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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 #28      |
| 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   01/15/87       |
| 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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   SPECIAL ISSUE: PRISONERS' CORRESPONDENCE
   
   Two years ago, MIM Notes (#9) published letters from 
prisoners who had written in. Many readers noted that this 
was one of the better issues of MIM Notes.
   At that time, MIM Notes stated that "MIM's existence has 
been greeted with the
   
   [section missing--18]
   
   prisoners consistently write in.
   Here MIM Notes has excerpted some correspondence from the 
last two years.
   
   "We are the political prisoners of PCE(r) and GRAPO 
imprisoned in Carcel de Soria, Spain.
   "Now, after many long and hard struggles against the jail 
regime, where was died by hunger strike our comrade Juan J 
Crespo."
   --Karl Marx Commune of the Political Prisoners of the 
Communist Party of Spain (reconstituted) and the Antifascist 
groups of October the First--PCE(r) and GRAPO
   
   [On the theoretical journal yet to get off the ground--
ed.]
   "Being in captivity is a terrible adversity, but 
adversities are tests of a dragon's loyalty."
   "I'm in favor of the name 'Revolutionary Prisoners 
Theoretical Review.' Security concerns: I'm in favor of 
centralizing everything at a post office box. There is no 
assurance that the journal and its writers won't be attacked 
by the fascist state because the reactionaries are always 
going to oppose everything that we support.
   "Some prisoners have expressed the above concerns and 
won't respond to the 'memorandum to prisoners.' These 
prisoners are saying why should we expose ourselves to people 
we don't know?
   "Prisoners should allow outside contributions to appear in 
the journal. However, prisoners should have the final say so 
as to what will be published in the journal."
   --A comrade in prison in the Northeast
   
   "I am a prisoner here at the X 'Correctional Facility' 
which tells you about the difficulty in receiving progressive 
literature. The level of consciousness is very low here, so 
that you books and publications are much needed. However, I 
am indigent.
   "Please send 1) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter 
Rodney 2) Peru: Information on the guerilla struggle 3) Black 
Panthers Speak 4) The Wretched of the Earth, Franz Fanon 5) 
Lenin, What Is To Be Done? 6) Lenin, State and Revolution."
   --Another prisoner in a different state in the Northeast
   
   "I believe in your struggle and would request to receive 
on a continuous basis any literature."
   --A comrade at another prison in the Northeast
   
   "I'm in XX Maximum Security Prison. I'm locked down... 
locked in my cell except 2 hours every other day."
   --Another comrade in the Northeast who gave 16 days of 
salary to purchase literature
   
   "For several years I have been making contact with various 
organizations of the leftist/radical (as compared with the 
political structure in the U.S.) genre, in an attempt to 
establish ties with one before I am released from prison, so 
that I can direct my political discontent in a directed 
manner on the behalf of an organization that feels that they 
could utilize my energy and work in a constructive manner. A 
constructive manner to me, being defined as my working in any 
way possible to circumvent and change the corrupt and 
inequitable political and economic structure in the U.S..... 
I would be highly appreciative of your sending me any and all 
literature... pertaining to El Salvador, Columbia, Guatemala 
and Nicaragua."
   --A comrade in the Midwest
   
   "I enjoy receiving your newsletter MIM Notes and have been 
faithfully reading the Selected Works of Chairman Mao which 
you sent a few months ago."
   --Same comrade as above
   
   "We are united by our endeavors to rectify our lives and 
to strive for Justice! As opposed to grafted mentalities and 
corruption. We are abjectly impoverished... we study all 
kinds of different struggles. We support the MIM and need 
your support in broadening our horizon of awareness and 
understanding, thought, growth and development, because with 
the various stratagems of satanic rule, we in this land 
called America where corruption is the monarchy in current 
superiority we are subject to bias and censored, 
brainwashed...."
   --Two comrades in the Northeast
   
   "Let me state immediately that on MIM Theory No. 2, 'For 
the Equality of the Sexes and Liberation of Women by Any 
Means Necessary,' I vote yes. This article should be 
accepted. Women's equality and sexual self-determination by 
any means will be a key victory for any revolution based on 
securing freedom and harmony."
   "I've received both copies of Political Economy of 
Counterrevolution in China. Thanks."
   --A comrade in the Northeast
   
   "Members of the MIM, greetings in the struggle. I received 
The Wretched of the Earth and would like to extend thanks to 
you. This is a very important book being that Fanon's 
perceptions of the psychology of neo and domestic colonialism 
affects and pertains to peoples of color where there is a 
white dominant group and non-white submissive groups. This is 
one reason why when a liberation movement arises out of this 
social setting revolutionary nationalism will be greatly 
stressed. The recent military assault against the members of 
MOVE was a total disaster...."
   --Another Midwest comrade
   
   "I am a prisoner here in X for XX years. I come from 
Puerto Rico and have very strong anti-imperialist, anti-
colonialist feelings towards the USA and am desirous to learn 
all that I can now so as to be better prepared upon my return 
to my home on the Isla del Encanto. For some years now I have 
sought to nurture the seeds of independence and of a 
productive and viable program towards a solution to the 
subtle and deceptive colonial situation in my country, and 
eventually to carry these seeds on to other of our Latino 
brother countries to rid them of their bourgeois mentality.
   "Would you happen to have literature in Spanish? Do you 
have a copy of the little red book of Chairman Mao?
   "I'll be glad to try and pay for any literature that could 
be of value to me in the struggle of my people and all people 
oppressed by oppression! Che, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Pedro Albizu 
Campos etc., all of these are personages whose messages I 
would like to study further.
   "Abajo con todo imperialismo!"
   --A comrade in the South
   
   
   "How has everyone there been doing during all these 
extremely harsh conditions under U.S. imperialism? Well I 
have noticed there is a lot of activity out there sort of 
like what was happening in the 60s and 70s even though maybe 
not as strong or heavy as yet.... As Chairman Mao has taught 
us, only the people can prevent a nuclear war, but if it is 
already triggered by one or the other of the superpowers then 
the masses will have to turn the unjust war into a just war. 
No matter how many weapons the fascists have, the people are 
more powerful than all the weapons together.
   "Would it be possible for you to send me a Vol I of 
Capital from Marx or Vol IV of Mao's Selected Works?" 
[Requested several books indicating a wide range of interests 
from the Third World to the state--ed.]
   --A comrade
   
   The excerpts above should serve as an inspiration to those 
outside the prison walls. In the prisoners' letters, we see 
the urgency of revolution and how much preparations for that 
revolution lag behind what is necessary. For those who would 
say there is no revolutionary work to be done in the United 
States, that there just isn't anyone interested in 
revolution, we point to the prisoners.
   Besides the dire need for more comrades to devote energy 
to organizing the revolutionary prisoners, there is also the 
need for literature and money for that literature.
   Finally, to the prisoners, keep up the correspondence and 
if you have asked for revolutionary literature that you have 
not received, write again.