

don't want us to meet them at work. As

for walking down the street, you want to

make sure that Mr. Right does not meet

any riff-raff like us, because he does have

to walk down the street sometimes

instead of relying solely on his parents'

introductions at country clubs."

Ms. Politically Correct then says: "Oh,

great, so now I'll be dating my psychiatrist

and giving my phone number to the guy

putting me under the knife at the operating

table in the hospital? Otherwise I'll be

giving up on the competition, right?"

Ms. Politically Correct does have a

point, but MIM says most of her points

have to be resolved through economic

reorganization of society, not lifestyle

practices concerning dating. It is simply

logically impossible to resolve economic

inequality between men and wimmin

through ingenious dating practice.

The way to solve the problem of bosses

dating employees is socialism, not a self-

defeating dating practice. Under

socialism, rules for firing are very strict;

everyone is guaranteed a job and no one

could possibly lose on some career ladder

because of some boss's desire for a co-

worker. Worker control is the solution for

the abuses of bosses in general. Likewise,

psychiatry as practiced now is completely

wrong and stems from the individualist

ideology of class society. The solution is

socialism and not a long list of rules of

who to date and not to date, because no

one can escape the coercion of class

society as it exists, no matter how long

the list of politically correct rules.

In the imperialist countries we have

"democracy" and "freedom of initiative"

for all the wrong things. A majority of

people in the United $tates backed the

war in Iraq (and is now starting to change

its mind). Before that a majority of people

backed starving Iraqis to death and

forbidding medical equipment from

entering the country. That is an example

of something that no majority of people

should have the right to do except in a

just war--definitely not a pre-emptive

war to create a colony. We do not believe

a majority should even have the right to

stop gays from marrying, much less make

Iraq a colony.

It the majority wants to pass a law

saying it's illegal to date your boss, then

that would be better. People can adjust

to that and maybe no one will die as a

result as long as those sorts of restrictions

do not pile up. That kind of democracy

MIM can live with. If majority rule results

in unnecessary deaths, then we say to

hell with democracy. If we start seeing a

lot of lonely-hearts suicides then we have

to publicly attack any written or unwritten

customs getting in the way of healthy life.

In the imperialist countries, companies

have the freedom of initiative to build

weapons and sell them. The same goes

for tobacco and pornography. Meanwhile,

unwritten cultural rules mostly self-

imposed by wimmin prohibit wimmin from

walking down the street and giving a man

her phone number. Furthermore, it's

almost a college graduation requirement

to know that men should not catcall

wimmin on the street, which in fact is a

rubric for a much broader agenda of fear.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media are full

of stories about the evil of meeting over

the Internet.

The truth is that all means of meeting

the opposite sex (or the same sex) are

flawed and at least a little bit dangerous

and we should keep that in mind when

tempted to condemning one particular

means of meeting. Restricting avenues

of meeting always favors one group of

people over another and although no

means is perfect, the street and the

Internet are in fact two of the most

democratic ways to meet available. The

Internet is restricted to computer-users,

but it opens up much larger geographic

distances. The street mingles all the

classes available in that one area, the

downtown city street being most

democratic of all.

Of course, meeting is not the whole

problem. It is possible to get good at

meeting people and then fail the next step.

"Ask Beth" advice columnist finds it

necessary to point out that the Internet is

so easy it may encourage lonely hearts

to see more than is really there. She says

visits with Internet dates should be

chaperoned and people should inquire into

his family and friends.

Wimmin need to look at their fears.

Perhaps they are not really heterosexual

and fear public scorn for admitting it.

There is no reason not to date wimmin

instead of men, if that would reduce fear.

Asexuality is another possibility. To hell

with anyone who would laugh. As a group,

asexual people may want to restrict social

interaction entirely, but we cannot allow

asexual or fearful people to limit the right

of people to approach each other--

whether it be for politics or dating. Right

now there are people who think there

should be a right not to be offered a leaflet

on the street, but these are fearful fascist

types. If we build a society based on that

paranoid group's needs, the humyn race

will come to a quick end.

Right now, the patriarchy comes with

violence against wimmin, so no matter

what we do, we will not get an accurate

answer to what wimmin really want. We

will try as hard as we can to arrive at the

truth and that truth may be that once

violence and inequality are gone, wimmin

may have no physical attraction to men.

In the meantime, there are heterosexual

wimmin who at least think they are

pursuing Mr. Right. Let there be

democracy and freedom of initiative on

this point and let the pseudo-feminists

save their fears and marshal their energies

for a crackdown on weapons,

pornography, alcohol and drugs for profit.

Let's talk about public-owned TV and

radio and what they will allow and not

allow under the dictatorship of the

proletariat, but let's have initiative in

dating whether it be on the street or the

Internet or airport baggage carousels.

Note: "Plan of Attraction," The Sun

(Baltimore) 27Jan2004, p. e1.

Columnist offers fearless dating advice

Let the pseudo-feminists save their
fears and marshal their energies for a
crackdown on weapons, pornography,
alcohol and drugs for profit. Let's talk
about public-owned TV and radio and
what they will allow and not allow
under the dictatorship of the
proletariat, but let's not crack down on
where and how people can meet dates.

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 8

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?

the mercenaries caught in Zimbabwe says

they were headed to the Congo to guard

mines.(1) We don't imagine that it will

amuse Zimbabwe very much, given the

discovery of wire-cutters and camouflage

uniforms in the plane and the flight plans

contradicting the story.

Zimbabwe also caught a British military

intelligence officer attempting to greet the

plane full of mercenaries--Simon Mann.

Of course, the description of him is that

he was "former"(2) British SAS

specialist. In the spy world, there are

never "current" spies caught. Such

admissions would defeat the purpose of

having "secret services."

England admitted that it has no

comment and generally does not have any

comment about its secret services. It's

important to understand the implications

of this policy and the whole concept of

secret services.

Since these secret services are secret,

these mercenaries do not stand much

chance of a defense. With such a

"principled" stand by Tony Blair, the entire

U$A STIRS TROUBLE IN EQUATORIAL GUINEA AND ZIMBABWE

Third World has justification for executing

every English national as a spy. After all,

Blair will not deny it and more importantly,

won't abolish secret services.

Of course, Tony Blair and other

imperialists will complain when Third

World countries start executing spies.

Such attacks on civilians--some who are

not really civilians--will then be counted

as "terrorism" by the same imperialists.

It gets better: as of March 12th, the

U.$. State Department and embassy in

Equatorial Guinea have nothing to say on

their web pages.

The plane carrying the mercenaries in

Zimbabwe was Amerikan. Whether it be

Haiti or Iraq or Zimbabwe, what we see

is Bush going back to the Reagan-era and

rehabilitating all his buddies of torturer and

mercenary fame. Back then, the Reagan

administration justified it as a response to

the Soviet Union. Today there is no such

excuse and so the imperialists seek to

keep it quiet.

Besides, the dictator of Equatorial

Guinea thought he was a friend of the

united $tates. He has property there and

an oil deal.

We say to all the lackeys and wannabe

lackeys out there in the Third World: look

at Noriega from Panama, Saddam

Hussein in Iraq and Aristide in Haiti. It

does not matter whether or not the CIA

puts you on payroll and lets you own nice

houses in Amerika. National pride should

come from action like this--catching

mercenaries for imperialism always trying

to exploit the Third World a little harder.

Equatorial Guinea should nationalize all

the assets of the multinational corporations

involved in the plot--any companies from

the United $tates, England and Spain

including Exxon-Mobil, Amerada Hess

Corp, U.S. ChevronTexaco Corp, Noble

Energy Inc, Devon Energy Corp and

Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp.(4)

Any companies innocent in the plot should

sue their own governments for damages

instead of Equatorial Guinea.

We stand behind Zimbabwe if it wants

to execute the mercenaries. If it does not,

it may look like Zimbabwe aided the

conspiracy and hosts mercenaries

attacking others. If any imperialist invades

to back its mercenaries or to punish

Zimbabwe or Equatorial Guinea, Africa

should unite to throw out the invaders.

The conflict in Equatorial Guinea is an

extension of the conflict in Iraq. It is U.$.

imperialism against most of the world,

aided by partners in England and Spain.

Notes:

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

international/story/

0,3604,1168389,00.html

2. http://www.reuters.co.uk/

newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=

worldNews&storyID=472686§ion=news

3. http://news.independent.co.uk/

world/africa/story.jsp?story=500330

The same newspaper in England tied to

British intelligence refers to SAS in the

present tense in another article on the

same subject. http://

news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/

story.jsp?story=500325

4. http://www.cnn.com/2004/

WORLD/africa/03/10/guinea.plot.reut/

Continued from page 1...

else should get used to the fact that they

may lose business competition because

of inferiority or because of state taxes

that make those businesses

uncompetitive. The urge to go to the

government to alter the rules of business

competition is the inevitable kernel of

imperialism--something we do not see

in such bald-faced manner in U.$.

treatment of Germany or England but

something we do see when it comes to

arresting say the president of Panama,

Iraq or Haiti.

The United States does not get to set

tax rates in Germany for the benefit of

U.$. tax-paying companies and even less

should New York State have the right to

tax tribes. The U.$. Constitution says in

Article 1, Clause 3 of Section 8 that

Congress (the federal government) has

the right "To regulate Commerce with

foreign Nations, and among the several

States, and with the Indian Tribes."

Clause 6 of section 9 also says specifically,

"No Preference shall be given by any

Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to

the Ports of one State over those of

another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or

from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear,

or pay Duties in another." The correct

reading (not interpretation) of this

supposedly highest law of the land is that

states are not supposed to be trying to

control interstate commerce and no

matter one's view of the status of the

tribes, states such as New York or North

Carolina are not supposed to be regulating

tribes.

When a tourist goes to Germany from

the United $tates, the U.$. Government

may impose a duty on import items when

the tourist returns. However, no one

Reading comprehension problem on taxes

would think that New York has the right

to tax a New Yorker coming back from

Germany. Yet somehow some stupid

courts have decided that somehow the

states have the right to tax people leaving

state boundaries.

One of the worst court decisions on this

question was in 1994 in New York where

the U.$. Supreme Court took the wrong

side in "DEPARTMENT OF

TAXATION AND FINANCE OF NEW

YORK, et al., PETITIONERS v.

MILHELM ATTEA & BROS., INC." In

that decision, the Supreme Court avoided

the question of the U.$. Constitution and

what it says about tribes. A previous

Supreme Court decision--1965's

"WARREN TRADING POST CO. v.

ARIZONA TAX COMMISSION ET

AL."--also avoided the question: "Since

we hold that this state tax cannot be

imposed consistently with federal statutes

applicable to the Indians on the Navajo

Reservation, we find it unnecessary to

consider whether the tax is also barred

by that part of the Commerce Clause

giving Congress power to regulate

commerce with the Indian tribes."

The official newspaper of the labor

aristocracy in New York, the New York

Post, says that New York State has the

legal right to tax the First Nations and

that Governor Pataki recently passed up

the chance to rake in $400 million in taxes.

The February 14th Post claims the reason

Pataki backed down was the threat of

violence.(4) Why stop there, New York

Post? New York State is losing a lot more

than $400 million a year by not taxing

Canada. Hopefully you are not going to

give in New York Post, just because of

some threats of violence from some

Royal Canadian mounties.

The "founding fathers" of the United

States suggested that the solution for

reading comprehension problems when

it came to the Constitution is the musket.

There is no other option when the corrupt

authorities so wilfully misinterpret the law.

We might add that the same is true of

broken treaties. So it is that when

governments pursue the interests of the

businesses within their jurisdiction or

pursue revenue for its own sake, violence

or war are the result. That is inevitable

under capitalism and the only solution is

Continued from page 3...

global communism.

Note:

1. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/

kansascity/business/8106784.htm

2. http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/

html/93-377.ZO.html

3. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/

getcase.pl?court=US&vol=380&invol=685

4. http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/

editorial/15658.htm

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 9

What we said in our review of the

earlier installments of "Lord of the Rings"

mostly applies to the last installment as

well, so we will just add a few notes.

"Lord of the Rings III" won 11 Oscars in

February 2004 thus equalling the previous

record for one movie, but from our point

of view, it was an epic effort on behalf of

a fairly ugly idea.

Perhaps 500 years ago, when ideas of

monarchy dominated, it would be

progressive to show a king ruining his

kingdom with a bearded wizard showing

up to set things straight. Too bad a wizard

can't just show up and set things straight

in the White House. Encouraging such

notions only promotes political passivity

and that's our main beef with the "Lord

of the Rings" hocus-pocus.

Yet, "LRIII" even waters down the

message on how kings have to be

critically evaluated, by picking on

someone who is merely a caretaker

standing in for the real king's line. Perhaps

in some ancient time it would be a

necessary compromise to engage the

audience unable to see why they should

evaluate the jobs their kings are doing.

Today the message that a real man has

to show up and set off a war against the

legions of evil is mostly reactionary--

especially in imperialist countries like the

united $tates.

We can also contrast this with Sergei

Eisenstein's movies about kingdoms

hundreds of years ago. With the Germans

shortly to invade the USSR in 1941,

Eisenstein created a film titled "Alexander

Nevsky" about a time hundreds of years

earlier when the Russian people defeated

Germanic invaders. Hurray for Eisenstein

and the Soviet film companies.

In contrast, the effect of "LRIII" is

militarist and criminal. As in the earlier

installments, we have one elaborate

excuse for scenes of gore. Most of the

military opponents are dead bodies

brought back to life, and so we learn that

there is no reason not to make a war.

The opponents are deemed unworthy of

life to begin with. These are dangerous

ideas to be floating around in a country

already rampaging around the globe from

Afghanistan and Iraq to Haiti.

The issue of trust among the various

species of Middle Earth interests us, but

"LRIII" raises the question in a rather

simple way. Again and again the question

arises why each species should stand with

the other species to fight against evil when

there was lacking a prior history of

common struggle. "LRIII" comes out

against such speciesism (read

nationalism) and shows it to be a lack of

courage in the face of evil. "LRIII"

reduces the question of cross- cultural

cooperation to a question of the gallantry

of the men fighting. The lack of

development on this point is one reason

that the good does not outweigh the bad

in "LRIII."

Finally, the one thing we liked about

"LRIII" is that it showed mere mortals

boldly storming the gates of hell. The

mortals win thanks to a fight within the

squad of three sent on a special mission

to drop a ring in hell's fire. Had not one

greedy, schizoid power-seeking mortal

jumped on the hero of the story to steal

the ring of power, the mortals of Middle

Earth would have failed in defeating evil.

So in essence, the mortals won in spite of

themselves--through a lucky break. So

much for the notion that it is futile to

struggle because of anarchist-nihilist

notions that "power corrupts." The

message is to struggle in the face of

apparent doom. "Power corrupts," but

there are other things going on as well.

On this point of struggle in the face of

apparent doom, we find the "LRIII"

useful. Sometimes the choice is between

the impossible (communist revolution and

organizing people to be more harmonious

and peaceful) and certain death (letting

things slide as they are). With tens of

thousands of Orcs about to invade Middle

Earth, to say this or that military or political

mission has little chance of success

becomes meaningless, stupid and

immoral. We have to choose the missions

with the greatest chance of success even

if those greatest chances are not that

great.

In Mao's military writing he warns his

comrades not to launch guerrilla battles

without a 90% chance of winning. It

would be better to run than lose. He said

so because he saw again and again that

it is possible to set up battles against

Japanese invaders and their lackeys such

that the enemy is outnumbered and

outgunned 10 to 1--despite the fact that

the Japanese and comprador armies far

outnumbered the communists at the

beginning and had more money and better

technology. However, it would be

important to point out that if there were

no battles possible which would guarantee

90% success rate, then Mao's statement

would not apply. His battle tactics

coincided with a certain overall strategic

situation in which he believed he had time

and numbers on his side in the long run.

He had witnessed concretely the

possibilities he wrote about and so his

battle tactics were not at all a question of

speculation or estimation or analysis

which people would disagree over. Had

Mao been placed in the Middle Earth

military situation, he would have adapted

his military tactics.

Mao turned out to be right about

China's overall strategic situation and so

his battle tactics were able to produce

the desired end. Today the problem is that

we have a lot of people who look away

when they think about nuclear war,

environmental destruction and black

markets and legal markets in weapons of

mass destruction. In the backs of their

minds, many people know that imperialism

is producing doom, but they escape the

horror of politics and war, by among other

things going to movies like "LRIII" or

listening to heavy metal like "Led

Zeppelin" or just drinking a lot of whisky.

Today, the planet faces certain death

in the hands of imperialism and the forces

of evil have the upper hand momentarily.

It's time for the heroes of the proletariat

to step forward.

Tolkien's `power corrupts' message is old news

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)

Read hundreds more Maoist

Movie Reviews at the only

Maoist Movie Review website

on Earth

From Aguirre: The Wrath of God ("the humyn

species has chalked up some achievements since

the time of the Conquistadors...") to Yol ("really

about the womyn question under semi-feudalism in

Turkey"), from Alien3 ("basic contradictions of

imperialism underlying the plot also undermine its

triumphant ending") to Z ("If we had the resources

to do our own films, we could do a better job, but

under capitalism, we have to take what we can"),

Maoist Movie Reviews are in a league of their own.

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/movies

Don't wait for the bearded guy on the

white horse.

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 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?

Dreadlocks = escape

paraphernalia?

I'm being charged with possession of

escape paraphernalia, possession of an
altered authorized item, and changing my
appearance. Are you ready for the bullshit? I

went to the facility barbershop and got a
haircut, having my 5 year old dreadlocks cut.
I kept them to send to my 13 year old sister.

Three days later they were uncovered in the
cage assigned me during a routine property
tossing. Although they weren't altered in any

way, and were initially given back, the security
punk who found them decided to come back
1 1/2 hours later and reconfiscate them and to

lock me down. Unbelievable! This isn't the
half of it. I should beat the charges though.

-a New York prisoner, March 2004

Super flip-flops on

censorship

I am writing concerning the MT11 that I

have yet to receive, but have been told by

[the superintendent] that he will let me get it.
He told me this two weeks ago. Since that
period I have had other publications held up

such as the newspaper I've been receiving
over two years here. It's as I've told you
before: this camp is run by some of the most

out-right racist individuals on the planet and
they make their own rules to fit their racist
actions on a daily basis.

--a Pennsylvania prisoner

California censors

used books

We hope this letter finds you and your staff

in good health and with this we send our love
and respects.

OK to matter at hand a couple of months

ago you send me a book called "Black
Awakening in Capitalist America". Well I must
inform you that they would not let us have it

because they had claimed it had writing in
the book, so they said it was a used book.

The only thing we can ask of you is to

make sure the books are clean with no writing
in them. With this said we ask if you can try
to send us another book. OK also we ask that

you send us the next couple of issues of the
MIM news letter.

-- A California Prisoner at Pelican Bay,

February 2004

CDC Tactics of

Oppression

The CDC's policy of of take-take-take

continues unchallenged with ever increasing
momentum and, as usual, without any form
of coordinated and organized resistance from

the prison masses. (Sporadic and isolated acts
of unorganized resistance from specific
groups or races has proven time and time

again "ineffective.")

As we have recently seen and are

experiencing, personal packages from loved

ones and family have been terminated under
the guise of "the safety and security of the

institution" and the supposedly

"tremendous" burden of labor that is required
from the correctional officers to pass these
packages out to the convicts and inmates.

We can easily assume that these pigs/puercos
have forgotten what they were hired to do.

But better yet, let's not assume anything

and stick to the concretes. Personal packages
no longer exist. Overpriced vendor packages
through state approved companies are

allowed. Well, isn't that convenient? And
again, which has and is becoming evermore
characteristic, inmates and "so-called"

convicts lay down in defeatist acceptance as
if this were somebody else's problem and
purchase these overpriced vendor packages.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that

this is an issue of money, an issue of financial
gain for the state and these vendor companies

(not to mention other things) at our expense
and our families expense. Not my expense,
not your expense, not the individual's

expense, but our expense, the collective
expense of us all, irrelevant of gangs and racial
divisions. The issue here is financial gain,

pure and simple, despite their phony concerns
and excuses.

The first step in countering this is in the

education and cooperation of the prison
masses. The second step and quite possibly
the only other step necessary in countering

this is also pure and simple: boycott. They
want to make profit, well then we can take
profit out of the equation and deprive them

of this. Through practice (action), let's gain
back what we are losing and in the process,
separate the inmates from the convicts. That

is, separate the dead weight of the selfish
individualists from the collective masses.

The CDC's tactics of oppression, of

dividing and conquering the prison masses,
are not only succeeding but are continuously
changing, while our tactics of resistance have

either become nonexistent at all or, at best,
only rigid, unchanging, and held in the past
by the existing social order within prison

society itself. Our tactics of resistance must
also change, fluidly and creatively, in order
to coincide and counteract these pigs/

puercos' changing methods of oppression
and take-take-take which is only splitting the
prison masses further and depriving us of

more and more power everyday.

-- A California Prisoner, February 2004

HDSP Discontinues

Vocational Programs

High Desert State Prison has discontinued

all vocational programs and now everyone is
without any further training and education.

Prisons are supposed to rehabilitate prisoners
and prepare us for society. Now that the
vocational classes, including GED programs

are discontinued, the uneducated will remain
uneducated.

-- A California Prisoner, January 2004

Inside AD-SEG

This is coming to you from someone who

is living this nightmare every single day. You

see, being in Salinas Valley State Prison alone
is a nightmare, but when you talk about

administrative segregation that's another
chapter and believe me, I know. I've been back

here for nine months now and the things I've
seen could last the average person a lifetime.
One thing I've seen is how the

"administration" will house a snitch right next
to you to try to get information from you.
These snitches want to go to a yard that they

call "sensitive needs" and they will do
anything to get there because they can't be
in general population and the

"administration" knows this. The reason I
know this is because I had one of those placed
by me. You really can't talk to too many people

because you don't know who is who.

Now we get to the dehumanizing aspect of

this place, it's how you go out to this "cage"

they call a yard and it is literally a cage with
no toilet. It's about 20' by 15' but that's just
estimating. All you can do is walk back and

forth like an animal and if that's not bad
enough, they make you go out in your
underwear even when it's raining, although

they will give you this thin denim jacket. The
only time you get to put on a jumpsuit is when
you're leaving the unit to go to a medical

visit or court. But a lot of the time I've also

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 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.

From the MIM "Frequently Asked

Questions" page, http://www.etext.org/
Politics/MIM/faq.

Internationalism is the ethical belief or

scientific approach in which peoples of
different nations are held to be or assumed to
be equal. Internationalism is opposed to
racism and national chauvinism.

We Maoists believe the nationalism of

nations experiencing oppression of
imperialism is "applied internationalism." We
oppose nationalism of oppressed nations
directed at other oppressed nations, because
the economic content of such nationalism is
intra-proletarian conflict. We seek a united
front of oppressed nations led by the
international proletariat against imperialism.

"I must argue, not from the point of view

of `my' country (for that is the argument of a
wretched, stupid, petty-bourgeois nationalist
who does not realize that he is only a plaything
in the hands of the imperialist bourgeoisie),
but from the point of view of my share in the
preparation, in the propaganda, and in the
acceleration of the world proletarian
revolution. That is what internationalism
means, and that is the duty of the
internationalist, of the revolutionary worker,
of the genuine Socialist."

V. I. Lenin, "What Is Internationalism?"

The Proletarian Revolution and the
Renegade Kautsky (Peking: Foreign
Language Press, 1965), p. 80.

What is internationalism?

seen them march people to medical in nothing
but underwear and karate shoes.

One thing that is really very bad is that the

officers back here in AD-SEG don't know how
to communicate with the convicts. They are

very disrespectful and very unprofessional.
That's about 90% of the officers that work
back here. But what can we do when it's our

word against theirs? Nine times out of ten
we're going to lose. Since I've been back here,
I've seen retaliation like you wouldn't believe.

I'm talking about things you wouldn't think
someone who is supposed to uphold the law
would do. I've heard so many times that this

prison is being investigated but have yet to
see them change their ways and actions.

Another subject that is very serious is the

"rations" they give us. If you see how they
feed us in AD-SEG, you wouldn't believe it.
We barely get enough and they say it's a

balanced diet, but that's hard to believe.
You're still hungry after meals. Now when I
was in general population, we got more to eat

than in AD-SEG. Just because we're in jail
doesn't mean we should be treated like
animals. We're paying our debt to society

and we're paying in a big way.

-- A California Prisoner, February 2004

Uphill battle for

border petition

I received your book "Marx and Engels" as

well as the other info you sent, which I
sincerely appreciate.

I will do my best to fill all signature spaces

on the petitions you sent. However, the one
for "Operation Gatekeeper" might be hard to

fill. [MIM is circulating a petition which reads
in part: "The U.S. Border separates families,
communities, and nations. It also keeps Third

World workers and farmers under regimes
where wage rates are drastically depressed
through violent repression -- this allows the

United States to make huge profits off of its
investments abroad. We the undersigned call
for an end to `Operation Gatekeeper' and an

end to policies restricting people's free
movement across the border." See http://
w w w . e t e x t . o r g / P o l i t i c s / M I M / c a l /

OpenBorder.htm for more information --ed.]

Where I am currently there aren't too many

comrades, and the views on Mexican

Americans aren't too equality based. As I'm
sure you know, prison systems breed racism
and fuel hatred among prisoners to keep us

separated and weak as a class, which I believe
we are. The focus has over the years been on
each other instead of our oppressors.

Nevertheless, we comrades will seek to unite
them together on a more common goal basis.
...

I end this letter with a clenched fist salute!
In solidarity,
--A Texas Prisoner, December 2003

MIM responds: Petition campaigns play

several roles. One is to register the number of
people who already believe the position stated

on the petition, and communicate that to the
public or politicians. But they are also very
important for developing and solidifying

those beliefs. We struggle with people over
signing petitions because we want to
convince them the political positions on the

petitions are correct. In some cases it's not
worth it -- when the proportion of supporters
is likely to be so low that we should spend

our time elsewhere. However, we have
developed these campaigns over issues
where we believe we can make substantial

progress and build support for our cause.

If you are correct that many of your fellow

prisoners are predisposed against Mexicans,

the struggle to get petition signatures may
help change some minds, and may help
develop or strengthen ties to those who, like

you, oppose imperialist oppression. Many
prisoners, including even those from the
oppressor nation, might be convincible on

this campaign because the issue is so clearly
one of state repression, which prisoners share
in common with undocumented migrants.

Even when people come from different

backgrounds or nations that have opposing
interests, experiencing the injustice system

and imprisonment might help tip them in favor
of the correct position on this issue. We urge
you to stay with it, and keep us posted on the

outcome.

California forces all

prisoners into "gangs"

The DOC is violating prisoner's civil rights

left and right. I'm ready to do everything in
my power to expose these evildoers. The DOC
is as dirty as they come. My ethnicity is

Hispanic. When I arrived in the DOC I was
asked by a C.O. if I was "a Northern Hispanic
or Southern Hispanic", I said "I don't know

what you mean." Then I was asked what city/
town I was from, I stated Salinas, CA. It was
then that I was classified as a Northern

Hispanic. Now I'm labeled as a northerner,
which is a gang member from the prison/street
gang Nortenos. At that particular point in time

I had no idea what that was or what I was
about to experience behind these walls. The
Southern Hispanics are classified/labeled

Surenos, another prison/street gang. The
DOC currently has the Northern and Southern
Hispanics on a 24 hour, 7 day a week

lockdown. We are getting no visits from our
families, no exercise outside our cells, and no
state issued hygiene.

- a California prisoner, January 2004

Shut Down the SHU

Torture Chambers

Some call it RES (Reduced Environmental

Stimulus), sensory deprivation, psychiatric

seclusion, solitary confinement, or mosaic of
despair; no matter what the title, Security

Housing Units (SHU) are, at best, torture
chambers. Cell blocks are marked throughout
by a dull sameness in design and color.

Cells are often windowless and when you

do have a window, it's painted over. Your bed
mattress is so thin that it barely serves a

purpose. Toilets are of stainless steel and
upon using them for sit downs, you subject
your buttocks to hemorrhoids. Toilets have a

loud flush that often wakes others up at night.

For recreation, you're taken to a small

exercise pen with cement floors and now

recently introduced gated kennels. They are
of cell-like design and toilets flush every five
minutes only. These cage pens are more

suggestive of satellite cells than areas for
exercise and recreation. The effect it has on a
person is stark and unremitting monotony.

Who among MIM readers can imagine

years without ever seeing any aspect of the
world outside except for a small patch of sky?

Going months, years without the opportunity
for normal social contact with other people.

Confined 22 1/2 hours a day. Food delivered

through a narrow port in the cell door, all
meals eaten in social isolation. Some inmates
spend time pacing around the edges of the

cell and cape pen. This is similar to caged
felines pacing in a zoo.

Then there are the cagings that guards

subject inmates to, often in the outside pens
with no clothes. Here is a credible account of
one such incident: one day in late January, a

counselor was walking from her office toward
another facility. It was very cold (she was
wearing gloves and a heavy jacket) and it

was pouring rain. She observed two African
American inmates being held naked in two
cages. When she passed by again, an hour

later, one inmate was still there. She observed
that he was covered in goose bumps,
shivering, teeth chattering. He said he was

freezing and asked her to request a pair of
shorts and a t-shirt. She then saw an officer
coming in her direction. When she looked at

him and made reference to the caged inmates,
he continued walking, looked back, and
shrugged his shoulders, saying it was the

lieutenant's orders. From experience she knew
of this lieutenant's attitude and proneness
for retaliation upon those who cross him. With

that, she continued on and let the matter drop
from her mind. Although the incident
bothered her, she feared group reprisals if she

spoke out. This left the inmates in the cages.
Its certain that they became sick from the
experience and psychologically damaged from

the encounter.

These types of acts go on all the time with

even more horrific tales. There is a sick

sadistic fascist mentality behind the walls of
America's kamps and dungeons. Join MIM
in the struggle to close the SHU torture

chambers.

It's disturbing also to see indigenous

people, African, Mexican, Asian, Indian, etc.

being willing participants in what MIM has
defined as social, political, economic, and
genetic control. I see no reason why

California as a state clings to the hypocritical
title of Department of Corrections. Those
indigenous people I spoke of are slaves to

pay, psychologically indoctrinated lap dogs
whose natural dispositions have caved in.
It's mental retardation to watch those who

look like you, have similar or same origins as
you, slowly wallow away and die or be
continually oppressed. This system wasn't

designed with people in color to be the jailers,
counselors, sergeants, lieutenants, wardens,
etc. It was for the white class to carve out

their existence off the oppressed semi-
colonies and to erode them to extinction. But
you have so many who appear to be "happy

to be part of the team." What they don't know
or won't consciously admit is that they are
serving someone else's goal and facilitating

their means to an end. Certainly, those who
have always built these dungeons statewide
have a plan. The elite has always thought or

drawn plans with foresight. But for those who
are non-white, I say to you: the signs of
mental starvation are not as obvious as

physical malnutrition.

As America's internal colonies, we've been

set up by a hegelian dialectic of creating an

alleged problem, increasing to the point of
outcry or mass hysteria, then providing what
the people will welcome as a solution: prison

kamps and torture chambers.

Suffering Attributable in Significant Part to

Conditions in the SHUs: irrational anger,

ruminations, over sensitivity to stimuli,
confused thought processes, social
withdrawal, chronic depression, emotional

flatness, mood/emotional swings, overall
deterioration, talking to self violent fantasies,
perceptual distortions, hallucinations,

suicidal thoughts.

-- A California Prisoner, February 13, 2004

MIM Notes 299 · April 1, 2004 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

avril 1, 2004, Nº 299 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

¿Que es el MIM?

El Movimiento Internacionalista Maoísta (MIM) es un partido revolucionario

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Por: Eduardo Tamayo

El avance de las fuerzas paramilitares

y la presión de Estados Unidos, Francia
y Canadá dieron la estocada final al
gobierno de Bertrand Aristide que el 29
de febrero huyó con rumbo a la
República Centroafricana. Mientras el
caos se había apoderado de Puerto
Príncipe, la capital, y se multiplicaban
los enfrentamientos que dejaron 10
muertos y saqueos en diferentes puntos
de la ciudad, los embajadores de
Estados Unidos y Francia, James Foley
y Thierry Bukard, respectivamente,
posesionaron al abogado Boniface
Alexandre, presidente de la Suprema
Corte de Justicia, como gobernante
interino del país. Los jefes rebeldes Guy
Philipe y Louis-Jodel Chamblain, que
iniciaron las revueltas contra Aristide el
5 de febrero con la ocupación de la
ciudad de Gonaives, entraron a Puerto
Príncipe el 1 de marzo acompañados de
decenas de hombres armados. El ex
policía Guy Philipe, que participó en un
intento de golpe de Estado contra
Aristide en 2001 y es acusado de
narcotráfico y numerosas violaciones a

los derechos humanos, horas antes
reconoció a Alexandre como el nuevo
jefe de Estado y se mostró de acuerdo
con la intervención militar de Estados
Unidos.

Aristide, que en varios ocasiones había

declarado que no renunciaría, se vio
obligado a dimitir cuando el
Departamento de Estado de Estados
Unidos presionó por su salida, condición
previa que habían exigido tanto la
oposición civil, representada por el
`Grupo de los 184' liderado por el
empresario Andre Apaid, como por la
oposición armada que llegó a controlar
cinco de los nueve departamentos que
conforman el país. El secretario de
Estado de Estados Unidos Collin
Powell, en los últimos días les dio un
reconocimiento inusitado a los ex tonton
macoutes (policía represiva de la
dictadura duvalierista), llamándolas
`fuerzas armadas del norte'.

Sin embargo, Estados Unidos no

podían permitir que la situación quedara
en manos de los jefes paramilitares que
en su momento apoyaron y
contribuyeron a formar y entrenar. Cinco

horas antes de que el Consejo de
Seguridad Nacional decidiera el envío
de una fuerza multinacional a Haití,
Estados Unidos mandó un contingente
de 200 infantes de Marina de un total
de 1000 anunciado por Powell. A estos
se sumaron unos 300 soldados y
miembros de la policía anti- motines de
Francia y soldados canadienses. La
misión de las fuerzas estadounidenses
será, según la BBC, restablecer el orden,
distribuir ayuda humanitaria y repatriar
a los haitianos que se han echado al mar
en precarias embarcaciones, buscando
refugio en otros países.

Por el contrario, el analista Michel

Chossudossky señala que Washington
pretende reinstaurar en Haití una colonia
plena estadounidense con todas las
apariencias de un funcionamiento
democrático. El objetivo es imponer un
régimen títere en Puerto Príncipe y
establecer una base militar permanente
en Haití.

La administración estadounidense

busca la militarización de toda la cuenca
del Caribe. La isla Española es la puerta
de entrada para la cuenca del Caribe
pues está estratégicamente localizada
entre Cuba al noroeste y Venezuela al
sur. La militarización de la Isla, con el
establecimiento de bases militares de
Estados Unidos, no solo tiene el
propósito de presionar políticamente a
Cuba y Venezuela, sino que también se
orienta a proteger el comercio
multimillonario de drogas que pasa por
Haití hacia Estados Unidos desde los
sitios de producción en Colombia, Perú
y Bolivia. Se estima que Haití es ahora
responsable de un 14 por ciento de toda
la cocaína que entra a Estados Unidos,
representando miles millones de dólares
de ingreso para el crimen organizado y
las instituciones financieras
estadounidenses que lavan enormes
cantidades de dinero sucio. (Al respecto
ver: `US sponsored coup d`etat. The
destabilization ofHaiti' http://
g l o b a l r e s e a r c h . c a / a r t i c l e s /
CHO402D.html)

Estados Unidos, por otro lado,

culpabiliza a Aristide del caos y la
desestabilización de Haití pero olvida
fácilmente que la situación creada en
este país, en mucho, es el resultado de

la aplicación de los planes de ajuste
impuestos por los organismos
internacionales que están bajo control
estadounidenses, esto es el Fondo
Monetario Internacional (FMI), el Banco
Mundial y el Banco Interamericano de
Desarrollo.

Aristide -que triunfó democráticamente

en 1990, fue derrocado por un
sangriento golpe militar, y reinstalado en
el poder en 1994, gracias a una
intervención militar mayoritariamente
estadounidense- pronto olvidó sus
planteamientos progresistas y aplicó las
recetas del Consenso de Washington
para responder, sobre todo, a los
intereses de los acreedores
internacionales. Como producto de la
aplicación de los principios del `libre
mercado', se desestabilizó la producción
local agrícola sobre todo de arroz,
azúcar y maíz, vitales, convirtiendo al país
en un gran importador de alimentos. En
el 2003, el FMI impuso la aplicación de
precios flexibles en los combustibles, lo
que trajo como consecuencia una fuerte
espiral inflacionaria que incrementó el
descontento popular hacia el gobierno
de Aristide que ya haba entrado en una
etapa sin retorno de corrupción y
autoritarismo. Ahora, la restauración del
orden bajo égida estadounidense no es
augurio de que el país más pobre de
América pueda salir de su prolongada
crisis económica y política.

(ALAI)
(Fecha publicación:01/03/2004)
(http://www.eldiariointernacional.com/

aristide103.htm)

HAITI: ¿Y QUE LUEGO DE

LA SALIDA DE ARISTIDE?