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MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 1

MIM Notes

February 2005, Nº 313

The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

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INSIDE: Reviews of Kinsey, Aviator, Blade, White Noise * Under Lock & Key

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On the web: www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext

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by MIM

The more than 150,000 deaths from the

earthquake and tsunami in South Asia are

an almost unfathomable disaster,

especially for those in the First World who

have never seen destruction of this scale.

Even the U.S. Secretary of State Colin

Powell said that the destruction he saw

in South Asia last week was far worse

than what he had seen at war. Still many

people in Amerika offered financial

donations for relief to the devastated

region. MIM applauds these acts of

selflessness by Amerikans not generally

concerned with people outside of U.$.

borders. It is this kind of internationalist

sentiment that we work to foster.

But at the same time we have to ask

why people don't similarly offer aid to

people fighting the repression of a military

dictatorship, or deadly attacks from

imperialist armies, or economic

devastation from IMF and World Bank

austerity measures. All of these are

disasters for Third World people, literally

killing them. The major difference is the

apparent non-political nature of the

tsunami deaths, and of course the

Amerikan government's support for aid

to the victims. But the deaths from this

tsunami were not from a "natural"

disaster, any more than the Amerikan

military's "accidental" bombing of a

civilian house in Iraq today (January 8)

was a "natural" disaster.

As MIM wrote in our theory journal

on Revolutionary Environmentalism:

"Another phenomenon which is often not

recognized as preventable is `natural'

disasters, such as floods, volcano

eruptions, and earthquakes. Sure, these

are `natural,' but why are they disasters?

The answer in many cases is that the

majority of the world does not have the

resources to deal effectively with

nature's surprises. Many communities

cannot be warned to evacuate when

necessary, because they do not have

television sets or radios. Once such

communities are destroyed by natural

events, the neocolonies' poverty prevents

the reconstruction of the infrastructure -

if there was an infrastructure to speak of

in the first place."(4)

In South Asia many of the tsunami

deaths could have been prevented with

an early warning system similar to the one

set up in Hawaii to warn the wealthy

Pacific Ocean areas of potential

tsunamis. A proposal to set up such a

warning system was dismissed for lack

of funding in the South Asian region.

A system that forces hundreds of

thousands of people to live illegally in

shacks on the beach because they can

not afford housing even though they work

long hours every day caused even more

deaths. The many fisherpeople and their

families killed by the tsunami lived in these

conditions while the wealthy in their

countries enjoyed fresh fish and

comfortable living on higher ground. In

South Asia, Amerikan economic and

military support that props up corrupt

governments which keep the wealth for

themselves and their Amerikan partners.

Indonesia is a prime example of this.

The brutal military dictatorship in that

country has enjoyed imperialist aid and

support, particularly from the United

$tates which in turn looks to Indonesia

for cheap labor for its imperialist

corporations. Indonesia massacred more

than a third of the East Timorese

population in its years long attempt to put

down East Timor's independence

struggle. In Aceh province, one of the

Fight censorship

of the Internet!

RAIL CENSORED

BY INTERNET

SERVICE

PROVIDER

HARD HAT

After signing up for an account with

Hard Hat Hosting (hardhathosting.com)

RAIL soon lost access to the server and

later received the message below from

Hard Hat CEO Eric Linberg. We reprint

this message for two reasons. First, Hard

Hat states in their Acceptable Use Policy

that they will not allow content that harms

their reputation or good will. If they hope

to maintain their reputation as web hosting

service then the public should know that

despite their claims to the contrary, they

do not respect the rights of freedom of

expression of opinions and political views.

Every web hosting company in the world

could tell us that they respect our right to

free speech, but if no one will host a site

that lists the deaths caused by imperialism

then that information is being censored

from the public.

At this point in history there are various

web hosts that will serve various types

of controversial material. People who try

to combat the bourgeois idea of intellectual

property face the greatest resistance from

website hosters who have little recourse

but to respect bourgeois property rights

to stay in business. While anti-copyright

materials pose an immediate threat to

capitalist profits, political speech is given

more leeway until it becomes a real threat.

So when push comes to shove and there's

a warrant from an intelligence agency of

the bourgeois state, then all of sudden your

servers and all the data on them are gone.

(1) And when activists take the

independent route of hosting their own

space on the web then they become easier

targets. When the feds come to take the

server they're coming to your house and

taking you with them. (2)

The second and more important point

we want to make is that this is bigger

than Hard Hat Hosting. The fact is that

the oppressed and exploited do not have

freedom of speech in the system that

exploits and oppresses them. Even as

amerikans are losing their majority control

Tsunami disaster isn't `natural'

Imperialism causes death and destruction

When people live in

squalid conditions,

they are at risk from

disasters -- but the
doesn't make their

deaths `natural.'

Children in the

Philippines living
their `normal' life,

documented in a

MIM photo.

Continued on page 3...

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 2

What is MIM?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Production by MC12

Letters

MIM Notes

The Official Newsletter of The Maoist Internationalist Movement

ISSN 1540-8817

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

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

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

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

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For general correspondence, contact:

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eMail: <mim@mim.org>

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

Letter from Maoist

student in China

Comrades of MIM:

Nice to meet you!

I am a real Maoist from X university, Y

city, People's Republic of China. I am not

a member of the CPC, because I don't

think it is a real comunist party.

I do not like today's China of capital.

Your words look like a light in the night

for me, you see, I have no chance to know

some real history of China.

I will keep in touch with your

organization. I wanna know what can I

do for works of MIM.

Sorry for my poor English.

Long Live MIM! Long Live the

Revolution! Long Live the Peoples' Wars

of the Third World!

--A Chinese Maoist

Alleged Halliburton

employee writes to

MIM: "Freedom"

misused again

mim3@mim.org comments: We

received a letter from someone alleging

to work for Kellogg Brown & Root

(KBR), a subsidiary of the contractor

company called Halliburton, of Vice-

President Dick Cheney fame.

He appeared to be responding to our

article on Thomas Hamill in which we

said: "`Last September the 43-year-old

volunteer firefighter signed on to drive a

fuel truck for a year in Iraq for up to

$120,000, tax free,' according to CNN.

Hamill was working for a sub-contractor

for Halliburton.

"The sad part is that Thomas Hamill is

a microcosm of Amerika. Whether any

philistines know it or not, Amerikan jobs

and salaries depend on the global web of

exploitation created by the monster of

U.$. imperialism concretely manifested

in multinational corporations like

Halliburton. Amerikans are generally

enemies of the Iraqi people unless they

prove otherwise in action. As a truck-

driver in Iraq, Hamill was making more

(than ten times more(2)--mim3, ed.)

money than 90% of the people in the

world, because all Amerikans with legal

working rights have an extra access to

the means of production globally thanks

to imperialism.

"Others working and missing in Iraq

include seven employees of American

contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root. The

plan of the Bush administration had been

to have thousands of u.$. employees in

Iraq carrying out billions of dollars worth

of contracts.

"Communists! It's time to break with

your phony communist organizations and

work with the only organization with a

line practically opposing all aspects of the

war on Iraq. Anybody oozing any

sympathy for the Amerikan contractors

is simply oozing sympathy for imperialism.

Rather than echoing the Bush

administration on the `barbarians' in Iraq,

communists should take sides with the

Iraqi people."(1)

Alleged KBR employee:

That is as weak a statement as I have

ever heard. It must be nice to have the

freedom of speech to put people down

that are defending our Country. I myself

am a contractor working for KBR. I

happened to be on the same route as

Thomas Hamill that very day. It takes a

pretty weak minded person to think that

contractors are over in Iraq for any other

reason except to help the Iraqi people.

We are here to support the military, in

order to restore freedom of the Iraqi's.

We put our asses on the line, day in and

day out. Until you have the same fortitude

to do the same, maybe you ought to keep

your pie hole shut!!

mim3@mim.org replies:

So, how much did you make in Iraq

compared with what it would be at home/

U$A?

If you want to help Iraq, why not send

some money and let Iraqis drive their own

trucks and build their own infrastructure?

If you are for "free speech" then why

are you helping a plan that has resulted in

the shutting of newspapers and killing of

demonstrators seeking to open them?

"Two months after `liberating' Iraq, the

Anglo-US authorities have decided to

control the new, free press."

www.independent.co.uk

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

agitation/iraq/bushvshussein.html

Halliburton employee responds:

As for the money that I made over here

verses the money that I made at home,

the only difference is that it is tax free.

I'm not here solely for the money. I am

here to support the military, as well as

my country. These Iraqi people need a

lot more than money. They need some

deep support. The military is trying to put

them in a position to stand up on there

own. You need to understand that these

people have been deeply suppressed for

thousands of years. George Bush didn't

send these TROOPS in here just for war.

He got rid of one of the most powerful

dictators of all time. It's about

FREEDOM brother. Everybody in this

world should be able to enjoy

FREEDOM. That is the main reason that

we are over here. These people need to

be free. We pay a deep price in doing

this for other countries. But as Americans,

and the rest of the Coalition Forces, that

is the price that we are willing to pay.

Don't knock the Contractor for trying to

help this cause. Sure alot of us better our

financial position in life by working over

here. The world will be a better place

through finding the better source of a

people.

mim3@mim.org replies for MIM:

If you are concerned about freedom,

get the Amerikans at KBR to go back

home and work on politics there, because

the United $tates leads the world in

imprisonment per capita. Get the Brits to

go back to England, because the

imprisonment rate is the highest in Europe

there.

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

freecoun.html

And if you think someone in Iraq would

have been better than Hussein, learn how

the united $tates assisted him to power

including how Rumsfeld brought him

biological weapons.

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

agitation/iraq/bushvshussein.html

To have the right to boast about

freedom, you have to earn it. When the

united $tates shows the world how to do

with the least imprisonment, then it

Continued on page 4...

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 3

hardest hit areas, the notoriously brutal

Indonesian army continued it's

persecution of rebels even in the wake

of the death of so many people in the

region. These armed patrols are deadly

to the population both directly, and as a

potential problem for aid delivery.

The mainstream media likes to talk

about the "indiscriminate" destruction of

the tsunami. But it is not indiscriminate

that the vast majority of those who died

lived their lives in poverty. The few

thousand deaths of resort visitors were a

tiny portion of the total, and were at least

matched by the deaths of resort workers.

While CNN highlights the affect of the

tsunami on tourists and hotel operators in

Phuket, the locals who live in poverty are

brushed over with sweeping views of

devastated coastland and images of aid

delivery.

According to the World Bank, more

than 95% of all deaths caused by

disasters occur in developing (Third

World) countries; and losses due to

natural disasters are 20 times greater (as

a percentage of GDP) in developing

countries than in imperialist countries.(1)

But redevelopment aid will focus on the

recognized businesses, particularly

tourism and larger businesses. Small

businesses and illegal squatters can

expect to be pushed off of land and out

of work where wealthier people can step

in to benefit.

Professor Sumner La Croix, senior

fellow in economics at the Hawaii-based

East-West Center, an imperialist

economic mouthpiece, provides a good

example of what we can expect from

"rebuilding." The tsunami damage is

confined to mostly rural areas and so, La

Croix says: "Most rebuilding will replicate

what was previously in place: vacationers

want hotels by the beach; stores will be

located near the beach to provide goods

and services; and roads go through these

towns"(2) There is no mention of

rebuilding for the people who lived on the

coast and lost their homes and livelihoods.

Economists are predicting good

economic performance by Thailand,

Indonesia and India in spite of the disaster,

again because the people affected were

mostly not central to the economies of

those countries. La Croix explains:

"Despite the severe damage to Aceh's

economic infrastructure, the republic's

energy (mainly oil and natural gas)

production facilities in Aceh and Northern

Sumatra seem to have survived

intact."(2) So once again La Croix is

clear: the industries making money for

those running the countries are important,

while the livelihoods of the poor are

relatively unimportant. Even where 80%

of the population died, the economy will

still be fine because the imperialists and

their puppets did not lose the oil and

natural gas production facilities.

John Pilger, a journalist writing for the

New Statesman, explained the hypocrisy

of the tsunami aid well: "The victims of

a great natural disaster are worthy

(though for how long is uncertain) while

the victims of man-made imperial

disasters are unworthy and very often

unmentionable. Somehow, reporters

cannot bring themselves to report what

has been going on in Aceh, supported by

`our' government. This one-way moral

mirror allows U.$. to ignore a trail of

destruction and carnage that is another

tsunami.

"Consider the plight of Afghanistan,

where clean water is unknown and death

in childbirth common. At the Labour

Party conference in 2001, Tony Blair

announced his famous crusade to `re-

order the world' with the pledge: `To the

Afghan people, we make this

commitment, we will not walk away...

we will work with you to make sure [a

way is found] out of the poverty that is

your miserable existence.' The Blair

government had just taken part in the

conquest of Afghanistan, in which as many

as 20,000 civilians died. Of all the great

humanitarian crises in living memory, no

country suffered more and none has been

helped less. Just three per cent of all

international aid spent in Afghanistan has

been for reconstruction, 84 per cent is for

the US-led military `coalition' and the rest

are crumbs for emergency aid. What is

often presented as reconstruction revenue

is private investment, such as the 35m

dollars that will finance a proposed five-

star hotel, mostly for foreigners. An

adviser to the minister of rural affairs in

Kabul told me the government had

received less than 20 per cent of the aid

promised to Afghanistan. `We don't even

have enough money to pay wages, let

alone plan reconstruction,' he said.

"The reason, unspoken of course, is that

Afghans are the unworthiest of victims.

When American helicopter gunships

repeatedly machine gunned a remote

farming village, killing as many as 93

civilians, a Pentagon official was moved

to say, `The people there are dead

because we wanted them dead.'" (3)

MIM encourages people to take a look

at the world around them and see that

deadly disasters are created by

imperialism around the world every day.

RAIL keeps a running tally of some of

these deaths on its Imperialism Kills page

(http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/rail/

impkills.html). These disasters need to be

stopped, and no amount of relief aid will

accomplish this. We must fight to

overthrow this imperialist system and

replace it with a system that serves the

people rather than the wealthy.

Notes:

1. The World Bank,

www.worldbank.org

2. The Star online, Jan9, 2005

3. The New Statesman, Jan 6, 2005

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

mt/mt9.html

Tsunami disaster isn't `natural'

Imperialism causes death and destruction

Continued from page 1...

of the Internet, it remains controlled by

the wealthy of the world. There is no

doubt that the higher levels of

communication available with the

development of the Internet will serve the

struggle of the oppressed in the long- run.

However, the supposed right to free

speech for oppressed voices will only be

guaranteed by our determined struggle

and our creativity in the face of repression.

* * *

Hello [x],

I'm sorry it took me so long to reply.

After reviewing your existing site

imperialismkills.org I would respectfully

choose not to host this domain or any

material that might be considered

controversial.

We totally respect your right to express

your own opinions and political views,

however we do not wish to take on the

liability of hosting a site that could easily

become a target of those that have

opposing ideologies.

Please do not take this personally, there

are many hosting companies that have

lenient Acceptable Use Policies.

Our AUP can be reviewed at:

http://hardhathosting.com/customer-

service/terms-of-service.php#accept

Here is an excerpt that applies to the

situation.

"Hard Hat Hosting reserves the right

to restrict or prohibit any and all uses or

content that it determines in its sole

discretion is harmful to its systems,

network, reputation, good will, other Hard

Hat Hosting customers, or any third

party"

I apologize for any inconvenience that

this causes you. Please let us know when

you have moved your files off of the

server and we will remove the account.

Sincerely,

Eric Linberg, President Hardhat, Inc.

Notes:

1. This is what happened to Indymedia

in October 2004. see MIM Notes 310.

Nov. 1-14, 2004. p.4.

2. This was the fate of Sherman Austin

who is now on probation after spending

over a year in federal prison for something

someone else posted on the webspace

he hosted. See www.freesherman.org

RAIL CENSORED

BY INTERNET

SERVICE

PROVIDER

by the ILPS-Philippines Chapter

January 11, 2005

The International League of People's

Struggle (ILPS) Philippines Chapter

condemns the U.$. for making political

capital out of the catastrophic tsunami

which engulfed a wide swath of Asia,

including some parts of Africa, and killed

160,000 people.

The ILPS Philippines Chapter

denounces the crass opportunism

expressed by U.S. State Secretary Colin

Powell when he said that the U.$. military

relief and aid that it is giving Aceh "should

change the battered image of the United

$tates around the globe after the its

arrogant disregard of international public

opinion against the invasion of Iraq. He

likewise boasted that this aid is a

manifestation of U.$. "generosity" and

"American values in action."

Instead of sending skilled civilians, the

United $tates seized the opportunity to

send an array of U.$. warships, planes,

helicopters, and more than 13,000 U.$.

military personnel purportedly to help

Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka,

countries most affected by the December

26 disaster. The USS Abraham Lincoln,

an aircraft carrier with 6,000 sailors on

board, is currently stationed about 28 kms

or 15 nautical miles off Aceh while a fleet

of Sea Hawk helicopters from same

carrier has been flying food, water, and

medical supplies in said region where

there is an armed rebellion against the

Indonesian government. One thousand

and five hundred U.$. troops, meanwhile,

are deployed in Sri Lanka where there is

also an armed rebellion waged by the

Tamil Tigers which is fighting for self-

determination.

U.$. forces are also using Thailand's

Vietnam era air base of Utapao as an airlift

hub for the so-called "humanitarian"

mission, strengthening potential U.$.

military logistical support through

Southeast Asia. Conducting the largest

operation in Asia since the Vietnam War,

the U.$. military said that its forces could

remain in the region for up to six months.

Six months can always be extended of

course until it becomes permanent.

It is well known that strengthening U.$.

military presence in Southeast Asia is a

major element in the neoconservatives'

imperialist project of Pax Americana in

the 21st century that presupposes U.$.

imperialism's unchallenged global

hegemony. Given U.$. imperialism's

proven record of economic plunder and

destructive wars, the U.$. military

deployment augurs a calamity far worse

than the tsunami that devastated these

Asian countries.

Source: http://www.antiimperialista.com/

view.shtml?category=9&id=1105612477

U.$. military relief operations in

Asia far worse than the tsunami

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 4

deserves some attention. Failing that, don't

be surprised that people question your real

motivations.

Postscript: This again is an example

why it's important to fight phony Marxism.

The imperialists are happy to use

"workers" such as this one and Thomas

Hamill in a propaganda game to influence

public opinion in the united $tates. In the

furor over the hostage-taking of a

contractor, our phony Marxists were silent

or at best inconsistent. Only the MIM line

has accurately identified these people as

parasites and enemies of the Iraqi people.

Only the MIM line has a consistent basis

for telling the contractors that they are

not innocent construction workers, so

they should get their a*es back home.

Notes:

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

agitation/iraq/thomashamill.html

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

faq/imperialistpopulation.html

Letters

Continued from page 3...

by mim3@mim.org and HC123

January 13, 2005

A rough calculation of the population in

the imperialist world in 2004 is 1025

million. That compares with a total world

population of 6450 million.(1) The

imperialist population is also smaller than

the populations of either China or India.

The 1025 million of imperialism is the

total of the populations of the following

countries:

U$A

Russian Federation

Kanada

"United" KKKingdom

Greece

Ireland

Iceland

France

Spain

Portugal

Italy

Switzerland

Austria

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Belgium

Denmark

Norway

Sweden

Finland

Germany

I$rael

Japan

Au$tralia

New Zealand

The list should also include various tiny

countries such as Malta, Andorra, and

Liechtenstein, but it does not make much

difference to include those. They wouldn't

affect the figures very much anyway.

Some of the smaller countries on the

above list are also questionable as

imperialists for not having multinational

corporate monopolies and the finance

stage of capitalism. Some such as New

Zealand may be extensions or enclaves

set up by other imperialists. They seem

to be allowed the privileges of imperialism

without having their own national

reduplication of all imperialist institutions.

The situation in Greece is also not

straightforward.

We do not regard the various little

Middle Eastern kingdoms as imperialist,

because they're merely selling off

resources (oil) and not exporting capital

under the dominance of domestic finance

capital as Lenin said was true of

imperialism. On the other hand, many of

the populations in these Arab oil countries

are bourgeoisified.

Eventually they'll meet the fate of

Nauru, which has tapped out its

phosphate reserves and cannot produce

food or much of anything else. These

kingdoms do, however, exploit foreign

workers and, in the case of the United

Arab Emirates (UAE), even a part of the

indigenous population (some people born

in the UAE are denied citizenship because

of their origins and are therefore

stateless).

For a first stab at the question, it would

be quite accurate to consider the 1025

million to be the world's exploiters. The

vast bulk of the world's exploiters are

found in the countries listed above and

we should not let nit-pickers distort that

basic truth for the benefit of an imperialist

chauvinist agenda.

Of the countries above, Russia with its

140 million people is the one that has a

definite majority of exploited people.

Hence, we might be off 100 million people

in making that generalization just by

lumping in Russia. In addition there are

those who are in the imperialist countries

illegally by imperialist law and thus do not

enjoy the wage conditions for the normal

exploiter-citizen.

On the other side of the ledger, where

we have missed 100 million exploiters is

the 2% of the 5 billion in the Third World

that serves as imperialist-lackey-

exploiters. There are also the non-

imperialist Arab exploiters.

When we consider the additions and

deductions from the ledger, the point

remains that 1 billion exploiters remains

a very good approximation of the global

enemy class. Even if we made a mistake

and included 10% of the Third World as

exploiters, we would only have 1.5 billion

exploiters against 5 billion exploited people

instead of 1 billion versus 5.5 billion. Such

an adjustment shows that no matter what

the vast majority of exploiters come from

the imperialist countries.

Many are familiar with the kind of

access to the means of production which

produces a situation where the income

of "150 million Latin Americans--that is,

around 33 percent of the population--is

under $2 a day."(2) However, this focus

on the bottom can also distort the global

picture.

If we count the top 10% of the Third

World as all exploiters, we will be

including some poor people. For example,

in oil-rich former Soviet republic

Azerbaijan, to get into the top 10% of the

population income-wise, one needs $72

per month.(3) That's not to say there are

not some very rich people in Azerbaijan,

only that the top 10% does not include all

very rich people. In many countries there

are 1 or 2 or 3% working for corporations

as professionals making good money.

Finding good paying jobs and businesses

to aid even 10% of the population of a

country proves to be difficult in this

imperialist-dominated world.

What is missing from most people's

picture is actually the top 10%--the

people with access to the means of

production that guarantees them income

in the top 10% of the world. According

to United Nations statistics made available

by the The Economic Commission for

Latin America (ECLA), the imperialist

countries excluding Russia in 1999

supplied 85% of the people in the top 10%

of the world by income.(4)

What is more, if we take a minimum

wage earner in the united $tates working

2000 hours a year, that persyn would be

in the top 10% of most countries in the

world. That would be true in Africa, Asia

and the ex-Soviet Union. The only region

in the world where the Amerikan

minimum wage earner would not be in

the top 10% is Latin America, and even

there, the entry into the top 10% averaged

under $13,000 a year in 1999.(4)

Less than 9% of the imperialist country

populations in 1999 were not in the top

20% of the world by income--the kind

of people MIM has emphasized are

lumpen and abused non-citizens. In fact,

someone who makes it into the bottom

11 percentile (89th percentile) of the

imperialist countries is higher than the 10th

percentile of Africa and Asia by income.

When MIM follows Lenin saying that

imperialist countries are bought off in their

entirety, we stand on the facts. Without

exception, the organizations opposing the

MIM line are chauvinist scum hiding the

warped economic situation created by

imperialism.

Our critics including all the so-called

Marxist organizations in the imperialist

countries except the handful affiliated/

friendly with MIM say that the 90% of

the imperialist countries' population is

exploited. Let's be clear what these

running dogs of the exploiters mean: It's

not just that they are letting off the hook

the 46% of the imperialist country

population in the world's top 10% but not

in the imperialist country top 10%. They

are letting off the hook 69.6% of the

world's top 10%.

The Third World languishes under the

weight of a heavy load of imperialist

parasites, almost 30% of which come

from the United $tates. It will be

interesting to watch the demographics in

coming years. Most European countries,

including the non-imperialist ones, will

decline in population in the coming

decades. So will Japan. The United $tates,

however, will continue to grow, largely

from immigration, to surpass 400 million

by 2050. Excluding Russia and using the

UN's projections for 2050, there will be

a total of 978.3 million in the

aforementioned countries. That

represents a decline in the relative

imperialist population, from 13.7% of the

world today to 11.0% forty-five years

hence. On the other hand, the United

$tates will be a larger fraction of the

imperialist world excluding Russia, going

from 33.9% in 2004 to 41.8% of the

imperialist population in 2050.

This is also important for understanding

the future of the dynamics of exploitation.

To say that the Third World has 10%

exploiters is to equate their economic

condition with that of the imperialists--a

mistake made by the vast majority of

organizations calling themselves

"Marxist" in the imperialist countries.

Some are still stuck in 1848 and others of

these organizations are conscious exploiter

representatives.

Notes:

1. Source for data: http://esa.un.org/

unpp/

2. http://www.iadb.org/res/publications/

pubfiles/pubB-1998-1999_6453.pdf

3. http://www.azstat.org/statinfo/

budget_households/en/013.shtml

4. http://www.eclac.cl/povertystatistcs/

documentos/dikhanov.pdf

Imperialist population: 1 billion

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 5

Supreme Court

to review prison

Control Unit

classification

December 10, 2004 -- The Supreme

Court agreed to take up the case of

classifying prisoners into super maximum-

security prisons, looking specifically at

how prisoners are classified into these

prisons. Most states have the prisons, that

go by many names, including Supermax

and Control Units. MIM has been fighting

to shut down prison Control Units for

years.

Control units may vary from prison to

prison but they can be generally

characterized as: Permanently designated

prisons or cells in prisons that lock

prisoners up in solitary or small group

confinement for 22 or more hours a day

with no congregate dining, exercise or

other services, and virtually no programs

for prisoners. Prisoners are placed in

control units for extended periods of time.

Prisoners are usually placed in control

units as an administrative measure, with

no clear rules governing the moves.

The Supreme Court will review an

appeal from the Ohio supermax where

prisoners are on 23-hour-a-day lockdown

in 90-square foot cells. This appeal

follows the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals decision on a class-action lawsuit

against the state arguing that prisoners

were not given a chance to fight the

classification into the supermax. The

Appeals court ruled that prisoners in the

Ohio are entitled to hearings, with

witnesses, before being classified into the

supermax.

This is a case well worth watching. As

the AP reported: "The case forces the

Supreme Court to revisit a 1995 decision

that limited prisoners' rights to have

hearings before they lose privileges or are

disciplined for misconduct. Chief Justice

William H. Rehnquist wrote in that opinion

that inmate liberty interests are `limited

to freedom from restraint which ...

imposes atypical and significant hardship

on the inmate in relation to the ordinary

incidents of prison life.'"

The case is Wilkinson v. Austin, 04-

495.

Notes: http://www.fresnobee.com/

24hour/nation/story/1913642p-

9863049c.html

by mim3@mim.org

Our name established in 1984 is the

"Maoist Internationalist Movement," but

the first word has a long history, behind

it, so long, that the choice of one word

concentrates a huge political struggle, the

most important one of our times in the

international communist movement. [This

work is incomplete, so you can help out if

you want by sending in your analysis and

historical references.]

In August 1948, while preparing his

speech for the opening ceremony of

North China University, Comrade Wu

Yuzhang decided to use "Maoism"

[Mao2 Ze2dong1 zhu3yi4] instead of

"Mao Zedong Thought" [Mao2

Ze2dong1 si1xiang3] and to proclaim

that "studying Maoism is of primary

importance." He sent Comrade Mao

Zedong a telegram to ask for his

advice. In reply, Comrade Mao

Zedong wrote: "That sort of phrasing

is quite inappropriate. There is no

such thing as Maoism. Don't say

`studying Maoism is of primary

importance.' You must rather urge the

students to study the theory of Marx,

Engels, Lenin, and Stalin as well as

the experience of the Chinese

revolution. Here `the experience of

the Chinese revolution' includes the

various little booklets written by

Chinese communists (Mao Zedong

among them) and the documents of

all the lines and policies established

by the Party Central Committee."

In 1955, at a nationwide conference

of intellectuals, some comrades again

suggested changing "Mao Zedong

Thought" to "Maoism." Comrade

Mao Zedong did not approve of this

suggestion. He said: "Marxism-

Leninism is the trunk of the tree; I

am just a twig." ( http://

www.huaxia.com/20031222/

00159588.html )

This sort of statement and the

continued use of the phrase "Marxism-

Leninism" for a historical period has

caused much confusion in our own

ranks--especially now in 2005 when

people go back and quote from Chinese

history selectively and not by looking at

the whole history.

In 1955, the Soviet leader Khruschev

had not yet publicly denounced Stalin, who

died in 1953. Thus to say that there is a

"Maoism" in 1955 would hinge that notion

on Mao's contributions to the theory of

People's War. Some would say that Mao's

idea of "new democracy" was also a

development of Marxism-Leninism, but

MIM has held the position that that

particular idea fell well within the range

of previous statements by Lenin. What is

more, the Soviet Union had also had

extensive military experience in World

War II, which probably deserved

synthesis as well. Hence, there is a good

case for saying as Mao did that up till

1956, there was no "Maoism" yet.

It's important to understand that the

center of gravity in the world communist

movement's split between revisionism and

scientific communism comes down

around 1955. By this I mean that the

revisionists in China continue to quote

from the 1950s before Mao developed the

struggle against revisionism through

polemics with the Soviet Union and the

Cultural Revolution. In India as well, there

has been division along these lines, where

some continue to uphold the Liu Shaoqi

line and oppose as "Lin Biaoism" the

elevation of Maoism as the next and

higher stage of Marxism-Leninism. This

is all tied together in the battle against

Chinese revisionism, so it's important to

reject the Chinese revisionists' claims that

the "Golden Age" was Mao's leadership

before the Great Leap (1958-1960).

While these issues cause historical

debate and organizational splitting in India,

of course in the majority-exploiter

countries the subject has a treatment

closer to farce. We have one joker now

calling himself a "great Maoist leader"

who before jumping on the bandwagon

and calling himself "Maoist" in 1993

claimed simultaneously to oppose Kim's

revisionism in Korea and Castro's in Cuba

while criticizing the Lin Biaoists who in

the 1960s were the ones to make official

a basis for opposing Korean and Cuban

revisionism. However, that is getting

ahead of the story.

The reason there is "Maoism" today is

a new problem not faced by Lenin. To be

sure, Lenin had learned of cases where

reactionaries defeat revolutions as in the

Paris Commune or Hungary. Lenin even

mentioned the creation of a "new

bourgeoisie" in the government of

socialism. The idea that imperialists could

attack from the outside or that a civil war

could go one way or another was not new

to Lenin and hence anything along these

lines probably cannot serve as a claim for

the existence of Maoism as the third and

superior stage of Marxism-Leninism.

Khruschev changed all that.

In Khruschev's restoration of

capitalism in the Soviet Union, we have a

case where there was no civil war

apparent and no imperialist invasion. In

fact, Stalin had held power in relative

stability for about 30 years.

The response of the international

communist movement divided into three

parts: 1) denial and thus revisionism; 2)

ineptitude; 3) development.

Those in camp one are now finally on

the defensive, because Gorbachev made

it obvious that capitalist restoration is

possible by the leaders of the party itself.

It is only the totally brain-dead still hoping

that Russia is a "deformed workers'

state" in 2005 or that Gorbachev was a

real communist. Mao was right: it could

happen without civil war or outside

invasion and the important thing to

understand is that this statement separates

him from the vast majority of other

leaders in the communist movement at

the time and this is another reason we

must now elevate Maoism as the third

and superior stage of Marxism-Leninism,

as a matter of our scientific responsibility

today.

In the second camp we have the inept

ranging from Castro and Kim to Hoxha.

Hoxha was the least inept in this camp

while Castro and Kim made considerably

more compromises with the revisionist

camp. Even so, Castro flip-flopped and

stated he noticed something had changed

with Gorbachev as did Kim Jong Il. They

were rather late, but their followers were

not totally brain-dead, just 90%. The best

in the lot, Hoxha realized that Khruschev

had changed something and he knew it

was a departure from Marxism-Leninism.

What was not so good was Hoxha's

explanation for how it happened.

Stalin had told us that parties in power

have enemies inside. Trotskys arise. The

imperialists bribe various party members.

Yet, here was Khruschev, the very leader

of the Soviet Union who restored

capitalism. The question arises whether

the old approach to this question was

adequate. Hoxha answered "yes," Mao

"no."

So, we should not laugh, but Hoxha

claimed there was an appropriate Stalin

line without the benefit of hindsight that

Mao had to handle this question. We are

supposed to picture that the KGB should

have handled Khruschev, not to mention

Gorbachev. We should treat Khruschev

as just another Amerikan-bribed infiltrator

according to non-Maoists who noticed

something wrong with Khruschev.

For Maoists this is no where near

adequate. How should we picture this?

First the KGB sends teams of

investigators to find out how much the

Amerikans bribed Khruschev. Next they

arrange to bribe him back to the Soviet

side and serve as a double agent? Perhaps

the KGB should arrest the leader of the

party? We're quite sure that Stalin agreed

with Mao that the party must command

the gun, and he said so when he rejected

a particular military commendation

because it implied that the leader of the

party was not already the leader of the

Soviet military. So to leave it to the KGB,

this would be a precedent fraught with

difficulty at a wider political level, not to

mention continuous and shady coups. This

is another reason Mao found the whole

Lin Biao disaster so distressing. If Stalin

himself could not leave leaders in place

to prevent capitalist restoration, then why

do we think a subdepartment of the KGB

is going to arrest Khruschev (and even if

succeeding in that) and then prevent

capitalist restoration themselves? As

Molotov himself said, "we purged and

purged" and still "it's complicated."

Obviously, genuine communists faced

with this situation needed more help from

the masses and that is why there needed

to be a Cultural Revolution.

No, preventing revisionist leadership is

not something for the KGB/NKVD alone.

This is something where we have to ask

how the party put itself in this position

and find the roots of Khruschev's support.

Mao was the only one to do this and that

is the real reason we have to name

Maoism as the third and superior stage

of Marxism-Leninism.

When we picture the KGB bribing

Notes on the term "Maoism"

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 6

Militarism is war-mongering or the

advocacy of war or actual carrying out

of war or its preparations.

While true pacifists condemn all

violence as equally repugnant, we

Maoists do not consider self-defense

or the violence of oppressed nations

against imperialism to be militarism.

Militarism is mostly caused by

imperialism at this time. Imperialism

is the highest stage of capitalism--

seen in countries like the United

$tates, England and France.

Under capitalism, capitalists often

profit from war or its preparations.

Yet, it is the proletariat that does the

dying in the wars. The proletariat

wants a system in which people do not

have self-interest on the side of war-

profiteering or war for imperialism.

Militarism is one of the most

important reasons to overthrow

capitalism. It even infects oppressed

nations and causes them to fight each

other.

It is important not to let capitalists

risk our lives in their ideas about war

and peace or the environment. They

have already had two world wars

admitted by themselves in the last 100

years and they are conducting a third

right now against the Third World.

Even a one percent annual chance of

nuclear war destruction caused by

capitalist aggressiveness or "greed" as

the people call it should not be tolerated

by the proletariat. After playing

Russian Roulette (in which the bullet

chamber is different each time and not

related at all to the one that came up in

previous spins) with 100 chambers and

one bullet, the chance of survival is

only 60.5% after 50 turns. In other

words, a seemingly small one percent

annual chance of world war means

eventual doom. After 100 years or turns

of Russian Roulette, the chances of

survival are only 36.6%. After 200

years, survival has only a 13.4%

chance.

What is militarism?

Khruschev sufficiently to stay on the

Soviet side, we come closer to

understanding the problem. Even on

bourgeois terms, narrow-minded and

imperfect leaders of powerful countries

do not hanker for a condo in Miami,

especially not so much that they would

give up the prestige of their own

independence. Leaders of powerful

countries can usually arrange their own

privileges if they have a mind to being

corrupt, so they would not need Amerikan

bribes.

One could respond that Khruschev was

the kind of joker who just revelled in

widespread corruption without any

particular rationale. Then the question

becomes why he would have support.

How did he get to be party leader?

Certainly others had to know this and now

we are talking about a more widespread

problem. Furthermore, even if Amerikans

bribed Khruschev to restore profit to

command in the Soviet economy, it would

not explain why others actually carried

out his economic plans.

Today when there is a general

bourgeois ethos in Russia, if someone

wants to say that the whole Gorbachev,

Yeltsin and Putin governments were just

line items in the State Department, NSA

and CIA budgets, we can imagine such a

large operation. It is possible within Uncle

$am's budget for "intelligence." The

problem comes in saying that is what

happened under Stalin with people like

Khruschev at his side ready to pounce

for capitalism. Khruschev could not

denounce Stalin and change the direction

of the economy without internal support.

Hence we have to look for the material

bases of the bourgeoisie in the party and

stop living in denial that there was a

bourgeoisie in the party, though it sounds

unpleasant. The reality of capitalist

restoration is what is really unpleasant,

not science, not Mao the messenger.

When we try to place ourselves in the

shoes of Chinese Marxists in the 1930s,

we have some internal disagreement and

uncertainty at MIM. One analysis holds

that the May 4th movement succeeded

in introducing the concept of "-ism"

China-wide. Another analysis holds that

in their position, the Chinese comrades

going into the remote countryside and

speaking with uneducated peasants might

say the "thoughts of Buddha" or the

"thoughts of Mao" to use a form of

expression that there could be no question

people would understand. Rather than

getting to the absolute bottom of the origin

of "Mao Zedong Thought," we thought it

important to publish on our web page

what we do know.

Closely related to this question is Mao's

statement in the 1930s that there is "no

Marxism that is not concrete." For Mao,

there was no such thing as Marxism in

the abstract. It either applied in conditions

in China or did not exist at all in China.

This had a lot to do with defeating Wang

Ming and the Trotskyists who tried to say

Notes on the term "Maoism"

that their connection to historical figures

in Moscow or training there made their

theories correct. Likewise, ten years ago,

we had some jokers in Australia trying to

say that their connection to supposedly

prestigious Peruvians in New York City

made them vanguard leaders. Other

similar types say that signing a joint

resolution with multiple countries' parties

makes them right about concrete issues.

So Mao correctly fought a key battle

against dogmatism; although by MIM

standards, we would say such a battle

was of life-and-death importance but still

a lesser challenge than faced in the

majority-exploiter countries where we

have people calling exploiters "exploited."

Much as they were complete misleaders,

even Wang Ming and the Chinese

Trotskyists all pointed to people in China

who were exploited, so the question of

friends and enemies was not as botched

in China as we have in Trotskyism or

dogmatism in the majority-exploiter

countries today. Whereas in China, failure

to follow Mao led to an inept pursuit of

the exploited's interests, in the majority-

exploiter countries, the Trotskyists not on

imperialist payroll do not even pursue the

exploited's interests to begin with. They

do not oppose exploitation, so it's

important to understand that the question

never goes to the strategic level in the

majority-exploiter countries. It's a

question of ideology and goals and the

duty of the communists in the majority-

exploiter countries is to shine the light on

the enemy and keep the target in sight

for the whole world.

According to one historian named

Raymond F. Wylie, Mao's thought was

not really on the map even among his

eventually closest followers until 1938. At

that time, Chen Boda and others started

a persistent effort to have comrades

study not just Marx, Lenin and Stalin but

also Mao. Wang Ming also preserved

centralism on that question. Contrary to

the 28 Bolsheviks of similar mind as Wang

Ming and the Trotskyists, the new party

history also stressed the advances at

meetings of January 1935, and not the

role of returned students in January 1931

at the fourth plenum as previously taught

in party history.

From the 1930s through the 1950s, it

would not be wrong to consider Mao's

thought to be just a part of Marxism-

Leninism. With the Khruschev restoration

of capitalism came the basis for change

and a more radical impulse developing

Marxism-Leninism to a new stage.

Finally, at the 9th Party Congress of

the Chinese Communist Party, Mao's

comrades elevated Mao's importance

relative to Marxism-Leninism. From that

time onward, the genuine Maoists knew

that the difference between Mao

Zedong's Thought and "Maoism" was

semantic. All that remained was

implementation which faced resistance

especially from Liu Shaoqi and Deng

Xiaoping.

No longer was "Mao Zedong Thought"

reserved to discussion of China's

conditions. Newspaper articles appeared

that said that revolutions in other countries

"depended on Mao Zedong Thought."

Thus whatever the origins of the term, it

was clear that practitioners regarded Mao

Zedong Thought as a universal

development of Marxism-Leninism.

There could hardly be better proof than

the restoration of capitalism in several

countries.

Having advanced so far, it's not

surprising that during or soon after the

"9th Party Congress" the Maoists of

China "blew it." The unity of those who

knew that revisionism had to be defeated

by Maoism fell apart. After earning the

main credit for elevating Mao's thought

as the official line of the Chinese

Communist Party, according to Raymond

F. Wylie in addition to the 10th National

Congress of the Communist Party of

China documents, Chen Boda and Lin

Biao actually proposed a report naming

the principal contradiction within China

as between the socialist system and

backward forces of production, thus again

paving the way for the "theory of

productive forces" and Zhou Enlai's

"Four Modernizations" that served as

Deng's ideological backbone. Oddly

enough, they did this while proposing

further advances in economic

organization, thus maintaining their "ultra-

left" credentials. By MIM's standards, it

seems that Chen Boda had become

"erratic," because it is hard to see how

these ideas fit together with his other

ideas. If this is true, and if reports by Lin's

son are true, by 1969 Mao was

surrounded by leaders who simply wanted

modernization of the productive forces

and less internationalism--"China's

rightful place in the world" as any

respectable bourgeois would put it. Only

the "Gang of Four" remained in opposition

to the "theory of the productive forces."

At the 10th Party Congress, Zhou Enlai

announced the dispatch of Chen Boda and

Lin Biao and also condemned the theory

of productive forces he himself was

peddling inside the party. With the death

of Mao and the arrest of the "Gang of

Four," Chen Boda and Lin Biao remained

in disgrace and thus there were no erratic

or consistent Maoists left to block the way

and the bourgeoisie won the day. Deng

Xiaoping came to power and told the

world that he based himself on Zhou

Enlai's programs for the productive

forces.

In the above, the reason I cite Wylie

and not just the 10th Party Congress

documents alone is that if there are any

areas to be further investigated they

would be how the Maoist unity fell apart

in 1969-1970 and what Zhou Enlai's role

was--whether Deng Xiaoping

misreported that in any way. That's

another way of saying we are cross-

checking the above paragraph from a

number of angles, including bourgeois

historians.

As we have said many times before,

the truth is the truth no matter who says

it. In this case, Lin Biao eventually staged

a coup against Mao, but before that he

blazed the trail and said on March 11, 1966:

"Mao Tse-tung's thought reflects the

objective laws of the domestic and

Continued from previous page...

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 7

international class struggle; it reflects the

fundamental interests of the proletariat,

of the working people. Mao Tse-tung's

thought has not grown spontaneously

from among the working people; it is

rather the result of Chairman Mao's

inheriting and developing with great talent

the ideas of Marxism-Leninism on the

basis of great revolutionary practice. It

has summed up the new experiences of

the international communist movement

and elevated Marxism-Leninism to a

completely new stage." Similar remarks

come from Lin in the little red book

Quotations.

From that time onwards, genuine

communists the world around treated

Mao's thought as containing universal

truth as officially sanctioned by the

Communist Party of China. Whether it

was called "Mao Zedong Thought" or

"Maoism" the important thing was

whether people treated it as something

universally true, and not just Marxism-

Leninism applied to China. In this regard

what Mao said about the Soviet Union

was key.

Now we should say there is no

"Marxism-Leninism-Maoism" that is not

concrete. There is no "Marxism-

Leninism-Maoism" that is not integrated

with a country's conditions. Deng

Xiaoping and Kim Il Sung did not want

that, because they wanted the 1950s

status quo of "Marxism-Leninism," which

amounted to downplaying the struggle

against capitalist restoration. Kim's Juche

tends in a rather subjectivist- empiricist

direction by not upholding anything

universal at all and thus it can be hard to

tell apart from Deng's line sometimes. If

people use the term "Maoism" to mean

Marxism-Leninism applied in Chinese

conditions, then the term "Maoism" is as

watered down as any other. So what is

important is understanding the relationship

between the universal and the particular

and to give Maoism its proper universal

accord.

At the 9th Congress of the Chinese

Communist Party, the only party in power

mentioned by name as genuine Marxist-

Leninist was the Albanian one. The

congress openly condemned Brezhnev.

This set Mao at odds with Castro, who

had nothing to contribute to the struggle

against the restoration of capitalism. Later,

Kim succeeded in getting Mao's

government in 1975 to name Kim as not

departing from "Marxism-Leninism"

without needing to carry out a struggle

against the bourgeoisie in the party in

Korea. That remains something of a

puzzle to this day. If that line is correct it

would only be because northern Korea is

not really in the socialist stage, because

of the reunification problem.

It is revisionists of various stripes trying

to return the discussion of Mao to the

1950s status quo. It is a way of

downplaying the struggle against

Khruschev revisionism, downplaying the

Cultural Revolution and even denying the

multiple capitalist restorations that have

occurred just as Mao said. The

beneficiaries of such an approach are

Khruschev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Deng

Xiaoping, Kim Jong Il, Ho Chi Minh and

Castro.

HC123 filed a research report for this

article.

Note: The leading dictionary of classical

Chinese does not list _zhu3yi4_ (`-ism').

That means that it is almost certainly a

recent term, not much older than the end

of the nineteenth century. Another

dictionary states that it commonly

corresponds to English _-ism_ as in

_socialism_ and _individualism_, which

it lists with the corresponding Chinese

words.

The word _shugi_ (_zhu3yi4_ in

Chinese) was created by Fukuchi

Gen'ichiro (1841-1906) as a translation

of the English word _principle_. It would

have spread from Japan to China, as did

_she4hui4_ `society' (also popularized by

Fukuchi) and numerous other words.

So it's about a hundred years old, and it

was devised to express a Western

concept.

Continued from previous page...

Maoism

Kinsey, 2004

Bill Condon, director

Alfred Kinsey was a biologist who used

the scientific methods he learned while

studying insects to research sexual

practices in mid-20th century America.

Although this reviewer does not know

enough to say that the survey methods

and conclusions shown in this movie are

accurate representations of the real-life

Kinsey's work, I recommend "Kinsey"

for promoting a scientific approach to

sexuality. That is, if I want to know how

people behave sexually, it's not good

enough to listen to my preacher or

extrapolate from my own experience or

read the fiction in Cosmo or Playboy; I

have to do more research, probably by

asking people about their sex lives like

Kinsey did.

"Kinsey" is to be commended for

making this basic point--taking a

scientific approach to humyn sexuality and

society--in an entertaining manner. It's

not a textbook on survey sampling, but

then no movie should strive to be a

textbook. Instead, movies should

challenge the audience to question long-

held incorrect or outright reactionary

ideas. They should also promote a basic

worldview or ideology. Of course MIM

would prefer movies that promote

proletarian ideology, but until we have our

own films playing on more than 100

screens for over seven weeks we'll settle

for "Kinsey" putting science ahead of

clerical cant and old wives' tales.

On a substantive level, MIM agrees

with several points raised in "Kinsey." For

example, Kinsey begins a sex-ed lecture

for college students saying that in a

healthy society, most of what he was

about to cover would be known to any

twelve-year old. Several characters--

including Kinsey and his wife early in their

marriage and another womyn who

attempts suicide--suffer unnecessarily

because they did not know the basic

mechanics of sex or think homosexuality

is a sin. MIM's platform calls for

mandatory sex education by age eleven

to avoid exactly those problems.

"Kinsey" is not a perfect movie--in

typical Hollywood fashion it spends too

much time on Kinsey's persynal life. The

portrayals of Kinsey's early relationship

with his father and later relationship with

his son are little more than clichéd gossip.

More importantly, the movie does not

clearly address the gendered power

structure that continues to influence

sexual relationships that have been

"liberated" from clerical repression.

There are hints throughout the movie that

Kinsey hasn't grasped this point, for

example when his assistants have a

jealous row over a consensual affair. But

the movie doesn't take a clear position;

at most it criticizes Kinsey for ignoring

the link between romantic love and sex.

This may have been a conscious decision

on the part of the filmmakers: in his time

and place Kinsey may have been the best

thing going; the principal enemy may have

been the religious bigots and charlatans

as opposed to the modern pornography

industry that oppresses wimmin under the

banner of "liberating" sex; MacKinnon

and MIM weren't around yet. Still, the

movie was made for today's audience,

and while its good pro-science anti-

churchy mumbo jumbo line is sadly still

relevant in Amerika, we would have liked

a sharper critique of the power relations

underlying supposedly "free" sexual

relationships.

Kinsey is pro-science, if muddled

"White Noise"

Dir., Geoffrey Sax

Universal, 2005

Reviewed by a contributor

January 13, 2005

It is tempting to just write off "White

Noise" as being yet more lubrication for

the romance culture, as well as

propaganda for religious thinking and

paranormal research of questionable

scientific value. The movie revolves

around Jonathan Rivers's (Michael

Keaton) grief over his deceased wife

(Chandra West), who died under

mysterious circumstances. Jonathan

persistently tries to keep contact with her

by way of electronic voice phenomena

(EVP) and succeeds in communicating

with her ghost through what sound and

look like intelligible signals present in TV

static. Jonathan does this to the point of

seeming to neglect his son (Nicholas Elia)

emotionally. Jonathan's behavior worries

Nicholas; he wonders whether his father

is going to be alright. After Anna's death,

things fall apart for Jonathan family-wise,

and his stress carries over to his work,

but Jonathan's otherwise idyllic family life,

intimate life and career are interrupted

only by Anna's death.

Whether EVP is bogus or not is not the

point here. What is interesting about

"White Noise" is that full-spectrum

radiation isn't the only thing that is white

in this movie. "White Noise" goes out of

its way to depict bourgeois Euro-

Amerikans probably making at least six

figures. Jonathan is an architect with some

managerial responsibilities. Anna Rivers

is an internationally renowned, financially

successful writer. None of this is

necessary for the plot to work except that

Jonathan is able to buy several LCD or

plasma TVs, an LCD monitor, and audio

studio software, to use for EVP

monitoring. Jonathan suspects that EVP

enthusiast Raymond Price (Ian McNeice)

or an obsessed fan of Anna's may be

stalking him, but Raymond is able to

receive EVP messages from persyns who

aren't famous and seems to be interested

in all those with whom he communicates

through EVP. So, even Anna's being a

famous writer is not needed for the plot

to work, but "White Noise" still makes a

point of depicting rich white people.

"White Noise" offers decadent

parasites suggestions for new ways to

spend their leisure time and provides them

with more reasons to buy products. The

MP3 player product placement was

obvious in "Blade: Trinity" (2004) , but in

"White Noise," the hi-tech product

placement is bound up with Jonathan's

trying to deal with the death of a loved

one. And why should Jonathan have all

this EVP equipment, but not other people?

Even if EVP were real, we could speak

of inequality in the access to EVP

The romance culture with a

paranormal twist: White Noise

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 8

equipment. Like many other movies

featuring obviously wealthy Euro-

Amerikan characters, "White Noise"

takes their wealth, and the class structure,

for granted and then proceeds to focus

on their adventures with the romance

culture. This reflects the reality of

imperialist-country parasites' lives. Their

lives are so empty that they have to look

to the romance culture for ways to create

meaning in their lives. Yet, this same

culture benefits only gender oppressors,

including the majority of adults in the

Euro-Amerikan nation.

"White Noise" also adds to people's

reasons to engage in serial killing: ghosts

told me to do it. "White Noise" is similar

to "Murder by Numbers" (2002), for

example, in presenting new justifications

for serial killing, but in "White Noise,"

there is simply no way to avoid the kind

of serial killing depicted unless viewers

think that it would be safer for wimmin to

not drive alone at night. In "White Noise,"

a womyn is attacked while she is driving

her car. [Spoiler warning] The implication

at the end of the movie is that ghosts drove

a working-class man construction worker

(Mitchell Kosterman) to do it. The

background of this is the romance culture,

so the movie opposes the romance

culture to serial killing and makes gender

The romance culture with a paranormal twist: White Noise

oppressors look like victims of serial

killers. Of course, this is nothing new;

"Saw" (2004) does the same thing for

example.(1)

What city "White Noise" is set in isn't

clear. The movie is about serial killing,

with a paranormal twist, in Anywhere,

u.$.a. "White Noise" will contribute to

movie viewers' fear of serial killers, but

it is unlikely that the movie will actually

decrease serial killing. So, what we have

here is a movie that just encourages serial

killing by presenting more rationalizations

for it. At the same time, the movie

reinforces the romance culture.

A psychic (Connor Tracy) warns

Jonathan not to "meddle" with ghosts,

who later put Jonathan's life at risk. EVP

enthusiast movie viewers may take this

as a warning to themselves, but this will

have no impact on serial killers who think

they are carrying out the will of ghosts--

or God, like in "Frailty" (2001).

Other reviewers are giving "White

Noise" a hard time, focusing almost

exclusively on artistic criteria, so the

question arises: is there anything good in

this movie. The movie's portrayal of a

u.$. white "worker" as a serial killer isn't

going to score any points with some

sections of the white labor aristocracy;

although we have to point out that globally

and statistically, the Amerikan labor

aristocracy is the leader in producing serial

killers. So, the movie may disturb the

Amerikan so-called workers'

contentment, but the movie pits

imperialists (Jonathan) against lesser

parasites, which makes it more difficult

to see the labor aristocracy's role in

imperialist parasitism. "White Noise"

doesn't get into who the worker is, or

exactly what led up to the serial killings,

but it would not be surprising if many

movie viewers were uncomfortable with

such a portrayal of what looks like stark

difference within the u.$. white oppressor

nation. Architect Jonathan lives in an

upscale home; the white serial killer

construction worker works out of what

looks like an abandoned building, but can

still afford to have all his own EVP

equipment. Also, many viewers will

perceive "White Noise" as "exploiting"

their emotions about deceased loved ones,

but their anger with the movie over this

will just whip up their sentimentality for

deceased family members.

"White Noise" does not deal with

mental illness explicitly, but as with so-

called mental illnesses and their

"symptoms," we could ask if there is

some social basis to the perception of

EVP and other paranormal phenomena

as being real. Whether EVP is bogus or

not (some viewers annoyed with "White

Noise" claim that EVP is bogus and feel

that the EVP premise insults their

intelligence), EVPs may represent a

longing for relationships with certain

deceased people, for instance, relatives

and spouses. In other words, "EVP"

might originate inside the imperialist-

patriarchy. This is especially clear when

EVP coincides with certain kinds of

electronic equipment that are not as

accessible to exploited and oppressed

people in the Third World. Jonathan

devotes so much attention and resources

to communicating with Anna's ghost.

Raymond Price did the same with his

dead son. The question "can we blame

them" obscures the economic privileges

that make EVP recording possible in the

first place. In "White Noise," Jonathan

first receives faint electronic signals from

Anna's ghost through a cell phone, a

stereo radio, and a car stereo. He moves

on to using sleek video displays and

computer equipment. What's next?

Notes:

1. "Imperialist-country parasites feel a

little bit guilty after seeing : `Saw'," http:/

/www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/movies/

long/saw.html

Continued from previous page...

"The Aviator"

Dir., Martin Scorsese

Mirmax Films, 2004

Reviewed by a contributor January 2,

2005

[The Aviator has been nominated for

11 Academy Awards, including best

picture, best director, and two acting

awards. --ed.]

"The Aviator" focuses, in part, on what

psychiatry would consider mental illness

symptoms: Euro-Amerikan imperialist

Howard Hughes' obsessive-compulsive

behavior and paranoia. Today, at least a

few million Amerikans are supposed to

have obsessive-compulsive disorder.

OCD patients' obsessions are often

specific to a certain kind of object, or a

certain kind of thought. The manifestation

of OCD seems to vary with

circumstances.

Mental illness diagnoses in general are

often a response to behavior that either

conflicts with, or concentrates, ideas and

practices prevailing under the imperialist-

patriarchy. What psychologists call "Pure-

O," involving obsessive thinking only, is

particularly interesting from the point of

view of this approach. Some of what is

called obsessive thinking could be viewed

as excessive use of formal logic, and

idealism. MIM has used a similar

approach with other so-called mental

illnesses. "In MIM's experience, it has

been useful to address eating disorders

as an incorrect line on gender."(1)

MIM has dealt with a related theme in

the context of the Chinese communists'

practice of including politically-oriented

group activities as a part of rehabilitation.

"The manifestations of schizophrenia are

social even if there is a chemical

component or basis. The gross

individualism and violence in Amerika

may lead people diagnosed as

schizophrenics to shoot up a McDonald's

or worry about constant surveillance,

while in a socialist society their behavior

would manifest itself differently. Even

before socialism, a revolutionary party can

divert this energy to meaningful political

work. The key is good politics."(1) In the

same issue of MIM Theory. MIM

discusses how revolutionary activity can

effectively mitigate other mental illness

symptoms, particularly depression

symptoms. However, "good politics" is

not just a rehabilitation technique. Rather,

individuals must defeat their own mental

illnesses so that they can even better

participate in the revolutionary struggle.

"We operate on the conviction that

everyone [including the psychiatrically

defined "retarded"], without exception, is

capable of being incorporated into the

revolutionary struggle."(1) This is the

case even if mental illnesses represent a

deterioration of urban parasites' mental

abilities and require their children to take

leadership in different ways.

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms are

central to the persynality of Howard

Hughes in "The Aviator." Most movie

viewers will not go out and buy a Howard

Hughes biography book after seeing "The

Aviator," instead interpreting the movie

as an example of a great Amerikan

innovator and visionary, and taking the

part-fiction biographical movie for what

it is and leaving it at that, so I am not

going to get into whether "The Aviator"

accurately portrays Hughes. The movie

ends with Hughes in the late 1940s, which

leaves out some of the most controversial

and disturbing aspects of Hughes' life in

the first place. Exactly what kind of

murderous, CIA-serving u.$. imperialist

Hughes was is not that important. Suffice

it to say that the pretense of a movie's

being somehow inspired by reality is

almost always a smokescreen for the

movie's politics. Especially when the

persyn in question has so little bearing on

political practice, those reviewers who

emphasize accuracy of portrayal are

focused on artistic criteria, an approach

to art criticism which smuggles

reactionary ideology into listeners'.

readers' and viewers' minds.

The Hughes character (Leonardo

DiCaprio) is frequently distressed with

what he perceives to be uncleanliness,

and what he perceives to be imperfection

of a technical sort, for example, his

complaint about the protruding rivets on

the body of an airplane. The obvious

comparison is with "A Beautiful Mind"

(2001) despite the main characters'

different types of mental illness. The idea

is that mental illness can coincide with,

or even produce, genius, but may also be

its downfall. Despite the notion of the mad

scientist, the idea of the mentally

eccentric intellectual is typically reserved

for artistic bohemians, so it is interesting

to see these movies featuring the mental

illnesses of Hughes and John Nash, who

are more "scientific." Unfortunately, "The

Aviator" does not ponder how every urban

imperialist-country parasite, female or

male, entertainer or scientist, is prone to

"mental illness." Doing so might

undermine the whole individualist

approach to "mental illness" and expose

social problems.

Instead, in "The Aviator," "mental

illness" has the context of celebrity and

success, as if the movie were trying to

say: see, even the ruling class needs

psychology and therapy, so you should

want it, too. Like many other movies that

depict seemingly mentally ill persyns, "The

Aviator" does nothing to disturb movie

viewers' assumption of the need for

psychology and therapy when there is a

mentally ill character on-screen. To top it

off, "The Aviator" tries to be

stereotypically Freudian with all of "The

Aviator"'s breast, milk and death wish

references. So, Hughes's need for

psychology seems to be just a matter of

fact. This is particularly damaging in the

context of professional psychology's rapid

growth after World War II, which "The

Aviator" completely ignores even though

it focuses on mental illness.

At the same time that it expresses

sympathy for "mentally ill" Hughes, "The

Mental illness and millionaires' parasitism in Aviator

Continued on next page...

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 9

Aviator" makes use of Hughes's fame in

another way. "The Aviator" contains a

lot of bullshit about a visionary Euro-

Amerikan entrepreneur and innovator's

being victimized by corporate monopoly

and government corruption. For example,

"The Aviator" portrays Hughes as being

unfairly targeted by the Senate War

Investigating Committee. Less sinisterly,

Noah Dietrich (John C. Reilly) repeatedly

objects to Hughes' spending his own

money unwisely. In fact, it is true that

capitalism and particularly highly parasitic

imperialism are brakes on technical

innovation and other technical change in

several different ways. Social science

researchers drawing from bourgeois

ideology themselves recognize a certain

disconnect between entrepreneurship and

business management skills. The problem

with "The Aviator" is that it glorifies

Howard Hughes's entrepreneurship and

innovativeness as being a sign that he

overcame his mental illness, without

getting into the roles of entrepreneurship

and innovation in the division of labor, and

exploitation. That the united $tates

imported much of its food, fuel and raw

materials during World War II, from

Mexico, for instance, is not going to cross

most Amerikan movie viewers' minds

anyway, but "The Aviator" pretends that

only u.$. white men engineers and

mechanics made the united $tates' fleet

of aircraft during World War II. The

Hughes character himself goes as far as

saying that he, unlike Katharine

Hepburn's family, "works" for his money.

On the other hand, "The Aviator"

suggests that mental eccentricity was a

cause of Hughes's perfectionism, so we

may ask: what is so laudable about

entrepreneurship or innovation in the first

place if it were mental illness that created

Hughes's success? And didn't Hughes

have an advantage in being born into so

much money? "The Aviator" also

deserves some credit for pointing out,

through the not-so-ditzy character of

Katharine Hepburn, that the Euro-

Amerikan bourgeoisie was too busy being

anti-Communist and decadent to

recognize the threat posed by Benito

Mussolini--but the movie goes on to

wrongly suggest that Franklin Roosevelt

was some kind of vanguard in this respect.

Still, "The Aviator" offers a useful

example of how imperialist-country

oppressors' mental illnesses are portrayed

in the movies.

As the author of "Disavowing suicide :

Testimonial of a Woman Revolutionary"

points out, "the most meaningful existence

for members of parasitic Amerika is to

work for communism to destroy

[Amerikan imperialism]."(2) That's

working for communism, not working to

innovate so that some imperialists can

have better weapons, or so that some

capitalists can have more profit.

Engineering and science are useful, but

not so important that there is no need to

take responsibility for their use for

exploitation and repression. Maybe this

hardly needs pointing out since Hughes

is a millionaire, but the same question

arises for lesser parasites as well.

In fact, what the author of "Disavowing

suicide" is talking about applies to both

millionaires and lesser parasites. Working

for communism is the most meaningful

thing imperialist-country parasites can do.

It is the most meaningful thing anyone

can do, who has enough leisure time and

freedom to do it (while others, particularly

in oppressed nations, are compelled to

work for communism as a matter of

survival). Yet, not everyone does it.

Even some millionaires that have

alleged "OCD" feel the need to have

congruency, evenness, or symmetry, in

their own environments and possessions.

Most people with such concerns do not

care about oppression and are not

disturbed with being parasites themselves.

The recent review of "The Machinist"

(2004) points out that there is a

multifaceted contradiction between the

powerfulness of parasitic privileges, on

the one hand, and powerlessness to

change the system at the lifestyle level.

The specific kinds of things that OCD

patients obsess about are often specific

to certain societies.

Interestingly, "The Aviator" attributes

Hughes' obsession with cleanliness to his

mother's warnings about disease

epidemics and her fear about "coloreds"

under quarantine in the neighborhood,

which implies that Hughes' obsessive-

compulsive behavior has a social basis:

other persyns' poverty, and some kind of

socio-spatial stratification. That Hughes

continues to distance himself from

uncleanliness even when there is clearly

no longer any reason for him to do so,

may be because he is so powerful and

aspires to be even more powerful as an

imperialist and gender oppressor, but can

never reach perfect powerfulness, so he

somehow feels the need to create an

illusion of control precisely where power

to change the system is absent: at the level

of lifestyle. He has to have so many peas

on his plate, positioned in a certain way.

Errol Flynn's (Jude Law) helping himself

to one of Hughes' peas is like a disarming

and devastating blow against Hughes.

Hughes creates more order elsewhere,

perhaps to regain a sense of being in

control. Hughes dates different kinds of

females: wimmin escorts, famous

actresses, and a young teenage girl, Faith

Domergue (Kelli Garner)--after the older

Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett)

dumps him for not being attentive to her

"needs."

It is nice to know that the enemy can

lose control through "mental illness," but

"The Aviator" depicts an imperialist as

being mentally ill only to make parasitic

movie viewers' feel better about their own

problems. This is why "The Aviator" is

not embarrassing to them. They can add

Hughes to the list of "famous OCD

sufferers" or whatever, who, of course,

would have benefited from psychology

and therapy since "The Aviator" does not

question the psychiatric and therapeutic

culture. At the same time, they can

reminisce about the life and times of a

real-life Amerikkkan hero.

Check out MIM Theory no. 9:

Psychology and Imperialism.

Notes:

1. MCB52, "Psychological Practice in

The Chinese Revolution," MIM Theory.

no. 9 (1995): 37.

2. "Disavowing suicide: Testimonial of

a Woman Revolutionary," MIM Theory.

no. 9 (1995): 45.

Aviator

From previous page...

"Blade: Trinity"

Dir., David S. Goyer

New Line, 2004

Reviewed by a contributor

January 5, 2005

"Blade: Trinity" is the third movie in the

"Blade" series, based on Marvel comic

books. In "Blade: Trinity," we find out that

vampire hunter Abraham Whistler (Kris

Kristofferson) has been working with

other humyn vampire hunters in the united

$tates for an unknown amount of time.

These other vampire hunters are

organized into geographically dispersed

groups: "sleeper" cells. One of the

Nightstalkers, Hannibal King (Ryan

Reynolds), is a former vampire.

Hannibal's group rescues Blade (Wesley

Snipes) after vampires capture Blade

with the help of Familiars, who are capo-

like, humyn lackeys of the vampires.

Police chief and Familiar Martin Vreede

reveals that the vampires have been

operating a blood farming facility in each

"major city" in the united $tates. The

vampires keep comatose humyns in tightly

sealed bags and suspend their bodies

vertically in midair; they `drip' blood. The

vampires target homeless humyns of

seemingly diverse nationalities.

In their review of "Blade" (1998) , MC5

states that the militarily tactically superior

vampire hunters have isolated themselves

from the masses.(1) In fact, in "Blade:

Trinity," the tactically superior vampire

hunters still have isolated themselves from

the masses; there are just more of them.

Now, there are vampire hunters called

"Nightstalkers," the most prominent of

whom are Euro-Amerikan in "Blade:

Trinity." Blade is depicted as needing the

Nightstalkers, but not as needing the

masses.

Blade reluctantly works with the

Nightstalkers and is still reluctant to do

so even near the end of the movie,

treating the Nightstalkers as annoyances

and unnecessary baggage. "Blade:

Trinity," is correct to portray heroes as

having limitations, but does not do enough

to oppose the notion of the lonely

revolutionary hero. At the end of the day,

the trinity of Blade, and two Nightstalkers,

Hannibal and Abigail Whistler (Jessica

Biel), are three superheroes, and we are

no further away from the previous two

"Blade" movies' orientation toward the

masses. Interestingly, a blind scientist

(Natasha Lyonne) is a member of the

Nightstalkers, which suggests that

disabled persyns are able to participate

in real-world struggle, but the movie

doesn't show any lumpen-proletarian as

being part of the Nightstalkers. Yet, the

vampires target lumpen-proletarians for

their blood farms disproportionately and

mainly.

There is a difference between the

masses, and the population or even the

majority of the population.(2) In the real

world, the majority of Euro-Amerikans

are not among the masses. With the

"Blade" movies, the temptation is to say

that the majority of Euro-Amerikans are

among the masses since the vampires

oppress them, too. But this depends on

whether they really are in not only a

stupor, but a self-defeating stupor.

Certainly, in the "Blade" world, it seems

that most Euro-Amerikans do not even

believe that vampires exist. But do they

have any reason to believe in them, is the

question. Interestingly, "Blade: Trinity"

depicts homeless persyns (whom nobody

would miss, Chief Vreede explains) as

suffering the brunt of the vampires'

systematic blood-harvesting efforts. In

this context, the intensely targeted

homeless persyns, including some white

homeless persyns, have more reason to

believe in vampires than the majority of

white people. For them, it is a matter of

survival. For others not sleeping rough on

the streets, it is more a matter of seeing

stories about strange disappearances and

serial killings on the news, on their TV

sets, and dealing with feelings of unease.

To the extent that the movie actually

has a concept of the masses, "Blade:

Trinity" is confused about whom the

masses in the "Blade" world consist of.

"Blade: Trinity" depicts the Familiars as

willingly using homeless persyns as

lightning rods for the vampires' thirst for

blood. For example, the technician at the

warehouse blood farm is a humyn who

hesitates to shut down the blood

production units after intimidating Blade

instructs them to. This accurately reflects

the orientation of real-world bourgeois

workers, who (however irrationally) fear

being re-proletarianized, toward exploited

workers, but the movie implies that Blade

is doing the whole humyn population a

service by fighting the vampires.

Supposedly, Blade kills humyn police

officers, those who aren't Familiars, for

their own good. This probably reflects a

lack of understanding by the movie

makers that the majority of Euro-

Amerikans aren't among the masses in

the real world. A lot of "Blade: Trinity" is

Blade needs more clarity on who make up the masses

Continued on page 12...

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · 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

Lifer's views on death

Being the recipient of a three strikes life

sentence, a penalty just below death, I see

capital punishment as yet another example of
what's wrong with our justice system.

The debate has now shifted to whether

Scott Peterson should die for his crimes. On
its face, killing your pregnant wife is about as
bad as it gets.

But ours is a flawed system.
In a capital crime, at best, if such can be

said, a guilty killer voluntarily confessed

without being coerced, tricked or tortured,
removing any doubt about guilt. At worst, an
innocent person is executed.

The phenomenon of actual innocence a

problem plaguing the American criminal
justice system, and especially the death

penalty is generally caused by overzealous
prosecutors and police, jailhouse informants
who should never be trusted, and overly

suggestive identification procedures
conducted by bias law enforcement.

Since 1976, 111 people have been found

factually innocent and liberated from the
gallows after being found guilty just like
Scott Peterson. Those are the cases we know

of.

I have a personal stake in this debate.
As a pro se litigant who's been fighting his

three strikes life sentence for over a half a
decade, I have more than a passing interest
in capital crimes. One of San Quentin's most

notorious death row prisoners, Richard Allen
Davis, committed the 1993 murder of Polly
Klaas that brought three strikes into being.

The unmistakable guilt of Davis made it

possible for myself and thousands of others
to receive life sentences for nonviolent crimes.

Would I like to see him die? Sure I would. But
as a jailhouse lawyer and inside activist, the
current model of justice is too imperfect even

for a dog like him.

There is no way to guarantee the innocent

will not be killed alongside the guilty.

Vengeance has no place in the justice system.

Arguably, hanging horse thieves, cattle

rustlers and outlaws in the mid-19th Century

helped civilize a young nation. That is, if
anyone can venture to say the angry mob in
front of the courthouse on the day the jury

convicted Peterson was representative of
civilized society.

Justice is not only flawed, but automatic

appeals afforded all inmates sentenced to
death to take decades. With 640 inmates
condemned to die in California, only 10 have

been executed since 1976. Rather than even
consider abolishing capital punishment, the
most recent debate is "where" to build a larger

death row.

Still, the case against Peterson is entirely

circumstantial. Even the bible says you need

two eyewitnesses in order to justify
execution. If the justice system could
guarantee a 99 percent rate of absolute

certainty a standard of excellence, in my
opinion, impossible to achieve that still
means six or seven death row inmates in San

Quentin are innocent.

Moreover, it costs roughly $2 million to try

a capital case in California, six times higher

than a noncapital trial. Do the math, it simply
doesn't add up.

It's time for this country to abandon it's

infatuation with death. The proper
punishment for murder is life, not lethal
injection.

If Peterson truly killed Laci and Conner, then

does he deserve to die? Not if the innocent
are also executed under this same flawed

system of justice. If you hate Peterson so
much, let him rot in prison for the rest of his

life.

Take it from someone who knows, life is

worse than death. Abolish the death penalty,
it's an abomination.

--a California prisoner, December 2004
MIM responds: We stand with this

prisoner in opposition to the imperialist death

penalty. The Amerikan system is far to flawed
to be deciding who deserves prison much
less who deserves death. But we also are clear

that revolutionaries can not afford to be
pacifists. When the proletariat takes power,
the imperialist criminal injustice system will

be abolished. But there will be murdering
imperialists who will face the penalty of death
for their crimes, a blood debt that the people

will demand.

Spreading AIDS in

prison?

We in Texas [are no longer] allowed to have

sexually explicit material to get us through
these months of incarceration. The
significance of this policy will be telling.

Prisons are already infested with weaknesses
of the flesh in the form of homosexuality. Now
with no self-gratifying material being allowed,

homosexuality will rise horrifyingly, which
also means HIV and AIDS will be very much
in evidence. It's bad comrades and getting

worse. What can be done to stop this criminal
genocide?

I am absolutely convinced there is

complicity between the corrections institution
and the medical branches. I have first hand
knowledge that HIV infections are being

transmitted among the prison population by
way of unprotected sexual intercourse.
Known homosexual HIV carriers are being

housed with non-infected prisoners and
soliciting and/or engaging in unprotected sex
with non-infected prisoners. The majority of

non-infected prisoners that are vulnerable are
short-timers. Many of these short-term
prisoners are bi-sexual, which means that once

they are released back to our communities
they bring with them infections that ultimately
place unexpected females at risk of exposure.

This is compounded by ignorance,
promiscuity, and high sexual activity.

There are obviously medical records that

are available in prison hospitals that would
make these HIV carriers easily identifiable.
The prison administrators are aware of this

yet all operations concerning the interaction
of prisoners condone, promote, and
encourage homosexual activity. There's no

major concern because most of these
prisoners being infected are from poor
communities and upon their release are for

certain going back to poor communities.

The only best thing for organizations like

MIM to do is promote segregation of these

HIV-infected homosexuals and publishing
warning bulletins system- wide. I call on all
the vanguard revolutionary organizations to

sound off your drums about this conspiracy
to kill us all off. This is germ warfare.

-- A Texas prisoner, May 2004

MIM responds: The transmission of HIV

and other diseases like hepatitis within
prisons is a huge problem, and it does create

epidemic effects throughout the oppressed-

nation communities of the prisoners. And the
prison system and its administrators must be
held accountable for this. Further, MIM

objects to banning pornography in prison,
as censorship of anything leads to political
censorship in this system.

However, we do not think banning

pornography or sex between men are the real
problems here. Nor do we see homosexuality

as a "weakness of the flesh" any more than is
heterosexuality. And segregating prisoners
based on HIV status alone is not necessary

or fair to HIV-positive prisoners who do not
commit rapes.

The problems are rape in general, lack of

education needed to understand and prevent
transmission, and lack of the preventive
health care needed to protect people from

infection. The prison administrators, along
with the other institutions of imperialism, are
largely responsible for all of these problems.

If rape were effectively prohibited instead of
condoned or promoted, and if health care and
sex education were widespread rights and

practices -- and if the unjust imprisonment
of large proportions of oppressed nation
communities was not the law of the land --

then the transmission of HIV and other
diseases through the prison population
would not be such an epidemic problem. Of

course, the prison administration should be
held accountable for the effects of their
actions.

MIM Notes opens eyes

Acknowledging the receipt of MIM Notes

May and June, Thank you.

Your underground manifesto keeps me and

others very well informed of the news we do
not get on the media. It's amazing to me how

some of these prisoners will become
frightened when you offer to let them read
your paper. As soon as they see communist

they piss on themselves and won't
confabulate any further on subject matter.
Your productions are a rude awakening for

some of us at the same time for those that do
read it cause they have never came across
information like you offer. Then there are some

who become hungry for the knowledge that
is in your productions. It opens a lot of doors
for us.

Most of us in here and in the free world

would not know that the terrorism at Abu
Ghraib has been and is practiced in u.s.

prisons daily. Those people will attempt to
justify those prison guards with discharges
against those prison guards, court

proceedings, reprimands but it is only a
subterfuge of the double standard that begins
at the top of the food chain perpetuated by

the imperialist elites. We all should know this
but a large percentage of us can feel good
about themselves by selling their souls for a

piece of the pie, the pie that is responsible in
the last 500 years, for more death, destruction,
all of white males a falling civilization. They

are not civilized. The barbarian has a
nefarious brain which created the reflex killer.
The reflex killer will smash you if you become

a serious threat to it. It wreaks of death.

- a California prisoner, July 2004

Officer tries to stop

education program

At Ironwood State Prison they have an

experimental college program where they pay

for your books and tuition. But there are some
standards you have to meet to be eligible,
which are not bad. There is limited space for

free books and tuition. So you are able to
pursue your degree on your own, all you have
to pay for is your books and they'll pay for

your tuition.

Well there is a Corrections Officer (CO) who

dose not agree with the program. So he writes

to the local newspapers saying it's not fair
that convicts get a free education and he has
to pay. He says rapist and murderers don't

deserve a college education. So every time
an inmate graduates he will lead a protest and
picket outside of the community college and

prison. This C.O. has been caught throwing
away inmates' outgoing mail, searching
inmates' cells and throwing all their

belongings all over the place. He gets
disciplined by his superior but nothing
happens.

They are also making us limit our property

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 11

Facts on U$ imprisonment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Join the fight against

the injustice system

While we fight to end the criminal

injustice system MIM engages in

reformist battles to improve the lives

of prisoners. Below are some of the

campaigns we are currently waging,

and ways people behind the bars and

on the outside can get involved. More

info can be found on our prison web

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

MIM/agitation/prisons

Stop Censorship in Prison: Prisons

frequently censor books, newspapers

and magazines coming from MIM's

books for prisoners program. We need

help from lawyers, paralegals and

jailhouse lawyers to fight this

censorship.

Books for Prisoners: This program

focuses on political education of

prisoners. Send donations of books and

money for our Books for Prisoners

program.

End the Three Strikes laws: This

campaign is actively fighting the

repressive California laws, but similar

laws exist in other states. Write to us

to request a petition to collect

signatures. Send articles and

information on three strike laws.

Shut Down the Control Units: Across

the country there are a growing number

of prison control units. These are

permanently designated prisons or cells

in prisons that lock prisoners up in

solitary or small group confinement for

22 or more hours a day with no

congregate dining, exercise or other

services, and virtually no programs for

prisoners. Prisoners are placed in

control units for extended periods of

time. These units cause both mental and

physical problems for prisoners.

Write to us to request a petition to

collect signatures. Get your

organization to sign the statement

demanding control units be shut down.

Send us information about where there

are control units in your state. Include

the names of the prisons as well as the

number of control unit beds/cells in

each prison if that is known. Send us

anti-control unit artwork.

MIM's Re-Lease on Life Program:

This program provides support for our

comrades who have been recently

released from the prison system, to help

them meet their basic needs and also

continue with their revolutionary

organizing on the outside. We need

funds, housing, and job resources. We

also need prisoner's input on the

following survey questions:

1. What are the biggest challenges

you face being released from prison?

2. How can these problems be

addressed?

3. What are the important elements

of a successful release program?

to a certain amount. They are including state
issued clothes and sleeping materials such

as blankets and sheets. It may not sound like
much but it is to an inmate who has to have
cosmetics, clothes, food, and for those of us

who are currently appealing our conviction.

- a California prisoner, January 2005
MIM adds: Most prisons have cut

educational programs to virtually nothing
leaving organizations like MIM as the only
providers of educational materials and classes

for prisoners. Prisons don't even pretend to
be attempting rehabilitation, instead putting
their time and energy into censoring literature

and mail, and trying to shut down the few
education programs that still exist. MIM
needs support in the form of books and funds

to help expand our Books for Prisoners
program, and legal help to fight the constant
censorship.

Fighting gang

validation in Cali.

As far as my [gang] validations are

concerned, well I have yet to hear back from

anyone. It's been four months since the
process began. I should've heard something
by now. What I believe they're trying to do is

leave it hanging over my head so that when I
go in front of the committee they can hold me
back.

If anyone finds their self in this situation,

what they can do is what I'm doing myself.
They can request an "Olsen Review" which

we are entitled to twice a year. Once your
request has been granted, ask your counselor
to show you your 128 B2 form. This should

say if you're validated or not. If you are, it
will show you all the pieces of evidence they
used against you. You are entitled to a copy

of this form.

The importance of this for those of us who

have received an indeterminate SHU for

"program failure" and are being considered
for "gang validation" as well is to not let these
pigs hold you back here any longer than you

have to be. Once you know you're validated
you can start fighting your case. And not
have to wait until your indeterminate SHU for

program failure is up.

- a California prisoner, January 2005
MIM adds: the California prison system is

notorious for labeling political activist
prisoners as gang members. This gang
validation can be achieved using secret

evidence, informants who are given every
incentive to make up information, tattoos, and
information about who a prisoner speaks to

in the library or yard. It is very difficult to
challenge a gang validation, which can result
in an indeterminate sentence to California's

prison control units (the SHU).

Prisoner legal union

I am founder of a grassroots legal Union

for prisoners by prisoners (Legal Eagles). Us
avid law library attendees recognize the need
for prisoners to have meaningful access to

forms and courts. Thousands of inmates
simply cannot gain access to limited law
library space.

We seek mobility in the prison and to offer

speakers on prison policy to new inmates on
how to 602, and how to get indigent services

and legal forms without hassle. We want to
offer law books for borrow so inmates can
study overnight in their cells, not just 2 hours

a month in the law library. Possibly in the
future we want to obtain our own copy
machine to avoid censorship.

We are in California Medical Facility (CMF)

and 50% of us are HIV/AIDS prisoners. I am
one trying to make change for good before I

die, leave my mark. Being HIV positive, I have
what equates to a death sentence.

New rules here mean that inmates cannot

get books unless they pay for them
themselves. Otherwise it will count as a
quarterly package! It's come down to getting

a law book to help and do without goods or
get food and hygiene products and stay in
prison without recourse. I am new at starting

a prison legal union so any start up info or
suggestions are welcome. So far prison
officials are not receptive to our ideas.

We seek start up grants and accounts to

pay 10 cents an hour to Legal Eagles to help
inmates. Unfortunately inmates don't do

anything if there is not anything in it for them.
The prison pays 8 cents an hour to most of
its inmate employees.

- a California prisoner at CMF, December

2004

MIM responds: We welcome prisoners

taking up legal work on behalf of others. Most
prisoners do not have the finances to afford
legal counsel, so they become jailhouse

lawyers, teaching themselves what is
necessary to fight their own legal battles.
MIM set up a Prisoners Legal Clinic (PLC)

several years ago, at the urging of some of
our comrades behind bars. Prisoners working
with the PLC put together legal briefs and

guides for others. Some of these are printed
in MIM Notes, others are distributed to
prisoners as needed. We look forward to

working with the Legal Eagles to expand our
legal work behind bars.

LA County beating

prisoners

It has been a while since I was able to write

you, I was transferred to LA County jail to go
to court. I wasn't able to take any of my

property with me, and I don't know your

address by heart, but now I'm back.

I went to court only to get ten years added,

they didn't take any time off, so now I have
75 years to life. The pigs in LA County are
beating prisoners some place in that county

all day every day. It's a war zone down there,
they put the cuffs on you and take you some
place and beat you. All of them, even the

captain will beat you. They put gangs in units
with other gangs that these young guys call
their enemy, and if they jump you the pigs

will put you right back in there. The prisoners
don't know that the real enemy is the pigs. I
have old gang stuff all over my body so when

they see that they get upset. Someone got
stabbed and the pigs put it on me, I even
been jumped by the pigs a few times.

- a California prisoner, December 2004

Are We Safe

by a New York Prisoner,

August 2004

None of us are ever safe:
As long as we abandon truth's way,

To hide behind falsehoods deceptive shadow.
As long as we extinguish the light of reason,
To grope in darkness with fear's ill rational

face.

As long as we choose to stand before the

altar of our appetites,

Rather than sit at the table of our need.
As long as we elect madmen and thieves to

govern

Our lives, with a smile and promises of better

days to come;

Never will we be led by the upright, prudent

and strong.

As long as we reject the evidence of our eyes

and ears,

Because we fear to know and understand

what obligation and sacrifice

reveal to us-

We will always be led astray.
As long as we continue to barter our dreams

for

The whines of excuses, pawn our hopes for

fashions

Trendy ideals-our faith will always fail us.

As long as we would rather blindly believe in

anything,

Than intelligently think for once in our lives-

Our masters will be cruel and many, and
Being safe will be our greatest self-deception.

MIM: This piece speaks strongly in these

days/years of the War on Terrorism. On
September 11th, 2001 MIM came out with a

special issue of MIM Notes with the
statement entitled "We mourn those who died
in attacks on the World Trade Center. We

strengthen our resolve to cast off war-hungry
capitalism?" Since then, we've continued to
expose amerikan war-mongering as the

world's greatest danger, not the answer to
terrorism that it claims to be.

MIM Notes 313 · February 2005 · Page 12

fantasy, but the movie can't be considered

in isolation from the real world.

In a less supernatural version of "Blade:

Trinity" made in a socialist people's

republic, vampires, Familiars and blood

"donors" would be the same species:

humyn. Instead of being non-humyn

nationalities, the vampires are fascists

with cybernetic implants (they had to

invent their superiority). They are

composed of capitalists and bourgeois

workers, and attack lumpen-proletarians

and undocumented workers. Blade

doesn't need any serum in the literal

sense; what the original "Blade: Trinity"

calls "serum," the new version of the

movie calls doses of "correct ideas."

Among other things, these changes to the

original "Blade: Trinity" would reflect the

reality that the majority of the u.$.

population is neither exploited, nor being

oppressed by a nation inside or outside

u.$. borders.

One of the better redeeming elements

of "Blade: Trinity," keeping it the way it

is, is that the movie goes out of its way to

ponder Blade's future, and this future

seems to lie near the revolutionary

struggle. The Nightstalkers themselves

don't think Blade is the kind of persyn

who will go back to their desk or office

job and be a well-behaved citizen after

the war with the vampires is over. Blade

defeated the Reapers in "Blade II"

(2002). Movie viewers know Blade will

probably defeat the vampires at the end

of "Blade: Trinity." So, what conflicts will

Blade focus on next, with the vampire

nation's oppression overthrown? Blade

himself tells Sommerfield's daughter, Zoe

(Haili Page), that the world isn't "nice."

(Although, this is in response to a question

about why Blade needs to take his serum,

which suppresses his thirst for blood.) At

the beginning of the movie, a Familiar

tricks Blade into killing him, setting him

up for pig repression. Abraham

encourages Blade to be more careful.

Blade replies that he didn't know this was

a "popularity contest."

The point about revolution not being a

popularity contest is interesting from the

viewpoint of MIM's anti-Menshevik line.

Unfortunately, Blade's comment has the

context of endless violence, which is

extremely repetitive in "Blade: Trinity" to

the point of monotony. True, the vampires

are killing people. But in the real world,

so is imperialism, and at this point, MIM

advocates only protracted legal struggle

in the united $tates with the exception of

some First Nations' struggles. Blade could

get a camera and film vampires (even if

invisible to the camera) preying on

humyns, and distribute that undeniably

bizarre and shocking video in order to

change public opinion, but he doesn't. The

real world is not as simple as the "Blade"

world--for one, more is involved in

creating public opinion than simply

showing photos of imperialism's dead and

dying victims--but the "Blade" world is

that simple, and Blade's actions still do

not make sense.

To its credit, "Blade: Trinity" seems to

recognize that its own violent imagery and

content are unnecessary. Hannibal

remarks that Blade might want to get

therapy after Blade, without blinking, lets

a Familiar fall from a building rooftop onto

the street. However, not only does

Hannibal pay too much attention to a

particular instance of Blade's violent

strategy, rather than Blade's strategy

itself, he confuses a political mistake with

mental illness and supports the therapeutic

culture .

"Blade: Trinity" is purposefully over the

top in its violence, even for a movie based

on comics, and pokes fun at itself. There

is a lot of phallic imagery--for example,

Blade's standing erect, the camera

focusing on his crotch, after he takes his

serum at the police station--and there is

the whole deliberately Freudian vagina

dentata thing between Hannibal and the

vampire womyn Danica Talos (Parker

Posey). Another Nightstalker scientist

(Patton Oswalt) calls Abigail a "hottie,"

which is the movie commenting on its own

sex appeal.

Some reviewers will say that the

violence in "Blade: Trinity" is gratuitous

or exists for its own titillation, especially

when a strong, but expectedly sexy,

"hottie" metes out much of the violence.

"Blade: Trinity" is obviously a popcorn

movie. The interesting question is, what

are the ideological effects of the

gratuitous action violence.

On the one hand, the violence is related

to the theme that full vampires are

automatically deserving of lethal violence,

while half-vampires and former vampires

are not. Importantly, former vampire

Hannibal has to be at least part-humyn to

be part of the Nightstalkers. "Blade:

Trinity" has almost no concept of class

or nation traitor. When the war is with

the vampires, it is impossible to work with

any full vampire--full in a literally genetic

sense.

At one point, Blade, in a moment of

bravado, tells Drake (Dominic Purcell)

that he was "born ready" to die, which

may be a reference to Blade's desire for

revenge against the vampires who bit and

killed Blade's mother, and caused Blade

to be born as a humyn-vampire hybrid.

What would otherwise be just a

metaphysical idea about how one hybrid

had always had an inclination to be

revolutionary is put in the service of an

exaggerated bloodline theory.(3) The idea

in "Blade: Trinity" is that being humyn,

without any qualification other than non-

Familiar, is the best; being a vampire is

just plain evil. The sentiment is that

humyn-vampire hybrids are naturally

undesirable. In part, Blade's part-vampire

ancestry motivates him to oppose the

vampires. Roughly, this is like a biracial,

part-"Caucasian" persyn wanting the

deaths of all light-skinned people as

revenge for having to suffer social

exclusion as a biracial persyn. Of course,

there are good reasons to view Euro-

Amerikans as predators, but these do not

translate into a bloodline theory, which

both the movie and Blade seem to uphold.

On the other hand, the movie

effectively uses violence in a way that

suggests that Blade is a revolutionary. This

reviewer would agree that Blade is a

revolutionary within the fantasy "Blade"

movie world and all its incredible

constraints, including even homeless

persyns' being unable to testify to the

existence of vampires and being unable

to work with the Nightstalkers, but

"Blade: Trinity" tends to make the

mistake of equating armed action with

being a revolutionary. When dazed and

asked by the police to name the President,

Blade replies, an "asshole"--most

Demokrats will laugh, and most

Republikans will feel insulted, which

makes Blade at least a likely Demokrat

so far. (Hannibal says that Drake woke

up in Iraq six months ago, "pissed.")

Would the Nightstalkers still consider

Blade to be discontented with more than

the vampires--maybe even the whole

imperialist system--if he weren't so

violent? This isn't clear. It's as if Blade's

discontent were defined by his violence

since the movie doesn't get into any other

aspect of Blade's strategy. Without his

violence, he could be just a Demokrat or

an "independent." "Blade: Trinity"

doesn't get into what Blade is thinking

other than to reveal his disgust with the

warehouse blood farm, for example.

Although the Nightstalkers briefly discuss

Blade's future, it doesn't show what

Blade plans to do after he defeats the

vampires. "Blade: Trinity" may be the last

movie of the "Blade" series, so the lack

of sustained interest in Blade's post-

vampire future is unsurprising. However,

"Blade: Trinity" could have elaborated on

what Blade was thinking when he reacted

viscerally to the sight of the homeless

persyns at the blood farming facility. In

the first "Blade" movie (1998), Abraham

Whistler reveals that the early Blade, his

thirst for blood uncontrolled, fed off of

homeless persyns.

Finally, not only does "Blade: Trinity"

conflate class origin and class position, it

does so in a way that supports genocide

as an option for progressives. The

vampires have no "final solution" for the

humyns by the Nightstalkers' own

admission, but the Nightstalkers

themselves have a genocidal plan for the

vampires: a deadly virus that is specific

to vampires biologically. ( Interestingly,

Sommerfield mentions the possibility that

"hybrid" humyn-vampire Blade could be

wiped out along with the rest of the

vampires. But Sommerfield's biological

weapon is supposedly 100% effective,

killing 100% of vampires, 0% of humyns.)

What is disturbing is that "Blade: Trinity"

makes ideas of "race"-specific viruses

sound already scientific and then proposes

that such viruses be used against

unquestionably evil enemies--and without

distinguishing between enemies of the

u.$. white nation, and enemies of

oppressed nations inside and outside the

united $nakes. However, genocide has

typically been a tactic of imperialists and

other capitalists facing their own doom.

"Blade: Trinity" is a marginal

improvement over the previous "Blade"

movies in introducing more vampire

hunters and pondering Blade's post-

vampire political future, but these

Nightstalkers are mainly confined to

bourgeois Euro-Amerikans, who are

supposedly indispensable and work with

Blade as equals despite Blade's petty

objections. Identity and line are two

separate issues for MIM, but the only

Nightstalker whose history is discussed

is Abigail, Abraham's daughter; how we

got to the point where there are mainly

Euro-Amerikan oppressors in the

Nightstalkers, but no lumpen-proletarians,

is not important to "Blade: Trinity." There

is nothing wrong with the depiction of

Euro-Amerikans as being revolutionaries

by itself, but Blade and the Nightstalkers

do nothing to work with those whom the

vampires oppress the most, in the struggle

against the vampires. At the same time,

while portraying Euro-Amerikans as lone

heroes and saviors of the masses, "Blade:

Trinity" does almost nothing to oppose the

theory that equates class position with

class origin, which allows it to suggest

genocide as a way to defeat supposedly

inherently evil enemies. For that matter,

the idea that the vampiric thirst for blood

can be turned on and off with some kind

of switch has no correspondence with any

kind of oppression in the real world. For

the sake of having an alternative, we can

refer to the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

character Angel, who is friendly to that

show's vampire hunters, but still drinks

blood of some kind.

Notes:

1. MC5, "Gory thriller needs Maoist

interpretation," http://www.etext.org/

Politics/MIM/movies/review.php?f=long/

blade.txt

2. MC5, "Again on the subject of the

`masses' in the imperialist countries"

(April 19, 2001); http://www.etext.org/

P o l i t i c s / M I M / w i m / c o n g /

onmasses01.html

3. "Resolutions on Cross-Cultural

Breeding," http://www.etext.org/Politics/

MIM/wim/cong/crosscultural2004.html

Blade needs more clarity on who make up the masses

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