This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes No. 53 June 1991
MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the
world's oppressed majority, and against the
imperialist-patriarchy. Pick it up and wield it in
the service of the people. support it, struggle
with it and write for it.
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. D.C. ERUPTS
2. CAPITALISM PREVENTS HEALTH CARE
3. COMBATING LIBERALISM
4. LIBERAL BAND-AIDS DON'T COVER HOMELESSNESS
5. LETTERS
6. FMLN OPTS OUT OF ARMED STRUGGLE
7. THE COMMODIFICATION OF AIR
8. MARITAL RAPE IN CHINA
9. VD RETURNS TO CHINA
10. CUBA'S WEAKNESS
11. SOVIETS SELL OUT NORTH KOREA
12. WINNIE MANDELA TRIAL
13. WORKER OWNERS
14. POWER NEGATES S. AFRICAN REFORMS
15. REACTIONS TO KING VIDEO SPARKS OPPOSTION TO COPS
16. RECESSION DEEPENS IN EASTERN EUROPE
17. DRUGS AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN AMERIKA
18. UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a
revolutionary communist party that upholds
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising 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
Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties
of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of
MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the Spanish-
speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works
from the vantage point of the Third World
proletariat; thus, its members are not Amerikans,
but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups
over other groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM
knows this is only possible 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
human history. (3) MIM believes the North American
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it
is not the principal vehicle to advance Maoism in
this country.
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
* * *
D.C. ERUPTS
by MC17
On May 5 in Mt. Pleasant, Washington D.C. cops shot Daniel G—mez
in the chest during his arrest for public drinking.(8) The Latino
communities of Mt. Pleasant and nearby Adams Morgan were quick to
respond to this demonstration of police brutality. Residents
rioted for two nights. They attacked police officers and police
cars, and destroying other property not owned by Latinos.
At least three witnesses said G—mez was in handcuffs when he was
shot. He had been drinking with others on the street when police
arrived. They handcuffed G—mez and several others and then began
to "golpear como a animales" (beat-up like animals) at least one
of those handcuffed. G—mez, still handcuffed, stood up and began
to approach one of the officers when she shot him in the chest.(7)
Witnesses also say the ambulance arrived long after the shooting
took place.(7) This testimony was never seen in the New York Times
or the Washington Post, publications that were careful to
repeatedly print the cops' claim that G—mez attacked the officer
with a knife.
Residents of the area maintain that the city's police force
habitually harasses Latino people while Washington's social
agencies all but ignore them. To many this is just one more
example of the treatment they have come to expect in a city where
they are greatly underrepresented on the police force(1) and
completely unrepresented in government.(3)
Declaring, "we are going to bring some discipline into the
community,"(1) after two nights of violence D.C. Mayor Sharon
Pratt Dixon imposed successive overnight curfews and called a
state of emergency covering the Latino neighborhood two miles
North of the White House.(2)
Dixon is one example of how a few non-whites, playing along with
state repression, can benefit from and have access to white power.
The government and media tried to portray the violence as the
result of Black power--specifically racial disputes between Blacks
and Latinos--promoting the fiction that African Amerikans were
freed from oppression by the Civil Rights movement and are
therefore in a position to oppress Latinos.
African Amerikans and Latinos in the United States are both
colonized nationalities, and only revolutionary action--which
explicitly recognizes them as nations--will free them from this
oppression. The disunity promoted by the press is one more way to
delay the anti-imperialist forces from attacking and overthrowing
the U.S. colonizers.
A week after the rioting was over Adams Morgan still resembled a
war zone. Police officers were visible on every street corner.
Many sat reading or drinking in small groups, occasionally
boarding their motorcycles to drive to another street where they
could continue their task of "keeping the peace."
This resemblance to a war zone is no coincidence. Latinos in the
United States receive no better treatment than their relatives in
the U.S. colonized countries. Many residents of the community who
came to the United States to escape a brutal government say that
Washington D.C. is no different from their own countries of El
Salvador and Guatemala.(7) The similarity of police repression is
a daily reality.
New York City cops
Grady Alexis was killed in New York City on May 4 by an off-duty
police officer and his friend. Alexis, who emigrated from Haiti,
worked locally as an artist. He was killed in the evening after
teaching his art class for homeless and mentally ill people.(4)
Alexis and his friends were crossing 5th Avenue when they got into
an argument with the driver of a Jeep over who had the right of
way. The three men walked away but were chased down by the cop and
his friend who began a fist fight.(4) Alexis was killed by a blow
to the head.
The police force claims it was not the police officer, Richard
Frazier--a former three time Golden Gloves boxing champion--who
threw the fatal punch.(4) Frazier has been charged with a
misdemeanor of third-degree assault.(5)
His friend, Terry Presely, who the police say killed Alexis, was
also charged with assault in the third degree because, the
District Attorney's office claims, there is no evidence of intent
to kill or seriously harm Alexis.(6)
Friends of Alexis have called for an independent investigation and
are pursuing the case in court. Many question the commitment of
the cops to prosecute Alexis's murderer. They had the licence
plate number Saturday night but waited until Sunday night to
arrest their fellow officer.
Friends also complain that the information on how Alexis was
killed may never have been released if it were not for the press
coverage received. One friend who was called to the police station
the night of the killing said the police would not tell him how
Alexis died, saying the case was "complicated."
Police brutality the norm
These two cases are not unusual, except that they made it into the
mainstream press. The cops are harassing and killing African
Amerikans, Latinos, and other oppressed nationalities daily. These
cases receive no attention, but when a white person is murdered,
especially by a non-white person, it's big news.
The governments of D.C. and New York City have a solution to the
complaints of police repression. Already ranking numbers one and
two respectively in spending of federal dollars for their police
forces, both are now asking for more money.(9)
The cops and their racist counterparts in the government control
the media and use it to cover up their acts of genocide while
perpetuating the idea that African Amerikans and Latinos are
violent people who need to be controlled, or, as Mayor Dixon said,
"disciplined."
Notes:
1. New York Times 5/7/91, p. A18.
2. New York Post 5/7/91, p. 9.
3. NYT 5/9/91, p. A18.
4. New York Post 5/7/91, p. 14.
5. NYT 5/7/91, p. B4.
6. NYT 5/8/91, p. A1.
7. El Tiempo Latino 5/10/91, p. 1.
8. El Tiempo Latino 5/10/91, p. 3.
9. Fox TV News 5/12/91.
* * *
CAPITALISM PREVENTS HEALTH CARE
by MC67
As health care in Amerika becomes more advanced technologically,
more and more people are living without any health insurance and
getting sicker. People without coverage either go without care or
go to the hospital and get uncompensated care--which shifts costs
onto those individuals who have coverage. At the same time,
corporations and the government can no longer afford to give
health coverage due to the high costs.
Capitalism and Health Care
This archaic system runs on a cost-plus basis and creates no
incentives for cost control. Stressing health research and high
technology, it focuses on curative medicine rather than preventive
medicine. The social conditions caused by the economic
exploitation of the proletariat creates bad health for them, and
they must then face a bankrupt and over-flowing health care
system.
Today more than 33 million Amerikans are without any coverage
while millions have inadequate coverage. The percentage of Latinos
without coverage in the last quarter of 1988 was 26.5; for Afrikan
Amerikans, it was 20.2. The figure for whites was 11.7%. A common
myth is that people without health coverage do not work, but over
75% of uninsured people are workers or dependents of workers.(6)
The cost-plus system allows manufacturers to constantly push for
new technology on the market. As hospitals get this new
technology, other hospitals will need it as well to remain
competitive.
To pay for this high technology, hospitals and places called
medical imaging centers conduct many tests, which are made
profitable because Medicare (insurance for the elderly) reimburses
the radiologist who conducts them.
After Medicare started to reimburse patients for Medical Resonance
Imaging (MRI) scans in 1985, the machines became very popular
among radiologists, with sales reaching $500 million a year. The
leading manufacturer of these expensive scans is the international
conglomerate General Electric. These scans alone add about $5
billion to the nation's health bill.(2)
Another way the cost of medical technology continues to rise is by
making doctors part-owners of clinics like the medical imaging
centers. This ownership creates a material incentive for doctors
to aggressively seek a steady stream of customers to patronize the
centers and clinics. Although the tests are incredibly expensive,
patients with medical insurance can afford them, and the
doctor/part-owner directly benefits. The threat of malpractice
suits also adds incentives since doctors want to accurately
diagnose their patients.(2)
It comes as no surprise then that most students at medical schools
choose majors with high-paying jobs oriented toward curative
medicine and high technology. In New York City medical schools,
70% of those who graduate are specialists while 30% are primary-
care physicians.(1) The average income for doctors was $155,800 in
1989, while for radiologists, it was $210,500.(2)
Corporations are realizing that employee health coverage is
becoming too costly. Health care costs in 1989 were 56% of pretax
profits, while in 1965, they were 8%.(4) In the past, the
capitalists shifted the runaway health care costs onto their
products by way of higher prices, but they can no longer do this
easily. They have also shifted the burden onto their employee's
salaries. Last year, while health insurance payments and Social
Security taxes, adjusted for inflation, rose by 1.9%, wages fell
by 2%.(4)
Hospitals and Health Insurance
By the nature of a system in which those with more money have
easier access to quicker and better health care, the poor suffer
the most in getting health care, and as the medical industry
pushes for more advancements, the health of the oppressed further
decays.
Social crises are making people sicker, forcing them to stay
longer at the hospitals. The ugly combination of the AIDS
epidemic, increasing drug addiction, mental illness, and general
illness, has doubled the hospital stay from 13 days in the early
1980s to today's average of 26 days in New York City.(1) Without
health coverage, these people still need and get treatment,
however inadequate.
As a result, in New York City, a one-day survey of the hospitals
found 600 people backed up in the city's emergency rooms waiting
for admissions.(1)
Having AIDS and no health coverage means incredible suffering, and
little is being done to deal with the crisis. AIDS is becoming
more and more a disease of the poor as intravenous drug users,
their sexual partners and their children replace gay men as the
disease's primary victims. In 1989, the Indian Health Service
finally appropriated $258,000--about 25 cents per person--for AIDS
education and prevention in the Native Amerikan communities.(5)
While half of HIV-infected people are covered by their employers,
the 250,000 to 550,000 people without health insurance will not
get adequate and timely treatment.(5) Without coverage, with the
annual dosage of AZT costing about $2,750 and treatment costing
between $20,000 and $60,000 a year, it is hardly within range for
most people with AIDS to receive treatment.(5)
Although the government will subsidize costly MRI scans through
Medicare, the proportion of Medicaid (health care for the poor) in
1983 was 38%, fallen from 65% in 1976.(3) Medicaid provides
insurance for the poorest families, yet covers less than half of
those below the poverty line nationwide.(6)
In fact, in New York City over the last eight years, health
clinics and mental health centers have suffered a 40% cut in
federal funds, although these places should be central foci of
health care rather the first places from which to cut funding.(1)
These cuts shift health care to the already over-burdened
hospitals.
Canada's Health Care System
Many Amerikans find Canada's health care system more appealing
when they see that the country spends an average of 30% less per
person on health care than in Amerika, and everyone gets adequate
health care.(7)
In social democratic Canada, the system is restrained by a tight
budget set by the government, which regulates every aspect of
health care. The tight budget forces hospitals and clinics to put
their resources into primary-care treatment rather than high
technology. This cost control assures maximum use of hospital
resources for all Canadians.
The ratio of general doctors to specialists is about 4:1 in
Canada, while in Amerika it is 1:1.(7) Health care in a social
democratic country is clearly better than in a bourgeois
democratic capitalist country.
However, soaring medical prices and better technology are
threatening to tear apart Canada's health care system today,
despite the government's efforts to control costs.
Sick Canadians must wait longer and travel farther to receive
specialty care. In fact, one surgeon has 54 patients waiting for
cardiac bypass surgery where 14 of them need surgery immediately,
but patients for whom the surgery is elective must wait three to
four months.(7)
Canada's health care system does allow Canadians to live healthier
and longer lives. The main problem with the so-called socialized
health care in countries like Canada is that ultimately its
privileges are extracted from the exploitation of the Third World.
Canada distributes the wealth it takes from the superprofits its
corporations bring home from exploiting Third World labor and
resources more evenly than the United States in terms of health
care. Canadians' health still depends on the starvation and death
of people in the Third World at the hands of First World
imperialists.
China After Liberation
In contrast to Amerika's bankrupt health care system and Canada's
social democracy, China after 1949 revolutionized health care
despite its relative lack of technology. The country combined
traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine and devoted its
resources to preventive care. Some of these gains have been
reversed under the current regime, but the following is testimony
to the goals and ideals of the Chinese Communist Party when it had
the correct line.
Before Liberation, life expectancy was estimated to have been
between 28 to 30 years. But at the National Health Congress in
1950, Communist Party members mandated an orientation toward
preventive care and health education, to eradicate communicable
diseases. They prescribed a vast expansion of medical
personnel.(8)
To improve the health of the hundreds of millions of Chinese, the
Communist Party sought the involvement of everyday citizens who
would extend the reach of professionals.(9) This radical
decentralization of health care centered on the two important
health workers: the Red Medical Workers in the cities and the
"barefoot doctors" in the countryside.
The Red Medical Workers were local housewives who serve as health
workers at the residents' committee level. Each residents' (or
lane) committee consisted of 1,000 to 8,000 people, with an
average of 2,000 people.(10)
Both the Red Medical Workers and the barefoot doctors in the
countryside treated minor illnesses, did sanitation work, health
education, immunization of children, birth control procedures, and
post-illness follow-up. At one lane health station in Shanghai,
child immunization rates for common diseases was around 95% in
1971.(10)
In the cities, health clinics were attached to factories and
schools. In factories, there were child nurseries where women
workers could bring their children to work, and they were given
time off from work for breast-feeding and to be with their
children. At the factories, there were special women's clinics
where women were screened once a year for cervical and breast
cancer. Furthermore, if a women had an abortion, she was entitled
to two week's vacation from work.(9)
Through the Red Medical Workers and the barefoot doctors, health
education on family planning reduced the crude, or natural, birth
rate. Family planning was based upon the emancipation of women,
rather than on the Malthusian concept(9) that population control
is essential to prevent the population from "naturally" exceeding
the food resources. Adherents to this doctrine, which Marx
thoroughly discredited, have been particularly destructive and
genocidal in the Third World.
All people had their own health records and brought them in each
time they visit the street clinic. The language was simply written
so people could understand their own health records.
Recognizing the contrast in health conditions between the peasants
and the workers in the city, Mao stated in 1965, shortly before
the Cultural Revolution, in his June 26th Directive that "in
medical and health work" people should "put the stress on the
rural areas."(8)
At this directive, the training of barefoot doctors went in full
force. In 1968, there were 4,500 barefoot doctors who themselves
had trained more than 29,000 peasants as auxiliary health workers
in the Shanghai countryside.(10) These doctors were readily
available for emergencies since they worked in the fields with
their patients.
As a result, health of peasants improved. In Hsikou People's
Commune, all the regional diseases like thyroid gland and tetanus
in infants were wiped out.(9)
Preventive health work, however, does not begin with the health
workers. At the Happiness Village Primary School in Shanghai,
students met with a doctor once a week for instructions on basic
health habits and care. The students learned acupuncture on
themselves and on their fellow students. Also, every student was
assigned to the school health room to give minor treatments.(9)
The contradictions inherent to capitalism will never allow health
care to advance as it did in China under Mao. n
Notes:
1. Dollars & Sense December 1989.
2. New York Times 4/29/91.
3. Black Scholar JFM 1990.
4. NYT 5/1/91.
5. In These Times 10-9-90.
6. NYT 4/28/91.
7. NYT 4/30/91.
8. The Nation 10/30/72, pp. 397-99.
9. Science For The People. China: Science Walks on Two Legs. New
York: Avons Books, 1974,
10. Sidel, Victor W. and Sidel, Ruth. Serve The People. New York:
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. 1973.
* * *
COMBATING LIBERALISM
by MC12
MIM is often attacked for criticizing liberal approaches to
politics. After all, liberals are at least better than
conservatives: they like housing and health care and food. Some of
them even think society has a responsibility to provide these
basic necessities.
Why then should these well-meaning efforts be criticized as if
they were worse than useless?
Because outside of the world of sentiment and motivations--which
may be relevant but are never determinant--liberalism has shown
itself to be a key supporter of modern capitalism. The effort to
modify capitalism--to make it good enough--is based upon anti-
communism.
The task of sorting friends from enemies would be less complicated
if all liberals would start calling themselves conservatives even
if they still championed the same old causes. Then people could
more easily see that the choice between the two is no choice at
all. They could choose between capitalism (liberal or
conservative) and revolution for socialism and communism.
Key liberal myths
There are a few key myths used to uphold modern liberalism.
One is that progressive capitalism, or social democracy, is a
viable alternative, that it takes care of its people and is
altogether more positive than revolutionary change which is by
necessity violent.
Examples of this include primarily Sweden, other European
bourgeois democracies, and even Canada. Now "progressive" liberals
want re-constituted capitalism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union to conform to this vision too.
This idealism fails to recognize the parasitic relationship which
European social democracies maintain with Third World countries,
as well as to their "own" poor working people. Offering rich and
poor alike free health care really is nice, but it's no solution
to the world problem of imperialism, which punishes more and more
people overall to pay for these local improvements. The successes
of liberalism have at every step been mirrored by increased
exploitation of imperialist colonies and neo-colonies.
Another popular myth around which Amerikan liberals rally is free
speech. Many liberals like to insist that whatever the political
views of various groups, the important thing is that all people
can express themselves freely.
Contrary to popular belief, communists like free speech too. We
would love to make it possible. Our difference with liberals (and
conservatives) is that we understand that freedom does not exist
without equality. Free speech is important because it allows
various forces in society to express and work out their
differences. But championing free speech as a simple principle in
class-divided society is naive: instead of allowing the expression
of differences, it represses them.
For example, on the simple liberal principle of free speech, we
have to defend the right to sell women's bodies in the media and
culture, thereby effectively silencing women; and the right to
sell alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs to the poor, which causes
millions of deaths.
At the same time, free speech has always been legally curtailed
when it threatened the security of the ruling classes. The real
expression of ideas must also include the political practices
which generate and propel them. In the case of revolutionaries,
free expression is therefore denied, even if speech (literally) is
legal.
Free speech is not possible in class society, which includes
socialist society under the rule of the working classes. In
countries that have actually developed socialist systems, free
speech still did not exist because equality was not yet achieved.
But a much more broad range of debate may be allowed under
socialism than capitalism because power in the hands of the
majority is more secure than when it is in the hands of the
privileged few.
The liberal dream of the free competition of ideas cannot take
into account the inequitable distribution of resources, which
doesn't permit equal exchange. If all groups had the right to
express themselves using resources proportionate to the number of
people they represented--as will be possible under socialism--then
free speech could perform its valuable function.
Experience has shown the importance of fierce debate under
socialism to fuel continued class struggle and move toward the
abolition of classes. The failure to promote ongoing class
struggle in a constructive manner was exposed and largely
rectified in the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
The appearance of real, qualitative differences in the Amerikan
political system is currently represented by the right wing attack
on liberals who have come to be identified as "politically
correct."
The chief victims of this attack are the generation of former
activists who are now warming armchairs in U.S. universities,
feebly trying to insist that William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman
don't represent all Amerikans, and that racial discrimination is
unfair.
So now teaching the literature of oppressed people and asking the
KKK to keep it out of the classroom are seen as new threats to
free speech. These liberals are called the new McCarthyists or
even fascists. The free speech issue--always dear to liberals--is
causing many to jump ship. Now they say they never intended to
infringe on the Klan's right to free speech, or censor
Shakespeare.
Others hold firm that the right to free speech does not include
the right to offend or attack people, that the KKK has no place in
the classroom and so on. These are left liberals, now associated
by the hard-core right wing and right liberals with oppressive,
"anti-free speech" communists.
This new criticism in turn drives the die-hard liberals to new
heights of anti-communism. And so the vacuous spiral goes on, with
liberals chasing their tails and their right wing compatriots
chalking up victory after victory.
To people who recognize the interdependence of freedom and
equality, who are committed to dethroning a parasitic world
system, and who fight for socialism in the name of the world's
working people, the debate may be illuminating, but it means
little.
Some of the things liberals say they want are good things and
important goals. Many have positive humanitarian motivations. But
victories for liberals in imperialist countries usually represent
gains paid for in blood by the world's majority, and may therefore
be rendered worse then nothing.
* * *
LIBERAL BAND-AIDS DON'T COVER HOMELESSNESS
by MC45
In 1967, when the number of alcoholics sleeping on the streets of
New York City's Bowery was estimated at between 6,000 and 10,000,
advocacy groups in the city initiated programs to detoxify people
and take them off the streets. In the mid-1970s, advocacy work and
coverage in the mainstream press helped make homelessness an
"issue" in Amerika.
But recognition has done nothing to solve the problem of
homelessness. In 1991, the estimated number of homeless people in
New York City is between 70,000 and 90,000. This figure leaves out
the estimated 250,000 people who do not have their own homes and
are living doubled- and tripled-up in apartments with families and
friends.(11)
The Amerikan economy has continued a steady decline over the past
30 years since the initial government response to homelessness,
and the numbers have continued to grow. In 1984, an estimated 85%
of the homeless population of New York State were living in New
York City.(9) While most of the facts in this article are taken
from that city, the situation there is analogous to many other
Amerikan cities and the analysis is applicable.
Short-term aid fails
The government consistently allocates funds for crisis-
intervention type programs for the homeless. In 1983 $100 million
was allotted for emergency food and shelter for the "homeless and
needy" as part of a $4.6 million federal Job Bill.(1) That was the
year of supposed economic recovery in Amerika (following the
recession of the year before) yet in the same year there was an
increase of 116% in requests to the government for emergency food
relief.(2) In 1984, two philanthropic organizations together
donated $25 million for health care for the homeless. Money from
such grants is typically spent by organizations and government
agencies before they have it; the dollars never catch up to the
need.
In 1987, New York City began an experiment that was to involve
6,000 homeless families (mothers and their children) and last
three years. The experiment consisted of job training for women
who had no children under age three, job "coaching" (help with
resumes, applications and interviews) and "incentives" for those
who found jobs and started working. The ultimate incentive was
cutting off General Assistance payments to the women who either
refused the "help" at any point or for whom the program failed.(4)
The experiment was an excellent example of the ideology behind aid
to the homeless. These programs seek to end the need to aid a few
people at a time, within a few years. The more ideologically
advanced of the relief plans recognize the debilitating effects of
homelessness and try to rehabilitate. They recognize that the
solution has to include more than just a literal roof, but
continue to ignore the economic structures which make this true.
Profits off the people
The homeless serve an important function in the Amerikan economy.
Their poverty makes a contribution to the excess wealth of the
capitalists. Earning the things they need to live by doing labor
is not enough for the capitalists. They also want to have
luxuries, and so they need the labor of other people to earn those
things for them. The pushers of the Amerikan Dream pretend that
this so-called standard of living is normal, and that it is the
people's fault if they cannot attain it.
The pushers of the Dream say the same things about underdeveloped
countries of the Third World. They were saying it as they
underdeveloped those countries in the search for their own wealth.
No country can be as rich as the United States without eating that
wealth off of poor countries. No people can be as rich as
capitalists without eating off of poor people. Giving all people
the things they need to live is counter to capitalism. By this we
know that any solution the capitalists offer will not solve the
problems facing the people. The programs the Amerikan government
supports have to perpetuate these problems.
Homelessness has become an Amerikan institution. If homelessness
were to be eradicated, a structural vacuum would be left.
Government bureaucrats who deal with the homeless would lose their
jobs. Legal precedents about homelessness would be wasted. News
bureaus that report on it would go out of business. Nobody would
make any more money off of homelessness!
New York City, in one of its money-saving plans, co-opted an
action some tenants took a few years ago when their landlord
abandoned their building. Unable to move, the tenants took over
the building and started running it cooperatively. The city
decided that was a great idea and more tenants whose landlords
didn't do their jobs should have to run their own buildings
too.(6)
An architect in San Francisco set out to build a sort of personal
shelter, something that would "help [homeless people] but not
disrupt their lives." The invention is the "City Sleeper." It's a
big weather-proof box people can set up in a lot or a park, it has
room for a bed, but not enough to cook in or do anything else.(7)
What kind of contribution to the homeless prides itself on not
disrupting homelessness?
A spokesperson for the national department of Housing and Urban
Development described the federal money allotted to the homeless
in 1989 as serving the "severely dysfunctional, who are frequently
homeless or long-term homeless."(9) The government continues to
argue that "dysfunction" is inherent to some people who then
become homeless as a result of it.
MIM believes that homelessness is an excellent example of the
methods the Amerikan government uses to keep people poor and
powerless.
Fostering addiction
It wasn't until 1989 that the National Coalition for the Homeless
acknowledged that drug and alcohol dependency can lead to
homelessness.(10) In 1991, an estimated 70-75% of homeless people
are chemical-dependent.(11) Because any addiction prioritizes
personal spending, addicts are more likely to become homeless than
non-addicts; satisfying the addiction becomes more important than
anything else. Homeless people are more likely to become addicts
as well, in trying to erase their problems. When people are
homeless, the lack of money or any kind of structural security
make finding support for ending their addiction almost impossible.
Alcohol and other consciousness-altering drugs are advertised as
being a great way to deal with problems. This image of relaxing in
chemical-induced luxury is pushed most heavily in poor Afrikan
Amerikan, Latino and Native Amerikan communities where people are
more susceptible to this claim. Yet drugs come from the other side
as well. In 1984 a New York State Supreme Court ruling said that
patients in mental hospitals could not be guaranteed the right to
refuse being drugged by their doctors. This is an especially
dangerous precedent for the poor and homeless, who are seen as
less competent to determine the course of their own health care
anyway.
Treating drug and alcohol addiction is just as much a part of
eradicating homelessness as giving people apartments. It is still
understandable that homeless agencies do not want to publicize the
fact that many people are both homeless and addicts. Trying to
cover up the role of addiction in people's lives caters to the
victim-blaming attitude that says that people are homeless because
they don't work, and that they are addicts because they are lazy.
While the stated aim of this policy is to get more help for the
homeless, its effect is exactly the opposite. In making the
problem look easier to solve than it is, the policy deprives
people of the level of care they need.
Attend to the needs of the people
Saying that the best thing to do for a homeless person is to give
them a meal now and a bed now and free health care now is
equivalent to saying that if a homeless person has these things,
it will not matter any more that s/he is homeless. The best thing
to do for all homeless people is to overthrow the system which
makes them homeless, so that they may have equal access to the
world's resources.
MIM aims to end the exercise of power by some groups of people
over others through socialist revolution. When groups of people
(rich people, white people, men, etc.) are not in control of the
state, they will no longer be able to claim as profits the
luxuries they gain from denying others their necessities. In
revolutionary China, local areas were organized to take care of
the basic needs of the people collectively. Every person had the
right--unlike the bourgeois rights we have here which oppressed
people know are no rights at all--to food, clothing, shelter, and
education for their children, and a decent burial. Taking care of
the basic needs of the people is revolutionary practice.
Feed the people
For now MIM supports the example of the Black Panthers free
breakfast-for-school-children programs. The program worked with
the capitalist reality of children in Afrikan communities all over
the country having to go to school hungry, minimizing whatever
good their education would do them.(10)
The Panthers knew that even though providing free food for hungry
people is contrary to the wishes of the capitalists, offering the
program as an end in itself would not be enough. The Panthers
worked to destroy the state with this understanding, unfortunately
the pigs tore the Party apart, making sure to end what the FBI
called the "nefarious" breakfast program, before it could
accomplish its goals.
MIM works for revolution because it believes it is the only way to
improve the lives of all people in the long run. The responsible
way to alleviate the people's capitalism-induced pain is to give
them food, shelter, health care, everything they need to live, and
educate them to carry out revolution.
Notes:
1. New York Times 4/6/83 p. A18.
2. NYT 9/7/83.
3. NYT 7/24/87.
4. NYT 10/26/87.
5. Wall Street Journal 3/15/89.
6. NYT 4/9/84.
7. New Orleans Times 4/18/87.
8. NYT 11/25/89.
9. NYT 11/2/84.
10. NYT 5/22/89 p. A1.
11. Manhattan Bowery Corporation, NYC.
* * *
LETTERS
Comrades,
Your viewpoint on gender most intrigues me, particularly your very
progressive attitude towards the queer nation--especially
bisexuals. Your very bi-friendly position is unique, and your pro-
gay views are remarkably different from most so-called Marxist
organizations with the RCP [Revolutionary Communist Party--Ed.]
being a case in point.
I write to you troubled, however, by your position on monogamy--
not because I dispute your notion of "forever monogamy" being
among the "less" oppressive options available to wimmin--but
because I believe we must work towards creating structures that
can enable wimmin to live with and love themselves.
Female friendship, as described in the book A Passion for Friends,
by Janice Raymond, is, in my view, the very definition of
feminism. To borrow Mary Daly's words, it is essential for wimmin
to "Re-Member" their "Selves," and see through the lies, in order
to challenge the phallo-centric empire successfully.
If you will accept Ann Ferguson's assertion that capitalism and
patriarchy constitute dual systems that often, but not always,
reinforce each other, you will see that, while patriarchy pre-
dates capitalism, and capitalism is a patriarchal construct, we
can not honestly challenge patriarchy within a capitalist society.
Lesbian-feminists, however, do not advocate a capitalist society.
Capitalism is correctly viewed as a stumbling block undermining
the struggle against patriarchy. Not a diversion as such, it must
be destroyed, not ignored, if sexual constructs established
through violence are to be dismantled--to free the path towards
female friendship.
This does not repudiate a continual effort to work for female
friendship. On the contrary, wimmin will not successfully
challenge patriarchal systems within a post-revolutionary state
without an established "wimmin's community."
This community, more than anything else that I have to date
witnessed, has the resources available to wimmin who choose to
leave the privileges afforded them by heterosexual relationships.
Obviously, most wimmin will not have access to these resources so
long as we live under capitalism, but no post-revolutionary state-
-aiming to end all oppressions--can afford to dismiss Lesbian-
feminism because of that. If such a state intends to smash
patriarchy, the state will remove all impediments remaining to
female friendship, abolishing compulsory heterosexuality--which
reinforces gender roles.
Your prescription of "monogamy" does not challenge either gender
roles or the myth of heterosexuality--a construct that cannot
exist but through violence. Rather, you seem to discourage efforts
at expanding the wimmin's community--deeming it a diversion from
the battle against capitalism.
I find this upsetting--that MIM will not work at present point in
time to challenge compulsory heterosexuality. The facts are that
most relationships, period, are quite abusive--but I believe such
abuse is more prevalent in heterosexual relationships, and other
relationships based on a patriarchal model. We do have minds, and
an essential belief in a biophilic self, obscured by lies.
Gender roles, and compulsory heterosexuality, do not expose these
lies. Forever monogamy, save within the context of a biophilic
relationship, does not expose these lies, either.
--an east coast reader
April 1991
MC17 responds: The author begins by praising MIM's position on
gender and homosexuality, agreeing that forever monogamy is "among
the less oppressive options available to wimmin." But then s/he
goes on to say that s/he is troubled by MIM's position on forever
monogamy because s/he believes "we must work towards creating
structures that enable wimmin to live with and love themselves."
In the article about monogamy in MIM Notes 51 MIM was careful to
say that it is the best choice among the very poor choices
capitalism has to offer. MIM certainly would agree that it is
important to work toward complete equality for women. But equality
can not be achieved under capitalism and so MIM does everything it
can to overthrow capitalism and create a society which will not be
based on the domination, oppression, and devaluation of women.
The author suggests that s/he endorses Ann Ferguson's assertion
that capitalism and the patriarchy do not always reinforce one
another, but does not offer any proof for this assertion. MIM asks
the author, when is it in the era of capitalism that the
patriarchy does not reinforce capitalism or visa versa? Even
patriarchy which exists under socialism supports the re-
development of capitalism, as we have seen in China, the USSR,
etc.
MIM agrees with the author in advocating the destruction of
capitalism and seeing it as a barrier to the struggle against
patriarchy (though patriarchy is also "a barrier" in the struggle
against capitalism!). The patriarchy can only be abolished once
capitalism has been abolished, and MIM does not think that the
patriarchy will just fall away under socialism. Like the remnants
of capitalism, it must be struggled against until it is
overthrown.
The author suggests that we must work towards creating women's
communities now, even though s/he recognizes the fact that the
structures s/he wants to create will not be accessible to many
women under capitalism. With this understanding of the exclusive
nature of such a women's movement, MIM wonders why this movement
would be a challenge to capitalism or the patriarchy. MIM believes
that working to end the structure of capitalism is the only way to
create new structures in which women can be valued. Under
socialism, where society is not based on the oppression of women,
we will have a chance to eliminate the patriarchy and create true
equality.
The author offers female friendship as "the very definition of
feminism." This statement echoes the notion that the existence and
perpetuation of women's space, or women's culture, is the
structure through which we will dismantle patriarchal domination.
The author also indicates that a post-revolutionary women's
community will be necessary for eradicating the remnants of
patriarchy under socialism.
It is not clear if, by advocating female friendships, the author
is at the same time saying that all men are a part of the enemy
and the patriarchy. The article in MIM Notes 50 in the gender
pullout on anarchist feminists discusses this position in more
detail.
Patriarchy fosters the seeds of its own destruction. Existing
women's cultures do contain elements which challenge patriarchy,
but culture itself will not overthrow patriarchy or imperialism.
The good things about the culture will be radically transformed
when they become dominant elements. But concentrating on creating
the culture of the future under present conditions is an
ineffective strategy unless it is combined with work to overthrow
the capitalist patriarchy.
We also have to be aware that there exists a stratum of women who
benefit from imperialism, whose culture is in fact parasitic and
must be dismantled. There will not be much left of First World
feminism under the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Before and after the revolution MIM seeks to empower women by
providing structures that allow them to take a role of leadership
and control over their own lives. This effort was waged during the
Chinese Cultural Revolution, encouraging men to stay at home and
take care of the house and children so that women could go out to
study groups and to do political work--in both mixed and gender
exclusive capacities. Women can receive support from other women,
but should not be encouraged to be dependent on this support while
men are encouraged to act in an independent and more powerful way.
This will only reinforce gender inequalities after revolution.
The author goes on to suggest that lesbian relationships are less
oppressive than heterosexual ones, but provides no evidence for
this assertion. S/he calls "most relationships, period ... quite
abusive," but says, "such abuse is more prevalent in heterosexual
relationships, and other relationships based on a patriarchal
model."
MIM believes all relationships existing under patriarchal
capitalism are based on a patriarchal model, one that devalues and
reinforces the abuse of women. MIM refers its readers to the
growing body of material about lesbian battering, and to Catherine
MacKinnon's essays on violence and sex as evidence of the
pervasive influence of the patriarchy on all relationships. Women
can not escape the socialization which teaches them to play out
power roles in relationships, whether they be with other women or
with men.
There is no evidence that homosexual relationships are more
abusive. Perhaps the author is not aware that MIM's definition of
forever monogamy is not "compulsory heterosexuality" because it
includes homosexual relationships.
Compulsory heterosexuality does create gender roles, and this
culture needs to be abolished in a post-revolutionary society. But
MIM disagrees with the author's assertion that our definition of
monogamy does not challenge gender roles. If one considers the
fact that gender roles in this society involve men being
encouraged to sleep around and practice polygamy while women are
taught to practice loyalty, often out of financial need, then
forever monogamy certainly is not the norm. Even for those not
financially constrained, "serial monogamy" is the accepted
practice as it allows people to exercise their subjective tastes
in others, moving from one partner to the next when they find
something more inviting (i.e. more powerful for women, more
submissive for men).
This is also true in lesbian serial monogamy or lesbian "open"
relationships where power is definitely being exercised by the
partner who chooses to move on to another. As is the case with
friendships among women, the mere exercise of subjective tastes
(even exercised by women) does not provide a real challenge to
patriarchal gender roles.
Since forever monogamy does challenge these roles then it is also
a challenge to the typical structure of compulsory heterosexuality
which keeps women subordinated through economic/power dependency.
Forever monogamy makes the heterosexual relationship less
attractive to men, and also challenges lesbians who use power in a
typically "male" way their relationships with other women.
MIM agrees with the author on a number of points, foremost of
which is that capitalism must be overthrown before we can create
true equality for women. Women's communities can not effectively
challenge the patriarchy now because of the existingpowers of
capitalism and patriarchy. After the revolution all must work
together to abolish gender oppression. This may well include
women's organizations as well as mixed groups--with the task of
overthrowing the patriarchy assumed by the state itself.
Under socialism and ultimately communism, MIM hopes to create a
society which is accepting of all sexual orientations, and in
which forever monogamy is no longer a necessary prescription to
counter the culture of gendered relationships which are
detrimental to women.
Dear MIM Distributors,
Please be advised, that I did receive the copy of The Black
Panthers Speak, which you forwarded to me last August. Also be
advised, that I received a portion of your correspondence dated
March 30, 1991. The remainder of this correspondence was
allegedly returned to you, by the prison's Internal Affairs Unit,
because it violated one of the statutes under the disapproved
correspondence section.
This prison administration has effectively decentralized any and
all political organizations! I was just recently released from the
Management Control Unit (MCU), here at Trenton State Prison, for
allegedly participating in the assault of thirteen "guards." This
incident occurred back on August 10, 1990, in the general
population yard. As a result of this incident, 68 prisoners were
taken out of population and placed in MCU, and a small percentage
of those prisoners were shipped out of state to other
concentration camps located in Connecticut, New Mexico, Oregon,
Utah, etc.
However, those of us who still remain behind the walls of this
camp, are still struggling. Excuse me, I should say; those of us
who remain politically conscious!
During the course of my 11-year internment, I've had the
opportunity to view various materials, pertaining to the Amerikan
capitalist system. And after viewing such material, I've come to
the conclusion, as should anyone else with an ounce of common
sense, that all oppressed people must come together to overthrow
this capitalist system. But first, we must stop oppressing each
other! From what I've heard and what I've seen, a whole
generation has been destroyed by crack-cocaine alone!
It saddens me deeply to know that oppressed people are killing off
other oppressed people, for the oppressor, all under the guise of
"getting mine." Their stupidity prevents them from seeing the
ultimate act itself: genocide.
Yes, I do agree with you on points 1 -3 in your notation. [The
writer is referring to the three basic principles MIM requires
people to agree on in order to join the party. See "What is MIM?"
on p. 2 of this issue for an explanation of these points. --MC11].
Of course, I'd gladly join the party in your/our effort. However,
I will not be sucked into any foolishness. My previous experience
has taught me to guard against such! One which very nearly cost
me my life.
Please do not take what I just said the wrong way. Long ago I've
been over my fear of death. Sooner or later we'll die anyway,
whether it be from natural causes, or what have you! I'd just
like to choose the terms on how I die!!
Well, that's about all I have to say for the moment. Right now,
I'm in the midst of a heated battle with the New Jersey State
Parole Board, in an effort to gain my so-called "freedom." These
chumps are blatantly ignoring an Amended Judgement of conviction,
which would put me out the door within the next two months. As
you can see, my own personal struggles are continuing. But, I
still remain steadfast .
--prisoner from Trenton State prison
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
I have just completed reading an issue of MIM Notes, which I had
never before even heard of. I found it to represent an
international viewpoint that is a refreshing change from the usual
one-issue, one-viewpoint "revolutionary" papers that I've read
Please keep me on your mailing list, and please send me The Black
Panthers Speak. I will share this information with others. If
possible, I would like to receive any books that are available,
including Settlers by J. Sakai. I have also been searching for a
copy of Soledad Brother by George Jackson. I am willing to pay for
all materials.
--prisoner from the midwest
Dear MIM:
I am a political prisoner interested in a subscription to your
monthly newsletter. I would also appreciate a donation of general
political books to educate myself and those around me in political
economy and revolutionary strategy to create public opinion, both
inside and outside U.S. prisons.
Any material on The Black Panthers Party and comrade George
Jackson would be a good beginning point in addition to MIM party
literature.
We appreciate MIM's support and look forward to hearing from you
soon.
"Strength isn't brute force.
Strength is balance--the
ability to respond to any
situation in the most
appropriate manner."
--prisoner from Trenton State Prison
* * *
FMLN OPTS OUT OF ARMED STRUGGLE
In early May, the Farabundo Mart’ National Liberation Front
(FMLN)--the leftist opposition movement in El Salvador--sabotaged
the country's power system in an effort to force the government to
negotiate a cease-fire. It created a 45% energy deficit for the
country, and small businesses were pushed toward bankruptcy by the
energy shortage.(1)
The FMLN's radio station said: "This form of operation will be
maintained as long as there is no agreement on a cease-fire."(1)
Military tactics & reformism
These attacks come at the heels of the passage of a major
constitutional reform package in the Salvadoran legislature. The
reform package includes provisions to create a civilian police
force and develop both human rights and election over-sight
committees. It also calls for the selection of supreme court
judges by bipartisan consensus, rather than one-party edict.(2)
Despite the gains the FMLN has won through military struggle in
the last 11 years, they recently declared Marxism-Leninism and
armed struggle to seize state power "a bankrupt ideology." The
FMLN now seeks reforms from their oligarchic/army oppressors and
integration with them. One general commander of the FMLN said in
October 1990 that the process is now moving toward "total
integration of the FMLN into the political life of the
country."(3)
The attacks on El Salvador's power system would constitute good
guerilla strategy if the goal of the FMLN was not to bring the
government to the negotiating table. But pursuing negotiations for
a cease-fire agreement between the FMLN and the government, the
FMLN is clearly looking to end the war by straight reformist
measures.
Recently, several commanders went to a meeting of European foreign
ministers in Managua where they asked Nicaraguan president
Violetta Chamorro to help the "peace process." Moreover, FMLN
leaders were so eager for Western imperialist support that they
spent three hours with European ministers and representatives of
their governments.(4)
As for ongoing peace talks, both sides imposed conditions that
could block the cease-fire negotiations. Salvadoran president
Alfredo Cristiani has agreed to reorganize the army and purge the
most repressive officers in the ruling ARENA party army--but only
after the cease-fire.
On the other hand, the FMLN demands more commitment by the
government to reform and reorganize the army and to reduce its
size before the cease-fire. They also demand that after the cease-
fire, the government recognize the territories won by the FMLN.
This cat-and-mouse game of diplomacy threatens to stall reformist
negotiations indefinitely, without any revolutionary strategy to
gain control of the country for the people.
Amerika acts a mediator for talks
Now that the FMLN is trying to negotiate "peace" with the
oppressive Salvadoran government, Amerika is eager to help the
peace process. It is posing as supportive of the negotiations
between the two parties. Nine key House members sent a letter to
Bernard Aronson, U.S. assistant secretary for inter-American
affairs, asking the department to "do all that it can to encourage
the success of these talks and to keep the U.N. process moving
forward."(2)
During the legislative debate on the constitutional reforms, the
U.S. ambassador prodded the Salvadoran legislature to pass the
reform package, amidst right-wing pressure to block it. The same
right-wing faction in the ruling ARENA party founded the infamous
death squads that have murdered thousands of civilians, including
the six Jesuit priests in November 1989. By publicly rejecting
this faction, Amerika portrays itself as a mediator for democracy,
despite covert collaboration with the fascists.
FMLN welcomes bogus elections
The FMLN did not boycott and sabotage the elections held on March
10, instead choosing to participate in them openly for the first
time since the civil war began. They also called for a truce. A
senior FMLN commander said this about the elections: "This
election takes place in a completely different context. We welcome
the efforts being made by the opposition parties."(5)
Despite the good deeds by the FMLN, the army exploited the truce
in the March 10 elections to advance into areas long held by the
FMLN. The army bombed the outskirts of villages in the war zones
of Chalatenango and Moraz‡n provinces for several days before the
elections, in order to frighten people against voting.(5)
As part of the FMLN's new reformist orientation, it now recognizes
the importance of supporting the elections. But history
demonstrates that imperialists and empires do not voluntarily give
up power. MIM seeks to seize power--similar to the real
experiences in China and today in Peru--through a people's war
rather than through cooperation with the oppressive state.
--MC67
Notes:
1. New York Times 5/6/91, p. A6.
2. Wall Street Journal 5/6/91, p. A12.
3. The Nation 10/15/90, pp. 407-410.
4. The Economist 3/23/91, p. 48.
5. The Economist 3/16/91, pp. 39-40.
* * *
THE COMMODIFICATION OF AIR
The science of Marxism has come a long way since Marx. It is a
methodology which requires a constant evaluation of concrete
conditions and redevelopment of practice and theory. Lenin brought
Marxism into the age of imperialism, Mao applied the method to
recognize national liberation struggles and Third World
conditions, and today their political descendents must remain on
their toes to keep the developing nature of the science alive.
For example: in The Fundamentals of Political Economy--the popular
textbook taught in China by Maoists in the early 1970s--the
definition of commodities includes: "Not all useful things are
commodities. For example, air and sunshine are basic necessities
for our survival, but they are not labor products. They are free
goods and therefore not commodities."
Not any more--for air at least.
People in Mexico City--who suffer from some of the highest levels
of pollution in the world--are now paying to breathe clean air, if
they can afford it.
Clean air costs $1.60 per minute in little booths which have been
opened by private entrepreneurs in public places like malls and
parks. The truly wealthy breathe clean air at home with the help
of air filters and private oxygen tanks. Air in the city was
officially unbreathable 302 out of 365 days last year.
What makes clean air a commodity in Mexico City is its obvious use
value, and now the labor embodied in clean air machines. The
components of a commodity are the same: use value and exchange
value.
The Fundamentals of Political Economy is still the best general
text on the subject. Under capitalism, it is also a commodity. Buy
it from MIM for $15 (check payable to ABS).
--MC12
Notes: Wall Street Journal 5/8/91, p. A1.
* * *
MARITAL RAPE IN CHINA
A Chinese farmer recently received a six-year prison term for
raping his wife in 1988.
This conviction parallels the creation of laws in the United
States against rape of women by their husbands. In both countries
this idea is quite controversial with actual convictions rare.
However, in China it is quite possible that a combination of
reactionary steps backward is at work in causing the rape
situation to begin with. Since the restoration of capitalism in
China in 1976, rape has skyrocketed. (See The Political Economy of
Counterrevolution in China, available from MIM.)
Divorce is also skyrocketing in a country where divorce used to be
very rare. In some sense divorce can reflect a positive move away
from the arranged marriages of China's feudal past still haunting
the countryside.
On the other hand, in this case the woman left her husband six
days after the wedding. What causes a marriage to last six days
and result in divorce?
In China's countryside there has been a resurgence in outright
female slavery and borderline slavery through bride exchanges
since the restoration of capitalism. Whereas before such monetary
elements in marriage were strictly regulated to make marriage a
modest affair, today China's peasantry spends large portions of
its income buying and selling wives, literally or semi-literally.
It is within the context of reactionary marriage customs in the
Chinese countryside that such a brittle marriage and rape
occurred.
--MC5
Notes: UPI, 4/22/91 in China News Digest, 4/22/91.
* * *
VD RETURNS TO CHINA
Wiped out under Mao Zedong, venereal disease is making a big
comeback in China. Between 1984 and 1990 the number of cases rose
50% in Sichuan province.
In Guangzhou the state capitalists have tolerated and reopened a
huge prostitution business as part of the effort to integrate with
Hong Kong capitalism run amok. Nearly 100 young women under age 13
received venereal disease, reportedly contracted from parents
involved with prostitutes.
--MC5
Notes: Hong Kong Standard, 4/13/91.
* * *
CUBA'S WEAKNESS
In Cuba, which owes the Soviet Union over a year's worth of its
goods and services, the government announced that 500,000 bicycles
and 200,000 oxen would be employed to fill in the gap left by the
end of Soviet oil aid.
At the same time, Cuba is now sending people abroad to recruit
foreign investors, who are allowed to have controlling interests
of over 50%. A special emphasis falls on the tourism industry,
which surpassed pre-revolutionary Cuba's tourism industry last
year.(1)
MIM does not object to the strategy of bicycles and oxen. That may
be sensible.
However, the pullout of Soviet aid generally reveals the
weaknesses in Cuba's having relied on Soviet social-imperialism
since the 1960s. Cuba switched from U.S. imperialism to Soviet
social-imperialism after a few years of holding an independent
course in its revolution.
Cuba was not self-reliant in its economic strategy as Albania and
China were in their revolutionary periods. Cuba built its economy
to mesh with the Soviet economy. As a result, now that the Soviets
have changed their economic relationship to Cuba, Cuba faces
difficulties in taking care of itself.
Citing economic difficulties, record numbers of Cubans are risking
their lives on rafts to flee to the United States.(2)
The tourism strategy shows that Cuba is simply switching from
Soviet social-imperialism to U.S. imperialism again. The state
capitalists in Cuba can do nothing else but switch from one
imperialist to another or a mixture of the various imperialisms.
--MC5
Notes:
1. Miami Herald 4/21/91, p. 8A.
2. Miami Herald, 4/21/91, p. 1A.
* * *
SOVIETS SELL OUT NORTH KOREA
The Soviet Union endorsed South Korea's attempt to gain entrance
to the United Nations on April 20 and the two countries signed a
treaty of mutual cooperation and agreed to increase trade 10-fold
in five years.
The Soviet Union sold out its old ally North Korea, which still
claims to be communist. North Korea does not want South Korea
recognized in the United Nations and it does not want two separate
Koreas in the United Nations. The Soviet Union even demanded that
North Korea open its nuclear installations for international
inspection.(1)
Out of desperation, Gorbachev is leading the Soviet Union to trade
old political advantages and power for economic aid to the Soviet
Union. Countries such as South Korea and even China have responded
with aid.
Phony communists in the United States have long pointed to the
Soviet Union's relationship to countries like North Korea and Cuba
as proof of the Soviet Union's internationalist and socialist
nature. Now that the Soviet Union is obviously no different than
any other imperialist, even on the phony communists' own terms,
what can they say?
North Korea has complained that the South Koreans were "alluring
the latter [the Soviet Union] with dollars and the latter allured
by it."(2)
Although North Korea is correct in this, MIM cannot have much
sympathy for North Korea on this score. When North Korea had the
chance to join Mao in the 1960s and 1970s to denounce the Soviet
Union for going down the capitalist-road, it did not. Now it is
too late. What did North Korea expect from social-imperialism?
--MC5
Notes:
1. Miami Herald 4/21/91, p. 6A.
2. Reuter 4/22/91 in China News Digest 4/22/91.
* * *
WINNIE MANDELA TRIAL
Much has been made over the three month trial of Winnie Mandela
and her bodyguards, who were charged with the kidnapping of four
people, including the murder of a 14-year-old boy in 1988. In the
trial-without-jury system of South Africa, Judge Michael S.
Stegman called Mandela an "unblushing liar" regarding her pleas of
"not guilty" to the crimes,(1) and sentenced her to six years in
prison--five years for abduction and one year for accessory to
assault.(2)
Mandela and her lawyers say they will appeal the decision, and
keep this issue in the public eye.(2)
The government is obviously using this case to discredit the
African National Congress (ANC), and much of the left is
conspicuously silent on the matter, seemingly conflicted by their
support for the ANC and their distaste for the crime of which
Mandela has been charged. But where is the conflict?
Mandela says she didn't do it. The state says she did. In fact,
the judge made a point of reprimanding Mandela for not showing
remorse at her trial.(3) Maybe she didn't show remorse because she
didn't do it. There was no jury, and the witnesses were very
likely paid by the state.
Leftists should base their support and criticisms of liberation
struggles on strategy and political line, not on the "moral
character" of the most visible leaders. Even if Winnie Mandela is
guilty of kidnapping and murder--and people should question why
they are trusting the South African government more than her--it
doesn't matter. What could any individual do that would discredit
the righteous struggle against apartheid? MIM criticizes the ANC
for a number of faults (Write to MIM for back issues 41, 42 and
43), but this isn't one of them.
--MC44
Notes:
1. Wall Street Journal 5/14/91, p. A12.
2. National Public Radio "Morning Edition" 5/14/91.
3. NPR "All Things Considered" 5/14/91.
* * *
WORKER OWNERS
Most Amerikan workers have interests in common with the
imperialist bourgeoisie. While the many benefits gained by Euro-
Amerikan workers in general are the product of organized labor
struggle, those benefits also represent concessions made by the
bourgeoisie in its own interest, not just against its will.
For critics and skeptics, MIM suggests: ask the bourgeoisie.
A survey of personnel officers at 415 large Amerikan companies
found that 46% believed company workers and managers should own
stock in the companies they work for, so they'll "act like
owners," said the Wall Street Journal.(1)
This self-interested wisdom on the part of the bourgeoisie
represents an understanding that class position and outlook is not
determined by income alone. Although Amerikan factory workers in
April averaged salaries of $23,187.32 per year,(2) there's nothing
like a little direct ownership to cement an alliance.
--MC12
Notes:
1. Wall Street Journal 5/12/91, p. A1
2. WSJ 5/8/91, p. A1.
* * *
POWER NEGATES S. AFRICAN REFORMS
The bourgeois word from South Africa today is "factional
fighting." Between who? The African National Congress (ANC) and
the Inkatha "Freedom" Party, who are deliberately misnamed
"rivals" in the media. The fiction is that the two groups are
organized for the same goal of African liberation in South Africa-
-divided by cultural barriers between the predominantly Zulu
Inkatha Party and the ANC.
MIM has some serious criticisms of the ANC and its tactics, but
the organization was until recently dedicated, at least since the
1940s, to the demise of the white Afrikaner Nationalist
Government. The Nationalists legalized the already existing
oppressive colonial structures into the official racist doctrine
of apartheid in the middle of this century.
Inkatha leader Chief Mongosuthu Buthelezi, on the other hand, is
on the Pretoria payroll for being an official "tribal leader."
This direct connection between Inkatha and the government is
further reflected in the party's general philosophy which is
described as "conservative" and "aligned with government
views."(1) It is ridiculous to portray Buthelezi as any kind of
opponent of apartheid or white rule.(2) While Inkatha is majority
Zulu, not all Zulus in South Africa follow Buthelezi, as the ANC's
detractors frequently imply.
The South African government reports that 6,000 people have been
killed in this so-called factional fighting since 1986.(3)
Reform or restructuring?
South African President F.W. de Klerk has been working on various
reforms, including a promise to overturn the pivotal land acts,
which officially expropriated nearly 90% of South Africa's land
for white settlers in 1913, leaving the remaining less-arable land
for the indigenous population. The land to which the Africans were
restricted was known as Native Reserves, and it was not enough
land for the Black African population to subsist on through
agriculture as they had. Repealing the land acts is not likely to
make a significant impact on conditions for Africans, however. It
would be an empty gesture unless the land and property of the
country are equitably redistributed--not exactly one of de Klerk's
goals.
The ANC, embroiled in negotiations with de Klerk's government,
issued a series of deadlines to the government, demanding that
action be taken to end the increasing violence in the townships,
or the ANC would boycott scheduled negotiations among the ANC,
Inkatha, and the government, for the end of May. The talks were
supposed to eventually create a new constitution which "would give
political power to the black majority."(1) The political power de
Klerk envisions is again meaningless, as long as the Afrikaners
maintain a shred of political legitimacy there can be no true
democracy in South Africa.
The talks were suspended on Saturday, May 18 by the ANC. The
Inkatha Party, calling the ANC's action "bully-boy tactics," plans
to attend the negotiations conference.(10)
Coinciding with the expiration of the ANC's deadline/ultimatum was
a bombing campaign in Johannesburg, on May 17. The bombs killed at
least 11 people, and the ANC readily condemned the action.(9)
On May 9, de Klerk issued a ban on weapons in the townships. The
ban excluded what the president called "cultural weapons," namely
spears and axes. Three days after the ban was announced,
approximately 1,000 Zulus "attacked a South African squatter camp,
hacking and burning to death at least 25 people."(4) The Zulus
were identified as being associated with the Inkatha Party.(5)
The ANC has maintained that the government is engineering the
violence in the townships, providing financial support to the
Inkatha Party and virtual immunity when they instigate violence.
The ANC has also maintained throughout the trial of Winnie Mandela
(See Paper Tiger, p. _) that her arrest constitutes political
harassment that "is in breach of the spirit of the agreements
entered into by the government and the ANC."(6)
Armed struggle versus negotiations
The ANC has a strong alliance with the South African Communist
Party (SACP). Some of the commanders of the ANC's military wing
are also members of the SACP.(7) On the surface, this kind of
alliance between national liberationists and communists is exactly
what MIM works toward and supports. But the ANC is no longer
national liberationist and the SACP is not really communist.
The SACP gets its support from the Soviet Union, a tie which has
subsequently poisoned the political line of the ANC. But even
before the ANC officially renounced armed struggle one year ago,
it was not waging a people's war. Its physical attacks were part
of an overall effort--combined with the movement to impose
economic sanctions on South Africa--of putting political pressure
on the government in hopes that it would essentially abdicate
power to the Black masses.
We have seen this failed strategy, complete with the transition to
hopeless negotiations, in other Soviet-supported revolutionaries
like the Farabundo Mart’ National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El
Salvador. (See story on p. 4)
Imperialist designs on South Africa
The European Economic Community (EEC) recently responded to de
Klerk's reforms by lifting economic sanctions against South
Africa, including the ban on the gold Krugerrand. Amerikan firms
and multinationals are poised for future investment when the same
legalities are solidified here. The requirements for the end of
sanctions are the repealing of the land acts, which we have stated
is a token gesture at best, and the release of all remaining
political prisoners. As it is, all South African political exiles
may be issued visas and return now, if they want.(8)
--MC44
Notes:
1. Chicago Tribune 5/6/91.
2. MIM Notes Interview with a South African activist, MN 42, p. 6.
3. Ann Arbor News 5/11/91 p. 3.
4. Wall Street Journal 5/13/91, p. 1.
5. New York Times 5/13/91, p. 1.
6. ANC General Secretary, quoted in the WSJ 5/14/91, p. A12.
7. WSJ 5/6/91, p. A12.
8. NYT 5/12/91
9. National Public Radio "All Things Considered" 5/17/91.
10. Detroit Free Press 5/19/91, p. 3A.
* * *
REACTIONS TO KING VIDEO SPARKS OPPOSTION TO COPS
In North Carolina the struggle by African Amerikans against police
terror in recent months has been on the upswing. The video
exposure of the police beating in Los Angeles in March helped both
spark much interest in--and expose recurring attacks by--police
against African Amerikans statewide.
In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a Black man named Johnell Hunter
was stopped on March 15, 1991 by two white police officers, B.D.
Barnes and J.D. Murphy. When he was stopped, Hunter said he was
"on his way home.... The police officers told him to come to their
car. When he continued to ask them why he was being stopped, one
officer grabbed him and twisted his arm up behind him.... Hunter
said he was handcuffed, searched, and asked if he had crack
cocaine on him. He told him that he wasn't into that."
Hunter is a lay minister. He said the officers never asked his
name, told why he was being held, or issued a warrant. Hunter said
he was eventually released. When he said he would tell Alderman
(Vivian) Burke about the treatment he received, one of the
officers cursed at him. Alderman Burke is Black and he chairs the
Winston-Salem Public Safety Committee.
After media exposure of the incident, the two cops were fired or
resigned.
In Raleigh, the anti-police terror movement took a different form,
and has had different results.
There have been twice-monthly pickets at the city hall and
numerous community mass meetings as part of the struggle resulting
from the January 24, 1991 shooting of Tony Farell, a 32 year old
Black television station engineer. Farell was shot by a white
police detective named James Glover. "Glover, a 24 year veteran,
stopped [Farell's] car. [He] drew his gun, but did not identify
himself. He had no badge, nor was the blue light on his unmarked
car turned on. Farell attempted to drive away, fearing for his
life. Glover fired a shot through the door which hit Farell in the
leg."(1)
After numerous maneuvers by the local power structure, which
included a decision by the local county district attorney and
grand jury not to prosecute the detective, some internal
administrative action was taken against Detective Glover. He
received a demotion which local activists claim that Glover
himself stated publicly was due because he did not meet the
requirements for the detective position.
Previous incidents of police terror in Raleigh has spurred the
call for the creation of a police review board. "People at that
time, as they do now, believed that these incidents are racist in
nature and are carried out by people who are out of control. There
is widespread concern that police agencies are using the drug
epidemic as an excuse for unwarranted and unjustified attacks on
young Black men."(1)
There is now a movement by African Amerikans in Raleigh to
implement Black Panther Party-style police watch groups. These
groups would monitor police stoppings, detentions and arrests of
Blacks in the community.
Incidents like these and mass resistance to police terror provide
opportunities for revolutionary forces to bring revolutionary
ideals and strategies for change to the people. We must support
every outburst of protest and struggle and utilize it to advance
the short term and the long term struggle for justice and
revolution.
--MA20
Notes: Justice Speaks, March 1991, p. 9.
* * *
RECESSION DEEPENS IN EASTERN EUROPE
With the transition to hard-currency market economies, many East
European countries face immediate and catastrophic economic
collapse. Left without trade agreements with the Soviet Union, the
hard-currency-poor Soviets are unable to purchase goods from the
major East European suppliers they formerly relied upon.(1) With
the loss of the Soviet market, and the consequent decline in
revenue, Eastern Europe has been forced to look to the West for
development loans.
The staggering demand for credit among East European borrowers is
estimated to exceed the supply of credit among Western lenders by
over $200 billion per year, a situation which will likely persist
for several years. The primary effect is that interest rates
worldwide are rising as the demand for credit increases. With this
increase in demand, countries in Latin America and Africa are
finding it difficult to attract loans, and still more difficult to
repay them.(2) While Eastern European countries have been been
able to attract the largest share of the loans, they have found
themselves unable to repay them. This has forced them to beg for
Western sympathy to forgive portions of the debts.
While foreign "development" loans dig the underdeveloped nations
of Latin America and Africa's pit of dependency, it is even more
devastating to those nations for the loans to suddenly be cut off
or reduced by the imperialists in favor of East Europe.
Walesa grovels for aid
With the Polish economy in chaos, President Lech Walesa was forced
to implore Western Europe and the United States to forgive massive
portions of Poland's debts to foreign development lenders and
governments. In mid-March, the Paris Club, an informal group of
Western lenders, forgave about half of Poland's $33 billion debt
to them.
Forced to reconcile their massive gift to Poland with their
unwillingness to provide equal relief to impoverished African,
Asian and Latin American debtors, officials said that the
discrepancy was due to the "exceptional situation of Poland,
involved in a transition without precedent toward a market
economy." The debt forgiven by the Paris Club represents about one
third of Poland's total foreign debt of $48.5 billion.(3) Walesa
had requested that 80% of Poland's debt be forgiven.
The next stop on Walesa's pan-handling tour of the imperialist
world was the United States, a few days after meeting with the
Paris Club. While the Walesa visit was ostensibly for a state
visit to President Bush, it was immediately clear the purpose was
to seek forgiveness for Poland's inability to repay its loans,
without which fledgling Eastern European market economies would
fail.(4) Consequently, President Bush agreed to write off 70% of
Poland's debt to the United States, about $800 million. And Walesa
responded, "God bless America," the only English phrase he used
during the visit.(5)
Pope John Paul II issued a document evaluating the market-economy
option for Poland and Eastern Europe at the beginning of May,
which stated "the Marxist solution has failed," and that the
economy of Eastern Europe must be "an economic system which
recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the
market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the
means of production, as well as free human creativity in the
economic sector."
While pumping the market option, the Pope lobbied for a kinder,
gentler imperialism, in which debts of poor nations should be
cancelled if they caused "hunger and despair for entire
peoples."(6) With Walesa and the Pope committed to a tag-team
effort to baste the West in economic and moral guilt, and a
powerful Polish national lobby in the United States, Poland's
success at avoiding payment of its foreign loans has been
virtually assured. But the imperialists will expect a heavy return
on their investments.
When Western Europe permitted Poles to travel without visas in
early April, the exodus of Poles in response was overwhelming. As
Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France
permitted Poles to enter without visas, waiting lines of vehicles
at the borders reached 25 miles long.(7)
German reconstruction
The loans for reconstruction of eastern Germany have pushed
interest rates up .5% worldwide. Unlike the other Eastern European
states, the Kohl government's reconstruction plans have been
internally financed by the German federal banking system.(2) But
the loans are making little headway in the depressed economy of
eastern Germany.
Kohl's political strength has waned as eastern Germany's economic
impotence has continued, resulting in embarrassing electoral
defeat on April 21. The Social Democrats, a civil libertarian
party which (with the Greens) makes up the mainstream political
left, won four seats in the upper house from Kohl's Christian
Democratic party. The resultant power shift has put the Social
Democrats in position to veto legislation.(8)
German disaffection with the unhindered economic decline has also
been appearing in the rates of migration from eastern to western
Germany. From October 1989 to February 1991, over half a million
people have fled the economically barren eastern half of the
country in search of higher-paying jobs in the west. Most notable
is the widespread flight of young, qualified workers with their
families, especially professionals.(9)
IMF buys Romania
April brought 100% price increases on staple food items in
Romania. Bread, eggs and meat were affected by the price change
which reflects Romania's entrance into the world of the "free"
market. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), with a $1 billion
aid grant, purchased the Romanian government, the National
Salvation Front, and set about the process of the market-economy
transition.
The price increases, which reflect the elimination of government
subsidies, were accompanied by some increases in wages and
temporary limits on the price increases (limits which permitted
prices to double). Romanian workers are finding it difficult to
afford staple food products under the price increases, and,
similar to the case in the Soviet Union, the price changes will
likely do little to ease the economic misery of the country.(10)
--MC18
Notes:
1. NYT 5/6/91, p. A1.
2. NYT 3/26/91, p. A1.
3. NYT 3/16/91, p. A1.
4. NYT 3/18/91, p. A5.
5. NYT 3/21/91, p. A3.
6. NYT 5/3/91, p. A7.
7. NYT 4/9/91, p. A3.
8. NYT 4/23/91, p. A1, A4.
9. NYT 3/11/91, p. A4.
10. NYT 4/2/91, p. A5.
* * *
DRUGS AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN AMERIKA
When a person is a drug addict, he's not the criminal; he's a
victim of the criminal. The criminal is the man downtown who
brings this drug into the country.(1)
--Malcolm X
Rural and inner-city poor and a large proportion of the Native,
African and Latino communities in this country suffer the most
under capitalism. So why hasn't there been a successful
proletarian revolution in Amerika organized by these groups?
Drugs are part of the reason. The state has a vested interest in
having whole populations of people locked into the drug trade--
economically or physically or both. The state uses drugs to
facilitate social control of the masses.
Exploitation and super-exploitation bring poverty to these
oppressed communities. Proletarians of oppressed nationalities
within this country are excluded from the privileges afforded to
white workers. One in every three African American children, for
instance, live below the government defined poverty line--compared
to one in every 100 white children.(2) The government then pushes
dangerous and life-threatening drugs into these communities, to
keep them economically dependent, physically dependent and
distracted from their hatred of the capitalists who are doing the
pushing.
All-too-familiar statistics about the low life expectancy and high
unemployment of Amerika's oppressed nationalities confirm the
stagnation and lack of a better future for the majority of them
under this system. It has been ideologically and economically
useful for this country to cultivate middle classes in the
oppressed nations, small in number but standing as an example that
people can "make it" if they try hard enough. When the choice
capitalism offers you is starve or deal, there is no choice. And
in a society where materialism and "the good life" are valued over
human life, dealing drugs so you can buy nicer things and attain
higher social status is perfectly logical by capitalist standards.
Protection offered by drug gangs also draws new members and
community residents who need the gang to defend them from rival
gangs or from the police. Impoverished people are also susceptible
to drug use as an escape from an intolerable situation. But drug
use is literally a dead-end form of escape, and selling drugs,
however profitable, is equally deadly, giving police an easy
target for crackdown and brutality.
The man downtown that Malcolm referred to is the police, the
government, the CIA, Oliver North, George Bush. "The drug trade is
... an aspect of capitalist enterprise. It functions to meet
economic and psychological needs which the system generates."(3)
This means money for the state, fear for the middle class, and
death and social control for the potentially revolutionary masses.
False images
While the majority of drug users are white, the media and the
media-hyped drug war focus on African Amerikan and Latino men as
the most "problematic" population of users.(4) It is this media
image which tells us that "weak character," laziness and "natural
immorality" cause certain people to cave in to drugs. People of
oppressed nationalities are finally portrayed as "out of control,"
in need of strong discipline by police forces.
The drug use and dealing in the suburbs, in white neighborhoods,
among the rich, and among government officials is ignored because
it is "quiet" and the violence is indirect, albeit much more
destructive. Drugs and consequently all crime has become strongly
associated with "race" and class, making it just another way to
further oppress those already excluded from society's power and
resources.
African Amerikans, Latinos, and Native Americans constitute
internal colonies in this country. In the above case, African
Amerika's common history, language, culture, economic mechanisms
and to some extent territory (inner city ghettos and wide areas of
the South) have combined with specific forms of exploitation to
create this nation. This definition of nationality is to be
distinguished from "race," a socially constructed category which
has no basis in biology. Racism and national oppression combine to
control and dominate these groups.
The mainstream pro-drug-war stance, supporting this method of
national oppression, is fueled by racist associations of drugs
with crime, and crime with race and class.
United States' legacy of narcotics
In 1914 a law was passed making the purchase of narcotics a
criminal act. Products containing morphine had been widely
advertised and sold as home remedies--usually without any mention
of contents or addictive effect. Many people became addicted--
across the board--and then were forced to buy drugs through
underground markets and associate with "undesirables."(5)
What had been considered and treated among the upper classes as a
disease was now an immoral crime, concentrated among a different
population, one for which poverty ensures that addicts will get no
help or support system. And of course, "middle America's moral
hostility comes faster and easier when directed toward a young,
lower-class Black male, than toward a middle-aged, middle-class
white female,"(5) so the stereotype and the repression grew.
Need For Social Control
Stereotyped ideas of addicts and criminals, and media myths about
drug use exacerbating poverty rather than the other way around,
are false assumptions which make repression acceptable to the
mainstream Amerikan public. This social control helps consolidate
the capitalists' power. Government-supported drug imports, police
occupation of poor neighborhoods, and poverty-induced desperation
all work to the advantage of those in power. Time and energy are
sapped from the victims of the drug war.
Drugs cause serious debilitating damage to health due to overdose,
malnutrition, exposure, high infant mortality, and susceptibility
to disease. The numbing effect of drugs provides an isolating and
temporary escape from the immediacy of a revolutionary situation.
Narcotics also provide the government with an easy avenue for
repression through means which would have formerly been illegal.
This includes raids, the notion of "guilt by suspicion" or
association (often by nationality and/or class), mandatory minimum
prison sentences, the return of capital punishment, and a general
decay of civil "rights" and "justice." For example, if "judges are
overwhelmed by criminal--mainly drug-related--cases, and civil
cases are crowded out," this "can mean justice denied, especially
for the poor."(6)
Also, "of the $10 billion that Congress appropriated for the war
on drugs, about 70% went for law enforcement; only 30% was
earmarked for treatment and education."(6) The "law and order"
solution is just not affecting the flow of drugs. While Amerikan
prisons have continued to operate above capacity, with steadily
increasing populations since the start of the drug war, there is
no evidence that trade has diminished.(6) Almost one out of every
four African Amerikan men in his 20s is in jail or prison, on
parole or probation.(7) Is this a serious attempt to stop drugs?
Or to stop certain groups of people?
Government profits from drug trade
Negroes can't bring drugs into this country. You don't have any
boats. You don't have any airplanes. You don't have any diplomatic
immunity. It is not you who is responsible for bringing in
drugs.(1)
Responsibility for allowing drugs into the United States rests
with the Amerikan government. Call it an investment in social
control. Prisons are not cheap, neither are justice systems.
Fortunately, the publicity is free. The Amerikan government
invests the cost of police forces, prosecution, prison terms, and
recycles rhetoric about the evils of drugs and the people who use
them.
Drugs themselves are an extremely profitable product, and once
consumers start buying, they are the most loyal customers.
European imperialists realized this and began exporting opium to
China in the 18th century. Britain fought the Opium War from 1840-
42 to protect its right to continue selling drugs to the Chinese
people. In the 1940s, just before the revolution, there were 70
million opium addicts in China, a country where opium never
grew.(8)
The same is true today: if a government can make money from drugs,
it will --either by allowing trafficking and receiving pay-offs or
by organizing the trade itself. Research by the Christic Institute
exposed a "secret team" composed of past and current government
and CIA officials. This covert team used opium and cocaine
smuggling to finance underground operations all over the world,
including assassinations and overthrows in Cuba, Southeast Asia,
Chile, and Iran.(9)
You're just a little tool that is used by the man downtown. The
man that controls the drug traffic sits in city hall or he sits in
the state house. Big shots who are respected, who function in high
circles--those are the ones who control these things. And you and
I will never strike at the root of it until we strike at the man
downtown.(1)
--MC42
Notes:
1. Malcolm X, By Any Means Necessary, founding rally of the
Organization of Afro-American Unity, New York, June 28, 1964.
2. Washington Post 12/31/90, p. A4.
3. Charles Brant, Capitalism and The "War on Drugs"
4. Wall Street Journal 11/11/90.
5. Troy Duster, The Legislation of Morality, New York: Free Press,
1970. p. 21.
6. Chicago Tribune 10/14/90.
7. L.A. Times 7/18/90, p. A1.
8. C. Clark Kissinger, "A Question of Power: How Revolutionary
China Got Rid of Drugs," in Revolutionary Worker, 10/10/88.
9. Vicki Kemper, "The Roots of Scandal: Lawsuit Alleges A Network
of Arms of Terror," Sojourners March 1987.
* * *
UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND PRISONERS
Fighting Augustine's murderers in Angola Prison
Last August, MIM Notes reported that prisoners inside the
Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola had launched a campaign to
expose the July 1989 murder of prisoner Johnny Augustine by prison
guards Captain Jimmy Johnson and Lt. Gary Dubroc. Prison officials
claimed Augustine's death was a suicide.
In July, Augustine's sister Rita Pierre filed a suit against the
Louisiana Department of Corrections, charging that Augustine's
death was caused by neglect on the part of the Department. The
suit has since been dropped. Pierre, who last August had already
become the target of harassment in the form of anonymous racist
letters and phone calls, could not be reached for comment.
Over the last several months, prisoners at Angola have reported
continued harassment and brutality of Afrikan prisoners by white
guards. Ernest Glover and Reginald Myer, two of the prisoners who
organized the Campaign of Exposure, wrote the following articles
for MIM Notes as an update on their activities and the conditions
at Angola.
--MC11
by Ernest Glover for the Campaign of Exposure
The very unusual circumstances surrounding the brutal murder of
fellow prisoner and comrade Johnny Augustine on July 12, 1989 have
still not been exposed for exactly what it was (MURDER) at the
very hands of some fascist and racist prison guards and their
peers within the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola, LA). And
the main two ranking guards involved in the murder, Major Jimmy
Johnson and Capt. Gary Dubroc, are still being allowed to continue
practicing their racist and fascist beliefs throughout the
penitentiary, as well as exercising their racist ideology.
As the Johnny Augustine issue semi-disappears from the eyes of the
public, the unusual and mysterious circumstances involved in his
murder are slowly being forgotten by the public, but we, the
participants of the Campaign of Exposure, completely refuse to
allow it to be forgotten. We know the truth, and because of that
we're definitely not going to cease our efforts to obtain justice
in this matter, regardless of the fact that for some unknown
reason Johnny Augustine's sister Rita Pierre has ceased her
conquest for justice on behalf of her brother's murder behind the
walls of Angola, due to fear of her own, or from intimidation and
many obstacles always getting in the way of her finding out the
truth.
We, the participants of the Campaign of Exposure, Ernest Glover,
Albert Chui Clark and Reginald Myer, are constantly being
subjected to all kinds of harassment and retaliation from the very
peers of Major Jimmy Johnson and Capt. Gary Dubroc. We have been
totally and deliberately separated from one another, and housed in
cellblocks. All lines of communication between ourselves and the
many supporters of our conquest for justice in the murder of
Johnny Augustine have been totally cut off by the administration,
and a lot of our mail is being disposed of in order to keep us
from gathering more supporters towards our efforts to get the
individuals responsible for Johnny Augustine's murder prosecuted
for their wrongful acts.
Our typewriters are sabotaged by guards in an attempt to hinder
our every efforts to keep the unusual and mysterious circumstances
involved in Johnny Augustine's murder from out of the eyes of the
public by any means they could. Our papers are destroyed and often
confiscated by the guards, we're constantly subjected to
disciplinary reports, which are all fabricated against us by peers
of Major Jimmy Johnson and Capt. Gary Dubroc. We're constantly
threatened with physical assault if we don't cease our efforts to
expose the brutal murder of fellow comrade Johnny Augustine at the
hands of card-carrying fascist and racist guards in this
institution. [Glover is referring to several of the guards' self-
proclaimed membership in the Ku Klux Klan--MC11].
Several state representatives and senators have written Mr. Bruce
N. Lynn, Secretary of the Department of Corrections, voicing their
concerns for our well-being and the need for our protection. And
each and every one of them strongly urged Mr. Lynn to transfer the
three of us away from Angola to another institution. But Mr. Lynn
refused to do so. In every reply to their letters Lynn did
everything within his power to discourage their support of the
Campaign of Exposure, by lying to them regarding every complaint
of harassment and threats we're being subjected to each and every
day.
The charges filed against Ernest Glover, after he was physically
attacked while in full restraints by seven guards--one was Dubroc-
-on March 1, 1990, have been dropped in the 20th Judicial District
Court. Glover was charged with attacking and assaulting Dubroc.
The FBI investigation into the March 1, 1990 attack upon Ernest
Glover has also been closed. A review of the investigation reports
that Glover's civil rights were violated, but the FBI Civil Rights
Division investigation was terminated because "the injuries to the
victim [Glover] are not of a serious or substantial nature."
In February, a civil lawsuit regarding the March 1, 1990 incident
was confiscated in order to keep Ernest Glover from filing his
lawsuit in court against the seven racist and fascist guards who
unjustly attacked him, but due to the confiscation of these
documents he hasn't been able to do so, simply because the lawsuit
was sabotaged by top ranking guards. The administration covered
this incident up, just like they are trying to do with Johnny
Augustine's murder.
But, we, the participants of the Campaign of Exposure, say we're
definitely not going to allow them to do just that. And, no matter
how much we're harassed, threatened, and our efforts are
sabotaged, we will forever stand strong and firm against these
forms of retaliation and aggression upon us, because we will
resist it by every means necessary. And we will be victorious in
our conquest for justice on behalf of our brother and comrade
Johnny Augustine's murder.
By Reginald Myer for the Campaign of Exposure
During the many years that my comrades and I have been confined to
solitary confinement (the pigs here at this prison are using
solitary confinement to "punish" us for our activist work) we have
witnessed various pigs (prison guards) deliberately abuse
prisoners (mainly Afro-American prisoners) confined to Camp J,
extended lockdown. When I use the word "abuse," I mean:
harassment, threats of bodily harm, verbal/physical assaults,
murder, etc. What makes this matter even worse is the fact that
the same exact pigs who are abusing these prisoners are the ones
who file fabricated reports (disciplinary reports, warden's
unusual occurrence reports, affidavits, etc.) to conceal their
criminal wrongdoings in these incidents.
To give you a very good example of what I'm talking about I have
enclosed a copy of a petition that I and other prisoners prepared
exposing two pigs' use of excessive and unnecessary force against
an Afro-American prisoner.
Instead of Warden John P. Whitley making sure that a thorough and
impartial investigation was held in this matter, he sent a pig
(classification officer) by the name of Randall Ritchie to harass
those prisoners who signed the enclosed petition.
From Whitley's (and his subordinates') inaction in this incident
(and the many other incidents where prisoners were abused by these
pigs) it's quite obvious that they are only concerned with
instituting measures to break, torture and legally kill (murder)
the prisoners confined to Camp J and other areas of this prison.
The petition, dated March 25, 1991 and signed by 16 prisoners,
reads as follows:
Dear Warden Whitley:
We, the undersigned named and numbered prisoners confined to Gar
3&4 unit have prepared this petition for the sole purpose of
having a recent occurrence properly and thoroughly investigated.
On Wednesday, March 20, 1991, a Sgt. James Lea and a Sgt. Danny
Fitzgerald (both of these prison guards are assigned to the B-Team
here at Camp J) intentionally assaulted (physically attacked)
fellow prisoner Larry Mizett for no justifiable reason whatsoever.
This incident took place in the lobby of Gar 3&4 Unit while Mizett
was having his personal property inventoried (he was being placed
in Administrative Lockdown for a fabricated disciplinary report).
Both Lea and Fitzgerald covered up their unlawful conduct in this
matter by alleging that Mizett spit in Lea's face. This did not
happen at all! It is a common practice here at Camp J that prison
guards use this tactic (saying a prisoner spit in their face) when
justifying their use of force against a prisoner.
Ever since Lea and Fitzgerald have been working here they have
been (and still are) carrying out and instituting various measures
for no other purpose than to make prisoners react to them in a
negative way.
Warden Whitley, one of the primary reasons why Lea and Fitzgerald
continue to abuse prisoners here is they know their shift
supervisor, Captain Kenneth Farbe, will cover up and justify their
obvious and unexcused wrongdoings. As long as Farbe is carrying
out this oppressive practice/procedure, Lea and Fitzgerald will
abuse prisoners whenever they wish to.
We, the undersigned named and numbered prisoners confined to Gar
3&4 Unit are requesting that some measures be taken to rectify the
injustice mentioned in this petition.
Thank you for your time in this urgent matter.
MC11 adds: Martha Jummensville, Louisiana State Department of
Corrections (DOC) public affairs officer, said she was unaware of
the above petition. All prisoners are free to air their complaints
through the prison system's Administrative Remedy Procedure (ARP),
Jummensville said. If prisoners believe they have been treated
unfairly, they may fill out a form and continue appealing to the
DOC's top administrator. The DOC instituted the procedure several
years ago when it appeared that many prisoners were filing
"frivolous lawsuits" that could better be handled internally, she
said.
"It works extremely well--it's served as a model for several other
states," Jummensville said. "A lot of times the inmates don't even
appeal, because after the first complaint is taken up they realize
they were wrong to begin with."
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