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MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

Sept. 1-14, 2004, Nº 306

Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

INSIDE: Fort Bragg interviews * Pope on feminism * Una Página en Español...

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PO Box 29670
Los Angeles, CA 90029
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On the web: www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext

KERRY TAKES "MORE

MILITARISTIC THAN

THOU" POSITION

In August President Bush announced

a plan to withdraw tens of thousands of

U$ troops currently stationed in other

countries including Germany and Korea.

Bush said this will enable the U$ military

to respond more quickly to threats around

the world. He also said this will allow the

troops to remain close to family and

friends longer.

While MIM doubts that either of these

points will prove true, Bush's

announcement shows that a section of

the ruling class is worried about imperial

overstretch. This is a matter of both

having too few troops to do the messy

work the imperialists need done and

working those troops too hard and too

long. As we've reported in earlier issues

of MIM Notes, the U$ military has

extended the tours of thousands of troops

in Iraq--who, along with troops stationed

in Afghanistan, are not affected by Bush's

proposed withdrawal--hurting morale

and lowering re-enlistment rates.

We can imagine the Kerry campaign

secretly thanked Bush for the opportunity

to steal some militaristic thunder. Kerry

foreign policy advisor and former

assistant secretary of state Richard

Holbrooke immediately hit the radio and

television talk show circuit, arguing

Bush's plan would decrease the

Amerikan military's readiness. Bases in

Europe were needed to shuttle troops and

supplies to the Middle East, he said; the

wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have already

strained Amerikan logistics to the

breaking point. He also stoked up the anti-

north Korea fires in order to justify the

presence of U$ troops in south Korea.

(Ironically, the very day Holbrooke started

his media blitz thousands of students

marched in the south Korean capital

demanding U$ troops leave Korean soil.)

Holbrooke also said that cutting troop

strength abroad would weaken Amerika's

alliances--even though a recent poll (1)

found more Germans supported U.$. troop

reductions there than opposed reductions

(to say nothing of the Koreans). Some

MIM NOTES

DISTRIBUTOR

ARRESTED

AT THE DNC

Police confiscate

reporter camera

and recorder

BOSTON

July 30, 2004

Boston Police arrested a MIM Notes

distributor at Roxbury Community

College during an event called the

"Progressive Democrats Convention" on

July 29th. Howard Dean and Dennis

Kucinich were among the main attractions

as speakers. The police backed Roxbury

Community College's claim that they are

"private property" where MIM Notes

cannot distribute on their outdoor

property.

Activists with Kucinich had bombarded

the public including the MIM table with

flyers for their event all week. In fact,

the Kucinich activists were the best

organized of any activists seen on the

streets this DNC week, not that we think

that is all good since there should have

been more radical activists around.

We showed up at 1:30 pm, and an event

organizer in the parking lot told us we had

not missed the action, because it was

going to last till 5pm. We handed out copies

of MIM Notes and interviewed the Utah

Progressive Democrats Caucus, Kucinich

Imperial overstretch spurs

Bush withdrawal plan

BOSTON

July 27, 2004

The Greens' Nader/David Cobb

debacle is the fate awaiting all parties that

allow themselves to become subverted

in the name of "ideological diversity" and

"freedom of expression" within a party.

Corporations know how to use that

breathing room to spread the oh-so

underrepresented corporate point of

view.

In the days leading up to the

Democratic National Convention and

during the DNC, MIM has struggled

mightily to do the research to bring the

truth to our readers about the foggy

Greens and their "decentralized"

allegedly "democratic" procedures. To do

this we attended a speech by Ralph Nader

and have spoken with several Green

activists. It is now clear that there is a

ton of lying going on in Green circles about

Nader, Cobb and Kerry.

In the fog of that sort of politics, the

corporations easily carry the day. They

are the status quo after all, and it is

incumbent on challengers to offer a clear

alternative to overcome the status quo.

Confusion, fuzz, vacillation and cross-

cancellation only benefit the status quo.

The story goes back to 2000 and the

Ralph Nader campaign on the Green

ticket for president. Reading between the

lines in Nader's book, we'd say it was

More coverage of the DNC

and anti-DNC protests inside!

Reactionary Amerikan veterans criticize Kerry,

whine for more war; MIM talks to the Falun

Gong; thousands march in pre-DNC

anti-war rally; and more!

Some Greens start `Greens for Kerry'

Cobb supporters make themselves liars

Continued on page 5...

Continued on page 4...

Continued on page 8...

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 2

What is MIM?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editor, MC206; Production, MC12

Letters

MIM Notes

The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement

ISSN 1540-8817

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

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

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

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

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

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

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For general correspondence, contact:

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

I am overwhelmed at hearing about the

abuse of Iraqi prisoners, as if the abuse

is isolated

to only Iraqi prisoners.

The U.S. government is basically only

concerned about diplomatic relations with

Arab countries over U.S. military

personnel's abuse of prisoners. Please

don't get me wrong. I am sickened from

what I heard happened.

President Bush has stated that the Iraqi

prisoners abuse does not reflect the ways

of a democracy. American prisoners are

treated with just as much inhumanity and

abuse. The only reason that the abuse of

prisoners in Iraq is creating such

controversy is because of the graphic

photos.

President Bush really doesn't care

about the human rights violations! If he

did, he would put an end to the human

rights violations in the prisons in the

United States. The human rights arm of

the United Nations repeatedly cites

American prisons for abuses, and

tortures.

Many of the U.S. military personnel

guarding Iraqi prisoners were employed

as prison guards in the United States,

before being deployed to Iraq. What they

are doing to Iraqi prisoners, is basically

what is taught to them right here in

America in our state prisons. If they

would have been caught doing the same

things to u.s. prisoners, they would have

been patted on the back for doing their

job.

--A Washington prisoner,

August, 2004

The Imperial States

are a global threat

There was a lot of talk about what this

week's handover of "sovereignty" to Iraq

meant. For the imperialists, it means

another poorer state to die and slave for

them.

Half a world away, there's another

"handover" from the U$ imperialists to

the UN capitalists forces. Again, the

future is unclear. This time we ask can

the Haitians build a proletarian

government that meets their basic needs

and above all, offers security to them

instead of the U$?

The U$ poses a threat [to the people

of Iraq and Haiti]. Not [only] from

adversarial power and weaponry, but

from its inability to control what happens

in its own prisons, and states. Prime

example: the Abu Ghraib incident. The

imperialists couldn't even control their

own employees. They remain a threat, in

themselves and in Iraq and elsewhere--

places like Afghanistan, Somalia, Liberia.

There is a broad band of imperialist

states that can harbor "terrorists" and

"drug traffickers," spark humanitarian

disasters, and undermine global economic

growth. They can be an immense and

powerful state like Texas, where

uncontrolled, corruption, conflict, chaos

and communal violence by the bourgeoisie

and agencies help turn states, instead of

a powerhouse for the proletariat, just look

at president $nake Bushit - he came from

that devilish pit of breeding.

But Amerikans "don't do the foresight

thing." They pay a terribly high price for

their actions of oppression against the

masses: in an overextended military, drugs

in our inner cities, preventable

humanitarian tragedies, and ultimately the

loss of lives as "collateral damage."

--A California prisoner

MIM comments: This writer raises

a good point. Not only do the Amerikans

consciously apply a double standard to

international events--according to

themselves alone the right to preemptive

war while denying other countries even

the right to arm themselves in response

to perceived threats from the United

$tates--but the political realities of

capitalism make it impossible for them to

crack down on those Amerikans who

would profit from war. The

representatives of the capitalist class in

Washington DC may decide its best to

ban certain narcotics or the manufacture

or export of certain weapons. But within

capitalism they cannot prevent some

opportunist from taking the risk, breaking

the law and selling drugs, guns or bio-

warfare agents on the black market.

It's analogous to the case of "Jack"

Idema, the Amerikan mercenary accused

of torturing Afghan men and leading out

his own private war in Afghanistan. Even

if the United $tates was not giving Idema

direct orders, it created an atmosphere in

Afghanistan that made an Idema

inevitable. The wild west atmosphere--

complete with bounties for Osama Bin

Laden, dead or alive--suited their

interests. They cannot disown Idema;

unintended or not, he is there creation.

Bush's reaction to Iraqi prisoner abuse is hypocritical

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 3

June 2004

The Leonard Peltier Defense

Committee and the Boston Area -

Leonard Peltier Support Group were cut

off by PayPal, the web based payment

processing service, for violation of its

"Acceptable Use Policy." In their press

release the groups reported that PayPal

justified the action "Designating Leonard

Peltier as being `notorious for committing

murderous acts' .... PayPal also claims

to have done an exhaustive evaluation of

the LPDC & Boston sites for `offensive'

material." PayPal closed their accounts

and froze all funds collected for up to 180

days.

The committees explain Leonard

Peltier's case well. "An Indigenous

Rights activist & prisoner of conscience,

Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned for

the past 28 years for a crime he did not

commit. U.S. prosecutors have admitted

that they did not & cannot prove that

Peltier committed the crime of which he

was accused. In fact, it was proved long

ago that Leonard Peltier was convicted

through the use of fabricated evidence

& false testimony. Under nonpolitical

circumstances, the courts would have

Demographic

data for police-

state repression

The U$ Department of Homeland Security

recently asked the Census Bureau for a list of

how many people of Arab descent live in each

ZIP code of the country and a list of cities

with 1000 or more people of Arab ancestry.

The Census Bureau gave it to them. When

the Census analyst's supervisor realized this

could be a political problem later, she asked

Homeland Security--after the information was

already turned over--what they had wanted

it for.

The response was laughable: "My reason

for asking for U.S. demographic data is to aid

the Outbound Passenger Program Officer in

identifying which language of signage, based

on U.S. ethnic nationality population, would be

best to post at the major international airports.

Some cases this would identify multiple copies

needed of a specific language sign versus other

cities only one copy."

We want to clarify a couple points. First, if

Homeland Security wanted to know what

language to make signs in, they could have

asked for data on what language people speak

at home, which Census also collected in 2000.

And if they wanted information for airport

signage, there was no reason to request data

at the ZIP code level, because city or county

data would be more appropriate.

Second, if Homeland Security was more

adept at data analysis, they could have compiled

their own lists from the data available to the

public on the Census website. So it's not as if

Census provided them with some dark and

dirty classified analysis. That was not the case

in WWII, when the Census Bureau used its

brand-new mapping capability to provide the

War Department with information about where

people of Japanese descent lived on the West

coast, for use in rounding them up for

internment. At that time, only Census could

have provided the analysis.

What do we learn from this? First,

Homeland Security is using ethnic profiling to

target communities based on their ancestry

composition. This is not surprising, though of

course they would have preferred to be able

to deny it. Second, demographic data collected

by the state will be used by the state for its

own purposes. We at MIM sometimes use

Census data--such as incomes by "race" or

unemployment rates--but we never kid

ourselves that such data is untainted by politics.

We just know that the imperialists have

reasons to try to make it both accurate and

available, and we take advantage of that.

Those civil rights and privacy groups that

are pressuring the Census Bureau to limit such

activity are doing a good job of exposing these

practices, but trying to keep the government's

demographic data out of the hands of the

repressive state apparatus is a losing battle.

On the other hand, a campaign to boycott

Census data collection efforts--just like

boycotting national elections--could be

justified.

Source: Electronic Privacy Information Center,

www.epic.org, has the original emails back and forth
from Census and Homeland Security, and some of
the data files, on their website.

by PIRAO chief

July 17, 2004

We have a five digit figure of radical

books and magazines that in some cases

we must give or in most cases should give

to prisoners. Although we have the largest

prison operation of its kind, we need more

large prisoner lists--from any English-

speaking country. If you can assemble a

list of prisoners who would read radical

literature, please send it to us. We plan to

unload this material this year.

Likewise, if you can assemble money

for the postage to mail books &

magazines, contact us. We're looking for

people who are new to MIM to step

forward, not people who have worked

with us before. We aren't trying to tire

out or bankrupt all our supporters, which

is why this message goes into the public.

Contrary to what many people believe

and expect, the major bourgeois

foundations have never been any use in

assisting us with prison literacy projects.

We've even had proposals that we can

say contain a design of self-defeat for

funding this activity. By encouraging

people to dream of manna from heaven

instead of getting the economics of

activism from the ground up, the

imperialists accomplish much more than

their piddling donations to a few

controlled "progressive" foundations

could ever accomplish.

To those who would say they can

donate to non-profit organizations for a

tax deduction, I would say you have a

point, but not really. If you give $1000 to

a tax deductible charity and manage to

get $400 back from the government in

taxes for argument's sake, then you have

given $600. The question is whether your

money actually went further than if you

gave MIM $600. Since MIM has no paid

staff, the answer is no, your money does

not go further with one of those non-profit

organizations paying for staff, office-

space, phones etc.

I have to warn people that we are not

good at "have it your way" like Burger

King. We get people writing to us with

specific requests as if we are going to

go to a bookstore and buy every

individual item they ask for. That's not

possible. We are looking for people who

want to read radical literature in prison.

Unfortunately, it is literature with a

disproportionate share of material about

the United $tates, but we do have some

variety.

So the first question is whether we can

find prisoners who want to read radical

literature--with a range from

progressive to revolutionary and

Maoist. The second question is what

the prisoner, organization organizing

the prisoner or group inside a prison

wants. We do not have enough of

Marx, Lenin, Mao, Black Panthers

or Malcolm X or anything else to be

able to promise people that they

would get exactly the books they

want, but we will try as best we can

to take into consideration general

requests--political economy, Black

or whatever topic/fill in the blank.

We can pretty much guarantee that

prisoners will NOT get EXACTLY

what they want.

On other subjects--we see a lot

of backlog cleared for the web

page. That's good news. We've

added help from some new people,

but we need still a few more. There

are also plans in the works to make

it easier for more people to

participate in discussion and MIM

work. So again, we know people are

frustrated, but there is a backlog of

stuff we've had to get done and we

do think about how to make it easier

to work with us.

WANTED: English-speaking prisoners to receive radical literature

been compelled to release Peltier due to

prosecutorial misconduct & a flagrant

abuse of power. Instead, 28 years later,

Peltier languishes in the maximum

security prison in Leavenworth, Kansas."

Just as the imprisonment of Leonard

Peltier is a political act of social control,

these actions by PayPal are also political.

While the capitalists roam around the

world stealing resources and exploiting

the labor of Third World peoples for

profit, activists fighting imperialism are

stopped from raising money for their

work.

"We consider this policy & PayPal's

actions to be an attack on our political

beliefs, interference with our right to

participate in the `democratic' political

process, & an intentional effort on the

part of PayPal & its parent company

eBAY to interfere with our (and your)

constitutional rights. Such corporate

actions--as taken at the behest of the

U.S. government, or not--are an affront

to activists everywhere & threaten our

basic freedoms."

MIM is reminded of our interactions

with the web search agent Google in

December of 2002 when they pulled

MIM ads with a bullshit justification

about a policy of refusing

advertisement of websites that

advocate against an individual, group

or organization. (Among the MIM

ads pulled was one for a review of

the movie Star Trek: Nemesis.)

Google freely runs ads from the

Democrats and Republicans which

attack each other, along with ads

from the U.S. military and other

government organizations. Google

also singled out a few keywords in

our ads as improper including

"oppression of children"--taken

from documents opposing the

oppression of children.

MIM agrees with the Peltier

committees that we should use

capitalist institutions like Google,

eBay and PayPal to aid our work

and fundraising. But clearly we can't

count on them, in fact we need to

build independent institutions of the

oppressed that we can rely on

wherever possible.

Notes:

http://www.peltiersupport.org/

Welcome/Boycott.html

PayPal censors Leonard Peltier support groups

Prisoner, lawyer

discuss settlement with

California prisons

Some gains made;

many abuses continue

The United Front to Shut Down

Security Housing Units (SHU) held the

second in a series of California-wide

educational events on 22 July. This event

was in San Jose, hosted by the Barrio

Defense Committee, and focused on the

recent settlement agreement around a

lawsuit brought by a SHU prisoner

against the Department of Corrections,

Castillo v. Alamida.

The event opened with a former SHU

prisoner describing conditions he called

comparable to the torture of prisoners in

Abu Ghraib. This included 3 minute

showers every other day, half the

food given to prisoners outside the

SHU, guards placing bets on fights

between prisoners, little to no

exercise time (even though the law

mandates 10 hours per week), and

virtually no resources to help

prepare prisoners for the streets.

This man reported the difficulty he

experienced socializing when he got

Continued on page 6...

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 4

clear that Nader believed Greens had

gone soft after the Bush election and

were throwing up procedural roadblocks

to a future Nader campaign--essentially

because as MIM has said, too many

Greens are just moonlighting Democrats.

Because of this softness and Democratic

Party attempts to bribe the Greens, Nader

knew he would have to get on the ballot

himself and could not count on the Greens

to put themselves on the ballot--pathetic

indeed for a party interested in the

electoral process and which received as

many votes as Nader did in 2000.

During the Democratic National

Convention in Boston, MIM interviewed

a Nader campaigner who contradicted

what the Massachusetts Rainbow-Green

Party said, namely that they endorse the

Cobb campaign and not Kerry in states

where the Bush/Kerry result is close. The

Nader campaigner also believed that

Cobb supporters are supporting Kerry.

(.wav format, 700kb)

An example is on the votecobb.org

website. On June 25th, the Cobb admin

for the website said, "Peter Camejo has

said that David's website tells people to

`vote for Kerry.' That phrase does not

exist on this site." Then as of July 27th,

the second article on the home page says

plainly "Vote Kerry and Cobb," in

reference to the strategy of voting for

Cobb in most states while voting for

Kerry in swing states. It goes to show

how dishonest the Cobb campaign is.

Anyone involved in politics much can see

that this whole result was inevitable from

the way the Greens went about their

politics.

Purging parties leads to clarity and

honesty. Not purging parties results in

immediate duplicity as when corporate

politicians take them over and claim they

have not. These corporate politicians can

easily form their own parties; yet the

foolish Liberals believe they should allow

all points of view in their party instead of

purging those who disagree with their

main points. The Greens should realize

that there is no issue of "repression" yet

when they do not hold state power. The

corporate point of view is not

underrepresented.

The Greens' picking someone like

Cobb--who the public has never heard

of--is a dream-come-true for the

corporate parties. It shows that even a

pile of disaffected Democrats can do no

better than to put someone forward that

is unknown in a bourgeois electoral sense

and also ambiguous in response to Kerry.

MIM is not the only one to notice this.

The mainstream press has also reported

it.

Thanks to the lack of purging in the

Green Party, there are now conflicting

cross-currents.

1) We have the Democrats pushing for

Kerry in the Green Party.

2) There are Greens who deny pushing

for Kerry out of fear of legal

repercussions via campaign laws.

3) There are Greens pissed off as hell

that this all happened but who have to

put up a solid front for the benefit of their

party. They may even find themselves in

the position of having to lie on behalf of

their party's maneuvers for Kerry.

A party should stand for something.

That is how to encourage political

participation in the imperialist countries.

The clouded politics, lying and corporate

maneuvers mean that the Green political

spectrum has been disenfranchised by the

Greens' own organizational political line.

People can dedicate their time and money

to a Green party and have it end up

supporting Kerry anyway. That is real

disenfranchisement of the real Greens.

MIM opposes Kerry, Cobb and Nader.

Yet we have self-interests in these

contests. The lack of political clarity of

Greens makes it harder for everyone else

working outside the two main parties. It

becomes impossible to draw political

lessons from political activity when a

party does not stand for anything to begin

with. We cannot draw a contrast with

Greens when the Greens themselves are

all over the political map. Meanwhile,

people such as our friends the imperialist-

country pacifists have no party to go to.

On the other hand, MIM and its circles

do benefit from these ugly and negative

Some Greens start `Greens for Kerry'

Green organizational experiences

vicariously. From watching the Greens

and seeing what happens without purges

and also from seeing what the Democrats

are willing to do to subvert their

competitors we learn lessons of a

universal nature. Anyone reading

Nader's book and hearing about his

difficulties getting on the ballot who did

not realize that the Greens became weak-

kneed after Bush's election in 2000--

count yourself naive and politically

inexperienced.

Note:

Sources saying Cobb won't run in

states with close Kerry/Bush races: http:/

/news10now.com/content/all_news/

?ArID=24466&SecID=83 ; http://

www.commondreams.org/views04/0721-

02.htm ; http://www.registerguard.com/

news/2004/07/27/ed.edit.nader.0727.html

; "When pressed, Cobb admitted that

different rules apply in the swing states.

`John Kerry is a corporatist and a

militarist,' Cobb said. `But if you live in a

swing state, hold your nose and vote for

Kerry.'" http://msnbc.msn.com/id/

5518334/site/newsweek/

A pro-Cobb writer believes that Greens

are better served by him: http://

w w w . c o u n t e r p u n c h . o r g /

reiter07202004.html

Nader supporter on how Greens

wanted to start too late in 2004. (.wav

format, 460k)

Continued from page 1...

BOSTON, July 28, 2004--In the early

evening Wednesday on the sidestreets

leading to the Democratic Convention, a

group of early high school age students

approached silently, followed by an equal

or greater number of cops on bicycles.

About 10 minutes later, a different group

showed up and they could be heard from

blocks away. However, cops did not

follow these boisterous demonstrators.

Only those cops already standing on the

corner as the demonstrators passed would

intersect with the demonstration. As the

demonstrators passed, at the last

intersection before the left turn to the

thoroughfare leading to the Fleet Center

the police just shut their truck door to get

out of the way.

About 150 demonstrators this summer

day in 2004 were chanting "Ho, Ho, Ho

Chi Kerry." It was mostly Vietnam

Veterans (late middle-aged white men)

and a sprinkling of twinkies. The chant

echoes that of anti-war militants from the

1960s who chanted "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi

Minh is going to win!" The chant referred

to the fact that the leader of the

Vietnamese resistance war was going to

physically defeat U$ troops. Just as the

demonstrators in the 1960s predicted, that

is what happened. Unfortunately, there

is still a portion of Vietnam Vets who don't

get it. They can be found at the backbone

of reactionary organizations advocating

things like genocide and nuclear war,

which is what they would have gotten had

the United $tates "tried" any harder to

win that war, since Mao had nuclear

weapons and a people willing to fight U$

aggressors if given the chance. This never

stops reactionary Vietnam vets from

saying the United $tates didn't "try hard

enough" to win in Vietnam.

What these particular vets are trying

to do by chanting "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Kerry"

is to name presidential candidate John

Kerry a traitor or communist, just because

Kerry changed his mind after serving and

took an active political role against the

Vietnam War. It's classic scumbag red-

baiting tactics on behalf of genocide and

nuclear war.

We interviewed a handicapped womyn

from Oklahoma who is an official Kerry

delegate on the veterans against Kerry

demonstration. She restricted herself to

saying that they have a right to

demonstrate. There is an interesting point

here, because many of these same

Kerry and Vietnam Vets

A tale of two rallies

Police closely followed

this protest by silent youth

at the DNC (right), while

ignoring the protest by

Amerikan veterans

against Kerry (above).

Continued on page 9...

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 5

delegates and even a pair of pre-voting

age kids carrying signs to repeal the

"Patriot Act" and some others. We asked

many of our interview subjects if they

were aware Kerry had co-authored the

"Patriot Act" and we asked them to tell

us what they believe they can accomplish

as individuals inside the Democratic Party

that they can't accomplish outside it.

The trouble started when the director

of the center came outside to tell us we

were on private property. We told him

more than once that he had invited the

public to his building, and not only that,

with big-name speakers and that he was

not entitled to apply usual rules concerning

"private property" in that context. We

explained further and repeatedly to the

Boston Police that such a claim does not

MIM NOTES DISTRIBUTOR ARRESTED AT THE DNC

even fly in shopping malls, never mind

publicly-funded colleges hosting multiple

public figures. This was a classic case of

wanting to "have it both ways." If

Roxbury Community College had wanted

a private event, it should have organized

it "invitation only." Once the RCC invited

the public, that public does not surrender

any free speech rights on RCC grounds.

A red-tag delegate to the DNC had

gone in the building and come out as she

had promised to interview with MIM

Notes. Just as MIM Notes finished that

interview, Boston cops assembled on the

city sidewalk some meters away to

prepare to arrest the MIM Notes

distributor.

The RCC and Boston cops had asked

us to leave RCC property and go onto

city streets, but there was no way that

MIM could have covered the city

sidewalks efficiently to hand out

newspapers, because people funnel in

from the sidewalks covering hundreds of

yards to the doors leading into the

convention. This is MIM's second run-in

with RCC, and Northeastern is also under

the impression that it can invite the public

and then disinvite them when they hand

out newspapers. That's why we need to

take the legal offensive to get this squared

away in Massachusetts. MIM Notes

absolutely relies on being able to get out

its newspaper at big-name political events.

We are looking for legal help obtaining

restraining orders on college

administrations in the Massachusetts

area.

If you saw MIM handing out papers at

RCC, we would like to hear from you as

a witness at bosmim@mim.org.

Had the issue stayed at the level of what

college administrations can and cannot do

in inviting the public, it would have been

a ho-hum case that we nonetheless needed

to win and follow-up on in agreements

with colleges in Massachusetts. The

Boston Police were wrong in interpreting

the law in RCC's favor, but the whole

arrest became another matter when

Boston Police forcibly took the recorder/

camera with the day's interviews and the

evidence from the arrest.

MIM is currently pursuing return of the

digital recorder via legal means. The fact

that police took the recorder is an outrage

to all journalists and photographers.

Continued from page 1...

BOSTON, July 25

Protesters marched past the Fleet

Center, site of the Democratic National

Convention (DNC) despite FBI and police

harassment before the event and a police-

state atmosphere that included the threat

of random bag searches on public

transportation. Organizers insisted on their

right to march past the DNC and

succeeded in securing a permit just hours

before the scheduled start time.

Police presence was heavy, but (from

what we saw) police did not obstruct the

permitted rally or march. We did not see

any bags searched during the march, and

many groups set up literature tables

unhindered. MIM suspects some of the

more draconian "security measures" that

did not materialize were leaked to

dissuade people from attending. Another

reason to "dare to struggle:" the cops

might be bluffing.

On the other hand, bags in the subway

had been searched and the actual DNC

had not started yet. We saw plenty of

police harassment and obstruction during

the DNC (see the article this issue on the

arrest of a MIM notes distributor).

The march passed by the

Massachusetts State Hall, a beacon of

Amerikan liberty that served as an

observation post for cops with binoculars.

The march went by, but did not enter,

the infamous "protest pen" set up by the

City of Boston as a "free speech" area.

This pen was surrounded on three sides

by metal barricades topped by razor wire

and covered by an abandoned rail line

(seen here with police). Organizers sued

to have the pen dismantled and a better

site chosen, calling it an "internment

camp." A judge denied their request, at

the same time noting, "One cannot

conceive of what other elements you

would put in a place to make a space more

of an affront to the idea of free expression

than the designated demonstration zone."

The overwhelming majority of

protesters agreed that Democratic

presidential candidate John Kerry was

complicit with Bush in the war on Iraq. A

speaker at the kick-off rally pointed out

that Kerry has called for more U.$. troops

in Iraq, increased funding for Special

Forces, and believes the occupation of

Iraq should continue for the rest of the

decade. However, even though the

"anybody but Bush" crowd stayed away

from this march, there was still a range

of political trends present. Electoral

politics was by no means absent. Some

marchers were DNC delegates, hoping

to influence the Democrats' program

"from the outside." Others supported

third-party candidate Ralph Nader (see

other articles in this issue about the Nader

campaign).

MIM supporters passed out about 600

copies of MIM Notes. The response was

generally encouraging, although a not-

insignificant proportion of protesters still

dismissed the paper out of hand. Several

said, "I'm not a Maoist, so I don't want

it." Hey: If you're not a Maoist, you

should want it! (And you're who we're

writing for. Only a miniscule portion of

MIM Notes readers considers itself

Maoist--or Communist, for that matter.)

As we've written before, a progressive

outlook requires non-stop efforts at self-

improvement. Those in the anti-war

movement need to look around and see

what is working and what isn't. Pandering

to the usual liberal electoral claptrap is

decidedly not working--last we checked

U.$. troops still occupied Iraq and

Afghanistan while the draft still looms on

the near horizon.

MIM's report on the pre-DNC anti-war rally

This was arguably both the

most interesting and most

correct sign at the pre-DNC

rally. Indeed, the Iraqi people's

resistance is the principal

factor undermining support for

the war among Amerikans

and stretching the U.$. war

machine towards its breaking

point.

There is an interesting

parallel between the trial of

Saddam Hussein and the trial

of Jack Idema, the "former"

U.$. Green Beret charged

with torture in Afghanistan.

(The capture of Idema was
the cover story of the August 1st issue of

MIM Notes handed out at the march.)

Both argue that they committed their

crimes with the support of the United

$tates. Although both are trying to

exonerate themselves, the tribunals in Iraq

and Afghanistan should investigate these

links thoroughly. That would be in the best

interests of the Iraqi and Afghan peoples

and be sign of true sovereignty. We are

skeptical that either tribunal will uncover

full U.$. culpability in these cases, as they

have been set up by U.$. puppet

governments.

Police

surveillance on

roof of

Massacusetts

statehouse.

Barriers to keep

protestors from the

site of the DNC

The "protest pen."

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 6

The Maoist Internationalist Movement

(MIM) is batting censorship of MIM

Notes at Corcoran State Prison in

California. MIM Notes is a newspaper

reporting on events around the world from

an anti-imperialist perspective. It includes

two pages written by prisoners across the

U$ reporting on conditions behind the

bars. MIM faces censorship in many

prisons across the country including of

our newspaper, our theory journal (MIM

Theory) and of political books that we

send to prisoners.

In this case the reasons given for the

censorship have changed over time and

include: that MIM advocates violence and

can disrupt prison programs, and that the

paper has letters from prisoners and thus

establishes unauthorized communication

between prisoners. Both of these

justifications are just a cover for the

prison's fear that MIM Notes is providing

revolutionary education and organizing

prisoners to fight for their legal rights. In

this country that claims to have free

speech, MIM's so-called rights are being

denied by the Criminal Injustice System

to suppress anti-imperialist views.

One prisoner at Corcoran is leading the

fight against this censorship. He updated

us in June: "Just to let you know the latest

on my prison appeal, regarding censorship

of MIM Notes in Corcoran, I have 2

appeals out. In one, the prison states that

MIM advocates violence and can disrupt

prison programs. The other states that the

paper has letters from prisoners and thus

establishes unauthorized communication

between prisoners. In neither case did

they contend or cite a rule violation as

the cause of censoring. I will take the

appeals to the director in Sacramento.

They are using flimsy reasoning to deny

us the paper and I anticipate winning the

case. Many other leftist pro-revolution

materials are being received and no

objections are made."

In February MIM sent a letter to the

Director of Corrections, as well as

Warden Adams at Corcoran responding

a letter we received from the Warden

justifying the censorship of MIM Notes.

We wrote:

"[W]e believe this censorship is a result

of inappropriate bias against MIM's

ideological beliefs. ... On December 8,

2003, we were notified by Warden Derral

G. Adams that material, specifically the

publication MIM Notes, would not be

allowed to its intended recipient because

federal case law says that institutions can

censor such publications like ours if they

are a risk to institutional security.

"Warden Adams' ... appears to disagree

with MIM's characterization of prison

conditions as `unjust and brutal to prison

inmates.' The California Code Of

Regulations (CCR) Title 15, sec: 3135(b)

states: `Disagreement with the senders

or receivers apparent moral values,

attitudes veracity, or choice of words will

not be used by correctional staff as a

reason for disallowing or delaying mail.

Correctional staff shall not challenge or

confront the sender or receiver with such

value judgments, nor shall such value

judgments be considered in any action

affecting the correspondents.'...

"Warden Adams cites the regulations

correctly, but does not state how MIM

Notes `incites violence' or is `otherwise

`reasonably deemed to be a threat to

MIM Notes censored at Corcoran State Prison

legitimate penoligical [sic] interests.'' The

Supreme Court [has] insisted that an

individualized determination be made that

a publication violates the rules."

MIM Notes is being targeted for

censorship as a publication advocating

liberation for the world's oppressed. The

prisons in Amerika are a key tool of social

control, particularly targeted at oppressed

nations within U.$. borders. The vast

majority of the population in long term

solitary confinement cells like those at

Corcoran are Mexican. Blacks are also

disproportionately represented throughout

the prison system. The prisons offer

virtually no educational programs but put

staff time and money into censorship of

literature sent free to prisoners from

organizations like MIM. We can not stand

by and allow this to happen. Please send

protest letters to Warden Adams at the

address below, and send MIM a copy of

your letter:

Warden Adams

PO Box 5248

Corcoran, CA 93212

out of prisons, going straight from isolation

to the streets. He also described the health

consequences of the SHU including vision

problems because of the constant dark,

and headaches when exposed to sunlight.

On top of all this, the guards are abusive,

trying to mentally break down the

prisoners.

Charles Carbone, a lawyer with

California Prison Focus, was the keynote

speaker at this event. He has worked on

Steve Castillo's lawsuit against the DOC

for the past two years, a case that has

been around for 9 years. Castillo has been

in the SHU for 10 years and is a very

proficient jailhouse lawyer.

Castillo's case made three claims.

1) The SHU denies prisoners equal

protection because it allows discrimination

against Latino prisoners. 60% of the SHU

prisoner are Latino.

2) Long term SHU confinement (5+

years) is cruel and unusual punishment

under the 8th Amendment.

3) Gang validation regulations are used

as retaliation and not based on real

evidence.

The Department of Corrections was

worried about this case. They filed five

separate motions to get the case

dismissed, an action that is very unusual

for a department that can count on the

courts to defend it.

In spite of the strong legal and moral

arguments on Castillo's side, Carbone

described an injustice system that was

certain to rule against them. Prisons are

given wide reign to create and enforce

policies as they see fit, and the courts back

them up. As Carbone himself explained,

Prisoner, lawyer discuss settlement with California prisons

"the legal process is very flawed when it

comes to social change."

In spite of this likely loss at trial, the

DOC offered a settlement to Castillo.

They wanted to buy some peace, a

reaction Carbone attributed in no small

part to the widespread protests against

the SHU both behind bars and on the

streets in California.

The settlement, which will be finalized

at the end of August, included four major

points:

1. The process of validating prisoners

as gang members and thus giving them

an indeterminate SHU sentence must

now include informing the prisoners of

all evidence against them and giving them

a chance to challenge this evidence. This

includes presenting all evidence every 6

years that a prisoner is up for inactive

review while in the SHU.

2. The department can't rely on

confidential informants just naming

names. If an informant claims Jack is a

gang member, he must provide evidence

of what he personally knows Jack did on

behalf of the gang. In the past confidential

informants just naming names was a

favorite way of validating people as gang

members. This "evidence" was very

difficult to challenge and easy to falsify.

3. Corrections officers must explain

why they think evidence demonstrates that

a prisoner is a gang member. It is no longer

sufficient to say that signing a get well

card or talking to someone in the library

constitutes gang membership without

offering some reason that this shows the

prisoner is in a gang.

4. A $20,000 litigation fund for prisoners

challenging gang validation was

established. This fund will be

administered by California Prison Focus.

This settlement is not retroactive, so

current SHU prisoners will not benefit

until they are up for inactive review.

Of course, Carbone noted that the DOC

can still follow these rules and continue

to validate prisoners as gang members

for whatever political reasons they want.

But the value of this settlement is twofold.

First, it achieves some wider education

about the unjust policies used by the DOC

and forces some changes to these policies,

and second, when the DOC screws up

and fails to follow these procedures, the

court still retains jurisdiction over the case

and can hold the DOC in contempt.

Activists both behind the bars and on the

outside will be monitoring the DOC

closely.

One audience member asked why we

can't just go to court and prove the SHU

is cruel and unusual punishment. Carbone

explained that this argument was used

with the Three Strikes law and failed

because it is difficult to prove this

punishment is "unusual" when it is normal

practice in many states. With control units

so widespread in the criminal injustice

system, it is true that torture is not

"unusual" in Amerikan prisons.

Carbone is a lawyer with a clear sense

of the limitations of the legal system.

During discussion he stressed that legal

battles are only one part of the larger

battle to shut down the SHU. We must

keep pressure on in the streets, in the

media, and through educational forums

like this one.

A discussion of the recent prison

agreement signed by Governor

Schwarzenegger in California exposed

the prison system as a tool of social

control. This agreement states that guards

will not be cut unless the prison population

is cut. This directly pits the white

population of the central valley, where

most of California's prisons are located,

against the oppressed nations housed in

the prisons. The white guards enjoy high

salaries and a nice standard of living, but

only if the prisons continue to lock of tens

of thousands of Black and Latino men

and wimmin.

After the event MIM spoke with a

Latina womyn whose son was being

released from the California Youth

Authority (prison) the next day. After five

years in CYA (from age 15), she was

worried about how he would function on

the outside. He was given five years

parole. As Carbone noted, parole is

designed to fail so that people will be

locked back up again. This womyn

became active in the prison movement

after her son was locked away, and she

described her disillusionment with the

Amerikan system that she used to believe

in. After five years fighting the CYA she

was saying clearly that the only answer

is revolution.

Many people at this even in San Jose

recognized the limitations of fighting for

reforms to the criminal injustice system.

This is why MIM puts our agenda of

taking down imperialism front and center

as a part of any of our reformist battles.

We don't want to mislead people into

thinking that shutting down the SHU will

fix the system. But we see battles like

this one as necessary under capitalism,

to expose the injustice and fight for better

conditions for the two million people

behind bars in Amerika.

Continued from page 3...

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 7

August 7 -- MIM and RAIL held our

regular San Francisco monthly protest to

shut down the prison Security Housing

Units (SHU), a part of the state-wide

protests of the United Front to Shut Down

the SHU. At our regular location, in

downtown San Francisco, we once again

found support among the tourists and

former prisoners who pass through the

area. We were joined by two former

prisoners who came to the protest to help

fight torture in prisons. The group of

protesters had a literature table with a

few people asking passers by to sign the

petition, people walking around with

posters encouraging people to come over

to the table, and roving petitioners

approaching people on the sidewalk. In

the two hour protest we gathered more

than 60 signatures and distributed a many

copies of MIM Notes and the MIM

pamphlet on the SHU.

Relatives of prisoners, and former

prisoners, were quick to stop and sign the

petition, thanking us for protesting prison

torture. Several people commented on the

similarity between what happened in the

Amerikan prisons in other countries and

Amerikan prisons at home, eagerly taking

a copy of the August MIM Notes which

had a cover story exposing Amerikan

prison abuses in Afghanistan.

One of our new allies, who has seven

years of experience with the California

Department of Corrections, agreed to an

interview after the protest. He said that

he's never spoken out about the abuses

he's endured, but he was compelled to

do so when he saw that MIM was

fighting prison torture and focusing on the

same kinds of issues he is fighting: "Your

Maoist Internationalist Movement is

dealing with the CDC now on a level that

is consistent with what I'm going through,

torture."

Our new ally, who we will call John,

has been in and out of prisons for years,

never on the streets for more than a

month in a year. His revolving door

experience with the prisons is typical of

the injustice system that is not set up to

rehabilitate people or offer them

alternatives but instead encourages

recidivism. The problem started when he

was young, in the juvenile system. Instead

of trying to help John, they released him

at age 16 and told him to move out of the

state and not come back until he was old

enough to be charged as an adult

(because they assumed he would be back

in the system).

John has a problem with drugs and

alcohol, a problem that continued behind

bars. He has been clean and sober since

his last release, but in the past his drug

addiction led to minor offenses like petty

theft, or drug possession, which got him

locked back up again. A system focused

on rehabilitation would offer John services

to help him get off drugs, but instead he

was rejected for a program because of

his parole status. As John states "it's not

about rehabilitation, it's about

warehousing."

John speaks of harassment by the San

Francisco Police, the prison guards, and

the entire DOC which are all part of a

system that is set up to target people like

himself. He says the prisons "politically

speaking, are a mess ... the [guards union]

are very powerful, too powerful for

anyone to mess with." He spoke of fights

set up in the prison by the guards, attacks

on himself and others. Many people talk

about prisoner gangs, but John speaks

about the prison guard gang, "The Green

Wall Mafia, a gang of guards which is

about a code of silence." They won't let

anyone speak out about the abuses within

the prison. "The [prison guards union] is

politically impossible to touch....San

Francisco won't fuck with them, the court

system won't fuck with them."

John is concerned that the police or the

DOC will try to kill him because he won't

conform and he wouldn't play their games

in the prison. He talks about "the

California DOC, Prison Industries

Authorities, CCPOE [prison guards

union], the private prison firms are all

interconnected, it's all a game, it's all

about money."

He is homeless now, the typical

condition of released prisoners, who have

no resources when they get out, and no

support or opportunities for employment.

John is living in a homeless shelter which

has a curfew of 7pm every night. He is

clean and sober because when he was

paroled just over a month ago, his sister

(who we will call Sophia) told him they

were both going to go clean and sober

together starting that day.

John and Sophia are part of the

Cheyenne indigenous nation. This is one

of the First Nations that wiped out

General Custer at the Battle of the Little

Big Horn. As they say, they've had a bad

deal of it from the beginning. Sophia says

"that's why we're on their shit list from

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.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext

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?

Monthly Cali. SHU protests continue, gain new allies

Former prisoners step forward, speak of their experiences

the start." This nation, which has

supposedly autonomous land surrounded

by Montana (a.k.a. a reservation), is

fighting the government about fiber optic

cables run through their land without their

permission. John says the government

claimed "eminent domain" which means

it can do whatever it thinks is necessary

on what it considers federal land, even

though "we're supposed to be

autonomous." But this is like Amerika

running fiber optic wires through Canada

without asking the permission of the

Canadian government. First Nations

deserve the same independence granted

to any other sovereign nations, not to

mention restitution for the history of

genocide.

On the streets and clean now for over

a month, John and his sister are committed

to staying clean and out of prison. They

support each other every day spending

their spare time before curfew together,

and speak of getting an apartment

together some day. But they laugh

mentioning San Francisco Mayor Gavin

Newsom's "Care Not Cash" program

which made it harder for Sophia to get a

bed in a shelter, limiting her stay to seven

days and not telling her when her time

had run out. The odds are all stacked

against John and Sophia, who both have

prison records. But they are determined

to fight back and are excited to have

hooked up with MIM so that they can

get involved with the campaign against

torture in prisons. John noted that staying

busy doing work like this is what will help

him stay clean and sober.

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 8

German bourgeois politicians have

expressed concerns that U.$. base

closures would cause some Germans to

lose their jobs. This is the same twisted

dynamic that drives the discussion of base

closures in the United $tates and in itself

is enough to show the economic and

moral bankruptcy of imperialism. There

are so many things around the world that

need doing--hungry to feed, sick to treat

and cure, homeless to shelter--yet the

only jobs the bourgeois leaders of Amerika

and Germany can create are tied to the

predatory Amerikan military.

Military overstretch is the hot potato

issue of this presidential campaign.

Neither candidate can talk about

reinstating the draft, despite the fact that

the military's "stop-loss" amounts to a

draft (restricted to those who volunteered

for the military) and calls by some

Congresspersyns for an official draft.

Instead, each tries to sell Amerikan voters

their own snake-oil scheme on how to

preserve Amerikan military dominance

without instituting a draft. Bush apparently

Imperial overstretch spurs

Bush withdrawal plan

is still pushing "Secretary of Defense"

Don Rumsfeld's "transformation" line: the

idea that high technology can solve the

U.$. military's problems. This was the

idea behind the Iraq war--and the

"success" of which can new be seen on

the streets of Fallujah and Najaf. Kerry

wants to up the number of special forces

(look to Afghanistan to see the success

of that approach) and promises help from

Amerika's allies. Of course, it takes two

to tango, and more and more of Amerika's

allies appear happy to let Unkle $am do

the heavy lifting in Iraq.

Both Bush and Kerry want to appear

to be doing everything possible to make a

draft unnecessary. Yet we warn our

readers that the economic system that

caused the wars against Iraq is still in

place. The for-profit motivations to trade

in weapons of mass destruction are still

there. Capitalism cannot bring real long-

term stability no matter how many troops

are moved around or Security Council

resolutions end up passing.

Notes: 1. http://www.time.com/time/

europe/eu/daily/0,13716,436088,00.html

Continued from page 1...

Fort Bragg, NC

The mood at Fort Bragg seems sullen.

Few people wanted to talk, even before

they knew MIM Notes is communist. In

one case, MIM Notes spoke with one

soldier just back from Iraq who just

stared straight forward and said "I don't

want to talk about that." In an odd way, it

was also like talking to some Arab youth

in Amerika who also had opinions, but are

afraid to say anything right now.

We spoke with another soldier who had

toured all over the world except Iraq and

said he had read MIM Notes before. He

chided us "it would be a whole lot better

if people would just vote." This same

soldier told us that most of his military

buddies "don't care at all" about politics

yet and he told us this disturbed him

greatly. With regard to the vote and

freedom we responded that the United

$tates does not bring freedom to other

countries and in fact has the highest

imprisonment rate in the world. "You

don't have to tell me that. I know," said

our critic. He went on to say there is the

freedom to leave the country (and this

led to a discussion of U$ "aid" to other

countries and u.$. backing for dictators).

We pointed out to this patriot that George

Washington stayed, fought and changed

America.

The critic of MIM went on to say that

the soldiers in Iraq should fight harder to

get done sooner and come back. (You

can hear part of our interview on our

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

agitation/iraq/fortbragg07162004.html.)

However, his military comrade said, "the

main thing is that everyone comes home

as soon as possible as safely as possible."

We spoke with two people who were

not happy at all about the Iraq War. (You

can also listen to the interviews at the

same website.) Something we heard from

these two and another womyn soldier in

a family with multiple members in the

armed forces was not so much concern

for themselves as concern for their

families. They did not like the idea that

some of their relatives might fight and die

in Iraq.

Our longest conversation was with an

Army soldier who actually had many

revolutionary views already. According

to him, the United $tates is going to break

up into pieces regionally. He said there

were too many cynical special interests

getting their piece out of the military from

outerwear contracts to Iraq contracts. He

recounted how "war f*s people up" and

went on to tell us about a World War II

veteran in the area who still wakes up in

the middle of the night. Oddly, no one

made a point of Abu Ghraib or prisons in

Afghanistan, but we found soldiers

reading MIM Notes on the subject. In

Amerika, we have a heavy duty.

Depending on the outlook of recruitable

youth of this one country with 5% of the

world's population, the transition to a

world without imperialism will be more

or less bloody. In fact, it may turn out

that anti-militarist work could make the

difference between species survival and

species destruction. Most of the rest of

the world can already see it, so we have

to bring internationalist perspective to

places like Fort Bragg.

Talking with the

troops at Fort Bragg

On August 1, the Vatican released a

statement against feminism. That the

Pope doesn't like feminism isn't news,

but the Vatican's summary of the

problems with feminism is interesting,

giving feminism a very materialist spin.(1)

For example, the statement says, "A

first tendency is to emphasize strongly

conditions of subordination in order to give

rise to antagonism: women, in order to be

themselves, must make themselves the

adversaries of men. Faced with the abuse

of power, the answer for women is to

seek power."

MIM agrees with this partial description

of feminism. Politically, however, it is a

mistake for wimmin of oppressed nations

to concentrate principally on opposing the

men of oppressed nations, because

imperialism is the first-order problem that

both men and wimmin of oppressed

nations face. However, as a statement

of the principle of gender oppression and

the correct response to it, we agree.

We also agree with the description of

the "second tendency," which the Vatican

says goes like this: "In order to avoid the

domination of one sex or the other, their

differences tend to be denied, viewed as

mere effects of historical and cultural

conditioning. In this perspective, physical

difference, termed sex, is minimized, while

the purely cultural element, termed gender,

is emphasized to the maximum and held

to be primary."

Right. That is: while there are biological

differences of sex, what matters most,

and what is within the realm of the social

control of humanity, is how we socially

organize people. We need to accord social

roles to people based on their biological

sex about as much as we do based on

their genetic tendency to be tall or short.

Where does this lead? "This theory of

the human person, intended to promote

prospects for equality of women through

liberation from biological determinism, has

in reality inspired ideologies which, for

example, call into question the family, in

its natural two-parent structure of mother

and father, and make homosexuality and

heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a

new model of polymorphous sexuality."

And further, "According to this

perspective, human nature in itself does

not possess characteristics in an absolute

manner: all persons can and ought to

constitute themselves as they like, since

they are free from every predetermination

linked to their essential constitution." This

is similar to Mao's statements about

humyn nature, except the idea that

individuals can "constitute themselves as

they like" is more a statement of a

communist ideal than a reality under

conditions of inequality. Still, we agree that

humyns should not be considered fixed

by an "essential constitution."

Ultimately, the Pope is upset because

this threatens the patriarchal power of the

Church. As the statement says: "This

perspective has many consequences.

Above all it strengthens the idea that the

liberation of women entails criticism of

Sacred Scripture, which would be seen

as handing on a patriarchal conception of

God nourished by an essentially male-

dominated culture. Second, this tendency

would consider as lacking in importance

and relevance the fact that the Son of

God assumed human nature in its male

form." Right. We are not persuaded of

the importance of the "fact" that Jesus

was supposedly male. On the other hand,

the fact that the Church says God is male

is of enormous importance.

Amerikan pseudo-feminists were quick

to say that the Pope was going too far in

this characterization of feminism. The

Washington Post reports that Frances

Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free

Choice, said: "The demonization of

feminism is most disturbing. It takes

extreme positions that may have been

historically held by five people and casts

them as if they were held by every

woman. The feminism I know is all for

partnerships and is all for empowering

both men and women. The feminism I

know does not ignore the fact that there

are sexual differences."(2)

Maybe the Vatican statement will help

motivate pseudo-feminists to keep selling

wimmin short. But MIM is not afraid to

say we favor complete equality between

men and wimmin.

Notes:

1. The Vatican posted the full statement

at: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/

congregations/cfaith/documents/

rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_collaboration_en.html

2. Washington Post 1 Aug 2004, p. A16.

Pope condemns feminism

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 9

What questions do YOU have?

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

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

and get real answers to these and other questions.

troglodytes do not support the First

Amendment as evidenced by their calling

people traitors with regard to the Vietnam

War.

This particular Oklahoma delegate

while opposing the draft went on to

support a larger military as Kerry has said

by calling for a doubling of "special

forces." In her discussion of this we can

almost hear her saying there is no other

way to employ the people of this country

without a military to absorb everyone. To

MIM, this is an example of how this

country has ruined itself--by hiring too

many troops, cops and prison guards. And

to do what? Fight fascism? End slavery?

Quite the contrary, we have slave labor

in our prisons. No, there is no great goal

in hiring all these repressive personnel that

is going to move forward Amerika or the

planet. It's simply making up for what is

wrong with our economy. If the

Kerry and Vietnam Vets

A tale of two rallies at the DNC

BOSTON

July 28, 2004

We hope you like our coverage of the

Democratic National Convention. Part of

the convention includes the negative

comments MIM received and we'd like

to tell you about some of them.

As MIM handed out thousands of

copies of the August 1 MIM Notes

featuring a lead story on U$ torture of

prisoners in Afghanistan, a few people

said that the Afghans "deserved it after

what they did to us."

Such reasoning obviously is part of an

endless spiral of violence with no great

goal. We told them that they had the wrong

people, that Osama Bin Laden appears

to have escaped anyway and that

children tortured in Iraqi prisons by

Amerikans had done nothing to

Amerikans.

We also had to explain to a few people

the difference between Mao and Deng

Xiaoping, namely that Mao wanted to win

students over with his lofty goals and

political zeal while Deng used

bureaucratic methods such as locking

students into cafeterias in 1966 and

shooting demonstrators in 1989. We hope

to persuade our readers that Mao's

method of political disorder combined with

political zeal was the right approach. We

even had one older Kerry delegate admit

that Amerikans were pro-Deng until 1989,

so there should be no reason for

Amerikans to try to blame Mao for Deng.

MIM is used to ignorant comments,

usually very short ones that their makers

cannot back up with a factual argument.

In contrast, the Falun Gong present on

the Boston Common July 28th told us that

they found all Amerikans to be

compassionate and in solidarity with the

Falun Gong. So while MIM found very

many people relieved to see that

communists are still active--partly as a

check on the state of Amerikan political

conditions--the Falun Gong reported

more universal love from the population.

Before we spoke with the Falun Gong,

we had a pair of people show a real humyn

interest in what happens when Maoists

cross paths with the Falun Gong. The

Falun Gong was staging a very graphic

art exhibit of Chinese torture enacted by

Chinese with convincing costumes and

blood. The exhibit followed a march

against Jiang Zemin. We told one persyn

interested in our opinion that we wished

the Falun Gong would not do this exhibit

in the United $tates or England, that they

could probably do it in 200 countries

without provoking war but that there is

already a war climate against China in

the United $tates that exists among a

portion of Amerikans.

Later, MIM went further and went to

talk to the Falun Gong to tell them about

some comments we received and also our

own experience as Amerikans. We came

prepared to ask the Falun Gong if they

did not believe this exhibit is contributing

to a war atmosphere against China. When

the Falun Gong spoke of humyn rights,

we asked them if the war against Iraq

did not come couched in terms of Saddam

Hussein as a dictator violating humyn

rights. When they said China was worse

than Iraq, we asked if that did not justify

Amerikans in thinking war against China

was more just than war against Iraq.

The Falun Gong stressed that it does

not advocate war or violent means. You

can listen to their full response on the web

at www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/

elections/falungong.html.

We stressed that many people could

look at these exhibits and not take them

the wrong way, but there would be a

portion of Amerikans who already have

reasons they want a war with China. We

said there are some already upset about

trade. Other really backward Amerikans

believe China is taking over California and

still others would like to go to war with

just about any country still calling itself

communist.

We're happy to have had a reasonable

discussion with the Falun Gong. We had

advocated including Afghan and Iraqi

prisoners in their exhbit to make the

message clear if they want to oppose all

prison torture. That's part of why we

offered that if they came with us they

would see some of these comments about

Afghan prisoners and about China, made

by the same Amerikans who support the

exhibit on the prisons in China. These

Amerikans believe the "other guy" is to

blame for humyn rights violations and

"humyn rights" rhetoric is just a mask for

their aggression.

We also tried to convince the Falun

Gong that they are political and they

should just go all the way in their politics,

even though politics is inevitably "dirty."

After all, they talked to us about Chinese

trade, what the Chinese embassy did to

threaten certain U$ localities with a

reduction of trade and how the Chinese

bought off some countries globally to keep

them from voicing solidarity with Falun

Gong. To us, it would seem that coming

up with a strategy to counter trade and

embassy moves is political, not just

something spiritual. Since they are already

thinking along those lines, they should just

go the whole way into politics. Once we

realize that we are in the realm of politics

and humyn frailty, we realize that we

cannot ask politicians to be god-like. We

are confident that when they compare

politicians objectively, they will find that

Mao was the greatest politician in the

Third World since World War II--for

doubling China's life expectancy, bringing

universal education and health-care and

eliminating foot-binding and restrictions

on divorce.

Democrats and Republicans cannot think

of anything productive for people to do

other than join the military, build more

prisons and follow kids around on the

streets, we'd suggest they hand power

over to us and we'll get the economy

moving on serving global humyn needs

and undertaking scientific and technical

research.

The problem with a lot of these

reactionaries is that they don't know what

a real job is anymore. We'll show them

how to organize real jobs and they won't

have to spend all their time campaigning

for candidates to lock up more people in

the United $tates while getting overtime

gravy at Abu Ghraib.

The whole demonstration by these

particular vets and all their bitter

involvement in politics is just another great

reason never, ever to volunteer for the

U$ military, because if you do serve in

the military like Kerry did, the troglodytes

will criticize you and dishonor your service

within their own reactionary logic if you

ever decide some day that perpetual war

is not a good idea. In fact, these particular

genocidal maniacs are so political that

they would rather support Bush and

Cheney who did not serve in Vietnam at

all, so it goes to prove what the founding

fathers of the United $tates said about

Continued from page 4...

how a country with too many veterans

goes down the drain as exemplified by

the European countries of the 1700s

which had too many wars. It's not that

these vets can possibly say Bush &

Cheney did better service than Kerry.

What they are saying is purely political--

that they did not get enough war.

Maoists meet the Falun Gong at the DNC

Once we realize that we are in the

realm of politics and humyn frailty,

we realize that we cannot ask

politicians to be god-like.

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 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

Texas monopolizes

prisoner skills

Regarding the information you sought

concerning the money Texas Dept. of

Corrections makes off of prisoner slave labor:
In the furniture factory we are constantly
being forced to fill orders paid for by TDC

employees. The factory will refinish, upholster
and even rebuild items brought in by
greyshirts and administrative employees.

These items range from bed frames to
complete bedroom and dining room sets. Do
we, the workers, receive any benefits for our

labor and efforts? Absolutely not!

What really sucks is that those inmates able

to work on some sort of craft, e.g., leather,

woodcrafts, art crafts, etc., are allowed to
make work contracts with TDC employees,
but are prohibited from establishing work

contracts with outside businesses who could
market the prisoners' crafts. Instead, the
prisoner is forced to either sell his wares to

TDC employees, or mail them home, hoping
their family can find buyers. Is this fair? I think
not.

I know of a fellow, a Catholic, who wrote a

book and had it published. TDC punished
him for this. Is this justified? Hell no.

In my situation, I am a tattoo artist, yet I'm

not allowed to work my craft to keep myself
in much needed personal hygiene stuff. TDC

won't supply me with these items either.
Instead, if I'm caught tattooing, or with
paraphernalia, I am punished, locked up,

loose good time (not that good time really
matters).

--A Texas Prisoner, April 2004

MIM responds: This prisoner wrote in

response to our request for information
exposing the exploitation of prisoner labor in

Texas. This information shows that it is not
only unskilled manual labor, but also skilled
craft labor, that Texas prison officials exploit

for their own gain. We encourage others, in
Texas or elsewhere, to help us expose these
practices to other prisoners and to the outside

world.

Political repression

in Texas

Though it has been a minute since I last

wrote to MIM, know that my mind and heart
stays securely focused on the revolution to
come. Nature dictates it and the masses want

it. These past few months I've been battling
with my oppressors, which has gone to the
physical, where I was placed in isolation for a

while.

It all started with one arrogant officer

throwing my literature away during an annual

unit lockdown. The pigs reason to justify this
was that the literature was old. And they
didn't hesitate to throw away my MIM Notes,

even a MIM Theory (the date was 1996), some
Panther papers, as well as various magazines.
Then I get hit with a bogus disciplinary

infraction and sometimes some things make
you wanna holler.

In the end I got caught up and landed in

lockup. But while I was there I was grateful to
receive encouraging news in he recent MIM
Notes, especially your stand to shut down all

control units (here in TX they are called high
security). There are other interesting articles
as well that explain and inform from another

point of view aside from those capitalist media
puppets who wish to be called respected
journalists.

In the meantime until the overthrow of

imperialism I'm feeding these hungry young
soldiers food for the mind in Marxism-

Leninism-Maoism as given by MIM. And you

know Malcolm X, George Jackson and Black
Panther Party never go out of style here in
these dungeons.

Our concern right now is the outlawing of

pornography to come next June 2005. Because
I know if they get porn out of the system, the

pigs will target radical literature next. Then
we will be stuck with trash like Stephen King
and Anne Rice.

The imperialists aren't playing games and

we communists shouldn't either.

--A Texas Comrade In Struggle, June 5,

2004

MIM responds: You are right that we need

to oppose all forms of censorship in prison.

Of course, they are already going after
revolutionary lit, like your old MIM Theories!
The porn crackdown just gives them more

opportunity to provoke people and target
them for lockdown.

MIM over CP-USA in

South Dakota

Just received first issues of MIM Notes.

Hungrily await more. I understand that with
the kind of activism you are doing comes

many sacrifices. Know that at the very least
you are empowering those who feel they have
little hope -- this is in itself a sort of

revolution. Thank you; your work is greatly
appreciated at this end. Convicts, some hardly
able to read, are discussing dialectics in the

rec yard. Something beautiful is happening.
Also know that I have since canceled my
subscription to People's Weekly World.

A Marxist-Maoist study group is needed

[at this prison]. Many after having viewed
your paper express interest in gaining a deeper

understanding of their incarceration and the
underlying causes of oppression in general.
Another prisoner and myself are willing to

take leadership/instructional roles, only we're
not sure where to start. Does MIM follow a
study group format?

I am enclosing an article on Native Amerikan

prisoners and imperialism. Feel free to edit for
grammar, clarity, politics, etc. I am still young,

but as I mature, become more educated and
familiar with the MIM party line my writing
will improve.

--a South Dakota prisoner, July 2004
MIM responds: It's great to hear that MIM

Notes has so inspired you to organize and

start a study group. We sent a flyer on how
to start a MIM study group and an article
from MIM Theory to get you started. Keep

us posted on your progress, and keep
sending articles, and we'll continue to send
you literature for your study group. We look

forward to working with you.

Repression in

Oklahoma SHU

I am a female Segregation Housing Unit

(SHU) inmate, and this is my fourth time on
Administrative Segregation (A.S.). I have
spent a total of eight years on lockdown. As

of May, 2004 I have been on SHU for one
year and seven months, for an alleged battery
without a weapon on another inmate. The

inmate that I battered has a paper filed on me

that keeps us separated on a yard divided
from mine by a brick wall.

Nail clippers are not allowed in this facility,

so I am charged $2.00 to see the doctor and
fill out a form, and $2.00 to use the clippers.
This leads me to ask where is the money that

is supplied to run this facility? Has it been
reduced? Even as an indigent inmate, I must
pay for any doctor visit, plus medications.

Where does inmates' money go and what

is it used for? Starting May 3,2004, we are
going to be charged for any form we need for

in-house mail. We are charged for copies of
cases from the law library, legal-sized
envelopes to mail to the courts, etc. Being on

the SHU it is almost as if I am cut off from the
world completely. I have no resources to raise
hell about injustice.

At this prison, slave labor is in full effect.

Inmates work at a planthere called Oklahoma
Corrections Industries. They handle

Department ofMotor Vehicles-related
paperwork. They're paid a few cents an
hour,according to how many huge boxes they

sort through.

There are 37 rules for the SHU that we must

comply with or have ourexercise (which is a

right) terminated.

[From the prison's handout, these rules

include:

"9. Materials will not be allowed to hang

over the cell door to obstruct observation. ...

"15. Magazines, newspapers, and catalogs

are not allowed for DU/PI/PD/TD/TS inmates.
...

"17. Library books cannot be traded

between inmates, left outside of the cell, or
placed in the windowsill. ...

"22. Inmates are subject to urinalysis testing

at any time. ...

"30. All inmates shall be allowed one hour

of exercise outdoors, weather permitting, five

days per week. The Shift Supervisor may
cancel outdoor exercise for security reasons.
If exercise is indoors, inmates will be

restrained in belly chains, hand cuffs, black
box, and leg irons ..."]

If an A.S. inmate receives a misconduct for

not having our shirts tucked into our pants,
we must spend more time on A.S.

Your Notes are an informative inspiration. I

am now being transferred to another yard. I
will fight for my beliefs if I am sent to hell.

Sincerely,

--an Oklahoma prisoner, 5 May 2004

Three Strikes and the

Walking Dead

Thomas Jefferson, the third President of

the United States, felt that slavery was a moral
wrong. Yet, unlike George Washington, the
first President, who freed over 200 of his

personal slaves at his death, President
Jefferson believed that if the African slaves
of the United States were freed, they would

rise up and seek revenge on their former
masters. History has proven that Jefferson's
fears were unfounded; on the contrary, it was

the freed slaves of America that suffered
persecution for decades after they were freed.

The proponents of the draconian "Three

Strikes" law have tried to terrorize the people
of California with doomsday scenarios, of

thousands of violent, bloodthirsty felons
being set free to prey on a helpless society.
These fears are also unfounded. Currently,

there are five to six thousand three-strikers in
prison for 25 years to life; none of the men/
women who would be affected by the

Amendment are in prison for violent crimes.
The irony of the law is that some of the so-
called violent or serious crimes are 10, 15, 20,

and even 30 years old. Yet, the law was written
to get around outmoded ideals such as the
United States Constitutional guarantees

against double jeopardy, ex post facto
violations, and, most importantly, cruel and
unusual punishment meted out for minor

crimes (many of them misdemeanors prior to
1994). Men/women, whose average age is 40
years old, being sent to prison for the rest of

their lives is especially evil when the average
life expectancy is 63 years for Blacks and even
lower for Hispanics, which make up the vast

majority of those sentenced under 3 strikes.

In the months before the November 2nd

election, there will be those who will lie, twist

the truth, give the public another does of

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 11

Facts on U$ imprisonment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

disinformation, as they did to get the law
passed in 1994. After the death of an innocent

little girl, the public was led to believe that
violent felons would receive 25 years to life;
while in reality, people were sent to prison,

and are still in prison, for petty crimes--e.g.,
a drug addict having drugs worth no more
than $2.00 in his pocket, shoplifters, petty

thieves, and those who failed to register as
drug offenders.

Even our new Governor in one televised

debate acknowledged that "the wool was
pulled over the eyes of California voters,"
concerning the three strikes law. But now he

has put on the mantle of all the other career
politicians, trying to justify an unjust law by
saying it prevents violent crime. While violent

crime rages in our cities, those of us who are
the peacekeepers in prison, model inmates,
wait to die slowly, for minor infractions.

People convicted of 1st degree murder are
eligible for parole in 17 years, and for 2nd
degree murder, parole is available after 12

years. But those sentenced for what we may
do in the future must serve 25 years before
we are eligible for parole; if parole is granted

most of the men and women will be 70 plus
years old. So in reality it would have been
more humane and much cheaper to send all

three-strikers to death row, because most of
us will die in prison, our children grow up
without mothers or fathers. As Jefferson

feared, another generation may be worse
without us who belong to the ranks of the
walking dead. It will be virtually impossible

for a 70-year-old woman/man on being
released after 25 years of prison to find a job.
The public will have to care for us with

welfare, SSI, etc., when our productive years
have been wasted. None of us have killed,
raped, robbed, high jacked, assaulted, or

maimed anyone. Yet, our lives are forfeit
simply because like Jefferson, the powers that
be are more worried about admitting a mistake

than acknowledging the unjust wrongs of this
law.

Revenge is frowned on in the American

system of justice. Mike Reynolds, a grieving
father whose daughter was killed in a
senseless act of violence, has done just that.

He has avenged the death of his daughter by
writing and vigorously promoting a law that
punishes minor crimes with a life sentence. It

would be the same if the family of victims in
Court proceedings were allowed to sit on the
jury during trial.

In interviews Mr. Reynolds makes

statements such as "keeping even non-violent
strikers in prison is saving lives." Or that the

Hillside Strangler, who killed 19 women, if the
law were weakened would only have been
convicted of one murder--which is blatantly

false, yet these are the kinds of scare tactics
that are being used to bolster the law. Mr.
Reynolds says that "a few may not deserve

life in prison, but the courts will weed them
out." But in truth, the law has in fact tied the

hands of the Courts.

In conclusion, we that are sentenced to die

implore the voters of California to spare our
lives, give us the chance to serve some useful
purpose in the life that's left to us. The district

attorneys, prison guards union, and the police
have a vested interest in keeping prisons full
to capacity -- which is nothing more than

job security! What does it say of a nation
that has turned the misery of its citizens into
a cottage industry? We that are sentenced to

die are also shocked and saddened by images
of murder and violence. We too believe that if
our crimes were that type, then the

punishment should fit the crime and there
would be no argument from us. But this law is
wrong and unjust: we strikers are in our

desperate hours, praying that the voters of
California will see the injustice of the three
strikes law.

-- A California prisoner, Pleasant Valley

State Prison, July 2004

3 strikes and Child

Protection Act of 2004

In the upcoming elections of November

there is a proposed change in the infamous
California 3 Strikes Law. The proposed new

law is designated as the 3 Strikes and Child
Protection Act of 2004 and will be voted on in
November. Once again, the politicians,

professional jailers, and prison-keepers are
attempting to mislead Californians, as well as
distorting the facts.

If this new law is approved by California

voters there will not be a release of violent or
serious offenders. The newly proposed law

states this clearly. What the passage of this
law will do is eventually release prisoners who
were sentenced under the existing draconian

3 Strikes Law. Again, this law will release non-
violent, non-serious offenders only. It also
increases the severity of punishment for

crimes against children. It may also be pointed
out that many prisoners who are in prison
under the current 3 Strikes Law have already

served years in prison.

The people of California are being asked to

right a serious wrong in November. Many

prisoners were sentenced for relatively minor
non-violent, non-serious crimes. The
resulting sentences were often as long, or, in

some cases longer than received by
individuals whom were actually convicted of
murder and other heinous crimes.

There are people in California who value

their pizzas, or CDs, to the point of agreeing
that the theft of such articles justifies

sentences of 25 years to life, or more. Others
feel that the theft of golf clubs would also
merit such sentences.

Courts, state and federal, including the U.S.

Supreme Court, have ruled that the 3 Strike
Law as applied in California, is not "Cruel and

unusual punishment!" It is possible that these

courts would not consider boiling a prisoner
in old as "cruel and unusual punishment."

These views can not be a true representation
or reflection of most Californians idea of
justice. The California 3 Strikes Law violates

every principle of the punishment fitting the
crime, politicians and lawyer's sophistry not
withstanding.

Finally, we can address the myth that the

extremely harsh 3 Strike Law of California has
reduced the crime rate. Statistical data is

available that shows that counties that have
employed the 3 Strike Law less than Los
Angeles or Sacramento counties, (which have

employed the law more than other counties)
have actually had less crime, rather than the
opposite, as politicians and prisoner-keepers

would have the public believe.

It is beyond the scope of this writing to

produce lengthy statistical data - it is out there

and available if one cares to look for it. To
bring this myth to a close, it can be asked,
how is it that other states with no 3 strike law

have actually had their crimes rates reduced
more than California or other states with some
form of this law.

It is the hope of many that the people of

California will not be duped by posturing
politicians, professional jailers and their

minions into no approving this act of justice
on the November ballot.

-- a California prisoner, June 2004

MIM adds: We have received many more

articles from our comrades behind bars urging
people to vote to modify the California Three

Strikes Law in November. MIM believes the
proposed new law does not go far enough,
and it contains some significant errors,

including keeping the Three Strikes law in
any form, and specifically leaving "serious
felonies" (non-violent) under the Three

Strikes law (see MN304, July 2004). But any
decrease in imprisonment would be progress.
We just need to be careful not to advocate in

favor of this ballot proposition as if everyone
not covered by it deserves the criminal
injustice they receive. Decreasing the

application of the Three Strikes Law will be
progress, but it will not stop the ongoing
injustice of the system.

MIM Notes 306 · Sept. 1-14, 2004 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

sept 1-14 2004, Nº 306 Fragmento del Periodico Oficial del Movimiento Internacionalista Maoista

Gratis

Escrito por mim3@mim.org y

mousnonya

Traducido por Células de Estudio

para la Liberación de Aztlán y América

Latina

El 24 de mayo, Bush salió en la tele

con fin de preparar al público para las

semanas y los meses que tocan en Irak.

"Nuestros comandantes han estimado que

menos de 115,000 tropas resultarían

suficientes en este momento del

conflicto"- dijo Bush. "Dado el reciente

crecimiento de la violencia,

mantendremos el actual nivel de tropas-

138,000- por el tiempo que sea

necesario".

"Si los comandantes necesitan más

tropas"- dijo Bush,- "las mandaré". (1)

El mismo día el senador demócrata Joe

Lieberman se puso del lado del presidente

diciendo en el CNN que la guerra en Irak

era "una prueba generacional". En vez

de señalar que esta guerra ha fomentado

el odio hacia el imperialismo

estadounidense, Lieberman declaró que

habría más ataques en el suelo

estadounidense si las tropas no se quedan

en Irak.

Mientras tanto, los senadores Hillary

Clinton (D-NY) y Lindsey Grahan (R-

SC) hicieron un llamado abogando por

unas "fuerzas militares más amplias".

Hillary Clinton expresó dudas en cuanto

al financiamiento de las mismas pero dijo

que no había otra opción. (2) Es posible

que Grahan vea la guerra como una

oportunidad de trabajo para los blancos

jóvenes rurales de su estado, ya que

Carolina del Sur ha perdido muchos

puestos de trabajo, pero se niega a

implementar cambios.

Los múltiples escándalos alrededor del

tema de torturas de los prisioneros en Irak

y Afganistán significan que otros

imperialistas como la ONU están en una

mejor posición para negociar. En este

momento los gobernantes

estadounidenses están tratando de

aparentar flexibles ante el público.

Nosotros pensamos que esta apariencia

se dirige más que nada hacia la opinión

pública estadounidense, y no tanto hacia

otros líderes estatales.

La diplomática de Hillary Clinton,

Madeleine Albright, dijo que apreciaba el

reconocimiento del valor de la ONU por

parte de Bush el 24 de mayo. El hecho

de que Bush está dispuesto a fomentar

las ilusiones de la población electoral

demócrata indica que existe una unidad

bipartidista.

El MIM anticipa la introducción de un

servicio militar obligatorio después de las

elecciones a menos que los iraquíes u

otros luchadores del Medio Oriente

obtengan una enorme victoria militar o a

menos que haya una desesperada lucha

radical en contra del servicio militar

obligatorio durante los meses que vienen.

Por el momento paree que la posibilidad

de sacar a EE. UU. de Irak es mejor que

nunca: 1) Bush está "recibiendo palizas"

a nivel internacional y hasta cierto punto

dentro de EE.UU.; 2) Bush y Blair

aparecieron ante la ONU buscando una

bendición para la ocupación. Hay que

enfatizar que si bien es cierto que EE.

UU. están recibiendo palizas militares y

latigazos verbales por parte de la opinión

pública internacional, y que pronto Bush

se enfrentará a las elecciones, es posible

que dicha búsqueda del apoyo de la ONU

tenga como su meta una consolidación

de la opinión pública estadounidense con

respecto al tema del servicio militar

obligatorio. A los imperialistas les gusta

decir que ellos "hicieron un intento" con

la ONU y fallaron, de modo que necesitan

implementar un servicio militar obligatorio.

(Desde nuestro punto de vista, no importa

si el Tío Sam decide arruinar el país

mediante gastos de déficit para expandir

las fuerzas militares o implementar el

servicio militar obligatorio. De cualquier

manera el imperialismo estadounidense

está condenado a ser parte del basurero

de la historia. Cuanto más luchan los

iraquíes y los afganos, menos eficaces

serán los mercenarios que llevan a cabo

reclutamientos.)

Los imperialistas jugarán las cartas de

la ONU. Otra carta podría ser la Liga

Árabe, una asociación de lacayos

gubernamentales árabes. El 23 de mayo,

los lacayos árabes sugirieron la idea de

mandar tropas a Irak como parte de la

fuerza internacional respaldada por la

ONU. (3) Un milagro diplomático llevaría

tropas árabes a Irak, y Bush podría lanzar

un grito de victoria para las elecciones

de noviembre.

Nosotros pensamos que es muy

probable que todos estos esquemas se

implementen con el fin de demostrar al

público estadounidense que Bush "hizo

el intento", y de darles a los senadores

Clinton y Lieberman las excusas que

necesitan para respaldar diseños más

agresivos. Es posible que Inglaterra sea

uno de los pocos países que se nieguen a

contribuir muchas tropas a los

imperialistas estadounidenses. Un 66%

del público electoral inglés se opone a que

se manden ni siquiera 3000 tropas más a

Irak. (4) Los imperialistas

estadounidenses carecen de personal

militar hasta tal grado que no son capaces

de continuar sus operaciones ofensivas

contra Irán, Siria o Corea del Norte.

Cuatro hechos sobre los movimientos de

tropas enemigas y la "estructura de sus

fuerzas" demuestran porqué la capacidad

militar de los imperialistas ha llegado al

extremo, dada la ausencia de un

reclutamiento militar obligatorio.

En primer lugar, las tres divisiones

(alrededor de 50,000 soldados)

recientemente retirados de Irak están

clasificadas como "no preparadas para

luchar". (5) Hasta que no se reemplace

o se repare su armamento, en lo cual se

tardarán unos cuantos meses, estas tropas

no estarán disponibles para su uso en el

extranjero. Estas divisiones han sido

reemplazadas por reservistas y guardias

nacionales. Con menos entrenamiento y

un armamento inferior estos soldados

serán menos eficaces.

En segundo lugar, el enemigo ha tomado

la decisión de retirar sus tropas del Corea

del Sur para mandarlas a Irak, y no es

para que los soldados del frente coreano

obtengan una "auténtica" experiencia de

combate. (6) La desesperación del

enemigo es suficiente para que éste

arriesgue un frente (Corea) por otro

(Irak).

En tercer lugar, EE. UU. han empezado

a buscar miembros de la Reserva Individual,
en otras palabras, soldados que durante los

últimos ocho años han estado en servicio

activo o pasivo. Están sujetos a la
posibilidad de una movilización a base de

aviso, aunque no estén pasando por un

entrenamiento junto con la guardia activa
o unidades de la reserva pasiva. (7) Si bien

los funcionarios frecuentemente se han

negado a dar de baja a personal militar en
servicio activo de acuerdo con el programa

"paremos las pérdidas", una activación de

la Reserva Individual es el último paso que
el gobierno puede dar para incrementar el

número de tropas, si se evita la

introducción del servicio militar obligatorio.
En cuarto lugar, EE. UU. también están

planeando mandar a Irak sus unidades de

entrenamiento de la fuerza de oposición
("OpFor"). (8) OpFor son los mejores

soldados de las fuerzas militares. Su trabajo

consiste en entrenar nuevas unidades de
acuerdo con los estándares más altos. La

presencia de estas unidades en Irak

significa que los reclutas recién entrenados
no tendrán ni idea sobre cómo pelear, de

modo que logros a largo plazo (algunos de

los mejores soldados de las fuerzas armadas
en Irak) resultan en pérdidas a largo plazo

(reclutas no entrenados serán aplastados

como moscas el año que viene, y sus
compañeros fastidiados o indispuestos a
luchar terminarán matando a oficiales).

Estos cuatro hechos indican que EE. UU.

no tienen el personal adecuado para llevar
a cabo sus planes, lo cual implica la

introducción de un servicio militar

obligatorio después de las elecciones,
independientemente de que facción

imperialista obtenga el poder estatal. El

servicio militar obligatorio no es más que
otra forma de opresión de los jóvenes, aún

en países imperialistas. Los imperialistas

estadounidenses se han dado cuenta de que
no obtendrán apoyo material de los

imperialistas alemanes y franceses, y ni

siquiera de la ONU. Los socios de un crimen
con derechos iguales se respetan a sí

mismos. Así que EE. UU. implementarán

un reclutamiento obligatorio: los problemas

presupuestarios apuntan a la misma

posibilidad.

El capitalismo promociona una actitud

de "vivir en el momento". Este hecho

envenena el razonamiento capitalista en
cuanto a la guerra. Esta es una de las

múltiples razones por la cual el MIM tiene

confianza estratégica en el proletariado
mundial. Los imperialistas siguen

cometiendo errores en esta guerra (9)

debido a una sobreestimación de su poder
y no pueden admitir la verdad- el hecho de

que su imperio está construido sobre el

sudor y la sangre de la mano de obra
tercermundista robada por los imperialistas.

Sin considerar el insano tratamiento de

los prisioneros y los abusos de los civiles
documentados en previos artículos de MIM

Notes, está claro que nuestros enemigos

están extendidos más allá de su capacidad
y están cometiendo errores. Si se suman

sus cálculos erróneos de fuerzas militares

y sus atrocidades contra el pueblo de Irak,
se obtendrá un resultado claro: los

imperialistas perderán la guerra en Irak.

Cuanto antes sea la derrota, mejor para
todos nosotros.

Estos hechos confirman la predicción del

MIM de que los países imperialistas
desesperadamente necesitados de recursos

tercermundistas, terminarán

expandiéndose más allá de su capacidad e
involucrándose en difíciles guerras por

recursos tercermundistas. El enemigo está

cometiendo graves errores diarios. Pero
nuestra victoria no será rápida:

desafortunadamente, los imperialistas

matarán a muchos proletarios antes de que
sus errores estratégicos se manifiesten en

sus propios países. Tenemos que minimizar

nuestras pérdidas hasta el máximo grado
posible mediante la organización de una

resistencia a la guerra. No tarden en

oponerse al imperialismo: la vida que Uds.
salven puede ser la suya.

Fuentes consultadas:

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

ALLPOLITICS/05/24/bush.iraq/index.html

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

ALLPOLITICS/05/23/senate.military/
index.html

3. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/

story/0,4386,252691,00.html

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

story/0,12956,1224003,00.html 45%

5. 15 de mayo, 2004, por Esther Schrader

http://www.latimes.com/news/

nationworld/iraq/compl ete/la-

naready15may15,0,7845126.story?coll=lairaq-

complete
6. 19 de mayo, 2004 por JOSEPH

L.GALLOWAY Detroit Free Press http://

w w w . f r e e p . c o m / n e w s / n w /

troops19_20040519.htm

7. http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/

05132004/utah/166102.asp

8. 24 de mayo, 2004 http://

www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/
Artic les/000/000/004/

100ctzvm.asp

9. Por Jim Lobe, Asia Times, 21 de mayo,

2004 http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/

FE21Ak02.html

Bush reitera lo mismo: es posible un aumento de tropas en Irak