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MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, 2004 · Page 1

MIM Notes

Oct. 15-31 2004, Nº 309

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

Free

INSIDE: Population trends * Buchanan * Korea * Una Página en Español...

www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/elections

ACTIONS

SUGGEST

OTHERWISE

by mim3@mim.org and

mousnonya

President Bush mentioned the phrase

"all-volunteer" military during the

presidential debate September 30th and

Democrats Kerry and Edwards also

claim there is no need for a draft, despite

the ongoing war in Iraq and the rest of

the Third World. At MIM, we would say

not to trust politicians running for office,

but to trust what is happening on the

battlefields--volunteer soldiers becoming

tired and anxious to get home.

Already reports have surfaced of

hundreds of soldiers not returning to the

Army instead of re-enlisting as required

on September 22nd. Less than two-thirds

of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR)

reported as required. 14 received AWOL

disciplinary status.(1) One deserter from

North Carolina has asked for asylum in

Kanada,(2) which we hope Kanada's

people see to giving.

We celebrate the resistance of the U$

military to the unjust war on the people

of Iraq. Though FOX News refers to

Iraqis as "terrorists" for fighting the U$

invasion, it is really just Iraqi nationalists

kicking out the occupier. A similar thing

would happen in most countries in the

world facing invasion.

As a result of the Iraqi people's valiant

resistance to exploiter-occupation, the

National Guard is falling short by 5000

recruits this year.(3) The Army has also

just announced a reduction of its

recruitment standards, including an

increased willingness to take people who

have not completed high school

education.(4) There is also talk about

reducing tours of duty to six months.

Unless the anti-war movement wins

through a big fight, all the difficulties in

recruiting point to a draft coming,

especially as Republicans and Democrats

make plans for Iran, Syria, northern

Korea etc.

Vice-Presidential candidate Edwards

claims that the United $tates will not have

a draft if the Democrats win.(5) Kerry

earlier had already said that he wanted

to get the United $tates out of Iraq as

soon as possible.(6)

If bourgeois politicians could be trusted

then "politician" would not be a synonym

for "liar" in most people's minds. 38% of

The I Hate Republicans Reader:
Why the GOP Is Totally Wrong
About Everything
Edited by Clint Willis
Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003

Despite having the right title, the book

is not about hating Republicans, not even

slightly. Oh sure, the various articles

lambaste Republican weenieisms of the

last 25 years, but it is still a case where

each Democratic writer "doth protest too

much."

Willis's book seeks to win the non-

existent minds of a public too oppressive

and greedy for even the mild

considerations of corporate power in this

book. Some of the articles are medium to

medium- heavy fire at Republican

positions but many other articles are

passionate little skirmishes generated to

entertain a public too complacent to handle

much more than an anagram or

Quayleism. These skirmishes typical of

Democratic Party activism bring to mind

the quote "His mind is organized like a

factory-outlet store--everything

scattered around and nothing worth more

than $49.95."(p. 265)

As we have pointed out before, "hate"

AGREED,

NUCLEAR

PROLIFERATION

IS A WORTHY

PROBLEM TO

SOLVE

Capitalists Bush and

Kerry can't solve it

Candidates George W. Bush and John

Kerry agreed in their debate September

30th on the most important single issue

facing the president in the next four years.

Kerry called it "nuclear proliferation" and

Bush said it was "weapons of mass

destruction in the hands of terrorists."

They are both talking about how nuclear

weapons may end up in the "wrong

Hands," and Kerry even admitted that

U.$. nuclear testing may itself aggravate

the situation. Our idea of the "wrong

hands" is opposite of theirs, but MIM

welcomes these imperialists to the world

of serious politics: nuclear proliferation is

not a bad choice of subject.

It's just that Kerry, Bush and like-

minded imperialists can in no way solve

this problem as MIM can. As Prohibition

of alcohol proved and the failed "war on

drugs" proves now, black markets are a

part of capitalism. Where supply is tight,

prices go up. Where there is a ban, the

profit margin increases.

Nuclear proliferation is inevitable under

capitalism thanks to the same logic of

profit for weapons sales, liquor,

pornography, cocaine and everything else.

Thanks to capitalist motivation, scientists

may even invent something new for sale

as a weapon of mass destruction before

someone becomes the proud new owner

of a black market nuke.

Under socialism, we do have law

enforcement to crack down on individual

transactions just as under capitalism. Such

law enforcement is bound to fail on

occasion under any system. Not all

criminals are caught.

The advantage of socialism is that

should a black market transaction

This demonstrator at the Republican National Convention has the right goals.

Candidates deny need for draft

Hate republicans? U$ partisan

divide not so serious after all

should be reserved for something to be

destroyed. It was correct in U$ history to

hate slavery and fight a war to make it

unthinkable. It was not until after that war

that white children grew up not seeing

Blacks as slaves. Change came first and

the corresponding attitudes later.

The cartoon writer for the book says to

"hate the sin" and "love the sinner" in

reference to Republicans. Others say to

distinguish the leaders from the little old

ladies in the suburbs. In fact, in the whole

book, there is not a single article about

how to destroy the Republican Party --

only articles about how to win debate

contests. That's why it cannot be taken

seriously as "hating" Republicans.

At the very minimum, truly hating

Republicans, even within the bourgeois

two-party logic of Amerika would mean

supporting a third party to replace the

Republicans. As of September, 2004, we

can see for example that Democrats are

busy keeping Ralph Nader off the ballot;

hence, Democrats are in no way qualified

to say they hate Republicans. They fully

intend to share power with them rather

than implementing a strategy to sweep

them into the dustbin of history, and this

Continued on page 8...

Continued on page 4...

Continued on page 7...

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, fa2004 · Page 2

Editor, MC206; Production, MC12

MIM Notes

The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement

ISSN 1540-8817

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

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

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

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

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

Sponsors pay for papers, distributors get them onto the streets, and officers do both
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Mail), $3,840; 900 (8-10 days), $2,200. To become a sponor or distributor, send
anonymous money orders payable to "MIM." Send to MIM, attn: Camb. branch, PO Box
400559, Cambridge, MA 02140. Or write mim3@mim.org.

Most back issues of MIM Notes are available free on our web site. The web site con-

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

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

long as we are credited.

For general correspondence, contact:

MIM

P.O. Box 29670

Los Angeles, CA 90029-0670

eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

Average Monthly Combat

Fatalities in Afghanistan

A sharp reader pointed out that the chart we published to go along with our story

"No end in sight to Amerika's `war on terror'" (MIM Notes 307, pp. 1, 5) failed to

convey the magnitude of the difference between the number of civilians killed in the

initial bombing raids on Afghanistan and the number of Amerikan troops killed in

combat; it also failed to clearly show that far from declining, the number of combat

casualties has risen in the last year. Here is a reformatted chart using the same data,

which--because a well-painted picture should be worth 1,000 words--we publish

without comment--except to ask readers to keep this chart in mind the next time

they hear some hired talking ass on FOX News or CNN say that Amerika has

brought peace and security to Afghanistan. (Source: http://pubpages.unh.edu/

~mwherold.)

1023.7

24.7

17.7

36.8

4.5

3.6

3.8

200

400

600

800

1000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Source: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/

Afghan Civilian

U$ Military

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.

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, 2004 · Page 3

prison stopped at our table to find out

what we were doing. When she heard

we were protesting torture in California

prisons she quickly signed the petition and

told her sister to sign as well. Later she

brought by several friends to sign the

petition and hear about the issue. It is

not only those in prison who are affected;

their wives, children and other family

members on the streets also suffer. With

the high lockup rate of Black men, it is

no surprise that we find tremendous

sympathy to our SHU protest among

Black wimmin and youth like this one.

In San Francisco RAIL comrades

protested the SHU from 12 PM to 2 PM

downtown. Half-way through the protest,

another United Front comrade, whose

son is being held captive by the California

Youth Authority, came by to help with

the petitioning. Progress was slow at first

and many passers-by seemed apathetic.

Comments such as "I like the SHU" were

heard more than once and are a good

reflection of an overall attitude which

seemed prevalent that Saturday. This

area is frequented by tourists and

shoppers along with homeless and former

Continuing our regular protests the first

Saturday of every month, the United Front

to Abolish the Security Housing Units

(SHU) was out on the streets again

September 4th. Protesters took to the

streets to denounce these torture isolation

cells that hold prisoners for years at a

time. The SHU in California is just another

name for a prison control unit, something

that exists in prisons across the country

as cruel, but not unusual, punishment

particularly targeted at politically active

prisoners.(1)

In Oakland the Maoist Internationalist

Movement (MIM) and Revolutionary

Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) were

helped by the annual Art & Soul Festival,

which brought larger crowds by our table

than usual. We were armed with quarter-

sheet fliers on the SHU for those who

wouldn't stop, and had a constant stream

of people willing to sign the petition and

discuss torture in prisons. In two hours

we gathered over 50 petition signatures.

As usual in the predominantly Black

downtown Oakland, people were

generally aware of what's going on in U$

prisons and were quick to sign.

One 13 year old girl whose father is in

Shut down the control units!

United Front to abolish the SHU September report

prisoners. Youth and street people were

most receptive to our message.

The protest against the SHU was taken

to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park the

following Saturday, September 11th for the

"Power to the People" festival. Activists

from the Barrio Defense Committee and

RAIL gathered about 100 signatures from

a sympathetic crowd. We displayed a 5 x

4 foot poster laminated quote from Steve

Castillo about conditions in the SHU which

shook a lot of people. People stopped

(despite of the busy movement by the

crowd) to read it. The fact sheet was also

distributed. We had some excellent

discussions with people.

This month we also learned of retaliation

by the California prison guards in the

aftermath of the court settlement of the

Castillo case which challenged SHU

conditions and classifications.(2 The

settlement won some reforms for SHU

prisoners. The prisons use secret evidence

and informants to classify prisoners as

gang members, evidence that the

prisoners cannot review or challenge. The

Castillo settlement will give prisoners more

access to challenge their classification, but

still leaves much leeway for the California

Department of Corrections (CDC) to give

out indeterminate SHU sentences with

fake evidence. Several prisoners have

reported increased brutality by the guards,

and attempts to manufacture

documentation "proving" gang

membership to keep prisoners in the SHU

longer.

The CDC recently attacked Jose Luis,

who has been the focus of an on-going

campaign by the Barrio Defense

Committee (an organization in the United

Front to abolish the SHU). The CDC is

using informants to accuse Jose Luis of

gang membership, setting him up to linger

in the SHU indefinitely. Like many other

SHU inmates, he suffers serious physical

health problems from his long-term

solitary confinement. It is cases like this

one that make it clear why we can't just

reform the conditions in the SHU and the

system used to put prisoners there.

Notes:

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

agitation/prisons/controlunits

2. www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/sfbay/

july22shu.html

www.johnpilger.com

review by MIM,

September 2004

John Pilger appears to be an

independent journalist based in Britain

who contributes to many mainstream

publications including the New York

Times, The Guardian, The New

Statesman(1), the Daily Mirror, and BBC

broadcasts. We say he appears to be

independent because many journalists and

publications claim to be independent but

in reality represent the interests of

whoever is financing their work behind

the scenes, frequently making them

mouthpieces of one imperialist or another.

Pilger's work is, for the most part, anti-

imperialist and so it seems unlikely he's

being paid to do this; in fact it's pretty

remarkable that he gets published in such

mainstream press.

One article on Pilger's web site that

MIM likes a lot is a piece he wrote for

the New Statesman in August of 2004

entitled, "Bush v. Kerry: The Fake

Debate." In it he points out that more

wars have been launched by so-called

liberal Democratic Amerikan presidents.

He notes "Although few liberal-minded

voters seem to have illusions about John

Kerry, their need to get rid of the "rogue"

Bush administration is all consuming."

But Pilger points out "The

multilateralism or `muscular

Internationalism' that Kerry offers in

contrast to Bush's unilateralism is seen

as hopeful by the terminally naive; in truth,

it beckons even greater dangers." And

he points out that as Bush alienates

former allies it is possible he will more

quickly lead to a destruction of the

system that is crucial to Amerika's

hegemony.(2) MIM calls this increasing

inter-imperialist rivalry, something that

revolutionaries can take advantage of to

advance our struggle.

Pilger concludes this article: " The real

debate is neither Bush nor Kerry, but the

system they exemplify; it is the decline of

true democracy and the rise of the

American `national security state' in

Britain and other countries claiming to be

democracies..."(2) We agree that the real

debate should be about the system, not

the lesser of two evils. But this statement

also sums up where Pilger and MIM

differ. Pilger sees a history of true

democracy somewhere while MIM sees

a history of class struggle that we are

fighting to lead to true democracy and

freedom only after capitalism has been

overthrown. Elsewhere Pilger points to the

dangers of "globalization" while MIM

attacks imperialism as the system that has

globalized the world economy. The

imperialist system is the real source of

exploitation and oppression of the majority

of the world's people.

Pilger's work (available on his web site)

includes informative pieces on the war in

Vietnam and Amerika's deceptions and

destruction during that war. He has a

section on East Timor describing the

imperialist complicity in the Indonesian

invasion and massacre of that country.

There are also useful sections on Iraq and

Palestine. Pilger focuses on repression

and terror perpetuated by the U.$.,

Britain, and Australia. During the 2000

Olympic games in Sydney Pilger took the

opportunity to report on the oppression

of indigenous people by the Australian

The independent, anti-imperialist journalism of John Pilger

There is a bothersome trend in the U$

media to talk about northern Korea as if

they really knew anything about it. We

hear standardized propaganda stories

about starvation in northern Korea along

with admissions that the speaker did not

see anything in northern Korea to back

the story. Recently, Jonathan Watts

writing for the "alternative" weekly

Boston Phoenix (and the English Guardian

before that) joined the chorus.

Watts is typical in that he admits he

did not get to go where he wanted in

northern Korea while at the same time

knowing generally that the United $tates

is still at war with Korea--the model for

Iraq where an occupation goes on

forever. The basic facts didn't stop Watts

from writing a story how Koreans are

"paranoid" about Amerikan intentions--

shortly after Bush called Iran, Iraq and

northern Korea the "axis of evil."

X Gen: don't have a cow

35-year-old Watts has fallen for the new

propaganda against northern Korea in an

X-Generation sort of way. He sees tension

and talk of war and calls it "paranoid"(1)

in northern Korea. Poor Kim Jong-il, just

another overcharged baby boomer

without a sense of proportion, right Watts?

"The talk of nuclear bombs and first

strikes sounds premature,"(1) he says.

This comes from a writer based out of

Tokyo, not far from places called

"Hiroshima" and "Nagasaki." It's pretty

typical of Amerikan pragmatism to only

speak of what has already been

"experienced" persynally. Watts probably

does not realize that all people in the world

do not share the same philosophy. Some

people even learn from other people's

experiences.

In fact, northern Korea is right to treat

Watts as a potential spy for the u.$.

military. He should not be allowed to

travel inside Korea to plan how to attack

Korea just as CIA assets participating in

Continued on page 7...

`Land of the free' censors Korea

Media knows nothing about northern Korea

Continued on page 8...

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, fa2004 · Page 4

is reason enough by itself to sweep the

Democrats into the dustbin of history with

the Republicans.

Questions that need answering in a true

"I Hate Republicans Reader" would be:

1) How to overcome the money

advantage of the Republican Party in its

political campaigning without competing

like Democrats do to be Republicans Lite.

2) What are the issues proven statistically

to win away Republicans in the suburbs

and rural areas to something new -- or

at the very least, to cause them to cease

political activism.

To understand U.$. politics as it exists,

one does have to read books like this one,

where the passion is often in the persynal

details about Republican or Democratic

lives--this one having stained Monica

Lewinsky's dress, that one having

avoided serving in Vietnam through

connections putting him in the National

Guard (not the way the National Guard

is today). It's a lot of petty stuff that sells

newspapers and generates TV

viewerships--the kind that generates

fascists around the world. "Give people

some freedom of the press and what do

they do with it?" the fascist hyenas

wonder, "Gawk at Geraldo, Monica

Lewinsky and O.J. Simpson, 24/7."

Those of us not just salivating for

another round of insults about Gennifer

Flowers or Bush's lack of a brain

deserved more in 414 pages. We deserved

to be shown evidence of what works and

does not work in campaigns toward

progressive goals. Without that scientific

political element on how to be effective

all that accumulates is political frustration.

The closest that we got to something

useful along these lines was from Greg

Palast, who showed the readers not how

to defeat Republicans, but how

Republicans win--by voter profiling.

Republicans literally won the Florida

election in 2000 with computer

programming to wipe disproportionately

Black voters off the voting lists. We did

not learn how the Democratic Party or

anyone else is going to defeat such

maneuvers in the future. To this day,

what we hear is that Kerry has lawyers

prepared to go to any state. Yet, given

the political apathy that created the

situation where Florida does not have

sufficient people to staff its own polls,

reality is that solving the voter profiling

problem is tied up with raising political

consciousness generally. Places like

Florida are rife with people in love with

Oliver North-style coups against

democratic governance anyway.

In addition to wiping out Democratic

voters via computer, Republicans also

stacked the Supreme Court with its

partisans who found it unnecessary for

Florida to conduct a correct election.

Again, contributor Alan Dershowitz and

others told us the problem--but not how

to solve it. The fact that Amerika cannot

run an election and that the Supreme

Court does not care is itself very

indicative--but disempowering.

Hate republicans? U$ partisan divide not so serious after all

Bridget Gibson writing on

democraticunderground.com showed

how the corporations known as the media

are funding the Republican Party--Fox,

AOL/Time Warner/CNN, GE/NBC and

Disney/ABC.(p. 105) Moreover, Paul

Begala tells us that Enron was the largest

contributor to George W. Bush's political

career. (p. 165) Most of the writers do

not tell us which corporate donors fund

the Democrats and why. That is why a

socialist perspective is necessary to get

the big picture.

Ralph Nader's and the Greens' solution

is that everyone can get an equal say in

politics if we downsize corporations. That

will level the playing field they think. In

contrast, we at MIM believe it is part of

capitalism to succeed through growth of

large corporations and their influence/

bribery of government officials--the

more influence, the more successful in

business. Breaking up mega-corporations

into smaller ones only starts the process

anew. Hence, the real solution is to realize

that global-sized organization is here to

stay, but the only choice is whether it is

profit-directed or socialist-directed. We

do not seek to get involved in gathering

campaign contributions from mega-

corporate donors. That is their game. We

need to seek power in a different political

system entirely that does not play to the

strengths of the fat-cat donors.

On the question of race, the book has

three good exposures of Jesse Helms,

Trent Lott and Bush by Ernest Furgurson,

Nate Hardcastle and Paul Begala. On the

other hand, these amount to fewer than

20 pages while the section on

"incompetence" is over 50 pages.

The question of Republican

incompetence is perhaps the easiest way

to differentiate a communist view from a

Democratic one. Incompetence only

matters if the goals are good. If the goals

are bad to begin with, there is no reason

to complain about incompetence. Bush's

incompetence may in fact speed

revolutionary victory. In contrast, the

Democratic Party schtick boils down to

saying it would do a better job oppressing

Iraqis, Saudis etc. or whatever else the

bourgeoisified soccer mom of the suburbs

is thinking that day. The incompetence

routine is also why the Democrats can

go to the same corporations as the

Republicans to hit them up for money.

The question of "incompetence" within

the current political system is corporate-

speak.

On the question of civil liberties, we

appreciate that this book did not back

down in front of the Patriot Act furor;

even though Kerry co-wrote the Patriot

Act. Stanley I. Kutler and some other

progressives have even managed to get

the facts onto monopoly capitalist TV--

that Lincoln voted to censure the president

over the Mexican war and president

Theodore Roosevelt considered it treason

not to criticize a president just because it

was war time.(p. 328)

We would add that apparently some of

the Liberal founders of the United $tates

such as Jefferson regarded criticism of

the government as so important that they

would even consider MIM "patriots" for

criticizing. One critic of MIM at Fort

Bragg (home of the U$ Army's Special

Forces) also wistfully compared us with

most of his colleagues who he says do

not care about politics at all.

Hence, the question comes down to

what is a patriot. Some have told us it is

the apathetic who are unpatriotic while

people such as MIM who care about

politics and put our resources into standing

up to power are in fact patriotic. Such a

definition cuts to the core values of

alleged "Americans."(1) If it is "treason"

not to criticize, and it is patriotic to engage

in politics, because that is how America

defined itself originally, then communists

are "patriots" and Nixon's "silent

majority" is un-American.

MIM does not use the word

"patriotism" the way some Liberal

founders of America did. Patriotism has

come to mean greedily putting one's

nation above others. Of course, we would

say that Amerikans benefit from MIM-

style internationalism, but we would also

say slave-owners benefitted from ending

slavery. At a practical level, we know that

slave-owners as a group resisted the end

of slavery, in some cases to the death.

Likewise Amerikan patriots in their

millions are resisting changes needed for

future harmony. Defining MIM as patriots

for being involved in politics and civic

duties has the downside risk of evading

nasty and ugly conflicts.

In the end, MIM shares the political

Liberal, libertarian and anarchist goal of

self-directed citizens consciously guiding

their own futures through conscious

political participation that may become

apolitical in some distant day of the

perfectly harmonious communist future.

We believe the process of getting there

is more like Lincoln's Civil War than the

preoccupation of the prosperous with

Monica Lewinsky's stained dress.

Karl Marx taught us to look at the

groups called classes to understand how

our mutual goal may realize itself in the

future. Marx also showed us how

internationalism is key to the realization

of the goal of self-directed individuals

living without coercion. Patriotism is

useful only to special interests seeking

weapons contracts, Iraq contracts or oil

resources for a select few. Those

American Liberal patriots still seeking the

loftiest goals of Jefferson, Lincoln and

Roosevelt minus the genocide and slavery

should realize that their goals require an

internationalist outlook.

We do not see any real "hate" in the "I

Hate Republicans Reader" and that's a

shame. Corporate politics is an obscenity.

The corporations and their government

lackeys have every bit as much

"totalitarian" surveillance and repressive

power as the Big Brother socialists they

condemn, but the goals of the corporate

totalitarians are greed and more greed--

not universal peace, health care, housing,

and education.

Notes:

1. See www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/

wim/cong/noamericans.html.

Continued from page 1...

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, 2004 · Page 5

Imperialist country wimmin are having

fewer and fewer children. The New York

Times finally ran an article in August

admitting that the "population bomb" of

1960s lore looks like a dud. In 1968, the

UN worried about 12 billion people

existing in 2050. Now 9 billion seems

likely--still a 50% increase from now.(1)

The decline is both in the imperialist

countries and the Third World-- the

whole world.

The underlying reason that population

theorist Malthus is proving wrong again

this time (and Mao right by the way) is

the dynamics of leisure-time. After

centuries of being coerced into having

children by parents and grandparents and

by the economic necessity of having

someone as a caretaker in old age, we

are now seeing a drop-off in the birth rate.

Whereas it used to be necessary to have

maybe 10 children to see two survive,

now parents have fewer and fewer

children in the rich countries, because

health-care is good enough to see most

children survive and because wimmin now

have more opportunities open to them than

in the past.

As a larger portion of wimmin work in

the rich countries, we see that on average

wimmin are choosing to put their time into

career and non-children-oriented leisure-

time lives rather than children-oriented

leisure-time lives. Many richer wimmin

have figured out that they will not die if

they have no children. Thanks to various

lacks of opportunity and superstitions,

wimmin only rarely came to that

conclusion in the past.

This is not to say it is the case of every

single imperialist country womyn to give

up motherhood-- of course not. Many

still choose "traditional family." The point

is the percentages or average.

Although the U.$. population is not

declining, it has ceased growing in the old

patterns. According to a Rutgers study,

"just one-third of American households

are choosing to have children. That's

down from 80 percent in the mid-1800s

and 50 percent in 1960. By 2010, the US

Census Bureau projects just one-quarter

of all American households will have

children living in them."(2)

No matter who preaches, a powerful

trend like the one we are seeing now does

not alter course. The Pope is famous for

advocating no birth control and large

families--especially relative to

Protestantism. Yet, in Italy, a recent poll

found 52% of females aged 16 to 24 plan

to have no children.(3) It's powerful proof

of Marx's science that ideas do not move

history: underlying material forces do.

"By 2000, Italy's fertility rate was

Western Europe's lowest, at 1.2 births per

woman. Its population is expected to drop

20 percent by midcentury.

"Italy plummeted right past wealthy,

liberal, Protestant Denmark, where

women got birth control early. Denmark

was below population replacement level

in 1970, at 2.0 births per woman, and slid

to 1.7 by 2001."(1)

The United $tates is averaging 2.13

births per womyn,(1) enough to break

even in population. The crypto-racists like

Patrick Buchanan are concerned that

within that white wimmin have given up

on Christian family like the Europeans.

Apparently, having a Pope in the backyard

is not good enough, so self-professed

"counterrevolutionary" Patrick Buchanan

has given praise to fascist Franco, the

general in Spain who took power with

help from Mussolini and Hitler.(4) Yet,

even there, the land of Franco has

reached a point where it has the lowest

birthrate in Europe according to

Buchanan.

Even in the least Westernized of the

main majority-white countries--Russia--

Buchanan recounts that population will fall

from 147 million to 114 million by 2050

thanks to a birthrate of 1.35 children per

womyn.(4)

One of the biggest changes for wimmin

since Mao's absolutely revolutionary

advances for wimmin is occurring right

now in Japan, where the taboo against

wimmin staying unmarried after 30 is

suddenly gone with more than half

unmarried after 30.(5) In 1985, 30.6% of

Japanese wimmin were unmarried in their

late 20s. Now it is 54%.(6) Among

couples, the average produces 1.32

children,(6) when 2.08 is necessary to

replace Japanese population.

Here's another interesting leisure-time

dynamic--Japan's check-ins at love

hotels are off 20% or more in the last

five years. Love hotels used to have one

purpose dedicated to a couple hours of

action. Now they have shifted to Karaoke

and video games.(6)

Meanwhile, Japanese divorce has also

increased from 1.3 divorces per 1000

people in 1990 to 2.3 in 2002, which is

still below the U.$. 4.0 per 1000 people.(6)

The most revealing of all is that economic

factors appear to underlie the new

choices of wimmin. Young wimmin live

with prosperous parents who do not have

overcrowded houses as they did 50 or 100

years ago. The perception of both male

and female singles in Japan is that living

together with the opposite sex would result

in a decrease in living standards--59.9%

in the case of wimmin who live with their

parents and 58.2% of men who live with

their parents. Even among singles living

apart from their parents, most perceive

not much gain in shacking up. Only 20.9%

see their living standards would increase

that way among wimmin singles and

14.2% among men.(6) These economic

and sociological complexities have found

their expression in the idea that "the good

men are all married." "Good men"

translates as sufficiently richer than the

wimmin's parents that Japanese single

wimmin would not feel a disadvantage of

doing chores around the house.

In many ways, the Japanese situation

is the most revealing of all the imperialist

country situations, because the situation

of Japanese wimmin had been most

backward of the imperialist countries--

with no permission for careers or staying

unmarried after 30 up until recently.

Today we see that Japan may have to

choose between letting wimmin work or

taking in immigrants, something very

psychologically difficult for the Japanese

labor aristocracy and rulers. A survey has

also uncovered what really used to keep

the Japanese family glued together--not

love, but money. It just so happens that in

this odd moment in history, Japanese

wimmin expect to have a lower standard

of living if they marry Japanese men. It

is better to live with one's parents

economically- speaking--not in every

case, but on average. So now, Japanese

wimmin have lost interest in Japanese

men--not in every case but on average.

This shows in the statistics and disproves

ages of received "wisdom" on the family.

The Japanese case definitely reinforces

MIM's theory that leaves open the

possibility that sex may disappear as non-

sexual coercion of wimmin disappears.

It certainly seems that if desire is only

the eroticization of power, when power

disappears, desire may also. Already

Japanese report having sex less than one

third as much as Amerikans--36 times a

year to 124 for Americans.(6)

The Japanese statistics raise the

question whether Japanese men will be

able to change a few cultural habits and

then woo Japanese wimmin again or

whether there is a more profound trend,

even more radical than that by Japanese

and international standards. Right now it

looks like the truth may very well be that

Japanese wimmin submitted for centuries

as a favor to men and as a factor in peace

at home. Now that wimmin are OK

economically in Japan without boyfriends

or husbands, the romance culture goes

out the window--not in every single case

but in the majority.

The reactionaries may oppose the trend

by giving ever steeper tax cuts to people

who have children. As that becomes the

only way to bribe people into having

family, the traditional brainwashing on the

family will stand only more exposed. The

risk is that the entire people will realize

that money holds the whole thing

together.

MIM does not have a theory for all the

leisure- time reasons that well-off people

prefer a life of partying or socializing to a

life of raising children. The invention of

the pill may be an explanation for some

of the increased leisure-time spent

enjoying life instead of raising children.

However, we can say that the facts prove

that coercion was an essential part of the

family unit prior to the economic

prosperity and independence of wimmin

seen in the imperialist countries today.

There is no other possible explanation for

why better-off wimmin choose to have

fewer children or forego gender relations

entirely as in Japan.

Even Patrick Buchanan admitted the

truth about wimmin's choices--if only in

one sentence in a whole book in which

he tries to invalidate those choices: "This

is not a matter of conspiracy but of

consensus, of free choice. European

women have decided they want one or

two children, or none, and they have the

means--contraception, sterilization, and

abortion."(7) Birth rates are higher in

more coercive cultures. Whether referred

to as a duty to God, country or family, the

raising of children by many wimmin in

the past looks rather forced, now that we

see what wimmin would do in better-off

circumstances economically-speaking.

MIM would like to see the coercion of

wimmin in the family unit reduced

internationally.

MIM celebrates the choices of the white

wimmin to become more independent and

enjoy themselves. It means that many

fewer troops available to destroy Iraq,

occupy Korea, Haiti and Afghanistan etc.

In the short and medium-run the facts of

war and peace are much more important

than anything about population.

Notes:

1. DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.,

"Demographic `Bomb' May Only Go

`Pop!'" New York Times 29Aug2004.

2. Carlene Hempel, "No kids, please,"

Boston Globe Magazine 22Feb2004, p.

19.

3. Patrick J. Buchanan, The Death of

the West: How Dying Populations and

Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country

and Civilization (NY: Thomas Dunne

Books, 2002), p. 16.

4. Patrick J. Buchanan, The Death of

the West: How Dying Populations and

Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country

and Civilization (NY: Thomas Dunne

Books, 2002), p. 17.

5. Patrick J. Buchanan, The Death of

the West: How Dying Populations and

Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country

and Civilization (NY: Thomas Dunne

Books, 2002), p. 21.

6. USA Today 3June2004, pp. 15a, 17a.

7. Buchanan, p. 99.

Demographic facts back MIM line on gender

Coercion was an essential part of the

family unit prior to the economic
prosperity and independence of wimmin

seen in imperialist countries today.

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, fa2004 · Page 6

The facts of population growth are

pointing to serious cranky white nationalist

outbursts in the coming years. The

strategy of Patrick Buchanan is out in the

open in his book The Death of the West:

"Only a social counterrevolution or a

religious awakening can turn the West

around before a falling birthrate closes

off the last exit ramp and rings down the

curtain on Western Man's long-running

play. But not a sign of either can be seen

on the horizon."(1) In order to save

"Western civilization" from population

suicide, Buchanan has become the official

theorist of the Amerikkkan trailer trash.

"Go Bubba, go! Get your honey to squeeze

out another rug-rat!" Talk about the

barbarians from within!

He has seen correctly that the

demographic trend toward aging

disproportionately affects the imperialist

countries and that means the "white race."

Repeatedly he says that he has to admit

that the Western culture he cherishes may

be doomed.(1)

Buchanan does not give any reason for

why he wants to preserve the white race

or why Third World people cannot take

up Western culture, in which he counts

Marxism. Instead, knowing full well that

demographic tides are impossible for

anybody to overturn, Buchanan calls for

a "shoot-for-the-moon" strategy--an

extremely dangerous one with all the main

rules written by Hitler.

Buchanan argues a la Hitler that

cosmopolitan elites have ruined the West

with their decadent pornographic

culture(2) that causes wimmin to enjoy

life and not raise children in stable

families. (Buchanan's argument is so out-

of-date and old- fashioned, most people

today won't see that it is from Hitler's

book Mein Kampf and earlier reactionary

works. In other words it may seem that

what Buchanan is saying is even "novel.")

Buchanan recognizes full well that the

way things are there will be no one to

pay the social security pensions when all

the whites of the current generation retire

in the United $tates and Europe. (This

might be one reason he made the

observation that he could tolerate a 90%

tax for some tax brackets.(3)) Despite

the facts about the danger to pensions in

the imperialist countries, Buchanan

actually wants to halt immigration, not

increase it! In other words, he sees things

getting out of wack soon and he wants to

make it worse.

Buchanan also raises hoary stories

about politically correct people run amok

and treating Blacks too liberally.(4) They

need to be under more control Buchanan

says; even though the prisons already

hold a higher percentage of Blacks than

Stalin's peacetime prisons held of Soviet

citizens--something Nixon propagandist

Buchanan and the like never mention

anywhere.

We should be clear that even rich retired

people with many assets can face a life

of ruin without immigration from the

Third World. What MIM is calling for is

difficult for whites to see but not entirely

opposed to their interests and even

Buchanan obliquely acknowledges it.

Money is worthless with no one to hire

or with a ruinous inflation caused by too

few workers to produce goods and

services. (This is another reason that

commodity fetishism is just that--

fetishism. Having big numbers in the bank

account mean nothing if the

demographics are not right.)

In other words, Buchanan is betting that

25 years from now, imperialist

governments will not raise taxes

sufficiently. He won't be too sad if social

security disappears. That's part of

"socialism" in the baby-talk of this sort

of reactionary anyway. This is the kind

of guy who sees millions die in Russia

from diminishing pensions and alcoholism

and without batting an eyelash says the

sacrifice is necessary for capitalist

success hundreds of years in the Russian

future.

Drawing a comparison with ancient

empires destroyed by "barbarians" from

within, Buchanan says that immigrants

from the Third World do not assimilate

into Western culture. They move in and

simply reproduce without changing or

improving, he says. Of course he points

to the 911 hijackers as an example of

immigration, even though the white nation

he loves arrived by immigration too.(5)

Buchanan calls on the whites to go back

to the Christian family to reproduce and

do without all the disruption caused by

immigration.(6) With their social services

being higher than in the United $tates, the

Europeans according to Buchanan are in

deeper trouble than the Amerikans, and

this is part of the reason that Buchanan

claims to want to withdraw from Europe

and empire generally. Maybe he sees the

writing on the wall and wants to give

fascism a chance to rise again in Europe.

In any case, Buchanan says Europe

would have to allow in 1.4 billion Third

World emigrants in order to maintain the

present level of social-services in Europe

in 2050.(7) For this reason, he says

Europe is headed to being a "Third World

continent."

To all the short-sighted labor

bureaucrats and labor aristocrats

attacking NAFTA and GATT agreements

because they allow Third World workers

to "steal our jobs," MIM points out that

Pat Buchanan and the KKK agree with

you.

It is very clear that Buchanan intends

fully to unite with the Naders and social-

democrats to stop the stealing of "our

jobs." "As the Battle of Seattle showed,

the passion and fire, be it laborite,

Naderite or Far Right, were outside the

hall in the street."(8) As far as MIM is

concerned, we've been down that road

before of idiotic racist social-democrats

paving the way to fascist victory. What

Buchanan is talking about underscores the

urgency of taking up the MIM line and

only the MIM line in the imperialist

countries. The rare internationalist social-

democrats who want reforms to open the

borders, reduce tariffs on the Third World

and internationalize any agricultural

subsidies are our friends. The majority of

social-democrats are the conscious and

unconscious instigators of fascism. They

demand high levels of social services

while undercutting the means for paying

for them.

With luck, Buchanan is thinking that

there won't be enough workers to pay

for social security, so the welfare state

will come tumbling down. With bad luck

from Buchanan's point of view, taxes will

go up very high to cover the welfare state,

but at least the taxes will provide a

deterrent to immigration these white

nationalists think. Working for the

Republican Party most of his life with a

mantra of cutting taxes and big

government, Buchanan has offered a

glimpse of unity with the taxers if he can

save Christianity and the racial

composition of the imperialist countries.

Perhaps there can be a major threat to

pensions and a rise in taxes without a

social explosion landing in fascism. MIM

would not bet on it in the imperialist

countries, which is another reason to

favor the MIM platform to open the

borders and work on getting white people

used to it. While Buchanan is a simple-

minded and open enemy, in many ways

the European social-democratic

nationalist or racist is the worst enemy.

The racist social-democrat demands

services while also opposing immigration,

thereby creating the worst sort of

economic crisis that plays right into fascist

hands when the public becomes frustrated

for social and economic reasons it does

not understand.

As MIM has said in Imperialism and

Its Class Structure in 1997 if there is one

concession that makes sense to make to

the labor aristocracy, it is their pensions

in return for political quietude. The MIM

line championing the Third World

proletariat and opening the borders of

imperialist countries--if carried out

quickly enough--can provide a sufficient

basis to pay a pension to retiring

imperialist country workers. One has to

let in immigrants now if they are to have

children to support others in old age. With

the line of Buchanan or Nader, the

economic or tax basis for support of social

security will be very much in doubt.

It will be far better to handle some

insecurities about jobs now than to face

a crisis of social security and stupid white

nationalists complaining about that and a

sudden influx of immigrants later. The

whites need to prepare themselves now

for the MIM line on the Third World and

stop borrowing money from the world to

attack Third World countries, which are

going to be providing the economic well-

being of elderly whites if anyone does.

Instead of bowing to economic

necessity, Buchanan makes it clear that

he seeks to impose minority rule:

"Western civilization and culture are

superior. One-person, one-vote

democracy is not an inviolate principle. .

. On a global basis it will not do. With 4

percent of the world's people and 30

percent of its economic wealth and

military power, Americans should be the

last people on earth to be babbling

nonsense about the equality of

nations."(9)

If the species survives weapons of

mass destruction and environmental

destruction by 2050 and socialism does

not seize the world by then, there may

well be a competition in reformist

internationalism instead of nationalism.

More advanced countries will realize that

it makes sense to get along with large

numbers of people including peoples who

are having many children. The narrow-

minded will fall by the economic wayside.

Notes:

1. Patrick J. Buchanan, The Death of

the West: How Dying Populations and

Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country

and Civilization (NY: Thomas Dunne

Books, 2002), p. 47. "The rise of feminism

spells the death of the nation and the end

of the West." Ibid., p. 42. "The death of

the West may already be baked in the

cake." Ibid., p. 231. "Candor compels one

to admit that the prognosis is not good."

Ibid., p. 264.

2. Ibid., e.g., p. 84.

3. Ibid., p. 37.

4. Ibid., e.g., p. 70.

5. Ibid., p. 235.

6. See for example Buchanan's call for

religious war to stop gay marriage: http:/

/ w w w . t h e a m e r i c a n c a u s e . o r g /

patyesvirginia.htm

7. Ibid., p. 22.

8. Ibid., p. 240.

9. Ibid., p. 246.

White nationalism on the horizon

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, 2004 · Page 7

According to Nixon and Reagan

servant Patrick Buchanan, lifestyle

politics and culture warfare have

succeeded where Lenin failed in his direct

assault on capitalist state power and

organization. At the same time, Buchanan

makes the case that demographic and

cultural changes will end up being truly

revolutionary.

So our readers may wonder: why not

get on the sex-drugs-and-rock'n'roll

bandwagon? If Buchanan is afraid of the

lifestyle revolution, then it cannot be all

bad.

However, MIM starts from the premise

that lifestyle is not politics. What

Buchanan is talking about happens

because of underlying economic and

demographic factors. Preaching about

them does not work.

The advance of technology is

responsible for some changes. It is futile

to preach against contraception such as

the pill or the "morning-after pill." In such

matters the language of "choices" is

bound to triumph.

It is also backward to lust for the days

when a mother could be sure more than

half her children would die before growing

up just from the normal course of

infectious disease and hunger. Trying to

undo these changes will only produce

insane social movements akin to

Hitler's--doomed no matter how

determined.

When wimmin started going to college

en masse that created a basis for

temporary sexual relations before career

and family settled in. To oppose college

because of that is also backward and

hopeless. People want to be more

educated. While other people are having

fun in society, it is also impossible to see

any value in discriminating against gays.

MIM has actively opposed discrimination

against gays since before its foundation

with its current name in 1984.

In these subjects, Buchanan would label

us "cultural revolutionaries" lumped in

with bourgeois reactionaries such as

Hillary Clinton. To add insult to injury,

From a protestor at the Republican
National Convention 2004. Anyone
who thinks the United $tates can
spread freedom needs to think
again.

So why not get involved in the `culture wars'?

MIM would not favor any censorship of

the arts or media including pornography

that Buchanan could come up with under

capitalism. It would inevitably aim at the

proletariat and oppressed nationalities

while campaign contributors would obtain

monopolies in pornography production,

just as now the "oldest profession" is tied

up with bribery of municipal governments

everywhere.

Nonetheless, we oppose pornography

under socialism and for party members

we expect monogamy. We're also for

banning reactionary artistic works, not just

as bad influences on children but for all

of society. The key is that this must be

done without any eye toward profit or

business competition whatsoever and of

course that means socialism.

For MIM, humyn advancement is not

a story of culture and passing it on through

the generations. It is about economic

and social organization first of all. If the

mode of production is advanced, the

culture built on top of it will be too. In

fact, Buchanan's ideas are throwbacks

to more economically and technologically

backward days--not days when cloning

and test-tube babies are already on the

horizon. For that matter if Buchanan is

so sure that Western culture is so superior,

it will find a way to transmit itself to other

peoples.

In the struggle toward socialism or to

adjust to future changes, the labor

aristocracy of the West has a choice. It

can continue with its Pavlov-dog type

response backing nationalist politicians like

Buchanan because of past economic

rewards for backing wars for plunder or

super-exploitation of immigrants or the

labor aristocracy can realize that the bad

ole' days for wimmin are gone. There is

no reason wimmin should be baby

factories especially in rich countries and

there is no shortage of population in

projections up to 2050. What is important

is not to produce more people but for the

existing people to enter into harmonious

relations.

succeed, there is no place to spend the

money. Large cash transactions are

criminal under socialism. It is the fact that

capitalism makes so many luxury goods

and properties available for cash that

makes the black market attractive. It is

especially funny to see people like Donald

Rumsfeld complain about northern Korea

selling nuclear commodities while he is

heading up agencies pumping out millions

of dollars of capitalist propaganda to

northern Korea and elsewhere.

To those who say the economy would

collapse without the same motivations of

luxury goods and property available to the

rich, we would ask them who they are

kidding. They should see what will happen

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION

to the economy when a few nukes go off

in a few cities. If we all had to live under

economic conditions similar to Stalin's

Soviet Union, before we mastered

improving living standards under

socialism, it would still be better than the

current capitalist alternative which

guarantees nuclear and other disasters,

as even one of the world's top investors

named Warren Buffet has already

admitted.(2)

Notes:

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

A L L P O L I T I C S / 0 9 / 3 0 /

debate.transcript.1/index.html

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

mn/html/mn260.html

Continued from page 1...

Spreading

what?

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?

government, describing the apartheid-like

conditions and repressive legislation.

On September 16th Pilger published an

article in the New Statesman entitled

"The most important terrorism is `ours.'"

In it he condemns Amerikan and British

terrorism in Iraq, Israeli terrorism in

Palestine, and Russian terrorism in

Chechyna. Reporting like this makes a

valuable contribution to anti-imperialist

struggles around the world. MIM takes

things further, not only exposing imperialist

terrorism, but also supporting national

liberation struggles around the world, and

stating clearly the need to overthrow the

corrupt and rotting system of imperialism

in the struggle towards communist society.

Notes:
1. The New Statesman claims to be socialist at
best is just a liberal mouthpiece for the left wing
of the Labour party and some liberal revisionists
using the term "socialism."
2. "Bush v Kerry: The Fake Debate,"
pilger.carlton.com/print/133343.

Pilger

Continued from page 3...

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, fa2004 · Page 8

the public already believes that a draft is

coming in a second Bush term in office

and 18% in a Kerry term in office.(7)

Even if Kerry is elected and persynally

wants to get troops out of Iraq, the class

he represents won't just blithely let him

walk out of Iraq! That's why he is now

campaigning to "win" the war in Iraq

partly by expanding the military.

If Bush loses the election we at MIM

think it will in large part be because U.$.

voters decided he failed to murder and

bribe the right people to get the price of

oil down. There is not a great opposition

to the war in principle. The basic lust for

Third World resources in the united $tates

is one more reason MIM never

campaigns for the economic demands of

Amerikans. A demand for higher pay at

any legal U$ workplace only creates a

Candidates deny need for draft

political atmosphere where people also

demand wars for oil. Amerikans need to

understand that it is their economic

demands throwing the global environment

and military situation out of wack.

The demands that we do support are

those of people who want to live and not

participate in imperialist war. We side

completely with the protests of the middle

classes which are starting to see their kids

come back from Iraq in aluminum boxes

or missing arms, legs, eyes, and who

knows what else.

MIM offers Amerika a clear choice

based on the cold realities: Continue to

suck the lifeblood from the Third World,

knowingly or not. Or, get in step with the

rest of the planet and oppose the vicious

vultures roosting in Washington. We say:

Resist the war with all your might and

main! It is the lives of YOUR children,

YOUR cousins that are on the line: NOT

the lives of the rich, lying pigs in

Washington or any of their family. And

Kerry is just one more rich pig who was

stupid, naive, or shrewd enough to play

imperialist roulette and survive.

MIM cannot endorse Kerry, because

that would be wishful thinking. Objective

facts will force him both to stay in Iraq

and to get the troops for it -- one way or

another.

MIM says: Don't vote-- organize!

Resist the brutal, greedy, and unnecessary

wars waged by the First World against

the Third World whether in Iraq,

Afghanistan, Peru or anywhere else the

imperialists think they can squeeze out

blood-money!

Notes:
1. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-

09-27-reserves_x.htm
2. http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/
WinnipegSun/News/2004/09/25/642781.html
3. New York Times 24Sept2004, p. 16.
4. New York Times 1Oct2004, http://
www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/politics/
01recruit.html
5. "Edwards: No Military Draft if Dems Win,"
JENNIFER BUNDY, Associated Press http://
story.news.yahoo.com/
news?tmpl=story&ncid=1963&e=11&u=/ap/
20040915/ap_on_el_pr/edwards 15Sept2004.
6. "Kerry vows to withdraw troops from Iraq,"
Mon 6 September, 2004 Patricia Wilson http://
www.reuters.co.uk/
newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=578182&section=news
Kerry said: ""We want those troops home and
my goal would be to try to get them home in my
first term and I believe that can be done."
7. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6159637/site/
newsweek/

Continued from page 1...

the weapons inspections in Iraq had

helped Bush attack Iraq later. These

weapons inspectors were supposed to be

doing their job and instead Amerikans

used them to prepare an invasion better.

People like Watts should be talking about

how Amerika's treatment of Saddam

Hussein is likely to make future

cooperation with proletarian

internationalist weapons inspections more

difficult globally. Instead, Watts and others

play a lazy and self-indulgent blame-the-

victim game.

No media freedom

As Arnold Schwarzenegger proved in

his speech to the Republican National

Convention, it is possible to tell Amerikans

anything about Soviet tanks(2) and they

will believe it. He even proved that it was

possible to whitewash Austrian Nazis

such as his father with his pablum about

"Soviet tanks" which drove his father's

party from power.

Schwarzenegger also rehabilitated

Richard Nixon, who Schwarzenegger

cited as the first to steer him to the

Republican Party. Jumping on the

bandwagon, Rush Limbaugh and Sean

Hannity on the radio gave

Schwarzenegger their "conservative"

blessings and said his speech was not at

all "moderate"--no kidding!

Schwarzenegger lived in the British

occupation zone, at a time when it was

hard to travel out of zones, but we do not

doubt that his father told him the British

were Soviet agents or some such similar

Nazi story--exactly proving why the

German and Austrian people needed to

be occupied in the first place. Hitler's

feelings that non-Nazi Austria was in the

hands of Jews and "socialists" may

explain why Schwarzenegger calls

Austria "socialist" even when no

politicians calling themselves "socialist"

`Land of the free' censors Korea

are in power--including when the

"Terminator" left Austria.

If it is possible to say such things about

Austria, it goes without saying that writers

such as Cecil Adams writing in February

2004 are going to use northern Korea as

a reference point for discussion of the

prison state. Without any facts or

references to facts, it is possible to assert

in the United $tates as Cecil Adams does

that northern Korea is maybe the worst

prison-state in the world. Likewise, when

northern Korean Kang Chol-hwan

escaped to the "West," he threw out

some made-for-TV and newspaper lines

of the type that Amerikans eat up by

reflex, Schwarzenegger-style. "If you

don't want to believe us, go to the North

[northern Korea--ed.]!"(3) If only it were

so easy.

Kang Chol-hwan said this despite the

fact that it was illegal by Amerikan and

southern Korean laws for Amerikans and

southern Koreans to go to northern

Korea. Southern Koreans had been

invited repeatedly to visit the "North,"

only to face the threat of prison sentences

and torture in the "South." So, for a

propagandist to tell people to "go to the

North" and "see for yourself" is just plain

stupid. Maybe such a line "go see for

yourself" was appropriate in one context

somewhere in the Cold War, but repeating

the slogan with assurance that it will

conjure magic effects in other

circumstances is reminiscent of the

Pavlov dog. The Cold War weapons

contractors receiving Pentagon largesse

no doubt have the same Pavlovian

response as Kang Chol-hwan and his

intended Amerikan audience. They hope

the incantation leads to massive profits

on weapons systems somehow.

The media and people have no reason

to trust Kang Chol-hwan given the

Amerikans' and southern Koreans' sorry

record criminalizing travel to northern

Korea. It was not until September

1999,(4) that the United $tates allowed

its own people to take up trade, business

and travel with northern Korea. Even

commercial air flights to Korea were

illegal. Then, bone-heads like Kang Chol-

hwan who departed from northern Korea

to southern Korea in 1992 wonder why

no one believes the Amerikan story about

Korea.

The simple fact is that it was against

the law for the citizens of the "land of the

free" to go to northern Korea and many

a southern Korean youth suffered torture

or death for talking about the idea of

visiting northern Korea. The difference

between genuine Soviet dictatorships and

the West is that Soviet dictatorships do

not ban travel and then brag about having

"freedom." Kang Chol-hwan had 238

pages of space to point out somewhere

that the southern Koreans and Amerikans

could not travel to northern Korea to "see

for yourself" --thanks to Amerikan and

southern Korean regimes. Nowhere did

he actually inform his reader of that basic

fact.

In fact, when Kang Chol-hwan landed

in southern Korea, the longest serving

political prisoner in the world was still in

prison in southern Korea--there since the

Korean War. His crime for which he was

still being held was refusing to renounce

communism. That is all. Renounce it

verbally and the prisoner Kim Sun-Myung

would have gone free. Instead he served

45 years before his release and was lucky

that his mother still survived to see him.

When Kim Il Sung died in 1994, the U$

puppet regime arrested dozens of

southern Korean students for wanting to

visit northern Korea. The New York

Times of July 15 1994 reported that prior

to the arrests, there were still four people

languishing in prison for visiting northern

Korea before. Again, this was going on

well after Kang Chol-hwan made his

statement about just going to visit northern

Korea.

This is not to mention so-called cases

of "espionage," when the only evidence

was that a Korean visited northern Korea.

Amnesty International took up that cause

as well and opposed the torture by the

U$ puppet regime. An example would be

the case of Kim Chang-ho years after

Kang Chol-hwan's defection and flippant

remarks about visiting northern Korea.

Continued from page 1...

Continued on next page...

We can only say that Kim Il Sung's

line is too close to Brezhnev's for us

to think that he avoided the fate of

countries with that line

implemented.

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, 2004 · Page 9

In 1995, Yu Chong-sik received an extra

three years tacked on to his 20 year

sentence served. The reason was praise

of northern Korea according to Amnesty

International.

Kim Song-man received a death

sentence commuted three years later for

passing leaflets out to northern Koreans

in Europe. His total sentence was 13

years served in the U.S.-puppet regime's

prisons.

According to Amnesty International,

the U$ puppet regime may have

fabricated a 1982 visit to northern Korea

to imprison Lee Jang-hyong for 14 years

till 1998. His case was otherwise

completely murky with no evidence

available.

Even today, after the lifting of many

restrictions, the Treasury Department

requires that U.S. citizens obtain

permission before spending dollars in

northern Korea.(5) As for Kang Chol-

hwan, he went through a southern Korean

control process. Even in 2003, higher-

ranking defectors than Kang Chol-hwan

face travel restrictions--by the southern

Korean Yankee puppet regime. An

October, 2003 report by anti-communists

at the freekorea.net said that Hwang

Jang-yop had defected from northern

Korea six years previously and still did

not have the freedom to travel--even to

or within the United $tates.(6) A German

attempting to visit Hwang Jang-yop was

denied--in the United $tates by the

United $tates, not to mention other

Koreans trying to visit Hwang Jang-yop.

The anti-communists trying to "free"

northern Korea to enjoy such "freedoms"

admitted that the restrictions on Hwang

Jang-yop were political--on account of

his strategy of drawing attention to

northern Korea's alleged "plight."

The black market

MIM cannot say it knows much about

northern Korea. We know its political line,

because we read it and we know the U$

role in occupying Korea.

With regard to the political line of

northern Korea, it is too similar to

Brezhnev's for us at MIM not to notice.

Thus we suspect that northern Korea is

not unique in the world and has gone the

same corrupt way as the revisionist bloc

led by Brezhnev against Mao. Specifically,

the Kims leading Korea never endorsed

Mao's theory of continuous revolution or

the thesis on the bourgeoisie in the party

in particular.

In fact, we would cite Kang Chol-hwan

as proof that the battle between socialism

and capitalism is not over. Famine

occurred at the same time as a huge

increase in the black market, according

to Kang Chol-hwan himself. The question

then arises: did the black market and

corresponding bourgeoisie in the party

cause the famine or did the famine cause

the black market? That's all presupposing

there was a famine. Kang Chol-hwan

says he does not know for sure how

extensive hunger problems were and talks

of figures ranging from one to three million

people involved.

The bourgeois critics want us to believe

that socialism failed and produced a black

market which is alleviating conditions

instead of making them worse. In Kang

Chol-hwan's book Aquariums of

Pyongyang, there is actually no evidence

to this effect. What we see instead is

corruption of party officials followed by

economic hardship.

Kang Chol-hwan even admits that in

the 1960s he was doing rather well

materially and had reason to believe that

it was even better in northern Korea than

in southern Korea. In the 1960s, Kang

Chol-hwan "had a refrigerator, washing

machine, vacuum cleaner, and even the

most sought after of all luxury goods: a

color television set."(7) These facts lead

us to wonder what would have happened

had Kim Il Sung launched a struggle

against the bourgeoisie in the party as

Mao did.

It's hard to know how much is true

from reading Kang Chol-hwan, because

this supposedly heroic defector admits

that he made up stories about people in

order to get them punished in northern

Korea. If we decide to take him seriously

at all about economics, then he points out

that by the time police arrested his family,

the police were taking 90% of the arrested

family's wealth for themselves.(8) That

would surely be the sign of capitalism,

not socialism.

Even more directly, Kang Chol-hwan

admits that he had sudden black market

success at his prison camp and then the

food situation seriously deteriorated for

people. He does not say so, but MIM

reads between-the-lines that the black

market bourgeoisie like Kang Chol-hwan

had succeeded in corrupting the system

to such an extent that the people suffered.

Kang Chol-hwan's grandmother came to

see the regime as similar to Hitler's (9)

but if so, it would be the class struggle by

people like Kang Chol-hwan which made

it so. His motto became "man's limitless

capacity for vice."(10)

As of 1987, Kang Chol-hwan said he

found no evidence of starvation.(11)

Instead, his family became ever bigger

grafters. He admits he sabotaged the

supply system of northern Korea without

using the word "sabotage."(12) In echoes

of China's Great Leap, when the worst

starvation happened after the move to

private responsibility systems in farming

had already been completed, Kang Chol-

hwan tells us that after he became a

gigantic grafter and after peasants all

abandoned collective farms and put their

efforts into private plots,(13) famine came

calling. If he and the peasants are

indicative, then famine came about

because of capitalism, not the earlier

successes of the class struggle.

"This wild trend toward privatization--

or appropriation, if you prefer--explains

why peasants are now having an easier

time procuring food than workers who

live in small towns, where famine has

struck hardest."(14) That sounds very

typical of capitalist logic to us--not

socialist planning which accounts for the

city's right to eat while forcing those living

on the land to work or be deported

elsewhere.

Things that Kang Chol-hwan found

wrong only proved to MIM that his

opponents were often correct. For

example, while people were facing

malnutrition, Kang Chol-hwan objected

to the state's practice of discouraging use

of land for cemeteries,(15) a problem

also found in China.

In any case, Kang Chol-hwan is only

one persyn. MIM would never make a

general statement about conditions in

Korea based on him. We can only say

that Kim Il Sung's line is too close to

Brezhnev's for us to think that he avoided

the fate of countries with that line

implemented. If Kang Chol-hwan is right

that: "It's clear: North Korea is a total

sham. Officially, it outlaws private

business, but in the shadows it lets it

thrive,"(16) then MIM is right about the

facts in northern Korea as well. It's

exactly what a Maoist would expect from

a situation where the alleged communist

party does not lead a struggle against the

bourgeoisie in the party.

Notes:

1. http://www.bostonphoenix.com/

boston/news_features/ other_stories/

multi-page/documents/03007197.asp

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!

`Land of the free' censors Korea

2. This is a basic fact of history. http://

www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/

03/schwarzenegger.ap/index.html

3. Kang Chol-hwan & Pierre Rigoulot,

Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in

the North Korean Gulag (New York:

Basic Books, 2001), p. 224.

4. New York Times stored here: http://

www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/

nkorea/99-09-17.htm; the BBC admitted

that southern Koreans only started

allowing travel to the "North" in 1997.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/

1998/09/98/korea_at_50/166604.stm ;

U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba are

here: http://

www.commongroundtravel.com/assets/

pdf/travel-restrictions.pdf

5. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/

news/2003/07/15-iraq-warning.htm

6. http://www.freenorthkorea.net/

archives/freenorthkorea/000700.html

7. Kang Chol-hwan & Pierre Rigoulot,

Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in

the North Korean Gulag (New York:

Basic Books, 2001), p. 6.

8. Ibid., p. 39. On page 185 he admitted

to telling stories to get people arrested

for the purposes of revenge.

9. Ibid., p. 101. There would be some

backing for this idea in northern Korea's

favoring eugenics and Kim Il Sung's

destruction of Stalin's theory of nation.

10. Ibid., p. 160.

11. Ibid., p. 161.

12. Ibid., p. 174.

13. Ibid., p. 175.

14. Ibid., p. 176.

15. Ibid., p. 102.

16. Ibid., p. 196.

A chant inspired by the Bush-league

propaganda on northern Korea

What do they want?

North Korea!

When do they want it?

Now!

What do they want?

North Korea!

When do they want it?

Now!

What do they know about it?

Absolutely nothing!

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, fa2004 · 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

Oregon can't address

mentally Ill

I was recently placed in segregation for an

alleged assault. I can't really say much, but it
was some stupid shit, the result of the
imperialists failing to provide health care to

people with mental problems. Instead of
giving them the help they need, in a proper
setting, they instead send them into the

prison system to punish them for their
condition. Under their own "laws" these
practices should be seen as "cruel and

unusual" punishment because the integration
of should-be mental patients with average
prisoners such as myself is not only a conflict

of interest in terms of so-called rehabilitation,
but also creates a dangerous environment.
For example, how can the paranoid delusions

of a known schizophrenic inmate be
considered reliable information to place
another prisoner in segregation?

But as always, the imperialists will get what

they pay for. They probably believe that by
the use of integration of mental patients with

the general population, they can maintain
control by methods of divide and conquer.
But as we've seen in the past, every time they

try to stop the problem they only create a
disease.

People outside this state would probably

be surprised to see the extreme absurdity they
call the Oregon DOC. For a state that until
recently only had one area code, they got so

many prisons it was impossible to fill them up
with mostly minorities, so they started locking
up their own people. Now the prison

population up here is over sixty to seventy
percent white. They got this mandatory
minimum law up here called Measure 11 that

gives mandatory seventy-month sentences
to first time offenders for shit like fist fights
and targets kids as young as 15. There's not

enough minority kids in this state to fill up
their unnecessary large prison system, so they
started locking up their own kids; little Harry

Potters are coming in here who never really
broke a crime in their life and just fell victim to
a cop that took a creative writing course, are

now doing seventy months with no chance
for parole and to fit in they're getting tattoos
on their neck. But like I said, the imperialists

will get what they pay for cause these former
Harry Potters will be returning to their suburbs
and gated communities.

They also have a couple pretty sizable IMU

Control Unites up here that are really
unneeded considering in ten years there has

been only about three alleged homicides in
the ENTIRE DOC. There isn't any real
dangerous inmates in their Special Housing

Units, so instead, they got people in there
mostly for one-on-one fist fights where no
one even got hurt. And unlike the SHU in

California up here you don't get shit: no TV's,
no commissary, no phones, nothing. In IMU,
just like the DSU where I'm at right now, where

most of the minorities reside in this state, gente
are doing bad. Ventilation is poor and they
fail to properly sanitize the cells after mental

patients decide to throw their feces, so we
are often forced to attempt to sanitize
whatever cell we're placed in.

Reading material is also slim to nothing

really of value, mostly romance novels,
westerns and mysteries, which can pass the

time for some inmates but for Spanish-
speaking prisoners, they have absolutely
nothing available to them in their language.

And since there's no education programs

available to learn English or really to learn
anything, Latinos end up sitting in the hole
for years with nothing to read, no way

available to better themselves, and no way to
help them pass the time. There is also no
multicultural books or anything written by

Latino or African authors.

There is a way for us to stock the book

carts up with more titles though. If any of us

individually orders, or is sent any soft cover
books we can then donate them to the book
cart for the entire segregation population to

read. Maybe you can help us in this matter,
especially in regards to Marxist- Leninist-
Maoist(MLM) literature. As I said before, the

minority population in this state is mostly
concentrated in the segregation and Special
Housing Units. A large amount of these

lumpen-proletariats are Latino, mostly of
Mexican and Chicano decent (the Chicanos
mostly those that have moved up here from

southern California in the last ten years or so,
such as myself).

--an Oregon Prisoner, June 2004

RAIL responds: This is just another example

of the prison system using people against
each other, as this comrade points out. The

CO's will believe what they want to hear no
matter who says it and in what context.
However, the issue of inadequate treatment

for the mentally ill can not be dealt with thru
isolation, but through a healthy integration
into society that this system cannot provide.

At a recent rally we spoke to a man who had
spent years in a mental institution. During
that time, friends working with MIM visited

him regularly, greatly helping him deal with
the problems he was facing until he was able
to be released. What he realized and says

today is that there is no such thing as mental
illness as an internal/psychological problem,
but only as a social problem. We may not be

able to say for sure that there is no one who
would need drugs for mental illness in a
communist society, but we do know enough

at this point to say that mental illness is much
higher in advanced imperialist countries than
in previous societies and contemporary

societies with different economic and social
structures. We can also point to the
elimination of suicide and eating disorders in

socialist China as examples of how to
revolutionize society in such a way that
combats mental illness.

The prison system in the u$ doesn't just

handle mental illness poorly, but it promotes
it through such things as isolation, taking

away prisoners' sense of control over their
lives, using scare tactics and thru physical
and mental abuse. We know the imperialists

have no interest in reform and that is why we
have seen prison populations sky-rocketing
for decades. We expose the nature of this

beast to show that while we can rally around
reforms, the ultimate goal must be to
overthrow of this system if we ever want to

improve the lives of the majority of the world's
people.

We sent this comrade the only Mao books

we had in Spanish. There is an endless
demand for MLM books, and works in
Spanish are in even shorter supply.

Supporters can help in facilities like this by

donating to MIM's Free Books for Prisoners
Program.

Charged for work

injury in TX

Boy, can I tell you some good stories about

the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Recently they have resorted to stealing from

the inmate trust fund, through medical co-
pay, as they call it.

For example, I was injured while working at

the unit's garment factory. I did not volunteer
or ask to work there -- I was assigned to
work there without pay, and failure to work

would result in a disciplinary case.

So while working on a sewing machine

accidentally a needle went through my finger,

and blood was everywhere. So I myself
cleaned the wound as best I could. Next day
when I woke up I had this terrible pain on my

finger and felt my heart pounding in it. As I
looked at it, it was bigger than my thumb, and
red, blue, yellow and purple. So I told my

supervisor. She in turn made an accident
report, and I was rushed to the unit's infirmary.
Everyone looked at it, and I was finally given

a pill -- and charged $3 for services rendered.
I was only given one pill.

To this date I have failed to get a refund,

because everyone says it was an appropriate
charge. Also, I am a diabetic, age 58.

-- A Texas Prisoner, June 2004

MIM responds: MIM has long opposed

the policy of mandating work for no pay in
Texas -- and penalizing prisoners who can't

work for medical reasons even while denying
them decent medical care. Please continue to
send reports on these abuses. Contact MIM

or visit http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/
agitation/prisons/campaigns/tx/ for
information on the campaign or to get copies

of our petition, "No Punishment for Sick
Leave in Texas Prisons."

Corruption and

Retaliation in NY

Dear Mr. Goord, Mr. Malone, Governor

Pataki, and Reverend Sharpton,

There is very serious problem going on

here in Comstock Prison. On June 6, 2004, I
was set up by Sergeant Brown and his gang,
who took me into a strip frisk room and put

some dope on me. They told me that I'm going
down if I don't go into the hearing and make
a deal. On the day of the hearing, the hearing

officer was already aware to make a
compromise with me if I plead guilty. So I did
and received four months but that is not the

biggest issue.

The biggest issue is that they have me in a

special housing unit (SHU) with claims of me

being an Al Queda member. They are treating
me like the prisoners in Abu Ghraib Prison.
They gave me one old ripped up mattress, no

bucket to receive hot water to wash up, no
net bags, no boxes, no toilet paper, a dirty
filthy cell with no kind of cleaning supplies.

The toilet bowl is extremely filthy and most of
the time they don't feed me. They place empty
trays on the gate so that on camera, it looks

like they're feeding me.

These are untrained, rude, racist and

rebellious people who are decorating
themselves in blue and green uniforms and

saying that they are promoting democracy
and justice. They say they're watching over
criminals. Let the records reflect that these

prison guards are doing this wickedness to
me on the order of their supervisor, whom I
have a complaint on. They are doing this in

retaliation. They know fully well that I am a
Muslim and not any member of Al Queda but
that is their excuse to cause me great harm

and suffering. This is the same evil mentality
that caused great harm to the people of Iraq.
These are the same people who jumped on

Malcolm X's grandson. These are the same
unruly, arrogant, outlaw, racist people who
are Klansmen hiding behind government

uniforms.

When they pass my cell, they burst out in

laughter and make racial epithets. They also

prevent me from writing to anyone to obtain

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, 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.

relief. From this day on, I assure you that
these guys who have decorated themselves

in blue uniforms must stay away from me. I
will go straight above these Rumsfields
because they are the ones who are giving out

orders. They know what is going on so I will
go over their heads. I won't write to them
anymore. They never remedy any situation

when it comes to prisoners.

I request a serious investigation into this

serious matter. Thank you in advance for your

cooperation.

-- A New York Prisoner, June 2004

Lawsuit challenging

Cal SHU moves on

I have an important update, as we recently

reported in MIM Notes about the difficulties
we were having in attempting to bring

challenge to the conditions as they exist at
this particular kamp, and specifically here in
the SHU.

The Eastern District had been blocking our

efforts by making the screening process very
strict, however after filing a third amended

complaint in January of 2004. Just last week,
August 8, 2004, Judge Snyder finally allowed
us to proceed on all the grounds raised, so

we want to thank all those who called in and
sent letters and faxes to the Judge urging her
to allow us to proceed. We passed but only

one small hurdle. We'll continue to need your
support if we're gonna be successful in our
efforts. Letters of encouragement, legal

advice, particularly around the 1st, 8th and
14th amendments, as well as the equal
protection clause and ex post facto law.

We sincerely hope that you will get behind

this effort and send us protection with your
support. We will keep you updated via ULK.

- A prisoner at Corcoran, August 2004

California censorship

appeal denied

Appeal on censorship first level reply was

returned; reason for denial two statements
quote "MIM says the oppressed must meet
the violence as a matter of self defense.",

"Peoples heads are not like leeks; they cannot
grow back once they are chopped off." I have
resubmitted for 2nd level review based on

over exaggeration to actually stating security
threat, denial of facility captain review CCR
3135(a); 3136(b), and 1st and 14th amendment

violations. It is definitely a challenge to get
the censorship overturned, they also cited
inmate to inmate correspondence as reason

for denial. I'll keep fighting the battle here, I
plan to use other media examples to show
that bias exists. MIM is no more dangerous

than ultra right materials who fan white
chauvinism.

- a California prisoner, July 2004.

Washington IMU

repression

I have been locked up for 28 straight years;

the past few on "state tour" being shipped

back and forth between Intensive
Management Unit (IMU) facilities.

There are four levels in IMU. Level 1 is a

sanction and for those hwo receive
infractions while in IMU. Everyone starts at
Level 2 (no radio or TV, nor allowed a

newspaper or magazine subscription). Level
3 allows one magazine or newspaper
subscription; level 4 allows two magazines or

newspaper subscriptions. Also, the person
on Level 3 is allowed a radio; on Level 4 given
the choice between radio or TV.

I am the sort of person they kept and

continue to keep on Level 2. Various excuses
at different times are given (I have not had an

infraction for some time!) The present excuse
is because I do not attend monthly review
hearing (in writing I am given the choice to

attend or not.) I do not attend because of
being tired of them writing in reports I said
things I never said.

Prison officials may restrict reading material

in punitive segregation, although most cases
upholding this practice have involved short

periods of time:

Gregory v. Auger, 768 F.2d 287, 289-91 (8th

Cir. 1985) - inmates in disciplinary detention

could be deprived of all but first class mail of
a "personal, legal or religious" nature where
detention was limited to 60 days), cert. denied,

474 U.S. 1035 (1085); Daigre v. Maggio, 719
F.2d 1310, 1312-13 (5th Cir. 1983) - ban on
newspapers and magazines in segregation

upheld as applied to an inmate who served 10
days); Pendleton v. Housewright, 651 F. Supp.
1354, 1366-68 (S.D. Tex. 1983) - deprivation of

publications except for legal and religious
material sin solitary confinement upheld
where limited to 15 days.

However, the above refers to punitive or

disciplinary segregation. They have me on
administration segregation. See e.g., Hardwick

v. Ault, 447 F. Supp. 116, 128-31 (M.D. Ga.
1978) - mail and reading material restrictions
in administrative segregation held

unconstitutional. An added interesting note
is although I am not allowed magazines or
newspapers, I may have books. Isn't that

something!?

You can help by sending letters to: Eldon

Vail, Depty Secty, Department of Corrections,

PO Box 41118, Olympia, WA 98504; and, Carol
Porter, Superintendent, WA Corrections
Center, PO Box 900, Shelton, WA 98584.

-- Washington prisoner, July 2004

Walls of Mass

Destruction

Take a look and see why these walls were

made,

To reach in our minds and start to invade
To strip our minds of hope and dreams

With loneliness which this place brings
Sometimes you wonder who you can run to

when you're full of anger,

But a rec yard full of strangers
Strangers who could care weather you're here

or there,

Who don't speak much, but just stare
Now once you've realized that who, whats,

whens and whys,

You'll start to see through your eyes
That these are walls of destruction,
Which need reconstruction

Now only you can reconstruct the walls with

your mind

By putting the mistakes behind

Educating, and setting goals, so that you may

achieve

A better world that will set you free

So know that for every problem has a solution
And the solution is: Revolution.

--A CA prisoner, July 2004

Take off the Chains

As the blood drips from the side of my mouth.
With a handful of my hair,

he pulls as his coworkers edge him on.
Shut the fuck up is all I hear,
as the flurries of punches and kicks become

one with my face.

This is rehabilitation in the land of the free,
and they say they don't torture konvicts like

me.

But what the fuck is chaining us to a wall and

them pretending they're

Rocky or confining us to the darkness of a

kage under lock and key?

Take off the chains...

Do they live in a fantasy, to say they don't

torture people like me,

then why do the beatings still happen after

the chains are locked on me?

And yes the visions and thoughts will last

forever within me...

My screams and krys are unheard to the

world,

But if heard...

My screams and krys would break down these

walls.

And I am only one, could you imagine us all,

standing strong as one mass on top of these

walls?

One body and one mind is how we must fight,

cause just think about the brother or sister

that will get a beating

tonight.

Take off the chains...
It is time to unite,
cause now our screams must be heard.

And this is why that I write.
For I "the Fallen Angel" speak nothing but

the "T.R.U.T.H."

We must break away the chains to make a

change for our youth...

--May 2004

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?

MIM Notes 309 · October 15-31, fa2004 · Page 12

Notas Rojas

oct 15-31 2004, Nº 309 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