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.
Under Lock and Key is missing from this issue.--mim5@mim.org
I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T M O N T H L Y
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
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
X X X X X X XX X X X X X
X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 72 JANUARY, 1993
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. MAKING AFRICA SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY: YANKEE SANTAS FORCE FEED SOMALIA
2. LETTERS
3. EX-PANTHER MUMIA ABU JAMAL FACES DEATH PENALTY
4. CRACKDOWN IN PERU CAN'T STEM THE TIDE OF REVOLUTION
5. THE PEOPLE'S WAR WILL WIN: YOU WILL SEE IT!
6. US GULF WAR BENEFITS TRICKLE-DOWN IN BLOOD
7. WHITE COPS SHOOT BLACK COP
8. ARMY WANTS TO EXTERMINATE HOMELESS
9. GAY ACTIVISTS CLOSE RANKS WITH CLINTON
10. RUSSIAN FARMERS FIRE CAPITALIST DIRECTOR
11. CARDBOARD BLACKMAN PUTS PIGS IN A PANIC
12. IS PARIS BURNING?
13. US PREPARES TO CONTROL BLACK FERTILITY
14. WRAP YOUR WILLIE
15. CNN CALLS FOR ANTI-COMMUNIST WITCH HUNT
16. MOHAWKS STALEMATE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
17. BOUGAINVILLE FIGHTS BACK
18. SPIKE LEE ASSASSINATES THE REAL MALCOLM X
19. CANADA CORRECTION
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
* * *
MAKING AFRICA SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY: YANKEE SANTAS FORCE FEED SOMALIA
by MC86
Fresh from celebrating 500 years of colonial conquest, the United
States has embarked upon the initial military phase of a master
plan to directly control Somalia and the Horn of Africa. Don't be
fooled. Imperialism does not "aid"--it invests. The goals are:
military domination, superexploitation of labor, and access and
control of valuable resources.
The Christian Science Monitor reports, "...The CIA has advised
President Bush that restoring order in Somalia could require an
extended international presence, possibly including a UN
protectorate." The U.S. government is lying when it swears that
the ITALIC invasion END of Somalia is a "humanitarian" mission and
that its 28,000 death-troops will leave Somalia in January.
SOMALIA: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE
by MC86
As revolutionaries and internationalists, MIM has no illusions
about the United States invasion of Somalia: the U.S. military is
engaged in a search and destroy campaign designed to disarm the
Somali people and partition the country into four "zones" that can
be policed from the air.
Somaliland, in the north, which declared its national independence
in May, 1991, will be cut in half. The northern port cities of
Berbera and Boosaaso will become base-areas for imperialist
domination. In the south, the port cities of Mogadishu and Kismayo
are likewise intended to provide imperialist troops and their
client non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with air-supportable
bases (1) for the destruction of Somali civilization.
As a propaganda cover for this phase of the imperialist master
plan to squelch the self-determination of African nations, the
media tells us that Somalia is "hell on earth."
In contradistinction to this claim, Dun & Bradstreet recently
wrote: "Somalia has lovely beaches, excellent skin-diving, and
numerous species of East African wildlife."(2) In fact, Somalia,
slightly smaller than the state of Texas, provides water and
range-land for over 4 million cattle and 5.5 million camels tended
by 70% of its pre-invasion population of 6.7 million.(3)
The export of livestock to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Kenya
has historically provided Somalis with a commercial living for 100
years.(4) During this century, Somalis resisted the colonial
depredations of Britain and Italy by developing a complex, highly
flexible system of livestock production and marketing that
flourished in both the formal and informal (underground)
sectors--even as the neocolonial multi-nationals twisted Somalia
into a cash-crop growing, sugar-importing dependency.
The ridiculously small per capita Somali Gross National Product
(GNP) of $210 (5) obscures the resilience of the Somali people in
surviving environmental disasters created by the policies of
imperialist institutions such as the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Bank.
The "aid"
Western and Soviet capital supported the fallen comprador regime
of militarist Siad Barre with weapons and cash for 20 years in
order to dominate the price of Somali livestock sold in Middle
Eastern markets and to maintain Somalia as a dumping-ground for
surplus Western agricultural commodities disguised as "food-aid."
This "aid" effectively undercut all attempts by Somalia to develop
self-sufficiency in essential grains and in the production of
industrial products.
Deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion and desertification
occurred (5) as a direct result of Western capital's manipulation
of Somalia's agricultural infrastructure away from the production
of necessities such as livestock, feed, and subsistence grains,
and into the production of bananas and sugar for profitable
export.(7) In the 1970s, Kelloggs, Inc., schemed unsuccessfully to
create a fishing industry in a land of pastoral nomads.(8)
World War III in Africa reached a new stage in the 1980s as
Western corporations temporarily withdrew from the continent.
"As the world economy has become increasingly regionalized within
North American, West European and East Asian blocs, the
technological and materials revolution associated with this
process has rendered many of Africa's staple exports
redundant."(9)
As the multinationals abandoned African copper mines, for example,
in favor of the manufacture of fiber-optics in the cheap
industrial labor markets of the vast Pacific Rim--the IMF/World
Bank juggernaut massively increased its activities in 30 African
countries. "Trade liberalization," "privatization" and
"monetarization" became catch-words for destructive currency
devaluations, eliminations of price controls and protective
tariffs, the dismantling of state-run enterprises, and the forced
reduction of government spending in the areas of health and
education.(10)
In Somalia, this attack translated into an infant mortality rate
of 116 deaths per 1,000 live births (11), a female literacy rate
of 14%, and the expropriation of the Somali national wealth
through a calculated process that drove the international exchange
value of the Somalia shilling from 15.6 per U.S. dollar in 1983
down to 38,000 shillings per U.S. dollar in 1991.(12) Somalia
currently imports seven times what it exports (5) and its debt to
GNP ratio (200%) is such that Somalia's economy "is little more
than collateral for outstanding debt." By comparison, the debt to
GNP ratio of famine-racked Sudan is a mere 100%!(13)
Since 1989 net capital inflow to Third World countries has become
a net outflow, as net transfers from imperialist countries turned
around, from $21 billion in 1984 to negative $53 billion this
year.(13) This unprecedented sucking of Third World wealth occurs
in a climate where the monopolists are restructuring the social
division of labor and wage levels of the one billion-strong First
World masses who benefit from imperialist parasitism--at the
expense of the exploited and oppressed 80%.
As Amerikan industrial productivity stagnates (14), the balance
sheet of U.S. corporate net assets showed a decline from $111.1
billion in 1980 to $70.8 billion in 1991 (down 36.3%).(15) The
tendency of the rate of profit to fall necessitates a wide range
of imperialist counteractive responses ranging from genocide
through food "aid" to burying a helpless Third World army alive in
the sand.
Imperialism moves in
The word "underdevelopment" no longer suffices to describe the
imperialist attack upon Africa's 795 million people--of whom 50%
are severely malnourished and perhaps 100 million carry the HIV
virus. The NGOs followed on the heels of IMF/World Bank edicts to
enforce the python-like swallowing of Africa and prepare the
ground for military occupation of strategic African ports.
"On July 3, 1987, the Somali Peoples Assembly gave its final
approval to a foreign investment law which was ... another step in
the government's efforts to encourage private sector development....
Profit ... may be freely transferred abroad."(16)
In the wake of Soviet bankruptcy, Siad Barre cast his people into
Amerikan jaws. The 1987 legislation opened up Somalia to invasion
by a consortium of NGOs directly funded by the governments of
Amerika, Britain and France.
Food Aid Management, U.S. Institute of Peace, Africa Watch, Oxfam,
Physicians for Human Rights, Medecine San Frontieres, Bread for
the World, International Medical Corps, UNICEF, CARE, World
Vision, Action Internationale Contre le Faim, Concern, Save the
Children, and the International Red Cross bombarded Somalia with
hundreds of thousands of tons of "free" commodities, thereby
disintegrating the Somali economy and ending the ability of its
ruling classes to govern.
The NGOs side-stepped Siad Barre and seized control of the Somali
government by financing 70% of its annual operating budget.(17)
NGOs systematically starved the Somali people by regulating the
Somali food supply and effectively barring all non-NGO controlled
commodities from Somalia. The NGOs extinguished the "natural" flow
of internal commodity-exchanges as they actively promoted the
hoarding of food in the urban areas and left the countryside to
wither.(18)
In its own class interests, the national bourgeoisie took
advantage of Barre's weakened grip and overthrew him in January
1991. They also blew up the U.S. Embassy. Now factions of this
bourgeoisie, which built its wealth on control of the defunct
livestock export industry, may be forced to unite against the
imperialist military invasion.
By breaking Somalia up into imperialist-patrolled zones, the
occupiers intend to maintain splits in the Somali nationalist
forces. The NGOs will oversee the transformation of Somalia's
economy from its former relative independence into outright
enslavement to corporativized mines and factories.
"Stephen Hayes, director of USAID's office of external affairs,
says the plan for U.S. aid is simple. Emergency food will be given
free now to those who need it most. Later, much of it will be sold
to merchants in the hope that 'monetarization' will help rebuild a
shattered economy."(18)
By flooding the urban markets with "free" food, the NGOs force
depletion of hoarded stocks as their Somali keepers desperately
try to unload them before they become valueless. By monopolizing
the sale of foodstuffs and medicines, the NGOs will achieve
complete control of Somalia's distribution system.
U.S. troops are in Somalia to enforce this NGO-led market
transformation; to kill any dissenters; and to control the exodus
of Somalis. To date, 980,000 people (15% of the population) have
fled Somalia. More than half a million (12%) are projected to die
of starvation.(1) The United States wants enough Somalis alive to
carry out its planned economic subsumption.
The bottom line
"After a decade of declining involvement in Africa, Americans are
showing a new interest in the continent, drawn by widespread moves
towards democracy and reforms ... competition is not nearly so
intense as in more developed areas of the world."(19)
"Daniel Montana, a California investment banker with extensive
experience in the former Communist bloc, said, 'Africa offers
immediate prospects for profitable investments. Everything is in
place--a legal system, basic transportation and communication ... the
infrastructure will not be ready in most of Eastern Europe and the
[ex-] Soviet Union for 5-10 years."(19)
What Montana really means is that the costs of World War III in
Bosnia, for example, are complicating orderly imperialist
domination at this time.
In a show of optimism, Alison Rosenberg, U.S. Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for Africa chortled, "Even though it is very
far away and relatively unknown, the news is spreading, that you
can do business in Africa."(19) The Somali masses have absolutely
nothing to lose by fighting these monsters to the last breath.
Notes:
1. Africa Confidential 8/28/92, p. 2.
2. Exporter's Encyclopedia, Dun & Bradstreet, 1992, p. 1255.
3. CIA World Factbook 1991; "Traders, Brokers and Market 'Crisis'
in Southern Somalia," Peter D. Little, ITALIC Africa END
International African Institute, Vol. One, 1992, p. 97.
4. Little, op cit, p. 99.
5. CIA World Factbook 1991.
6. Little, op cit, p. 112.
7. Agribusiness in Africa, Dinham/Hines, Africa World Press, 1984,
p. 76.
8. Ibid., p. 45.
9. Middle East Reports Sept/Oct 1991, p. 27.
10. Africa News 5/1/89, p. 2.
11. CIA World Factbook 1991; by comparison the U.S. infant
mortality rate is 10/1000.
12. Little, op cit, p. 100; CIA World Factbook 1991.
13. Africa Today 1990 4th Quarter, p. 16.
14. The Pulse of Capitalism 92-3, p. 1.
15. The Economist 9/19/92.
16. Exporter's Encyclopedia, p. 1253.
17. Little, op cit, p. 100.
18. CSM 9/2/92, p. 4.
19. Africa News 12/9/91, p. 2.
* * *
LETTERS
MORE TO MAO THAN PUBLIC SCHOOL TOLD?
Dear MIM,
I just saw an issue of MIM Notes, and I was surprised, to say the
least. I had always been taught that Mao Zedong was a totalitarian
dictator who burned books and murdered intellectuals. Hence,
although I have considered myself a socialist for quite some time,
I had always shunned Maoism. When I read your newsletter, though,
I realized that there must be more to Mao than American public
schools taught me. (Surprise, surprise!) You people seem to be
truly committed to free exchange of ideas and human rights for
everyone.
So now, I want to know your side of it, warts and all. I want to
know what about Chairman Mao inspires you, and frankly, what
doesn't. The man was human; he must have made an error in
judgement now and then. I only respect a movement if it's willing
to tell as much "truth" as it knows. The whole reason I got fed up
with supporting the Capitalist Patriarchal Racist Homophobic
Multinational Multi-Death State is because its Big Lie was too
smooth, too seamless. I desperately hope that, if you tell me the
truth, I'll be so inspired by the good ideas Mao had that I'll
want to join you. So please don't bullshit me.
When the Rev. Al Sharpton encouraged Tawana Brawley to lie about
being attacked, he hurt the cause of all African-Americans.
(Technically, I don't know for sure that she lied, but that would
have been one hell of an expensive cover-up, and the Powers That
Be have plenty of more important information to suppress.)
Peace, Love and Understanding
--an open-minded radical
November 1992
P.S. I trust you with my name; I don't trust the government forces
that carried this letter to you, though.
A LETTER TO MY DOCTOR
MIM responds,
We appreciate this friend taking the time to write to MIM. MIM is
not interested in lying or even softening the truth, as seasoned
MIM Notes readers well know. Speaking the truth can only help us.
The more knowledge and truth the masses have, the more they will
become communist revolutionaries.
MIM hopes that our readers will be inspired or interested enough
in something that the paper says that they will seek us out to ask
more detailed questions. This comrade received a response too long
and detailed to print here (which is available to any who are
interested--just write and ask for a copy, or see future issues of
MIM Theory).
MIM upholds Mao Zedong Thought as a revolutionary political
methodology that is correct: practice is principal and through
practice we will develop effective theory. Mao as an individual
was not perfect, he himself admitted mistakes and made public
self- criticism. But because of his correct methodology and
understanding of revolutionary science Mao led the most advanced
revolutionary movement in history.
MIM distributes a number of books and essays that discuss the
mistakes made in China both before and during the Cultural
Revolution. Had there been no mistakes, China would still be
socialist today. ITAL Maoism regards practice as principal and
learns from history: both from successes and failures. END As we
continue to put revolutionary theory into practice we will
continue to learn from our mistakes and those of our predecessors
as we continually improve on our practice and theory. Only when we
reach communism will we know that we have learned all the lessons
that the successes and failures of history have to teach us.
MIM doesn't know whether Tawana Brawley lied. In the long run, the
exact facts of the case are not as important as the massive amount
of money and resources the bourgeoisie, through its media organs,
spent trying to prove she was lying. This witch hunt was in gross
disproportion to the total lack of investigation done when Blacks
are accused of assaulting whites.
A LETTER TO MY DOCTOR
by Africa, Jr., the 391st
Dear Doctor,
As an officer of the Geneva Towers Tenant's Association and the
Resident Council Grievance Committee, it is often my duty to
assist management and tenants in resolving their differences.
One would think that this would be an open and shut case. But this
only leads to what I can only regard--in the most charitable
sense--as management's insensitivity to tenant problems and tenant
participation in solving problems.
The reason for this "insensitivity" is that the owner and manager
of Geneva Towers (HUD & John Stewart Company, respectively) create
most of the problems by directing the off-duty police officers
(moonlighting as Geneva Towers security forces) to terrorize and
brutalize the residents on a daily basis. In addition to this
armed terror, we have a situation where over 250 of the 466
families that resided here on June 6, 1991 have been unjustly
evicted and are no longer within our community. Over 70% of these
families became homeless.
I could write 200 more pages listing the genocide activities
directed by HUD and the John Stewart Company against the Black
Nation residing (and no longer residing) in the Towers; but the
above is enough to condemn the perpetrators.
I am concerned, Doctor, about the painful stresses being inflicted
upon this innocent community--including upon yours truly.
I become uncomfortable--and probably stand upon unstable
ground--when my co-Chairs and myself urge these very stunned,
worried victims to seek professional help through their doctors.
Since we are not medical experts, we pray that we have not crossed
any medical or ethical lines. But often the medical profession
does not realize the full scope of the daily horror that is our
life under the current management at Geneva Towers. Too often the
medical profession blames the victims and does not care to
challenge the actual causes of our anxieties. You see the problem
here?
We base our actions upon what we most strongly believe to be our
duty as elected representatives of the people of Geneva Towers. We
are God-fearing, compassionate human beings and we have an
obligation to protect our constituents. And yet, the world outside
our oppressed communities often remains willfully blind to the
source of our pain.
I enclose a letter and a memorandum that our community recently
sent to HUD Secretary Jack Kemp. I know how busy you are but I
also know that you are a professional who will not view our
concerns as an infringement upon your time.
The world should know that the crimes committed against are
carried out by Black and white off-duty police officers and Black
administrators at the order of white and Black bureaucrats. We try
to maintain our human dignity as we wait twenty-four hours a day
inside our toxic apartments for our Evictors to knock harshly upon
the door.
As a medical expert you surely have insights into how stressful it
is to be in a constant state of worry that vicious off-duty police
will kill and maim our children on their way to and from school
and while at play. Even our friends and relatives dare not visit
us for fear of being jacked up, searched, sexually molested and
beaten by "security."
My co-Chair and I interviewed a very worried and angry mother the
other day. We listened to her sob and tell us how her twelve year-
old son was handcuffed and maced in the face by these so-called
"guards." Her other son was also maced on that same night and the
"guards" planted just enough crack-cocaine on him to send him up
for a heavy sentence. It is a fact, Doctor, that these same guards
are the main drug-dealers in these Towers.
We talked to another mother and her nine year-old daughter who
related the most horrifying encounter with "security" yet. This
nine year-old girl was told by an off-duty policeman that he was,
"Going up to her apartment to fuck her mother." When the child
objected to this vile and degenerate statement, the officer pulled
out his 357. pistol and pointed it at the nine year-old's head as
he threatened to "blow her fucking brains out."
John Stewart Company's Black "Chief" of Security, and other
corrupted Blacks sitting behind the desks at HUD, safely shield
the beneficiaries of this system from charges of "racism." When
Black is instructed to beat, sexually molest and terrorize Black:
management calls such vile and criminal actions "reprimands."
Thurgood Marshall put it best in a recent television interview
when he said, "It doesn't matter if its a white viper or a Black
viper that bites you. Most often its fatal and, certainly,
irreversible harm will result."
What, in your opinion Doctor, is the ultimate medical price of
this kind of conscious harm to victimized individuals? What is the
bottom-line moral price to society? Where is the bottom-line to be
actually drawn beyond which a just people dare not allow
themselves to fall without taking action in their own self-
defense? Surely such actions of self-defense cannot but be
applauded by a just society? The alternative to self-defense is
compliant participation in our own destruction. That, Doctor,
would be suicidal insanity.
DEATH TO MIM
Dear MIM,
WHY DON'T YOU MOTHERFUCKERS GIVE AN ADDRESS
THAT WAY WE CAN PUT 1000 KILOS OF DINAMITE AND BLOW YOUR FUCKED UP
BRAINS.
I WISH ALL YOU BASTARDS DIE THE WAY MORE THAN 27000 DIED AT PERU.
FUCK YOU ALL!
I WISH I COULD FIND AN ADDRESS OF YOURS AND GO AND KILL YOUR
CHILDREN TOO.
BE CAREFULL WITH YOUR CHILDREN
THEY WILL DIE SAME WAY YOU KILL SO MANY CHILDREN IN PERU
an enemy in the east
--November,1992
MIM responds,
First, to set the record straight, the Peruvian Communist Party
(PCP) has not killed 27,000 people. True, about 27,000 people have
died in the 12-year uprising of the people of Peru against the
Peruvian government. However, the writer errs in the attribution
of these deaths, the vast majority of whom were at the bloody
hands of the government and the army, using Amerikan money and
arms. An additional uncountable number of people have died of
starvation as a result of the exploitation and oppression by the
Peruvian government. The masses' uprising, led by the PCP, is
justified and the few people they have killed have been members or
stooges of the government in specific and very targeted attacks.
MIM prints this letter not primarily to respond to the author(s)
as they clearly are not interested in real political dialogue.
Rather we use this to clarify the historical record, and hope that
this will serve in some small way to explain to our readers who
still doubt the validity of our security policies and underground
organizing practice. MIM knows that reactionary class, nation and
gender interests present revolutionaries with a real threat.
MIM understands that the threats contained in this letter reflect
the actual practice of the government and its allies in their
struggles against revolutionary movements in this country. The
harassment, murder and imprisonment of many of the members of the
Black Panther Party was not merely an antiquated tactic of the
past. Imperialist governments continue with these tactics today as
is evidenced in their harassment and armed siege of the Mohawks in
Canada, the revolutionary nationalist Black and Latino groups in
this country, and the harassment of MIM and other revolutionary
and even just leftist groups in this country.
Those who would publicly compromise our security, even if it is
just to ask our names, professions, or phone numbers, should be
conscious of whose hands we hope to keep this information from.
There are far more important issues to discuss than the names of
MIM's comrades and associates. Our readers should be aware that
those who are really interested in our phone numbers, etc., are
often only interested in carrying out the threats contained in
this letter. Send $1 to MIM for a copy of the essay, "What is a
Pig Question?"
* * *
EX-PANTHER MUMIA ABU JAMAL FACES DEATH PENALTY
by MC251
On December 9, several hundred people marched to Philadelphia's
City Hall to demand freedom for death row prisoner Mumia Abu
Jamal, organized by Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu
Jamal, and a Mumia support committee from New York. December 9
marked the 11-year anniversary of Mumia's arrest.
Mumia Abu Jamal has been on death row since 1982 in Pennsylvania
for allegedly killing a police officer. He was driving his cab on
December 9, 1981 when he witnessed police beating up his brother,
William. He stopped and attempted to intervene, and in the
confusion, Mumia was shot in the stomach, and a police officer was
killed. Mumia maintains that he did not kill the cop. Many
eyewitnesses confirm Mumia's story--they say that the man who shot
the cop ran away from the scene.
Ex-Panther Dhruba bin Wahad, who served 19 years behind bars on
bogus charges fabricated as part of the FBI's counterintelligence
program (COINTELPRO) to destroy the Black Panther Party and the
Black Liberation Army (BLA), addressed the crowd in Philadelphia.
He emphasized that the state would prefer to kill Mumia, therefore
it is up to the masses to rise up and make that too politically
costly. He stressed the need for revolutionary leadership in the
Black community, and for challenging Black "leaders" who don't
serve the interests of the Black masses.
A representative of the New Afrikan Peoples Organization (NAPO),
spoke about the need for self-determination and for a National
Liberation struggle for Blacks in Amerika. He said that as long
as Blacks are under the jurisdiction of Amerika, there will be no
justice for Black people, and cases such as those of Mumia and
Dhruba will continue to occur.
Black men being shot by police and then being accused of being the
killers is nothing unusual in Amerika. But Mumia's case is unusual
in that his Black Panther past was used against him in court to
get him the death penalty. Mumia went from being a prominent Black
Panther in the late 1960s (at age 16 he was Minister of
Information of the Philadelphia Black Panthers) to go on to become
a prominent journalist in Philadelphia's Black community during
the 1970s. He was known as "the voice of the voiceless." What most
earned him the wrath of the cops in Philadelphia was his coverage
and support of the MOVE organization, a Black revolutionary group
which follows the teachings of John Africa.
MOVE describes their purpose as, "to stop industry from poisoning
the air, the water, the soil, and to put an end to the enslavement
of life--people, animals, any form of life.
"The purpose of John Africa's revolution is to show people how
corrupt, rotten, criminally enslaving this system is...Our work is
to confront this system upfront to show people not only that they
ITAL can END fight this system and win, but to show them the
urgent ITAL need END to fight."(1)
MOVE has been the target of some of the most vicious pig
repression in recent Amerikan history. In 1978, Philadelphia's
Mayor Rizzo blockaded the MOVE house, and when this failed to
starve them out, he called in a 600 person SWAT team. In the
assault on MOVE, one cop was killed, by what appears to have been
police crossfire. Eleven MOVE members were sentenced for this one
murder. In the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the cops routinely
harassed and beat MOVE members. One beating of a pregnant woman
resulted in a miscarriage, and another beating caused the death of
a child. Then, of course, there was the police bombing of the MOVE
house in 1985, which killed 11 MOVE members and burned down an
entire city block.
At his trial, this dialogue was used to justify giving Mumia the
death penalty.
Q: (To Mumia:) "Do you recall saying, 'All power to the people?'"
A: "Yes."
Q: "Do you believe your actions as well as your philosophy are
consistent with the quote: 'Political power grows out of the
barrel of a gun?'"
A: "I believe that America has proven that quote to be true."
Mumia had written these words in articles for the Black Panther
newspaper.
While most Black men on death row languish without any notice or
support from outside, Mumia has gained the support of many
different organizations (with many different intentions) to get
him off death row. The MOVE organization and a new community group
called Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal are both
working on Mumia's case, as well as a few other community and
student groups.
But there are also some Trotskyist groups who are
opportunistically leeching off of Mumia, attempting to use this
revolutionary Black nationalist prisoner to advance their own
white-nation unity agenda. Most prominent in this regard is the
Spartacist League and their front group, Partisan Defense
Committee (send $1 for MIM's full critique of the Sparts). While
in their literature they disdain Black nationalism as reactionary,
they provide "support" to many of the more prominent Black
nationalist prisoners, including Mumia and Geronimo ji Jaga
(Pratt), essentially using the prisoners' reputations and name
recognition to build their own non-revolutionary agenda.
The criminal justice system in Amerika is just that--criminal. All
Black people in Amerika's prisons are "political prisoners." The
Black Panthers, in their ten point program, didn't just call for
the release of "political" prisoners, but instead called for the
release of all Black people from Amerikan prisons, as the Amerikan
justice system has no legitimacy or jurisdiction over the
colonized Black nation.
While MIM supports honest work to get any Black prisoners off
death row and out of prison, we question the effectiveness of
trying to win Black prisoners' freedom one at a time, without
exposing the illegitimacy of the entire Amerikan justice system.
It is not because of individual quirks that Mumia ended up on
death row--the Amerikan criminal justice system exists precisely to
get rid of people like Mumia. Winning Mumia's freedom or even
getting him off death row would be a good thing, but what about
all the other Black prisoners who didn't happen to be in the Black
Panthers? Where's the support for them? MIM focuses our work on
all prisoners fighting against oppression, not just on individual
celebrity cases. While MIM would love to see Mumia freed, we
choose to focus our energy on building revolutionary Maoist
consciousness and organizing among all prisoners. We're interested
in building political unity among oppressed people to effectively
end imperialism & patriarchy.
Mumia says of Black youth today, "They are the children of the
L.A. Rebellion, the children of the MOVE bombing, the children of
the Black Panthers, and the grandchildren of Malcolm; far from
"lost" they are probably the most aware generation since Nat
Turner's; they are not so much "lost," as they are "misled,"
discarded by this increasingly racist system that undermines their
inherent worth. They are ITAL all END potential revolutionaries,
with the historic power to transform our dull realities. If they
are "lost"--then ITAL find END them."(2)
MIM intends not only to "find" them, but to build a political
organization with the most effective program and strategy for
liberating oppressed nations--Maoism.
Notes:
1. Statement by MOVE, excerpted from Love & Rage July/August 1992,
p. 4. (Love & Rage is a revolutionary anarchist newsmonthly
available for $1 from Box 3 Prince St Station, New York, NY
10012.)
2. Breakthrough magazine Fall 1992, p. 46. From Mumia's article
"The Lost Generation?" written June 1, 1992. (Breakthrough is the
magazine of Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, PO Box 14422, San
Francisco, CA 94114)
* * *
CRACKDOWN IN PERU CAN'T STEM THE TIDE OF REVOLUTION
by MC17 & MC12
While U.S. imperialism heaps praise on the regime of Peruvian
dictator Alberto Fujimori, the government of Peru is continuing
its war on the people in a futile attempt to stem the tide. There
are, as Communist Party of Peru (PCP) Chairperson Comrade Gonzalo
says, a lot of "bends in the road" to revolution.
While the dictator threw a personal party on Nov. 22 (which he
called an election), boycotted by all of his serious opponents,
grim tales of personal torture emerged from the gulags in the
south of the country.
A recent delegation to Peru reported that Martha Huatay, founder
of the Association of Democratic Lawyers, was tortured to the
point of being unable to speak at her "trial." Her lawyer, Jorge
Cartegena, said she had been beaten to the point of complete
disorientation. The International Red Cross has also examined her
and found that she had a fractured skull and brain lesions, among
other serious injuries. She was sentenced to life imprisonment, as
was Gonzalo.(4)
The elections created an 80-member congress, after Fujimori
earlier this year dissolved the government and seized complete
control in order to more effectively exercise dictatorial power
and fight the PCP. These elections were to repaint the facade of
democracy in Peru.(2)
The Amerikan press reported the elections as being fair, and yet
admitted in the same breath that there was very low voter
participation (even though voting is required by law) and a large
number of spoiled or blank ballots (60% in some districts). Of the
ballots counted, Fujimori was able to declare a slim victory.(4)
"Big business is pleased that it can continue supporting Mr.
Fujimori with a better conscience since the election and--above
all--that money from multilateral organisations and foreign
governments will be returning to Peru."(5)
Jaime Yoshiyama, Fujimori's candidate, announced a day after the
November 22 elections that: "In the Congress, the first thing we
are going to propose is establishing the death penalty (for
guerrillas) in the new Constitution."(4)
In an attempt to humiliate the PCP and its leader Comrade Gonzalo,
the government placed Gonzalo on show in September through a cage
in front of the press. Unfortunately for them, he turned this
occasion to his advantage and, instead of playing games with the
bourgeois media, he addressed the Peruvian masses (See Sidebar).
The PCP continues to carry out regular armed attacks on Lima and
other government bases, as well as strikes. Despite rumors that
the PCP is helpless without the personal guidance of its leader,
the people have made it quite clear that they continue to be a
very organized and effective revolutionary force.
Notes:
1. NOTIMEX 11/29, from El Diario La Prensa 11/29/92
2. Reuters 11/10/92
3. El Diario Internacional, 10/23/92, number 16
4. Emergency bulletin #16, Nov 30, 1992, International Emergency
Committee to Defend the Life of Abimael Guzm‡n.
5. Economist 11/28/92, p. 43.
* * *
Chairman Gonzalo delivered the following speech on September 24 at
the Headquarters of the Peruvian Anti-Terrorist Police:
THE PEOPLE'S WAR WILL WIN: YOU WILL SEE IT!
Comrades of the Communist Party of Peru, fighters of the People's
Guerrilla Army, Peruvian people: we are living through historic
events, each one of us knows this to be the case. Let us not
deceive ourselves. At his moment we must ready all our forces in
order to continue accomplishing our tasks. And let us win new
victories, including the final one, too!
We are fighting in these trenches: because we are communists!
Because we defend the people's interests, the principles of the
Party, and the People's War! That is what we have been doing, what
we are doing, what we will continue to do! We are here in these
circumstances. Some think this is a great defeat. They are
dreaming. Today we say to them this is merely a bend in the road.
Nothing more! A bend along the road. The road is long, and we will
traverse it completely. We will reach our goal. And we will win!
You will see it!
We must continue with the tasks laid down in the Third Plenary
Session of the Central Committee. What a glorious plenary! This
Third Plenary Session is already on the move, and this will
continue. We will continue to carry out the plans of the People's
War for the seizure of power.... We will continue to unfold the
Sixth Military Plan. That is our task! We will carry it out! With
the proletariat and the people!
Today, the democratic road has begun to unfold as the road to
liberation, as the road to People's liberation! These are the
circumstances in which we are developing our actions. How far have
we come with this? To a strategic equilibrium!
It is useless for people to keep closing their eyes to this. Let
us look at the history of Peru. They should examine the 18th
Century, they should examine the 19th Century, they should examine
the 20th Century--and understand their lessons! If they do not
understand this they will remain blind. There was domination. It
was carried out by the Spanish. And this Spanish domination, where
did it lead us? To an extremely deep crisis! As a result of this,
Peru became divided. From this stemmed the origins of today's
politics.
OK, in the last century: British domination. Where did that lead
us? To another great crisis. The result: war with Chile. Let us
not forget this. What happened? We lost territory. The 20th
Century. How are we doing? There is an imperialism dominating us,
U.S. imperialism. This is real. Everybody knows it. Where has this
led us? Here and now, to the worst crisis in our entire history, a
crisis the likes of which has never been endured by our people.
These twelve years of struggle have served to demonstrate and to
clearly show the people that the Peruvian state and the Peruvian
army are clearly rotten to the core. That they are paper tigers!
What should we do? We must push the people's liberation movement
forward, and develop the people's war. It is time to form a
National Liberation front. It is time to form and develop a
People's Liberation Front, starting from the People's Guerrilla
Army. We will do this. It is what we are doing now, it is what we
are going to follow through on! Maoism is marching relentlessly
forward in its task of forging the new wave of the world
proletarian revolution. Listen well and understand. Those who have
ears--use them. Those who have understanding--we all have it--use it
well....
Next year will be the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of
Chairman Mao. We must celebrate it. We want an unforgettable
celebration. We will start celebrating this year and we will
conclude the celebration next year. I want to take advantage of
this opportunity to salute the international proletariat, the
great oppressed majorities. To all the communists of Peru: the
People's War will inevitably win!
Have faith in the future birth of the People's Republic of Peru.
Glory to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism! Honor and Glory to the Peruvian
People!
ITAL Reprinted from El Diario Internacional October 1992 END
* * *
US GULF WAR BENEFITS TRICKLE-DOWN IN BLOOD
All that charity work has got to pay off, right? After going to
all that trouble to save innocent Kuwaitis and beat back the evil
Iraqis, the U.S. empire had to get a little something out of it.
Part of that little something is an even more complete military
domination of the region. After the war on Iraq ended, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Qatar and Oman have all signed new military protection
agreements with the United States, giving the empire total
military access and control. And, having been gently reminded that
"It's easier to help people who help themselves," the tiny Gulf
oil states have also bought $40 billion worth of weapons (some of
them from France and Britain).
If the imperialist military before the war was "discreet," "The
difference now is palpable. Mirage fighters thunder over Qatar in
daily drill. American sailors crowd the hotels in Abu Dhabi,
Kuwait and Muscat. Joint military exercises at sea and in the air
are so frequent that, to all intents and purposes, the western
military presence is constant."
And that's just the beginning. The new profit-making opportunities
for imperialism are already running into the big billions.
--MC12
Notes: Economist 12/5/92, p. 39.
* * *
WHITE COPS SHOOT BLACK COP
Two white Transit cops shot 21 times at a black undercover cop who
they encountered making an arrest. The Black cop was holding a gun
on a woman that he and his partner were going to arrest for
evading the $1.25 subway fare when they were spotted by three
white cops. Two of the officers opened fire, and one of them even
stopped to reload. In the aftermath of the incident, the police
force that patrols the city's subway system was making plans for
new sensitivity training to keep minority officers from becoming
victims of "friendly fire."
MIM knows that oppressed peoples need revolution--not a sensitive
police force. The genocide committed against the Black nation is
anything but "friendly."
--MA234
Notes: Boston Globe 11/20/92, p. 10.
* * *
ARMY WANTS TO EXTERMINATE HOMELESS
The U.S. Army has announced that it has distributed 1.5 million
DDT contaminated blankets to disaster victims and homeless
people.(1) The Army appears to be following in the footsteps of
British General Jeffrey Amherst who in 1763 ordered that "the
commander of Fort Pitts [give] the attacking Indian chiefs, with
whom he was negotiating, blankets from the smallpox hospital. It
was a pioneering effort at what is now called biological warfare.
An epidemic soon spread among the Indians."(2) Pete Williams,
Defense Department spokesman, said "the safest thing to do, I
guess, is not to use them. Don't wear your old wool uniform and if
you've got an old wool Army blanket that is not stamped "U.S." on
it, don't use it." (The wool Army blankets stamped "U.S." are
safe.)
According to Williams, DDT was used to protect the cloth from
insects prior to its ban by the EPA in 1972. Uniforms and blankets
continued to be made from the poisoned wool as late as 1987. The
Department of Defense, in charge of killing Third World people
around the globe, is sending a clear message to the homeless of
Amerika: "If you survive being homeless, and survive the DDT in
the blankets we gave you, FREEZE."
--MA234
Notes:
1. Boston Globe 11/19/92.
2. Howard Zinn, ITAL A People's History of the United States, END
Harper Collins, New York, 1980, p. 86.
* * *
GAY ACTIVISTS CLOSE RANKS WITH CLINTON
The headline in Bay Windows said it all. "Gay activists are
preparing to work from an unusual place: within the White House."
National gay and lesbian organizations have created the Gay and
Lesbian Community's Presidential Transition Project. "Basically
the goal of this project is to forward and support the appointment
of qualified gay men and lesbians to the Clinton administration,"
said Transition Project spokeswoman Rebecca Tillet. It is
incorrect to think that getting more gays in office will stop AIDS
or gay bashing. It will, however, allow the bourgeois leaders of
these groups to move even farther up the social ladder away from
the Third World proletariat.
Notes: Bay Windows 11/12/92, p.1, 13-14.
* * *
RUSSIAN FARMERS FIRE CAPITALIST DIRECTOR
The giant Zaria collective farm recently fired its capitalist
"reform" director Victor Golov. Attempting to emulate Western
farming techniques, Golov lengthened the work day, paid formerly
salaried workers hourly wages, raised rents, reduced pension
benefits, built himself a mansion, and lost money speculating in
agricultural commodities.
The pensioners were particularly upset about losing free medical
care. "For [the pensioners] free-market reforms have little
allure. And in a country where calling someone 'an individual' is
an insult, almost everyone is wary of new systems that might let a
minority grow rich."(1)
An older woman said that Golov "lived like an individual with his
family. He is a greedy man living only for the sake of his own
pleasure. All I know is that the collective farm was good. There
was discipline here."
A man old enough to remember the rule of Stalin's revolutionary
Party commented, "Breaking up the collective and selling off its
parts weakened it. [We] lost strength. The strength is not in one
finger, but in the fist."
Led by the angry retired workers, the collective ran Golov out of
town and elected Mr. Dubrovin as administrator. Dubrovin told the
Wall Street Journal, "There is no future for individuals here now.
Everything is very expensive. Someday, when the country is working
properly, it might be possible."
The remnants of socialist economic forms, such as the vast
collective farming system, functioned to sustain the Russian
people during the last 38 years of social-imperialist decay. But
the system had thoroughly rotted from within, as profit-taking
increasingly commanded social production. Now Russia owes $4
billion for food it has imported from the United States since
Gorbachev became a financial consultant for Western banks.
The melt-down of Soviet monopoly state capitalism ripped open the
rotting economic husk to expose: nothing. The larders of the
people's wealth had been wiped clean by the Soviet bourgeoisie;
and into the vacuum stepped Western capital. Imperialist banks
first traded food for the last of the Soviet gold reserve. Now
they trade food for debt and natural resources. Such an unfair
exchange is not in the interests of a hungry people.
Although socialism was overthrown in the ex-Soviet Union after the
death of Stalin in 1954, the Russian people materially benefitted
from the nearly four decades of super-profits that Soviet
imperialism sucked from the Third World. The balance of history
has now thrown the Russians to the mercy of the most vicious
collection of beasts in the known universe--the International
Monetary Fund.
The majority of the earth's population already knows from
experience that capitalism does not work. It is heartening to see
an indication that the Russian proletariat is awakening from their
long sleep. Clearly an essential tenet of Marxism has remained
embedded in the people's consciousness--the masses, not
individuals, make history.
--MC86
Notes: The Wall Street Journal 11/27/92, pp. 1,5.
* * *
CARDBOARD BLACKMAN PUTS PIGS IN A PANIC
On Dec. 1 in Lilly, Penn. "Police officers rushed into a video
store and drew weapons on a cardboard cutout of actor Denzel
Washington after a passerby reported seeing a gunman inside."
After getting the call that there was a gunman inside the
Stop'N'Go video store, seven police cruisers from Lilly and nearby
communities rushed to the store, while four officers stormed
inside and the others blocked the area outside.
It turns out that the "gunman" the passerby had seen in the store
was a cutout of Denzel Washington dressed as a police officer and
holding a gun to promote the movie "Ricochet," in which he stars.
Police praised the woman for calling the police, and told her,
"Don't ever feel embarrassed for something like this." Of course.
We wouldn't want white people to feel embarrassed for immediately
thinking that all Black men, even cardboard cutouts of Black men,
are criminals, now would we?
--MC251
Notes: Washington Post 12/3/92.
* * *
IS PARIS BURNING?
Oakland-based rapper Paris just released his new album ITALIC
Sleeping With The Enemy. END "The album's inner-sleeve photo shows
an armed Paris waiting to ambush Bush in front of the Capitol.
Some sample lyrics [from the song ITALIC Bush Killa' END]:
ITALIC I'm looking for a way to make a play and keep it neat
And check it out and make a route and pick a rooftop
Get a spot where the view's hot
Set up shop 'cause all I wanna see is (expletive) brains hanging'
...
So don't be telling me to get the non-violent spirit
'Cause when I'm violent is the only time the devils hear it
Rat-a-tat go the gat to his devil face
I hope he thinks of how he done us when he lay to waste ... END
The song ends with a Bush speech halted by gunfire. Paris,
incidentally, voted for Bill Clinton on November 3, and says, "I
just hope he never gives me a reason to write 'Clinton Killa'"
--MC86
Notes: Washington Post 12/2/92.
* * *
US PREPARES TO CONTROL BLACK FERTILITY
"By the middle of next century half of all Americans will be
nonwhite, according to a radically revised [U. S. Census Bureau]
projection released yesterday ... [A Census] demographer said,
"Black fertility has gone up 25% since 1985, and I don't think
anyone has a clear understanding of why it happened."(1)
"Baltimore public officials are planning to offer Norplant, the
surgically implanted contraceptive, at clinics in schools ... While
Norplant offers good pregnancy protection, it does nothing to
protect against AIDS ... Wyeth-Ayerst, a division of American Home
products, has donated $2.8 million to a foundation that offers the
implant free to such women nationwide."(2)
In 1980, Blacks were 54.8% of the total population of Metropolitan
Baltimore.(3) The inner city is more than 80% Black.
--MC86
Notes:
1. San Francisco Chronicle 12/4/92, p. A1.
2. New York Times 12/4/92, p. A1.
3. 1990 Statistical Abstract of U.S., p. 34.
* * *
WRAP YOUR WILLIE
"Bill Clinton's probable successor as governor [of Arkansas] has
proposed that a woman who gives birth while on welfare receive no
increase in benefits to support her new baby."
--MC86
Notes New York Times 12/4/92, p. A11.
* * *
CNN CALLS FOR ANTI-COMMUNIST WITCH HUNT
by MC49
The reactionary media increased the level of its recent wave of
attacks on the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP), and by
implication, all groups which uphold Maoism. MIM has already
reported on the San Francisco Sentinel's false accusation that the
RCP and MIM advocated burning and looting in gay areas in San
Francisco during the Los Angeles insurrection last May. Now the
bourgeoisie has brought its attacks to national television.
A segment broadcast by CNN on November 14 and 15 started with a
lead-in about "Sendero violence" and proceeded to talk about the
death and destruction that rebellion supposedly introduced to LA.
Abruptly, the CNN reporter then asked, "So why is this man
encouraged?" The picture on the screen was of Carl Dix, the RCP's
national spokesperson. CNN provided no evidence that anyone
anywhere was "encouraging" the RCP. It seems that what CNN meant
was that the police are encouraging Dix by allowing him to speak
publicly. CNN would rather have communists and those who call
themselves communists placed in steel cages on military bases on
islands--the treatment Comrade Gonzalo is getting.
The focus of the CNN story was on the RCP's recent recruitment
efforts in Los Angeles, but an ominous undercurrent was the
description of the RCP as the U.S. branch of "Sendero Luminoso."
The fascist Peruvian regime has been calling, with some success,
for roundups and deportations of international supporters of the
Communist Party of Peru (PCP, "Sendero" in the press). As the PCP
continues to strike blows against imperialism abroad, their
supporters here should be prepared to face increasing attacks from
the press and the state.
The influence of Maoism is growing throughout the hemisphere. As
CNN said in an effort to scare its viewers, "the business of
turning riots into revolution is booming."
Notes: MIM Notes 67, August 1992, p.2, "SF Sentinel confuses work
of MIM with RCP, attacks both," available from MIM for $1.
* * *
MOHAWKS STALEMATE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
by MA343
Last July, all Mohawk defendants were acquitted of charges
stemming from the summer 1990 armed confrontation between the
Mohawks of Kahnesatake territory in Oka, Quebec, and the Canadian
government.
Commenting on the jury's decision, the defendants stated: "In our
trial, we did not hide behind a criminal defense but admitted that
we were there and did bear arms in defense of our land and our
people. The verdict is seen by the Mohawks and their allies as an
admission by the jury that the issues involving land and
jurisdiction must be addressed not in the Criminal Courts but by
negotiations on a Nation by Nation basis between the Canadian
government and the Six Nations Confederacy. The jury understood
that we were sincere in our efforts to reach a peaceful end to the
conflict, despite the duplicitous and colonial attitudes of all
levels of governments and attempts by police agencies to
criminalize the situation."(1)
MIM agrees with those who refused to appear in a foreign court, on
the grounds that the imperialist courts do not have jurisdiction
over oppressed nations, such as the Mohawks. But those who did
stand trial chose a correct tactic in honestly admitting and
defending their actions. We applaud this temporary victory as the
Mohawks continue to move their struggle for self-determination
forward, but we urge people not to be fooled by this one success
in court. The courts are set up to serve the imperialists and the
final battle for self-determination will not be won in this forum.
On July 10, 1990, Mohawk warriors repelled an invasion of their
territory by 500 Canadian police. The police, armed with automatic
weapons and bulldozers were acting in the interests of a
neighboring settler community that had proposed extending a gold
course on ancestral Mohawk burial grounds in the Kahnesatake
Territory.(2) Now, more than two years later, armed Mohawks
continue to hold barricaded checkpoints on all roads into
Kahnesatake, denying entry to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
and the Surete de Quebec.
A spokesperson for the Mohawk Warriors Society told MIM that there
is a "political stalemate in the federal and provincial Canadian
governments on how to resolve the issue" of true Mohawk self-rule.
The Government's tactics of dividing, attacking, and criminalizing
those who would defend the Mohawk peoples' right to self-
determination have so far failed to bring the territories under
Canada's control.
The Canadian government has sought to divide the Mohawk leadership
by funding puppet "Band Councils," which Mohawks view as
undemocratic, as they constitute the rule of the few over the
many.
With the creation of these government-funded Band Councils under
the Indian Act, "the government is trying to circumvent our
traditional forms of government and the political actions of
traditional people," said a Mohawk spokesperson. "These
traditional forms of government are embodied in the Great Law of
Peace, a system of democratic rule that has been in place in the
Mohawk Nation and the Five Nations Iroquois Confederacy for over
1000 years." In order for the Band Council to truly represent the
Mohawk people, "the Band Councils must denounce the Indian Act
[after which the Homelands Act in apartheid South Africa was
patterned], and Canada's right to legislate within sovereign
Mohawk territory." In essence, this means the Band Councils must
invalidate their mandate from the Canadian government in order to
begin to truly represent their people.
Another tactic that Canada has used to try to weaken the Mohawks'
position is to portray the Mohawk Warriors as criminals. The
Government's propaganda and legal campaign against the warriors
has sought to diminish their stature as patriotic defenders of
their land and their people.
In January of this year, three warriors on trial for charges such
as "rioting" and "obstruction of justice" remained mute, refusing
to recognize the legitimacy of the Canadian legal system to try
them as criminals.(3) The media has also portrayed the cause of
the conflict as an ongoing battle between pro- and anti-gambling
Mohawks. The Canadian government opposes gambling on reservations
because it cannot tax or otherwise control the revenue. Despite
police raids, white settlers from surrounding communities continue
to enter Mohawk territory to play Super Bingo.
Asked, naively, if if it had been a long and difficult two years
since they took up arms to defend their land, the Mohawk
spokesperson pointed out that the struggle has been going on in
many different forms for 500 years. More recently, in the conflict
over the land for the Oka golf course, the Mohawks made numerous
attempts to discuss their position, and sought mediation.
"However," he said, "Native issues were never really addressed.
Does Canada view Native People as third class citizens?"
The answer apparently is "yes," and the Mohawk Warriors have
undertaken to defend their land and people with the necessary
force because, as this Mohawk stated in closing, "the Warriors
bear a heavy responsibility to their people. This is a noble task,
and one that makes them very proud." MIM salutes the Mohawk
Warriors, and the hard-won advances they have made in their
struggle for national liberation.
Notes:
1. New Liberation News Service, Packet 3.5 11/21/92.
2. MIM Notes 43.
3. MIM Notes 62.
* * *
WHERE IS BOUGAINVILLE
Bougainville is part of the Solomon Islands archipelago, located
off the north east coast of Australia. The indigenous people have
experienced a series of colonizations in the following order:
Germany, Australia, Japan, the United States and Australia again.
The people formally petitioned for independence in 1962, 1968 and
1975. In 1975 Australia made Papua New Guinea "independent" adding
Bougainville to PNG territory.
In 1988 the Panguna copper mine, Bougainville's largest
imperialist run industry was shut down by the Bougainville
Revolutionary Army. The BRA launched a six month sabotage campaign
in opposition to low wages, the devastation of the village economy
and environmental damage from the mine.
In 1989 the BRA closed the mine, causing severe losses for the
slumlord imperialists: $175 million in 1990. In March 1990 PNG
withdrew its troops and the Bougainville was declared an
independent republic. In May PNG blockaded all services from the
island. This summer PNG launched a large scale attack on the
island.
--MC99
BOUGAINVILLE FIGHTS BACK
by MC99
In late October the Australian puppet government of Papua New
Guinea launched 200 attacks on the Bougainville Revolutionary Army
(BRA). The Panguna copper mine, on the island of Bougainville, is
the focal point of the struggle-in 1989 the BRA dynamited the
power pylons at Panguna and the mine has been closed ever since.
In March 1990 the BRA gained complete control over the island. In
May the PNG government blocked medicine, food and clothing from
the island and withdrew all government personnel, including
doctors. They also severed the island's communications system.
The PNG army is well endowed with donations of military hardware
from Australia, including automatic weapons, Iroquois helicopters
and four patrol boats. But the BRA holds its own, devising an
arsenal from what is at hand. The revolutionaries convert
Caterpillar tractors into tanks by welding steel plates to the
surface. They make homemade weapons in the mine's workshops and
get their ammunition from hillsides embedded with the waste of
World War II Marines.
In search of supplies Bougainvilleans have been braving the five
mile stretch to the Solomon islands in motor-powered canoes. These
strategic voyages are being countered by the PNG government with
the aid of the patrol boats supplied by the Australian government.
In April two missionaries transporting medicine from the Solomon's
were killed in one of these attacks.
On August 13, PNG troops invaded the Solomon islands and attacked
a gas station. The owner was thought to have been supplying the
BRA with fuel. They shot and killed the station owner's sister and
brother and badly wounded his baby.
Fortified "care" camps hold 30,000 of Bougainville's 180,000
people. Defence Minister Paul Tohian claims that the camps were
set up at the request of local villages, but the BRA refutes this
claim, adding that the local populace may have asked PNG to supply
medicine to combat a Malaria epidemic.
The United Nations arrived in early November, and the PNG regime
refused to let them visit Bougainville.
In contradiction to the increasing attacks, the rebellion is
gaining support, Australian human rights lawyer Rosemarie
Gillespie reports that 40 local chiefs have passed resolutions
saying that the Panguna mine will not reopen until the island is
granted independence. Paias Wingti, the PNG prime minister claims
that Arawa, the capital of Bougainville has fallen, but Gillespie
said that the town is still under BRA control.
The closure of the mine resulted in serious losses for the Conzinc
Rio Tinto, an Australian subsidiary of British based Rio Tinto
Zinc. In 1990, 175 million was lost, which is equal to 45% of
PNG's foreign exchange earnings.
The profits from the mine are key for the Australian government,
which needs the revenue to cover the complete cost of granting PNG
its "independence." In other words, the surplus value extracted
from the Bougainville mine workers would completely subsidize the
counterfeit PNG government.
The decision to stop production demonstrates the people's
awareness of their exploitation. Such strategic actions weaken
imperialism by halting the ability of the multinational
corporations to extract cheap labor and natural resources.
The extraction of surplus value from the workers, and the effects
of forced industrialization on the local community creates an
imbalance that destroys the existing village economy and works to
impoverish the populace.
The Panguna mine generates a large chuck of PNG's loan payments
and thus plays a vital role in the greasy passage of cash. So
while evil cartels such as the Conzinc Rio Tinto and the World
Bank have one of their fingers stuck in the great hole of the
Panguna copper mine, the revolutionary masses are in the perfect
position to chop it off, and they know it.
All information in these articles onBougainville came from the San
Francisco Chronicle Nov 16, 1992.
* * *
SPIKE LEE ASSASSINATES THE REAL MALCOLM X
by a comrade
Twenty-seven years after our brother Malcolm X was executed by
capitalism, Malcolm's message has been murdered by Warner Bros.
Corporation and its paid political assassin Spike Lee.
Like Oprah Winfrey, Arsenio Hall and Bill Cosby, Black film
director Lee makes a rich living as a shameless propagandist in
the service of white supremacist Amerika. Lee's version of the
life of Malcolm X is a bomb without a fuse-a fire without heat.
To ideologically disarm today's youth, Lee's cronies and their
corporate masters spent more than $34 million recreating a
distinctly "American" Malcolm X as a pupil of non-violent
political means. They even truck out ex-revolutionary Nelson
Mandela at the end of the film to bury Malcolm with praise.
The narrow historical framework of Lee's ITAL X END should be very
reassuring to white Amerika. In Lee's world "racism" is a question
of bad attitude and not of the armed suppression of a nation of
Black millions by a nation of white millions.
In real life Malcolm said, if the white man doesn't stop
oppressing us he will become a dead white man. Malcolm knew that
the capitalist patriarches will never stop oppressing the people
until the people force them to stop. Malcolm X was anti-
imperialist. He was a revolutionary nationalist and a world-
citizen; he was ITALIC not END an Amerikan.
In 1963 Black rebellions flared in Birmingham, Savannah,
Cambridge, Md., Chicago and Philadelphia.(1) On April 3, 1964,
Malcolm X called for the development of a situation where "our
African brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our
Asian brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our
Latin-American brothers can throw their weight on our side, and
where 800 million Chinamen are sitting there waiting to throw
their weight on our side."(2)
Many people find inspiration today listening to tapes of Malcolm
X. Malcolm spoke the truth when he called out "racism" as colonial
oppression. Malcolm told no lies when he preached that now is the
time of the final battle; the period of Armageddon, the
revolution, the destruction of Babylon, the rebirth of human
society.
By focussing so much of the film on Malcolm's sexuality and
personal life, Lee guts Malcolm's revolutionary politics. Lee
tries to put it over that Malcolm's appeal was principally as a
father-figure.(3) Lee tones down Malcolm's anger and promotes the
bourgeois lie that Malcolm was "evolving" towards Martin Luther
King's collaborationist politics. Where Elijah Muhammaad could not
silence Malcolm in life, Lee silences his caricature of Malcolm in
death.
In real life Malcolm was a hard person; a world-class philosopher;
a revolutionary who wasted no time simply describing reality-he
changed reality. In Lee's rewrite of history, Denzel Washington's
genteel portrayal of Malcolm better suits a corporate boardroom
than the prisons and factories in which Malcolm studied life.
Lee based ITAL X END on selected portions of the book ITALIC The
Autobiography of Malcolm X. END While Lee chooses to ignore most
of the revolutionary thunder and lightening, he has no qualms
about disrespecting a dead man's wishes.
In ITALIC The Autobiography, END for example, Malcolm takes
control of a small band of burglars by playing Russian Roulette
with a loaded pistol. Chambering one bullet, Malcolm puts the
muzzle to his head and pulls the trigger-twice. He says, "I'm
doing this, showing you I'm not afraid to die. Never cross a man
not afraid to die. Now, lets get to work."(4)
In ITAL X END, Washington quickly admits to a friend that the gun
had been empty. Lee's thematic emphasis is clear: Malcolm X was a
fake.
Malcolm later told Alex Haley, who assisted him in writing ITALIC
The Autobiography, END that he had in fact palmed the bullet. When
Haley asked him if he should correct the story, Malcolm replied,
"No leave it that way. Too many people would be so quick to say
that's what I'm doing today, bluffing."(5)
Malcolm's white girlfriend Sophia is mentioned briefly on
approximately six pages of ITALIC The Autobiography. END Lee
devotes half the film to this and other tedious affairs. Lee says
that Black people are more interested in sex than in national
liberation.
Lee's female characters are flawlessly submissive and he ignores
the revolutionary seizure of gender-power that has always
propelled Black women to the frontline of the Revolution. ITAL X
END owes more in acting style, cinematic technique and political
intent to ITALIC Gone With The Wind END than to Black history.
Contrary to what opportunist Trotskyists and bourgeois scholars
claim today, Malcolm was not leaning towards collaboration with
the capital-venerating white working class. At the time of his
death he was laying the foundation for a highly organized, mass-
based assault upon the oppressors of the Black Nation. One of the
first items on Malcolm's agenda was the the wiping out of national
traitors.
The Black bourgeoisie choked in relief when Malcolm was shot down
on February 21, 1965. Today's white-sanctioned Black "leaders"
have the gall to generate gobs of publicity claiming that Malcolm
was evolving towards "peaceful" solutions.
Lee's mission in ITAL X END is to transform Malcolm's active
revolutionary solution to white Amerika's murderous exploitation
of the Black Nation into passive acceptance of regurgitated
"economic integration" lies and reliance upon colonial "free-
enterprise zones." Lee's ITALIC tricknology END promises white
Amerika that in return for financial power, peace-loving Black
"leaders" will make damn sure that the Black masses never organize
a revolution.
Speak now, Malcolm X, in your own words:
"Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born
here in America doesn't make you an American. No, I'm not an
American.... So, I'm not standing here speaking to you as an
American, or a patriot ... There's new thinking coming in. There's
new strategy coming in. It'll be Molotov cocktails this month,
hand grenades the next month ... It'll be liberty, or it will be
death. The only difference about this kind of death-it'll be
reciprocal.... I don't usually deal with those big words because I
don't usually deal with big people. I deal with small people. I
find you can get a whole lot of small people and whip hell out of
a whole lot of big people.
"They haven't got anything to lose, and they've got everything to
gain. And they'll let you know in a minute: 'It takes two to
tango; when I go, you go.'"(2)
NOTES:
1. The 1968 Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders (Kerner Commission Report), First Pantheon Edition,
1988, p. 35.
2. The Ballot or the Bullet 3/12/64.
3. While pseudo-feminists may weep and gnash their teeth at
Malcolm's male chauvinism, MIM says that the Muslim variety of
patriarchy is no better and no worse than the politically correct,
liberal versions masquerading as "women's liberation." In a
society where-no matter how you slice it-all sexual acts and all
acts of rape are indistinguishable in essence, Malcolm X
demonstrated in his life the importance of a monogamous sexual
practice.
4. ITAL The Autobiography of Malcolm X, END Grove Press, 1966, p.
143.
5. Ibid, p. 416.
* * *
CORRECTION ON CANADA
Last month MIM Notes incorrectly reported that the Canadian
fraternal organization to the Workers League favored the
referendum. The Trotskyist organization that supported the
referendum was the Canadian fraternal organization to the
International Socialist Organization. Mobilisation should not have
been described as a Marxist-Leninist organization; although they
lean in this direction, they are in their formative stage and are
a self- described independent communist collective.
From the results of the referendum, it appears that the Spoil Your
Ballot campaign reached a significant number of people. In Quebec,
where the campaign focused much of their work, 2.64% of the
ballots cast were spoiled. This is over 90,000 ballots, and in
Ontario 28,000 ballots were spoiled. Of all ballots counted, 2.24%
were spoiled.
Notes: The Montreal Gazette 11/27/92