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MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

April 15, 2004, Nº 300!

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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he March 30 killings of four

Amerikans in a military convoy

turned into an anti-Amerikan

protest for the Iraqi people in Falluja.

Crowds of Iraqi people burned, mutilated,

and then dragged the Amerikans' bodies

through the streets, providing a violent and

clear declaration of the Iraqi people's

desire for the Amerikan occupation to

end. The Amerikans who were killed,

reported everywhere in Amerikan media

as "civilians," worked for Blackwater

Security Consulting, a mercenary group

hired by the Amerikan military. They were

fully armed and part of a military

convoy.(1)

Iraqi attackers ambushed the SUV

carrying the Amerikans and took off after

killing them. This is when a mob of Iraqi

people, including children, swarmed the

wreckage, burning the bodies and

dragging the corpses through the streets.

This story disproves the Amerikan claim

that it is only a handful of insurgents who

oppose the Amerikan occupation. It is a

lie that the Iraqi people welcome

Amerikan military presence.

March was the second-deadliest month

for Amerikan troops in Iraq since

President Bush proclaimed major combat

operations were over last May. [As we

go to press, initial reports claim at least

ten Amerikan soldiers died in fighting on

the first Sunday in April.] At the same

time, Bush's former anti-terrorism chief,

Richard Clarke, testified to the

commission investigating the September

11 attacks. He provided insider

information about the Bush

administration's fixation on invading Iraq

regardless of the evidence.

It is imperialist militarism that presents

the greatest threat of violence and

destruction to the peoples of the world.

Thin excuses for invasions and military-

backed coups attempt to cover Amerikan

imperialist aggression throughout Latin

America, Asia, Africa and the Middle

East. But the people in these countries

see the Amerikan (or Amerikan-backed)

occupying armies for what they are: the

military might behind national oppression.

Amerikan leaders claim they will return

civilian authority to Iraqis in three months.

If this actually goes down, it will be a

sham handover. Students of Amerikan

history know Amerika will allow only

obedient lackeys to take power; it will

retain neo-colonial control over Iraq, its

people and its resources.

In the face of all the killings of

Amerikan military personnel in Iraq,

Protestors

condemn

ongoing

Iraq war

YEAR

AFTER

LATEST

INVASION

SIGNS

OPPOSITION

DEEPENING

By MIM and RAIL comrades

San Francisco, March 20--Tens of

thousands of people protested on the

streets of San Francisco today, marking

the one-year anniversary of the Amerikan

invasion and occupation of Iraq. This rally

was the largest since the immediate

aftermath of the invasion. Momentum in

the anti-war movement waned in the

Anti-war protestors in San Francisco and Baghdad.

many months since the militant outrage

of the people shut down the streets of

San Francisco last year. But this large

rally showed that many people are still

paying attention and speaking out against

Amerikan imperialism.

Comrades from the Revolutionary Anti-

Imperialist League (RAIL) joined the pre-

rally march in San Francisco's Mission

district. Groups representing oppressed

nations were there, including the Filipinos

for Global Justice Not War Coalition

(FilsGlobe) and Students for Justice In

MIM TO EX-

YUGOSLAVIA,

EX-SOVIET

BLOC:

IMPERIALISM

HAS NO ANSWER

by International Minister

Violence between ethnic Albanians and

Serbs flared in ex-Yugoslavia on March

17th. Rioters killed 28 Serbians, injured

hundreds, burned hundreds of homes, dug

up graves and destroyed Serbian

churches hundreds of years old. Serbs

burned mosques in Belgrade in retaliation.

Two or three Albanian boys depending

on the report also drowned in the turmoil.

The short-run cause appears to be some

maneuvering leading up to a referendum

or UN considerations in 2005 regarding

Kosova--spelled "Kosovo" in the old

Yugoslavia days and still referred to that

way by Serbs. Others believed that the

short-run cause was that Serbian men

had chased two

Albanian boys

who ended up

drowning in a

river, an event

preceded of

course by

another event in

which Serbians

believed a drive-

by shooting was

done by Albanians. MIM will say bluntly

it is not interested much in this "we said/

they said" detail. By now everyone should

know there are murderous backward

nationalists running about in eastern

Europe and the Caucusus.

Former Finnish prime minister and head

of the United Nations organization in

Kosova Harri Holkeri says that both

Serbia-Montenegro's government and

Albania's government agreed that the

violence should cease.(1) On the 23rd,

the Finns acting for the UN arrested

Shukri Buja, a former commander of the

KLA--an organization using a name not

unlike famous liberation armies of the past.

Shukri Buja is also a leader of the second-

largest party there, the PDK.(2)

Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister of

Serbia-Montenegro accused Germany of

blocking the way in the Security Council

for action on the outrages in Kosova.

Goran Svilanovic said that Germany

favors Kosova's independence from

Kosova violence breaks out

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 4...

Continued on page 8...

Anti-Amerikan attacks explode in Iraq

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 2

What is MIM?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editor, MC206; Production, MC12

Letters

MIM Notes

The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement

ISSN 1540-8817

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

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

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

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

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:

MIM

P.O. Box 29670

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eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

What's up with Ho

and Castro?

I'm curious as to what MIM's position

on Ho Chi Mihn and Fidel Castro is, as

there is nothing regarding them in the FAQ

[MIM's Frequently Asked Questions

webpage]. I'd like to see such entries in

the FAQ, if you guys would do so.

Also, I do find your website to be quite

thought-provoking, though I'm not certain

as to whether or not I agree with you or

not. At any rate, I do give my appreciation

for your efforts and will continually re-

evaluate my own positions and become

more thoughtful in my actions. If nothing

else, I thank you for making me think.

--An internet reader

mim@mim.org responds: Probably

the best summary of our views on Ho

Chi Minh can be found in our review of a

recent biography (http://www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM/bookstore/books/asia/

duikerho.html).

On the one hand, Ho Chi Minh was a

relative success in ousting imperialists

from his oppressed nation, without

succumbing to narrow nationalism. On the

other hand, he failed to recognize

Kruschev's revisionism: the danger of

capitalist counterrevolution masquerading

as "Marxism." This caused major

problems internationally.

Ho Chi Minh once told an interviewer

that he left ideological questions to Mao

Zedong. There is both truth and trouble

in this statement. In Lenin's and Stalin's

day, they called people like Ho

"practicals." These are people who are

good at particular tasks but who do not

follow ideological arguments. In many

ways, Ho was just a "practical" like early

Stalin; Ho and Stalin both had talents in

many, many areas. In Stalin's case, those

concerns eventually drove him into

theoretical debates. To the extent that Ho

was still fighting U.$. occupier troops

when he died, it was correct for him to

focus on practical matters regarding the

national question. Yet as a communist, Ho

contributed greatly to confusion in the

international communist movement.

The communist movement suffered a

huge wound when Khruschev spit on

Stalin; yet, the true descent into

eclecticism, Liberalism and eventual post-

modernism took the advent of people like

Ho, Kim and Castro who put geopolitical

calculation first and the universal truths

of communism second. The real unity of

the communist movement can never

come about through Liberalism or treating

all opinions as if they were equal. We

communists are obliged as Marx pointed

out in the "Theses on Feuerbach" to unite

in the "this- sidedness" of reality.

Khruschev was irrelevant in the new

communist upsurge of the 1960s in the

United $tates, but the people fighting for

their lives in Vietnam were heroes. As a

result, Ho Chi Minh's line had more

influence than Khruschev's. No one did

more to divide the fledgling U.$.

communist movement than Ho Chi Minh.

For specifics on Castro, we recommend

MIM Theory 4, which contains a chapter

on Cuba. We reiterate the basics of our

position on Cuba here. 1) The Cuban

Revolution was a blow against U.$.

imperialism, which had a choke-hold on

the Cuban economy. 2) As the Cuban

Revolution developed and brought some

gains for the Cuban masses, especially

relative to other societies oppressed by

U.$. imperialism in Latin America, it

eventually replaced U.$. imperialism with

Soviet social- imperialism. 3) It is

important to note that the Cuban military

strategy of "focoism" has succeeded no

where else and has in particular brought

tremendous losses in Latin America. 4)

Cuba is a state-capitalist country. 5)

Currently, Castro is a lackey without a

master. MIM doubts that he can lead the

transition to independent development. 6)

Such independent development was

possible in Cuba's case. Had it pursued

socialist development, Cuba's revolution

would have been in a better position than

Albania's socialist revolution, which

started from an even weaker economic

position than Cuba did. 7) Like all Third

World countries oppressed by imperialism,

Cuba must be defended against

imperialist attack.

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 3

A large portion of Bush supporters are

Republicans who actually think they are

moderate libertarians. However, the Bush

administration continues the accelerated

pace of imprisonment that long ago made

the United $tates the number one prison

state in the world per capita.

Judge Dineen King of the Fifth Circuit

US Court of Appeals has complained

about the Bush pace--not because the

United $tates already locks up too many

people, but because there is not enough

money in the budget to hire enough judges

to handle all the cases. The cause in the

increase in activity: "drug and immigration

prosecutions along the US-Mexican

border and Attorney General John

Ashcroft's order last year that federal

prosecutors should seek the severest

charges and penalties."(Boston Globe, 17

Mar 2004)

Although MIM favors a "dictatorship

of the proletariat," we would not be

imprisoning people for border or visa

violations and we would not be having

people in prison for drugs. With the

incentive to make profit on a black

market gone, the drug problem will dry

up after some stern enforcement on a few

big profit-makers--just as it did in China

under Mao.

MIM is seeking help in spreading the

word about the overall situation. We are

having success but need more outlets,

volunteers to struggle, and even more

money to spread the word.

We have had success with articles

roughly like this one below minus the link

and call to distribute the article. Several

Internet forums have deleted this article

and moved toward banning MIM.

Americasdebate.com's moderator

posted the following message: "question

to debate is vague or missing" before

americasdebate.com deleted the post.

Nonetheless, there were a number of

positive responses to articles similar to

the one below. Here is one: "I have

always laughed and joked with my friends

about how so many people are put in

prisons over the stupidest things here in

the US, but truly, that piece of insight right

there is extremely frightening. And eye

opening."

Another response was simply:

"astonishing." When MIM received the

typical non-response that the article is

"hate America crap," MIM responded

as follows: "I didn't hear you answer the

question. Do you love Amerikkka

because it's the most criminal nation on

earth or because the politicians running

the government say it's the most criminal

on earth?

"If it's possible--and I admit this to be

in the realm of speculation--I believe

this guy hates Amerikkka more than me.

I at least believe Amerikkka can change

after a solid generation of revolution or I

would not be here. I have a feeling this

guy goes for the `crack down on crime'-

build-more-prisons hatred of

Amerikkkans every time. I'd like to

know which politicians this guy does

support."

MIM has found that when we are

allowed to post the facts, the debate goes

our way. The enemy ends up neutralized.

What we need is duplication of this

effort.

The article is reprinted here.

The United $tates leads the world in

imprisonment percentage-wise and even

by total prisoners. So my question is

whether love-it-or-leave-it patriots love

Amerika 1) because it is the most

criminal nation on earth? or 2) because

its government treats the people like the

most criminal on earth or 3) because of

gratitude toward the politicians don't

have the guts to tell patriotic voters the

truth about any of this?

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. In 2000, 1.5% of U.$. male convicts

had rape convictions, the second highest

percentage reported by 30 countries

reporting statistics, http://

www.unece.org/stats/gender/web/

database.htm

5. Atlantic Monthly December, 1998.

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

MIM/faq/freecoun.html

Study the above link. Distribute this

article far and wide!

Bush keeps prison state number one moving

Question for love-it-or-leave-it types:

Amerikkka most criminal nation on

earth or most misgoverned?

April 1

A film of guards brutally beating two

young men in a California Youth Authority

(CYA) facility was released to the public

today, the evening after activists held a

public meeting to demand the CYA be

shut down. The meeting was well

attended by media, activists, former CYA

inmates and family members of youth in

the CYA.

Senator Romero, chairwomyn of the

Senate committee on prisons, released the

tape in an attempt to force the state to do

something about the ongoing brutality in

the CYA. This tape, which apparently was

made and saved without the knowledge

of the guards, was the only evidence of

this incident. The guards filed false reports

charging the youth with assault, and the

youth were afraid to come forward for

fear of reprisal. If it were not for the tape,

this incident would have been like others

that happen every day in the CYA, where

guards brutalize youth and no one finds

out. In spite of the tape and a 40-page

internal affairs report released in late

March detailing the attack and concluding

that six CYA officials should be

prosecuted for their role in the

brutality,(1) no CYA employees have

been charged with any crimes.

This tape bolsters the reports released

in January from eleven independent

experts, which found that the CYA failed

to meet expected criteria for operation

in 21 out of 22 categories evaluated. The

report came out to the public in February

after two young men were found dead

in their CYA cell. But this information is

not new. For years people have been

fighting the abuses in the CYA and

nothing has changed. MIM applauds

Senator Romero for taking steps to move

beyond committee meetings and

hearings. Information about prisons-

system abuses must be made public so

that the people can become outraged and

force change.

The public meeting condemning the

CYA as "Bad for Youth" was organized

by two local activist organizations: Let's

Get Free and Books not Bars (BNB). A

BNB speaker opened the meeting

proclaiming that the beating captured on

the tape "is an outrage that happens all

the time." Speakers at the event described

the brutality in CYA. CYA facilities force

youth into gangs, both as a classification

formality and for self-defense. They put

youth on drugs to keep them quiet, or drive

them to take drugs to cope with the

torture. Families who visit are strip

searched, and many times are turned away

for ridiculous reasons like having a bobby

pin in the hair or wearing a shirt that is

tight. There is virtually no education or

other programming, and youth are taught

that they will be failures in life and have

no hope of accomplishing anything.

The CYA costs $80,000 per

incarcerated youth per year. The total

CYA budget is $385 million per year. The

BNB speaker declared the goal of their

campaign to shut down the 10 CYA

prisons and force the state to invest that

money into real rehabilitation for youth.

Underscoring the message from all the

speakers that the CYA cannot be

reformed but must be torn down she

declared "this is not an aberration, it is a

systematic problem."

The father of one of the two young men

found dead in their cell, Durrell Feaster,

spoke about his outrage at the system that

killed his son. He explained that Durrell

died because "in order to shut him up they

had to kill him." Mr. Feaster was aware

of the torture his son was undergoing in

CYA. "They were beating him down,

locking him up, macing him, they were

killing him." But in spite of this

information, Mr. Feaster found what

many parents of youth locked in CYA

learn: it is dangerous for their children if

they speak out against the system. "Every

California youth prisons brutality exposed

Activists demand CYA be shut down

Continued on page 7...

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 4

MIM TO EX-YUGOSLAVIA, EX-SOVIET

BLOC: IMPERIALISM HAS NO ANSWER

Yugoslavia.(3)

When imperialist troops landed with UN

sanction, they simultaneously told the

Serbs that they would not sanction

independence and they told the Albanians

they would keep the Serbian military

forces away from Kosova. Because the

Serbs had an objectively better military

situation on the ground for this sort of

ethnic cleansing, the NATO intervention

objectively aided the Albanian ethnicity,

but now the Albanians are chafing under

international occupation. Because we

supported the only party of Serbians and

other ex-Yugoslav people opposing

Serbian great nationalism-- the Partija

Rada--we now feel justified in

condemning narrow nationalism among

Albanians.

The National Albanian American

Council issued a press release March

19th saying: "Nothing justifies acts of

retribution or burning of churches and

mosques."(4) At the same time, even this

positive statement asking for "maturity"

said that the Serbs' political statements

were worse than the violence.

The violence in March, 2004--five

years after the last war--led the

imperialists to dispatch another 2000

Italian, German and other troops to the

scene.(5) These same imperialists

denounce Stalin for the hard line he took

on the small nationalities between

Germany and the Soviet Union and north

of Iraq, but now they also face the same

need to send troops for a crackdown to

keep ethnic bloodletting from happening.

The difference between the UN/

imperialist crackdown and Stalin's is this:

the economy is going nowhere as these

small nationalities fight. That adds to the

bitterness. The United $tates is Serbia's

biggest foreign investor and the U.$.

economy is going nowhere. Under Stalin,

the whole Soviet Union and its allied

countries moved forward economically.

Furthermore, under Stalin, even if people

had to migrate thanks to Stalin's iron hand,

they still all belonged to the same country

and had the same citizenship rights to visit

Moscow and so on. In the worst

circumstance, internally deported people

cooperated with each other at a distance.

Now in Kosova today, we have all the

same violence and problems that Stalin

also encountered in similar regions he

controlled, but the repressive violence by

supposed peacekeepers ends up in

another round of ethnic cleansing!

Imperialism does not have any other

answer. Now Kosova has had 80% of its

Serbs kicked out and it is more ethnically

pure than even the rest of Europe with

its restrictive immigration policies. In both

Stalin's case and NATO's case, there was

terrible repressive violence, but only in

Stalin's case was there any hope of

advance from that.

If no internationalist authority cracks

down in this whole Balkan region and ex-

Soviet bloc territory extending down into

Baku and further, the ethnicities trade

ethnic-cleansing actions. Today,

Albanians attack minority Serbs in

Kosova. The next day Serbs retaliate

against mosques in Belgrade or

somewhere else and so on down the line,

because no geographic areas are

ethnically "pure," as if there could be such

a thing anyway. The same thing happened

between Azerbaijan and Armenia when

hotheads in one province called Karabakh

leading the break up of the Soviet Union

evicted Azeris only to face retaliation by

Azeris against Armenians in the rest of

Azerbaijan. The actions of some

nationalists ended up creating millions of

refugees on both sides.

Yugoslavia and its leader Tito were the

darlings of all mushy "socialists" opposed

to Stalin's rule in the Soviet Union after

World War II. Tito brought "market

socialism," subsequently adopted by the

revisionists in China and the Soviet Union.

In Tito's version of "market socialism"

there was also "local control;" thus he

gained the support of various half-baked

"anarchists" as well.

Today, all the petty-bourgeois advocates

of the Yugoslavian model are nowhere to

be found, except in total stupor in younger

generations. There are no mea culpas

coming forward from any of the people

who found Tito preferable to Stalin. In

the sense that potential advocates of

"local control" are so lacking in

seriousness that they do not know

Yugoslavia was a model of what they

wanted, there is even another generation

of unconscious Titoites arising.

Now we see clearly where "local

control" of the economy leads. Each

ethnicity retained its own economic

interests and never learned what

centralized cooperation should be.

Workers of each ethnicity never

understood concretely how they were

damaging each others' interests, if at all.

In fact, in Yugoslavia's case, the lack of

centralized contact bred suspicions and

illusions of damage from other ethnicities

when it was really imperialism robbing

Yugoslavia with Tito's blessings. Hence,

without centrally coordinated economic

contact among workers, real damages

and illusions of damages may accrue in

relations among nations. Not surprisingly

as a result, when Western Liberalism

swept eastern Europe, Yugoslavia had the

biggest explosion of ugly ethnic violence,

right out of Hitler's game plan from World

War II. Even in the words of one

nationalist supporter of the ethnic

Albanians, "there were no good guys" in

the conflict: it was that ugly. The recent

term "ethnic cleansing" started with ex-

Yugoslavia.

Stalin's legacy

Greece and Albania are two places

where Stalin has had a stronger influence

than in other countries, because of the

negative example of Tito staring those

countries in the face. Nowhere is the

influence of Stalin greater outside of

Georgia and Russia than Albania, but even

there we see that Stalin has been tossed

aside. As ex-Yugoslavia nicely

encapsulates all the problems of our

current international communist

movement, and because Stalin is such an

influence still, we hope our readers will

pardon us as we go into the details.

After Mao died and Albania's leader

Enver Hoxha broke with China, Hoxha

took to preparing Albanian nationalism.

While he was alive he had think tanks

doing nationalist research on Albania and

he prepared the ground for what we see

today--people claiming to be communist

and yet favoring ethnic cleansing in

Kosova for "democratic" reasons--

tryanny of the majority no different from

that in Iran's theocracy today.

Nonetheless, while Hoxha was alive, he

did not implement the kind of things we

see today. We can only guess that Hoxha

was still calculating that a Stalin figure

might arise in Russia or China that he

might be able to get along with. When

Hoxha died, the Albanians including his

right-hand in the party, did not wait

anymore. They went for capitalism

outright.

This was a big blow to the part of the

"communist" movement that opposed

Mao and upheld Enver Hoxha. It

happened just as Mao said, by the hands

of a bourgeoisie right in the party.

Hoxha's hand-picked successor restored

open free market capitalism.

Most of the Hoxha-supporters quit their

parties and degenerated politically, some

even going for Gorbachev before totally

abandoning politics. Nonetheless, the

influence of Stalin and Hoxha in Albania

did not completely disappear.

As a result, Albanian nationalists have

now appropriated Stalin as favoring a

liberation struggle in Kosova; even though

there is no basis in Stalin's writings for

that notion. One writer on the Internet

going by the name of "Tovarish Spetsnaz"

has written thousands of articles in one

forum alone while purporting to defend

Stalin. According to "Tovarish Spetsnaz,"

(TS) which is a phrase meaning

something like "Comrade Special Forces,"

Serbia is a "mini-imperialism."(7)

MIM responded to this charge that

Serbian chauvinism is "imperialism," as

if imperialism were a cultural practice and

not an economic system. "Where are the

Fortune 500 banks in Serbia that make

Serbia an exporter of capital and hence

an imperialism?

"For us scientists in the legacy of Lenin,

`imperialism' is a scientific term, not a

slur we throw whenever we need some

opportunist camouflage."

TS had issued this charge of "mini-

imperialism" in response to a quote from

Stalin on nationalism: "This does not mean,

of course, that the proletariat must support

every national movement, everywhere

and always, in every individual concrete

case. It means that support must be given

to such national movements as tend to

weaken, to overthrow imperialism, and

not to strengthen and preserve it. Cases

occur when the national movements in

certain oppressed countries come into

conflict with the interests of the

development of the proletarian movement.

In such cases support is, of course,

entirely out of the question."(8) Needless

to say, "Comrade Special Forces" denied

that fighting imperialism is first priority

unless Yugoslavia is counted as

imperialism.

Not all defenders of Stalin in the world

take the line that Stalin somehow endorsed

the kind of conflict we see today which

cleared the way for outright imperialist

occupation in ex-Yugoslavia. Nonetheless,

there are other organizations claiming to

defend Stalin hideously fanning the fire.

The central quote in all this comes from

Continued from page 1...

For us scientists in
the legacy of Lenin,
`imperialism' is a
scientific term, not
a slur we throw
whenever we need
some opportunist
camouflage.

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 5

some writing of Hoxha's about his

meeting with Stalin that says the people

of Kosova have self-determination.

Hoxha published the rather bland quote

on self-determination after Stalin died and

could not rebut Hoxha. The Hoxhaites

now say that Stalin favored letting the

Kosova people decide their future and use

that as justification for inter-ethnic

violence. In the exact same document by

Hoxha, Stalin also said this: "The Yugoslav

communists and the Yugoslav people must

attend to that matter; it is up to them to

solve the problems of the present and the

future of their country. It is in this context,

also, that I see the problem of Kosova

and the Albanian population living in other

parts of Yugoslavia. We must not leave

any way for the Titoite enemy to accuse

us later of allegedly waging our fight to

break up the Yugoslav Federation. This

is a delicate moment and needs very

careful handling, because by saying, `See,

they want to break up Yugoslavia,' Tito

not only gathers reaction around him, but

also tries to win the patriotic elements

over to his side."(9) In other words, Stalin

knew that if Kosova left Yugoslavia,

Serbian "patriots" might take it the wrong

way and rally to revisionism.

With NATO troops on the ground, MIM

would say Stalin's warning is still relevant.

Stoking narrow nationalism was the

wrong way to try to get independence

and can do nothing good for Balkan

relations.

The late Bill Bland then residing in

England published by the "Communist

Party Alliance" said that imperialists will

not grant freedom. His conclusion was

that Kosova people should seize their

nation with arms--in the midst of

imperialist intervention. He supported the

Kosova Liberation Army.(10) Yet Bill

Bland's article also contains no relevant

quotes from Stalin. His article is a call

for inter-ethnic violence, a slaughter

among proletarians and farmers.

One pro-KLA "Marxist-Leninist"

wrote in favor of imperialist intervention

for the Kosova people. He said after all

that Stalin called for the intervention of

France and England against

Germany!(11) This utter confusion of an

imperialist country like Nazi Germany

with ordinary non-imperialist countries like

Serbia is typical of much eastern

European false consciousness and most

Hoxhaism as it exists today. MIM repeats:

the only countries east of Germany and

west of Russia that should be considered

imperialist are Sweden, Norway &

arguably Finland--not Iraq, not

Yugoslavia, not Armenia, not Azerbaijan,

not Georgia and not even Turkey.

Others in the confused Hoxha camp

referred to Serbia as a colonial power:

"During the Tito years the region has

always been exploited in a colonial way,

being a producer of raw materials, by the

bourgeoisie of the Federation richer

regions." (12) Most of Hoxhaism died

with the open capitalist restoration in

Albania, but 90% of the remnant of

Hoxhaism would be no where without this

sort of Albanian nationalism which finds

no home anywhere else in the

international communist movement. There

is no home for it, because it is not Leninist

in regarding Serbia as an imperialist

power.

It goes without saying if the

"communists" are coming up with lunacy

regarding Serbian "imperialism," then the

Albanian nationalists are just straight-up

lynching Serbs. The sad truth is that we

could change the names of the ethnicities

and our statement would still be true in

much of the rest of the same region. A

few years from now, these same junk

nationalists will be clamoring to join the

European Union and crossing each

others' borders at will in search of the

perfect Gucci handbag--or so they

dream. MIM is not sure that imperialism

is going to be able to extract enough from

the Third World to integrate all the eastern

European peoples successfully, but 2

million people in Kosova should be no

problem, less than the size of one U.$.

county. If Kosova does manage to join

the European Union plunder-machine on

equal terms, the inter-ethnic violence of

today is still going to look backward.

Russian revisionism

Russian revisionism plays a scandalous

role in ex-Yugoslavia. It was Khruschev

who abandoned Stalin and a principled

position on the national question. It was

also Khruschev who looked to nothing

more than the size and economic strength

of Yugoslavia as a reason to abandon

principled relations with Albania and cosy

up to Tito.

When we see extreme actions of ethnic

cleansing or rioting, as in ex-Yugoslavia,

we can be sure that small nations are

writhing in pain from the punishment of

bigger nations. Once Khruschev

abandoned Stalin on the national question

and allowed for corruption to enter the

party in the name of opposing dictatorship

of the proletariat, all the nations smaller

than Russia knew that bourgeois self-

interest was the new watchword of the

day. Instead of viewing imperialism as the

source of economic problems, ex-Soviet

people since Khruschev have

increasingly looked at their neighbors as

the source of economic problems.

Imperialist country revisionism

The evil of imperialist country

revisionism and its contribution in this

situation cannot be underestimated. Many

of the ex-Soviet bloc looked on in

admiration at Yugoslavia's standard of

living and this furthered the pro-Tito

illusions propped up with billions in

Western loans. To this day, we can be

sure that a large portion of Albanians see

Serbians as "relatively privileged."

Albanians are defending themselves

against charges that they are the spawn

of privilege in the Ottoman Empire. The

story goes that the Turks gave Albanians

a special deal to push Serbs out of

Kosova.(13)

In return, the Albanians accuse the

Serbs of some kind of special privilege.

For example, the Serbs have a company

in Kosova and the Albanians accuse it of

the following: "While only a handful of

Albanians, mainly in low key jobs in the

administration, still retain their jobs, the

Serbian regime has used the Kosova

company to boost an image of economic

prosperity in Kosova."(14)

So it is when President Rugova issues

a press release condemning "colonial

exploitation," he is completely upside-

down: "The Serbian press has reported

high-profile contracts the Serbian regime

has closed on behalf of the Kosova

company with Greek and American

firms, most notable of which Mitilineos

Holdings and Trafiguro.

"President of the Republic of Kosova

Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has warned foreign

governments and economic interests

against closing deals with Serbs on the

Kosova public economy, currently under

Serbian control. `Such deals will be

treated null and void', the President

emphasized."(14) When Rugova says

"colonial exploitation," he's not talking

about Western companies operating in

Kosova. He's talking about their signing

contracts with the wrong lackeys, Serbian

lackeys instead of Albanian lackeys.

As usual, the tendency in the ex-Soviet

bloc territory is to look at the neighbor

and assume it is the source of poverty,

when in truth, the only suspicions of that

sort should fall on Russia or the NATO

occupiers. That's why it is absolutely

crucial that more people get on-board

with the MIM agenda and show the

people internationally and concretely

what causes wealth and poverty in this

world, what the sources of economic

development are, and how much in

reparations from imperialism to the

oppressed are necessary. Without the

correct understanding of this scientific

question, the people will continue to kill

their best business partners.

There are hundreds of millions of people

in the West who could show these Serbs

and Albanians what "special privilege" is.

The Serbs' and Albanians' arguments

about the Ottoman Empire or the measly

Serb company in Kosova are way off the

mark. The Albanians and Serbs need to

study international political economy and

realize that Amerikkkans, British, French,

Italians etc. do not work so much harder

than them. Quite the contrary, the

imperialist country populations work less

and have less motivation.

The poverty of the Balkan region stems

from getting off the road of Lenin and

Stalin and then getting connected to an

imperialist web in which international

finance capital robs the entire world.

Virtually all the so-called Marxist parties

of the West are really advocates of the

parasitism of their own "working

classes." They cannot be counted on as

reliable sources of information. The

"workers" there are not "exploited." Of

special note in this right now is the

modern day Amerikan version of Karl

Kautsky, Bob Avakian, the leader of the

RCP=U$A ("Revolutionary Communist

Party"). According to Avakian, the

international proletariat of each country

should target 10% of its population as

enemies. That's according to his slogan

of the "two 90/10s." Not surprisingly, the

people of Kosova are carrying out the

Avakian line protecting Amerikkkan

privilege by attacking the company

owners and relatively privileged workers

known as Serbs. Kosova's people have

"advanced" the struggle so far that they

have nearly kicked out all the "exploiters."

That's where the chauvinist line

opposing MIM leads. On a global scale,

the English worker making minimum wage

legally-speaking is in the top 10.1% of

the world by income. The chauvinist reply

to the facts is that income is not class.

For RCP=U$A and the rest of the

exploiter country revisionists, class is

something relative, not something based

in the labor theory of value. That is why

according to the RCP=U$A's official line

there is an enemy of 10% of the

population in every country including the

U$A. The philistines are counting on

people not realizing that anyone with

assets generating less than the minimum

wage of Amerikkkans may be rich in their

country, but they are at most petty-

bourgeoisie internationally, something that

should be called "national bourgeoisie" in

the oppressed nations. Yet it is this petty-

bourgeoisie making under $10,000 a year

that Avakian and company believe

constitutes the majority of the enemies

of the international proletariat! That is

Kruschev.

It was Khruschev
who looked to
nothing more than
the size and
economic strength
of Yugoslavia as a
reason to abandon
principled relations
with Albania and
cosy up to Tito.

Continued on page 8...

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 6

Palestine (SJP). Speakers condemned

Amerikan imperialism, but also

emphasized education as a human right

(many of the marchers were students).

The march was led by SJP, which carried

a life-size wall reading, "Stop U$ Aid to

Israel's Apartheid Wall," as well as a tank

and many flags. The pre-rally march

ended in a park in the Mission district

where, after an hour of speeches, the

crowd marched through the city to the

Civic Center. Once there, people walked

among the many tables of political

literature and listened to more speakers.

Around 2 p.m. about a thousand people

left in another march that was soon

targeted by rioting police, who beat

protestors and innocent bystanders. An

estimated 80 people were arrested, with

at least one person beaten bloody and one

broken arm reported.(1)

This protest brought out many more

people with homemade signs than

previous ANSWER-led demonstrations,

which were dominated by signs created

by the organizers. The creativity of the

protesters reflected carefully-thought-out

political positions on the war, a good sign

that people are still paying attention a year

after the invasion of Iraq. Signs that MIM

liked included "Preemptive war is

invasion," and "Terrorists out of the white

house." A number of signs focused on

"Bush's lies," implying that because of

his lies people are dying. But, as MIM

has been pointing out for years, Amerikan

imperialism has been killing people and

invading countries since its inception, and

the lies, like the president himself, are

incidental to the system of militarism

which requires this plunder.

MIM and RAIL brought a contingent

to the protest with our own improved

banners and signs. We distributed close

to 1000 copies of MIM Notes, gathered

many signatures on our petition to shut

down the Security Housing Units in

California prisons, and accomplished our

goal of setting ourselves apart from the

multitude of sectarian and single issue

groups at the rally. With so many self-

Protestors condemn ongoing Iraq war

labeled "communist" and "socialist"

organizations distributing newspapers, it

is hard for people to know what is worth

their time to read. MIM wants to get our

newspaper into people's hands, and we

want to give them a reason to read it, to

stop and talk to us, to buy our theory

magazines, and to think about getting

involved in anti-imperialist organizing. At

this rally we displayed some RAIL anti-

election posters on large poster board next

to our literature table. (These posters are

available at the RAIL page on MIM's

website.) Some RAIL comrades also

turned one of these posters into t-shirts

to wear at the protest. Our posters and

banners got a lot of attention.

We met a number of people who were

surprised to learn we didn't think it worth

their time to vote in the imperialists'

presidential elections. One of the posters

we displayed reads: "Yahoo, it's another

Amerikan elekshun, Wherein the planet's

premiere parasites pick the current

presidential face of imperial terror and

global plunder. Or simply put, the enemy

chooses a leader." This sums up our

position on the elections well. While older

people in the crowd wearing Howard

Dean or Dennis Kucinich or even John

Kerry t-shirts or buttons were generally

not friendly to our message, many younger

people were impressed with our anti-

elections message.

This contrasted to the theme of several

speakers at the rally. One early speaker,

Leilani Dowell, is running for Congress

on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket,

backed by the Trotskyist Workers World

Party. Dowell ended her speech with the

cry "We will win!" Although she was not

referring directly to her campaign for

congress, she was talking about the

struggle in this country. MIM finds

electoral campaigns run by self-

proclaimed socialist organizations to be

misleading the people. We need to be

honest that we cannot win in the

imperialist-dominated elections at this

point in history. Telling people that it

matters when they go vote for a

candidate who will definitely lose is what

MIM calls defeatism. We tell people they

should not waste their time standing in

line at the polls, and that their time is better

spent organizing.

Another speaker at the rally, Dolores

Huerta, famous for her organizing of

migrant workers, proclaimed to the

crowd, "the most important day of your

life is election day." This once again

misleads people to think they can effect

change by going to the polls once a year

(or once every 4 years) to pick who will

lead the plunder of the world. Even San

Francisco couldn't elect a Green Party

mayor (not even an anti-imperialist

candidate) to run its domestic affairs. So

we can't fool ourselves into thinking that

the majority of Amerikans would vote for

a candidate that opposes imperialism.

This is the second message that MIM

put out to people taking our newspaper

and stopping at our literature table. When

asked what we are about, we explained

that MIM is different from other

organizations at the rally because we are

honest about where the wealth in this

country comes from. We know that

people in this country enjoy a high

standard of living from the super profits

extracted from people outside of U.$.

borders. And that is why a majority of

Amerikans support the war and their

elected leaders. Many people who had

never encountered MIM before were

impressed with this analysis and agreed

that we should call on Amerikans to

oppose the imperialism because it is in

the interests of all of humanity to stop

our movement towards global destruction.

On the other hand, a Trotskyist

organizer invited us to support the

Safeway workers in an effort to be "non-

sectarian", to which a RAIL comrade

responded by pointing to our poster which

reads, "Imperialism: The majority of the

world's people can't live with it, you can't

live without it." That is our analysis of

Amerikans as a whole. Sectarianism

means serving your organization rather

than the interests of your cause. Refusing

to fight for more super-profits for

Amerikans is committing ourselves to the

struggles of the oppressed, not

sectarianism.

Speakers at the rally demonstrated the

need for this MIM analysis including

Woody Harrelson, a famous actor who

read a poem he had written for the rally.

His poem questioned why people would

support fascism, and why it worked in

Germany. This is an important question

for activists to think about, but Harrelson

gave the answer so many Amerikan

activists like to give: miseducation. He

concluded that Amerika has Clear

Channel (the media conglomerate) and

so that's why the people are fooled into

supporting wars and even fascism. MIM

disagrees. It is true that the mainstream

media in this country works hard to build

support for imperialism, serving as a

mouthpiece for the government. But

Amerikans are not just fooled into

complacency and support for their

government. Amerikans have a strong

material interest in imperialism as the

Amerikan government has shared the

profits of plunder with its citizens to buy

their allegiance.

Clear Channel may bring us speeches

by warmongers in the white house

justifying their actions, but it also brings

us images of the people dying in countries

around the world as the Amerikan military

invades. And with access to the internet

and alternative media sources, Amerikans

do have the opportunity to read between

the lines in the mainstream press. But the

majority chose to turn their heads away

from anti-imperialist news and accept

what the government tells them. Not

because they are stupid but because they

want to continue to live the Amerikan life.

The parallel to Germany that Harrelson

raised is appropriate. After World War I

Germany was deprived of all its colonies,

and the wealth it was bringing home from

colonial plunder was cut off. The German

people were thrust into poverty. And it

was not hard for Hitler to convince these

people they deserved their former wealth,

at the expense of colonial peoples around

the world. National chauvinism finds

fertile ground among Amerikan workers

when they feel their wealth threatened,

just as it did among Germany workers.

This is why we have to be honest with

Amerikans about where the profits are

coming from.

Notes:

1. www.indybay.org.

What questions do YOU have?

Wasn't Mao a butcher? Why do you spell it "Amerika"? Shouldn't you try
non-violence first? What is internationalism? Isn't hating white people reverse
racism? Why don't you leftists work together? Why don't you tone it down?
What is a cardinal principle? What is your program? What is necessary to
join MIM? What concrete actions can I take? How do I write articles for
MIM? What is your copyright policy?

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

and get real answers to these and other questions.

Did you know?

There are more

than 200 back

issues of MIM

Notes available

on the MIM

website? Not only

can you browse

more than 15

years of the

newspaper, you

can also keep up

with the very

latest on MIM

agitation

campaigns,

prisoner news, all

the latest on the

U$ war, and much

more. MIM's

website is an

indispensable tool

for the

revolutionary

movement. Get

involved!

www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM

(in prisons)

The United $tates is world's leading prison-state per capita. The U.$ imprisons more
Black people than did apartheid South Africa of the era before Mandela was president.

The majority of prisoners are non-violent offenders and the U.S. Government now
holds about a half million more prisoners than China; even though China is four times

our population. In this so-called "free country" freedom is imprisonment. Like the rest
of the country, people from oppressed nations are imprisoned in California prisons at

a disproportionate rate. In this context, the existence and rapid growth of prison
control units across the country is an urgent issue that deserves our attention and
activism.

This pamphlet describes the history and use of Control Units in Prisons in Amerika as an inhuman tool of repression. We focus
on the Control Units in California prisons called Security Housing Units (SHU) because of our active campaign in that state to
shut down the SHU, but the information about the SHU is applicable to similarly named programs across the country. MIM has
been leading struggles against the Criminal Injustice System across the United $tates for years. At the same time we run
political programs to educate and organize prisoners behind the bars. We hope this pamphlet is educational, but we also hope
it inspires people to take action and join the fight to shut down the control units throughout the Amerikan prison system.

Control Units are prisons within prisons. They are isolation units where people are confined

to small cells for long periods of time. Control units are a common tool of repression throughout

the Amerikan prison system, frequently used to target prisoners who are actively fighting for

their rights. They target Black, Latino and indigenous people who are a disproportionate part of

control unit populations.

Control units have various names such as Adjustment Center, Security Housing Unit (SHU),

Maximum Control Complex (MCC), administrative maximum (ad-max), Intensive Management Unit

(IMU) and administrative segregation (ad-seg). Prisoners spend years of isolation in tiny cells,

usually 6 by 8 feet for 22 - 23.5 hours a day. In some cases the long term isolation is complete, in

others it is small group isolation; both conditions are tremendously damaging to humans. The short

time that they do spend outside their cell is within a cement or chain link "dog pen" that lacks any

kind of equipment and proper space for physical exercise. Participation in programs including

religious services, educational programs, work and job training, congregate dining and exercise are

all prohibited. Medical care is also greatly limited.

Prisoners are placed in control units for extended periods of time. Prisoners are usually placed in

control units as an administrative measure, with no clear rules governing the moves. This makes it

virtually impossible for prisoners to challenge their placement.

What is a Control Unit?

In the late 18th century, the Walnut Street Prison in
Philadelphia, PA, became the first penitentiary in U.S.
history to experiment with the use of long-term isola-
tion. This was based on the "Quaker theory" that with-
out social interaction, a prisoner could not be influ-
enced by fellow inmates and that a religious conver-
sion would occur during the years of enforced medita-
tion and result in the individual's reformation.

This theory had monstrous effects upon those in-
carcerated between its walls. Some fell into a condition
from which it was almost impossible to arouse them.
Others became violently insane, some to the extreme of
committing suicide. Those who underwent these iso-
lating conditions were generally not reformed. In most
cases individuals did not recover sufficient mental ac-
tivity to be of any service to the community. It would
seem that after such experimentation, that this type of
treatment would be eliminated by prisoncrats. Instead
the practice of confining prisoners to small cells for
long periods of time is still in full force.
In modern times the U.S. penitentiary at Alcatraz be-
came notorious for holding the most dangerous crimi-
nals within the U.S. penal system. In reality it became
the first "control unit prison" used as a mechanism to
enforce control over prisoners and society. More re-
cently the super-max penitentiary in Marion, Illinois
became the new "End of the line" for both state and
federal prisoners who prisoncrats considered to be "in-
stitutional problems" or "too dangerous" to be housed
in any other
institution.
The idea of Marionization spread rapidly through-
out the Amerikkkan prison system because prison offi-
cials cried that their institutions were unsafe and con-
trol over the convict in every way possible was desper-
ately needed. The truth behind the reasons these con-
trol units are needed is they are a means of political,
economic and social control of oppressed and disen-
franchised people. These include especially African,
Latino and indigenous people who are a dispropor-
tionate part of control unit populations.
These torture units go beyond the usual constraints
of maximum security prisons. Better defined as a prison
within a prison, these control units are used to defeat
prisoners' revolutionary attitudes, organization, mili-
tancy, legal and administrative challenges; and any-
thing else the prison administrators deem objection-
able. These control units have various names, every
prison possesses the label control unit status if long-
term punishment and/or isolation are used.
While conditions vary from prison to prison, the
goal of these units is always to achieve the spiritual,
psychological and physical breakdown of the prisoner.
Once prisoners are confined to a control unit, gross

Shut Down Control Units in Prison

human rights viola-
tions take place on a
daily basis.
The most damaging
aspect of control units
is the physical and
mental torture that is
imposed upon their
victims. Physical tor-
ture is inflicted: Forced
cell extractions by mili-
tarily attired, baton-
wielding guards are
constantly used without cause or warning. These
guards violently beat, choke, and kick already-shack-
led prisoners. Sometimes these cell extractions are so
abusive that prisoners require extensive medical atten-
tion. Devices such as tazer guns, pepper spray, maces
and manacles are used and four-point restraints and
hog-tying are routinely overused, despite the fact that
such instruments have caused bodily harm and death.
Another cruel practice is "caging". This is where
scantily clad or naked prisoners are held in outdoor
cages for hours in cold and rainy weather. The system-
atic use of firehosing shackled prisoners while in their
cells, with high-pressure cold water, then leaving stand-
ing water in the cell, usually accompanies a prisoner
being put in "strip cell status." While frigid tempera-
tures make it impossible to sleep or even lay down, a
bright light shines upon the cell 24 hours a day.
For those who can endure the physical cruelty, the
mental torture can surely affect one's sanity. One ex-
ample of this is sensory deprivation. This is when the
prisoncrats forbid prisoners to have books, televisions,

radios and contact visits, including those with lawyers.
In some control units it is impossible for prisoners to
communicate amongst themselves. Verbal harassment
containing derogatory or racial statements are made by
the guards. Mail is misplaced, delayed, destroyed or
censored. Threats are made against family and visitors.
The passing of false confidential information to foster
paranoia and fights between convicts is utilized to
weaken any unionization between prisoners. Legal ac-
cess is another area that is greatly violated. This in-
cludes the censoring of lawyer and court mail, guards
monitoring attorney-client phone and visit conversa-
tions, and the hindering of access to legal books and
materials.
Control Units are designed to administer the very
most in sensory deprivation and dehumanization of
inmates.

A History of Control Units in Amerikan prisons

For more information check us out on the web:

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

or contact us at:

mim124@mim.org

415-267-4879

Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

PO Box 40799, San Francisco, CA 94140

to order bundles of this pamphlet for distribution

send $20 for 100 copies

The U.$. is

A Pamphlet from the Maoist Internationalist Movement

In California, and across the country, Security Hous-

ing Units principally target oppressed nations. In 1998
the California Department of Corrections (CDC) re-

ported that 34% of the population in all CDC institu-
tions was Latino, and 31% was Black. The population

of the Security Housing Units (SHUs) is even more
disproportionate. 82% of people in SHUs were non-

white, and 52% of those in SHUs were Latino. This
compares to a California population that was 32% Latino,

and 7% Black in 1998. The population appears to be
about the same today but exact statistics are not pub-

lished by the CDC for the public.
The five official California SHU's - Pelican Bay State

Prison SHU, Valley State Prison for Women SHU, Cali-
fornia State Prison at Corcoran SHU, California Correc-

tional Institution at Tehapchapi SHU and Corcoran
SATF - are the lynchpin for the CDC's prison system.

They are the most brutal prisons in the system and
principally target those prisoners who show the most

resistance. They are designed to break inmates' spirit.
The SHU is a threat which hangs over the head of all

CA prisoners.
At Pelican Bay prisoners are kept in windowless cells

for a minimum of 22 1/2 hours a day. There is no educa-
tion, no job training, no work, no religious services, or

hobby materials. Prisoners are subject to strip searches
upon departure from and return to their cell when they

have not come in contact with any other individual.
Conditions at Pelican Bay were found unconstitutional

in 1995 by a federal court, which ruled that prisoners
were subjected to gratuitous and racist beatings and

that medical facilities were inadequate. Prisoners, and

now even the mainstream press, report that little has
changed since this ruling.

Corcoran prison is infamous for its daily "gladiator
fights," staged between 1988 and 1996. Guards would

manipulate exercise schedules so that known enemies
would be in the handball-court-sized recreation area at

the same time. Fights were basically certain, and guards
bet on the outcome. After a fight had gone on for a

while, guards would break it up by firing wooden bul-
lets at the prisoners. Hundreds of prisoners were in-

jured in these fights - including seven murdered by
guards.

These are only a few of the tortures and terrors imple-
mented by the CDC. Transfer to and from a SHU de-

pends on the whims of a classification committee. Pris-
oners are not allowed legal counsel before this kanga-

roo court. The CDC claims that the SHUs house "the
worst of the worst," who are kept in lockdown because

they pose a danger to other prisoners. However - as is
the case in other control units throughout the u.$. -

many of the prisoners in California's SHUs are there
because they are jailhouse lawyers, or have filed too

many grievances.
The CDC also uses the policy of "snitch, parole, or

die" to justify further repression and turn prisoners
against each other. Prisoners can be transferred to the

SHU - regardless of good behavior or their sentence - if
"confidential informants" label them gang members.

Prisoners are not allowed to confront their accusers or
defend against the allegation of gang membership, so

many of those sent to the SHU under this policy may
indeed be innocent of the so- called crime of gang mem-

bership. Once in the SHU, these prisoners can only
leave if they inform on another "gang member," are

paroled, or die. This is clearly a policy aimed at creat-
ing a need for SHU space and fanning the flames of

the anti-gang (read: anti-oppressed nation youth) hys-
teria.

Other CDC policies regulating even the most mun-
dane aspects of prisoners' lives are designed to pro-

voke prisoners and pave the way for further prisons
expansion and crackdowns. Since the end of 1997, the

CDC has (a) prohibited long hair and beards among
male prisoners - some of whom wear their hair long for

religious reasons, (b) taken away the $1 million bud-
get for the prison law library, and (c) taken away pris-

oners' weights, restricting their already limited recre-
ation and increasing hazards to their physical health.

As history teaches us, "oppression breeds resis-
tance." In one example, on New Year's Day 1998 over

1,000 prisoners in Folsom State prison rebelled by
throwing burning toilet paper over the tiers, banging

on cell doors, and refusing to eat. In the words of a
San Quentin prisoner, "We do have a little bit of life in

here, debased as it is, but there's stuff to do. [The
grooming restrictions are] just too much." In October

2002 prisoners in the Corcoran SHU waged a hunger
strike to protest the brutal conditions. Resistance be-

hind the bars continues and we have a responsibility
on the outside to support these struggles.

California SHU Brutality exposed

CA senate hearings on the SHU: we can't reform torture

September 15 -- Hearings on Security Housing

Units (SHU) in California prisons, were held in Los
Angeles by Senator Romero, Chair of the Select Com-
mittee on the California Correctional System. In this era
of "tough on crime" rhetoric, it is unusual for a govern-
ment official to even question prison programs, and in
this context we can hope to effect some improvements
in the lives of prisoners.

MIM and RAIL activists attended these hear-

ings with no illusion that the California congress can
legislate substantial change in the criminal injustice
system. As a part of our campaign against the SHU in
California, and control units across the country, we at-
tended the hearings to put forward the perspective that
the SHU must be shut down, not just reformed into
kinder gentler torture.

Outside the hearing at 8am a small crowd gath-

ered to protest the SHU. Led by the Barrio Defense
Committee, MIM and RAIL joined activists and rela-
tives of prisoners waved signs and chanted demand-
ing the SHUs be shut down.

At 9am when the hearing began attendees were

passed through a metal detector and forced to leave all
signs, food and water outside. There were at least six
cops outside the main entrance, eight more up front in
the large hearing hall guarding the area where the sena-
tor and her witnesses were to sit, two or three more
around the sides and back of the room against the walls,
and an uncounted number more guarding the side en-
trances to the hall. In a large hall that could seat hun-
dreds about 100 opponents of the SHU gathered along
with a small crowd of ten or so CDC administrators
mixed with a few more cops seated in the corner with
their crowd. The level of security was astonishing and
suggested that the state government considers friends
and family of prisoners quite dangerous.

Senator Romero questions SHU system

Senator Romero opened the hearing with an over-

view of the California SHUs, explaining that there are 3
male SHU prisons and 1 for wimmin, together housing
close to 3000 people. She described accurately the con-
ditions in the SHU which include 23 hours/day lockdown
in the cell, prisoners getting out only for occasional
exercise and showers, and no programming (educa-
tional, work or otherwise). One point that the hearings
misrepresented was the expansion of the SHU system.
Although the number of SHU beds has not officially
expanded, the CDC continues to build new "adminis-
trative segregation" units inside prisons throughout
the state. This is just another name for control units.
Many states use this tactic to overcome legal or politi-
cal challenges to their control units, changing the name
and pretending they have implemented a different sys-
tem. One such unit was opened in Soledad recently.

Romero criticized the CDC for failing to provider

her with exact information on the cost per prisoner of

incarceration in the SHU and presented the estimates
they gave her of $37, 662 per inmate excluding health
care, making the point that she believes the actual cost
is significantly higher than this. While it is no doubt
true that it costs more money to house prisoners in
isolation units than in general population, MIM doesn't
care about this point. Unless we are talking about put-
ting money into more programming for prisoners, bet-
ter food and medical care, and better legal services, we
don't care if the state is wasting money on expensive
cells, wasting money on guards salaries, or wasting
money paying for a recall circus election. Our opposi-
tion to the SHU is not based on rallying taxpayers to
better use their prison money to build more
cheaper cells because this is a losing point
of propaganda.

Romero went on to explain that the

SHU houses two groups of prisoners, first
there are those in for determinate
sentences who have sup-
posedly committed vio-
lent acts. The second
group is those labeled
"validated" gang mem-
bers. The SHU population
is split roughly evenly be-
tween the two groups.
Romero stated "I have some
very serious concerns about
the validation process...[and
the] lack of oversight of the pro-
cess by which it is determined if a
prisoner remains an active gang member
or associate." Romero went on to suggest
that she would like to see the CDC move to a more
"behavioral based criteria" for gang validation rather
than using "status" criteria. This is a good criticism of
the SHU process, but it focuses on how to better select
prisoners for torture rather than addressing the torture
itself.

It is also important to point out that the label

"gang" is in and of itself a problem. Gangs are loosely
defined to identify any group of people those in au-
thority see as a threat. Usually this is any group of
oppressed nation people getting together for their bet-
terment, self-defense, education or other activity, not
always including illegal activities. MIM has been la-
beled a "gang" or "security threat group" for our politi-
cal education programs for prisoners. And prisoners
are given "gang" classifications for their association
with us and other political organizations.

Romero also provided some useful facts, noting

that, in response to criticism, the CDC has carried out a
self-audit of the SHU validation process. She rightly
pointed out that this process is suspect as it involved
no independent oversight. Further she noted that there

have been 403 paroles directly from the SHU since 2000
with a recidivism rate of 78%. The recidivism rate for
inmates in general population in California is 66%. As
Romero herself stated "even that normal recidivism rate
is extremely abnormal." MIM agrees and we understand
that prisons in Amerika are not about rehabilitation at
all, they are an industry and to remain in operation they
have an interest in continuing to build their popula-
tion. There is no effort put into giving prisoners oppor-
tunities to live a better life after prison. Romero ex-
pressed the concern that community members are not
safer because of SHUs if they are leading to more crime
when prisoners are released.

Senator Polanco, the former chair of the Joint

Committee on Prison Construction and Operations,
spoke at the hearing first. He went into further detail
on the types of SHU sentences. For a violent act a

prisoner receives a determinate SHU sentence of

up to 6 years. For being a "validated" gang

member or associate a prisoner gets

an indeterminate SHU sentence of 6
years up to life with the only way to

get out being to parole, snitch or die.

He too objected to the lack of behav-

ior based criteria for gang validation.

Under his leadership some pro-

grams for reform of the system were

developed which he noted had yet to be

implemented. He gave praise to the CDC

for "progress" but said it has slowed. MIM

sees this as just political lip service as there

has been virtually no change in the SHU sys-

tem since Polanco began his investigation except

cosmetic adjustments to pretend that prisoners have a
way to get out of the SHU by remaining free of gang
activity for six years. Putting a prettier face on torture
and oppression is far from a goal of MIM's and we are
wary that congressional actions like those taken by
Polanco can do more harm than good for the oppressed.

Polanco noted that the CDC had sent people to

study the control unit systems in other states, looking
for models of how to run things better. His complaint
was that none of the examples they had seen were
implemented. MIM looks around the country at the
control units in other states and does not see a model
for the CDC to follow. This is one case where MIM
agrees with the CDC Director Alameida; he pointed out
that most states are doing the same kinds of things
California is doing with control units.

CDC pigs defend torture

In some of the most interesting testimony of the

hearing Ed Alameida, Director of the CDC, took the
stand along with David Tristan his Chief Deputy Direc-
tor of Field Operations and James Moreno, the chief of
the CDC gang unit. For Alameida and his men this hear-
ing was a process of justifying their policies so they
could get back to work and avoid cuts in funding, but a

few useful facts did come out amid their evasions and
cautious phrases.

Alameida began his testimony by giving some

background stating that prison gangs began in the late
1950s and early 1960s and vehemently labeling them an
organized crime syndicate involved in criminal activi-
ties in the prisons. More than once he brought up drug
and weapons dealing in the prisons. Romero never chal-
lenged him on this but MIM wants to point out that
these things only happen when someone lets drugs or
weapons into the prison. Prisoners do not have any
way to do this themselves so CDC employee complic-
ity is a must.

In 1971 Governor Reagan established the gang

unit in the California prisons. This timing coinciding
with the harsh crackdown on revolutionary movements
in the United $tates and the dramatic skyrocketing of
the prison population as the government started round-
ing up oppressed nationals and herding them off to
prison in an attempt to squelch any revolutionary ac-
tivity.

Moreno described the process of gang valida-

tion in detail. Gang "behavior" according to him, can
be a violent act, a tattoo, communication with validated
gang members or associates, photographs with gang
members or associates, confidential information from
debriefs or other sources, letters written to validated
gang members, Christmas cards, and other material.
Romero questioned him extensively on the non-behav-
ior criteria asking how a Christmas card or conversa-
tion in the yard could be evidence of gang member-
ship. Moreno tried to claim that cards and letters al-
ways have secret messages that the CDC can't see and
so it doesn't matter what the content is. This kind of
status based criteria is what has allowed the CDC to
put many prisoners in the SHU who have never associ-
ated with a "gang" in their lives. It is also conveniently
easy to validate prisoners with "confidential" evidence,
allowing the CDC staff to target prisoners who are po-
litically active for SHU isolation.

The CDC staff went on to describe the valida-

tion process which includes review of "evidence" by
the Institutional Gang Investigator and review by the
Validation Review Committee. Prisoners supposedly are
given a copy of all evidence against them and have the
opportunity to rebut it. Although it sounds rigorous, a
number of people testified to the lack of training by the
review committee, the divergence of staff interpreta-
tion on how to validate gang members, and the reality
of the system which rarely shows the prisoners the
evidence against them or gives them any chance to
challenge it. This translates into prison staff making
arbitrary decisions to send people to the SHU without
needing any real evidence.

Romero recently visited Pelican Bay prison, a

notorious SHU prison in California, and interviewed
several prisoners. She said she repeatedly heard sto-
ries of prisoners who had joined gangs to avoid being
assaulted and she asked "what is the role of [the CDC]
in setting up conditions [that require this of prison-
ers]?" This question correctly looks at the state as the
real source of safety problems in the California prison
system. Romero went on to say outright "Rehabilita-
tion is absent from the mission of the CDC".

Senator Romero seems to clearly see the contra-

dictions within the criminal injustice system, and she
seems to genuinely want change, but she is caught
within the system and so on the one hand she recog-
nizes its failure but at the same time she is calling for
cosmetic reform that will do little more than cover up
the problems. While MIM hopes to take advantage of
this opportunity to push forward some changes that
will improve the lives of prisoners in the CDC, we can't
expect the dismantling of the SHU programs without
significant public protest and organizing.

Witnesses against the SHU

Attorney Don Specter testified against the SHU

with a compelling response to the CDC administrators.
He noted that by their own testimony there are 40,000
to 60,000 gang members in California prisons. The SHU
houses approximately 1500 "validated" gang members.
So even with the SHU full there is no chance it is re-
moving the gangs from the general population. The
argument that the SHU units are keeping other prison-
ers safe from gangs is ludicrous.

He noted that the CDC rules on confidential in-

formants are meaningless because they decide that if
any part of the information provided by the informant
is true the CDC will consider all the information true.
And if the informant was considered reliable in the past

all his information in the future will be trusted. This
invites informants to give false testimony. And this is
not to mention those "validated" gang members who
were never associated with a gang and have no real
information to provide but who want to "debrief" to
get out of the SHU. They have to make up information
to get out.

Charles Carbone, a lawyer with California Prison

Focus, was another invited speaker at the hearing. He
provided some good evidence of the lies told by the
CDC administrators about the validation process as
well as the effects of the SHU on prisoners and their
families.

Carbone is working on a court case right now

challenging the constitutionality of the SHU validation
(Castillo vs. Alameida) which is scheduled to go to trial
in 2004. Through depositions for this case he has
learned that the people in charge of validating prison-
ers have virtually no training, that about 60% of source
items are confidential (making challenges by prisoners
impossible) and that in many cases debriefs by prison-
ers just involve naming names, not even recounting
actions.

Carbone followed the vein of others testifying

by suggesting reforms to the SHU system including
changing the classification to behavior based, imple-
ment more frequent reviews of prisoner's SHU sentence,
offering more programs, and providing greater protec-
tions before validation. While MIM does work for re-
forms within the system as a part of our organizing
work to bring down the system, we think it is irrespon-
sible to call for these reforms without pointing out the
fundamental flaws in the system. Particularly when the
reforms are focused on a how to improve a system that
is fundamentally torture.

Public comments condemn SHU

After the formal testimony the many audience

members were given a chance to speak during public
comments although they were restricted to 2 minutes
each. Parents, brothers, sisters, in-laws, grandparents,
and children of prisoners as well as former prisoners all
stood up to speak about the injustice of the SHU. Many
family members had a hard time finishing their testi-
mony as they were moved to tears recounting their
experiences with the CDC.

Family members testified to visitation processes

that made it virtually impossible for them to see their
family, keeping them out for wearing the wrong colors,
restricting mothers with more than 2 children from bring-
ing all of the kids at once, having visits denied by the
prison after a family member has traveled across the
state and confirmed the appointment by phone, the
denial of contact visits, and other humiliations and deg-
radations.

The daughter of a prisoner spoke about her at-

tempts to visit her father where they made her change
clothing twice and then told her the visit was not sched-
uled. A mother of a prisoner spoke about her attempts
to see her son in Pelican Bay. After traveling from Los
Angeles all the way to the northern tip of the state,
spending $500 for the trip, she was denied visits be-
cause a guard had miscounted the prisoners. She ex-
plained that it is not only the prisoners, "families are
also violated by this system."

The health problems of many of the prisoners in

the SHU were detailed by their family members. Some

have serious mental health problems after years of long
term isolation. The skin color of SHU prisoners turns
yellow after extensive denial of exposure to the sun.
Many prisoners have developed serious physical health
problems from the confinement, lack of activity and
poor medical care.

The unfair and random validation process was

criticized by many. Family members described bogus
evidence used to validate their loved ones including
get well cards. One mother of a prisoner spoke about
his validation a year ago after which he tried to file an
appeal. After he filled out the form wrong and it was
returned to him and he was told he had lost his chance
to appeal. Another person spoke about a man who had
been in the SHU for 15 years. After six years he got his
validation reviewed but was denied based on evidence
that included a condolence card he sent to a friend
whose mother had died and a political letter he had
written. Another woman recounted her husband's de-
nied appeal of his SHU status because of his participa-
tion in a 1999 peaceful protest where the whole hous-
ing unit of many different nationalities united and with-
held their dinner trays to protest the treatment they
were receiving. Several prison activists also spoke about
the men they work with who have been wrongly classi-
fied as gang members in retaliation for political organiz-
ing.

A man who works with a politically active SHU

prisoner who was recently assaulted by his cellmate
noted that the cellmate had two weapons when he en-
tered the cell, and they were not crude weapons. These
weapons had to come from somewhere. Again and again
testimony like this pointed to not just a broken system
that needs fixing but systematic oppression.

A RAIL speaker described the work MIM and

RAIL is doing with California prisoners and the pattern
we see of the CDC putting politically active prisoners
in the SHU, pointing out that these are some of the
least threatening prisoners, the ones helping others
file lawsuits and working for unity among prisoners.
This speaker presented Senator Romero with more than
500 petition signatures calling for the SHUs to be shut
down, noting that along with the many others we had
mailed to her this brought the total petition signatures
submitted to her by MIM to almost 2,500.

A MIM speaker discussed the failure of the hear-

ings to address the fundamental problem with the SHU
which is long term isolation, a form of torture con-
demned even by the United Nations. This speaker
pointed out that comparisons to other torture programs
are meaningless because reforms attempting to make
torture programs better can not succeed in changing
the fact that these programs are still torture. Putting
this in the context of larger society the MIM speaker
asked people to consider the problems with the crimi-
nal injustice system as a whole and what in the CDC is
causing them. We should not be talking about better
systems for determining who should be put in torture
units, we need to talk about how to eliminate these
torture units.

Hearings on SHU continued...

Join the protests to Shut Down the Security Housing Units

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 has held meetings and protests that include the Barrio Defense Committee, the
Maoist Internationalist Movement, the African People's Socialist Party, Aztecs of North America Inc,
African People's Solidarity Committee, the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League, Studies for the
Liberation of Aztlan and Latin America, Justice for Palestinians, Zami! Cooperative, and California Prison
Focus. Participants also include family members of SHU 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 oppres-
sion. We bring these lessons to the people on the streets as we build this movement to shut down the SHU.

Protests are held the first Saturday of every month at the following locations:

San Francisco: Corner of Powell and Market (Noon to 2pm)

Los Angeles: Silver Lake Farmer's Market at Sunset & Griffith Park Blvd (11 to 1pm)

San Jose: Contact us for location

Santa Cruz: Contact us for location

Oakland: Contact us for location

An Alternative to Control Units

While campaigning to abolish Security Hous-

ing Units (SHU) in prisons, people frequently ask us,

"What's your alternative?" This question usually
comes from people who know that there is a lot of vio-

lence in prisons. So they argue that the SHU provides
security to help avoid petty confrontations.

In practice however, it is the prison system and

the Correctional Officers who promote and even create

violent situations rather than preventing them. This is
the product of a system that is set up to be every man

for himself, where snitching is rewarded and violence
is promoted as the way to solve problems. It's the same

old divide-and-conquer technique. When the people
in an institution are there against their will, facing re-

pression and inhumane conditions, the minority run-
ning the institution doesn't want them organizing

against their captors.

When addressing the question of abolishing the

SHU we have to make it clear that MIM is not a reform-
ist organization. We are fighting this campaign within

the context of overthrowing the whole system and re-
placing the current criminal injustice system with jus-

tice for the people. Our goal is to transform society to
eliminate the social causes of crime. Our long- term an-

swer to the question of what to do with violent crimi-
nals is to build a system of re-education, reform and

reintroduction to society for those who previously
posed a threat to society.

In the short term we must fight to limit the op-

pression of the current system and abolishing the SHU

is part of that fight. We know that the SHU is used for
political repression. We know that everyone in the SHU

suffers mentally and physically regardless of why they
are in there. Therefore we often point out to those who

are reluctant to sign our petition to abolish the SHU
that these people are usually going to get out of prison

some day and will only be more maladjusted than when
they entered as a result of the isolation and torture

they faced. Prisons can be made safer under the cur-
rent system, but this goes counter to the interests of

the prison administration to keep power over the im-
prisoned. Therefore until the proletariat decides who

goes to prison and how the prison system is used there
will be torture and violence in prisons.

When it does come time to build a new justice

system in the interests of the people, we look toward

the model of the prison system in socialist China (i.e.
China under Mao). People who were successfully re-

formed through that system include two Amerikan stu-
dents (Allyn and Adele Rickett) and the last Emperor of

the Manchu dynasty, Pu Yi. All three of them have writ-
ten about their experiences and provide some great in-

sights into the socialist prison system. In our review of
the Ricketts' book, Prisoners of Liberation, we wrote,

"a psychological approach to antisocial behavior takes
agency away from the individual and the masses, and

has as its goal teaching people to learn to adjust to
their oppressive conditions (or their role as an oppres-

Petition to shut down all Control Units

Control Unit prisons confine people to small cells in isolation for long periods of time. These prisons were first officially used in Alcatraz and then in 1972 in Marion,

Illinois to house prisoners who were "institutional problems" or "too dangerous." Since then the idea has spread, and control units have become a common tool of
repression throughout the Amerikan prison system.
These control units are used for the political and social control of prisoners already locked in secure They target Black, Latino and indigenous people who are a
disproportionate part of control unit populations (relative to their already disproportionate representation in prisons in general). Control units go beyond the usual
constraints of maximum security prisons. Better defined as a prison within a prison, control units are used to defeat prisoners' revolutionary attitudes, organization,
militancy, legal and administrative challenges, and anything else the prison administrators deem objectionable. While conditions vary from prison to prison, the goal of
these units is always to achieve the spiritual, psychological and physical breakdown of the prisoner.
Control units have various names such as Adjustment Center, Security Housing Unit (SHU), Maximum Control Complex (MCC), administrative maximum (ad-max),
Intensive Management Unit (IMU) and administrative segregation (ad-seg). Prisoners spend years of isolation in tiny cells, usually 6 by 8 feet for 22 - 23.5 hours a day.
In some cases the long term isolation is complete, in others it is small group isolation; both conditions are tremendously damaging to humans. The short time that they
do spend outside their cell is within a cement or chain link "dog pen" that lacks any kind of equipment and proper space for physical exercise. Participation in programs
including religious services, educational programs, work and job training, congregate dining and exercise are all prohibited. Medical care is also greatly limited.
Control units may vary from prison to prison but they can be generally characterized as: Permanently designated prisons or cells in prisons that lock prisoners up in
solitary or small group confinement for 22 or more hours a day with no congregate dining, exercise or other services, and virtually no programs for prisoners. Prisoners
are placed in control units for extended periods of time. Prisoners are usually placed in control units as an administrative measure, with no clear rules governing the
moves. This makes it virtually impossible for prisoners to challenge their placement.
Control units are designed to administer the very most in sensory deprivation and dehumanization of inmates. The United Nations has put forward clear documents
outlining acceptable treatment of prisoners. These documents reaffirm that prisoners retain fundamental human rights. The Basic Principles for the Treatment of
Prisoners (1990) states: "Except for those limitations that are demonstrably necessitated by the fact of incarceration, all prisoners shall retain the human rights and
fundamental freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and, where the State concerned is a party, the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol thereto, as well as such other rights as are set out in other
United Nations covenants." The United Nations Human Rights Committee has further stressed the obligation of the state to treat prisoners with dignity and allowing
them all rights set forward in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which the United $tates signed in 1977).
Control units are physical and mental torture and they very clearly violate the humyn rights of prisoners. They systematically target prisoners who are challenging
the legal system and other manifestations of state authority. We, the signatories of this statement, condemn these units and demand that the United $tates abide by the
UN principles it claims to uphold. We call for the elimination of all control units in prisons in the United $tates.

Send your signature to

mim124@mim.org

or MIM, PO Box 40799, San Francisco, CA 94140

sor) rather than struggling for political change."(3) In-

dividualism leads bourgeois society to use psychol-
ogy to explain and then treat crime rather than the so-

ciological viewpoint of class struggle. By focusing on
the societal sources of humyn problems we can actu-

ally eliminate their source.

The difference between our plan for prisons and

the current prison system is that we see prisons as a
means of re-education not punishment. When we bring

up re-education under socialism suddenly liberals get
indignant. This violates their individualist value sys-

tem that considers people static rather than ever-chang-
ing products of society and their own experience. Be-

cause re-educating people to interact better with other
people is taboo in Amerika, we are left with the option

of punishment to deal with those who don't play the
game or who aren't allowed to play.

Curiously, isolation and physical torture do not

provoke the same indignation from many liberals as

any mention of `re-education' does. This can largely be
explained by the fact that it is oppressed nations who

are disproportionately suffering at the hand of the cur-
rent punitive system. Especially in extreme instances

of repression like the SHU we see the targeting of Black
nationalists, Spanish speakers, members of lumpen or-

ganizations like B.L.O.O.D. or ALKQN, or others whose
behavior is outside the norm set by white society. Mean-

while the biggest criminals in the world are living it up
within U.$. borders with no fear of reprisal by the cur-

rent system. To talk about replacing this system with
one that reeducates people to work together in a so-

cialist economy turns the tables, making white
Amerikans the biggest target. While the Black man sell-

ing rock on the street will be quick to give it up for a
means of supporting himself by building his commu-

nity rather than destroying it, the white man making
millions by allowing that product to enter the country

in the first place will be a lot more reluctant to change
his ways. And he sure as hell doesn't want the economy

socialized.

But some people are just crazy

We often hear this line on the streets. Certainly

it is prevalent in the bourgeois media. It may be true

that some mentally ill people commit crimes because of
their illness. But to quote the band Propagandhi, "Or-

dinary people do fucked up things when fucked up
things become ordinary." In other words, behavior is

relative to the material conditions of a society.

We can say with certainty that the vast majority

of people who have committed crimes against other
people are not crazy and can be reformed. Evidence

that crime can be largely eliminated can be seen in a
comparison of violent crimes committed in the world

today. Amerikans are willing to accept the idea that
there are all these incorrigible crazies out there because

our society has succeeded in creating excessive vio-
lence in individuals and the media turns around and

feeds that to the populace as a scare tactic. A quick

glance at an Amerikan prison yard will tell you some-
thing is not right when the vast majority of the people

are not white, while white people still make up a major-
ity of the U$ population. Unless one is a racist then one

must admit that there are social factors involved in who
goes to prison.

The same individualism that leads people to be

more concerned about some static idea of identity than

about physical abuse and mental torture is what allows
people to act against the norms and interests of the

society that they live in. Communists favor class
struggle over the psychological approach. For example,

"Rather than giving moralizing sermons, China strove
to create in individuals a social conscience."(3) In this

way we can combat all sorts of social ills, from drug
addiction and eating disorders to violence and other

neuroses. Rather than brushing these problems under
the rug, by trying to lock their victims up in prison and

isolate them, we can involve those people in building a
better society so that they understand the importance

of their lives and the negative effects of their former
behaviors.(3)

A prerequisite to eliminating antisocial behavior

is to accept that we in fact live in a society that sets

norms for how we behave. In fact, much of what is
labeled `antisocial behavior' in our society today is

actually encouraged by our society; it does not exist
because of some innate humyn characteristics.

Amerikans look at how they think and see that their
friends think the same. They've all been taught by the

same school system, the same media, the same culture.
And then they assume that that is how all people be-

have at all times. As Mao said, "what [petty-bourgeois
intellectuals] call human nature is nothing but bour-

geois individualism."(4)

So for all who want to know what our alternative

to the SHU is, it is building a communist society where
no one has power over other people, where people see

their importance as a part of a society rather than see-
ing every persyn as an island, and where social prob-

lems are addressed and reconciled rather than repressed
and locked away to fester.

Notes:
1. MIM Theory 9: Psychology and Imperialism, p. 39
2. MT9, p.36
3. For more on this read "Psychological Practice in the Chinese
Revolution" in MT9
4. Mao Zedong, "Yenan Forum on Art and Literature," in Se-
lected Works, op. cit., Volume 4, p.90

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 7

time I spoke for him, he could get in

trouble."

The mother of a boy in CYA supported

this message. Her son tried to kill himself

because he couldn't take the abuse in

CYA. They didn't bother to tell her. She

found out when she visited, and then CYA

authorities told her that her son was just

a mama's boy trying to get attention. She

also explained that her son was classified

as a gang member based on his nationality

even though he had never been involved

with any gangs. This is consistent with

the practice across the California

Department of Corrections in both youth

and adult facilities, where new prisoners

are immediately classified into a gang

based on their nationality and where they

are from.

A young man who was locked up in

CYA for five years spoke about his

experience. He explained that kids don't

tell their parents about beatings because

the kids don't want repercussions. He

learned nothing useful in CYA, but "I

learned every gang in the state thanks to

YA." He explained why we need to

eliminate the CYA: "you can't reform YA,

you can't reform something that has a

faulty foundation... It would be a crime

not to do anything about YA right now."

San Francisco's public defender, Jeff

Adachi, spoke at the public meeting.

Adachi is known for his progressive and

dedicated work fighting injustice in the

prison system. He not only spoke

eloquently about the injustices in CYA and

the need to shut it down, but also stayed

after the meeting to hand out flyers about

an upcoming juvenile justice summit being

held by the public defender's office. This

activism is worth recognizing in a country

where most people believe that holding

public office means only doing what is

needed within the job and for the money.

Adachi explained the work he had done

in recent months to get the San Francisco

Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution

declaring a moratorium on sending youth

to CYA. This was the first county to take

a stand against the CYA and eleven other

counties state-wide have followed suit.

Counties are now beginning to pass

official bans on sending youth to CYA.

Recently a team from the Public

Defender's office began visits to CYA.

They made the first trip to the Preston

facility the day before this meeting. This

team found conditions even worse than

what was reported by the experts.

Adachi was clear that in spite of the

hearings and reports about CYA brutality,

nothing has changed. He recalled a

hearing 10 years ago where the same

issues were discussed before the Senate.

In an article he wrote for the San

Francisco Chronicle, Adachi explained in

detail the historical failure of the system

even while it admits its failures. The best

we have heard so far is that the new

director of the CYA, appointed by

Governor Schwarzennegger in December

of 2003, pledged to begin phasing out his

staff's use of iron cages to house youth.

Adachi concluded his speech, "We have

to create an unprecedented show of force

now."

The public meeting closed with footage

of Missouri youth rehabilitation centers.

In 1983 Missouri closed their youth prison

and replaced it with rehab centers that

each house no more than 40 people, run

by youth specialists. The conditions in

these centers are far from prison- like.

Rather than dehumanizing the kids, they

focus on education and problem solving.

Showers have curtains, youth get a closet

to put their belongings in, a reasonable

number of youth share a room, and

extensive programming is offered to help

the youth deal with their problems and

build a better life when they get out. There

is a 3% recidivism rate among youth in

the Missouri program, this compares with

rates in California cited as between 40%

to 80%. This program was offered up as

a model by BNB.

MIM has not investigated the program

in Missouri but we can agree with

activists, the SF Public Defender, and

State Senator Gloria Romero in calling

for the complete dismantling and

elimination of the California Youth

Authority. Studies have repeatedly proven

that people, and particularly youth, will

learn from their environment. CYA

teaches youth to be criminals. But a study

several years ago of 15 "incorrigibles"

selected by the CYA and provided with

positive training, demonstrated

tremendous improvement in recidivism,

and success in education and the

workplace relative to their peers in CYA.

We can also conclude that the money

put into state-run youth prisons would be

much better spent if it was put in the hands

of independent community programs

providing education and political activism

for the youth of California.

Notes:

1. San Francisco Chronicle, March 25,

2004.

Continued from page 3...

California youth prisons brutality exposed

By a RAIL comrade

San Francisco

On March 19, hundreds of people came

out at 7 a.m. to commemorate the anti-

war protests that shut down the city last

year. While smaller than the 2003

demonstration, this year's protest

gathered strong support and concluded

with protestors blockading Bechtel

Corporation's headquarters.

Once again, the anarchist-led mass

organization Direct Action to Stop the

War organized the day. They have

succeeded in offering an alternative to

the permitted-march-and-rally routine of

International ANSWER and United for

Peace and Justice. This year's action

included two marches to surround

Bechtel, one of the leading U.$. firms

extracting wealth and resources from

Iraq. Protestors successfully prevented

Bechtel employees from entering their

offices for an hour or two.

The youth and students who largely led

these direct actions wanted to do more

than wave banners and sing songs. The

police seemed to recognize this and

allowed the demo to have the space it

needed to do a little more, without actually

threatening Bechtel, the city of San

Francisco, imperialism, etc. Around 9 a.m.

a large portion of the crowd left to occupy

a squat that is scheduled to be demolished

for condos. This cleared the block enough

to allow police to take it over for traffic,

leaving over a hundred people gathered

on the sidewalk outside of the building.

Though their tactics are more fun and

confrontational, the anarchists do not

provide an alternative to the chauvinism

of the other mass demonstrations we've

seen. In an attempt to define "empire,"

the original flier for this action stated,

"transferring wealth from the majority of

the people in the US and public services

to big corporations and the wealthy." This

statement is completely false. As MIM

has shown, the majority of the people in

the United $tates receive wealth

transferred from the Third World. A later

flier was edited to read, "transferring

wealth from the majority of the people in

the US (and the world) and public

services..." The parenthetical

acknowledgment of the rest of the world

is almost more offensive. They didn't just

forget about it, but they actually relegated

it to a secondary consideration.

In addition to this, the demo was similar

to ANSWER and UFPJ rallies in its calls

for health care and education. (Though

the students/youth makeup of the crowd

left out the demand for jobs.) This is why

the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League

(RAIL) recognizes MIM leadership. We

see the road that other mass organizations

have taken. Whether led by the

anarchists, liberals or pseudo-communists,

they all end up falling for Amerikan

chauvinism.

Although there was no significant

showing from the Black community, it

was interesting to note a consistent

difference between those in attendance

and some of the white participants. When

one man was chanting at the police about

how they need to get out of the Third

World and they're gonna get what's

coming to them, one womyn encouraged

him to show the cops respect so that

they'll behave better. He responded,

"Fuck the cops!" In a similar exchange,

one student was attempting to persuade

police to question their motives and not

just follow orders. One man interjected

that the cops there would kill us in a second

if it came to it, and that there was a

paycheck behind that allegiance. He went

on that these are the same people who

voted for the current administration, and

they're willing to support it with force if

need be. No one disagreed with him, and

a RAIL comrade passed him a copy of

MIM Notes asserting that we had a lot in

common.

The employees of Bechtel represented

their class interests by claiming ignorance

and innocence. As police escorted dozens

of employees into the building, protestors

attempted to block the way and chanted

"shame!" One employee responded,

"You've got the wrong people." Other

employees said it's no use to get upset.

Some protesters chanted things like "get

another job." This also ignored the reality

of U.$ imperialism. You don't have to

work for Bechtel to be living off the

exploitation of Iraq. Lifestyle politics is

not the answer. Until we crush the whole

imperialist system, blood is on the hands

of all Amerikans.

Protesters target Bechtel to mark anniversary of shut down

Police confront protesters at Bechtel (sf.indymedia.org).

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 8

right in the RCP=U$A slogan of the "two

90/10s." This all stems from their refusal

to acknowledge uneven development in

the world caused by parasitism.

It is only MIM teaching that 90% of

the enemy of the international proletariat

is right in the imperialist countries. That's

just dialectics, the law of uneven

development.

The philistines at the RCP=U$A and

elsewhere depend on global ignorance

concerning the minimum wage in the

majority-exploiter countries. They don't

want anyone to know that they actually

believe these minimum wage "workers"

and much richer "workers" constituting

90% of the imperialist country populations

are actually allies of the international

proletariat; even though, these same

people are in the top 10% richest in the

world. RCP=u$A, the Trotskyists and

social-democrats have all done this and

in effect what they have done is take 9

out of 10 of the richest 10% of people of

the world and say they are allies of the

international proletariat. Meanwhile, the

vast majority of people the RCP=U$A

and other revisionists are calling "enemy"

have such impressive control of the means

of production that their income is under

$10,000 a year. The RCP=U$A's line is

an Amerikkkan chauvinist line attacking

a huge Third World enemy while letting

the world's richest people off the hook.

That is why Yugoslavia brings all the

issues of MIM's line together. Before the

Communist Party of China let Mao talk

so much about a "bourgeoisie in the

party," Mao nonetheless explained this

about Yugoslavia in 1963 in the essay "Is

Yugoslavia a Socialist Country?": "[it is]

possible for a working-class party to fall

under the control of a labour aristocracy,

degenerate into a bourgeois party and

become a flunkey of imperialism before

it seizes power." Furthermore, "Old-line

revisionism arose as a result of the

imperialist policy of buying over and

fostering a labour aristocracy. Modern

revisionism has arisen in the same way.

Sparing no cost, imperialism has now

extended the scope of its operations and

is buying over leading groups in socialist

countries and pursues through them its

desired policy of `peaceful evolution.'"

An assortment of police agents,

intelligence agents, zombies and the brain-

dead are polluting the name of Stalin and

Mao today. Hence, those calling

themselves "communist" are all to blame

for the situation in eastern Europe today.

Yet it is of absolute urgency for survival

that people dig deeper underneath all the

decomposing revisionism to understand

the true sources of prosperity and

economic harmony.

Notes:

1. http://www.helsinki-hs.net/

news.asp?id=20040319IE7

2. http://www.helsinki-hs.net/

news.asp?id=20040325IE1

3. http://www.b92.net/english/news/

index.php?&nav_category=&nav_i

d=27718&order=priority&style=headlines

For MIM's coverage of how the German

Greens were the lynchpin in the NATO

intervention and other news, see: http://

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/kosovo/

4. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040319/

nyf089_1.html

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

worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3876657,00.html

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/

0 3 / 0 5 a 2 1 9 2 7 - 8 2 e 2 - 4 7 1 d - 9 0 7 c -

fd1f429416e1.html

6. http://groups.google.com/

groups?q=%2BKosova+%2BAlbania+

%2Bprivilege&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-

8&edition=us&selm=2279f481.u8t20e.c9726-

ulpiana%40ios.com&rnum=2

7. www.politicsforum.org/forum/

viewtopic.php?t=8992

8. Joseph Stalin, Foundations of

Leninism Foreign Language Publishing

House, Moscow, 1953, Works, Vol. 6, pp.

145-7.

9. http://www.marxists.org/reference/

archive/hoxha/works/stalin/meet3.htm

Not all Hoxhaites took this quote the

wrong way. Some have realized that a

NATO attack on Yugoslavia was not what

Stalin had in mind, e.g., http://

revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv8n2/

ucpaintro.htm#1. On the other hand,

German Hoxhaites aligned with German

imperialism stressing the dark days of life

for Kosova under Yugoslavia. http://

www.mltranslations.org/Germany/

stalin.htm

10. http://www.oneparty.co.uk/

i n d e x . h t m l ? h t t p % 3 A / /

www.oneparty.co.uk/html/kstrug.html

11. http://www.oneparty.co.uk/

i n d e x . h t m l ? h t t p % 3 A / /

www.oneparty.co.uk/html/kstrug.html

12. http://www.oneparty.co.uk/

i n d e x . h t m l ? h t t p % 3 A / /

www.oneparty.co.uk/html/kstrug.html

13. http://groups.google.com/

groups?q=%2BOttoman+%2Bpri

vilege+%2BAlbania+%2BSerb&h

l=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-

8&edition=us&selm=2279f481.u8t20e.c9726-

public opinion in Amerika has fallen to

just over 50% supporting the war in Iraq.

This is down from around 75% at the start

of the attack. There are a few important

lessons to take from these numbers.

First, the decrease in support appears

to be directly correlated with impact on

Amerikan lives, dead soldiers in particular.

Few Amerikans seem concerned with the

death toll for the Iraqi people or their

suffering under Amerikan occupation.

This is dangerous nationalist sentiment

from the people of an imperialist country

that suffers relatively few deaths

compared to the peoples in the countries

it attacks and occupies.

Second, these numbers indicate that

more than a year after the invasion, the

Amerikan people still support an

unprovoked attack on a Iraq, in spite of

the complete lack of evidence that Iraqis

were producing chemical or other

dangerous weapons, harboring Al Quaeda

Anti-Amerikan attacks explode in Iraq

members, or carrying out any other

actions that were a direct threat to the

United $tates. This is a good indication

of where the Amerikan people stand on

the question of imperialism. Imperialist

aggression that appears to further the

wealth and well-being of Amerika is

supported by a majority of Amerikans,

who rightly see these actions as

advancing their material interests. We

can't fool ourselves into thinking most

Amerikans oppose the war in Iraq. And

we have to demand internationalism from

Amerikans who do oppose the war. Only

from an internationalist perspective, one

that recognizes the right of the Iraqi people

to self-determination, can we correctly

fight against the global threat of Amerikan

militarism.

Notes:

1. MSNBC, April 1, 2004.

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?

ulpiana%40ios.com&rnum=1

14. Kosova Information Center

KOSOVA DAILY REPORT # 997

Prishtina, 25 October 1996 President

Rugova's Press Conference http://

g r o u p s . g o o g l e . c o m /

groups?q=%2BKosova+%2BAlba

nia+%2Bexploitation&hl=en&lr

8&edition=us&selm=120%40kosova.

demon.co.uk&rnum=6

Continued from page 5...

IMPERIALISM HAS NO ANSWER

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 9

Although we do not agree with

mainstream Amerikans on much, we do

know that many Amerikans believe that

colleges should be the last place censored.

While students learn the very definition

of various words and various theories and

perspectives on life, it cannot be

productive for colleges to censor

discussion of capitalism and communism.

Yet, administrations everywhere tend

to act like they own their colleges and

that their property rights are more

important than the students' rights to free

information and the taxpayers' right to

contact those students and others in

college communities. MIM hands out our

newspaper MIM Notes for free, but many

colleges in the United $tates--probably

most colleges--prevent MIM Notes

distribution one way or another.

Student governments: If your college

is listed here, we want to hear from you!

We've been to Third World countries with

no elections and open dictatorship that

have better conditions on campus than

many of the below colleges, simply

because the student government leaders

and the student body don't put up with

anything from their administrations. We

want you to issue a tough resolution with

operational details based on the below on

the problem of administration control over

what you read. Contact us at

mim@mim.org.

Also, if anyone believes his/her college

is now better than that, let's collect some

information and see if we can get official,

written condemnations of official

misdeeds of the past! Let's collect more

data and update this page. If you send

data for this page, please title your letter:

"Notes on college censorship." Thank

you.

MIM is looking at a number of factors

in judging a college. For an event such as

a symphony performance where only

people with tickets can enter, MIM is not

offering judgment, and neither is U.S. law.

However, in any event where the public

is invited or public money is spent, MIM

does offer its special condemnations of

UNIVERSITY

SCORE

NOTES

California

Cal State Los Angeles

Cal State San Diego

Occidental College

Admin explicitly tries to shelter

students

Pasadena City College

Requires permission to table (has
never denied MIM/RAIL)

U.C. Berkeley

U.C.L.A.

Official policy (spottily implemented)
is to toss off-campus pubs

U.C. Santa Barbara

Only approved posters

Florida
University of Miami

Free speech a total myth in Miami, FL

Massachusetts
Boston College

Student paper censored.

Boston University

Boston and Cambridge ticket posters.

Brandeis University

Harvard

Dorms mostly off-limits.

MIT

Northeastern

Admin stops leafletting outside public
events.

Smith

Open but sterile. Students' fault?

Tufts

UMass Amherst

Umass Boston

Arrests professor, not military

recruiter. Staff caught throwing out
MIM Notes

Wellesley College

Williams

Aloof, secluded, sterile but radical
hotbed. Go figure.

Michigan

U. of Michigan Ann Arbor

Photographed removing
demonstrators from in front of network
TV cameras.

New Hampshire
U. of N.H, Durham

Tax-funded administrator yahoo wrote
to tell us he throws out MIM Notes.

Quebec
Concordia

"Temporary" ban on politics renewed.
Crackdown backfires though.

Wisconsin
U. of Wisconsin, Madison

Student papers should learn from
Madison.

MIM's overall judgement of the place ranging from 10=open to 1=sterile. This score also

takes into account that sometimes an implementation is better or worse than the official
policy.

Censorship at college

hypocrisy within bourgeois democracy.

A more detailed table is available on

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

MIM/agitation/censor/colleges. That

table includes information on whether a

university arrests literature distributors;

gives more access to credit card

advertisement and other marketing than

free political literature; whether the

student newspaper is independent of the

administration financially and editorially;

etc.

Excerpts from a resolution passed by

MIM's 1999 Party Congress.

The public will enjoy greater "free

speech" rights [under dictatorship of the

proletariat] than they do under U.$.

imperialism with the exception of those

prisoners deprived of their citizenship

rights.

1. Restrictions on public postering will

be eliminated except on residential

buildings.

2. Large and convenient bulletin boards

will be placed on every block. Boards

covered over will be evidence for the

need to build more.

3. There will be convenient places to

leave literature along with such bulletin

boards.

4. There will be no arrests in any non-

residential building or premise for quiet

distribution of literature. The only

exception will be for high government

officials meeting and who face threat of

assassination--the Central Committee

and government officials above a certain

rank.

5. Arrests for vocal discussion will be

limited to places where there is a need

for meetings and orderly work.

Cafeterias, outdoor sidewalks and most

indoor hallways will be legally required

to allow vocal discussion.

6. Meeting halls of public buildings will

be made available for meetings to the

public. If necessary more will be

constructed.

Government bureaucrats interfering

with the "free speech" of the public will

be transferred to jobs where they have

no such possibility.

Restrictions

1. Those advocating opposition to the

dictatorship of the proletariat as defined

at the top of the document will go to prison

or re-education camp and thereby not

enjoy all full public citizenship rights.

2. Sale of pornography will be

forbidden. Distribution of nude

photographs paid for by the photographer

or persyn who signed a consent form to

be displayed in photographs will always

be legal, but government authorities may

require a registration for financial

bookkeeping purposes. Those publicly

distributing nude photos of children 12 and

under will be sent to re-education camp,

whether money spent was their own or

not.

3. Any non-party literature or other

device for public opinion building will be

paid for by individual members of the

public with money from salary and no

outside capitalist money or stolen sources

of wealth will be used to promote any

opinion of the non-party public.

Stimulation

1. MIM will not order the government

to censor the INTERNET except on

questions of the dictatorship of the

proletariat and party rule.

2. USENET groups such as talk.rape,

a l t . a c t i v i s m . d e a t h - p e n a l t y ,

alt.politics.greens etc. will be permitted,

partly for stimulation of the minds in

imperialist countries, partly to bring to the

surface bourgeois thoughts in need of

professional proletarian refutation and

partly because there will continue to be

problems in all these areas under the

dictatorship of the proletariat. The need

for stimulation is especially great in the

depoliticized imperialist countries. Many

middle-class peoples will come under the

dictatorship of the proletariat without ever

knowing that the world's majority of

people suffered threats to their survival

on a daily basis.

`Free speech' under dictatorship of the proletariat

Art by a prisoner.

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 10

MIM on

Prisons & Prisoners

MIM seeks to build public opinion

against Amerika's criminal injustice sys-
tem, and to eventually replace the bour-
geois injustice system with proletarian jus-
tice. The bourgeois injustice system im-
prisons and executes a disproportionately
large and growing number of oppressed
people while letting the biggest mass mur-
derers -- the imperialists and their lack-
eys -- roam free. Imperialism is not op-
posed to murder or theft, it only insists that
these crimes be committed in the interests
of the bourgeoisie.

"All U.S. citizens are criminals--

accomplices and accessories to the crimes
of U.$. oppression globally until the day
U.$. imperialism is overcome. All U.S.
citizens should start from the point of view
that they are reforming criminals."

MIM does not advocate that all

prisoners go free today; we have a
more effective program for fighting
crime as was demonstrated in China
prior to the restoration of capitalism
there in 1976. We say that all prisoners
are political prisoners because under
the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, all
imprisonment is substantively
political. It is our responsibility to
exert revolutionary leadership and
conduct political agitation and
organization among prisoners --
whose material conditions make them
an overwhelmingly revolutionary
group. Some prisoners should and will
work on self-criticism under a future
dictatorship of the proletariat in those
cases in which prisoners really did do
something wrong by proletarian
standards.

Under Lock & Key

News from Prisons & Prisoners

Join the fight against

the injustice system

While we fight to end the criminal

injustice system MIM engages in

reformist battles to improve the lives

of prisoners. Below are some of the

campaigns we are currently waging,

and ways people behind the bars and

on the outside can get involved. More

info can be found on our prison web

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

MIM/agitation/prisons

Stop Censorship in Prison: Prisons

frequently censor books, newspapers

and magazines coming from MIM's

books for prisoners program. We need

help from lawyers, paralegals and

jailhouse lawyers to fight this

censorship.

Books for Prisoners: This program

focuses on political education of

prisoners. Send donations of books and

money for our Books for Prisoners

program.

End the Three Strikes laws: This

campaign is actively fighting the

repressive California laws, but similar

laws exist in other states. Write to us

to request a petition to collect

signatures. Send articles and

information on three strike laws.

Shut Down the Control Units: Across

the country there are a growing number

of prison control units. These are

permanently designated prisons or cells

in prisons that lock prisoners up in

solitary or small group confinement for

22 or more hours a day with no

congregate dining, exercise or other

services, and virtually no programs for

prisoners. Prisoners are placed in

control units for extended periods of

time. These units cause both mental and

physical problems for prisoners.

Write to us to request a petition to

collect signatures. Get your

organization to sign the statement

demanding control units be shut down.

Send us information about where there

are control units in your state. Include

the names of the prisons as well as the

number of control unit beds/cells in

each prison if that is known. Send us

anti-control unit artwork.

MIM's Re-Lease on Life Program:

This program provides support for our

comrades who have been recently

released from the prison system, to help

them meet their basic needs and also

continue with their revolutionary

organizing on the outside. We need

funds, housing, and job resources. We

also need prisoner's input on the

following survey questions:

1. What are the biggest challenges

you face being released from prison?

2. How can these problems be

addressed?

3. What are the important elements

of a successful release program?

AZ prisoner: Down

with Patriot Act II

As freedom fighters and revolutionaries

who thrive on the ability to organize and
protest the injustices of Amerikkka, the Patriot
Act II is deliberately designed to not only

disinterest us from doing so, but also to
eliminate the limited liberties that we do have.
Some of the things included in the act are the

snitch-oriented "help us give you immunity"
clause, which gives judicial immunity to
businesses that provide info on suspected

terrorists. This provides businesses with the
incentive to hand over information to save
their own tails, whether the info is factual or

not, jeopardizing the integrity of business.
[As in the case of John Ashcroft's failed
"Operation TIPS," this clause would also

encourage businesses like ISPs, telephone
and cable companies to spy on their clients
on behalf of the government. This is entirely

inappropriate as these companies are not
trained to respect -- and under the Patriot
Act II they would not be accountable for

violations of -- constitutional protections
against unreasonable search and seizure.]

The Patriot Act II also promises to strip

Amerikan citizenship from those who support
even the lawful activities of organizations the
government considers "terrorist." That

includes some political activist groups. [This
provision would eliminate the freedom of
association guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.]

In a survey done by CNN, 31% of

Amerikans would like to detain all Arabs in
Amerika and place them in camps for no

reason at all except to further prove that this
is a hate-based nation. But the statistic fails
to tell the other side. That number would triple

if our incompetent president called on citizens
to join in on the round up. This also translates
to Amerikans going to drastic measures to

convict people accused of dangerous crimes,
guilty or otherwise. If this isn't enough to
oppose such an act, you may fall under the

alarming statistic of hate-bred Amerikan
racists!

-- an Arizona prisoner, 10 February 2004

MIM adds: We encourage readers who are

concerned that we do not support
"democracy" to consider this statistic

carefully. Should any responsible communist
really support majority rule in a country in
which fully one-third of citizens support

round-ups of minority nationalities? The
same poll the prisoner quotes above revealed
that 59% of Amerikans support indefinite

detention without bail for those even
suspected of terrorism! Such a population
cannot be trusted to oversee its own

governance. This is why MIM says that
revolution will be necessary to bring justice
to Amerika. And until then, we will fight the

institution of fascist laws with the truth --
that we refuse to let this majority exercise
tyranny over the minority. Leave the

platitudes about "freedom" and the Amerikan
way to the Liberals and their friends who still
think this is a free country.

Source: "Polls: Amerikans no `freedom'-

loving people," http://
a n o n . u s e r . a n o n y m i z e r . c o m / h t t p : / /

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/sept1120 01/
nofreedom.TXT

Verbal Abuse in

AD-SEG

In June 2003 I was placed in AD-SEG for

attempted murder on a corrections officer.

However, I was found guilty and given a SHU
[solitary confinement] sentence for my so-
called actions. Now all of a sudden, these

crooked ass people at Pelican Bay State
Prison are trying to validate me as a prison
gang member. All of my so-called 1030

confidential information has me being a
"member" of several different "gangs" but
these so-called 1030's all contradict each other

because none of their informer information is
reliable to what the other said. If I did associate
with a gang member, it was unknowingly

because it's none of my business to ask
people who they may or may not be associated
with. A solid individual is going to embrace

another solid individual regardless of their
race or gang, this was one of the several ways
Pelican Bay has tried to penalize me.

Last week, a c/o made some very racial

remarks toward me and six other Afrikans
during our AD-SEG walk alone yard. I had a

reliable witness, another staff member who
works up here. She also heard this "white" c/
o say, "I'll hang your black ass by a tree or

drag you by a truck like we do in Texas." If a
non-white c/o said this to an Amerikan
inmate, I truly believe the situation would've

been handled.

We wrote staff complaints and 602's but

they somehow keep getting overlooked.

-- A California Prisoner, January 2004

California supermax =

living death

We stand so that the other won't have to

die in Pelican Bay a supermax living and
graveyard units. This living death of physical
and psychological torture is our tribe. We

refuse to condemn other men to this tortuous
place. Yet the CDC won't tell you that it is the
political prisoners, jail house lawyers and the

resisters of the CDC corrupt officials who are
put here. They wont tell you that four hundred
billion dollars is their budget to keep you from

the worst of the worst, a failed policy, and
maybe someday or even eventually we will
be released from these walls. Without any

education or rehabilitation, we just be thrown
or like they say "introduced" back into
society. There are no programs built on our

independence that help our first step of torture
outside these walls to adapt to something so
unfamiliar to us.

That's what $400 hundred billion dollars

does. It creates the social illusion of supermax
graveyard units. This is embedded in the

conscience of society that you are being
protected by $ 400 billion dollars on prisons
and they want you to believe that $400 billion

dollars are also being spent on education!!!

But they won't tell you that in 1820 the

penitentiary of Philadelphia in which they

believed in solitary confinement, stimuli
deprivation, they believed that by torturing

prisoners it would lead them to feel remorse
and rehabilitate. In 1830 Charles Darwin was

invited to tour the facility. He observed that
the prisoners seemed dead to all it's
surroundings, self torture extreme bouts of

paranoia a horrible despair. In 1840 Charles
Dickens toured the prison and remarked" I
hold this tampering with the mysteries of the

brain this is immeasurably worse then any
physical torture of the body. Dickens then
writes the dull response and quiet that prevails

is awful.

Over the head and face of each prisoner

who comes into this melancholy house, a

black hood is drawn, and in this dark shroud,
an emblem of the curtain dropped between
him and the living world. He is led to his cell

from which he never again comes fourth, until
his whole imprisonment has expired, He is a
man buried alive to be dug out in the slow

round of years and, in the meantime dead to
everything and the horrible despair.

Now the black hoods have returned and it

is now draped over us here, our only outlet to
outside world is our TVs and radios. These
maximum security prisons want to take them

away and make the extreme even more

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 11

Facts on U$ imprisonment

The facts about imprisonment in the United $tates are that the United $tates has been the world's leading prison-state per capita for the last

25 years, with a brief exception during Boris Yeltsin's declaration of a state of emergency.(1)

That means that while Reagan was talking about a Soviet "evil empire" he was the head of a state that imprisoned more people per capita.

In supposedly "hard-line" Bulgaria of the Soviet bloc of the 1980s, the imprisonment rate was less than half that of the United $tates.(2,3)

To find a comparison with U.$. imprisonment of Black people, there is no statistic in any country that compares including apartheid South

Africa of the era before Mandela was president. The last situation remotely comparable to the situation today was under Stalin during war
time. The majority of prisoners are non-violent offenders(4) and the U.S. Government now holds about a half million more prisoners than
China; even though China is four times our population.(5)

The rednecks tell MIM that we live in a "free country." They live in an Orwellian 1984 situation where freedom is imprisonment.

Notes: 1. Marc Mauer, "Americans Behind Bars: The International Use of Incarceration 1993," The Prison Sentencing Project, 918 F. St. NW, Suite

501, Washington, DC 20004 (202) 628-0871 Reference: SRI: R8965-2, 1994
2. Ibid., 1992 report.

3. United Nations Development Programme, "Human Development Report 1994,:" Oxford University Press, p. 186.

4. Figure of 51.2 percent for state prisoners there for non-violent offenses. Abstract of the United States 1993, p. 211.
5. Atlantic Monthly December, 1998.

extreme!! It's a scientific fact that the worse
thing you can do to the brain is to deprive it

of stimuli, if it becomes so deprived the brain
then starts to stimuli itself and intern people
start hallucinating, mutilating there on bodies.

I have seen people kill themselves because
of despair of being so isolated. You have a
great psychiatrist against this program, it has

not helped or made the state of California
safer. These torture chamber have done the
opposite: torture and kill humans in a slow

process. But again California prison systems
want just that, to take our only tool of stimuli
and say it's to save money. But in reality it is

just another way to introduce to there higher
degree of physical and psychological torture.

They say that removing our electrical power

will save us money, that policy is false because
that would mean more staff, because now we
will ask our families for more books and writing

material and the mail and property rooms will
be flooding. As it is it takes a month or two
for us to receive our mail. Not only will the

CDC hire more staff to accommodate the
overflowing of mail. But if they take or Tvs
we will now have much more time for intensive

research on civil laws and, in turn they would
have to hire more lawyers as a result of
lawsuits.

As it is now with all the studying and

research we have done ourselves show many
violations the CDC has committed. The CDC

today is a violation of our eighth amendment
and thirteenth amendment.

-- a California prisoner, March 2004

California prisoners

beaten in cuffs

Things are still the same here in SVSP. Every

change these pigs get they're beating on

prisoners while we have cuffs on. The pigs
talk shit to prisoners and when a prisoner
talks shit back, they get high blood pressure

and while they're walking you to the yard
with cuffs on, they'll slam your head into the
wall and slam you to the ground.

I have a cellie, a Crip I knew from the main

line. We exercise and study together and the
pigs hate that. When he first moved in, the

pigs kept coming around, looking in the cell,
checking out faces. One said, "You guys
aren't fighting yet." We just looked at his

stupid ass.

I go to every yard, even in the rain, and

they don't even give us jump suits in the

rain. We're all in the yard for three hours in
the rain with our t- shirts, socks, and boxers
on. A pig pointed his gun at me and smiled

while he was over in the gun tower but that's
to be expected. That's how bitches act while
you're in the hole. I did cell extraction but

that shit hurts me more. That pepper spray
burns for 2 weeks, plus they take the little
property that you have back here, even your

mattress.

-- A California Prisoner, February 2004

California prisoner

fighting repression

gets moved to SHU

In your letter you asked me to breakdown

my move. First off, the administration at

Lompoc had been doing its best to agitate its
SHU/hole [solitary confinement] prisoners
over the past 12 to 18 months via: mail

tampering, assaults, destruction of personal
property, serving cold food, misplacing our
canteen slips, not providing razors with the

mandated thrice weekly showers, etc. Even
though the aforementioned are usual prison
protocol, Lompoc's overt acts stem from a

couple of reasons.

Last January (2003), a number of prisoners

(myself included) stood up on the staff as

they intended to assault a prisoner. Our
intervention negated this move which put all
of us under pig radar as "militants." Although

we went to SHU, the overall masses (multi-
cultural) support forced the administration to
release us back into general population in a

month. At that time, the Capt. Roy (of
Beaumont fame) and the A.W. Karem told us
(3) that we were too influential and they didn't

like us because of this.

In March, an Afrikan prisoner was stabbed

by two neo-nazi prisoners. During the

subsequent lockdown, approximately 10 of
us prisoners were placed in SHU under some
type of investigation! The Capt. says we

"would've" maybe incited others to retaliate
upon said nazis. All but 3 were released back
to general population, the same 3 who stood

firm on the kitchen stand-off. (That was just
some background for you.)

After both the Southern Mexican gang and

the nazi gang members (in 2 separate
incidents) attacked kops the SHU became hell!
We'd been slowly building up mass support

to resist this treatment through food strikes,
rec. lay downs, refusals to comply with their
mandatory 21 day cell rotation moves. On

December 5, my tier refused to move and they
cell extracted us! At approximately 3 AM, a
Lt. came and told me that I was being moved

out of the facility! When I asked why, he
replied, "You are doing too much agitating
and organizing and you are a real threat to

the safety of staff."

As of today I'm being told that I'm a hold-

over awaiting re-designation to a SHU facility.

As in A.D.X. Florence or Marion. They have
the choice of accepting or rejecting the
recommendation. Either way, I still stand firm

in the spirit of resistance, USW.

--California Prisoner, January 2004

The truth about prison

politics: License to kill

I'm writing to you concerning corruption,

retaliation, assaults on inmates by guards,

excessive use of force, the planting of drugs
and/or weapons by guards, and their
falsifying of reports to justify their actions.

The law is being broken by those who are
sworn to uphold the law.

I'm an inmate at C.C.I. Tehachapi. I'm a

parole violator and I came here in March, 2003,
with a nine month violation scheduled for
release in August. However, because of the

corruption, retaliation, and cover-up, I'll be
here at least an additional year.

On April 18, 2003, I received a threat from

one Lt. J. Lundy in order to give me more
time. I filed a complaint, sending a copies to
Judge Frederick Wapner, L.A. Superior Court,

and Attorney Ryan Okobe, Redondo Beach,
as evidence in case he followed through with
his threats. Eventually he did. On April 26,

2003, I filed another complaint against C.O. T.
Valdez. Ten days later, I received a 115. I then
spoke to Lt. Lundy and told him this was

reprisal. He stated, "Reprisal is such a nice
word. It's payback."

I continued to file complaints and they

continued to harass and falsify reports
against me. I filed a complaint with Kern
County Superior, , which was denied, stating

that I didn't exhaust my administrative
remedies although I clearly proved that my
administrative remedies were inadequate. At

some point, Lt. Lundy found out that I was
seeking court action against him and his crew
and on September 29, 2003, ordered that all of

my materials (legal books, witness list, etc.)
be confiscated.

I was told prior to this, "If you fuck with us,

we'll fuck you over," and "If you fuck with
one of us, you fuck with all of us." On October
1, 2003, Lt. Lundy moved me to an isolated

corner of a cell-house and had me physically
assaulted. He then falsified reports to justify
their actions. By the standards of the law,

this was attempted murder.

I've repeatedly asked for Internal Affairs

Investigation and a polygraph examination

consistent with their own rules and
regulations but to no avail. They state, "[My]
allegations are unfounded." However,

because of the seriousness of my allegations,
that should be enough to warrant such an
examination. They know it's true but they

won't go against their own for a convict.

The things that go on within this facility

will shock the very conscience of society. We

are placed here as punishment, not to be
punished. Inmates are being verbally and
physically abused and retaliation is taken

against them if they complain. I've chosen to
speak out and I've been physically assaulted,
given more time, threatened, placed in

isolation, and had reports falsified against me.

Not only am I being cheated and used but

so is society. Tax payers are paying extra to
keep me here longer because the
administration is allowing officers to abuse

their authority. The city claims to be broke
but it can't be that damn broke if it allows
CDC to continue with this practice. What is

happening here is going to end up like
Corcoran: it starts with cover-ups. They spray
inmates with pepper spray, never taking into

account that an inmate may have a bad heart
or extreme asthma. The bottom line is they
don't care. They sit around and laugh about

it as if it's fun. The officers themselves act
like gang members, but it's worse because
they have a badge and there's a code of

silence amongst them so no one will step
forward until they are caught with their hand
in the cookie jar. For the most part, a lot of

inmates don't complain because the vast
majority of the inmate population is illiterate
and officers take advantage of that.

Please keep in mind that a year has been

added to my revocation because the officers
sought revenge. I didn't break any law, it's all

because I exercised a Constitutional Right to
file a complaint - and there are others. Let's
take away the license to kill and let's try to

save a life.

--A California Prisoner, January 2004

In the SHU for

fighting injustice

This so-called system will put me on high

control parole cause I am a political prisoner
who can lead a nation to rebellion. The captain

came by to pay me a visit with two others
dummies in suits and ties. All three were
smiling when they accost my little cage (cell),

but when they left, they were not smiling at
all. I broke down the dynamics and ideology
of this corrupt system. The captain had the

nerve to tell me, "you know why you are in
the SHU [Security Housing Unit]." I said yes,
for using my mind to battle this injustice

system.

--CA prisoner, October 2003

Internationalism is the ethical belief or

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

racism and national chauvinism.

We Maoists believe the nationalism of

nations experiencing oppression of

imperialism is "applied internationalism." We
oppose nationalism of oppressed nations
directed at other oppressed nations, because

the economic content of such nationalism is
intra-proletarian conflict. We seek a united
front of oppressed nations led by the

international proletariat against imperialism.

"I must argue, not from the point of view of

`my' country (for that is the argument of a

wretched, stupid, petty-bourgeois nationalist
who does not realize that he is only a
plaything in the hands of the imperialist

bourgeoisie), but from the point of view of
my share in the preparation, in the
propaganda, and in the acceleration of the

world proletarian revolution. That is what
internationalism means, and that is the duty
of the internationalist, of the revolutionary

worker, of the genuine Socialist."

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

Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade

Kautsky (Peking: Foreign Language Press,
1965), p. 80.

What is internationalism?

MIM Notes 300! · April 15, 2004 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

avril 15, 2004, Nº 300! Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

No nos sorprende que los presos

paguen desproporcionadamente cuando

los presupuestos estatales de muchos

estados en el país sufren grandísimas

insuficiencias.

El MIM ha recibido muchas cartas de

presos en el estado de Tejas indicando

que este estado se ha empeñado

viciosamente en eliminar los servicios

básicos de comida y ayuda médica para

poder ahorrar dinero. Un activista que

lucha contra el sistema carcelario de

Tejas nos informa que "muchas prisiones

sólo ofrecen dos comidas diarias mientras

que en otras cárceles se reduce el tamaño

y el contenido calórico de lo que consumen

los presos diariamente."

Un preso nos escribe: "Las cosas han

empeorado desde la última vez que les

escribí. Aquí en el TDCJ (Departamento

de Justicia Criminal de Tejas) se ha

retenido la comida. Al principio hemos

oído varios rumores al respecto, pero

ahora los rumores se han hecho realidad.

El postre se ha retenido tres veces por

semana y ahora la cárcel produce su

propio almíbar. ¡Guácala! Además,

ahora nos dan el desayuno en una bolsita

de papel. Pero lo más diabólico que se

ha ingeniado el TDCJ es la violación de

nuestros derechos religiosos. Ahora por

razones presupuestarias no nos permiten

mantener una dieta sin carne de puerco.

Los musulmanes y otros que no comen

carne de puerco no tienen la opción de

sustituir la carne de puerco por otro tipo

de comida (como frijoles, queso o pan).

El menú general se aplica a todos los

presos. El lema del TDCJ es: "Si no te

gusta, no te lo comas."

Un camarada de otra unidad nos cuenta

que "el comedor está muy sucio. Yo no

trabajo para el Departamento de Sanidad

pero si ese fuera el caso, calificaría muy

bajo al comedor. En la entrada del

comedor hay charcos de agua estancada.

Las paredes están cubiertas de insectos

muertos. El agua gotea entre las grietas

de las paredes quebradas. No nos dan

los 20 minutos que tenemos garantizados

para comer y las bandejas y los tenedores

de plástico están bien sucios, con restos

de comida pegados desde hace dos o tres

días. Además, siempre se les acaba

comida y no hay hielo en el comedor..."

Mientras los presos pasan hambre y

siguen trabajando gratis por largas horas,

los guardianes siguen viviendo una buena

vida. Según el informe del activista, "el

hambre nunca llega al comedor de los

guardianes. Ahí nunca faltan sopas,

ensaladas, huevos, carne, condimentos,

helado, tortas, pasteles y una gran

variedad de otros postres que provienen

gratis en cantidades ilimitadas para ser

distribuidos entre los 40 mil empleados

del TDCJ." Y como el comedor de

guardianes queda abierto las 24 horas

todos los días del año, "algunos de los

guardianes van a comer ahí en sus días

libres para no tener que pagar por su

comida en algún restaurante o para no

tener que cocinar en casa."

Resulta que la dieta especial de los

guardianes es una violación de la ley

estatal. El activista nos cuenta que la

"sección 13 dice que el TDCJ puede

proveer comida a los guardianes sólo

después de que se hayan satisfecho las

necesidades de los presos." Pero las

necesidades de los presos nunca se

satisfacen porque a ellos nunca les toca

la variedad de comida que se les da a los

guardianes. Los guardias reciben lo mejor

de todo y a los presos les tocan restos y

migajas. La sección 13 también estipula

que la comida que reciben los presos debe

ser la misma comida que reciben todos

los empleados. Los directores de las

prisiones siempre creen que la ley no se

les aplica a ellos y, por lo tanto, pasan por

alto dicha parte de la sección 13."

Nuestros camaradas de Tejas también

nos han dicho los servicios médicos han

sido retenidos a causa de los problemas

presupuestarios. "Han eliminado a los

trabajadores médicos y han despedido al

técnico del laboratorio. Pasará mucho

tiempo antes de que los presos tengan

acceso a pruebas de SIDA, hepatitis y

otros análisis de sangre. Yo sigo

esperando una prueba de sangre para

saber si sufro de una úlcera o no. Ya

llevo tres semanas esperando y aún no

me han hecho la prueba. Hombre, en

este lugar se aplica la Ley de Herodes: o

te chingas o te jodes.

A los activistas que luchan contra el

sistema carcelario no les sorprende el

hecho de que los recortes presupuestarios

sean dirigidos contra la población más

pobre del estado, pero este hecho debería

darnos rabia a todos. Les pedimos a

todos nuestros lectores que se involucren

en nuestras campañas en contra de las

injusticias del sistema carcelario

estadounidense.

Las prisiones de Tejas

retienen comida,

ayuda médica

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://
globalresearch.ca/articles/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?