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| x   x x x   x   x  x  xx  xxx xxx  xxx                   |
| xx xx x xx xx   xx x x  x  x  x   x       Issue #9       |
| x x x x x x x   x xx x  x  x  xx   xxx                   |
| x   x x x   x   x  x x  x  x  x       x   02/23/85       |
| x   x x x   x   x  x  xx   x  xxx  xxx                   |
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|    Newspaper of the Maoist Internationalist Movement     |
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ETHIOPIA FEEDS ARMY

ETHIOPIAN REGIME STARVES PEOPLE
DIRECTS RESOURCES TO COLONIZING ERITREA, TIGRE
  The Soviet-backed and nominally Marxist-Leninist Ethiopian
regime finally admitted a famine situation to its public.
Announcing a "famine tax" and other equally dubious measures
for an already war-devastated economy, the Dergue's
austerity program includes domestic substitution for imports
and a fuel rationing program. (Christian Science Monitor,
2/11/85, p. 2, 2/13/85, p. 10)
  At the same time, the Dergue recently forcibly conscripted
another 40 to 50,000 youth for the army--20,000 of which are
deployed against Ethiopia's struggling colony--Eritrea--
according to the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).
The Dergue has drafted 300,000 men in a country where the
labor force is only 13.2 million. By its own figures, 25% of
the Ethiopian budget goes to the military. Other figures put
the military portion at least 50%. (Adulis, Aug. 1984, 7, 8)
  Arms purchases have made Ethiopia dependent on the Soviet
Union. The debt to Eastern bloc countries is over $5
billion. Other debts total $646 million. (Ibid.) According
to the EPLF, Ethiopia spends 700 to 900 million dollars a
year on military excursions.
  Ethiopia's conditions have suffered. Aside from the
famine, official figures put education at 3.2% and health at
1.3% of the Ethiopian budget. Sub-Saharan Africa averages a
physician for every 12,187 people. Ethiopia averages one for
58,490 people. Infant mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa
averages 117.6 per thousand. In Ethiopia, despite a supposed
Marxist-Leninist Revolution started in 1974, the infant
mortality is 145.1. (Ibid.)
  In Africa Now, July 1984, Ethiopia's Chief Commissioner of
Relief and Rehabilitation, Major Darwit W. Giorgis was
interviewed. He let out that "about 5 million people face
starvation because of the drought," but "the Soviet
comrades, operating from their barrack-like quarters in
Addis Ababa, [Ethiopia's capital] have been flying meat and
vegetables regularly from Ethiopia to Moscow." (Ibid., 18)
  Meanwhile, what food flows into the country from donors
often ends up in the hands of troops fighting to colonize
Eritrea and the Tigre. A German delegation found that foods
delivered by the European Economic Community ended up in the
hands of troops fighting in Eritrea. The German parliament
delegates were able to photograph butter oil tins from the
EEC in Ethiopian military depots recently liberated by the
EPLF. They also photographed Soviet bombshells dropped on
Eritrea. (Adulis, vol. 1, 13)
  Overall, "according to one senior relief official who
asked not to be identified, only about one-third of the food
arriving in Ethiopia is getting to the camps for famine
victims." (New York Times, 2/18/85, 6) The Ethiopian
government even confiscates food headed for the Sudan, where
many Ethiopian refugees from colonized areas are in need.
Finally, what food gets in the hands of famine victims may
be at the cost of the splitting of families and resettlement
out of areas where rebels are active according to the
International Committee of the Red Cross. (Ibid.) Only very
young and very old people are left in northern areas. The
regime is moving 1.5 million people. (Ibid.)DONATE
INTELLIGENTLY! NUESNA--RUN BY ERITREANS, PO BOX 778, NY, NY
10025. GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL--AMERICANS IN ERITREA AND
OTHER OPPRESSED REGIONS IN THE WORLD, PO BOX 312, CAMBRIDGE,
MA 02139.

ETHIOPIA EXECUTES CAPTIVES
  On January 9th and 10th, the Ethiopian government executed
27 EPLF prisoners. The EPLF holds several thousand
Ethiopians in good health and periodically releases
Ethiopians, who have been shown the reality of the justice
of the Eritrean struggle.

EPLF CRITICIZES PLO PARLIAMENTARISM
  Asked whether he believes in the establishment of
institutions like the PLO, the Vice Secretary General of the
EPLF said the EPLF rejected "the experience of the
Palestinian National Council." "Effective authority lies in
the hands of individuals who do as they wish; and we do not
wish to have a formal parliament outside which decisions are
made." (Adulis, vol. 1, 19) The EPLF thus criticizes the PLO
as an unprincipled coalition. The EPLF has a centralized and
disciplined organization that fights as one.
  In response to criticisms of this position, one
Palestinian wrote to defend the EPLF. "I certainly believe
that the Palestinian experience is the property of all free
men the world over as well as all those interested in the
Palestinian revolution; and anyone can present his views
and, thereby, participate in the solution of the problems of
the Palestinian revolution." (Ibid.) Jewad Hassan does not
ask for cheerleaders for the PLO. He has recognized the duty
of all to criticize and contribute to the Palestinian
revolution. To support blind phrasemongering for the PLO is
to promote political ignorance and naivete amongst the
masses and to bring about political demoralization in
difficult times such as now exist for the PLO.

ISRAEL ATTEMPTS TO USE AFRICANS AGAINST PALESTINIANS
  Taking advantage of the plight of the Ethiopian people,
Israel has airlifted 10,000 Ethiopian Jews out of the Sudan.
Controversial in the first place because the airlift
amounted to kidnapping with the Ethiopian regime's tacit
approval, the airlift ended with vigorous Ethiopian
complaints once the international media started to report
the secret airlift.
  Where did these Ethiopian Jews end up? Hundreds went to
"the Kiryat Arab settlement outside Hebron in the West
Bank." (New York Times, 1/18/85, 1)
  The West Bank is occupied by an Israeli minority. It is a
major arena for brutal U.S./Zionist repression of
Palestinians. Not a few observers have compared the
situation to the so-called homelands in South Africa for
Blacks set up by the white minority regime.
  The Ethiopian Jews have been airlifted from starvation and
placed in one of the political hotspots of the world. "Out
of the fire and into the frying pan?" Maybe. There can be no
doubt though as to yet another scheme for neo-colonialism
covered up with so-called humanitarian motivations. The
Ethiopians are being used for Zionist expansion and to
divide the people of the Middle-East and Africa in their
joint struggle against U.S./South African/Israeli
oppression.

ISRAEL TERRORIZES THREE LEBANESE VILLAGES
  In response to the rebellion of Shiite Muslims against
Israeli occupation, the Israeli army has rounded up men in
three villages in Lebanon for interrogation and unknown
treatment. Eight people in Arab Salim were killed. Israel
also levelled 13 houses. 150 armored vehicles were involved
in an attack on Deir Kanun. Other reports described
helicopter gunships and tanks, which were bombing the
villages. The full extent of this renewed invasion of
Lebanon for the subjection of the Lebanese people to
U.S./Israeli imperialism is not known at this time. (New
York Times, 2/22/85) In any case, the atrocities against the
Lebanese and the resistance of the Lebanese destroys the
myth that the 1982 invasion of Lebanon aimed merely at the
expulsion of the PLO.

SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE MURDER ANOTHER 23 IN EVICTIONS
  The apartheid regime killed 23 in an effort to evict Black
squatters from white urban areas. (New York Times, 2/22/85,
5) The 80% Black population of South Africa is only allowed
on the 13% of the land--the so-called homelands--unless they
have permits to work in the white areas. Often only male
wage-earners are allowed to live in the white areas and in
company housing. Their families often follow their husbands
toward the urban areas and set up shacks in squatter towns.

SOUTH AFRICA CONTINUES REPRESSION OF BLACK POLITICIANS
  Seven activists of the United Democratic Front are charged
with treason. The United Democratic Front protested changes
in the South African Constitution that reinforced Black non-
citizenship in the country.
  At about the same time, Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson
Mandela decided to stay in prison rather than accede to
terms for his release dictated by the apartheid regime.
Mandela appears to favor armed struggle. However, Mandela is
actually part of that reformist wing of the ANC that would
call a truce if the apartheid regime would "'legalize us,
treat us like a political party, and negotiate with us.
Until they do, we will have to live with the armed
struggle.'" (Christian Science Monitor, 1/29/85, 1)
Unfortunately, the ANC often treats armed struggle as a way
to the bargaining table, not a means of genuine liberation
from colonial rule.

U.S. "ECONOMIC AID" TO EL SALVADOR A COVER FOR MILITARY AID
  A congressional investigation led by Senator Mark Hatfield
has disclosed that contrary to Congressional appropriations,
[read appropriations for media consumption] most of U.S. aid
to the Salvadoran junta has been military. Three-quarters of
$1.7 billion in aid to the Salvadoran regime since 1980 was
supposed to be so-called economic aid. In reality, only 15%
of the money went to economic aid. (New York Times, 2/12/85,
1) Our more sophisticated readers will recognize that the
U.S.'s propping up of the Salvadoran economy is only
intended to legitimize the Salvadoran regime and to buy off
the Salvadoran people. This may be cheaper than shooting
people sometimes; although, corruption guarantees that the
regime leaders pockets most of the so-called economic aid.
  The Congress also pointed out that it is Americans who are
running the bombing missions in El Salvador by selecting
targets and maintaining advanced equipment. Demonstrating
the strategic problems the U.S. Congress has fighting
Reagan-style, the Congress documented that a high profile
request by Reagan last year for $93 million emergency aid
was unnecessary. The report did not say that the aid was
illegitimate, only that the Salvadoran army was well-
supplied and had access to $32 million to make further
purchases should the need arise. Rather than claim that no
advisers should be in El Salvador to help bomb the
Salvadoran people, the Congressional Report claimed that
Reagan had twice as many as approved by the Congress.
(Ibid.)
The Hatfield Report plugs for more economic aid for the
attempt to buy off the Salvadoran people. Hatfield claims
that Reagan used false information to justify the Reagan
strategy for the Vietnam-like situation in El Salvador. This
kind of factional struggle amongst the U.S. imperialists is
a good sign that the struggle in El Salvador is going well.
  Current aid to El Salvador is supposed to be $326 million
in economic aid and $128 million in military aid. Reagan is
proposing an increase of $100 million in economic aid. He
wants a total of $200 million in military aid. (New York
Times, 1/18/85, 1)

PRESIDENT DUARTE'S HANDS TIED; EVEN REFORM IMPOSSIBLE IN
SALVADOR
  With a sluggish economy, land reforms at a standstill and
no control in the National Assembly where the rightist
faction of the regime has a majority, Napolean Duarte has
done little to earn even the title of figleaf for
exploitation in El Salvador. Rumors reported in American
papers and protested by Duarte say that American officials
favor the ultraright in the upcoming elections for the
National Assembly. It also seems likely that the ultraright
will expand its majority in the Assembly. (Christian Science
Monitor, 2/15/85) One Christian Democrat official admits
that Duarte does not have control of the Assembly, media,
economy, judiciary or military where the ultraright has
power. The same official demonstrates that he is either a
fool or a cunning tool. "'The right has controlled
everything.'" "'They have vetoed every piece of legislation
by Duarte that could be considered progressive.'" (Ibid.)
  Duarte had to abandon any talks with the Salvadoran rebels
(FMLN) because of divisions within his own government.
(Christian Science Monitor, 1/25/85) The U.S. appears to
have given the rightist generals the signal to end the
talks. (Christian Science Monitor, 1/18/85, 1) This
paralysis discredits the supposedly moderate regime;
emboldens the rightists to abandon the facade of democracy
and gives the guerrillas an opportunity to take advantage
of.

REAGAN CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF SANDINISTA REGIME
  President Reagan went on television to explain his Central
America policy. He said that his goal was to "remove" the
"present structure" of Nicaragua. Calling the terrorist
contras "brothers," Reagan asked Congress for another $14
million to overthrow the Sandinista government. (New York
Times, 2/22/85, 1)

CONGRESS APPROPRIATES 95% OF REAGAN MILITARY REQUESTS
  How does Reagan succeed in pushing through his record
military buildup? The Democratic Congress gives it to him,
minus 5% which everybody recognizes as padding. This year
Defense Secretary focussed on a sham $8 billion dollar
defense cut from figures proposed by Reagan. The $8 billion
concession preserved the myth that the Democrats differ from
the Republicans while covering up the fact that military
spending still increased over $30 billion. The $8 billion
haggling with Weinberger dominated the front pages for
weeks, thus making all involved appear reasonable.
Meanwhile, in five years from 1981 to 1985, Congress
appropriated 1.1742 trillion dollars for the military.
Congress averaged 95% of Reagan's requests in the five
years. (Christian Science Monitor, 2/15/85, 4)

REAGAN TO SET UP STAR WARS NO MATTER WHAT
  The cost of Star Wars will be at least $70 to 100 billion
by 1993. The amount the militarists are willing to tax the
masses for and the insistence that even bilateral
disarmament would not deter them from building the Star Wars
weapons demonstrates the absolute necessity the capitalists
must face in preparing for war. This necessity compels the
capitalists to tell the skeptical public that it will ram
Star Wars down its throat and nothing will stop them. (New
York Times, 2/12/85, 1, 10)

UNION CARBIDE EXPOSES CAPITALISM AT BHOPAL
  The Indian Government has conducted an investigation of
the gas leak on Dec. 3rd, 1984 that left over 1,400 dead,
170,000 injured and five more dead each week from after-
effects. First, despite knowledge of the potential danger to
the public, Union Carbide took no precautions to evacuate or
alert the public in case of accident. Secondly, six leaky
valve accidents occurred at Bhopal between 1978 and 1982—one
resulting in death. Thirdly, one refrigeration safety system
had been shut off before the accident. Other safety
equipment to deal with excess gas would have been inadequate
even if it were functional. (Time, 2/18/85, 78)
  Such accidents are the rule for capitalism. In 1974 in the
U.S., occupational hazards brought about over 100,000
deaths--more than 5 times the number of murders that year.
This does not include the total contribution of pollution to
public mortality.
  Under socialist planning the public does not suffer under
capitalist safety procedures. Safety is incorporated into
production as a value of that production. This may involve
bureaucrats to implement the plan, since the masses may not
run production completely for themselves immediately the day
after capitalism is overthrown. However, rather these
bureaucrats that plan to prevent catastrophes than the
ambulance-chasing lawyers who survive because there are such
accidents. Certainly the people of Bhopal deserve Union
Carbide's billions--otherwise Union Carbide will make a
profit out of the accident. Still, the legal suits filed one
at a time for every industrial accident are a band-aid
approach at best.

CHINESE CAPITALIST FINANCE DEVELOPS
  So-called Communist China put its consumers on the
installment plan last week and on January 14th also allowed
the first stock sale since 1949. 20,000 people bought shares
in Yanzhong Industrial Corp. which sells at $18 a share and
gives a 13% dividend. Savings deposits earn 5.75%. (Time,
2/25/85, 68)

MIM REACHES INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
  MIM's existence has been greeted with the greatest thirst
by revolutionary prisoners across the country. MIM has sent
out many different books to many different comrades. A copy
of George Jackson's prison letters, 4 copies of Mao's red
book, 3 Selected Readings from the Works of Mao, 2 Marx-
Engels Readers, Mao on Literature and Art, 3 Mao
anthologies, one essential works of Lenin, a copy of
Weatherman and 2 copies of Chairman Mao Talks to the People.
  Here are some excerpts from comrades in prison with the
region they're from noted after the quote. Each excerpt is
from a different prisoner. Most of the prisoners note
harassment and some request legal aid. All request
literature. Donations of money or even used classics by
Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao, George Jackson and Franz Fanon
would be appreciated. We should try to do more to reach into
the prisons.

"There are comrades here that are interested in the
histories of China, the Soviet Union, Cuba, Nicaragua and
other countries, my self among them, and especially China
during its Cultural Revolution." N.East

  "Brothers and Sisters of the Maoist Internationalist
Movement, revolutionary greetings. I am incarcerated deep in
the belly of the fascist hole, if you send prisoners free
literature would you please send me the complete works of
Mao or George Jackson or Franz Fanon. I would really like to
have Wretched of the Earth by Fanon." Mid-West

  "I found out about your group and would like to hear more
and even maybe join. Since I'm a Muslim, a Black-man, Young
Rebellious against enemy forces. My life is in danger
because of the elements of oppression which are always
around you in prison. But yet it was a prison outside. The
imperialist fascists are exploiting the poor and oppressed
in Africa and Asia and South America and at home. Our job is
to destroy the insect dictators. Please keep in touch."
N.East

  "Seems to this old revolutionary that almost all new
parties are Trotskyists in the 1980s." N.East

  "I'm also critical of the adventurism and romanticism
displayed in Weatherman by Bernardine Dohrn. I'm also
critical of Bernardine Dohrne's extolments of Charlie
Manson's criminal activities as being revolutionary in
nature... I'm also critical of most mother country radicals
because most of them have problems effecting or accepting
the physical neutralization of our adversaries... Mother
country radicals (the vast majority) must come to terms with
the prospects of death and captivity... A people with fear
cannot triumph over a brutal enemy." N.East

  "I am a P.O.W.... presently confined in one of the special
deprivation units." N.East

  "Mao's book was well received and enjoyed. As is usual
when reading one of his books I was impressed with the
simplicity with which the man wrote. He wanted everyone to
understand what he was saying, wanted them to understand
what the revolution was striving for. I also agree with the
importance he placed on education, which is necessary to
overcome so many social disorders." Mid-West
_____________________________________________________________

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