MIM Notes ***

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

May 15, 2004, Nº 302

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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INSIDE: `Enemy combatants' * Gender and the Iraq abuse story * Prisons

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MIM SCOOP:

TORTURE OF

NAKED PRISONERS

ORIGINATED IN

PENNSYLVANIA

PRISON

by MC17 & MC5

n May 5 President Bush told the

world that the torture of Iraqi

prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison

is not typical Amerikan behavior. He said

the soldiers who carried out the torture

"don't represent America" and stated

"This is a free country. We do not tolerate

this kind of abuses." Bush made these

statement in an interview aired on Al-

Arabiya, a station widely viewed by Arab

peoples. He also did an interview on the

Amerikan Arabic propaganda station Al-

Hurra, stating, "What took place in that

prison does not represent the America

that I know."(1)

But what took place at Abu Ghraib does

represent Amerika. It is happening daily

in prisons across the country, the country

that has the highest imprisonment rate in

the world. These statements by President

Bush are exposed as nothing more than

public image cleanup when we look at

the conditions in Amerikan prisons.

Two of the first seven soldiers caught

torturing Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison

worked as U.$. prison guards before

going to Iraq. Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick

learned how to torture prisoners at

Buckingham Correctional Center in

Dillwyn Virginia, after working there six

years.(2) MIM Notes reported limitations

of prison visitation and thefts of prisoner

property in Buckingham in 1997.

However, Virginia has imposed

censorship on MIM before and we do

not have as many details about prison

conditions as we would like. Again, it's

the same old story of cover-up.

Charles Graner, another of the seven

caught torturing Iraqis worked in the

AMERIKAN

TORTURE

OF IRAQIS

EXPOSED

by MC12 and MC206

n the run up to the Amerikan invasion,

in February 2003, President Bush

declared: "The first to benefit from a

free Iraq would be the Iraqi people

themselves. Today they live in scarcity

and fear under a dictator who has brought

them nothing but war and misery and

torture."(1) Today, they live in scarcity

and fear under a FOREIGN dictator who

has brought them nothing but war and

misery, and--we can now confirm--

torture.

Despite valiant efforts by quick-acting

politicians and media apologists, it has not

been possible to make the torture

practiced by the Amerikan military in the

Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq out to be the

work of a few lone, "sick" individuals.

The story broke when the CBS news

program 60 Minutes released photos of

U$ soldiers gloating over naked and

hooded Iraqi prisoners. However, the

most detailed description (to date) of

torture, abuse and humiliation at the hands

of Amerikan soldiers, contractors and

intelligence agents comes from a U$

army report on Abu Ghraib, which was

leaked to the New Yorker magazine.(2)

The report details how soldiers

humiliated some of the prisoners by

forcing them to simulate sex acts. A photo

included in the report shows an Amerikan

womyn "giving a jaunty thumbs-up sign

and pointing at the genitals of a young

Iraqi, who is naked except for a sandbag

over his head, as he masturbates." One

soldier testifies, "I saw two naked

detainees, one masturbating to another

kneeling with its [sic] mouth open."

Although this soldier claims he refused

to participate in the abuse--"I just didn't

want to be part of anything that looked

criminal"--he repeatedly refers to Iraqis

as "it" and did little to stop the abuse (he

told his superiors, then assumed "the issue

was taken care of").(2)

The army report makes it clear that the

Amerikan occupation

keeps looking to the

future for relief

by MC5 and MC17

May 4--Amerikan Pentagon officials

announced recently their plan to keep

Amerikan troops in Iraq at the current

level (about 135,000) through at least the

end of 2005.(1) Originally the United

$tates had claimed it wanted to reduce

Amerikan occupation forces by 20,000.

Uncle $am believed the transition to a

pseudo-autonomous Iraqi government on

June 30th, 2004 would allow this.

Amerikan troops are needed to keep

the Iraqi population from rising up and

Abuse of Iraqi prisoners and U$ prisons

NAKED HUMILIATION: The Amerikan torture tactic

on display in Iraq (above) -- and following the

supression of the Attica prison uprising in New York

in 1971, when prisoners were paraded around naked

in the mud (below right) and forced to lie prone for

hours (above right).

Imperialists spell relief: D-R-A-F-T

taking back their

country. And

Amerika is

willing to use

whatever force

is necessary to

a c h i e v e

domination of

Iraq.

The increased

U$ "force structure" in Iraq is an

accomplishment of the Iraqi proletariat

and oppressed launching armed struggle,

without so much as the benefit of a Maoist

vanguard party (as far as we know).

Since the time we have written articles

on the draft, "Secretary of Defense" and

nutcase Donald Rumsfeld has reiterated

opposition to the draft and said that he

will find a way to rotate the 1.4 million

people in the Amerikan military to find

135,000 soldiers for combat in Iraq.(2)

Many of the 1.4 million are office and

technical back-up personnel.

MIM reiterates that Rumsfeld (or a like-

minded successor) might be able to pull

that off. The United $tates is not in

England's position yet,(5) which is why

this will be a protracted war against U$

imperialism best handled by pan-Arab

nationalism and proletarian

internationalism over a long haul. We must

steer away from seeing U$ imperialism

as about to fall, but also we must fully

credit the damage already done by the

Iraqi fighters fighting consciously and

Continued on page 4...

Continued on page 6...

Continued on page 7...

MIM Notes 302 · May 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.

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For general correspondence, contact:

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eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

I was reading your revolutionary

definitions page. Let me start off by

saying thank you for making the

definitions easy to understand without

"talking down" to readers. However, I

have one question, or perhaps reservation,

considering your definition of a labor

aristocracy. While I agree completely that

workers in the United States benefit from

imperialist exploitation abroad, and

unfortunately this corrupts their

consciousness, I have a question

regarding the statement that they are

therefore no longer exploited. Isn't a

portion of the surplus value of their labor

still exploited by capitalists in the United

States? In other words, aren't they still

exploited even though they benefit from

imperialist exploitation, even if this

exploitation is to a lesser degree than the

exploitation experienced in the third

world. Perhaps it is the contradiciton of

US workers being both an exploiter and

exploited? Just a thought. I look forward

to your response.

--An internet reader

MIM responds: There's one quick

answer to the question of whether

Amerikan "workers" are still exploited,

even though they do receive a part of the

surplus value the imperialists rob from the

Third World: the majority of Amerikan

"workers" are in non-productive jobs.

They do not produce anything and hence

cannot produce surplus value. They are

"necessary" only because the capitalists

need guards, advertising experts,

salespeople and lawyers to keep making

profits. As J Sakai points out in "Settlers:

the Mythology of the White Proletariat,"

already in the 1970s around a third of

Amerikan workers were police, prison

guards, or employed by the military.

The key to understanding unproductive

sector workers via surplus-value is that

they can only preserve or appropriate it;

they cannot expand it. Without

salespeople, capitalists can certainly blow

their chance at obtaining surplus-value,

but no matter how good or how many

salespeople one employs, there is a limit

to the price of a good. Without the

commodities produced by the productive

sector, the sales staff have nothing, even

in the most elementary conditions. If

everyone were a guard, soldier or lawyer,

everyone would die of starvation and

exposure. Life without any guards,

soldiers or lawyers, however, is certainly

possible.

According to the definitions used by the

COMINTERN, the majority of

imperialist-country "workers" are at best

"semi-proletarian." COMINTERN

documents clearly consider the "urban

petty bourgeoisie and broad layers of the

so-called middle class, of office workers

etc." to be non-proletarians. Of course,

the majority of Amerikans is (and sees

itself as) "middle class."

For those Amerikan workers in

productive sector jobs, we have

extensively documented that the amount

of surplus value transferred to them from

the exploited Third World exceeds the

value of their labor. Of course, on the

whole the capitalists must pay workers

less than the value of their product--but

they can afford to bribe a small minority

of workers, and, as Lenin's Imperialism

points out by quoting Cecil Rhodes, such

Amerikan workers both bought-off and exploited?

bribery helps secure the imperialists'

interests in the "home country." Any

Amerikan workers who are truly exploited

are so few and isolated so as to not

constitute a class.

We recommend those interested in

these questions read MIM Theory 1, "A

White Proletariat?" J Sakai's "Settlers,"

and our "Imperialism and its class

structure, 1997," wich is available free

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

MIM/mt/imp97/index.html.

`Hey, it's not as easy as it looks...

--MC12

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 3

by mousnonya, April 20, 2004

$pain has decided to withdraw its troops

from Iraq as quickly as possible.(1)

However $pain has also declared itself

willing to send "humanitarian" relief to

Iraq.(2) So $pain is a two-faced

imperialist. However, despite the fact that

the imperialists are treacherous, the

international proletariat is patient. Iraqi

resistance leader Muqtada el Sadr has

called on his troops not to attack Spanish

soldiers and to allow them to return home

safely to their families where they

belong.(3)

Sadr's action contradicts U$

propaganda which calls Iraq's resistance

"bandits." The recent release of Japanese

hostages by the Iraqi resistance also

contradicts U$ lies. These facts should

make people question whether Uncle

$cam is a lying hypocrite or merely

deluded. MIM sees a practice and pattern

of U$ lies and calls it like it is: "your"

government, the capitalists, regards you

as expendable. They will lie to you. They

will tell you to kill. And if you die fighting

the rich man's war he will celebrate your

making him rich with a 21 gun salute.

MIM sees the pull-out of $pain as

probably the first imperialist rat deserting

the sinking ship of the U$ occupation of

Iraq. Honduras, one more Spanish

speaking country with a history of being

attacked by U$ imperialism, has also

declared that it will withdraw its soldiers

from Iraq.(4) Then the Dominican

Republic pulled out its 300 and Thailand

says it may be next. Imperialists of various

stripes are calling for NATO (5) or the

UN (6) to take over the occupation of

Iraq. But who wants to take over? No

one. Because any other imperialist

coalition would face the same fate as the

U$, being bogged down in an unpopular

bloody war.

[mim3@mim.org interjects: The UN is

already taking a greater role in forming

the puppet regime that comes to power

June 30th when the U$ colonial regime

ends in favor of a neo-colonial regime.

Despite the UN role, it still looks like other

major powers such as Russia, India,

France and Germany have not received

a good enough deal from Uncle $am to

send in their own troops. We have to

distinguish between troops and diplomats.

The situation with troops on the ground

has not changed and that's what is

important to the political climate in Iraq.

People should not be confused by the

meaning of the June 30th date Bush is

talking about. Troops in

Germany and Japan have never left

since World War II. Probably the best

thing that could happen to Amerika is that

the Iraqis hand Amerika such a stunning

military defeat that Bush pulls out the

troops June 30th or shortly thereafter.

The Iraqis will no doubt try to make it

happen, but we are still counting on a

protracted struggle running into the next

Bush or Kerry term.]

Each defection of a U$ ally is a major

victory for the anti-imperialists because

it makes the illegal U$ occupation of Iraq

all the more difficult. MIM does not

expect a UN takeover of Iraq. In fact,

some neoconservatives probably wanted

to use Iraq to destroy the UN which they

saw as no longer useful in extending U$

imperialism. Germany and France, both

NATO members, will likely oppose using

NATO (supposedly a defensive alliance)

to occupy a country far from Europe. The

U$ imperialists have painted themselves

into a corner.

We're sure the U$ imperialists are

mad. MIM dares to ask something the

mainstream press and imperialists are too

gutless to say out loud:(7) When will

other U$ allies in Iraq such as Poland,

Italy, Japan, Australia, and Britain send

their troops home? Britain also produces

oil. Japan is oil dependent. So even though

Japan has seen its hostages in Iraq

released we expect to see Japan continue

to lick the b.s.-encrusted cowboy boots

of Amerikan imperialists. Reactionary

Anglo solidarity will increasingly be

stressed by "realities on the ground." The

United $tates will find itself increasingly

isolated and overextended. This is exactly

one of the preconditions MIM sees as

necessary to a revolution in Amerika. The

truth is and will become increasingly

obvious: imperialism means only death for

you and me and riches for large

corporations.

Meanwhile U$ atrocities continue: U$

imperialists killed two more journalists in

Iraq.(8) "[A]t least 26 Iraqi and foreign

journalists and media workers have been

killed" so far in Iraq.(9) So it's no surprise

that Hosni Mubarak, U$ puppet leader of

Egypt, is even saying the U$ is now hated

more than ever in the Arab world.(10)

Once again, MIM is willing to use

scientific materialism to reach the painful

truth that no one else recognizes let alone

says: the continuing murder of journalists

in Iraq is no accident. The imperialists

want the press to report what is good for

imperialism and ignore the ugly truth.

MIM calls on mainstream journalists

unwilling to be censored or to tolerate the

murder of their colleagues: Avenge your

colleagues' deaths. Refuse to be

intimidated. Write for MIM Notes.

Notes:
1. Spain withdrawal from Iraq deals new blow to
US coalition Sun Apr 18, (AFP) http://
story.news.yahoo.com/
news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid
=1515&e=2&u=/afp/20040418/wl_mideast_afp/
iraq_worldwrap; Spanien beginnt mit
Truppenauszug aus dem Irak (German Press
Agency) April 20, 2004, http://
de.news.yahoo.com/040419/3/3zpbu.html;
L'Espagne prépare le retrait de ses troupes
présentes en Irak, Andrew Marshall (Reuters) 19
April 2004 http://fr.news.yahoo.com/040419/85/

Spain, Honduras, Dominican Rep. send their troops home

3r41p.html
2. Spain to Offer U.S. Non-Military Aid in Iraq,
Sun Apr 18, (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=t
opNews&storyID=4856690
3. El Sadr fordert Stopp von Angriffen auf
Spanische Soldaten April 19, 2004, (AP) http://
de.news.yahoo.com/040419/12/3znz8.html; Sadr
veut épargner les Espagnols, qui accélèrent leur
retrait French Press Agency (AFP) http://
fr.news.yahoo.com/040419/202/3r5n5.html
4. Honduras to Pull Its Troops Out of Iraq
Gustavo Palencia (Reuters) http://
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/
nm/20040420/wl_nm/
iraq_honduras_dc&cid=574&ncid=1480; Auch
Honduras zieht Truppen aus Irak ab April 20,
2004, (German Press Agency) http://
de.news.yahoo.com/040420/3/3zpfb.html;
5. L'OTAN pourrait jouer un rôle dans la
sécurité en Irak, selon le ministre australien de la
Défense April 20, 2004, (AP) http://
fr.news.yahoo.com/040420/5/3r5t1.html
6. Michel Barnier et son homologue russe
appellent à l'intervention de l'ONU en Irak. AP,
April 20, 2004.
7. Colin Powell craint que plusieurs pays ne
suivent l'exemple espagnol et se retirent d'Irak
April 20, 2004, (AP) (Colin Powell fears that
several countries will follow the Spanish
example and withdraw from Iraq) http://
fr.news.yahoo.com/040420/5/3r5t0.html MIM
asks the reader: Why can't you read this in
English?
8. GIs Kill 2 Workers of U.S.-Funded Iraq TV
Mon Apr 19, 2:44 PM ET (AP) http://
story.news.yahoo.com/
news?tmpl=story&cid=540&
ncid=736&e=10&u=/ap/20040419/
ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_journalists_killed
9. See note 8.
10. Mubarak: Arabs Hate U.S. More Than Ever
20 April 2004 (Reuters) http://
story.news.yahoo.com/
news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=72
1&e=1&u=/nm/20040420/wl_nm/
mideast_egypt_usa_dc.

This is the second in a series of

articles. The first (in MN310) covered

drugs, music and art; future

installments will address the topics of

tone, sectarianism and chauvinism.

I'm going to talk about subjectivism and

its relationship to our communist goals by

giving a bunch of examples of

subjectivism--the belief that what one

feels or likes is true or supreme. What's

most important is not the individual evils

of subjectivism, but understanding the

overall approach that we as Maoist

scientists apply to everything. We at MIM

are not saying we have some long list of

behaviors that we tack on to the end of

the "Ten Commandments." It's not our

point to bring attention to hypocrisy in

individual behavior--and this is something

that we from Christian, Jewish and

Islamic cultures have to watch out for.

(Buddhism has a little better intellectual

material to work with on this question.)

We Maoist scientists are interested in the

underlying causes of behavior.

In all likelihood, the revolution will be

successful only through the efforts of

"hypocrites" envisioning future

generations growing up with better social

influences than they had. Understanding

this is part of understanding materialism,

as when Lenin said revolution is always

made with the imperfect social material

at hand, not by divine perfection of

humyn consciousness first.

No one is a 100% pure. Hence, MIM

has acted to push aside the politics of

putting lifestyle first. Whoever comes up

with the idea that a party should set up a

list of lifestyles to condone or not condone

is setting up a huge Liberal fight to divide

the party. We have to come up with a list

of bad things, but our attack has to be on

the causes, not the bearers of those bad

lifestyles. With these warnings, I turn to

several examples of subjectivism.

IV. Love

Now let's look at love. Many see it as

the one refuge from corruption all around.

Too many wimmin are looking for love

only from lone individuals instead of the

international proletariat. People in love

hope they won't see their love stolen for

a pack of cigarettes, a bit of crack, a man

who has a higher paying job or a womyn

with bigger breasts. Ah, but here is the

sad part: for all the people who are looking

at this question, "love" itself is usually

thought of as a refuge of two people. Yet,

where do all these challenges to love

come from? People in love or pursuing

love but who do not ask this question are

already guilty of another kind of

subjectivism. The sources of problems in

love come from society. If we can

question what is going on between two

people, we can also extend that to the

question of love in the whole society.

V. Sex

For the sake of having a definition of

romance culture we've said that sex is a

component of romantic love. Going back

hundreds of years poets and even

preachers have said that womyn is a

creation to remind men of God's power

and what Heaven could be. Milton was

even talking about the question of how

men tempted by Satan would worship

wimmin. While some people say it is

music, some say the rush they got from a

particular drug --probably even more

men would say that there is nothing more

subjectively profound than the experience

of seeing naked wimmin and then having

sex.

Again, MIM has no need to deny that

there is a portion of society is that would

Preparing for the all-round dictatorship of the proletariat

Continued on page 9...

COMBATING SUBJECTIVISM IN

ALL ARENAS

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 4

infamous SCI-Greene Prison in

Pennsylvania holding Mumia Abu Jamal.

Graner is the guy smiling with arms folded

in the torture photos. SCI-Greene also

prohibits MIM Notes. On August 15, 1998,

MIM reported this about SCI-Greene in

Pennsylvania: "As a result of result of

the brutal beatings inflicted upon prisoners

(back here in the hole at SCI Greene) by

guards, the grand wizard warden, Ben

Varner had been terminated from his

prestigious and luxurious position.

Unfortunately the same people who

removed him from office decided to

relocate him to another prison within

Pennsylvania. So now he's on the eastern

side of the state implementing the same

dirty tactics. Only now he's been demoted

back to Deputy Superintendent."(3)

Thus, in 1998, we already reported the

important facts of life in Amerikan prisons:

get slapped on the wrist and there is

always another prison willing to take you

and if you don't like that, then there is

always the U.S. Armed Forces which will

take you for torture abroad.

MIM reported what appears to be the

disciplining of someone referred to as

"Grainey" by prisoners in 1998. That's

not definitely a connection to "Graner"

and prison authorities say privacy rules

prevent them from saying if Graner was

disciplined in 1998.

On August 15, 1998, we reported the

following about SCI-Greene: "Plus,

according to the television news, 40

guards/predators are supposed to be

FIRED! They have recovered videotapes

of inmates being beaten down while

NAKED! The inmates/POW's never did

anything to cause these pernicious

predators to assault them." Thus, the

naked video thing came from SCI-

Greene and has now been exported to

Iraq! Graner worked at SCI-Greene from

1996 to today where he is still employed

there.(4)

Perhaps if SCI-Greene had not

censored MIM Notes in 1997(5) and given

us such a hard time and if the imperialist

media were not so pig-headed

reactionary, we could have struggled

successfully to prevent the 1998 events

in SCI-Greene--and maybe even

Graner's role in Abu Ghraib, but the facts

are that the U.S. prison authorities make

it extremely difficult for MIM to do its

work. To this day, SCI-Greene is

censoring MIM. Documents from prison

authorities at SCI-Greene justifying this

cover-up and isolation of prison conditions

can be found at our website. There are

about 50 different documents on SCI-

Greene at the MIM website thanks to all

the horrors there.(6)

In fact it should be no surprise that Abu

Ghraib prisoners were tortured, as this is

common in the Amerikan prison system

in general where beatings, long term

isolation, medical neglect, sexual assault,

and humiliation are all part of a system

that doesn't even pretend to offer

Abuse of Iraqi prisoners and U$ prisons

For President Bush to
claim that Amerikan
doesn't tolerate the kind
of abuses that happened
at Abu Ghraib is a
boldfaced lie.

rehabilitation or education.

An Army investigation that resulted in

criminal charges against six military police

officers found a number of specific abuses

at Abu Ghraib prison. Below we describe

the findings and explain the similarity to

daily conditions in prisons across this

country.

Soldiers punched, slapped, kicked and

otherwise physically beat Abu Ghraib

prisoners. This is typical day to day

activity for prisons across Amerika where

guards regularly beat prisoners and then

file false reports accusing the prisoners

(often shackled and held down by several

guards) of attacking the guards to avoid

any criminal charges for these actions.

Abu Ghraib prisoners were left naked

for days at a time. Some were videotaped

and photographed. Some were arranged

in sexually explicit positions or to perform

sex acts for the photos. Prisons in

Amerika have video cameras throughout,

taping prisoners with and without their

clothing on. Leaving prisoners naked is

common practice, especially locked in

solitary confinement, but also outside in

cold temperatures. Full body cavity

searches are also daily practices in

Amerikan prisons serving only to

humiliate and degrade prisoners.

One naked Abu Ghraib prisoner was

forced to stand on a box with wires

attacked to his fingers, toes and penis.

While we can't describe specific

instances of this same form of torture in

other Amerikan prisons, the idea is the

same everywhere, it is only the tools used

to torture prisoners than vary.

At Abu Ghraib a male police guard had

sex with a female prisoner. Sexual abuse

by guards and by other prisoners is

common in Amerikan prisons. Guards set

up situations where prisoners will be

raped by another prisoner, if the guards

themselves do not commit the rape. This

happens in both male and female prisons.

These are just the abuses the military

is willing to admit to in a report. Additional

accounts of torture at Abu Ghraib include:

Guards threatened prisoners with guns,

beat them with brooms and chairs,

sodomized one with a chemical light,

poured phosphoric liquid on prisoner, and

allowed military dogs to bite them. Again

these are all common practices in

Amerikan prisons. The form of torture

may differ from one prison to the next,

but the physical and mental abuse by the

guards is common practice throughout this

country's prisons.

In California recent reports on the

prisons have exposed conditions very

similar to what was found at Abu Ghraib.

These reports have even reached the

mainstream media, with frequent stories

appearing in the Los Angeles Times and

San Francisco Chronicle describing the

cover-up at the top of the California

Department of Corrections that stopped

investigators from looking in to brutal

prison guards at Pelican Bay State Prison

among others. This brutality has resulted

in severe physical and mental injuries to

many prisoners and even some deaths. A

recent film from the California Youth

Authority shows guards there brutally

beating and kicking kids locked up in a

facility there. And this guard brutality is

on top of the standard conditions in

Amerikan prisons which include control

units where prisoners are locked in

solitary confinement for years at a time

in conditions that have been condemned

by the United Nations as torture.

For President Bush to claim that

Amerikan doesn't tolerate the kind of

abuses that happened at Abu Ghraib is a

boldfaced lie. The criminal injustice

system in this country is built on a solid

foundation of torture. It is used as a system

of social control. Whether trying to extract

confessions or information, or just trying

to degrade and break the will of prisoners,

the tools used by the system include

torture, humiliation, and degradation.

Stories about these abuses can be found

in the pages of MIM Notes every two

weeks, in a section written by prisoners

called Under Lock and Key. Occasionally

they reach the mainstream media where

politicians scramble to explain away the

abuse as atypical and the fault of a few

individuals (who often escape punishment

as soon as the publicity dies down).

What is unusual about Abu Ghraib is

not the torture of the prisoners there but

that the torture was exposed and that

Amerikan officials are now forced to

disavow it and even punish some

individuals for what happened there. But

punishment of individuals will not change

the criminal injustice system. The more

than two million people locked behind bars

in this country know the truth of the daily

torture that Amerika endorses as a

condition of imprisonment. It will not

change until we dismantle imperialist

system that uses these prisons as a tool

of social control.

Notes:

1. MSNBC, May 5, 2004

2. USA Today 7May 2004, p. 6a.

3. www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/cal/

Waynesburg.txt

4. http://

www.thejerichomovement.com/

charlesgraner.html

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

ulk/ulk/ulk150.html

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

agitation/prisons/censor/archive/ To read

detailed accounts of abuses of Amerikan

prisons across the country visit: http://

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

prisons.

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 5

The photo below shows U.S. military

reservist Lynndie England mocking a row

of naked Iraqi men with a leer on her face.

In the other photos, the men are forced

to perform sex acts for the cameras.

A lot of people have a hard time

thinking of gender as anything but biology.

When MIM calls Amerikan females-by-

biology "men," we get a lot of blank stares

and snickers. Yet the proof is that Lynndie

England is no one special in Amerikkka.

Any female-biology adult of the right age

could have volunteered to take her place

in the Amerikan Army. That's the proof

that it is a group thing about gender in

Amerika.

On the other hand, it is the Iraqi people

with penises being gender oppressed in

these pictures. Other phrases you will hear

used for this is that Iraqis here are "social

females" or "socially wimmin." Lynndie

England will be referred to as "socially-

speaking a man" and other variations on

the idea.

There will be a lot of speculation

whether the smile on Lynndie England's

face comes from something deep down

in female biology or whether she is just

going along in comradeship with her male

peers in the U.S. Army. That's a

discussion for another day. For this once,

MIM will let the pictures do the talking

for why MIM is the only party of any

kind with a line addressing how this got

to be.

by mousnonya, April 16, 2004

This story was written two weeks

before the Amerikan abuse of Iraqi

prisoners at Abu Ghraib became

common knowledge. It goes to show

that Abu Ghraib is not a case of a few

bad apples, as nutcase Don Rumsfeld

and his posse of generals would have

us believe. Further, it says something

about the degree the U$ media toadies

up to the Amerikan government. If

Amerikan abuses have been so obvious

since the occupation began last April,

why are they only reporting about them

now? How many atrocities go

unreported? Outside of the coastal

cities where magazines like the New

Yorker are actually read, how

successful is the Pentagon in selling

its line that these incidents of brutality

are just that: isolate incidents?

MIM has been reporting on

Amerikan crimes committed in the name

of the "war on terror" since September

2001 (and we're been reporting on the

atrocities committed in Amerikan

prisons since we started publishing

MIM Notes). With your help--financial

and/or practical--we can make MIM

Notes into a voice that the bourgeois

media has to reckon with.

U$ forces are indiscriminately killing

even more Iraqis than usual in the wake

of the 80+ U$ soldiers killed last week. It

is not surprising that the U$ press is

ignoring this fact. Since the imperialists

are bickering about how best to exploit

the Third World, the foreign press is not

reluctant to report some of the facts. For

example, the Agence Presse France notes

that "At Fallujah, after more than a week

of bloody combat, young marines are not

hesitating to kill Iraqis to `avenge their

comrades'" (1) -- killing innocent people

for no reason at all other than their brown

skin.

MIM credits AFP for pointing out the

beating death of one Iraqi by U$

soldiers.(2) Why did the soldiers kill Salem

Hassan? Because he refused to remove

a picture of a cleric Moqtada Sadr from

his car. These people call themselves the

forces of freedom. MIM calls them lying

parasites.

Some bourgeois journalists claim to be

concerned by mercenaries (a.k.a.

"contractors") in Iraq. However the fact

is all imperialist soldiers are mercenary

vampires feeding off the blood of the Third

World. The AFP does not say whether it

was the U$ regular army, the national

guard, marines or private armies who

killed Hassan. To MIM it does not matter

which imperialist hatchet men bludgeoned

Hassan's skull to pulp. The fact is:

imperialism in its death spasms pointlessly

kills even more people. The imperialists'

murderous rampages only hasten

imperialism's doom. Expect more and

more resistance in Iraq, more and more

repression from the United $tates and

ultimately a defeat in Iraq--just like

Vietnam.

We are witnessing today a straight out

power grab: U$ imperialists bet that they

could seize Iraq's oil. They bet they could

buy off the Iraqi ruling class. And they

hoped to be able to threaten any other

oil-dependent imperialist country like

France or Japan by cutting off the Arab

oil. The fact that the war in Iraq is about

oil should be obvious to anyone who

thinks. U$ imperialism has already lost

this gamble: the Iraqi ruling class is not

going to be bribed. Not only that, OPEC

has reacted: oil has gone over $35 per

barrel. Even after devaluing the dollar

from 80 Euro cents to 1.20 euros (a

devaluation of at least 20%) oil still

remains so high that more recession is

just about guaranteed--unless the U$ can

squeeze oil out of Iraq or overthrow the

government of Venezuela (the last time

the U$ tried that it failed). Since

capitalism guarantees recession it also

promises us more pointless wars and more

needless death. These needless deaths

are inherent in imperialism, capitalism's

highest stage.

Arab states are gambling that they can

max out oil profits and justify it as resisting

U$ imperialism. European imperialists are

gambling that they can expand eastward

into the Caucasus and thus at least avoid

energy dependency and possibly also

come to denominate oil contracts in Euros

instead of dollars--which would drive the

value of the dollar down by as much as

40%.

Notes:

1. 15 April, 2004 AFP, http://

fr.news.yahoo.com/040415/202/

3qwhc.html

2. Iraqi `beaten to death' by US troops,

AFP April 14, 2004 http://news.com.au/

c o m m o n / s t o r y _ p a g e /

0,4057,9282015%255E1702,00.html

U$ atrocities in Iraq guarantee U$ defeat

A picture worth 10,000 words about gender

Female biology but gender oppressor: Lynndie England

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 6

Militarism is war-mongering or the

advocacy of war or actual carrying out

of war or its preparations.

While true pacifists condemn all

violence as equally repugnant, we

Maoists do not consider self-defense

or the violence of oppressed nations

against imperialism to be militarism.

Militarism is mostly caused by

imperialism at this time. Imperialism

is the highest stage of capitalism--

seen in countries like the United

$tates, England and France.

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?

Amerikan torturers were acting at the

direction of the CIA and military

intelligence agents who ran part of the

prison. The abuse was intended to "loosen

up" the prisoners for interrogation.

Although perhaps the most graphic case

to come to light so far, this report should

be seen in the context of widespread civil

rights violations since the so-called "war

on terror" began. Already in October

2001 we reported, "the FBI has been

hinting it wants legal authority to use

torture tactics on `recalcitrant'

suspects."(7)

Not that there aren't sick individuals

involved, including Staff Sergeant Ivan L.

Frederick II, known as "Chip," who

previously worked for six years as a

prison guard at the Buckingham

Correctional Center in Dillwyn,

Virginia.(3) In the photos, Frederick is

shown leering at naked Iraqi prisoners

who are set in humiliating sexual poses.

Of course, "sick" needn't mean

"unusual." Any average Amerikan Joe

could have volunteered, taken "Chip's"

place, and done more or less the same.

In fact, the exception in this case was

the soldier who blew the whistle on the

beatings. That says something about the

consciousness of Amerikans as a group.

Witnesses at an Army hearing also

testified that Frederick repeatedly beat

prisoners under his command. Taking a

page from the playbook of Nazi

concentration camp officers during their

war-crimes trials, Frederick's uncle

William Lawson told the Associate Press,

"They're trying to portray him as a

monster ... He's just the guy they put in

charge of the prison."(3)

For Frederick's defense, his lawyers

have released letters he previously sent

to his family, telling them that military

intelligence and the CIA were behind the

torture acts he was performing.(2) The

letters are arguably a self-serving attempt

to create a paper trail that could be used

to pass blame up the chain of command.

While we find his tale credible, that does

not exonerate him. Others who joined the

Amerikan military (perhaps for naïve

reasons like tuition money or "for a

challenge") have refused to serve once

they come to realize their role as

oppressors.(8)

Frederick supposedly wrote: "I

questioned some of the things that I saw

... such things as leaving inmates in their

cell with no clothes or in female

underpants, handcuffing them to the door

of their cell--and the answer I got was,

`This is how military intelligence (MI)

wants it done.' ... . MI has also instructed

us to place a prisoner in an isolation cell

with little or no clothes, no toilet or running

water, no ventilation or window, for as

much as three days. ... [The military-

intelligence officers] encouraged and told

us, `Great job,' they were now getting

positive results and information."(2)

In his letters, home, he also described

AMERIKAN TORTURE OF IRAQIS EXPOSED

a man beaten to death and smuggled out

of the prison without ever being registered

in the prison's records: "They [CIA or its

contractors] stressed him out so bad that

the man passed away. They put his body

in a body bag and packed him in ice for

approximately twenty-four hours in the

shower. ... The next day the medics came

and put his body on a stretcher, placed a

fake IV in his arm and took him

away."(2)

The Abu Ghraib prison was a notorious

site of torture under the formerly-U$-

backed dictator Saddam Hussein. The

Amerikans put the prison back into

operation, detaining thousands of Iraqis

with no due-process rights. In some cases

prisoners were not even registered in

official logs.(2)

The prison was ostensibly run by

Brigadier Gen. Janis Karpinski, the

highest-ranking Amerikan womyn Iraq.

She's now claiming that military

intelligence officers were in charge, and

she didn't even know what was happening

in the prison.(4) She had no trouble

claiming credit for the prison, though, in

an interview she gave to the St.

Petersburg Times last December, when

she said that her prisoners found that

"living conditions now [in Abu Ghraib] are

better in prison than at home. At one point

we were concerned that they wouldn't

want to leave."(2)

That interview was right around the

time Karpinski was interviewed on 60

Minutes, in which she insisted prison

conditions were better at Abu Ghraib now

than they were under the Iraqis. She

claimed that no one was held in the prison

without charges and that prisoners were

allowed visits from family members and

their lawyers. When given contradictory

details on an individual case, however, she

admitted that some prisoners were denied

all visitors and there were not formal

charges against everyone, but, she said,

"there's nobody being held for no reason,"

referring to suspects who may have

committed "crimes against the coalition,"

whatever that means.(5)

Some Amerikan politicians and the

media were up in arms about the torture

reports -- because they hurt the

Amerikan image, and the battle for the

"hearts and minds" of the Iraqis.

Democratic Senator Joseph Biden,

expressing this outrage, "This is the single

most significant undermining act that's

occurred in a decade in that region of the

world in terms of our standing."(6) Boo

hoo -- poor Amerikan image. Before this,

it was going so well!

MIM is quite willing to pass blame up

the chain of command, from Frederick

and Karpinski up to the CIA and beyond.

We'll pass it all the way up to the

imperialist system, which is ultimately the

driving force behind Amerika's latest grab

in the Middle East. We didn't need proof

of Amerikans reopening the "torture

chambers" that Bush and so many others

decried in the build-up to the invasion to

know that this is another war of

aggression waged by U$ imperialists in

their continued quest to bring the labor,

land and resources of the world under

their control. That doesn't exonerate the

people with blood literally on their hands

in this case (or others, like in the Virginia

prisons), but it's what we need to

understand if we are to successfully

combat this system.

Notes:

1. NYTimes 27 Feb. 2003, p. A 10.

2. New Yorker 10 May 2004; posted 5

May 2004 on newyorker.com.

3. Associated Press 29 April 2004.

4. NYTimes 2 May 2004, p. A1.

5. 60 Minutes, 4 Dec. 2003 (http://

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/04/

60minutes/main586841.shtml).

6. Associate Press 2 May 2004.

7. MIM Notes 246. See also: http://

www.commondreams.org/headlines01/

1022-01.htm.

8. E.g. "AWOL youth challenges

Amerikan military" in MIM Notes 280

and " Iraq war conscientious objector

sentenced to prison" in MIM Notes 288.

Continued from page 1...

This Iraqi men was killed during interrogation, then smuggled out of the prison

disguised as a medical patient, according to the Taguba report.

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 7

unconsciously against exploitation and

oppression.

Afraid that the public and youth in

particular will wake up and oppose the

war, the Bush administration has thrown

out a new bone of hope. After elections

in 2005, they muse, Iraqis will simmer

down and U$ troops can scale back

somewhat. MIM counsels the youth to

ignore the illusions spread by Democrats

about the UN and the Republicans about

elections. The time to oppose this war is

now.

Donald Rumsfeld's analysis of the

Vietnam War has offended many

Vietnam veterans. According to

Rumsfeld, draftees "added no value, no

advantage, really, to the United States

armed services over any sustained period

of time, because (of) the churning that

took place. It took (an) enormous amount

of effort in terms of training - and then

they were gone."(3) This despite the

deaths of 20,000 draftees.

Addressing these criticisms is Senator

Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who is also

the Republican Senator most critical of

Imperialists spell relief: D-R-A-F-T

Rumsfeld over the Iraqi torture matter.

According to Hagel, the United $tates

should fight a protracted war against the

world and draft everyone in their late

teenage years for two years, perhaps with

one year for training as some suggest:

"this is a generational--probably 25-year

--war."(2)

To be sure, Rumsfeld's position is

popular among Republicans, as it is

merely an extreme statement of

Reagan's position. It won't be effortless

for the Bush administration to turn to the

draft, but we can expect that loving

sympathy for a senile ex-president will

not prevent them from forwarding their

sinister plans for world domination through

a massive draft.

There is no doubt that the prison

debacle in Iraq has strengthened Senator

Hagel's hand and thus sped up the

possibility of a draft: "`What is our policy?

What are we doing? What is the possibility

of us winning? That's all still in question,'

said Hagel, a member of the Senate

Foreign Relations Committee."(4)

Republicans and military media are

starting to get in on the act of criticizing

Rumsfeld. That's not to mention the unity

of the Democrats and New York Times

in calling for Rumsfeld to step down.

There is even a leak from the Bush

administration that Rumsfeld is not a

personal friend of Bush who he will keep

at any campaign cost.(4) All this means

that Rumsfeld will be politically weaker

and the chances for a draft increased just

by that.

76% of Amerikans polled in October

2001 favored the draft to get tough in the

"war on terrorism." Only 18% opposed.

Now 52% of registered voters oppose the

draft, which is why MIM said in its MIM

Notes 301 article that both Bush and

Kerry will sidestep the draft this year, with

ample leeway through the reshuffling of

1.4 million troops that Rumsfeld is talking

about. The fact that support for the draft

is now down to 41% proves that it is

important to link the draft to Iraq. On the

other hand, it also shows that the rulers

may adjust tactics or come up with

another war to whip up U$ public opinion.

The question of the draft is political--

whether one believes that the rulers of

the United $tates will settle down at the

current level of its military aspirations.

Even if U$ imperialism stands still, the

oppressed nations learn to fight better

each year, so we see the draft coming.

Notes:

1. Pacifica News, March 30, 2004; see

also, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/

2004/05/05/iraq/main615669.shtml on the

change to 135,000

2. http://www.usatoday.com/news/

washington/2004-04-22-rumsfeld-

draft_x.htm

3. http://www.newsday.com/news/

o p i n i o n / n y -

vppag203764923apr20,0,2339687.story?coll=ny-

viewpoints-headlines

4. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/

2004/05/09/iraq/main616398.shtml

5. Namely, not having enough troops to

fight all the battles they are currently

engaged in. See MIM Notes 290, 1 Nov

2003.

by mim3@mim.org

On April 12, the campaign to elect

George W. Bush president ran ads on

network television in New Hampshire

pointing out that opponent Senator Kerry

voted to raise taxes on gasoline in the past.

A number of papers reported that Bush

ran the same ad in 19 states. The ad

showed quaint footage of someone

pushing a car without gasoline.

This is very significant. Bush is

obviously worried that the labor

aristocracy is going to blame him for the

obvious rise in price of gasoline at the

pump, now setting records (in nominal

terms, not inflation-adjusted prices). The

public will not be able to help wondering

if the price rise is connected to Iraq or

angering the other Arab countries.

Bush's solution consistent, with his

ideology, is to point to how his opponent

supported raising gasoline taxes--even

though the price rise we see now is not

connected to taxes.

Meanwhile, astonishing figures show

that fully one in twenty Amerikkkans

mention gasoline prices as the number

one issue facing Amerika today. That is

what they offered in an open-ended

question, when they could pick anything

they wanted. Others picked "war,"

"terrorism" and the "economy."(1)

Another poll by CNN/USA Today/

Gallup "finds nearly 7 in 10 Americans

saying the cost of gasoline represents a

crisis or major problem for the United

States."(2) That poll shows that gasoline

is the biggest single issue in 2004 for

Amerikans and one of the biggest overall

in the last 10 years.

Thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of

Amerikans had died and were in the

process of dying when the bourgeoisie

conducted the polls, and still gas prices

were the top concern out of all issues for

five percent of the public. We know that

presidential campaigns do not spend their

campaign money on television advertising

unless they have tested the ad and believe

it to work to change the minds of

significant numbers of voters. It says a

lot about Amerikans at this time that

gasoline is such a big issue.

Here's the ad's message to the voters:

support the Iraq War or else you may end

up pushing your car. This does succeed

with rural voters who are going to have

to decide if they can get their gas any

other way. Arkansas for instance, "uses

more gasoline per capita than all but one

or two other states. That's because of

the farm-to-market culture and the

absence of mass transit in the population

centers where people drive to work one

human being per every SUV."(3)

MIM is one of the few parties calling

itself communist in Amerika willing to take

on the pickup-and-SUV driving crowd of

the rural areas. It is not a good idea for

the communists and anti-war movement

to oink with the Amerikans about gasoline

prices. It's an example of how the

economic demands of the petty-

bourgeoisie allied with imperialism are a

dead-end. Not all popular economic

demands are good ideas. Even when we

offer solar energy or whatever

alternatives, we should not complain about

gasoline prices and stir up people already

in an impossible bind.

Too racist to drive small cars they

believe are from Japan and too practical

to want cars that break down (like

Amerikan ones), the rural labor

aristocracy chose wholesale to buy ever-

bigger vehicles that Amerikkkan

manufacturers dominate.

"In an unprecedented blitz [six months

after 911] the auto industry set out to

terrify rural America, claiming that if fuel-

efficiency standards were increased,

SUVs and pick-ups would vanish from

their production lines. Enough voters were

panicked to produce the requisite `flood'

of telephone calls to senators from rural

states."(4) It's just another example of

how capitalist advertising found a ready-

made audience in Amerikkka.

We find nothing admirable in the labor

aristocracy's driving ridiculous vehicles

while sending their children to die in Iraq.

None of these SUV drivers can say for

sure that the imperialists would have

succeeded in justifying the war without

the rural racist lifestyle dependent on

gasoline.

Notes:

1. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/

washington/artic les/2004/04/14/

concerns_over_war_rise_poll_says/

2. http://www.gallup.com/content/

?ci=11257

3. http://www.arkansasnews.com/

archive/2004/04/04/JohnBrummett/

170847.html

4. http://www.tompaine.com/

feature2.cfm/ID/5258/view/print

Labor aristocracy sends children to die for the SUV

Continued from page 1...

From the

collection of

posters at

www.whitehouse.org

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 8

ACTIVISTS FEAR COURT-

SANCTIONED FASCISM

By MC32 and MC206

The U$ Supreme Court recently heard

three major cases related to the "war on

terror".

The first oral argument, heard on April

20, 2004, was the case of Rasul v. Bush,

brought on behalf of 16 detainees at

Guantanamo Bay. The issue in this case

was whether so-called "enemy

combatants" are entitled to any due

process in either a U$ civil court or a

military tribunal. The plaintiffs are from

Britain, Australia, and Kuwait. The Bush

administration--assuming what has to be

proven under the Amerikan "innocent-

until-proven-guilty" legal system--argued

that these detainees have no due process

rights because they were waging war

against the United $tates and were not

following the rules of the Geneva

Convention and international law.

The other two cases, Hamdi v.

Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld v. Padilla, were

heard on April 28, 2004. Yaser Hamdi and

Jose Padilla are both citizens of the United

$tates. The issue in these cases is

whether the president has unchecked

executive power to detain U$ citizens as

"enemy combatants" with no access to

lawyers or the courts. Jose Padilla got a

favorable ruling from the 2nd Circuit

federal court, which the government then

appealed to the Supreme Court.

The ACLU, along with many other civil

liberties organizations, filed "friend of the

court" briefs in all three cases. While

MIM has some fundamental

disagreements with the ACLU on matters

of Amerikan "democracy," we applaud

its efforts to hold Bush and his cronies

responsible for the massive assaults on

civil liberties since September 11, 2001.

Guantanamo case

Formally, the Guantanamo case may

turn on the issue of jurisdiction.

Substantively, the case is about whether

Amerikan "liberty and justice" really is

"for all," or just whomever the president

thinks deserves it.

Although Guantanamo Bay is

technically within Cuban borders, it is

leased to the United $tates. The lawyers

for the detainees argued that this lease

effectively means that the prisoners--

held there under Amerikan authority--

should be given the benefit of Amerikan

due process. The Bush lawyers argued

that the United $tates is at war, and

granting the Guantanamo detainees rights

to prove their innocence then every

"enemy" would want that right.

The "friends of the court" brief in this

case pointed out that the detainees claim

that they "never engaged in hostilities

against America."(1) "They say they are

innocents caught up in the fog of war,

and they have now been imprisoned for

more than a year and a half. Yet

according to the Court of Appeals, [for

the D.C. Circuit] no court has jurisdiction

to hear their claims. ... According to the

Court of Appeals, the principle is: the

Executive can do what it wishes to aliens

abroad--even innocent aliens--because

no law protects them and no court may

hear their pleas."(1) The brief correctly

goes on to emphatically reject this

"stunning proposition."

The brief notes that "in addition to the

Petitioners' claims of non-combatancy, it

is clear that some detainees were

apprehended far from battlefields

[contrary to government claims]. For

instance, Guantanamo holds six Bosnians

and Algerians who were arrested by

Bosnian police in Bosnia and then handed

over to U.S. troops at the request of the

United States."(1)

Paul W. Butler, special assistant to

Donald Rumsfeld, spoke to the Boston

Globe about the detainees at Guantanamo,

and acknowledged that "[m]ost of the 595

suspected terrorists detained by the

United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,

will be held indefinitely, even though there

is not yet enough evidence to charge them

with crimes..."(2) Unless the U$

Supreme court intervenes in its decision

in the Rasul case, the Bush administration

plans to continue to hold these prisoners

as they have been for more than two

years. Only two of the 595 prisoners have

been actually charged with crimes to

date.(2)

Posters in Arabic with sayings like,

"Daddy, please tell them what you know

and come home" adorn the interrogation

stations at Guantanamo. The government

rates the detainees according to

intelligence value, threat, and potential for

prosecution.(2) The government

continues to try to "gather intelligence"

(i.e. use physical and psychological torture

to get any information) about "terrorist"

activities, and then decides what to do

with these prisoners. The ones who have

been milked of all useful information, or

deemed to be less dangerous, may be sent

back to their countries of origin. But the

U$ government wants assurance from

these other governments that the

Guantanamo prisoners will not then be

released in their home countries. The U$

either tries to insist that the prisoners be

detained in those countries, or at least tried

there.(2) The irony is that the closer the

legal system in those countries is to the

Amerikan system (including Miranda-type

rights, rules about evidence gathering, due

process, etc.), the less likely it is that those

prisoners will be prosecutable with the

information gathered at Guantanamo.

Padilla and Hamdi

The Amerikan government has held

Jose Padilla for more than two years and

has yet to charge him with a crime! He

was arrested in Chicago, held in the

custody of civilian authorities, and then

transferred to military detention in June

2002. He is currently held in near isolation

in a military brig in South Carolina.(3) The

government has publicly accused Padilla

of planning to detonate a radioactive "dirty

bomb" in the United $tates but has not

formally charged him. Until shortly before

the argument at the Supreme Court, he

never even met with his lawyers. The U$

monitored and tape-recorded that

meeting, leaving the attorneys no choice

but to give their client a lesson on the laws

at issue, while avoiding all discussion of

any facts or evidence in Padilla's favor.

Yaser Hamdi was arrested in the

weeks after 9/11, and the government

says he was fighting with the Taliban

against Amerikan forces in Afghanistan.

He was born in Louisiana and is a U$

citizen. Hamdi also did not have access

to an attorney until shortly before his case

went to the Supreme Court. Shortly after

Hamdi was arrested his father filed a

petition for writ of habeas corpus, asking

that Hamdi be allowed to appear before

a tribunal to rebut the evidence against

him. The district court that received the

petition did not grant the writ but did order

Hamdi to have access to counsel. The

government appealed that order, and the

Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

(among the most reactionary of the

federal courts) said that the case had to

be sent back to the district court for it to

consider the "implications of allowing

Hamdi to meet with counsel..."(4)

In other words, a federal circuit court

was saying that a U$ citizen should not

even be allowed to see a lawyer, let alone

confront his accusers! Not that MIM

completely agrees with the solutions

Amerika's "founding fathers" came up

with, but at least they saw the problem

with this sort of thing. Perhaps the Court

of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit needs

to go back to school to learn how to read;

we suggest they start with the Sixth

Amendment to the U$ Constitution.

The more decadent, parasitic, and

exploitative Amerikan imperialism

becomes, the more it is forced to turn its

back on the anti-colonial and anti-

monarchical principles of the original

American revolutionaries. All fair-minded

people, and especially political activists,

should be very alarmed by the

government's latest moves to do away

with bourgeois democratic rights. In

practice, the Amerikan government can

now detain whomever it wants, call him

or her an "enemy combatant", and throw

away the key!

"If the government's position were

accepted," argued Padilla's lawyers, "it

would mean that for the foreseeable

future, any citizen, anywhere, at any time,

would be subject to indefinite military

detention on the unilateral order of the

president."(3)

A few of the Supreme Court justices

asked questions during the arguments of

all three cases that suggest they are

concerned about letting Bush continue to

have the power to hold so-called "enemy

combatants" for as long as he says

Amerika is "waging war on terror". As

the justices pointed out, no one has any

idea how long that will be, and the

government is asking to hold these

prisoners at Guantanamo and military

brigs in the United $tates indefinitely. The

Supreme Court is expected to issue rulings

in all three cases by June or July, and

MIM will continue to report new

developments.

If you are as outraged as MIM is about

the Amerikan government's assault on

civil liberties, get involved and join us in

our fight against the injustice system! Visit

our civil liberties agitation page on the web

(5) for news, flyers and petitions!

Notes:
1. ACLU, et al amicus brief in Rasul v. Bush, 03-
334, pp. 5, 7, 9, 23-24, at http://www.aclu.org/
court/court.cfm?ID=14741&c=261.
2. The Boston Globe, 25 April 2004, http://
www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/
articles/2004/04/25/
us_to_hold_detainees_at_guantanamo_indefinitely/
3.http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/
ap/20040428/ap_on_go_su_co/
scotus_enemy_combatants_7.
4. ACLU, et al amicus brief in Hamdi v.
Rumsfeld, 03-6696, at http://www.aclu.org/
news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=15039&c=261.
5. (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/
civlib/index.html.

Straight from the

horses' mouths

We couldn't make this shit up--

imperialist bigwigs' and mid-level

lackeys' own words indict them.

"`If you have no idea what's going to

happen to you, that's extremely stressful.

... But if the mission is to collect

intelligence and get information that is

beneficial to our side, then despair and

depression may be a good thing.'"

--John VanNatta, warden of a

maximum-security prison in Indiana,

serving at Guantanamo and

describing the prisoners' high rate of

suicide attempts there.(1) In case there

was any doubt that the incidents at Abu

Ghraib were not exceptions...

"The sessions are not videotaped or

tape recorded. ... The interrogations are

designed primarily to yield intelligence, not

evidence for a court. ... taping `causes

us legal problems.' Detainees might gain

access to tapes through court

proceedings. `Then, it becomes

exculpatory.'"

--U$ Army General Geoffrey D.

Miller, until recently the commander of

the detention operation at

Guantanamo.(1) Heaven forbid the

detainees use these "interviews" to

prove their innocence...

"`What I'm saying is that there is a

large percentage right now who are either

high threat or high intelligence value, that

right now there's no intention to try them

before a military commission. ... [W]e

have a responsibility, both to our forces

... and the rest of the world, to not let

those people back out.'

--Paul W. Butler, special assistant to

Secretary of Defense Donald

Rumsfeld.(2)

Notes

1. The Washington Post, 2 May 2004.

2. The Boston Globe, 25 April 2004.

Supreme Court hears "enemy combatant" and civil liberties cases

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 9

say some kind of sexual experience is the

most profound, emotion-stirring

experience. Still, whether this pleasure is

100% natural or if it is totally constructed

by for-profit pornography or something

else social, MIM asks, is it is good for

wimmin? Would we rather live in a society

in which pornography was not such an

overwhelming subjective experience for

many men?

What heroin does to people is also

"natural." It takes advantage of

something in humyns' biological wiring.

That does not mean it is necessary and

good. We can conquer heroin and we

should.

Just as "art for its own sake" is poison,

so too is "sex for its own sake" when

raised against the party and the

dictatorship of the proletariat. In the

communist future they may be able to

have both or maybe the very thought of

both will disappear, but right now and for

a foreseeable stage of time, the

subjectivism of art or sex for its own sake

is a weapon in the arsenal of the enemy.

We had a womyn quit the party's circles

solely on the basis of the line that

monogamy is second-best to asexuality.

She claimed to agree with every other

single line of the party, but wanted multiple

partners. She asked us to change the line.

The womyn recruiting her came back with

this sad news to the party and pointed

out, yeah, but if she would break with us

"just for that," she could not have been

serious about the rest. Indeed, that's how

we look at it: the stands on subjective

matters relative to the party often tell us

a lot about ourselves and our overall line.

Supposing that for this womyn, the most

profound subjective experience in life--

more profound than the subjective thrill

of everything else MIM stood for--was

having multiple sexual partners. Then we

might think that what MIM was doing to

her with this monogamy line was

"depressing." This is actually a very

important point. The truth may hurt and

be depressing. It does not mean we can

afford to do without the truth of

oppression and exploitation. We have

always said that if people do not find the

current reality depressing and hurtful, then

there is something wrong with them. They

need to be taken out of the "Matrix."

What is worse, of course, in theory the

party can make mistakes and worsen that

depression and hurt for some people. A

comrade wanting multiple sex partners

might think that having the line in her face

all the time would make her a hypocrite,

because she did not feel it emotionally.

Yet it's guaranteed that we are all

hypocrites, because the party can never

be 100% in line with people subjectively.

Another troublesome issue is what to

do with comrades when they fail in

practice in their lifestyles. We're not going

to get into all of it here, but merely

avoiding MIM, because one line or even

several would make someone a hypocrite

subjectively speaking is wrong. It would

Preparing for the all-round dictatorship of the proletariat

be like the smoking parent who gave his/

her kids cigarettes to avoid being a

hypocrite.

Since the 1980s, we've had multiple

comrades disappear out of

embarrassment over sex questions. We

even had one comrade disappear for

something no one was opposed to! In

most cases, MIM does not cast people

out of our circles for sexual practice out

of synch with our line. What happens is

people treat it like Christianity as if the

lifestyle itself were the goal and since they

failed the supposed goal, they should give

up politics they imagine. This is wrong

and we must fight to expunge Christian,

Jewish and Islamic thinking on this from

our circles by an active fight. And by the

way, our challenge stands to any

comrades who left in the midst of sexual

embarrassment to come back to party

circles. Just send us a letter or even join

our struggle anonymously as many do.

The struggle against gender oppression

does not advance by people giving up

politics. If the People's Wars have to use

bullets and bombs to feed, clothe and

shelter the people, we in the imperialist

countries can stand a little embarrassment

with each other over subjective trifles.

It could even be the case that what is

hurtful for one persyn is uplifting for

another because of how subjectivities are

constructed currently. That's why Mao

called it steering and they used that

"helmsman" image in China. A party can

never steer in such a way as not to

depress somebody. Individualists can try

to adjust everything in their private lives,

but scientific bodies including vanguard

parties have to take votes and go one way

or another. Trotsky and the Liberals try

to make it appear contrary, but it just isn't

true. It is better to make decisions in the

open through a vanguard party vote than

by individuals in private life or corporate

boardrooms.

It is well known that MIM is willing to

take "extreme" stands by U$ public

standards. We even appreciate some of

what Gandhi said that first people ignore

you; then they laugh at you; then they

imprison you and then they join you. Black

bourgeois Nelson Mandela even

experienced the last part of this where

the white rulers put him in prison and then

decided capitalism will survive if it has a

Black face leading it.

Countless opportunists have asked us

why we are willing to take such a public

opinion beating on our position that "all

sex is rape." Of course we know it is

unpopular. However, there are two kinds

of unpopularity in politics relevant to

MIM: 1) lost popularity because the road

to communism is difficult 2) popularity lost

because we surrendered our political

credibility. No matter what anyone might

say, the two reasons for surrendering

popularity are not the same.

Anybody with the "all sex is rape" line

is not going to be elected president of the

United $tates any time soon. Reflexive

and hardened reformists are going to

dismiss us on that account alone. The truth

is that it is much better to be an amorphous

character that serves various corporate

interests to win elections. For a Maoist

party, the question is different, because

we're not saying the solution to gender

oppression is for the masses to abstain

from sex. The masses can't abstain from

their jobs and end exploitation either.

We're saying that for party members, we

expect them to put aside their persynal

feelings about social behavior and dig to

their causes. Otherwise, they can't join

and have a vote on scientific matters. If

people think sex in society in general is

above the dictatorship of the proletariat,

because s/he thinks it's the most profound

and best subjective experience as is, then

we don't want them in our party. We can't

let anything get in the way of our mission

to end oppression and exploitation.

If an "illegal alien" migrant farm-

worker says he had a "nice day at work"

picking oranges or tomatoes, OK, that's

his subjectivity for the day. It does not

mean he was not super-exploited,

whether he thinks so or not. If someone

experiences pleasure in sex, it does not

mean there is no gender oppression

interconnected with that. MIM is

definitely going to lose some support for

saying that, but so be it. We are

communists and we only want people

voting in our party who are going to put

science of ending oppression above the

subjective experiences of all kinds. The

only proper way to oppose the party line

is with evidence for entire groups of

people, not by persynal experience alone.

If someone wants to provide evidence

that pornography improved the reading

comprehension, vocabulary and grammar

of both girls and boys exposed to

pornography in high school--such being

a fanciful assumption but raised to

illustrate a point of principle-- then the

party would have to consider that. The

fact that pornography has completely

taken over the last two generations of men

in the United $tates and that men like it is

not an argument against having no

pornography corporations under

socialism. That would be supporting the

subjectivism of patriarchy.

When it comes to the party pointing the

road to revolution, the task has to be

conceived differently. The "all sex is

rape" line lays it down hard and firmly,

and to be blunt, especially for men who

are hopping hot for sex, that there is

nothing, nothing at all that MIM holds

above analytical scrutiny. And when we

get done taking down the profit system,

it's going to be the same way: we're going

to be there looking at what it takes to get

done with battering, rape and even just

hurt feelings, because Marx said that

when the species takes over its destiny

people will know not even to fall in love

with the wrong persyn and thus avoid hurt

feelings. Granted, that's quite a while

down the line, but the point is that we

communists are relentless in nailing down

the underlying problems in society and

moving forward to a happy and

harmonious one.

VI. Friends

Another one of those subjective areas

is friends. Mao already addressed this in

"Combat Liberalism." Who in the United

$tates does not have high school

classmates as friends that did not later

go on to be police or serve in some country

killing people? No, the point is not that

100% of the cops and military personnel

we all have as neighbors in the U$A are

"bad." Nonetheless, when it comes time

for a communist party, we need to know

that politics goes above those old

classmates. The fact that we like our

friends can be another source of

reticence and paralysis on the behalf of

revolutionaries, because we are the

underdog and more often than not people

will not be able to take their ordinary

friends from apolitical circles and have

things work out OK for revolutionary

politics. So we have to be objective about

the sources of some feelings around the

U$A. As Sakai pointed out, it's virtually

impossible to be white in Amerika and

not know some police-affiliated neighbor.

Then when we consider the millions who

have gone through the armed services, a

picture adds up. People we knew as kids

are now active agents of the state. That's

not to say there is not revolutionary

struggle in the Army. There most

assuredly is. On the whole though,

veterans of an undefeated imperialist

military power are a negative political

influence--something that even the

bourgeois revolutionaries and veterans of

1776 recognized.

Continued from page 3...

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

MIM Notes 302 · May 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?

California Prisoncrat

Governor Schwarzenegger campaigned on

the platform of cleaning up how politics are
conducted in California. Due to a budget
deficit of $14 billion, no state agency will be

able to escape across-the-board cut-backs.
However, corrections has an unholy
advantage over all other segments of state

government.

The California Department of Corrections

(CDC) is an unmanageable conglomerate of

32 state prisons, with a $5.3 billion budget.
The Schwarzenegger administration has
offered a number of cost-cutting ideas--from

releasing inmates early, revamping the parole
system, and closing down prisons.

There are two opposing schools-of-

thought on the issue of drugs, crime, and
public safety in California. On one side are
the bipartisan proponents of the drug war

and prison industrialism. They are dogmatic
in their support for all manners of unforgiving
criminal justice precepts, no matter how ill-

conceived or ineffective. These advocates of
heavy-handed punishments are well-funded
and lead by the California Correctional Peace

Officers Association (CCPOA). They are
brilliant in their tactics by investing in
candidates on both sides of the political

spectrum. With their annual $20 million war
chest, they have no equal.

On the other side of the debate are the anti-

drug war, pro-human rights opponents of the
American prison phenomenon--i.e., those of
us locked-up, our loved ones, and a very small

number of dedicated prisoner-advocates. Our
allies are generally volunteer activists who
operate on shoestring budgets.

On its face, the CCPOA is simply a union

looking out for the interests of their
constituents. However, their successes have

created a power-vacuum. Corrections is an
industry lavishly rewarded for a generation
of miserable recidivism rates, scandals, and

controversies. They have been allowed to
expand and grow despite their failures.

The contemporary criminal justice ideology

of punishment over rehabilitation relieves
prison administrators from the burden of being
required to manage in a results-oriented

atmosphere. This has allowed the prison
system to concentrate its resources on their
guards, as opposed to the inmates.

Points to consider:
- From 1984 to 1994, twenty-one state

prisons were built and only one state

university.

- College fees are raised every year and

education budgets for students K-12 always

get hit hard.

- Prison guards are paid better than all state

educators, including tenured CSU professors.

- Prison vocational classes were virtually

eliminated when the CDC had to lay- off
workers. It was determined that correctional

educators--CDC employees who actually
provide a meaningful service--not guards,
were expendable.

- The CCPOA negotiated a 34 percent pay

raise in 2002 when the state was in the middle
of a fiscal crisis.

As far as corrections go, the CDC is too

large and the union representing the 29,000

prison guards too powerful. A number of
things have to happen if the CDC is ever to
assume their place alongside, not above,

other state agencies.

1. All nonviolent drug offenders, including

second and third strikers, need to be placed

in community-based treatment facilities.
Incarcerating drug offenders in $30,000 a year
prison beds for lengthy and life sentences

needs to come to an end.

2. Change the state's recidivist sentencing

schemes so that lengthy and life sentences

are only given to violent criminals and sexual
predators.

3. Permanently close-down a number of

prisons in response to these moves. Begin
with the older, dilapidated prisons--but don't
stop there. The sweetheart deals the CCPOA

received for generous campaign contributions
need to be identified and undone. These are
inexcusable quid pro quos.

Case in point, CDC overtime: Recalled

Governor Gray Davis was unconditionally
indebted to the CCPOA for million in

campaign contributions. In addition to giving
the guards a $1 billion pay raise in 2002, he
restricted a warden's power to discipline

guards who abuse the process of calling in
sick. The CDC was already a state agency
depending heavily on overtime. Davis allowed

the CDC to become even more so dependent
on overtime by knowingly providing rank-
and-file guards the power to write their own

rules. Because the union runs corrections,
not upper echelon administrators, chronic
overtime abuses result in the department

going over budget by half a billion dollars a
year. This is how a prison guard is able to
earn a salary of over $100,000.

While the Schwarzenegger administration

talks about inmate population cuts and prison
closures, California is the recipient of a

skewed state government. And the guard's
power-base is still unmatched. A whole
generation of CCPOA-owned lawmakers are

still in Sacramento waiting to do the guard's
bidding.

It is not my position that corrections is the

only problem plaguing our society. Nor do I
attempt to diminish society's justifiable
concern with public safety. But the

correctional special interests have been a
corrupting influence for so long something
drastic needs to be done. As an inmate I've

lived under the reign of the CCPOA for over
half a decade as a nonviolent three strikes
drug offender. I see firsthand what society

cannot. I see an army of overpaid correctional
officers absolutely bloated on government
funds. They own this state and think it's

funny. They need to be placed on half rations,
not us.

California inmates as a demographic have

nothing else to give. We are forced to spend
the rest of our lives in these Gulags of pillaged
humanity. The guards have taken in all. It is

through mismanagement and greed that a $5.3
billion state agency looks to the inmate
population when pressured by the legislature

to trim costs. They extort us--we are the
economic hostages. All the money we receive
from our loved ones and the collect-only

telephone calls we place are both heavily
taxed. Currently, 33 percent is deducted from

all incoming moneys--which will increase to
an astounding 55 percent in mid-2004. All of
it under the guise of restitution. The telephone

service providers have been awarded the
lucrative California prison contract without
even having to place a bid--with the CDC

receiving tens of millions in kickbacks. We
receive the worst deal imaginable due to this
"no-bid" arrangement.

These are merely a few examples. Welcome

to the world of the California state prisoner
where cumulative injustices are inflicted on

the entire population who simply have no
voice, no rights, no representation.

As state prisoners in the California prison

system, we are mere fodder. We are the king's
peasants and treated accordingly. Taxation
without representation has a renewed

meaning for 160,000 of us and our loved ones.
Oppression comes to mind.

This is not just about budget problems,

pork barrel politics, and spending cuts--this
is about people. This is about society. As a
member of a voiceless population, I speak for

all when I say: "Enough is enough. We have

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 11

nothing more to give. You've taken it all. Give
some of it back and leave us alone." When

looking for some other miserable demographic
to demonize--the prisoncrat should simply
look in the mirror.

-A California Prisoner, January 2004

Short term USW goals

Greetings Comrades,

Here are a few suggestions for short term

goals:

1. In order to double MIM subscribers in

prisons, get other prison publications to run
free ads for MIM's Books for Prisoners
programs. We can establish a reciprocal

relationship with these other prison
publications, as well as other free book
programs (Lucy Parsons Center Bookstore,

Books Through Bars, Books to Prisoners,
Open Door Books, etc.), by offering to run
free ads for them in our publications. Also we

may be able to establish like relationships
with companies that offer services to prisoners
selling audio tapes, electronics, clothes, etc.

specifically geared towards prison
populations. These companies are based in
different states and serve different prisoners

nationwide, which would be good for MIM.

2. The idea of producing pamphlets is very

good. I believe that any USW leader at any

facility should have the responsibility of
soliciting articles for these pamphlets on
specific(relevant) topics. Creating a title and

table of contents page, as well as editing said
articles. This solicitation of articles (and also
artwork) can be an aspect of specific USW

study groups, or any mandatory reading that
the USW leader may establish for supporters.
This will give supporters more of an active

role. Leaders may even be able to use the
submission of articles to be included in
pamphlets as a reward each month for those

supporters who show most devotion, thus
creating an incentive. Competition of this
caliber could prove beneficial.

3. I believe that solidifying USW leaders in

each state is a process that should move
forward with a degree of caution. Many of

these leaders may very well have ulterior
motives, and be using MIM (USW) as a
means of garnering support for gangs, or non-

revolutionary organizations. I believe that
MIM should put more emphasis on
establishing some sort of criteria in deciding

its USW leaders and not just allot those
positions to anyone who wants one.

4. I believe that a secure line of

communication must be established between
USW leaders in each prison in specific states.
Due to security issues, it's nearly impossible

for USW leaders to share ideas (even if they
know each others identity). And this line of
communication is also in regards to USW

leaders and MIM contacts, as well as the
people at RAIL that you (MIM) urge them to
work with. How can they be worked with when

they're not even known to USW leaders? By
establishing this secure line of
communication, it will allow USW to be more

well organized and its coordinated works with
RAIL to be more stable.

5. In identifying ways that like

organizations, or individuals on the outside
can support our battles, we have to first
establish ways to be notified (in real time) as

to what those battles are, specifically. This
goes to establishing a real line of
communication between USW leaders

themselves, and USW leaders and MIM and
RAIL- allowing everyone to be on the same
page... But communication is important so that

we'll all know what battles are being fought
at a particular time, and exactly what kind of

support is needed.

Constant in the Struggle,

- A New York Prisoner, March 2004
MIM responds: The points on

communication and leadership both bring up

questions of organization and security. The
fact is that comrades behind bars generally
have to rely on U.$. mail to communicate with

those on the outside. Without any direct
contact there is always a limit to the amount
of trust on either end. This is unavoidable. If

a comrade steps up as a leader in a prison
where there is no USW leadership, they
automatically become the leadership. This is

just how things develop. Being a leader does
not grant anyone information that will make
them a danger to our organizing.

There is always a threat of MIM/USW being

misrepresented, but the best way to combat
that is through our newspaper and other

constant communication with the masses as
to what we are about. The same thing can
happen on the streets where anyone could

pick up a stack of MIM Notes and claim to
represent the party. But if they are spreading
disinformation, a look at our paper or webpage

will demonstrate this to the masses. So our
best assurance of preventing misleadership
is build our presence among the masses by

spreading the paper and linking up leaders
who do represent us.

The question of a more secure/faster

communication also opens us up to
disinformation campaigns by the pigs. While
we certainly encourage USW leaders to

communicate however they best can, the best
way to do so is through MIM and by writing
for Under Lock and Key. That way we can be

accountable for where the information is
coming from.

With the pamphlets that prisoners are

creating, we can do dedicated issues of
Under Lock and Key in MIM Notes rather
than printing these up separately, when

appropriate.

MIM looks to get our programs listed in

resource directories wherever we can. Most

organizations that provide programs for
prisoners do not have publications, so there
is no opportunity for ad exchanges. And there

are already organizations out there doing a
good job compiling comprehensive resource
lists for prisoners. Rather than duplicating

this work we refer our comrades to directories
like the one put out by the Prison Activist
Resource Center.

Corcoran cuts

education and visits

Let me share or expose a little bite about

Corcoran state prison on this four yard 180.

This might help United Struggle from Within
(USW). About one year ago they took the
education and trades classes. A education

channel is on television three hours a day
but what about those inmates without a TV?
They took one and a half days of our visits

because they put level two prisoners in the
gym on the same yard as us, and we can't
come in contact with those inmates. So we

have to suffer because these penitentiaries
are over crowded. That's just a few of many
things wrong around here in Corcoran.

- a California prisoner, March 2004

California segregates

activists

I have received your recent letter. The

letters are being funneled through mail room
to the records department and then to my
counselor Dixon who most likely over reads.

Due to them getting suspicious of my political
activism. My mail is not being stopped but

they are reading it. I am currently in the
process of attempting to challenge them in
their policy relating mail.

Currently I am in the administrative

segregation in Correctional Training Facility.
I have been passing out information in hopes

to rally prisoners to get involved. I have
reached another person and am talking with
others, exchanging essays and thoughts. Sine

I am kept off the mainlines I do not know if
there are other MIM activists in this prison. I
am kept off the main line because they have

set me up and labeled me a "gang" associate.

The administration has been corrupted and

abuses authority since the 50s, working hand

in hand with fascist groups and other groups
of inmates to oppress other inmates and make
money out of the deal. Since I started doing

my own thing and educating myself the
administration has labeled me a threat to the
institution and keeps me segregated from

other inmates.

Social change happened within the penal

institutions a long time ago. The

administration was no longer in control. So
they made laws and rules to punish anyone
who attempts to open the eyes of other

inmates. They have created a system that
racially profiles you. Automatically you are
being discriminated for your race and

punished. They call this "population control."

Then they have created a special set of

officers to monitor your activities. If you are

seen or believed to be working to undermine
the administration's efforts to drag the people
through the mud, then you are scooped off

the mainline and placed in SHUs for "security
reasons" to protect the interest of "penal
corrections."

The administration is attempting to win the

trust of the inmates by creating a committee
that the inmates vote for you and then you

can work with the administration to "attempt"
to come to terms with regards to "conditions
of confinement" and other "privileges and

incentives." But a lot of the inmates see
through their attempts to cloud inmates into
thinking they are in control of their time. A lot

of inmates have been scared for life and will
never put their trust in the penal
administration, they just literally raped, killed

and extorted from inmates.

The inmates who are made aware of this

and continue to do their own program are set

up and labeled members or associates of
gangs such as I have been. And they are kept
in segregation: it's just a tool that is utilized

by the administration to down play any
person who tries to spread truth and keep
them away from other inmates so that one

can not expose their true intentions.

-a California prisoner, November 2003

Designing failures:

rehabilitation in

prison

When I first reached prison, I didn't

understand why so many people come back
after being here so many years. Now that I've

been here a few years, I find that I know a
great deal about this system but have no
understanding as to why it's allowed to

function as it does. I've just recently come to
accept the bizarre idea that the prison system
is not a failure. That it's doing what it has

been fine tuned to do: create failures by
insuring that a large majority of those released
from prison will eventually return. The high

recidivism rate is not an indication of failure.

It's proof that the system is doing its job quite
well actually.

Just how bizarre is this idea, you ask? I

don't have all the answers but I've come to
see a few reasons why this type of prison

system would be desirable. It lowers the
unemployment rate. Consider that crime/
prisoners create jobs: police, lawyers, judges,

prosecutors, clerks, prison guards, prison
medical personnel, prison administration, etc.
Consider, also, that people in prison are not

counted when unemployment statistics are
collected. It creates a scapegoat class for the
rich people and politicians to focus blame

upon for the ills of society so that they can
maintain power and control. Consider that
poverty and racism, the lack of education

(academic and education-vocational) and
unemployment are the root cause of crime.
Yet we blame the criminal instead of the

conditions that created the crime/criminal. We
do little to correct either. The prison system
is a tool to control certain racial minorities in

our society, as well as the poor.

If this idea still seems bizarre, consider the

fact that millions of dollars are made from the

cheap labor of prisoners. Just think of what
would happen if the state really started to
rehabilitate prisoners instead of just

warehousing them? Obviously, they would
come out of prison looking for a job rather
than looking to pull a job and would be less

likely to return to prison. This would mean
that California would have to stop building
prisons and start closing them down. This

would mean finding another purpose for those
closed prisons. It seems to me that a lot of
people have a vested interest in seeing that

rehabilitation does not take place behind
prison walls.

Dostoevsky got it right when he said, "The

degree of civilization can be judged by
entering its prisons." Prisons have been
renamed and are now called "correctional

facilities" because of the rehabilitation which
is supposed to go on inside. Then when the
public looks at the high recidivism rate or

hears stories about parolees committing new
crimes, they are led to believe that
rehabilitation is a failure. That it isn't possible.

But the truth of the matter is that no valid
efforts are being made to bring about
rehabilitation. From what I've seen,

rehabilitation did not fail, it was not achieved
because the system isn't interested in
rehabilitating anyone. Most prison programs

look good on paper but have little or no
rehabilitation value. The only valid
rehabilitation program the prison system ever

had was the college program which
significantly lowered the recidivism rate. In
1992, this program was taken away from

prisoners. The saddest aspect of this whole
matter is that prisoners are not only receptive
to rehabilitation efforts and programs, but

they are anxious--even desperate--for them.
Instead of rehabilitation, they go through
dehumanization and when finally released

back into society, they are in worse shape
than when they first entered prison.

The system can judge its success by how

quickly the released return to prison. Its
failures are those that some how manage to
beat the odds to become law-abiding

productive members of society.

- A California Prisoner, April 2004

MIM Notes 302 · May 15, 2004 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

mayo 15, 2004, Nº 302 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

¿Que es el MIM?

El Movimiento Internacionalista Maoísta (MIM) es un partido revolucionario

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Traducido por Células de Estudio para la

Liberación de Aztlán y América Latina.

Las unidades de máxima seguridad son

cárceles especiales dentro de una cárcel

diseñadas para impedir la organización de los
presos.

En California, el MIM y la LRAI están

llevando a cabo una lucha prolongada para
cerrar las unidades de máxima seguridad.
Éstas representan un ejemplo de las

condiciones más bárbaras que existen en el
sistema carcelario de EE.UU.

En nuestras presentaciones abordamos el

tema de dichas cárceles rindiéndoles a los
estudiantes testimonios de abusos y
privación sensorial que sufren los presos.

Muchos de los estudiantes reconocieron que
estas condiciones no tendrían ningún
beneficio social cuando los presos salieran

libres.

Muchos estudiantes también reconocieron

paralelos entre sus vidas y las acusaciones

en contra de "pandilleros" que se usan para
meter a gente en las unidades de máxima
seguridad. Un estudiante dijo que sólo

bastaba que tres personas vestidas del mismo
color se juntaran en una esquina para que la
policía los molestara. Muchos otros contaron

que la policía de la ciudad de Oakland siempre
usa violencia excesiva como, por ejemplo, el
apuntar el barril de una pistolas contra la

cabeza de un detenido.

Durante la manifestación subsiguiente, un

invitado retomó este tema mencionando las

leyes contra la vagancia y la holgazanería que
existen en la ciudad de Oakland. Dijo que
estas leyes equivalen a la reacción del estado

frente a la liberación de esclavos africanos
que dio como resultado una creación de una
ola superflua de fuerza laboral desperdiciada

en EE.UU. Una estudiante de la preparatoria
contó que en su escuela ella había sido
castigada de una manera injusta por discutir

temas políticos. Además mencionó el hecho
de que el año pasado el distrito escolar pidió
ayuda al servicio secreto para investigar el

caso de dos estudiantes que habían dicho
que George Bush estaba loco.

Tomando en cuenta las pláticas y las

manifestaciones en las que participamos,
podemos concluir con confianza que esta
semana valió la pena. Apoyamos a los

jóvenes de las naciones oprimidas en
California y respaldamos su demanda de que
el dinero que hoy se usa para mandarlos a la

cárcel se use para educarlos. Como dijimos
en julio en nuestro informe sobre el foro
educativo en Oakland: "El contenido

revolucionario de esta campaña proviene del
carácter de clase de los involucrados.

Pedimos que el dinero no se use para la
represión y que se invierta en las necesidades

básicas"(1).

En nuestro último informe también dijimos

que "el impacto principal de tal campaña sólo

será fuerte en conjunto con nuestros
esfuerzos para que el dinero no sólo se use
de otra forma sino para que también podamos

decidir cómo utilizarlo."

De las más de 200 personas que participaron

en la manifestación en el palacio municipal

de Oakland el día 19 de noviembre, casi todos
venían de dos pequeños colegios
independientes: La Academia de las Calles y

la Escuela para la Justicia Social. Estos
colegios existen dentro del sistema escolar
público pero su organización y currículos son

independientes, como si fueran colegios
"Charter" (colegios que reciben fondos
especiales (estatales) y operan bajo reglas

diferentes a las de los demás colegios del
distrito escolar). Aunque son parte del
sistema estos colegios, sin embargo, parecen

ser una fuente progresista y productiva entre
los estudiantes de Oakland. No sabemos
mucho sobre sus programas, pero los

estudiantes que asistieron a la conferencia y
en particular los que expresaron sus opiniones
desde el escenario, pasaron todo el día

hablando en contra de la violencia policial, el
sistema carcelario y hasta en contra de los
demás colegios del distrito de Oakland.

Los líderes estudiantiles de este

movimiento saben reconocer las relaciones
entre el sistema carcelario, el capitalismo y

cientos de años de opresión. Y casi todos
los estudiantes con los que hablamos
sostienen una opinión negativa sobre el

sistema carcelario. Pero cuando les
preguntamos cuál sería la solución al
problema de crímenes violentos, no supieron

responder. La mayoría opina que los seres
humanos seguirán violando y asesinando y
que así son las cosas. Esto parece ser el

obstáculo mas grande para desencadenar un
poderoso movimiento de jóvenes para
transformar la sociedad. Cuando las Panteras

Negras demostraron que el pueblo podía
llevar a cabo el cambio, el apoyo que
recibieron de su comunidad aumentó

muchísimo. Debemos seguir el ejemplo de
las Panteras Negras para organizar al pueblo
sirviéndole bajo una estrategia que haga

posible un cambio general del sistema.

Fuentes consultadas: 1. MIM Notes 286,

Septiembre 1, 2003.

Las prisiones de Tejas retienen comida, ayuda médica

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.

"Educación no Encarcelación"