I N T E R N E T ' S  M A O I S T  M O N T H L Y

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     XX XX  XXX  XX XX   X   X  XXX  XXX  XXX  XXX
     X X X   X   X X X   XX  X  X X   X   X    X
     X V X   X   X V X   X X X  X X   X   XX   XXX
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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
  MIM Notes 66         				JULY, 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.  THE EARTH WON'T GREEN UNTIL CAPITALISM DIES
2.  INDIGENOUS PEOPLE REPEL FBI RAID
3.  LETTERS
4.  PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS PROTEST ILLEGAL EVICTIONS
6.  ISRAELI UNDERCOVER AGENTS SHOOT TO KILL
7.  NO HAITIANS ALLOWED
8.  AMERIKANS UNIFY FOR PEROT
9.  YUPPIE GREEN HYPOCRISY
10. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PROTESTS PLANNED
11. CULTURE: REVIEWS
    INCIDENT AT OGLALA, AKA GRAFFITI MAN, THE GOOD WOMAN OF    
    BANGKOK
12. 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


* * *

THE EARTH WON'T GREEN UNTIL CAPITALISM DIES

First World "environmentalists" are afraid the Earth is becoming 
uninhabitable-for them. For the masses in the oppressed nations 
and especially in Brazil, where the all-hoopla-no-difference' 
Earth Summit took place, the Earth is already largely 
uninhabitable.

Remaking the world into a place fit for human habitation requires 
the abolition of imperialism and patriarchy, and the environmental 
destruction those forces produce.

That will not be accomplished by an increase in "aid" budgets from 
imperialism to its colonies and neocolonies in the Third World. 
And it will not be accomplished by the further privatization of 
nature, by the patenting of genetic discoveries and biological 
diversity.

The destruction of the old and the creation of the new is the 
project of the great revolutionary tide of the people, which must 
replace the system of world-wide exploitation with a society based 
on production for need, not for profit.

The rescue of humankind will not be achieved by any lesser 
movement.

CONFERENCE REACHES EARTH'S SUMMIT OF EXPLOITATION AND HYPOCRISY

by MC12 & MC45

Nothing much was at stake for the United States at the United 
Nations Conference on Environment and Development-the Earth 
Summit-which convened in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil last month. All 
the treaties and conventions were perfectly vague and nondescript. 
Still, political and economic realities required the government to 
make an international scene by coming out strongly opposed to even 
any environmental posturing.

As Bush put it: "We cannot permit the extreme in the environmental 
movement to shut down the United States."(1)

The summit conference, with 180 governments represented, met to 
display three international agreements: one to sort of commit to 
limiting greenhouse gas emissions (which cause global warming); 
one to declare how much countries are committed to preserving 
biological diversity; and one to announce how much everyone will 
consider the environment when they make their national plans in 
the future.(2)

Third World reparations

But the hoopla raised another opportunity for public debate on 
environmental questions. Some representatives are demanding First 
World reparations to the Third World for environmental 
destruction-an idea which MIM supports as part of a whole slew of 
reparations for centuries of exploitation-environmental and 
otherwise.

The summit was mostly just for show, though: see how the Dalai 
Lama (Tibet's emperor-in-exile) looks in indigenous Brazilian 
headdress.(3)

But MIM welcomes the opportunity to tackle environmental 
questions.

Phony environmentalism

The hallmark of First World-chauvinist "environmentalism" is the 
fetishized worship of "natural" things, without facing the 
realities of life for the four-fifths of the Earth's people who 
live in the Third World. These activists are the beauty-of-the-
forest folks, the cute panda-bear-poster people and the save-the-
whalers.

To these people, Third World people are not only ignorant and 
destructive, they are just plain in the way. One of them, Mark 
Valentine of the U.S. Citizen's Network, whined: "Whenever you 
push the [national] sovereignty button, all the red lights go 
off."(2) He was upset because the arguments of Third World 
governments were obstructing his promise to keep providing full-
color photos of Amazon beauty to his rich sustainers in the 
chemically-greened suburbs.

Still other so-called environmentalists begin to recognize the 
suffering of billions of people which goes along with 
environmental destruction. But they want more "aid" from the First 
World to coerce Third World governments into preserving the 
environment. They don't recognize that First World countries do 
not "aid," they "invest"-and they only do it when conditions are 
favorable to them, which means they are not favorable to Third 
World people.

France's environmental minister pandered to this crowd when he 
called the Summit an "enormous and fantastic undertaking."(2)

One favorite fact of these hypocrites is that rainforests actually 
consume carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced in the 
First World. So the First World should buy the Third World's land 
to use as a "natural" landfill for pollution.

Big biotech

While some people want to preserve nature for art's sake, others, 
especially the U.S. biotechnology industry, want to harvest the 
rainforests and convert them into massively lucrative medical 
technologies. For them, the key is access to biotechnology, 
protection of intellectual property "rights," and patenting 
exclusivity. Any declaration of Third World sovereignty over what 
Bush called "environmental technology," would, in the words of 
Secretary of State Jim Baker, "put people out of business in this 
country."(2)

One popular example is the rosy periwinkle, a shrub found only in 
Madagascar, which is used to treat childhood leukemia and Hodgkins 
disease, in the First World, at huge profits. Plant genes from 
Africa have also been the basis for a lot of agricultural 
advances.(1) The U.S. biotech industry needs to keep the profits 
from these discoveries out of the hands of the people they belong 
to. Who knows how much Madagascar could demand for such a drug if, 
say, Ross Perot's child faced leukemia?

The mainstream environmental dispute is between those who say 
capitalism can be preserved and expanded with conservation, and 
those who think it will be hampered by conservation. Either way, 
in this debate, the people lose.

Revolutionary environmentalism

In contrast, revolutionary environmentalists understand that at 
the root of imperialism is a system of ownership and production 
which will not and cannot take into account the well-being of its 
human and ecological victims. It will only preserve and protect 
what it wants for itself, or what it can exploit more profitably 
later. Only a system of production for need, not for profit, can 
ITAL begin END to take steps necessary to satisfy basic human 
needs without making the Earth any more uninhabitable than it 
already is.

Every instance of environmental destruction at the hands of 
imperialism is a case of human exploitation-at the site of the 
clear-cutting or in the fields and factories of the oppressed 
people who make the profits possible. But it is the exploited 
humans who possess the will and the power to resist and overthrow 
imperialism, force the First World to pay up for centuries of 
exploitation, and go about the work of creating a human society 
which is fit to live in.

Notes:
1. Washington Post 6/1/92, p. A15.
2. Washington Post 6/7/92, p. A27.
3. Washington Post 6/6/92, p. A1.

* * *

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE REPEL FBI RAID

Hundreds of members of the Yavapai people and their supporters 
demonstrated at the Capitol and federal buildings in Phoenix, 
Arizona on May 20, to protest a thwarted FBI raid on the Ft. 
McDowell reservation outside Phoenix, during which agents 
attempted to seize gambling machines that are the mainstay of the 
reservation's weak, underdeveloped economy.(1)

The feds raided a total of five indigenous reservations in Arizona 
on May 12, but the greatest force of resistance came from Ft. 
McDowell. The Yavapai blockaded the federal vehicles-eight loaded 
trucks-in the parking lot outside the reservation's casino, 
forcing Governor Fife Symington to negotiate an agreement with 
them to protect their gambling operations.

Although gambling is an addictive vice that sucks money and 
stability from people, it has also provided the reservation with 
cash that funds college scholarships, pre-schools, youth programs, 
clothing for school children, a library and a senior center. The 
outgrowth of gambling-emotional and psychological desperation-is 
what has sustained it as an imperialist-sanctioned enterprise 
within indigenous nations.

Notes: Los Angeles Times 5/21/92.

YAVAPAI BET ON BLOCKADE

by MC99

One hundred members of the Yavapai McDowell Reservation outside 
Phoenix, Arizona blocked eight FBI-driven tractor trailers 
containing electronic gambling machines from leaving their 
reservation game center on May 12. The FBI presence was part of a 
state-wide effort to enforce a federal law that bans gambling on 
indigenous people's land.(1) Four other indigenous-run gambling 
centers in Arizona were also raided that day, and the feds 
confiscated a total of 750 machines which were said to be in 
violation of federal law.(2)

Warned by reservation members commuting to Phoenix for work that 
federal vehicles were approaching the reservation, the Yavapai 
barricaded the casino using pick-up trucks, earth movers and cars. 
The barricade stopped the feds from making off with equipment that 
generates 70% of the reservation's income, tribal Chairperson 
Clinton Pattea said in an interview with MIM Notes. The Yavapai 
non-violently held 50 to 100 FBI agents in the parking lot of the 
casino for eight hours until a temporary agreement was reached.(3)

Meeting with state officials

Arizona governor Fife Symington met with Pattea in a library 
outside the reservation on May 12. Pattea and Symington agreed 
that the machines would remain inside the trailers for a 10- day 
"cooling off" period. The FBI left and the reservation took 
responsibility for the security of the equipment. The Yavapai 
people maintained a 24-hour-a day watch on the machines until June 
5, when they were taken to a warehouse in Phoenix.(4)

The Yavapai have been trying-unsuccessfully-to negotiate an 
arrangement with the state of Arizona to legalize gambling since 
1988. But in the wake of the blockade, when Pattea suggested to 
Governor Symington that the Yavapai could and would meet any 
challenge by the state in defense of their economic sovereignty, 
Symington agreed to discuss an agreement with the Yavapai McDowell 
Reservation on June 9.

The state presented a proposal that limited the number of machines 
to 250, the hours that the casino could stay open per week to 80 
and the bet limit to $5, and further proposed that the operation 
would be regulated by the state. The Yavapai rejected the proposal 
and agreed to make their own proposal.

Pattea told MIM Notes he is hopeful for an agreeable outcome for 
the reservation, if the event gets enough attention that other 
Arizona tribes will be able to win similar deals with the state. 
Before the blockade, the Yavapai, along with three other tribes, 
filed a lawsuit attempting to force negotiations, gain the 
security of the use of the electronic game machines and avoid 
losing a major chunk of their income.

Blockades are better than lawsuits

On May 12, the Yavapai people met imperialist aggression with a 
force stronger than a lawsuit. The blockade produced negotiations, 
and while the outcome is yet to be determined the legal course 
hangs in the dust. The Yavapai know that they have a good 
argument, which is in fact within Indian Gaming Regulatory Act 
guidelines, but relying on the "justice" system is not in the 
favor of anyone outside the white nation.

The fact that the Yavapai are being prevented from obtaining any 
economic stability is not due to an abused law or an uncooperative 
administration. The economic wreckage is deliberate. It is a 
technique that is part of the systematic oppression that keeps the 
indigenous nations under the thumb of imperialism and severed from 
any chance at creating prosperity for the Yavapai McDowell 
reservation or any of the other indigenous nations.

National sovereignty

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988  permits gambling on 
reservations within states that permit gambling. The state of 
Arizona frequently does permit not-for-profit organizations to 
hold "Las Vegas nights," where gambling paraphernalia similar to 
Fort McDowell's is brought in for an night.

On June 8 all charges against the rebels were dropped. The 
attempted seizure of the machines was due to government rules that 
took effect May 11, barring two types of gambling: electronic card 
game machines and an instant lottery game machine. Beyond the 
electronic card and lottery games the game center hosts bingo, 
live keno and card games, with the profits accounting for 70-80% 
of reservation income.

Pattea wants people to understand that the Yavapai is a sovereign 
nation and that the federal government put them in this situation. 
"They keep telling us that we should decide on our own 
destination, yet they make decisions that effect our people," he 
told MIM Notes.

The Yavapai McDowell reservation has 800 members, 500 of whom are 
residents. The game center has about 1,000 customers per night, 
patronized by peopleat we should decide on our own destination, 
yet they mak's agenda to curtail the gambling industry within 
reservations does not surprise MIM. Imperialism tries to keep 
oppressed nations from obtaining any power or independence. The 
unemployment rate on the reservation before the game center was 
established was 30-40%; afterwards unemployment was brought down 
to less than 5%. Since the removal of the equipment 80 people have 
been laid off. The game center employed 150 people, of whom one-
third were tribal members.

Although gambling is an addictive vice that sucks money and 
stability from people, it has provided the reservation with cash 
that funds college scholarships, pre-schools, youth programs, 
clothing for school children, a library and a senior center. The 
outgrowth of gambling-emotional and psychological desperation-is 
probably what has sustained it as an imperialist-sanctioned 
enterprise within indigenous nations.

Notes: 
1. National Public Radio 5/13/92.
2. Boston Globe 5/13/92.
3. Atlanta Journal and Constitution 5/13/92.
4. New York Times 5/13/92.

* * *

LETTERS

MIM SEEN ON POLE

Dear MIM,

I saw your flier on a utility pole. Sounds good to me. Mostly. I'm 
sort of a Maoist. I'm a little confused. You concede that 
thousands suffered unjustly during the Cultural Revolution but 
then you say this same Cultural Revolution was the "furthest 
communist advance in history." Better send me more info.

Cheers,
A friend
May 1992

MC86 responds: William Hinton's ITAL The 100 Day War END is a 
valuable source on the Cultural Revolution. Write to MIM for a 
copy.

It is true that thousands suffered unjustly in the Cultural 
Revolution-it was, after all, a revolution and a violent 
insurrection against capitalist-roaders in the Party leadership 
and their ideological products. In a world where 40,000 children a 
day die from starvation under imperialism, the revolutionary and 
chaotic movements of the oppressed to overthrow imperialism will 
continue to result in some unnecessary deaths. There were unjust 
deaths recently in Los Angeles-but the rebellion was justified 
overall.

We recognize the Cultural Revolution as the greatest communist 
advance in history because not only did China advance the material 
conditions of the masses and the country further and faster than 
feudalism or even capitalism could have done, but also the masses 
developed an understanding of two-line struggle under socialism, 
of the continued existence of classes under socialism and of the 
possibility of the (temporary) restoration of capitalism at all 
levels of leadership.

Only mass communist consciousness will be able to combat 
production for profit and the reactionary old ways as they slip 
into the dustbin of history. Communism does not happen overnight. 
It will take decades of revolutions and cultural revolutions.

MIM believes revolutionaries must build on the successes of 
history rather than dismissing these advances as imperfect (and 
thus failures) as the Trotskyists would have us do. We learn from 
the successes of the Cultural Revolution as well as the mistakes.

Meanwhile, Maoists in the United States ground our analysis in the 
revolutionary necessities of Third World peoples and oppressed 
nations-at home and abroad.

All readers who are "sort of" Maoists should follow this writer's 
example and struggle and study with MIM.

AFFECTED MANDELAS?

Dear MIM,

In April I went to a lecture featuring Steve Cokely, who mentioned 
that Nelson Mandela agreed to allow the South African government 
to retain control of the gold and diamond industry in exchange for 
relatively minor concessions. Only the forces of nature know what 
damage was done to Nelson while incarcerated at Robben Island 
Penitentiary! If Nomzamo was guilty of murdering the 14-year-old 
boy and of beating the other boys, I attribute it to the extreme 
oppression and pressure that she was forced to undergo while 
Nelson was held in the mind altering slave camp. The slave system 
adversely effected them both!

Incidentally, in the early 60s, when the African National Congress 
went to the armed struggle, the command structure of the congress 
was made up of lawyers and other educated individuals, not 
guerilla soldiers. Mandela admitted that they were amateurs. Who 
can say whether or not the Spear of the Nation can contend with 
the South Afrikan army, if the ANC and the PAC resume the armed 
struggle. I've read on more than one occasion that the Israelis 
have heavily contributed to the training and the arming of the 
South Afrikan Army. That being the case, the Boers have a 
formidable force.

Please do not take my statements as pessimistic. I know what the 
People can accomplish if properly trained and organized. I feel 
that the liberation of Azania is the key to the total liberation 
of the Afrikan continent. However, the Afrikaners aren't going to 
walk away from what they perceive to be their homeland. Countless 
other Afrikan heads of state have allowed the Europeans to retain 
control of the financial and industrial apparatus while they gave 
the Afrikans the parliament and a pseudo-national flag.

We can only hope that Mandela hasn't fallen into the neo-
colonialist trap. I don't have to mention what part Amerika and 
the other Western powers are playing in keeping the Afrikans in a 
condition of neo-slavery. They project that 50 million Afrikans 
will be dead from AIDS by the year 2000. The United States and the 
western powers know their natural resources are rapidly running 
out. Along with the projected population explosion in Amerika, and 
the Afrikan specter of AIDS, is the Western powers plan to finally 
re-take Afrika. In my opinion, this is what is meant by the term 
"New World Order." The total liberation of southern Afrika is 
paramount!

A comrade in the South 
April 1992

CHINA: WHY ATTACK AFRICANS?

Dear MIM,

I would appreciate a reply to a question regarding racism in China 
involving Afrikan students. I read an article in the state 
newspaper a couple of years ago regarding Afrikan male students 
involved in relationships with Chinese women which ignited 
violent/racist reactions from Chinese men. According to this 
article, the police intervened on behalf of the Afrikans and sent 
them home as a safety measure. I've always been bothered by this 
alleged incident. I wonder what position the Deng regime took on 
this incident? If you can, please articulate the stance of the 
communist Chinese in reference to the Afrikans. I look forward to 
your response.

A Friend
April 1992

MC5 and MC17 respond: The theoretical issues behind this question 
touch on a topic that MIM will tackle in greater detail in the 
next (double) issue of MIM Theory on gender and feminism. This 
response is adapted from articles to be printed in that issue.

First, China is not communist, nor even socialist. Deng Xiaoping 
and his fellow rulers seized power after Mao died (1976) and have 
since reversed many of the gains in China. Deng and his allies 
were after the restoration of capitalism and their own personal 
power.

With this in mind, the incident surrounding the African students 
carries some significant lessons about gender struggles world-
wide. MIM attributes the anti-African riots in China to pseudo-
feminism, popular both in state capitalist China and in capitalist 
countries world-wide.

Pseudo-feminism is an ideology that claims to be feminist but 
often practices paternalism towards women. Placing the gender 
contradiction above the contradiction between oppressed and 
oppressor nations, pseudo feminism in effect causes retreats 
rather than progress for the oppressed majority of women of the 
world.

Socialist revolution in China and other countries has advanced the 
cause of women further and faster than any other historical event. 
Since the restoration of capitalism in China, many of those 
advances have been reversed. The fight before, during and after 
the revolution against pseudo-feminism, and the advances made when 
revolutionary politics were winning out, demonstrates that women 
world-wide must seize power and fight for revolutionary advances 
if they want to support the cause of the truly oppressed.

Advances and retreats in China

In one generation (1949-1974) China went from a society that 
allowed buying and selling of women as slaves to a society with 
22.6% women in its highest government body of 2,885 members, which 
would be the rough equivalent of our top 700 Congressional, 
military and business leaders.(1)

In 1949 the infant mortality rate in Shanghai was 150 deaths per 
1,000 births. In 1972 it was down to 12.6, lower than the infant 
mortality rate of 18.1 for whites in New York City at that 
time.(2) Those concerned with the well-being of women understand 
that this is a statement on the health of women in the two 
countries. The United States, a much wealthier country, could not 
compete with communist China in the area of women's health.

China under Mao also abolished the use of women's bodies in 
advertising, as well as all other forms of pornography. All this 
and much more was accomplished in 25 years.

When capitalism came back to China it came back after defeating 
the effort of a communist woman, Jiang Qing, to take the top 
leadership role in China. It has meant the return of pornography, 
sexist ads, prostitution, cosmetics, skyrocketing rape rates, and 
a decline in rural health care and the percentage of women in 
government. This is all the more reason that MIM mourns the arrest 
of Jiang Qing in 1976 by capitalist-roaders. At the same time, MIM 
resolves to learn and teach the lessons of history and continue 
the struggle Jiang Qing led for equality for women.

Pseudo-feminism and reactionary nationalism in China

The precipitating event for the student riots, which caused the 
largest anti-government demonstrations in two years, was a student 
dance to which two African men brought Chinese dates. There was a 
dispute over the Africans' identification. After that, the 
Africans claim the Chinese started the fighting, while the Chinese 
claim the Africans started the fighting.(1) The identification 
issue was a pretext because there are so few foreigners in Nanjing 
that everyone knows who they are. Similar events involving women 
provoked riots again.

Not all Chinese students supported the reasons for the riots, but 
the predominant culture of China was on the side of the rioting 
students. The very concepts of dating, harassment and rape differ 
quite a bit in the United States from China.

In China, a foreign woman who talks to a Chinese man alone, even 
in a public place (outside of a work context), is regarded as 
having been raped sometime in her life and having accepted the 
life of a whore. Chinese realize that foreigners have different 
ideas about letting women be whores, so they don't like this 
practice between Amerikans, but they probably will not riot 
because of it.

When it comes to Chinese women, however, people feel that 
foreigners are asking the Chinese women to be whores. Particularly 
where the Chinese feel ill-gotten wealth, party corruption and 
"uncivilized culture" (meaning culture denigrated by rich 
Westerners) is involved, they riot. Simply talking to a woman in a 
department store or on the street is liable to set off angry 
reactions of all kinds. People assume that the woman is setting up 
a rendezvous.

According to one female Chinese student, the riots were justified 
because the African students stood outside dorms and asked women 
for dates, "even though we don't want dates." The tradition in 
Chinese culture is for dating to occur after years of public 
interaction at school or work.

Pseudo-feminism in China of the late 1980s was quite obviously a 
disguise for anti-African chauvinism. Anti-African demonstrators 
in Beijing carried placards reading "No offend Chinese women!" 
"Punish Hoodlums; Protect Women's Rights!"(2) The slogans were a 
stark reminder that the role of protecting women and putting them 
on a pedestal, and the passion underlying sexual politics, can 
easily combine in a fascist direction. With a few feminist-
sounding slogans thrown in, George Bush's Willie Horton ads would 
be a good analogy to the Chinese situation.

If we were to listen to Amerikan pseudo-feminists' subjectivism, 
which says we should believe whatever any woman says about rape, 
we would accept as truth what the Chinese women say. That would 
include that getting near individual men is the act of a whore. It 
would include that once raped, one must be a criminal and it would 
include launching city-wide riots when African students ask for or 
go on dates with Chinese women.

Pseudo-feminists often acknowledge this problem of subjectivity 
and conclude that the problem is that objectivity is men's problem 
and subjectivity should be celebrated. MIM sees this problem and 
holds that the objective factors underlying and conditioning the 
subjectivity of women and men must be changed. If class, nation 
and gender power is eliminated, people may start from subjective 
positions free of violent contradictions. However, women will 
never cease being objects until they take up science with a 
passion to seize control of their destiny.

Notes:
1. New York Times 12/27/88, p. 1.
2. Mira Sorvino, "Anti-Africanism in China: An Investigation into 
Chinese Attitudes towards Black Students in the People's Republic 
of China." (Undergraduate thesis, Harvard University, 1990), p. 
15.

* * *

PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS PROTEST ILLEGAL EVICTIONS

by a comrade

On the morning of June 5 a young woman was shot through the neck 
by an unknown assailant in the playground at Geneva Towers-a two-
building high-rise apartment complex on the edge of San Francisco.

The 1,300 embattled Black and Latino residents of Geneva Towers 
use Section Eight certificates to rent decaying rooms in a 
decrepit building with broken elevators. A 40-man Goon Squad 
composed of off-duty San Francisco police and other drug-dealing 
enemies of the people patrols this virtual prison-assaulting and 
terrorizing the residents at will.

In the afternoon of June 5 a handful of Geneva Towers tenants 
picketed outside a luncheon in the community room thrown by 
management-John Stewart Company-for Stewart's phoney "Geneva 
Towers Resident Management Council."

Shouting "No Justice, No Peace" while a young brother kept a 
martial beat on a conga drum, the picketers demanded a stop to 
illegal evictions.

The young brother remarked, "That was no drive-by this morning. 
That was sharpshooting."

In the past year almost half of the original 2,500 residents have 
either been evicted or have fled from Geneva Towers, as John 
Stewart and his Goon Squad continue to terrorize youth and gang-
bang anybody who complains.

One grandfather told a listener: "The threats are always the same, 
"I'LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING BRAINS OUT," with a cocked and pointed gun 
at the victims' heads. These vile acts are now known throughout 
the prison systems' A and B buildings."

The grandfather has repeatedly been beaten by uniformed Stewart 
goons because he has had the courage to speak out against Stewart, 
the lockdowns and the summary evictions. Grandfather remarks that 
he has not been arrested and yet he and his family are imprisoned.

He asks, "Why do you [John Stewart] deny us our due process of the 
laws? Why do you continue to imprison free and innocent African-
Americans without charging us on a one by one basis of an alleged 
crime, and then let the U.S., or city, or county, or state, or 
federal courts try us with a judge and a jury of our peers, and 
then after being found guilty or innocent of these charges and are 
duly convicted then let us be confined in a city or a state county 
prison as it is with the case of White Americans?"

Geneva Towers is owned by the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development (HUD). It is "managed" by white millionaire slumlord 
John Stewart, a man whose resume states that he has worked 
extensively throughout his career with NASA and TRW, Inc.

NASA is the military arm of United States imperialism in outer 
space. TRW, Inc. is a multinational corporation which monitors the 
spending habits of Amerikan credit-consumers and builds satellite 
systems and other instruments of espionage and destruction. 
Stewart is also on the board of directors of several failed 
Savings & Loan institutions.

The small demonstration at Geneva Towers drew no sectarian groups 
with red banners in support. No stones were thrown. No fires were 
set. Neither the protest nor the attempted assassination were 
covered on the evening news. When it was all over, the few picket 
signs had been torn by the wind and the picketers went back inside 
to await three-day notices and look for someplace else to live in 
this white, imperialist country.

In the face of calculated genocide, the Black Nation and all 
colonized peoples have a strength which slowly and surely grows 
from experiences like this. The young brother with the congas, and 
others like him, will be back one day in organized groups to wield 
the sickle of revolutionary justice and the hammer of socialist 
peace in a world where dogs like John Stewart and his Goons are as 
much a memory of the past as leprosy and small-pox.


* * *

ISRAELI UNDERCOVER AGENTS SHOOT TO KILL

by MC31 & MC12

Israeli violence and repression, and Palestinian resistance to 
occupation, has increased markedly in recent months. The 
escalation follows sharply deteriorating conditions in the 
occupied territories and the changing political needs of Israel's 
fascist rulers.

This year, Israel has increased undercover operations, sending 
soldiers dressed as Arabs into the West Bank to kill Palestinians. 
The Palestine Human Rights Information Center (PHRIC)-based in 
Chicago and Jerusalem-has documented these acts, including a case 
in which four undercover soldiers, dressed as Palestinians, shot 
Palestinians without warning.

The PHRIC believes the military has shifted its policy to increase 
the use of covert operations and expand the practice of summary 
executions. The West Bank Israeli Army commander acknowledged that 
the army had "adjusted" its policy in the face of increasing armed 
Palestinian attacks.(1)

These summary executions and murders have reportedly taken 40 
Palestinian lives in the past year. Overall, more than 900 
Palestinians have officially been killed by soldiers since 
December 1987, when the uprising, or intifada, began.(2)

The agents and Arab collaborators are high-strung: On May 28 two 
disguised Israeli soldiers shot and killed two of their own Arab 
collaborators, supposedly mistaking them for anti-Israel 
militants.(3)

Sealing off Gaza

Following several stabbings of Israeli settlers, the army 
completely sealed off the Gaza strip-only Jews could enter and 
leave the region.(4) The blockade of Gaza is a calculated Israeli 
economic policy to regulate Palestinian labor within Israel. 
Unemployment in Israel and a flood of new immigrants has meant 
more forced unemployment for Palestinians. Each incident of 
violence is the pretense for more restrictions.

Before the war against Iraq, about 60,000 Palestinians living in 
Gaza worked in Israel; now that is as low as 30,000, and 
unemployment is 30-40%.

As the economic situation in the territories gets worse, violence 
increases. Young people erect roadblocks almost every day in the 
Jabalya refugee camp, and the Israeli army recently built a 
prison-type watchtower surrounded by a high fence to monitor their 
efforts.(2)

Settler violence

Amerika and Israel share a strategy of military occupation and 
repression in their occupied nations, but so far Israeli security 
has largely prevented the release of video-taped acts of torture 
and murder like the Los Angeles recording. A pivotal blood-tie 
between Amerika and Israel is the settler masses' fascistic 
popular support for occupation in both countries.

While whites in Los Angeles rushed out to buy guns, Jewish 
settlers launched massive riots in Gaza in June, after the 
stabbings. The Israelis burned Arab crops and rampaged through the 
occupied land. And near Tel Aviv, hundreds of Jews blocked the 
streets and shouted, "Death to the Arabs!"(5) That call was 
repeated by elementary school children watching the riots from 
their school windows.(4) Thousands rioted for five straight days 
and nights, smashing cars with Arab license plates.(6)

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said the guilty Palestinian should 
have been "shot on sight." Dozens of Palestinians were wounded in 
the riots.(4)

Meanwhile, about 1,000 Israelis between the ages of five and 18 
are taking self-defense courses to learn to "protect themselves" 
from Palestinians and the intifada. Organizers of the course hire 
Palestinians to simulate attacks of the "students," so that they 
may be "confronted with real-life situations" and be prepared to 
defend themselves.(7)

Miki Har-Gash, one of the program's directors, admitted that even 
the Palestinians who "volunteered" to be the attackers were in 
considerable danger. The Israeli students are taught to "use their 
hands, their teeth, their legs ... do anything to save their 
lives."(7)

Palestinian acts of resistance and armed struggle are increasingly 
met with more publicity and eagerness on the part of the state to 
build fear and support for the domination of Palestinian land and 
people. And the government's call to oppression is echoed over and 
over by the Israeli settler masses.

The Palestinian nation's occupation by the Israeli settler state, 
and the resulting economic dependence, are sources of great 
revolutionary energy on the part of the Palestinian people. Their 
struggle to create and build vanguard leadership is fueled by that 
oppression. The national liberation struggle of the Palestinians 
will not cease until its cause is won.

Notes:
1. Reuter 5/11/92.
2. Financial Times 6/1/92.
3. Reuter 5/29/92.
4. Atlanta Journal and Constitution 5/25/92.
5. Washington Post 5/28/92 p. A29.
6. Christian Science Monitor 6/1/92.
7. Agence France Presse 5/29/92.

* * *

NO HAITIANS ALLOWED

President Bush recently authorized the U.S. Coast Guard to 
intercept boats carrying Haitian refugees who were seeking some 
form of relief and return them to Haiti-rather than allow them to 
have their asylum applications processed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 
This move came in response to the overcrowding of the Naval base 
in Cuba where the Haitians were being detained.(1)

There are still thousands of Haitians in Miami who have been 
languishing in prison-like detention centers waiting in vain for 
their asylum applications to be processed. Meanwhile, there is a 
meaningless and destructive debate in the Bush administration 
regarding the status of these applications: economic or political. 
Under bourgeois standards, it is much harder to prove oppression 
is "political" rather than "economic," so this is just a way for 
Amerika to justify the exclusion of thousands and thousands of 
poor Black people. (The United States did help top Aristide 
officials into Amerika shortly after the coup, so maybe money and 
power has something to do with this!)(2)

While this new policy of rejecting refugees and requiring them to 
process application in Haiti was designed to stop the flow of 
immigration, Haitians are still coming-and being deported-by the 
thousands. Now Bush wants to close down the base in Guantanamo 
Bay, claiming it only serves to attract more Haitians.(1) In 
response to allegations that this new policy is racist, Bush said 
he is no "racist" and that the United States will always be a safe 
haven for those seeking political refuge.

For oppressed nations inside and outside the borders of Amerika, 
"political refuge" is revolutionary work. MIM understands that 
Amerika is not a safe haven for the truly oppressed of the world, 
although many are better off here than being subject to the 
imperialist evils of Amerikan foreign policy elsewhere.

-MC31

Notes:

1. Notimex Mexican News Service 5/30/92.
2. Newsweek 6/8/92, p.39.

* * *

AMERIKANS UNIFY FOR PEROT

For millions of Amerikans, billionaire Ross Perot is a nationalist 
hero. Newsweek, reporting that Perot leads in voter opinion polls, 
declared that "his nationalist rhetoric and plain-spoken TV appeal 
would help him go over the heads of the politicians directly to 
the people."(1) A great anti-politician ruler a la Reagan, Perot 
is the leader of a resurgent white nation unity movement.

But many left-liberal critics are in a panic because Perot is 
trying to "buy the presidency," for $100 million of his own pocket 
change. For them, Amerikans are always being suckered into things 
against their will. MIM, on the other hand, knows that just 
because the government is for sale doesn't mean it's not popular 
among settler masses.

And it's always been for sale. For example, The Federal Election 
Commission says political action committees (PACs) spent $73 
million on congressional campaigns in the 15-month period ending 
in March. And PACs in April had $139 million is cash left to 
spend-doubling what Perot has promised to spend of his own 
money.(2)

And that's not just corporate interests; 16 of the 50 top spending 
PACs are trade unions, and they shelled out $9.2 million during 
that period. The Teamsters union, the biggest spender, spent $1.4 
million. More than 90% of PAC money is spent to re-elect 
incumbents, and that rate is increasing.(2)

Still, these critics believe, corporate fascist billionaires are 
supposed to be somehow opposed to Amerikan "democracy." And yet 
Perot is wildly popular among Amerikans.

California primary exit polls (of people who voted) showed that 
44% of whites (and 45% of men) would like to vote for Perot in 
November. Perot had the most support among all income groups over 
$15,000 per year: 41% of those with incomes of $15,000-30,000 
would choose Perot, compared to 31% for Clinton and 19% for Bush. 
And Perot beat out Bush for people with incomes of $75,000 or 
more: 46% to 21%.(3)

Amerika's oppressive rulers have led what has always been a 
"popular" movement against the oppressed people who made this 
country rich. The tired old settler-leftist complaint that white 
people are not represented by the government doesn't hold up to 
centuries of white support for the plundering of oppressed nations 
and peoples.

In answer to critics who said Perot would be an authoritarian 
president, Perot's campaign co-chair Edward Rollins (former Reagan 
manager) said: "The undeniable fact is that thousands upon 
thousands of volunteers are putting this man's name on the ballot 
because they are dissatisfied with the establishment's choices. 
They are petitioning to have their voices heard, which is anything 
but authoritarian. It is democracy in its truest form."(4)

White Amerika is ever more hell-bent on militarist repression and 
imperialist exploitation. Ross Perot isn't making that happen just 
because he's spending $100 million to be the one the settler 
masses choose to pose for Big Brother posters.

-MC12

Notes:
1. Newsweek 6/15/92, p. 26.
2. Washington Post 6/8/92, p. A17.
3. Washington Post 6/4/92, p. A13.
4. Washington Post 6/7/92, p. C7.

* * *

YUPPIE GREEN HYPOCRISY

On May 29, in several national newspapers, a full page ad 
sponsored by 15 Amerikan "environmental" groups ranging from the 
ASPCA to the Sierra Club screamed "SABOTAGE!" in a huge headline. 
The text of the ad railed against the imminent ratification of the 
General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the new North 
America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as "new trade rules that give 
a secretive foreign bureaucracy vast new powers to threaten 
American laws that protect your food, your health, your wilderness 
and wildlife, and your job."(1)

It seems that the environmentalists have just noticed that 
humanity is ruled by "an international body that nobody elected, 
that nobody knows, and that operates in secret beyond national 
laws or the democratic process ... We are witnessing one of the 
slickest suppressions of the democratic process in history, 
substituting the will of trade bureaucracies which citizens cannot 
influence. The beneficiaries are multi-national corporations 
(e.g., Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nestle, Ralston Purina, Kraft, General 
Foods) for whom democracy itself is an impediment to ITALIC their 
END free trade."(1)

The environmentalists claim that "expansion of GATT represents a 
new blueprint ITALIC and END a new mechanism for the organization 
and control of resources and life on Earth, under the 'benevolent' 
guidance of bankers and multi-national corporations. But in order 
to proceed with their vision, they must first eliminate the power 
of democracies to control their own laws."(1) Say it isn't so!

Finally, the ad complains that the Amerikan standard of luxury is 
being inconvenienced by the international financial oligarchy of 
monopoly capitalist killers. MIM says, "Right on! Join the united 
front of the internationally oppressed to annihilate imperialism!"

Unfortunately, the ad then plaintively counsels us to write 
pathetic, pleading letters to corrupt imperialist officials asking 
them ITALIC please END not to destroy the planet.

Get it together yuppie Greens! If everything is as you say it is 
(and it is!) then what's the answer? You get four choices:

a) continue to think only about your own health
b) roll over and die
c) elect Ross Perot as world dictator
d) quit bullshitting and overthrow the bastards.

-MC86

Notes: San Francisco Chronicle 5/29/92, p. 20.

* * *

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PROTESTS PLANNED

The League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations (LISN) is planning a 
"Native American Solidarity Day" rally and civil disobedience at 
the United Nations in New York City for Oct. 12, otherwise known 
as "Columbus Day."

A flyer from the group explains that, "Only the complete 
unification of all Indian Nations into one great alliance can 
prevent the ongoing rape of native land. Indian People from Tierra 
del Fuego to the Arctic Circle are standing together to say 'NO!' 
to genocide and exploitation, and to demand an independent voice 
in the international community."

The group is demanding a seat at the U.N. for indigenous peoples 
of the Western Hemisphere.

"LISN's efforts will ultimately expose the 500 years of genocide," 
the flyer adds, "and establish an inter-nation alliance of Warrior 
Societies to resist the continuing plundering Mother Earth and the 
brutal disregard for the lives of the elders, women and children."

MIM applauds LISN's militancy and supports the indigenous peoples' 
claims to self-determination and sovereignty. And we are glad to 
publicize events in the 500 Years of Resistance movement 
generally.

That said, MIM adds that there are many oppressed nations 
"represented" at the U.N. who are no better off for their seats. 
The demand for a seat at the U.N. is a distraction which will 
ultimately serve to disempower indigenous people. The U.N.'s so-
called "international community" is the not the source of 
indigenous national sovereignty or self-determination; those are 
the products of the people's revolutionary struggle, of which the 
indigenous peoples' resistance is a crucial part.

-MC12

Notes: Flyer, League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations of the 
Western Hemisphere, PO Box 131, Accokeek, MD 20607.

* * *

CULTURE: REVIEWS

Incident at Oglala 
Michael Apted
1992

Executive produced and narrated by Robert Redford, ITAL Incident at Oglala END traces the events at Pine Ridge Reservation between 1973 and 1975, when the American Indian Movement (AIM) was at war with the FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and corrupt would-be neo-colonial rulers. On June 26, 1975 two FBI agents were killed by still unidentified indigenous people at Jumping Bull compound during an attempted on the compound. AIM activist Leonard Peltier was framed and charged for two counts of murder-a crime for which he is still serving two life sentences at Leavenworth federal penitentiary.

The movie is a liberal view of how the indigenous people at Pine Ridge were not only terrorized by Dick Wilson's puppet tribal government and so-called GOON squad (Guardians Of the Oglala Nation), but also by the FBI and BIA. Many could walk away from this movie and say "Leonard Peltier should be freed, because it is clear that he was framed and didn't kill those agents." MIM says: "So what if he did?" There was a war on that the indigenous people were fighting on two fronts, and federal agents got killed in the crossfire.

People who are attracted by the Free Peltier movement should think about who should be convicted for those murders-and who would be convicted if Peltier were found not guilty. Whether Peltier did or didn't do it is irrelevant, whether some other member of AIM did or didn't is also irrelevant: those killings were justified in the name of self-defense and national liberation. The Peltier-is-innocent defense just means another revolutionary should be in jail instead.

Apted does a good job of talking to a variety of people, including the foreperson of the jury that acquitted two other men in the first trial for the same crime. There are also clips from conversations with various FBI types, most of whom are portrayed as the reactionary pigs that they are.

But there are problems with the director's choices: first, many clips of the indigenous people portray them as nature-loving inspirationalists who felt very bad about the deaths of the two agents in 1975.

MIM would like to hear the rest of what they said: did Apted omit the more militant anger from the conversations with the interviewer? While many indigenous people do have a reverence for nature and spirit, members of the Oglala nation also have a militant political determination to be free of white Amerikan control of their lives.

The other more subtle, yet just as disturbing, portrayal was of Myrtle Poor Bear, the woman whose affidavits were used to extradite Peltier from Canada to eventually stand trial. Peltier's own defense attorney describes her as a psychotic liar who gave conflicting testimonies, apparently for her own evil purposes. But the pieces of Myrtle Poor Bear telling her own story show she is perfectly articulate and sane. She describes how the FBI violently coerced her testimony, by threatening to kill her daughter and put her "through a meat grinder" if she didn't cooperate.

ITAL Incident at Oglala END is a movie with a mission: to present evidence which would clear Leonard Peltier's name. Never mind that the film implicates another heroic AIM activist-unidentified- discredits Myrtle Poor Bear, and diminishes the political content of the movement in the process. For the rest of the story, write to MIM for a copy of ITAL Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement END.
-MC31

* * *

AKA Graffiti Man 
John Trudell 
Rykodisc, 1992

Poetry of protest, alienation, romance gone wrong, women wronged-these verses are the metronome ticking time to John Trudell's latest effort brought to us in the form of a rock-and-roll band.

Heavy rhythms, native music and some wailing guitars blend with Trudell's message to create an outstanding musical uprising against the oppression of war, life on the res, stale Amerikan culture and women caught in a patriarchal society.

Trudell-who just finished acting in ITAL Thunderheart END and appearing in ITAL Incident at Oglala END, two films by Michael Apted-has been primarily a poet since ending his stint as a spokesperson for the American Indian Movement when the FBI murdered his wife and child. Encouraged by his comrades to put his poetry to music, he formed a band last year.

Although this disc is not a call for revolution-something in which Trudell no longer believes-his songs expose the ugliness of Amerika and the beauty of people's resistance to its culture.

The title-track is the strongest exposition on the disc. In four short minutes, Trudell runs a story-line through different classes and nations in Amerika and their relationship to profits and "the spoils of war." He starts out with the life of the oppressed where everyone must hustle, women turn to prostitution, and drugs and alcohol abound. In this world, "the junkman's in the shadows dealing his junk."

Graffiti Man's got something to say
Message in a scrawl
Message on the wall
Something's wrong
Not our fault
We gotta be cool
Our time will come

The second verse is a trip to the alienation of a shopping mall-"Who's worth more than the money they spend?" The junkman is here, too, but selling different kinds of junk.

In the final verse, Trudell moves to the "sterile" world of the corporation without obvious stains on the suits, but a place where the junkman says "the spoils of war are the spoils of war," and it's all divided up in neat rows of figures. And in the end, "Graffiti Man's got something to say..."

All in all a fine effort. If Trudell is perhaps a bit deferential to the wheels of history pushing culture forward-as in the song "Baby Boom ChŽ" where he credits Elvis for a rock-and-roll revolution that broke with the post-World War II, post-Great Depression value system-he makes up for it with a voice of resistance that's "rockin the res."
-MC¯

* * *

The Good Woman of Bangkok
Dennis O'Rourke
1992

ITAL The Good Woman of Bangkok END is disturbing on two main counts: O'Rourke never says what a "documentary-fiction" is (and the audience thinks it is watching a documentary until the closing credits), and he focuses on the meaning of "love," rather than on the exploitation of Third World prostitutes who work to service First World people's sexual decadence. Despite these flaws, O'Rourke allows Aoi, a Thai prostitute, to speak about being a prostitute with no economic alternative. O'Rourke's film contains lessons for revolutionaries about how to use culture to expose the brutality of imperialism.

O'Rourke tries to make the film into reactionary romantic mush. Scattered throughout the film, there are segments of an interview in which Aoi says that she hates all men-Thai men, foreign men, ITAL all END men-and that she wishes she could make them die. O'Rourke frames this desire as the tragedy of prostitution destroying Aoi's ability to "love."

In exchange for making the film, O'Rourke promised to buy Aoi a rice farm to support her family. We learn this only late in the film when O'Rourke threatens from behind the camera: "I'll only buy you a rice farm if you promise to stop this work ... promise me, Aoi."

Other grossness in the film includes the Euro-chauvinism of subtitling the English segments of Aoi's interviews, but letting the audience muddle through a Dutch interviewee's accent. MIM can only guess that O'Rourke thought a Thai accent would be less tolerable to his audiences.

O'Rourke also makes a joke out of a discussion two women have about different types of bars: those for Thai men serve the women who dance there as much food as they can eat, the foreigners' bars serve only alcohol. Amerikan audiences roar over the fact that these women can't get their thoughts away from eating when there are serious issues like sex and love to contend with.

But O'Rourke manages to expose the substantial gender oppression which is imperialism-cutting from daylight when white women touring Bangkok with their husbands shrink from the dirty Thai children, to nighttime, when the husbands go out to fuck the dirty Thai women, leaving their wives clean. He also features interviews with European and Amerikan men who discuss the beauty of prostitution: when they take their wives and girlfriends out they sometimes get sex in return (sometimes they don't), but these Thai women "have the right attitude."
-MC45



UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONS AND FROM PRISONERS


ANGOLA PRISONER FOUND DEAD: MURDEROUS GUARDS CLAIM IT WAS SUICIDE

On May 19, Louisiana State Penitentiary prisoner Bennie Sampson 
purportedly hung himself after he was transferred to the 
Administrative Lockdown Unit at Camp D. Sampson was 37 years old.

Sampson was placed in Lockdown for observation: standard procedure 
for prisoners who are considered suicidal. Normally, these 
prisoners would not be able to keep anything in their cells which 
might assist them in suicide, but Sampson apparently had the means 
to hang himself-or be hung.

On July 11, 1989, Johnny Augustine-another prisoner at Louisiana 
State in Angola-was found hanging from a sheet tied to the bars of 
his cell. The administration claimed Augustine's death was a 
suicide too-but they had no explanation for the broken back and 
stab wound to the thigh noted by the coroner.

Augustine's death was one of at least five that prison guards 
tried to pass off as suicide in 1989, and it seems clear their 
tactics haven't changed. Bennie Sampson's death will not go 
unrecognized or uninvestigated.

PRISONER DEATH: SUICIDE OR MURDER? 

 by MA76 for the Campaign of Exposure

LOUSIANA STATE PENITENTIARY, ANGOLA, May 26-I am writing to let 
you know that another prisoner has purportedly committed suicide 
by hanging himself here at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

On Tuesday, May 19, fellow prisoner Bennie Sampson #109668, a 37-
year-old Black prisoner, purportedly hung himself after being 
transferred to the Administrative Lockdown Unit here at Camp D. 
From the information I have been able to gather, Sampson was sent 
to this unit to be placed under observation: a procedure the 
mental health officials use when a prisoner is suicidal. This 
prisoner was supposed to have died while on his way to the prison 
hospital.

Even if (I say "if" because in the past prison guards have been 
known to murder prisoners and then make it appear as though they 
committed suicide) Sampson did commit suicide, it must be made 
known that this administration contributed greatly to this 
prisoner's death by keeping him confined to a cell for an 
excessive period of time. The records will verify that all but one 
purported suicide has occurred in the cellblocks.

But given the Angola prison officials' history of framing their 
murders of prisoners to look like suicides, the circumstances 
surrounding Sampson's death are highly suspicious. First of all, 
it is very strange that Sampson was allowed to keep anything in 
his cell while under observation. The regular procedure is when a 
prisoner is under observation for being suicidal he isn't allowed 
to keep anything in his possession until a social worker checks 
him out. Apparently, fellow prisoner Sampson had something-bed 
sheets, blanket, jump-suit, etc.-in his cell or else he wouldn't 
be dead right now.

On July 11, 1989, prisoner Johnny Augustine was found hanging from 
a sheet tied to the bars of his cell. The administration claimed 
Augustine's death was a suicide too-but they had no explanation 
for the broken back and stab wound to the thigh noted by the 
undertaker. (See MIM Notes 43 and 53).

Augustine's death was one of at least five that prison guards 
tried to pass off as suicide in 1989, and it seems clear their 
tactics haven't changed.

Unless something is done to rectify this great injustice, many 
more prisoners will end up like fellow prisoner Sampson and the 
other prisoners who have purportedly committed suicide. 
Furthermore, this administration will continue to carry out 
various measures for the sole purpose of breaking, torturing, 
dehumanizing and legally killing (murdering) prisoners confined to 
the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

As a concerned prisoner, and in behalf of the other concerned 
prisoners confined to this prison, I'm requesting that you print 
an article in your next newspaper exposing the injustice I brought 
to your attention in this letter. Those on the outside (the 
public) must be made aware of this administration's criminal 
wrongdoing because things have gotten completely out of hand.

MC¯ and MC11 contributed to this report.


PRISONERS RESIST PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE

Psychological reasoning is a tool that the ruling classes use to 
crush resistance among oppressed genders, nations and classes. By 
getting people to ask "what's wrong with me?" instead of "what's 
wrong with this fucked-up world?" psychology seeks to focus on the 
individual instead of the system, to trick Amerika's oppressed 
into turning their mounting anger against themselves instead of 
their oppressors.

By interpreting the world through subjective "feelings" and 
impressions, psychology steers people away from a materialist 
analysis of their situation. An analysis grounded in fact and 
backed by a material understanding of history is unshakeable, 
while one based on half-formed feelings and instincts is easily 
manipulated and defeated.

Like most tools of oppression, psychology takes on added 
significance in the prisons, where various forms of 
"therapy"-ranging from seemingly benign social work-type 
counseling to outright psychological torture-are aimed against 
prisoners who have few avenues of defense. Still, the vast 
majority of prisoners see through the ideology that has sucked 
many of Amerika's oppressed into surrendering scientific analysis 
for wishy-washy goop.

MIM asked prisoners whether they have had any interactions with 
social workers or psychiatrists, and how effective they were. Of 
all the responses, only one said that social work/psychology was 
effective. MIM is soliciting other testimonials from anyone who 
has had experiences with psychology.

-MC11

I've been confined 10 years. When I was 23 I talked with a white 
psychologist. I was young and I felt guilt-ridden about making my 
people unhappy. But I asked to see him-brother they are phoney. We 
need Black psychologists to deal solely with the state of mind 
Black people are in, not some white man/woman with a Ph.D who has 
studied psychology from a Eurocentric perspective. Black people 
have been "crazy" and "psychologically deranged" for 400-plus 
years. How can a people that stokes our minds with fear and 
brainwashes us help us? It's not in their best interest.

When those hostages come from those countries the first thing they 
do is take them to see a psychiatrist, to help put them back in 
the mainstream of society. I've been down confined 10 years ain't 
nobody trying to put me back in the mainstream of society.

-MA 851

Yes I have [had experience with psychology] and they have not been 
that effective with solving my problems, such as putting food on 
my table, shelter, employment, adequate education, and last but 
not least equal rights and equal opportunities, nor have they 
helped my people's situations.

-MA853

Just psychiatrists, and only in the military and penal system. I 
must say they are not very effective at all. They will twist 
anything you say around and put it on paper to use in a negative 
way against you, in order to fit a stereotypical mold they have.

-MA112

The only interactions with social workers that I have experienced 
has been with "counselors" who work in the prisons. I find most of 
them to be unqualified to offer any real help, and unwilling to do 
what little they might be qualified to do. They are here to pick 
up a paycheck, not to increase the quality of life for prisoners. 
They are the 1990s version of the "poverty pimps" of the 1960s.

Everyone benefits from the crimes of prisoners except the 
prisoners themselves, and "counselors" are no exception. They are 
part of the administration in every conceivable way, and are more 
interested in security than in anyone's mental health. Many 
prisoners are psychologically disturbed. A great number of women 
in prison have been raped as adults and/or sexually abused as 
children. They have been beaten and otherwise abused by husbands 
and lovers, and many have suffered the permanent loss of custody 
of their children as a result of their imprisonment.

These are issues which weigh heavily on a woman's mind, and she 
may benefit from being able to deal with these matters in a 
confidential and effective counseling session. However, when there 
are three or four counselors for 700 prisoners, no one has time to 
sit and talk. It is easier to recommend that the prisoner be seen 
by the psychiatrist, who will then summarily prescribe anti-
depressant medication (without regard for whether the woman 
actually needs it or not). I do not discuss any confidential 
matters with the counselors here, and avoid them as much as 
possible, inasmuch as they are ineffective, anyway.

-MA854

As far as the questions concerning social workers, you have some 
that work with you and some that don't, the same goes for 
psychologists and psychiatrists. And then you have some of the 
same ones which, ITAL need help, END period. I don't believe 
giving someone drugs will help them, and if it is detrimental to 
that person's health, no way.

-MA858

No, I don't feel they're effective at all-psychologists are 
basically "pushers," they prescribe drugs which turn a person into 
a zombie.

-MA867


Yes, I had interactions with social workers and psychiatrists and 
I find them to be very effective. To a person who is open and 
honest and one who will listen very attentively to constructive 
criticism the social workers and psychiatrists give them they'll 
help heal themselves. Moreover, if a person can't take criticism 
he cannot hope to grow. Growth comes from finding one's weaknesses 
and working to build them into strengths.

-MA807

MC11 replies to MA807: Psychological counseling is designed to 
make its subjects feel better about themselves, so it makes sense 
that MA807-and thousands of others-would find it effective in that 
way. And if after therapy they are better able to do revolutionary 
work, great. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. Typically, 
psychologists tell people they must change certain things about 
themselves in order to "adjust" to the insanity of capitalism.

Once they adjust, patients may indeed be happier, get along better 
with others, etc. It's not easy hating the dominant economic 
system and culture that we're forced to live under. Psychologists 
wish revolutionaries were more "well-adjusted" than we are, so 
that imperialism could go on unabated.

It is often hard to resist the urgings of psychiatrists and social 
workers-especially in hospitals and prisons-to accept the world as 
it is and try to change oneself. If you do resist, they may tell 
you you're being "defensive," or "not willing to grow" and insist 
there must be something wrong with you. 

MIM agrees with MA807; growth comes from finding one's weaknesses 
and working to build them into strengths. But we urge MA807 and 
others like him/her to concentrate on seeking out the weaknesses 
and building the strengths not of themselves as individuals, but 
of a revolutionary vanguard party. When the world is a just place, 
when oppression of all groups over other groups is abolished, the 
people with psychological problems will be the capitalists who 
have to "adjust" to giving up their property so people who were 
crazy enough to want a revolution can eat.

* * *

LIBERATION MEDALLIONS BANNED IN RAHWAY'S CONTROL UNIT

EAST JERSEY STATE PRISON, RAHWAY, N.J., May 7-On April 23 at 11:40 
a.m., upon returning from what is supposed to be a recreation 
yard, a racist feeble-minded pig name Thomas M. Andrews opened up 
the food port to the cell that I'm confined in, and stated: "That 
thing you have around your neck; give it to me."

Of course I didn't heed his racist attempt, so he said: "That 
necklace is unauthorized [when it wasn't]. We don't allow you to 
have those, and I want it." I then requested to speak to the area 
supervisor, but was denied that institutional right by this racist 
dog David Gardella who runs the unit (Delta Wing). Later that 
evening, I was issued a charge, #256 for refusing to obey a staff 
member, for not giving the pig my necklace which HE deemed to be 
unauthorized.

On April 27, I was scheduled for courtline, but had already 
written a letter to the administrator stating the following, in 
part:

"My necklace doesn't present a posture which threatens the 
domestic tranquility, security, or orderly running of the unit, 
therefore, I see no reason for this medallion with the symbol of 
AFRIKA on it, to be declared (by this racist officer) unauthorized 
for retention by this writer, or the prison population.

"My necklace isn't at all detrimental to the correctional 
facility, it doesn't incite violence based on race, religion, 
creed, or nationality, nor does it incite disruptive behavior 
towards prison personnel, programs, or procedures."

My courtline hearing was postponed.

On April 28, the superintendent who oversees the control unit sent 
an investigator from Internal Affairs to get the necklace from me 
so that he could make a ruling on the medallion.

On May 1, I spoke to the superintendent, who told me that he 
might, or might not, allow the medallion because it's "political." 
I corrected him and said: It's a LIBERATION MEDALLION, which is 
part of my heritage. He then said: "I'll get back to you this week 
on it."

On May 7, a memo came out stating that the "HOTEP MEDALLION" is 
now in violation of policy. The memo states: After 15 days, any 
inmate in possession of a hotep medallion will be issued a charge. 
It's also clear that authorities who run the control unit here 
have a problem with PEACE or the word "PEACE," which is what 
"HOTEP" means.

These two racist pigs had no problem with these medallions until 
it came down to me. I'm one of the 31 prisoners sent to ACSU from 
Trenton State Prison's Readjustment Unit, and in their ignorance, 
they think I'm a member, or that I'm connected to what the 
Department of Corrections here in New Jersey calls a Terrorist 
Organization within the prisons.

This so-called organization was alleged to have brutally beaten 
prison guards in Trenton, along with the alleged escape attempt 
last year that was broadcast here on the news networks, and in the 
newspapers, which resulted in 31 prisoners being kidnapped on a 
midnight operation and brought here to Rahway. Subsequent to that, 
I'm being harassed as well as others. Racism in this control unit 
is so thick, you'll need a chain-saw to cut it.

MC11 responds:

Like the liberation medallions, MIM Notes has also been 
"unauthorized for retention" at East Jersey State Prison. And at 
Trenton State Prison, not even a state appeals court ruling that a 
prisoner's constitutional rights had been violated by the prison 
administration's censorship of the MIM newspaper has made it 
possible for MIM Notes to get through to prisoners there.

Like the medallions, MIM Notes does not overtly threaten the 
security or orderly running of the prison-it does not incite 
violence. But it is not just arbitrary racism that causes the 
prison administration to label both items contraband. As symbols 
of the Black national liberation struggle, the medallions help to 
educate and organize prisoners.

MIM Notes, a revolutionary newspaper that seeks to arm its readers 
with the information and analysis necessary to organize against 
the imperialist state, serves a similar purpose. Prison officials 
are right to fear the knowledge that both convey, and the action 
that often follows such knowledge. Their censorship simply exposes 
Amerikan liberal democracy for the sham that it is. There are no 
civil rights. There is no freedom of speech or expression. If 
there was, the Amerikan imperialists could not maintain control of 
the state.

Still, MIM fully supports prisoners' attempts to demand that the 
"right" to read MIM Notes and wear liberation medallions be 
enforced. Sometimes the state can be shamed into protecting 
revolutionary expression, and we should take advantage of its 
hypocrisy in every way we can.

* * *

THE CAUSE OF THE APRIL UPRISING

by a prisoner

How much oppression will a whole people accept before getting fed 
up? How much longer will it take before a whole people learn that 
oppression is bad for one's mental and physical health? How much 
oppression can a whole people endure without organizing for power 
to end it? How long must a whole people be sick and tired of 
oppression before rising up against it? How long is too long? Over 
400 years maybe?

The peculiar relationship between the Euro-Amerikkkan imperialist 
system experienced everyday by the oppressed men, women and 
children of Afrikan descent are mirror reflections of the vicious 
brutality that was inflicted on Rodney Glen King, a Black man, on 
March 3, 1991.

On that Sunday the political police viciously beat Rodney Glen 
King on the public highway in Los Angeles in broad view of 
numerous eye witnesses. In the process some compassionate human 
being, or maybe some opportunist individual, video-taped the 
shocking incident. The political police tried to lie their way out 
of it as usual, but the motion picture contradicted everything 
they said. Had it not been for the camera pictures, Rodney Glen 
King would have been framed on trumped-up charges, as well as 
beaten down badly as he was.

The political police go upside our head whenever they feel like 
it. They kill us for sport. They get their kicks out of killing; 
all for fun and play. Colonialist and neocolonialist police 
brutality is epidemic. We are well aware that they carry licenses 
to murder with impunity.

We're in the midst of a revolution. The mass uprising all across 
the USA on April 29 is no different than the March 21, 1960 
Sharpeville Massacre, and the June 16, 1976 Soweto Uprising in the 
other USA.[The other USA refers to the original colonial name of 
the Republic of South Africa: The Union of South Africa.]

Under increasing public pressure the government reluctantly filed 
criminal charges of excessive force against the white police men 
in the video-taped beating of Rodney Glen King. A sham court trial 
was staged and shortly after the mostly-white jury acquittal of 
the white policemen, angry demonstrators, some carrying posters, 
placards and banners that read "Stop Police Abuse!" attacked 
police headquarters. The mass uprising was on.

The jury's verdict was the spark that ignited the volatile powder 
keg. Official government reports intentionally labeled the 
discontented, oppressed masses as rioters, criminals and marauding 
gangs, so as to deny the stark reality of our oppression and human 
rights struggle for self-determination. Police and prison guards 
are paid to violate our human rights. That is also how they get 
promoted.

The ruling class colonial masters and their lap dog, privileged 
few lackeys are to blame for the mass unrest. They deliberately 
mislead the public, not to reduce the social, economic causes of 
crime and poverty-but solely to gain political popularity, money 
and votes. This is typical hypocrisy of imperialist governors and 
governments masquerading as defenders of people's rights or human 
rights. They blame the poor people for the wretchedness of their 
own miserable existence. The uprising was long overdue.

As to be expected, opportunistic apologists were quick to do 
everything they could to repudiate the uprising. Squirming out of 
cracks and crevices of lust dens like immoral puppets in a freak 
show, jet-set, boot-licking Uncle Toms (and Auntie Toms) run 
frantic track relays competing to do the bidding for their 
colonial master puppeteers.

Gluttonous television celebrities and misleaders prod the poor, 
oppressed masses to be nonviolent in the face of violence, begging 
helpless victims to have faith in the system that sucks their 
precious blood like parasites. They try to prevent the people from 
fighting for their human rights in an attempt to dash the people's 
aspirations. They have a long history of selling us out.

These political prostitutes are today's house slaves. They've got 
a stake in the Amerikan empire's imperialist system. They think, 
feel and believe that they are better than those who slave in the 
field and lived outside the white masters' and mistresses' house. 
They're the Black primitive petty-bourgeoisie, middle class 
buffers between the poor wretched slaves and the upper class slave 
masters.

This is the reason why we're unable to make any meaningful 
progressive changes within the political election process. We need 
a full scale revolution from this economic system into a better 
one that benefits the needs of the whole people. All conscious 
people today who have been oppressed are revolutionary.

The oppressed who are not revolutionary haven't yet awakened. 
Prestige means illusion. It is like being asleep or unconscious. 
To willingly accept the authority of the colonialist government 
system as legitimate power over your life is prestige. But 
prestige breaks down when you begin to question their authority: 
where did they get it from? You see clearly that colonialism is 
detrimental to your health.

The government prosecuted their hired guns in a mock show trial in 
an attempt to appease (pacify) the people and prop up the image of 
prestige in their minds. While hidden from view by huge curtains 
they manipulated the controls of the machinery like the Wizard of 
Oz that gave the appearance that it was something to be feared and 
obeyed without question. Like all arrogant systems of oppression 
they took for granted that the people wouldn't catch on to the 
trick. But they were mistaken. Everything wasn't covered. Their 
naked behinds were stuck out for all to see.

White jurors who acquitted the white policemen in the video-taped 
beating are the same type of jurors who eagerly convict Black 
people on the flimsiest evidence in any court case, especially 
when faced with the death penalty. These are not mere civil rights 
issues that involve the internal affairs of the USA judicial 
system, because the judges and courts are tools of the 
colonialist, imperialist police state who enforce the system of 
oppression worldwide.

Had the jury returned a guilty verdict against those particular 
hired guns of political oppression, instead of acquittal, the 
uprising still would have happened eventually, because the Rodney 
Glen King case is only one out of the countless millions of people 
brutalized for years by this criminal system of government. The 
USA thrives off crime and war. Without it they would have never 
come into being.

Wars are fought to get control of land, and to repel invaders. 
Wars are also fought for booty (money, natural resources), and in 
defense of women and children. We're already at war. A bloody one 
for national and international liberation. It has been going on 
for well over 400 years. It is an integral part of our story of 
waging war against kidnappers, rapists, oppression, repression, 
slavery, imperialism and colonialism. In one word: genocide!

There have been some joyous periods of high tides and many joyless 
low tides of activity in our independence movement to win this 
protracted war. The April uprising is a clear sign that the 
struggle continues.