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 63 April 1992
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. REAL FEMINISTS CHOOSE REVOLUTION p4
2. ENFRANCHISED BLACKS; EMPOWERED WHITES
3. AMERIKA EXPOSES NATIVE ALASKANS TO DEADLY TEST
4. STALINIST GARBAGE?
5. AMERIKA'S SOLUTION TO RAPE: CASTRATE BLACK MEN
6. ECO PIG COMES CLEAN
7. IT PAYS TO BE RICH
8. FUJIMORI EXPANDS "CIVIL DEFENSE" UNITS
9. MEXICAN WORKERS STRIKE
10. THE ONE-DAY WAR: ISRAEL INVADES LEBANON
11. COUNTING BEANS IN THE SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE
12. BRAZILIAN DEATH SQUADS MURDER STREET CHILDREN
13. VIETNAM'S SPRING VICTORY
14. SAYING 'NO' TO COLUMBUS: 500 YEARS OF RESISTANCE
15. RODNEY KING IS EVERY BLACKMAN
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
* * *
REAL FEMINISTS CHOOSE REVOLUTION
Women who don't have control over their lives can't gain control
over their bodies. As hundreds of thousands of women converge on
Washington this month for a rally sponsored by the National
Organization for Women, revolutionaries are at a crossroads for
feminism.
As internationalists, we can't forget that the majority of the
world's women--80%--are in the Third World. Any movement that
doesn't work to overthrow imperialism, the system that dominates
those women and their countries, isn't really feminist.
All women should have safe, free access to abortion. On that there
is no question. But it is only rich women for whom the legal
access to abortion itself is the primary issue.
When a movement is built around the legal right, separate from the
national and class oppressions which regulate the exercise of that
"right"--then the First World has produced a movement which does
more harm than good. Only the privileged women of the First World
would construct a movement based so exclusively on legal rights,
pursuing the legality of "choice" as if class and national
oppression were not relevant to women.
Where was the First World feminist movement when abortion was
"legal" but restricted to affluent women?
What "choice" can there be without food and shelter? What "choice"
can there be when Third World women--including the women of the
oppressed nations within Amerika--are locked in struggle with the
imperialist patriarchy which seeks to control their population?
While First World women clamor for the "right" to choose fewer
children, oppressed women face forced sterilization by governments
groveling for Amerikan and World Bank approval.
Any real feminist movement must face the oppression of the
majority of the world's women and confront the imperialist
patriarchy head on with a revolutionary movement.
See Sterilization, p. 4
* * *
ENFRANCHISED BLACKS; EMPOWERED WHITES
The biggest electoral hot-air balloon of the season wasn't the
U.S. presidential race, but the whites-only referendum in South
Africa on March 17. After whites voted two-to-one in favor of
President F. W. de Klerk's proposal, he declared, "Today we have
closed the book on apartheid."(1)
Nothing could be further from the truth. Most white voters--
representing 16.6% of the population--said "yes" to this
statement: "Do you support the continuation of the reform process
which the State President began on Feb. 2, 1990, and which is
aimed at a new constitution through negotiation?"(2)
What would the result have been if the question was: "Do you
support full equality for Blacks?"
The vote represented a victory for ruling-class whites: the South
African Chamber of Business supported the referendum based on
"practical concerns, rather than moral convictions, to prevent
further political instability and economic isolation." The all-
white South African Mineworkers Union, on the other hand, urged a
"no" vote to protect their top-of-the-market status.(3)
Sure enough, the short-term ambitions of the whites came true: the
international bourgeoisie cheered, as South African stocks and
bonds soared on domestic and international markets.(4)
The "reform" process in South Africa has opened the door for
political reforms for some Azanians--and bought the white minority
nation a lot of time to wage war on the most progressive elements
of the oppressed, who have died by the thousands in government-
backed "factional fighting." Every day the negotiations continue,
the African National Congress grows further from its former mass
base--and the country moves closer to revolution. --MC12
Notes:
1. New York Times 3/19/92, p. A1.
2. NYT 3/18/92, p. A4.
3. Wall Street Journal, 2/2/92.
4. WSJ 3/19/92, p. C1.
* * *
INJECTING DEATH
A deadly experimental vaccine campaign has left indigenous Alaskan
communities reeling from a perilous outbreak of AIDS.
The indigenous people of Alaska; Pine Ridge, South Dakota; and the
White Mountain Apache are all the targets of a Centers for Disease
Control hepatitis B vaccination experiment which forces the
vaccine on school children and newborn infants without informed
parental consent. The program takes advantage of the indigenous
peoples' dependence on government-sponsored medical care, which
also makes centralized record keeping convenient for the doctors
of death.
The blood-based experimental vaccine used in Alaska was
contaminated with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Leaders from
one indigenous tribe say their people have never been so sick. In
one village, 30% of the people may be infected.
The government calls the arctic lands "a natural laboratory" for
research which "may provide information crucial for future defense
needs." And the people pay the price.
AMERIKA EXPOSES NATIVE ALASKANS TO DEADLY TEST
by MC99
eaving a river of blood and a lawsuit in their wake, researchers
from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are on their way from
Alaska to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where they will continue
testing hepatitis B vaccines by forcibly inoculating the
indigenous population there. It was recently discovered that the
vaccine they used was contaminated with the HIV virus, which
causes AIDS--it was only administered to indigenous people.
The testing ended early in Alaska because people started to refuse
the vaccines administered by the Public Health Service (PHS) after
a large outbreak of AIDS. The CDC says the White Mountain Apache
are also targeted for these experiments.
One village may lose 30% of its population as a result of the
experiment.(2)
History of the vaccine
Since 1987, when the vaccination program started, school children
have been pulled from class to be vaccinated without informed
parental consent. Mary Ann Mills of the Sovereignty Movement
explained, "Nobody was told that the vaccine wasn't proven."
HIV testing of the U.S. blood supply became mandatory in 1985; the
hepatitis B vaccine used is plasma-derived. The source for the
antigen (part of the vaccine which contains the disease the
vaccine is to prevent) is blood.
In 1990, when protests against the experiment were halting the
CDC's progress, the Center tried to test the entire indigenous
population of Alaska for HIV. Some people were tested, but the
results were never disclosed. Indigenous people in Alaska are
dependent on the PHS for all of their medical care.(3)
Where consent forms existed in this deadly research game, they
were purely a legal formality, designed to protect the PHS from
having to bear follow-up medical expenses if the vaccine caused
any damage. The consent form said that if the vaccinated children
suffer any ill-effects they will only be provided with medical
care for two years. Unfortunately, the incubation period for HIV
is up to 10 years or longer.
The school children were vaccinated by the Alaska Native Medical
Center, a public service hospital in Anchorage.
Since 1987, 50% of indigenous Alaskans (40,000 people) have been
inoculated with the hepatitis B vaccine, including 2,000 infants
who were vaccinated at birth.(3) Local sources say that AIDS has
recently broken out in epidemic proportions in indigenous
communities.(2)
Picking the subjects
The 98th Congress of Alaska wants to pass the Arctic Research and
Policy Act, which would designate the Arctic as a territory for
research in several fields, including health care. The law calls
the Arctic "a natural laboratory for research into human health
and adaptation ... [which] may provide information crucial for
future defense needs."(4)
When studying the course of a disease or virus, the ideal test
population is, first, one which is expendable to the ruling class,
and also one for which medical history already exists. Indigenous
nations fit these criteria well.
"Many patients have received lifelong care within this [PHS]
system, and their entire medical history has been recorded."(1)
These records, available to the Arctic Research Plan, are
centralized and computerized, making the data that much more
convenient for the doctors of death.(1)
Indigenous children are even better research subjects than adults.
Dr. Brian McMahn, who headed the hepatitis B vaccine program for
the Alaska Native Medical Center, explained:
"Frustrated by the widespread reluctance of adults to be
vaccinated against Hep. B, a federal panel has recommended that
children be vaccinated," he said. "Public Health Service has
recommended vaccinating children for a disease whose victims are
almost always adults ... the benefits of a hepatitis vaccine
program will not appear for about 20 years."(2)
One risk of experimental vaccines is that the virus antigens
contained in them can recombine their genetic material or combine
with unknown viruses, which are part of the body. This combining
process can result in a new virus, which has the possibility of
being more deadly than the original disease.(3)
Science under imperialism is controlled by those in power. In
Amerika, the Department of Defense, the CDC, the National
Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization, are the
organizations which police all large-scale scientific research.
Genocide
In one of the 200 affected tribes, the Den'ina, the elders say
that their people have never been so sick. In the past they were
able to rely exclusively on their own medicine. The stamina of the
Arctic indigenous people, in the face of such severe climate, is
of interest to colonizers for two reasons.
First, by understanding what biologically constitutes the health
of the indigenous people, they can covertly wipe out the remaining
population. Second, colonizers need more information on how to
survive in sub-zero temperatures themselves. Hence the genocidal
medical experiments.
Historically the Den'ina clans would compete among themselves to
see which clan could come up with the best way to help the people,
but the tribe is finding that such principles are not exactly
compatible with the federal and state governments.(2)
The villages are appealing to the United Nations to honor existing
treaties with indigenous people--a tactic designed to keep a
public focus on the issue--as well as soliciting money from the
PHS for doctors.
MIM supports all oppressed people's claims to self-determination.
But MIM also recognizes that neither money from the PHS nor U.N.
intervention will result in the elimination of oppression. Only
revolution will do that.
Notes:
1. Arctic Research Plan, Interagency Arctic Research Policy
Committee, July 1987, p. 220.
2. Women of All Red Nations, February 1992, p.1.
3. Address to the Green Party State Wide Convention, Traditional
Den'ina Tribe, September 1991, Homer, Alaska.
4. Public Law 98-373, 98th Congress, Section 102(6).
* * *
STALINIST GARBAGE?
In recent months, MIM has been posting Maoist flyers across the
country. Many of these flyers get torn down, and MIM has noticed
that our anti-Trotskyist flyers are in the greatest danger. On one
lamp post in the East MIM found a response posted below the flyer.
MIM commends the writer of this response for placing their views
in front of the public to let the masses judge, rather than simply
tearing down the flyer of their opposition. MIM is happy to offer
the writer's opinions even wider circulation than they would
receive on a lamp post by reprinting their letter here with MIM's
response.
TEXT OF MIM'S FLYER
Myth: Trotskyism is a revolutionary communist alternative to
Stalinism and Maoism.
Fact: In 65 years of practice, there has been NOT ONE revolution
led under the banner of Trotskyism--not the Soviet Union (where a
majority of the leaders of the Revolution threw Trotsky out), not
China, not Albania, not Korea, not Vietnam, not Kampuchea, not
Eritrea and not Ethiopia. While Trotskyists have led no Third
World revolutions, they have succeeded in one thing--splitting the
First World communist movement.
Trotskyists--communists in words, best friends of the ruling class
in deeds.
Trotskyism--part of the problem, not part of the solution.
A CRITIC'S RESPONSE
Note to the MIM,
This is Stalinist GARBAGE!
You are forgetting one socialist revolution in which Trotsky
played a leading role (second only to Lenin): The Russian
Revolution! Just because Russia is now turning back to capitalism
in no way negates Trotsky's contributions to Russian and world
revolution.
If Trotsky was expelled from the Russian Communist Party, it was
because of his opposition to the power-hungry dictator who
destroyed every early Bolshevik who stood in his way: Joseph
Stalin. Lenin considered Trotsky's ideas and work valuable to the
Russian Revolution, and they are valuable today.
The last thing we need in a Marxist and socialist movement is this
narrow-minded "toe the party line" attitude. There must be room
for differences of opinion and a free exchange of ideas. That
includes the ideas of Trotsky, which by now should be rescued from
the Stalinist rewritings of history. Go back and study and learn!
--An independent-minded Marxist
MIM'S REJOINDER ON THE LAMP POST
Note to independent-minded Marxist,
MIM is glad to see you place your beliefs before the public for
all to judge. MIM has studied and learned from history--from the
lack of successful Trotskyist history among other things.
Trotskyists have been sitting around waiting for world revolution
for 65 years while people in the Third World have been having
revolutions in spite of Trotsky, who said socialism could not be
built in the Soviet Union (reason enough to expel him from the
party) and cannot be advanced in any country with a national
liberation revolution. While society is moving forward, the
Trotskyists are still back in the 1920s wishing for revolution in
the West.
A closer reading of Lenin (see: The United States of Europe Slogan
among other things) will reveal that Lenin did believe in
advancing socialism in one country, at the time in the Soviet
Union, and he specifically refuted Trotsky's counterrevolutionary
rhetoric to the contrary. This is just one of many important
points on which Lenin and Stalin disagreed with Trotsky.
As a defender of Trotsky, it is ironic how you only care about
revolution in one country--the Soviet Union--while Maoists are
supporting and leading revolutions all over the world.
MIM will print your note (in the interest of the free exchange of
ideas) along with a response. We hope you will take our response
as seriously as we take your note--don't be misled by Trotskyist
rhetoric, look at their practice: No revolution=support of
imperialism.
* * *
AMERIKA'S SOLUTION TO RAPE: CASTRATE BLACK MEN
For the thousands of young, wealthy, white men on Amerikan college
campuses who are accused of rape each year, society prescribes
"sensitivity training." For a Black 28-year-old man who has worked
as a shoe-shiner much of his life--now accused of rape--some
Amerikans are calling for castration.
At the urging of Texas State District Court Judge Michael T.
McSpadden and with the collusion of his own lawyer, his doctor,
the state prosecutor, and the accuser and her family, Steven
Butler--convicted for molesting a 13-year-old--last month agreed
to be castrated in lieu of a prison sentence.(1)
Butler's relatives and the Houston chapter of the Black United
Front protested the sentence, and Butler himself changed his mind-
-choosing prison over mutilation--when told of the medical
consequences of the operation.(2)
"Rights" activists and some so-called feminists had scary things
to say about the mutilation sentence:
"It makes you feel good, but in the long haul it doesn't deal in
any way with the basic issues of sexual assault," said Cassandra
Thomas of the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault, about why
she was not satisfied with the castration sentence.
Watching a Black man coerced into bargaining away his testicles
doesn't make revolutionaries feel good--it makes us mad as hell.
Butler's case is a good example of why MIM, like the Black Panther
Party of the 1960s, believes Blacks cannot get a fair trial in
white Amerika's courts. In a country where fascist leader David
Duke gets millions of white votes and imprisonment rates for Black
people are more than seven times higher than for white people, it
doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the "justice"
system is grossly biased in favor of the white nation.(3)
But when sex comes into the picture, Blacks are especially subject
to persecution by privileged whites pressing for white supremacist
justice. Under Amerika's capitalist system, where social
inequality makes uncoerced sex impossible, pseudo-feminists have
turned the accusation of rape into a tool to imprison and
subjugate Black men.
Castration is not a new concept to the 25% of Black men who go to
prison during their lifetimes: Butler's case simply serves up
harsh symbolism of how far the white nation is willing to apply
its legal system toward the genocide of its Black colony.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 22% of the people
convicted for raping white women are Black.(4) Since Blacks
account for 13% of the population, and people generally have sex
with (and rape) those of their own "race," this number is
extremely skewed. The distortion results largely from pseudo-
feminists urging women to use the imperialist state to stop rape:
a form of oppression that can only be expunged by overthrowing the
very system they look to for help. Indeed, white "feminists" even
tell Black women to turn Black men over to the cops, all in the
name of sisterhood. --MC11
Notes:
1. New York Times 3/7/92 p. A1.
2. NYT 3/13/92 p. A8.
3. Americans Behind Bars: A Comparison of International Rates of
Incarceration. Available from: The Sentencing Project 918 F St.
N.W. Suite 501, Washington D.C. 20004. Cited in Prison News
Service July/August 1991.
4. Female Victims of Crime, January 1991 NCJ-1268826.
* * *
ECO PIG COMES CLEAN
"Lawrence Summers, chief economist of the World Bank, sent a
memorandum to some colleagues on December 12th [1991]."
Excerpts:
"Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging
more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less-Developed
Countries]? ... I think the economic logic behind dumping a load
of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable and we
should face up to that ...
"I've always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are
vastly under- polluted ... The concern over an agent that causes a
one-in-a-million change in the odds of prostate cancer is
obviously going to be much higher in a country where people
survive to get prostate cancer than in a country where under-5
mortality is 200 per thousand."
Eco-pig Summers notes that arguments against exporting toxic waste
pollution to the Third World include "intrinsic rights to certain
goods, moral reasons, social concerns, lack of adequate markets,
etc." He goes on to comment that these petty concerns shouldn't
bother the World Bank today since they never have in the past. --
MC86
Notes: The Economist 2/8/92, p. 66.
* * *
IT PAYS TO BE RICH
A dentist in Tokyo, Japan had his life saved when a bullet from a
gunman was stopped by his fat wallet. The pigs claimed the bullet
was found halfway through the bundle of 42 bills of Mr. Oyama's
wallet. The reason for the attempt on his life was not revealed. -
-MA68
Notes: Associated Press, 2/1/92.
* * *
FUJIMORI EXPANDS "CIVIL DEFENSE" UNITS
Peru's President Alberto Fujimori said his government may hand out
weapons to Lima residents so they can "protect" themselves from
the revolution. Last year the New York Times reported that the
Peruvian government handed out weapons to paid-off peasants
outside of Lima, the capital, in a desperate attempt to stop the
revolutionary tide led by the Maoist Communist Party of Peru
(PCP).
These government-backed militias are in fact low-budget civilian
death squads, and their brutal killings are often blamed on the
PCP.
Fujimori also put a $500,000 reward to anyone who kills Comrade
Gonzalo, chairman of the PCP. Many of these calls by Fujimori came
in response to the successful one-day armed strike of Lima called
by the PCP on Feb. 14.
The PCP continue selected assassinations, military strikes and
creation of base areas in Lima shantytowns, in preparation for
liberating Lima from bureaucratic capitalism and imperialism.
While Fujimori was dishing out weapons to fight the PCP, he
ironically criticized the United States during a recent drug
summit in Texas by saying that U.S. funding is inadequate and its
policies are imbalanced for emphasizing police and military
repression. --MC67
Notes: Weekly News Update on Nicaragua and the Americas. Nicaragua
Solidarity Network of Greater New York, Issues 108, 109. 339
Lafayette St., New York, NY. 10012. $25/year.
* * *
MEXICAN WORKERS STRIKE
On Jan. 27, some 7,500 maquiladora workers struck at two General
Motors plants and two auto supply companies in Matamoros, Mexico.
Three of the four firms agreed to a 25.5% wage increase to end the
strikes, but other issues remained unresolved. On Jan. 28, another
7,500 workers walked off the job at four more companies. The union
represents 32,500 maquila workers; as many as 27,000 could walk
out if agreements are not reached with the Maquiladora Association
of Matamoros, which represents 62 mostly U.S.-owned plants.
Many of these workers make less than a dollar an hour, and those
wages are better than other workers' since the Matamoros workers
are unionized. They are super-exploited--they earn wages below
subsistence level. The U.S. capitalists who own many industrial
plants in Mexico super-exploit the workers, rake in the profits
for themselves and use some of them as concessions to keep white
workers north of the border quiet. --MC67
Notes: Weekly News Update on Nicaragua and the Americas. Nicaragua
Solidarity Network of Greater New York, Issue 106.
* * *
THE ONE-DAY WAR: ISRAEL INVADES LEBANON
Using a bulldozer to throw off U.N. troops, Israeli tanks and
armored personnel carriers roared into Lebanon on Feb. 20 to
attack guerrilla fighters in the villages of Kafra and Yater. The
guerillas, reported to be members of the Party of God, were firing
rockets into northern Israel and Israel's occupied "security zone"
in southern Lebanon.(1)
The invasion was part of Israel's expansionist program to grab
territory in the region and to squash Arab revolutionaries
fighting for self-determination. The Israeli Army invaded Lebanon
in 1982, driving all the way to the capital city of Beirut. Israel
established the "security zone" in 1985.
After the exchange of rocket fire and the invasion, guerillas from
the Party of God and the Syrian-backed Amal have agreed to
withdraw from southern Lebanon to avoid further Israeli
incursions.(4)
The invasion came just four days after Israeli commandos
assassinated Party of God Leader Sheik Abbas Musawi in southern
Lebanon. Party of God fighters launched rockets into Israel in
retaliation.(2)
Israel responded with an artillery barrage against 30 Lebanese
towns. Lebanese police said that the shelling killed five people
and wounded 50; 75,000-100,000 refugees have fled their villages
within the "security zone."(3)
Israeli helicopter gun ships swooped down on Musawi's motorcade on
Feb. 16 as he left a rally in the town of Jibchit, just north of
the "security zone." Rocket fire blew his car to pieces. His wife,
five-year-old son and at least four body guards were also killed.
Israeli Army commandos fired automatic weapons at people fleeing
the scene.(3)
The assassination is part of Israeli-Amerikan work to put down
Muslim and other nationalist revolutionaries. Musawi had just
condemned the current Washington peace talks as a sham, saying,
"America wants to dominate everything."(2)
The Party of God is making anti-imperialist demands, including
calling for Israel to withdraw from all of Lebanon and the city of
Jerusalem.(3)
The so-called Arab-Israeli conflict is not one of racism or
religious hatred, as many pundits say. It is a conflict between
imperialist and oppressed countries. Israel occupies Palestinian
lands and part of the country of Lebanon.
This occupation, and the invasions and wars necessary to maintain
it, are only possible with the extensive help of the United
States, which gives Israel $3-4 billion every year.
Israeli commandos previously abducted Party of God leader Sheik
Abdel Karim Obeid from his home in southern Lebanon in 1989. They
have since offered to trade him for Israeli prisoners of war.(3)
According to the New York Times, the Party of God was formed when
a contingent of Iranian soldiers was sent to Lebanon to help repel
the invading Israeli army. The West views the party as an Iranian-
backed state terrorist organization.(3)
The Party of God claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of
the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps compound in Lebanon, in which
241 people, the majority U.S. Marines, were killed. It also
claimed responsibility for bombing a French Army barracks and the
1985 bombings of U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.(3)
All mainstream media information out of Israel is censored by the
government.(1) --MC¯
Notes:
1. New York Times 2/21/92, p. 1.
2. NYT 2/27/92, p. 1.
3. NYT 2/27/92, p. 6.
4. Detroit News 2/23/92, p. 3.
* * *
COUNTING BEANS IN THE SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE
The recent formation of Emerging Markets Corporation (EMC), an
investment management firm specializing in underdeveloped
countries, is a good example of how "development" banks are
shadows of imperialist banks.
EMC plans to manage investments in Mexico, Chile, Venezuela,
Thailand, Indonesia, India and Hungary.
Donald C. Roth, to be the chief executive of the new firm, is
leaving his post as treasurer of the World Bank. Other executives
include a former vice president of Salomon Brothers, and a former
senior vice president of the World Bank.
At the end of 1990, portfolio (publicly traded) investments in
Third World companies came to about $20 billion, and Roth expects
that to increase to $100 billion. He expects a $5 billion share of
this market.
EMC shows some of the dynamics of capitalist circles. Roth and
Moeen A. Qureshi both held high-level executive positions in the
World Bank. Qureshi worked for International Monetary Fund for 13
years.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are banks set up to
supposedly help Third World countries develop, but in reality they
merely tie the countries down with high interest loans and forced
austerity measures, to serve the interest of imperialism. They
also help Third World dictators--comprador bourgeoisies like
General Suharto of Indonesia--get rich.
These two men are using their contacts and sophisticated analysis
of Third World conditions and hooking up with a Wall Street
tycoon--Jay F. Higgins--to get super-rich from paper investments.
--MC67
Notes: New York Times 2/13/92, p. C4.
* * *
BRAZILIAN DEATH SQUADS MURDER STREET CHILDREN
by MC86
A report released in mid-February revealed that Brazilian
government-backed death squads are killing 2-3 street children per
day in Brazil's largest cities, a rate which has been steadily
increasing over the past five years.(1)
Back in late November 1991, "thousands of ... street kids from
seven cities marched through Rio's financial district to protest
... the systematic extermination of street kids" by the death
squads.(2)
"Storekeepers hire the squads to 'clean-up' high-crime areas where
'You can get a kid under age ten killed for $40,' said one Rio
police officer. 'Now, a kid who runs drugs or heads a gang is more
expensive. His head can cost up to $500.'"(2)
Oppressed children often suffer under the harshest conditions of
all, including homelessness, hunger, sexual assault, and early
death. So it is in the United States, where young Black men are
systematically killed or rounded up in prison to keep the streets
"safe" for Amerikan business and consumers--and to suppress the
revolutionary resistance within the Black nation.
School daze
In the state of Rio de Janeiro alone, Amnesty International
recorded 1,175 exterminations of youth in the first six months of
1989.(4) Videos of burnings and lynchings have been featured on
Brazilian television.(5)
The state has created a "Ministry of Child Affairs" but, "only $1
out of every $20 allocated ... filters down to the children's
level."(6) "The death squads don't just kill children," says Judge
Siro Darlan of the juvenile courts. "They go after criminals,
homosexuals, old people, anybody. They exist because the
government can't guarantee security to the people. So it's a
threatened population that takes things into their own hands."(7)
The Brazilian Institute's 1989 report documented that 80% of the
victims were males between the ages of 15 and 18--the truly
"threatened population."(1)
Health Minister Alceni Guerra said the government had evidence
that businessmen are financing and directing the killing of street
children. Fully half of the members of the city's death squads are
off-duty or ex-cops. Brazilian police officers are paid $100 a
month.(7) Moonlighting brings in the extras.
Col. Carlos Cerqueria, chief of Rio's police force, states, "The
public isn't happy. They want us to be tougher with homeless kids
and get them off the streets. In the developed world, people don't
question whether a kid has the right to live if he's broken the
law. In Brazil, we're still discussing it."(7)
But the so-called developed world is not so sure either. For Third
World people--both in and outside of the U.S.--population control
programs, forced sterilization, high infant mortality rates, and
short life expectancies, all decrease Third World population, for
the "crime" of being too many, too angry and too dangerous.
Black and broke
Fifty percent of Brazil's 150 million people are descendents of
African slaves. Of the 37 million children who live in poverty in
Brazil, as many as twelve million are homeless on the street.(8)
A report compiled by the Brazilian Institute for Social and
Economic Research and the National Street Children's Movement
shows that (in areas where nationality had been recorded) "82% of
the victims [in the first six months of 1989] were black or of
mixed race."(1)
The Street Children's Movement, founded in 1985, claims close to
one million members. Officially, the November march was held for
passage of child protection legislation by the national
Congress.(3) In reality, the children marched for their lives.
Brazil's choking debt to imperialist banks has reached $111
billion and hundreds of thousands of people are streaming into the
cities begging for bare subsistence jobs.(7) The 26 Brazilian
states are on the verge of bankruptcy and cannot pay their
employees, and minimum wage is $40 a month.(6) Brazil is being
reamed by foreign capital as the broad masses starve and "unruly"
street children are systematically eliminated.
Notes:
1. Third World Resurgence 1/92, p. 40.
2. San Francisco Chronicle 11/30/91, p. A7.
3. Third World 7/91, p. 47.
4. Amnesty International 1990.
5. Los Angeles Times 3/17/91, p. A4.
6. Latinamerica Press 11/23/89, p. 4.
7. Insight 8/5/91, pp. 12-20.
8. Latinamerica Press 11/23/89, p. 4; Insight 8/5/91, p. 12.
* * *
VIETNAM'S SPRING VICTORY
Although Amerika's final days in Vietnam have been the subject of
many fictions, documentaries and political essays, most of these
accounts ask "Why did Amerika lose?" But the more potent question
is "How did Vietnam win?"
To help answer this question, MIM excerpts several chapters from
Our Great Spring Victory by General Van Tien Dung, the Vietnamese
Communist Party Central Committee member in charge of the Ho Chi
Minh campaign launched against Saigon from April 26-April 30,
1975.
"During the process of the strategic general offensive, our party
followed the enemy's decline very closely, discovering evidence of
their disintegration in time to take positive steps to capitalize
on it. Striking just at the opportune moment, a small force would
have great power....
"[As the campaign unfolded] cadres and fighters knew this was the
most decisive battle of this final phase of the general offensive
and uprising that would conclude the war against the United
States. Before their eyes were the last ramparts of the most
obstinate and reactionary band of lackeys of the U.S. imperialist
aggressors, the enemy we had to destroy....
"The tasks of political mobilization and ideological education had
been carried out continuously and creatively in our armed forces,
so that our cadres and fighters had become all-around people,
strong and wholesome in mind and body....
"Ho Chi Minh campaign headquarters was bustling with activity the
night of April 29. Flashlights, hurricane lamps, and headlights
burned bright in every hut and along every road. Gray heads bent
over black heads as they pored over the maps, watching the vivid
red arrowheads being drawn longer and longer....
"In these sacred hours ... the fighters wrote on their helmets, on
their sleeves, on their gun slings the immortal proclamation of
President Ho Chi Minh: Forward! Total victory is ours!
"When it was almost light, the American news services reported
that [U.S. Ambassador] Martin had cleared out of Saigon in a
helicopter. This viceregal mandarin, the final American
plenipotentiary in South Vietnam, beat a most hasty and pitiful
retreat. As it happened, up until the day he left Saigon, Martin
still felt certain that his quisling administration could be
preserved.... He went all the way out to Tan Son Nhat airfield to
observe the situation. Our barrage of bombs and our fierce
shelling had nearly paralyzed this vital airfield, and the fixed-
wing aircraft they had intended to use for their evacuation could
longer operate.... When Martin reported this to Washington,
President Ford issued order to begin a helicopter evacuation....
"At the height of their invasion of Vietnam, the United States had
used 60% of their total infantry, 58% of their Marines, 32% of
their tactical Air Force, 50% of their strategic Air Force, 15 of
18 aircraft carriers, 800,000 American troops (counting those
stationed in satellite countries who were taking part in the
Vietnam war), and more than 1 million Saigon troops. They
mobilized as many as 6 million American soldiers in rotation,
dropped over 10 million tons of bombs, and spent over $300
billion, but in the end the U.S. ambassador had to crawl up to the
helicopter pad looking for a way to flee. Today, looking back on
the gigantic force the enemy had mobilized, recalling the
malicious designs they admitted, and thinking about the extreme
difficulties and complexities which our revolutionary sampan had
to pass through, we were all the more aware of how immeasurably
great this campaign to liberate Saigon and liberate the South
was."
There is a sad postscript to this victory, however. Since the
glorious spring of 1975, Vietnam has faltered. Its collectivized
agricultural system fell apart, corruption in the party and
failure to apply the mass line destroyed its planned markets and
now the "communist" leaders boldly advocate capitalism, begging
the U.S. to lift the trade embargo and bring foreign investment to
Vietnam. For a 100 page essay on socialism in unified Vietnam,
send $8, cash or check made out to ABS. --MC¯
Notes: Van Tien Dung. Our Great Spring Victory. New York: Monthly
Review Press, 1977. Available from MIM for $7, postage paid.
* * *
SAYING 'NO' TO COLUMBUS: 500 YEARS OF RESISTANCE
by MC86
Indigenous people from the North Pole to the tip of South America
are organizing themselves to gain independent power in the face of
500 years of capitalist, imperialist extermination. Leaders
representing 1,000 indigenous nations, with 39 million people in
Meso and South America, and 1.8 million inside Fortress Amerika,
have been forging international political links.
Meeting in 1989 and 1990 in Quito, Ecuador, these leaders issued a
Declaration rejecting the "Quincentennial" celebration called by
international capital to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the
invasion of Abya-Yala (the "pre-Colombian" term for the Amerikas)
by the pirate Cristobel Colon. The word "colonize" has its origin
in the real name of this first white settler.
"Celebrating the arrival of the Spaniards would be like
celebrating the massacre of one's own family," says Rigoberta
Menchu of Guatemala.(1)
"You wouldn't ask a Jewish person to celebrate Hitler's birthday,"
says Angelica Gonzalez, president of United Latino Artists of Los
Angeles. "Why would you ask us to celebrate Columbus?"(2)
Although Hitler's birthday is not yet an official public holiday
in Amerika, the settler masses do worship a variety of thugs with
special shopping days. So it comes as no surprise that General
Mills tells cereal box readers that "Columbus discovered the New
World" and "celebrated with a breakfast including Honey Nut
Cheerios."(3)
Resistance past
The 100 million indigenous people who populated Abya-Yala in 1492
did not peacefully jump into their graves. The T‡inos, original
inhabitants of Haiti, poured molten gold down the throats of
conquistadores. Ordinary people have always violently resisted
colonization.
Of the T‡inos, Colon wrote in his log, "With 50 men we could
subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."(4) The
communal societies of Abya-Yala were not conquered by sheer
numbers of grubby settlers prosecuting unjust wars. The colonies
were militantly garrisoned by millions of workers fleeing European
poverty to settle in Amerika.
Expanding colonialism at that time demanded that increasing
natural resources be brought back to Europe, so "explorers" were
sent out to steal land and raw materials, and slaves, if possible.
But the Europeans fought many losing battles, and might not have
conquered Abya-Yala overall, had it not been for their high-tech
weapons--not only their guns and ammo, but also smallpox and other
lethal germs.
Resistance present
Through their experience with imperialist ruthlessness, the
oppressed necessarily learn that political power does not grow out
of the barrel of a pen. Today, the Communist Party of Peru leads
by example in successfully demonstrating that there are no
"rights," only power struggles.
The 500 Years of Resistance movement has no bureaucratic center,
and actions are autonomously planned and executed in different
areas. But "some groups within the popular movement of South &
Meso America persist in their attempts to reduce the Indian cause
to just a class struggle by imposing their agendas and political
framework, minimizing all political dimensions and aspirations of
Indian peoples."(6)
MIM recognizes that class struggle is conditioned by gender and
revolutionary national interests, and we support revolutionary
national liberation struggles. MIM also knows that without
sharpened revolutionary communist organizations as the cutting
edge on the knife of the people's wrath, attempts to reform
capitalist governments will simply result in the continued reign
of death-squad power.
What they want. What we believe
MIM upholds and critically supports the 500 Years of Resistance
movement as a potentially powerful tool to create public opinion
and help wipe the fog off the Looking Glass. Ultimately, we work
for a concentrated unity of all oppressed peoples into a great
revolutionary force, that will wipe our planet clean of private
property, patriarchy, and national oppression. This is happening--
one step at a time.
MIM urges the 500 Years of Resistance movement to scientifically
build independent power bases for the world revolution and not to
be seduced by the false promises of oppressive governments.
This is the first in a MIM Notes series covering the 500 Years of
Resistance. Next month: contradictions between urban and rural
interests in the process of building independent power of the
oppressed.
Notes:
1. Report on Guatemala Winter 1991, p. 2.
2. The Reporter 2/2/92, p. 1.
3. Cereal box, emphasis added.
4. Rethinking Columbus, p. 7; educational pamphlet available from
Rethinking Schools, 1001 E. Keefe Ave., Milw., WI 53212, $6
includes postage.
5. Bulletin from Consejo Regional Indigena del Cauca-CRIC,
Popayan, Cauca, Colombia, 12/18/91.
6. South and Meso American Indian Information Center (SAIIC), P.O.
Box 28703, Oakland, CA 94604, $10. Newsletter, p 3.
* * *
RODNEY KING IS EVERY BLACKMAN
by MC67
Before the Rodney King beating case came up for trial, the state
scrambled to make sure they had it their way in advance. The trial
was moved to a mostly-white community, and all Black people were
kicked off the potential jury during questioning. The case was a
politically-charged symbol of every-day police brutality at its
worst.
Liberals and well-meaning reformists harbor the illusion that
justice can be attained within a capitalist, imperialist society.
But justice will never be realized in Amerika until Blacks,
Latinos and indigenous people throw off the chains of colonial
rule and seize power.
Beginning on Feb. 5, lawyers sifted through a pool of 2,000 people
in search of an "impartial" jury.(1) Much to the joy of the
defense team, the trial was moved from Los Angeles to a
conservative and wealthy white community, Simi Valley, north of
L.A.--home of Ronald Reagan's Presidential library and many police
officers. Approximately 1% of the residents there are Black.(2,3)
A 41-page questionnaire asked potential jurors about their
attitudes toward the police, their past experiences with the
police, and their affiliations with political organizations.(1)
The state would never allow this trial to be held in downtown
L.A.--not because of the jury, which could have been rigged
anywhere--but because the courtroom would have been a "madhouse"
and a center for political organization of the oppressed.
The cops are charged with five felony counts, including assault by
force likely to produce great bodily injury and assault with a
deadly weapon.(4)
The beating occurred on Mar. 3, 1991, when King was pulled over
for a traffic violation and viciously assaulted by three white
L.A. police officers, with more than 40 other people witnessing
thescene.(4)
King was struck at least 56 times with nightsticks and kicked
seven times.(5) He suffered nine skull fractures, a shattered eye
socket and cheekbone, a broken leg, a concussion, injuries to both
knees, facial nerve damage that left his face partially paralyzed,
as well as burns on his chest from a Taser dart gun shot.(4)
After the beating, King was hogtied and dragged face-down to the
side of the road; an ambulance arrived five minutes later.(4) A
year later, King suffers from memory loss, slurred speech, blurred
vision, a limp; and he is unable to work.(6)
People should be outraged by the King beating, but progressive
people must keep in mind that Rodney King is just one of thousands
of people in Amerika who get brutalized by the police every year.
The only thing which makes King an exception is the publicity his
case has received.
The brutality is extensive. Although many local "cop-watch" groups
do exist, MIM is not aware of any national organization that
compiles complete statistics on police brutality or complaints
against the cops.(4) For now, all we have to go on are records of
official complaints and Justice Department figures--both with
flaws.
The Police Misconduct Lawyer Referral Service, a local L.A.
agency, logged more than 600 complaints against the L.A. Police
Department (LAPD) in 1990. About 25% of these complaints involved
explicit allegations of assaults by the police, but only two of
the 600 complaints actually resulted in felony charges.(4) In New
York, between 1985 and 1989, 24,651 allegations of police
misconduct were filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board.(9)
According to the New York ACLU, however, only one officer in the
past six years has been convicted of brutality charges.(100
According to figures compiled by the Department of Criminal
Justice, 17,707 charges of police "misconduct" have been
"investigated" around the country by the FBI in the past six
years. These federal cases do not include those handled solely by
local police departments--which are the majority of police
complaints.(8)
The Rodney King case has prompted liberals to call for watchdog
agencies, independent special prosecutors, and better police
training--as if the problem is simply a few "bad" cops.
Police review boards and other accountability reforms are only a
smokescreen. Such reforms do not reduce the number of police
brutality complaints and cops still serve the same functions as
always: capitalist protection, control and terror.
Rich capitalists need protection from the oppressed nationals who
commit "crimes" in response to their misery. "Law and order" means
maintaining capitalists' control of resources, people, and their
labor. The real criminals are the capitalists who, in their greedy
pursuit of profit, steal relentlessly from the people. Until
oppressed people take state power, police terror will continue.
Notes:
1. New York Times 3/2/92, p. 10.
2. Christian Science Monitor 2/6/92, p.2.
3. NYT 2/22/92, p. 8.
4. NYT 3/18/91, p. 1, 8.
5. NYT 3/12/91, p. 15.
6. NYT 2/3/92, pp. 1, 12.
7. The Crisis, Newspaper of the NAACP. 4/91, p. 27.
8. NYT 3/21/91, p. 10.
9. NYT 3/27/92, p. A15.
10. Black Scholar May/June 1986.