This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 82
November 1993
Electronic Edition
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Get MIM Notes 82 from the Maoist Internationalist Movement
(MIM), and get the latest in Maoist news and analysis - put
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This issue features anti-imperialist stories on U.S.
aggression in Somalia and Haiti, and the people's resistance
there. It features an exposure of the real motives behind
Peruvian dictator Fujimori's latest dirty tricks, and the
continued success of the people's revolution in Peru. Plus
there's cultural reviews, poetry, Paper Tigers - and MIM's
monthly report from prisons and prisoners: Under Lock & Key.
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.
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This issue features:
1. U.S. increases stakes with Somali aggression
2. Oppose Amerika; not just its wars
3. Fujimori's dirty tricks:
4. Haitian people locked out of "democracy"
5. Capitalist factions fight it out in Moscow
6. Beavis and Butthead, meet the Addams Family
7. Real Blues Ain't Like These
8. Demo man
9. Why they're called revisionists
10. Pseudo-feminists police campus bedrooms
11. Powell, Koon sent to "Club Fed"
12. Letters; Letters Online
13. MIM distributor harassed; accused of same
14. Communique from MIPS ZINE
15. How many Maoists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
16. Winnable Battles
* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
U.S. INCREASES STAKES WITH SOMALI AGGRESSION
by MC12
The United States has increased the stakes of its occupation
of Somalia. Thousands more troops, as well as the heaviest
tanks and planes, will likely mean more blood flowing in the
streets of Mogadishu. Amerikan revolutionaries and anti-
imperialists face the uphill battle of exposing and opposing
the U.S. war in Somalia.
Most Amerikans oppose the war, but for pro-Amerikan reasons
which themselves have to be defeated. MIM opposes this and
all Amerikan military interventions; but not because Amerika
has no interest in Somalia, and not because we want Amerika
to spend its stolen money further improving the lives of
privileged Amerikans. Rather, MIM calls for a revolution
that will result in the eventual destruction of the Amerikan
state and massive reparations to the world-wide victims of
501 years of oppression.
The U.N. charade
When the U.S./U.N.'s murderous occupying army came under
fire from Somalis, they called it a crime. President Clinton
declared: "What we have done our best to do is to actually
enforce the law against people who committed murder."(1)
Whose law? When Amerikan stormtroopers killed at least 300
Somalis in a single battle, while taking only a few dozen
casualties, the Pentagon said "the force used ... was
consistent with the right of self-defense under
international law."
What are the rules? Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki
recently noted that, despite countless pleas for assistance,
"Not once in 41 years did Eritrea, scene of the longest war
in Africa and victim of some of the grossest violations of
human rights, figure in the agenda of the United Nations."
That experience, he said, showed that "assistance and
amounts of assistance appear to be decided not on the basis
of needs or capacity to put the assistance to good use, but
- even after the proclamation of the end of the cold war -
on the basis of the interests and agendas of donors."(2)
All around the world, millions of people are threatened by
war and famine, poverty and disease. Wars rage in Angola,
Azania and ex-Soviet Georgia; the government was overthrown
in Russia; nations are occupied by Amerikan allies such as
Indonesia, Turkey and Israel. None of these require bombing
by foreign interventionists, none are "emergency" threats to
U.S. interests. After all of this, we are supposed to
believe that Amerika went to Somalia to help Africans.
Lessons written in blood
As usual, lessons for the people are written in blood. From
the war against Somalia, we learn that imperialist military
power is vulnerable: the guerillas of the Somali National
Alliance (SNA) and the people of Mogadishu have kept the
better-equipped forces of the United States and United
Nations on the defensive for months, after Clinton declared
them "crippled" in April.(3)
The SNA militia has shot down Amerikan aircraft, ambushed
military convoys, and lobbed shells into the U.N. compound.
In mid-October, the Amerikan death toll was 25, with 81 U.N.
troops killed altogether.(4) Revolutionaries are not afraid
to say that these deaths are accomplishments that the people
of Somalia should be proud of. Violence against the
U.S./U.N. forces is real self-defense and deserves the
support of anti-imperialists.
The Amerikan establishment is dismayed by the tactical
defeats in Somalia. Right-wing columnist George Will
suggested that Amerikans watch *The Battle of Algiers* if
they think SNA General Mohammed Farah Aidid can be easily
captured. And he complains that "Today's colonialism-of-
compassion lacks even the redeeming clarity of
rapaciousness."(5)
U.S. intelligence has been confounded at every step by its
inability to develop human sources and the failure of its
technical means of gathering information. Satellites see the
dessert better than they do the city. High-tech listening
devices have not been able to pick up the simple walkie-
talkies - not to mention whispers - used by the
resistance.(6)
Will's compatriot William Saffire complained: "Thirty
billion dollars a year goes into an intelligence
establishment that cannot hire one spy in the south end of
Mogadishu to pinpoint the location of a famous warlord who
gives press interviews and broadcasts radio statements of
defiance."(7)
When the people are united, imperialism cannot defeat them
with all of its weapons. Nevertheless, Amerika and its
allies do have the capacity to inflict thousands more
casualties and to level Mogadishu from the air. It is up to
revolutionaries to ensure that imperialism gains more
enemies than it kills. In this task, imperialism itself is
very helpful, as the growing strength of the anti-Amerikan
movement in Somalia shows.
Empire divided
The war also reveals divisions among imperialists, and
within imperialist nations. Europeans, especially Italy,
have disagreed over strategy in Somalia, hurting the
U.S./U.N. forces' ability to operate. At the same time,
internal opposition has mounted within Amerika.
Polls show that a majority of Amerikans oppose the military
action, by a two-thirds margin in early October. That was
down from more than half supporting the operation in June.
Even so, one in five polled Amerikans called for increased
military action,(8) which has cost more than $1 billion.(4)
As such influential voices as the New York Times called for
a military withdrawal(9), the military felt the need to bar
the press from attending memorial services for dead
soldiers.(10)
At issue is the question of Amerikan national interest, and
the interests of international imperialism. When Clinton
ordered $27 million sent to the U.N. to pay for a police and
prison system in Somalia, he declared an "unforeseen
emergency" and said "it is important to the security
interests of the United States" to spend the money.(11)
Clinton is hampered by his need to tell different stories to
different people. If he could simply say the war was to
protect the free flow of oil, Amerikans would fall into line
by the millions. But the Amerikan interest in Somalia is
more complicated than that, and more long term.
Somalia is in a key strategic location with ocean access and
proximity to the Persian Gulf, as well as a foothold on the
African continent, both of which represent post-"Cold War"
power vacuums and opportunities for Amerikan expansion. The
operation is also supposed to be an example of what Clinton
calls "international burden-sharing," to "meet crises in
ways the include other nations' forces and funds."(12) In
other words, to train puppet governments to take the load
off the extended Amerikan military.
But that's a little hard to put in a speech. So Clinton
says: "It remains the United States' objective to prevent
Somalia from reverting to the chaos and the starvation that
prompted our involvement in the very first place."(13)
And in that he has a problem: the white nation hates the
people of Africa, and the oppressed generally. They don't
want their hard-stolen cash to go to "helping" the oppressed
unless they see an immediate return. That makes them listen
to the likes of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who said
Americans "by the dozens are paying with their lives and
limbs for a misplaced policy on the altar of some fuzzy
multilateralism. I believe we should disengage our forces
and declare the U.S. contribution to this U.N. extravaganza
over."(13)
Where next?
While Somalia has pointed up some weaknesses and
vulnerabilities in the Amerikan imperial machine, it also
illustrates the political underdevelopment of revolutionary
forces. The Somali resistance is resilient; the efforts of
the people are heroic. But in the long run real national
liberation requires a broadly unified movement led by a
proletarian and feminist (i.e. communist) political line and
strategy.
Military victory is essential, but the departure of imperial
armies by itself does not signal liberation - as too many
Africans have already discovered the hard way. There is much
to be done. Revolutionaries are inspired by the courage and
sacrifice of the Somali resistance. That struggle demands of
revolutionaries everywhere a commitment to furthering its
gains, as well as learning from its mistakes.
Notes:
1. White House Office of the Press Secretary 10/4/93.
2. Statement to the U.N. General Assembly 9/30/93.
3. New York Times 10/8/93, p. A15.
4. UPI 10/13/93.
5. Washington Post column 10/11/93. MIM also recommends this
movie, as it dramatizes the strategic advantage of a
people's army in urban guerilla war.
6. Boston Globe 10/7/93, p. 15.
7. NYT 10/7/93, p. A29.
8. Boston Globe 10/7/93, p. 12.
9. NYT 10/8/93, p. A34.
10. NYT 10/7/93, p. A10.
11. UPI 10/1/93.
12. NYT 10/14/93, p. A12.
13. UPI 10/4/93.
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
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* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
SOMALIA: OPPOSE AMERIKA, NOT JUST ITS WARS
by MC12
Most Amerikans who want a peaceful "settlement" to Somalia's
problems are not anti-war or anti-imperialism. They side
with the financiers who are lining up for talks in Ethiopia
to implement "development and recovery plans" drawn up by
the World Bank.(1) With enough "stability," they mean to get
on with the business of super-exploitation: getting Somalis
back to work. Likewise, the small "leftist" movement against
the war is not clearly on the side of the oppressed, but
their activity may make a positive contribution.
The International Action Center, which called for
"International Days of Protest" on Oct. 29-30, praises the
heroic resistance of the Somali people. But they also
"protest the loss of the U.S. soldiers in the attack" and
call for the "billions being spent on this war [to] be spent
here at home, on jobs and housing and education, AIDS
treatment and other healthcare."(2)
Such an argument falsely makes imperialism out to be against
the interests of most Amerikans - as if the stolen billions
were being taken from Amerikans themselves. In contrast, MIM
argues that imperialist conquests such as this one serve the
interests of the white nation, including the white working
class, which has demonstrated its opposition to revolution
and support for imperialism.
So when Workers World, for example, writes that "workers and
progressive people around the world applaud the latest
victory in the Somali liberation struggle,"(3) they are
ignoring the reality of mass support for imperialism among
the white nation - including its workers. But they are also
trying to lead the oppressed - members of Amerika's internal
colonies as well as the Third World abroad - into false
alliances with those who are not their friends.
MIM does not try to spread such deception. The masses of
Amerikans - members of the white nation: its workers, women,
pigs, soldiers - do not oppose imperialism, because
imperialism serves them well. The masses of the oppressed
nations - in the internal colonies and in the Third World -
should not harbor illusions that these are their friends in
revolutionary struggle.
Anti-war and anti-imperialist movements have to take sides
in this struggle. In the past, broad anti-war movements have
refused to oppose Amerika itself. This has become a more
dominant trend in the years since the Vietnam War. It
culminated in the mainstream movement that opposed the war
against Iraq, calling instead for Iraq's economic
strangulation through sanctions.
Revolution is the movement of the oppressed. Various small
groups of privileged people - some young people, students
and intellectuals for example - will side with revolution
for moral reasons. But the historical record is clear: while
revolutionaries must do all they can to mobilize broad
support for the people, the oppressed are ultimately on
their own. We do not benefit from sacrificing scientific
analysis to imagine real friends among our sometime tactical
allies.
Notes:
1. Somalia News Update 10/2/93. Internet:
Bernhard.Helander@antro.uu.se
2. IAC press release 10/5/93. 39 W. 14th St., NY, NY 10011;
212-633-6646.
3. Workers World 10/13/93. 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011.
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576.
E-mail: mim@blythe.org
* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
FUJIMORI'S DIRTY TRICKS:
DESPERATE DICTATORS DO DESPERATE THINGS
by MC121, MC17 & MC12
In September, the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) launched 106
armed actions against capitalist institutions throughout
Peru. A carefully planned strategic military offensive
continues to escalate.(1) The Maoist-led People's War in
Peru is pressing fascist dictator Alberto Fujimori like a
rotten grape in the winepress of the masses.
During the first two weeks of October, Fujimori waved
supposed letters from imprisoned PCP leader Abimael Guzman
(Chairperson Gonzalo) in front of the imperialist running
dogs at the United Nations and on Peruvian television.
Fujimori showed videotapes supposedly of Guzman asking for
"peace talks" in two statements that contain as much Marxism
as an Exxon annual report.(1)
Even as Lima's banks explode into dust and his palace walls
shake around him, Fujimori is mounting a massive last-ditch
publicity campaign around a phony election scheduled for
October 31. Fujimori and his Amerikan, European, and
Japanese corporate backers have plastered Lima with
billboards and airwave advertisements begging for popular
approval of a new constitution engineered to extend and
legalize Fujimori's terrorist reign. The referendum proposes
to strengthen the dictatorial powers Fujimori seized last
year when he "overthrew" himself and effectively abolished
the Peruvian legislative and judicial bodies.(1)
Fujimori used the constitution and the Guzman smear campaign
to attract attention to himself on the public relations trip
to Amerika. While in the States, he met with groups of
business and investment leaders, including Henry Kissinger,
Clinton and Bush, and media heads from the New York Times,
Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, CNN, NBC, and so on.(2)
"Peru is becoming a big centre of interest in Latin
America," Fujimori said. "There is a lot of interest in its
political process. Following an unviable situation in 1990,
Peru is becoming a country with huge potential, including
investment potential. We are also attracting interest
because of the pacification process."(2)
In the context of this campaign, the usefulness of both the
constitution and Guzman charade is clear.
The Peruvian special prosecutor for terrorism also said the
government was using the Guzman letters to coerce PCP
members into turning themselves in to the mercy of the
state.(3)
Since 1980, the Peruvian bourgeoisie's death-squads have
killed at least 24,000 people.(4) Fujimori's new
constitution legalizes the death penalty for use against the
revolutionary people and allows this fearful corporativist
pig to indiscriminately round up and imprison *any*
dissenters: armed or armchair.(1)
Maoists around the planet know that Abimael Guzman, the
revolutionary communist party that elected him to its
Central Committee, and the masses who live and die for
liberation, will never stop waging the fiercest and most
successful revolutionary war in the world against
imperialism - until murderers like Fujimori and his masked
sponsors are six feet under.
A Lima PCP statement obtained by Reuters said, "The
Communist Party of Peru rejects the terms of this letter,"
and added that Guzman "would have to have been tortured or
drugged to talk that way."(5)
*Nobody in their right mind* gives any credibility to
government propagation of supposed statements from
incarcerated, tortured and coerced political prisoners!
The Peruvian revolution survives despite the incarceration
and torture of its leader. The revolution is strong because
of the strength of the masses and the strength of its
correct and just line. In the last month the war against the
imperialists by the PCP has intensified. This is not a sign
that the people are giving up. There may be setbacks. There
will be some defeats. But as long as the majority of the
people have an interest in overthrowing the minority who
oppress and exploit them, the revolution will continue to
advance.
The firm message that MIM and all revolutionaries send to
Comrade Gonzalo and to the Peruvian people is this:
We see through Fujimori's tricks! We are with you. Your
victories inspire us to create positive public opinion for
revolution - even inside the imperialist sewers. The example
of the armed and revolutionary Peruvian people leads the way
today as communists work to mobilize the embattled peasants
and exploited workers of the world in a million forms of
attack against world imperialism and patriarchy.
Notes:
1. UPI 10/5/93-10/12/93.
2. BBC Summary of World Broadcasts 10/5/93.
3. BBC Summary of World Broadcasts 10/12/93.
4. El Pais 9/20/92.
5. Reuter 10/6/93.
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576.
E-mail: mim@blythe.org
* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
HAITIAN PEOPLE LOCKED OUT OF "DEMOCRACY"
The Amerikan-imposed deal for "democracy" in Haiti collapsed
in October, as the United States and the Haitian military
keep up their rousing two-year game of good-cop/bad-cop.
There is a Haitian resistance, including the Mouvman Peyizan
Papay (Peasant Movement of Papaye), to both U.S. domination
and Haitian fascism, but they have come under direct and
brutal repression during the latest coup.
With the process derailed in early October, Amerika and its
allies in the Haitian military enter another period of
negotiation at the expense of the people. Amerika called on
the U.N. to impose new economic sanctions to bring the
military back to heel.(1)
The elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, overthrown in
a coup in 1991, was coerced into signing a deal with fascist
military rulers in the summer. Termed the Governors Island
deal, it pretended that "democracy" could come to Haiti with
Aristide in civilian power, but leaving the fascists in
control of the military.
One key to the deal was that Amerikan soldiers (in U.N.
hats), would train the Haitian military and police in the
art of "democratic" repression. The police would supposedly
come under civilian rule through a new separation of powers.
This was supposed to mean the end of military rule, but it
didn't fool anyone - including the military itself.
Buying time
The deal bought the military some time, during which they
launched a massive campaign of repression against the
people's opposition. Soldiers carried out executions and
raids, especially in poorer neighborhoods, with summary
executions and random terror being the norm. The Haiti
Resistance and Democracy Information Bulletin, produced
clandestinely in Port-au-Prince, reports "accounts of 97
arbitrary executions in the Port-au-Prince area, as well as
many mass arrests and disappearances, raids and attacks on
neighborhoods."(2) And when it came to carrying out its
later steps - including the landing of Amerikan troops, the
resignation of Gen. Raoul Cedras, and the return of Aristide
to the island - the military called it off.
Amerikan complicity
Cedras supporters in September celebrated the anniversary of
his rise to power with demonstrators carrying a Haitian and
an American flag, shouting: "Vive Duvalier, Aristide is
finished," in Creole.
Clinton, taking care not to offend anyone, sent a nice
letter to the Aristide-backed, powerless prime minister
Robert Malval, saying "We request that those guilty of
recent violence in Haiti be identified and arrested." He
added "The United States holds the Haitian military and the
police responsible for the protection of all Haitians
against outrages such as those committed recently."
Again, no one was fooled. Clinton says he wants the military
and police - who coordinate terrorism and repression - to
stop it, and a prime minister with no control over them to
see that it happens.
Amerika ruled Haiti directly from 1915 to 1934, then backed
a series of dictators including the father and son
Duvaliers, until 1990, when Aristide won a presidential
election. The current Amerikan intervention, including the
"training" mission, remains true to that tradition.
This time the U.S. will put up a better facade: occupying
Haiti against the will of the Haitian people, but in their
name.(3) The object, as always, is to get Haitians back to
work producing cheap commodities for export, consuming
dependency as expensive imported surplus goods - and keep
them from coming to U.S. shores in an unregulated fashion.
One independent Haitian activist told MIM that the principal
problem for Haiti is an oppressive military. He would
support "any invasion whose purpose is to dismantle the army
and the police." But Amerika or any imperialist power will
not intervene on those terms. History has shown that foreign
powers only intervene in other countries to increase their
influence, not to help the people.
Peasant movement gains support
The Mouvman Peyizan Papay (Peasant Movement of Papaye),
Haiti's oldest and largest peasant movement, kicked off the
formation of an Education and Development Fund in Boston on
October 3 with a cultural and political fund-raiser. This
MPP-EDF formed to provide direct financial support to the
movement in Haiti and educate Haitians, and to expand
support for the struggle in Haiti.
"The MPP's principal objective is to organize poor peasants
(men, women, youth and children) all over Haiti in a unified
national movement. The goal is to establish a society where
all people can have a decent life including: food produced
in their own country, good working conditions, good
education based on the culture and reality of the country,
good health care, good housing, good leisure, and freedom of
speech and assembly."(4)
The MPP, founded in 1973, has continued to grow and build
its movement. Since the 1991 coup, the MPP has suffered many
attacks by the repressive regime. Soldiers have looted their
headquarters and destroyed equipment, stores, libraries, and
homes.
Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the founder of the MPP, spoke at
the event in Boston, noting that peasants make up about 80%
of the Haitian population. Beyond the overall struggle for
liberation, he cited the MPP's support for women's struggle
for liberation from both the men and the oppressive society.
Although the MPP has suffered harsh repression, he pointed
out: "They have tried to destroy everything of the peasants,
but there is one thing they didn't smash: the consciousness
of the peasants."
The MPP clearly recognizes the root of the problem for the
peasants in Haiti, as they write that "the problems
burdening the peasants were not mainly technical, but rather
were rooted in injustice and exploitation."(1)
From their literature and speeches it appears that the MPP
is not conducting armed struggle. Their slogan is
"organization or death." MIM agrees with this slogan but
unfortunately organization has only successfully liberated
people from oppression when it was backed up by armed
struggle. MIM supports the MPP and the Haitian people in
their struggle for self-determination. And MIM works to
expose and denounce the crimes of Amerikan imperialism,
which makes dictatorship in Haiti possible. But we recognize
that the society they hope to create can only be achieved
through the fight for socialism. This is a lesson all
revolutionary movements must learn from history.
Notes;
1. NYT 10/14/93, p. A1
2. Haiti: Resistance and Democracy Information Bulletin,
September 21- October 1, 1993.
3. Deye Mon, September 1993.
4. MPP pamphlet
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576.
E-mail: mim@blythe.org
* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
CAPITALIST FACTIONS FIGHT IT OUT IN MOSCOW
by MC432
Liberals may complain of Russian dictator Boris Yeltsin's
anti-democratic methods in the recent crushing of the "hard-
liner" takeover of the Russian parliament in Moscow. But MIM
does not cry foul over bourgeois-on-bourgeois violence.
Boris Yeltsin & Co. represent the free-market faction of the
Russian bourgeoisie. Their opponents, referred to as "hard-
liners" (a catch-all term for anyone who opposes Amerika's
agenda), represent the state-capitalist faction of the
Russian bourgeoisie. Nowhere in the current debate are the
Russian masses directly represented; the Russian proletariat
is sitting this intra-bourgeois struggle out.
Depicted as a confrontation between capitalist reform and
reactionary "Bolshevism,"(1) the Moscow battle of September
21-October 4 was nothing of the kind. Yeltsin's faction is
willing to impose conditions of widespread immiseration on
the Russian masses, with the monthly inflation rates for
consumer prices around 25% recently,(2) all for the goal of
"the creation of a society of owners."(3)
Of course only a small portion of the society will be owners
under this scheme, because workers with hungry families sell
their near-worthless "vouchers" to greedy entrepreneurs in
order to buy loaves of bread at 150 rubles apiece. Not only
are many Russians trying to get by on incomes of around
14,000 rubles a month, but reformers are in the process of
destroying the state grain monopoly, a move which would cut
agricultural subsidies and could double the price of
bread.(4)
The opposition, on the other hand, is composed of a motley
crew of reactionary nationalists, monarchists, and state
capitalists (sometimes referred to in the press as
"communists"). The latter category tends to represent not
only those who want a return to the system of centralized
planning, but also those who merely want to stem the tide of
privatizations so viscously pursued by Yeltsin and his free-
market capitalist cabal.
Alexandr Rutskoi, named president after the parliament
impeached Yeltsin for annulling the parliament, was co-
chairperson of the Civic Union, a "lobby group for
industrial managers"(5) for whom liberalization has led to
serious decreases in industrial output - down 12% from last
year.
Another group of those opposed to economic liberalization is
the directors of collective farms, whose subsidies are being
hacked away by the Yeltsin faction - agricultural production
has also dropped significantly from last year.(6) So it is
clear that a major source of opposition to Yeltsin comes
from a state capitalist bourgeoisie who sees its interests
tied to the preservation of state subsidies and controlled
export quotas. These people are not communists simply
because they support a centralized system of planning for
state-owned farms and industries. In fact, they represent
the bourgeois stratum who stand for the preservation of a
state capitalist system, pioneered in the Krushchev era, of
economic organization in which the masses have no democratic
control over production or distribution of the surplus-value
they produce.
There is little or no "Bolshevism" in the ranks of the
organized opposition to Yeltsin; genuine Marxist-Leninists
would not have staged a siege without the support of the
masses, and would not have attempted to lead the masses with
such a reactionary political program.
As for "democracy," capitalist democracy means wage slavery
for those workers not fortunate enough to live in an
imperialist, First World country. Given that parliamentary
elections had already been planned for December 12 *before
Yeltsin annulled the parliament*, it is evident that he was
pursuing an agenda other than advancing democracy by
carrying out his September 21 coup.
Western leaders from Bonn to Washington steadfastly backed
their man in Moscow from the beginning to the end of the
confrontation, never questioning Yeltsin's tactics. While
many liberals whined about how a Russian reformer could
resort to such means, their elected leaders had no such
doubts.
A state capitalist coup in Russia could mean an end to the
shopping spree that U.S., European, and Japanese
multinationals have been on in the former Soviet Union since
its fall in 1991. So Western leaders' position on
"democracy" is unambiguous: Yeltsin has been given a green
light to use whatever means are necessary to guarantee the
free-marketization of Russia. What was once an abomination -
moving tanks against political opposition - now becomes a
wholly acceptable measure when carried out by an unabashed
capitalist ally of the West.
Yeltsin carried out his coup in order to force the
opposition into a position where it was left no option but
extra-parliamentary action. Having the military and security
forces on his side, Yeltsin could be sure that he would have
the capacity to "evict" the opposition from the parliament,
creating an opportunity to consolidate autocratic power over
privatization and to dissolve the regional soviets, a large
percentage of whom were opposed to Yeltsin's coup.
Yeltsin also suspended the Communist Party, by far the
largest Russian political party(8), which posed the biggest
threat to the potential of reformers being elected in
December. The Yeltsin coup has set the stage for a further
consolidation of free-market capitalist power in Russia.
MIM recognizes that these capitalist factions will only lead
the Russian masses further into economic misery. The circus
of competing forms of capitalism has nothing to offer the
oppressed people of Russian.
Notes:
1. Economist, 10/9/93, p. 53.
2. Ibid., p. 55.
3. Economist, 10/2/93, p. 22.
4. Economist, 10/9/93, p. 55.
5. Ibid., p. 56.
6. Ibid., p. 55.
7. Ibid., p. 54.
8. New York Times, 10/9/93, p. 3.
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* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD, MEET THE ADDAMS FAMILY:
MONOPOLY CAPITALISM AT ITS BEST
It's bigger than General Motors, more profitable than IBM,
and more far-reaching than Time Warner. The planned $30
billion merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and Tele-
Communications Inc. will create a media colossus that will
enable the combined firms to more efficiently force
bourgeois culture down the throats of the Third World while
shoring up the dominant ideology here at home and raking in
the profits. And that's just the beginning.
The October 13 announcement by Bell Atlantic, one of the
Amerika's largest telephone companies, and TCI, the world's
biggest cable television operator, is one in a string of
recent merger deals by giant media corporations, driven in
part by technological advances in the forces of production
and in part by their need for larger capital reserves to
draw on for expansion.
In a world where the production and distribution of books,
movies, television and newspapers is already dominated by a
handful of media conglomerates well-skilled in cultural
imperialism, that may not sound like such a big deal. But
the continuing concentration of capital into larger and
larger monopolies works to wipe out innovation, ideas and
competition.
Before capitalism topples though, Amerika's capitalists are
planning to build an "information superhighway" with exits
at each and every home - first in the United States, and
then the rest of the world. If they have their way,
Amerikans will in five years or so be able to choose from
500 channels of television. Not only will they be able to
passively watch what's on, but they'll be able to order up
movies or shows they want to see - for a fee. And it's not
just entertainment and information. Retailers are getting in
on the deal too: Amerikans will no longer have to go to the
actual mall - they'll be able to shop by TV.
One of the key technologies behind the drive for this
expansion is fiber optic cables, capable of carrying far
greater amounts of data than the traditional copper wire
used by phone companies or the coaxial cables used by cable
firms. Another is the ability to convert video, audio and
text into digital signals (zeros and ones), which can be
squeezed together on one end, sent through a cable and
unsqueezed, with the help of some computer power, on the
other.
It's been called a trillion dollar industry. And where are
those trillion dollars coming from? Well, for all this to
happen, each home is going to have to have a little computer
on top of its TV. A huge interlocking network of fiber optic
cables will connect those computers to huge supercomputers
which will store various forms of programming and
information, and supply it on demand. The new information
infrastructure may be constructed in the United States, but
its component parts will be built in the Third World. And to
make it cheap enough for Amerikans to buy them and the
monopolists to still turn a hefty profit, those workers are
going to paid sub-subsistence wages.
Perhaps more awesome than the prospect of this bold new way
to profit off the backs of Third World workers, however, is
the new potential for cultural brainwashing it offers. While
the imperialists always like to have mass murder and
military domination to fall back on, cultural and
ideological subjugation are often the weapons of choice. New
cellular and wireless technology which will also be
incorporated into this so-called highway may make it nearly
impossible to escape a digitized capitalist culture.
But even as capitalist monopolies position themselves to
take advantage of the new technological age, revolutionaries
can do the same. Information can be far more easily
distributed, and private corporations and the state simply
cannot control all of it. As Amerikans play interactive
Jeopardy, we will be sending bit streams of compressed
revolutionary data across continents. And distributing
revolutionary information is part of the struggle to raise
the masses' consciousness to the point where armed struggle
can begin.
Other recent media mergers and alliances include:
> Viacom Inc. and Paramount Communications. Viacom, the
Amerika's ninth-largest cable television operator, also owns
MTV and Nickelodeon. It wants to buy Paramount, best known
for its movie and television studios, (recent Paramount film
productions include *The Firm* and *Addams Family Values*)
to guarantee access to programming to pipe over its cable
lines. Offering price: $8.2 billion. But QVC Inc., a home
shopping network, has made a counteroffer of $9.5 billion.
> AT&T and McCaw Cellular
> Time Warner and U.S. West
To be sure, the media industry is not the only one in
consolidation mode. In September, France's Renaut and
Sweden's Volvo announced plans to merge, creating the
world's sixth-largest car manufacturer. And earlier this
year, the world's largest drug manufacturer, Merck, bought
the world's largest drug distributor, Medco for $6 billion.
California's two biggest banks, Bank of America and Security
Pacific merged last year.
The concentration of capital is not exactly a new wrinkle in
the history of the capitalist era. But as Forbes - the
magazine which proudly calls itself a "capitalist tool'' -
notes in its 1993 list of Amerika's 400 richest people,
"[T]he U.S. is now a postindustrial society.... In a
postindustrial society most people no longer labor in the
fields or sweat in factories and they have more leisure."
Most white people don't labor in the fields or sweat in
factories, anyway. In a decadent white nation full of lazy,
de-proletarianized white workers with lots of money, time
and technology on their hands, entertainment is a growing
way to realize wealth.
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
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E-mail: mim@blythe.org
* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
REVIEW: REAL BLUES AIN'T LIKE THESE
Bebe Moore Campbell
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine
G.P. Putnam's Sons: New York, 1992
by MC12
Here is a novel that gains its power from the assumed
authenticity of its portrayal, its attention to details of
daily life, and its supposed basis in historical events.
Despite writing that is at times powerful and provocative,
the book is ultimately a fraud, as much for its phony
depiction of Black helplessness and white helpfulness - as
for its mistelling of history.
The novel is based on the killing of Emmett Till by white
supremacists in Mississippi in 1955. The killing is at the
beginning of the novel, and the rest of the story makes up
the lives of those involved from 1955 to the present.
The real lynching
The Supreme Court had just released the *Brown v. Board of
Education* decision that supposedly ended school
segregation, and the white yahoos of Mississippi were
pissed. They lynched Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black man
from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi. On a
dare from friends, he had called a white women in rural
Mississippi "babe" after bragging about a white girlfriend
up North. A few days later, he was abducted from his
family's home, driven around and threatened for hours,
beaten and finally shot. His body was found several days
later in a nearby river, a cotton gin fan tied around his
neck with barbed wire, his testicles cut off, his head
crushed, and one eye gouged out.(1)
A white man's jury - who in real life (though not in the
novel) drank beer in the jury box - returned a verdict of
not guilty against the known perpetrators after an hour's
deliberation.
Campbell moderates the lynching markedly. Her Till
("Armstrong Todd") is beaten and then shot right in the yard
of his relatives. His body is not sexually mutilated or
dumped in the river; he is not taunted and terrorized for
hours.
Campbell is intent on humanizing all the players in the
story, on making them real and likeable. She even paints the
murderer himself as an emasculated poor white man who really
only gets dragged into the crime by his goading older
brother - a brother who has always held his father's
attention more, who always seemed to do everything right.
While Campbell's murderer is dirt poor and only gets poorer
after the crime, the real criminal was paid $4,000 by a
white journalist to tell the true story after the trial, an
event that doesn't fit into Campbell's scheme of things.
The killer's helpless wife, a crucial martyr in the story,
is also a kindly and likeable woman, who really wants to be
friends with Black people. Everything she says and does
toward them is friendly except that she says "nigger" a lot.
She is abused by her husband (not unlikely) and eventually
moves in with her daughter, who by the 1980s is an
integrationist labor activist.
In this depiction, the only benefit gained by white women
from lynching and white supremacy is a fleeting sense of
importance that is quickly dwarfed by guilt and humiliation.
In words right out of a women's studies textbook, the white
women in this story wake up and realize that white men don't
lynch for them, but for themselves. This is to make clear
that white women are really in the same boat as Blacks, and
just need to get over some cultural barriers before getting
down to some serious integration.
In real life, however, white women gain a whole system of
privilege by virtue of their position on the elevated end of
white-supremacist chivalry - even as they remain subordinate
to the white men who wield the whips.
Perhaps worse, however, is Campbell's transformation of
Blacks into emotion-dominated victims incapable of rational
collective action. Local Blacks and national organizations,
and even family members, militantly fought the Till lynching
and others like it. Till's cousin's grandmother put her body
between the lynch mob and the young man, before she was
knocked out by a shotgun butt - an incident that also
doesn't make it into the book. Because rather than take
advantage of that militant history to turn the novel into an
inspiring tribute to their heroic efforts, Campbell writes
it out of the story to create needy and self-absorbed
Blacks.
Till's mother, Mamie Till, fought to have an open-casket
funeral for her son, so his mutilated body would be a signal
to the world. In the novel, she sneaks his body out of town
under cover of night.
Mamie Till spent several years touring and speaking on her
son's death. In the book she becomes a recluse who devotes
herself more than anything else to replacing her son. The
most public thing she does is show up at memorials for her
son and cry.
Black effort betrayed
In 1955, Medgar Evers of the NAACP and other anti-lynching
activists dressed as sharecroppers to talk to local Blacks
and collect evidence to be used at a trial, at great
personal risk. They also worked to drum up support from the
Black press to get the case publicized.
But in the novel a single white journalist, who happens to
be the son of a rich plantation owner, takes it on himself
to call the New York press and convince them to send
reporters, which sparks nationwide press attention.
The kind-hearted liberal goes on to spend thousands of
dollars helping local Blacks over the rest of his life, and
even runs a small school out of his office. The white
journalist who in real life paid the murderers $4,000 for
their story somehow doesn't make it into the novel.
In the end, Campbell's Blacks emerge as weak and
disorganized, incapable of escaping personal angst and their
own rage in the face of overwhelming oppression.
Campbell is too concerned about bringing the Blacks and
whites in the story back together to pay attention to the
historical imperatives of the period and the events she
treats. Historical fiction can be a great tool for changing
reality. But in this case readers who want to learn from
history would be better advised to read factual accounts and
devote their imaginations - and their efforts - to making a
better future more reality than fiction.
Notes:
1. This account of the killing is from Henry Hampton and
Steve Fayer, eds., *Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of
the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s*.
New York: Bantam 1990. pp. 1-15. And from Aldon Morris, *The
Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities
Organizing for Change*. New York: Free Press 1984. p.
29.From the electronic frontier:
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* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
REVIEW: DEMOLITION MAN All restaurants are Taco Hell
by MC11
Let's get the obvious out of the way first: Demolition Man
is a racist, sexist, first-world chauvinist film with no
decent fight scenes or car chases to redeem it.
It glorifies individualism (white cop hero Sylvester
Stallone disobeys orders to destroy arch-Black criminal
Wesley Snipes, and the underground revolutionary of the 21st
century "just wants to drink some beer" in a world where
alcohol has been banned). It ignores fundamental economic
realities and it mocks serious social problems.
It is, however, pretty amusing, in part because the future
dystopia it portrays is clearly a monopoly capitalist-
dominated one: life sucks, but at least the new-agey
imperialists are blamed for it, as opposed to a socialist
state.
Our favorite line: On being told they are being taken out to
a fancy dinner at Taco Bell, Stallone looks incredulously at
his female partner. "They won the franchise wars of the late
20th century," she shrugs. "Now all restaurants are Taco
Bell."
The film begins in present-day Los Angeles, where Wesley
Snipes and friends have closed off South-Central to everyone
except a few fascist agents of the state. Recognition of the
Black nation's declaration of self-determination not being
high on Stallone's list, he comes to blow Snipes away but
ends up destroying a bunch of innocent civilians. The two of
them are put in cryo-prison, frozen until they reemerge
several decades later to a city that has apparently solved
all its social problems.
Cops don't use guns. People are fined for saying "fuck."
Everyone lives in racial harmony and smiles a lot, and the
message is: life is really sterile and boring. It is a
satire of the "politically correct" ethos so in vogue among
the U.S. left, where the idea is that education and law
enforcement can get rid of class, nation and gender
conflicts without addressing their material roots. So we
like that.
But there are problems with the premise. For one thing, it
doesn't give any indication of how such total elimination of
conflict was achieved. The only "resistance" is a bunch of
underground frat boys who want to eat junk food and drink
beer if whenever they feel like it. You don't see it, but
all the Leninists in the audience could tell they were
brutally exploiting Third World workers off screen in order
to pay for the acquiescence of South-Central.
The other problem is the moral of the story. Ultimately the
film sees repression of true human instincts as the root of
its world's problems: use of force is banned, so is sex,
which the audience is supposed to find horrifying. Stallone
and Snipes shake up the 21st century to the point where its
PC rules are abolished, and the message is, returning to the
wars of the 20th is preferable, because that's really what
human nature is all about.
But while MIM agrees that the contradictions between
nations, classes and genders won't be resolved through fines
and education, we don't believe people naturally tend toward
conflict. Under capitalism, yes, but not as some sort of
biological thing.
Also, the end, in which the white cop finally gets his
revenge against Snipes, sucked. MIM says, don't go see
Demolition Man. Free South-Central instead.
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* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
WHY THEY'RE CALLED REVISIONISTS
"The existence of Jiang Qing, who was [Mao Zedong's] last
wife and one of the leaders of the Cultural Revolution, is
not recorded at all in the Mao museum [in Shaoshan, China]
... The only mention of the Cultural Revolution is a small
excerpt from the party's 1980 evaluation of Mao, stating
that 'he made a bad mistake in the Cultural Revolution.'"
- MC49
Notes: Boston Globe 5/11/93, p. 10.
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* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
PSEUDO-FEMINISTS POLICE CAMPUS BEDROOMS
Antioch College recently enacted an "ask-first" sexual-
assault policy which requires that students who initiate sex
must first get the verbal consent of their partners.
Students charged with assault under the new policy could be
expelled.(1)
The Antioch policy was initiated by students and developed
with their input - but that didn't spare it from the
paternalism and liberalism so prevalent in these policies.
Campus pseudo-feminism, which helped to create the Antioch
policy, is part of a reactionary element of the student
movement which struggles to strengthen the socially coercive
role of college and university administrations. While MIM
wholeheartedly supports explicit communication between
sexual partners, we do not support campus administrators,
police, or other representatives of capitalist patriarchy
facilitating that communication.
When a group called Womyn of Antioch initially protested a
lack of policies regarding date rape, Antioch students
submitted a proposal which made no distinction between
sexual assault and unwanted touching. That policy mandated
expulsion as the only penalty. The accused would not be
allowed representation before the hearing board and the
accuser would be referred to as the "survivor."(1)
Such a policy is indicative of the ideology which teaches
women to expand their fear of men to the point where a tap
becomes a mortal wound. It teaches women that they are
powerless and need to be protected. MIM would rather have
women realistically assess men's power and confidently build
their own.
Only one complaint was filed under the original policy; and
the charges were dropped as the circumstances were not
deemed worthy of expulsion. This led students and
administrators to create the new policy, which allows for a
range of penalties and involves the accused in the hearing
process.(1)
When MIM asked about punishment under this new policy, a
student from the community council said that it was "up to
the individual" complainant to decide which punishment to
pursue under the policy (or under civic law).
According to Callie Cary, executive assistant to the to the
president of Antioch, "the main goal of this [new] policy is
to open up communication between people and to avoid
potentially dangerous situations."(2) The policy states that
since people have different ideas about what having sex
entails, "verbal consent should be obtained with every new
level of physical and/or sexual contact/conduct."(2) The
policy also states that consent given under duress or under
the influence of alcohol or drugs "may not be
meaningful."(2)
But that is the extent of the policy's recognition that
"consent" is related to the context in which it is given.
MIM realizes that as long as men and women are unequal
economically, militarily, and politically, real consent is
impossible.
Furthermore, under capitalist patriarchy sexual desire - and
therefore consent - is based on the eroticization of
domination and submission. Not only does the Antioch policy
rely on campus administrators for enforcement, it regulates
the process of individual sexual relations without
challenging the substance of sex under patriarchy.
Notes:
1. New York Times, 9/22/93, p A1.
2. The Michigan Daily, 9/23/93, p.1.
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* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
POWEL, KOON, SENT TO "CLUB FED"
It took a massive rebellion and a second trial to convict
two pigs for "violating Rodney King's civil rights." But
what did you expect these guys to get from a pig system?
Punishment? Re-education?
Later for those lies. Before they can cash in on their new-
found fame, Laurence M. Powell and Stacey C. Koon are
getting a 30-month vacation at "Club Fed" - the Federal
Prison Camp at Dublin, California, "a prison without walls,
fences, bars, gun towers or guns."(1)
Without walls or fences! At Dublin, "escapees are called
walkaways"! This, in the same state which is building "Death
Fences." Death Fences are designed to electrocute - to kill
- escapees from the more typical facilities - those which
warehouse and torture prisoners who don't have the kind of
legal help or pig status which lands you in Dublin.(2)
Koon and Powell are in good company. They follow in the
footsteps of white-collar criminal Michael Milken, who spent
a two-year vacation at Dublin before getting a job teaching
business at UCLA.(3)
Unlike some federal prison camps, Dublin has no tennis
courts.
But Koon and Powell probably will be too busy to play
tennis, because they will be renting videos, gardening,
dining at the salad bar, and using the wooden desks, sand
volleyball court, weightlifting area and asphalt running
track.(1)
MIM hopes they choke on their salad.
- MC49
Notes:
1. Los Angeles Times 10/13/93, p. B1, B4.
2. LAT 10/27/93, p. A1, A15.
3. LAT 10/13/93, p. A1; LAT 10/8/93, p. A1, A17
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
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* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
LETTERS TO MIM
Reader digs MIM, disses Klinton
Dear MIM,
I would really appreciate your sending me some descriptive
literature issued by the Maoist Internationalist Movement.
I'm hoping to attend the film showing ... next Wednesday. I
saw a handbill tacked up on a bulletin board ... and jotted
down date, time, and place. I have however, to try to cancel
previous plans for that evening but I'm hoping it will work
out. Isn't it amazing how many otherwise intelligent people
dig the new President? The world is falling apart and he
lazes about the sunny cape with a gang of super wealthy
princes and princesses. Send what you can and I'll be back
in touch just in case I can't make it a week from today.
- A new friend in the east
September 1993
MIM, MLP disagree on white working class
Dear Sir/Madam,
Received your letter ...
We are proudly a part of the LA Supporters Marxist-Leninist
Party USA (MLP-USA). Of course, in spite of our many
differences, especially concerning the potential of the
united and integrated U.S. working class and a serious
political-organizational orientation to its struggles
against capital, we think knowledge of other political
trends around and in the peoples' struggles is important.
Therefore we would kindly request an exchange by mail on a
regular basis of our respective newspapers.
We enclose some of our recent theoretical journals which may
help to delineate our differences, especially on the nature
of the U.S. working class and reasons for the collapse of
the old "communist" movements.
Please let us know if an exchange by mail is agreeable to
you.
Sincerely,
- A supporter of the MLP-USA
September 1993
MIM responds: MIM has received your letter and enclosures
dated 9/20/93. MIM agrees with your statement that there are
many differences between MIM and the MLP-USA, including the
question of the non- revolutionary nature of the North
Amerikan white working-class. MIM does not believe in
organizing the white working-class as a class, because MIM
believes that the white working-class' relationship to
capital is mainly alliance, not struggle.
MIM agrees that it is important to study other political
trends on the left. In that spirit, we distribute "What's
Your Line?" ($1) "What's Your Line?" is MIM's analysis of
all other communist trends - Hoxhaites, Trotskyists,
Stalinists, Maoists, armchair lefties and more - in the
United States from an Amerikan Maoist perspective.
MIM accepts your offer to exchange newspapers. You have been
placed on our permanent-subscriber mailing list, and will
soon be sent the October 1993 issue of MIM Notes.
Thank you for writing.
Who knows what evil lurks in the tone of MIM?
The Shadow knows!
Issue #28 (Dec 92/May 93) of The Shadow, a left-leaning
anarchist newspaper, ran the following review of MIM Notes.
The footnotes refer to MIM's responses, which follow.
MIM Notes - "The official Newsletter of the Maoist
Internationalist Movement."
Well, it looks like the good old Revolutionary Communist
Party has got some competition as America's foremost
fanatical(1) Maoist sect.(2) Not nearly as slick(3) but even
more fanatical(1) than the RCP, the MIM is so obsessed(4)
with ultra-militant pretensions(3) that their contributors
write under pseudonyms like "MC12" and "MC86,"(5) conveying
the impression of a hardened cadre(6) (shades of Pol Pot's
"Brother Number One")(7) White boy revolutionary
wannabees(8) with a neurotic(4) need to be guilt- tripped
(9) by shrill rhetoric with all the subtlety of a
sledgehammer(3) should really get off on this one. Strictly
for masochists.(9) Subs $12/year, from POB 3576, Ann Arbor,
MI 48106-3576(10)
MC49 replies:
1. "Fanatical" is in the eye of the beholder. The lack of
substance in the critic's review of MIM Notes makes it tough
to tell what the critic means by this remark. Presumably
s/he sees MIM as fanatical because MIM forthrightly states
that the only way to end all oppression is by building
public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. MIM's
critic at The Shadow should ask him/herself why s/he is
choosing to disparage MIM and the RCP as "fanatical" when
there are so many other worthy targets, such as the millions
of Amerikans who supported the war against Iraq. His/her use
of the term reflects psychology of the sort that the
bourgeoisie uses to forcibly institutionalize
revolutionaries.
2. MIM observes that the critic's review of MIM Notes is a
public attack on MIM by someone who didn't bother to argue
with MIM first. What could be more sectarian than that?
3. Ah, but is MIM's political line correct? MIM's critic has
much to say about MIM Notes' form, but little to say about
its content.
4. Bourgeois psychology, again.
5. MIM notes that The Shadow's staff box contains many
pseudonyms, too. MIM believes that numbers are the best way
to make MIM Comrades (MCs) and MIM associates (MAs)
accountable to the masses without aiding the state
surveillance and repression that has historically been
directed at communist parties and anti-imperialist movements
working for revolution.
6. MIM cadres' political line is "harder" than the mushy
politics of our various critics. Right in the "What is MIM?"
on page two of every issue, MIM Notes says where MIM cadres
stand on the most important issues of today. Where does
MIM's mushy critic stand on these questions?
7. MIM's critic reveals his/her class standpoint with this
statement. Clearly s/he assumes that all readers will be
horrified by the mere mention of Pol Pot's name. See MIM
Notes #41 for MIM's refutation of the myths about Pol Pot
that MIM's critic assumes are universally believed facts.
(Available from MIM for $2 cash or check made out to "ABS.")
8. Shadow readers? (Seriously, anarchism, like Trotskyism,
has a disproportionate influence in First World nations
where bourgeois ideology has the most influence.)
9. Perhaps MIM Notes' consistent exposure of the
relationship between U.S. imperialism and the privilege
enjoyed by the North Amerikan white nation has left MIM's
critic feeling guilty? If so, s/he should work with MIM
against imperialism, instead of either wallowing in his/her
own guilt or walking away from it.
10. Where's the beef?
The Shadow is available for $1/copy bulk rate or $2/copy
first class from Shadow Press, P.O. Box 20298, New York, NY
10009. They prefer cash, but also accept checks made out to
"Shadow Press."
Orwellian support?
To all at MIM:
Although I have often found MIM Notes rather too doctrinaire
for my tastes, I appreciated very much your reply in the
most recent Letters to the person who thought that movie
reviews had no place in a revolutionary zine [see MIM Notes
81 -ed].
I was reminded of George Orwell's response to someone who
criticized him during his literary editorship of Tribune for
including book reviews, sometimes of books by Tories. He
replied that, a) socialists actually need leisure activities
too; and, b) we can learn from many different places things
that will help our struggle.
Cheers.
- electronic reader
MC12 responds: We were glad to have the chance to stick up
for revolutionary treatment of popular and mass culture. It
is indeed a deep reservoir that contains a complex blend of
noxious poisons and atomized nutrients.
We always welcome comments and are glad to respond to them.
It's too bad that you find the newspaper too doctrinaire:
"doc-tri-naire, n.: 1.) a person who tries to apply some
doctrine or theory without sufficient regard for practical
considerations; an impractical theorist. adj: 2) dogmatic
about one's ideas; fanatical: a doctrinaire preacher; 3)
merely theoretical; impractical."
We hope we are none of these things, though it is
understandable that at times we give that appearance.
Probably most frequently we are guilty of (2), or appear so,
as we do not always have time or resources to explain
everything behind what we assert. And, because we understand
that waffling and indecision means more people die while
ideas remain just ideas, we always put forward the best
position we can come up with on an important issue, and do
it aggressively, testing it and learning from the effects
and responses it provokes. This makes us appear arrogant,
and we accept that charge: the tasks before us are so urgent
that we prefer arrogance to timidity.
We hope we are never guilty of (1), as we always do our best
to take into account the practical considerations of what we
do and what we advocate. For example, that is why we argue
strenuously against focoist armed actions that are dramatic
but achieve nothing except increased repression.
If you find us guilty of this or other errors, please write
to us and struggle with us.
More importantly, keep things straight. If you like what we
mean, and don't like the way we say it, that means you
should be helping to get out what we mean while struggling
with us over the way we say it. What is more important?
Why not submit culture reviews of your own? Movie, music and
book reviews are always good bets. That way you can advance
revolutionary politics while struggling over style directly,
and leading by example.
Send Internet mail to MIM at: mim@blythe.org
MIM Notes is distributed on the Internet by the New York
Transfer News Collective. New York Transfer offers a
complete alternative news service from progressive
organizations, anarchists and other anti-imperialist
movements. Subscriptions are $125/year, $70/half-year,
$40/3-months. For more information write to nyt@blythe.org
- - - - -
Corrections
MIM Notes 80 misstated the number of abstentions in the
Peruvian Congress's vote to widen the application of the
death penalty. The correct vote was 55 to 21, with 1
abstention.
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576.
E-mail: mim@blythe.org
* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
MIM DISTRIBUTOR HARASSED; ACCUSED OF SAME
LOS ANGELES CITY COLLEGE, Sept. 15, 1993 - A MIM Notes
distributor was forced to relocate today, exposing Amerikan
"free speech" for the lie that it is. The distributor had
been handing out copies of MIM Notes, asking for donations
and discussing revolutionary politics with people who
expressed an interest, but was forced to stop when s/he saw
a cop approaching.
The MIM Notes distributor had learned through experience
what to do when cops or campus security officers approach:
leave. The distributor tucked the handful of MIM Notes under
an arm and started walking briskly away. Sometimes, this
response to impending repression succeeds in defusing the
situation. Today, the distributor was not so lucky. The cop,
an L.A. City College officer, eyed the distributor and gave
chase.
"What are you doing?!" shouted the cop.
"Taking a walk," the MIM Notes distributor replied.
The cop got more specific, asking the distributor what kind
of newspaper s/he was handing out, what his/her name is
(first and last) and where s/he lives. Here, the distributor
was caught between the rock of giving this personal
information to the LAPD's notorious Red Squad and the hard
place of giving false information to the cops.
The cop told the MIM Notes distributor that he was there in
response to a phone call accusing the distributor of
"harassment." The distributor denied the charge and asked
exactly what kind of harassment s/he had been accused of.
The cop did not have an answer. The distributor further
stated that far from harassing people, s/he had been very
polite, saying "thank you" to everyone, whether they
accepted the paper or not.
The MIM Notes Distributor does not know who phoned in the
false charge. After all, nobody accused the distributor of
harassment to his/her face. This episode serves to show just
who gets to control "free speech."
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576.
E-mail: mim@blythe.org
* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
COMMUNIQUE FROM MIPS ZINE
Announcing the birth of MIPS ZINE (Maoist Internationalist
Poetry Society Magazine) in celebration of the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong (a great poet).
Send in your poetry, raps, rants and raves
MIPS ZINE is storming the "Home of the Knave."
Television culture and textbook pretty
No longer need to rule in our cities.
Amerikan kulture is a dead old thing;
Let the revolution inspire us to sing!
From the project to the classroom to the prison cell
Lets bury bourgeois art in a rhythm hell.
Let the voice of fury ring.
Let the sound of rebel music swell.
Let the light of love shine in -
And people's anthems proclaim freedom loud -
Until all Art Pig power is felled
By the raging MIPS ZINE crowd.
Did the local art pigs break your heart?
Fight back! Use MIPS as a tactic.
MIPS ZINE accepts photos, graphics,
and all forms of people's art.
Art is a weapon in the war
Against imperialist decay.
Post this flier. Get out the word.
Send in your ammo today:
MIPS ZINE
P.O. Box 3576
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576.
E-mail: mim@blythe.org
* * * * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * * *
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
WINNABLE BATTLES
Things too normal in the White Nation
It's a fucking abomination
Things ain't going ka-blow, ka-blam,
Bam-bam-bambam-ba-bam-bam-bam
Things is quiet - too quiet
Makes me wanna start
A fucking riot
But I know we'd be fools to try it
'Til we know we can finish what we start
"Dare to struggle, dare to win!"
To forget about winning is a terrible sin
I'd have some fun in "Days of Rage,"
But I'd rather push for victory in a future age
So for now I'll bone up on some rational knowledge
Things are too quiet in college.
- MC49
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576.
E-mail: mim@blythe.org
The Maoist Internationalist Movement
- MIM Notes 82, November 1993 -
UNDER LOCK & KEY
PRISONER PREPARES TO USE MIM THEORY AS AN ORGANIZING TOOL
Dear MIM,
I have received my books that you sent me and I must say I'm
very impressed. Not taking anything away from the MIM Notes
I receive, but it must be said that MIM Theory offers a more
clear-cut vision on the issues. I haven't had a chance to
study true Maoism, but now I've got the tools so that I can
be a teacher and a student at the same time. And hopefully,
we can explain this movement throughout the Illinois prison
system. There are a few MCs down here with me. But until
now, I didn't have the proper tools to teach or open study
groups. Now I have the tools. So look for progress in
membership and in mass from now on. I leave as I come in
struggle.
- an Illinois prisoner, 8/19/93
FLOOD + SADISTIC WARDEN = FECAL SOUP
The conditions at Menard Correctional Center in Illinois are
becoming unlivable. Because of the Mississippi river
flooding and the sadistic warden here, we have been on a
lockdown since July 18th. We have no electricity in the
cells and only emergency lighting in the gallery. There is
no running water in the cells and only recently were we
given water to flush the toilets. We are given potable water
for drinking and personal use in 1/2 pint milk containers
and only with meals. We have not had showers in several
weeks, not had any clean clothing or bedding in a month...
There is raw sewage on the floor of the South cell house.
The sewage is ankle deep and is littered with hundreds of
food trays that have been impossible to eat off of because
of the stench of rotting food, unwashed humanity and feces.
The food preparation area is on the second floor, directly
above and in the same flyway as this ankle-deep fecal soup.
Flies are swarming in the cell house and contaminating the
food we are given to eat because they were drawn here by the
fecal soup and the promise of life. By the time you receive
this letter, many people will have become violently ill and
ignored by the Menard health care joke. It smells so bad in
here that the Certified Medical Technicians (CMTs) won't
come in.
Other prisons affected by the flood have transferred all the
inmates to other facilities. The warden was given ample
opportunity to transport all of us to higher ground. He had
several weeks notice to do this and chose instead to build a
Jzzlevee around our water pump...
- an Illinois prisoner, 8/10/93, writing for the September
1993 issue of the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights
Newsletter. The Coalition for Prisoners Rights can be
reached at P.O. Box 1911, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1911.
EXCERPTS FROM A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT FILED ON BEHALF OF
PELICAN BAY STATE (CA) PRISONERS
...XXXXX is a prisoner currently assigned to the Security
Housing Unit ("SHU") of Pelican Bay State Prison. He has
been beaten and hog-tied on several occasions by guards in
the unit. He has been informed by Pelican Bay officials
that, based in part on the allegations of unidentified
individuals, he is believed to be affiliated with a prison
gang and will only leave the SHU if he agrees to "snitch,"
(i.e., inform against other prisoners.) If XXXXX does not
inform, Pelican Bay officials have told him he will only
leave SHU if he paroles or dies....
Plaintiff YYYYY is presently housed in the SHU at Pelican
Bay State Prison. YYYYY is deaf and Pelican Bay officials
refuse to provide him with batteries for his hearing aid.
Pelican Bay guards have brutally attacked YYYYY on at least
two occasions for his failure to respond to orders that he
could not hear....
While at Pelican Bay, ZZZZZ complained to several M[edical]
T[echnical] A[ssistant]s on different occasions of abdominal
pain. On the first occasion, after taking his temperature
and blood pressure, the MTA declined to recommend ZZZZZ for
a doctor's visit or to provide further treatment. Several
days later, ZZZZZ reacted in great pain. The MTA informed
ZZZZZ that he had a spastic colon. The MTA put ZZZZZ on a
list to see the doctor, and provided no treatment....
When ZZZZZ had not seen a doctor after several days, he
submitted a new request to see a physician, marked "urgent,"
which described his pain as extreme. ZZZZZ's cellmate also
informed the MTAs that ZZZZZ was suffering from fever and
delirium, could not eat or sleep, and was in deep pain.
ZZZZZ, however, was not permitted to see a doctor until he
induced vomiting and "faked" a seizure. The MTA who
responded to this incident took ZZZZZ's temperature and
called a doctor. After examining ZZZZZ, the doctor then
directed that ZZZZZ be taken to Sutter Coast Hospital....
Physicians at Sutter Coast performed emergency surgery and
discovered that Mr. Hughes' appendix had burst several days
before and that he was suffering from gangrene resulting
from the burst appendix. The Sutter Coast physicians
informed ZZZZZ that he was "lucky to be alive."...
Guards routinely assault prisoners using excessive
force....This excessive use of force includes the use of
taser guns, rubber bullets, wooden blocks or bullets, gas
guns and baton sticks. In addition, prisoners are frequently
hog-tied for extended periods of time. When an individual
prisoner is hog-tied, he cannot feed himself or use the
toilet....
When a prisoner is alleged to have declined a direct order
from a guard, Pelican Bay guards frequently summon a "cell
extraction" team to respond to the prisoner's alleged
refusal to obey the direct order.
Typically, a team of six to eight guards and officers,
dressed in riot gear, "rush" the prisoner, entering his cell
armed with electric tasers, guns which fire gas pellets,
rubber or wooden bullets and batons. The guards often carry
riot shields and wear face visors. Because of the riot gear,
guard faces and name tags are not visible to prisoners. The
guards attact the prisoner using these weapons, and kick and
punch him as well.
When the prisoner is subdued, guards frequently "hog- tie"
the prisoner. The guards usually continue to assault, beat
and/or kick the prisoner after he is subdued and hog- tied.
They then leave him, often on the cell floor, for hours at a
time. Alternatively, guards, after a prisoner is "hog-tied,"
heave the prisoner onto a gurney which they ram into a wall.
Sometimes, after guards have subdued a prisoner, they
removed him from his cell to an area of the prison where
other prisoners cannot hear the assault, and continue to
attack him there.
For the guards, the "cell extractions" have a sadistic
quality. One guard, for example, wears a visor with the
slogan "make my day" printed on the front. Sergeant Boyll,
similarly, taunts prisoners in her charge, indicating that
she would welcome the opportunity to cell extract a
prisoner....
In January 1991, a guard on a late night shift harassed
Hispanic prisoners, swearing at them and making grossly
racist comments about them. In the morning, the prisoners
refused to return trays until they could speak to a
lieutenant to protest this behavior. The prison responded by
"cell extracting," cell by cell, approximately 20 prisoners.
Even prisoners who were willing to return trays were cell
extracted. The guards left prisoners hog-tied on the walkway
outside their cells for approximately eight hours, during
which time MTAs routinely refused prisoners' requests for
meaningful medical attention. The prisoners were then moved
to different cells which had no soap, toilet paper or other
basic amenities. The prisoners were dressed solely in their
underwear. The guards removed the prisoners who objected to
the lack of basic necessities to the V[iolence] C[ontrol]
U[nit (a 40-50 cell subsection of SHU)]....
ELMIRA CORRECTIONAL FACILITY CENSORS HALF OF MIM NOTES
Dear Sir/Madam,
Enclosed please find a Xerox copy of a notice from the
"Media Review Committee" here at Elmira Correctional
Facility.
Presently, I am waiting to receive the leftover portion of
the August issue from the Chairperson (Larry Woodward),
whatever is left of it for me to read, since they decided
that some of the articles advocated lawlessness and
rebellion against government authority. As you can see, when
it comes to New York State Prisons, write-ups hurt them real
hard. I'm sending you this copy for your files. Past issues
such as May, June and July I have received with no problem
at all. Please continue to send me MIM Notes. I will keep
you informed of any new developments.
Thank you.
- a New York prisoner
DISPOSITION NOTICE
ELMIRA CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
MEDIA REVIEW COMMITTEE
INMATE NAME: XXX
NUMBER: XXX
CELL LOCATION: XXX
The publication: MIMS NOTES (sic) AUGUST 1993 NO. 79 has
been reviewed by the Facility Media Review Committee and the
following portions: PAGES 3, 9 AND 11 have been found
unacceptable for the following reasons: SEVERAL ARTICLES
ADVOCATE LAWLESSNESS AND REBELLION AGAINST GOVERNMENT
AUTHORITY....
INDIANA PRISONER NEEDS THE PEOPLE'S SUPPORT AGAINST COLONIAL
INJUSTICE!!
XXXX is incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan
City. XXXX is a young man, 30 years old, from a working-
class Black family. XXXX is serving a 142-year sentence as a
result of his participation in the February 1, 1985 prison
rebellion at the Indiana State Reformatory. In the
rebellion, seven correctional guards were stabbed and four
other guards taken hostage for a period of 16 hours. The
rebellion was in direct response to the racist and
unprovoked beating of a Black prisoner while handcuffed and
shackled by white guards, during a shakedown of the Maximum
Restraint Unit. These beatings had become an established
pattern among the guards.
Out of the more than 300 prisoners who participated in some
form in the rebellion, only six including XXXX (all Black)
were hand-picked and charged on various counts. The counts
included battery, attempted murder, confinement and rioting.
Before the rebellion occured, XXXX had only a few more
months to serve.
In April 1987, XXXX was tried and convicted by an all- white
jury on two counts of attempted murder, four counts of
confinement and one count of rioting. XXXX was given the
maximum sentence for each of these, culminating in 142
years. The trial took place within the same jurisdiction as
the Reformatory. The case was tried in a vacuum in which the
jury was deliberately prevented from viewing all of the
evidence by court intervention.
XXXX raised self-defense and defense of a third person
(Lincoln Love, the prisoner who was severely beaten that
morning). There was extensive evidence to verify this claim,
crucially from one of the guards who was stabbed and from
other State witnesses. In his deposition, Richardson (a
white guard) describes in great detail the events that led
to the rebellion.
Richardson spoke of a pseudo-Ku Klux Klan organization
entitled the "Sons of Light" among correctional officials
that systematically beat Black prisoners, and the climate of
the terror within the Reformatory. Such racism and brutality
were sanctioned at the highest level: Richardson states,
"Then you have somebody like Captain Sands. Our children
used to be babysitted by him and played with his Klan robe.
He carries a card. He's involved in it. That's the Captain
which is over all the Captains of the Institution."
The evidence Richardson provided regarding the beating that
morning and the internal terror network were declared by the
Court to be irrelevant and collateral to the charges XXXX
was facing. Thus, the evidence was excluded.
There are many conflicting scenarios surrounding the case of
XXXX on behalf of the Indiana judicial system. We are
fighting back and need your support to help assure this
brother's freedom from such grotesque injustice.
Under the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
(NPDUM) [affiliated with the African People's Socialist
Party - MC49] we have created a XXXX Defense Fund (XDF). We
are seeking the help of people who support democracy,
freedom and
self-determination. We cannot allow this or any injustices
to continue among our people. Whether your contribution is
time, participation or monetary patronage, it is welcomed
and appreciated. For additional information on the case or
to see how you can be involved, please contact Aziza
Trotter, coordinator of the XDF at 317-685-8758, P.O. Box
441761, Indianapolis, IN 46244-1761. You may also contact
the NPDUM, P.O. Box 368255, Chicago, IL 60636, 312-924-7072.
UHURU (FREEDOM)
Send letters of support for XXXX to MIM Distributors, 4521
Campus Dr. #535, Irvine, CA 92715. They will be forwarded to
XXXX.
DISTRAUGHT? DISTURBED? SUICIDAL? TRY ON SOME SOOTHING LEG
IRONS!
It appears that super-maximum security prisons are actually
psychological experimental wards. Those housed in them are
involuntarily used as subjects. For example, here where I
am, there's a so-called Isolation Room known as the Pink
Room. This is where our keepers supposedly place prisoners
who become distraught, extremely disturbed or suicidal. This
room is entirely pink inside and has absolutely nothing else
in it with the exception of a hole in the center of the
floor that serves as a toilet. An all-pink cell is supposed
to have some sort of psychological effect on the person in
it.
Contrast this to the room itself, which is filthy with feces
and urine caked on the edges of the toilet, dried blood and
food particles. Not to mention the freezing temperatures and
the fact that you are fully restrained with leg irons,
waist-chains and handcuffs. Men are supposed to be left like
this for 12 to 24 hours, but I along with many others have
been left in this state of haplessness and despair for
upwards of four to five days.
In addition to this, all cells here are equipped with
intercom systems with which our movements about the cells as
well as our conversations are covertly monitored.
- a Maryland prisoner
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, SO PRISONS PUSH FAIRY TALES
On your question about supplying material to the prison
library:
Well, this new prison Maximum Control Complex (MCC) is an
isolated one without any means of me and my fellow prisoners
socializing face to face. We are kept confined to a cell 23
hours every day. The only means for me and my comrades to
hold discussions openly over the Range is through the side
of a cell door. This prison doesn't have an apppropriate
library for leisure reading. The guards do come around with
a book cart, but it doesn't have anything on it that's worth
reading except some fairy tale books. The conscious brothers
here have tried to get together and donate some books to the
cart worth reading; books that deal with the truth and
reality. But the administration takes the books and throws
them away...
- an Indiana prisoner
BLACK AUGUST COMMEMORATED IN INDIANA
I would like to open this letter with revolutionary love,
with a clenched-fist salute.
This past weekend (August 21-23, 1993) we all, inside as
well as outside, came together to show our solidarity and
love for two fallen soldiers, Comrades George and Jonathon
Jackson.
The way this was organized was a definite step towards how
to organize ourselves, to come together as one for a
positive cause. We abstained from food, recreation and
talking - some for one day, others two or three days; the
point is that we all came together to show our love for
comrades, as well as to strengthen our discipline, our
growth and our development.
I personally thought this was good for all of us, to study,
read and write without a lot of distractions, or just think
about one's position inside this genocidal chamber and
inside imperialist Amerikkka.
So to all my sisters, brothers and comrades, I salute you
all...
Free the Mind
Free the Land
Uhuru Sasa
- an Indiana prisoner
PUBLISH AND PERISH
There is a saying among prison journalists: "Publish and
perish." Those of us who strive to write honestly about
prison life do so at great risk. Our efforts are with more
danger and peril than any we faced during our previous lives
of crime.
I say this as someone who knows. During the last two years I
have been in and out of the hole and moved around the prison
system more times than I care to recount. It is a price that
I have been willing to pay to create a meaningful voice for
prisoners. But it is not a price everyone is willing to pay.
Fear of retribution has all but silenced the prison
population in Massachusetts.
First Amendment protection behind bars is not a guarantee,
but a gamble. But it is a gamble that prisoners must be
willing to take. If the First Amendment really embodies that
most cherished of principles, free speech, then it will
apply to everyone and especially to those who are most
vulnerable to force and intimidation. We must challenge the
courts to defend the principles of free speech and ensure
its integrity even within the prisons.
Odyssey's premise is that we first must discover how to
communicate with one another. Odyssey is becoming a meeting
place for the free exchange of ideas about criminal justice.
By publishing innovative research and creative articles by
prisoners, correctional officials, legislators, victims of
crime, and others who have a substantial influence on
criminal policy.
Odyssey promotes a dialogue that could lead to greater
understanding of crime and punishment in our society. But we
quickly learned that nothing is more dangerous than
advocating a conversation based on reconciliation within
criminal justice system sustained by adversarial
relationships. It is ironic that when prisoners act
responsibly and seek to build bridges of reconciliation to
the community, our efforts are thwarted.
The Weld [death penalty] plan is not new. It is simply
state-sanctioned violence pursued in the name of justice.
The governor merely wants to exchange one form of domination
based on force for another. Thus, Weld's "solution" to crime
only perpetuates the very problem it seeks to abolish.
Bluntly stated, for those now in power, violence and murder
(capital punishment) are acceptable methods of conflict
resolution. They constitute a double-standard that
undermines our faith in the idea of "justice for all."
If the governor is truly concerned about stopping violence
and crime, he should begin by at least listening to those he
regards as "the problem." He may not agree with what we have
to say, but he may eventually see that his policies foster
only a seige mentality.
- a Massachusetts prisoner
PRISONER APPRECIATES MIM NOTES' LACK OF SELF-RESTRAINT
Dear Sir (sic):
I have been incarcerated eight years and for the first time
during this period I have come across something that is
(??nboth intellectually stimulating and worth reading that
has not been censored, or how should we put it, ITAL watered
down END ITAL by the editors (besides a few books,
magazines, and newspapers by certain organizations, people,
and penal institutions.)
I would like to receive more of your publications and
literature so I can enlighten the brothers in the Michigan
Penal System on not just our struggle but other peoples'
struggle around the world as well. I feel we brothers in
these Michigan Concentration Camps have something to say,
but have nobody to tell except ourselves, relatives, and
close friends that will listen.
So in closing, I would like to say we should enjoy the
opportunity to express ourselves through your newspaper or
any other publication that will allow us (without being
censored.) Also to thank you for being one of the few that
are not afraid of using your Constitutional right of ITAL
freedom of speech END ITAL...
Power to the People.
- a Michigan prisoner, 7/15/93
MC49 replies:
The funny thing about the "Constitutional right of freedom
of speech" is that those who are not afraid of using it
quickly learn what MIM knows: that there are no rights, only
power struggles. MIM Notes is often censored by prison
authorities, and sometimes by university authorities as
well.
"FROM A GENOCIDAL CHAMBER:" NOW I KNOW
De hood I live
From de first step
I took!
I learn to fight or flight
In this hood
Of pimps 'n' wimps
I learned one definitely fact!
That is when
Johnny Law came around
Everybody always
Ran for cover
I asked myself
What's going on!
That I should Flee
From Johnny Law
(But)
Stand my ground
Fighting to de end
My brothas whom looks
Just like me
I asked this sista
Whom lives in de hood
For Quite some time
What's going on with that!
She told of a story
Now 500 years old
Of Challenging your Brothas
(But)
Never ever de beast
To that I asked her
What!
All she said was five more words
"Capitalist system that's de beast"
Then she walked away
It took some time
But now I know
I'm reeducated
With a new mentality
That sista sure gave me focus
I will not!
Hide in a pickle barrel
I will not!
Hide at all
Beast get off
Our necks!
This rage I had
Was once
Misguided
Striking out
At my own
(Now)
Beast get off
Our necks...
- by an Indiana prisoner
FROM A GENOCIDAL CHAMBER - POEMS BY AN INDIANA PRISONER:
WORDS
De words we use
Are not new
These words were used
Hundreds of years before
Generations to generations
It's sometimes hard
I'm quite sure
To understand so many words
With de right directions
Studies 'n' discipline
You will find these words'
Truth to be true
From de fruits of our labor
More than four hundred years
Sunrise to sunset
We gave our best
Neglecting ourselves
To please de ruling class
If only for a while
With de cries for freedom
Ringing across the land
Befalling deaf ears
Here, here today
Over four hundred years
De call is still sounding
As our sisters 'n' brothers
Struggle to be free
Here in our supposed modern times
Abuse is at de forefront
Of our everyday lives
While de physical apparatus is long gone
Now in place
Something more destructive
A people held hostage
Believing it's equality
While thinking of themselves
Not of de whole
Like sisters 'n' brothers
Some years ago
That died for us
In hopes of a better day
Thinking just for us
We're in this together
You, me, de people down de block
We can make a difference
For generations to generations
Isn't that what
It's all about?
De struggle for freedom
For all human forms...
MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when
redistributing or referring to this material.
Subscriptions are $12/year (12 issues), U.S. mail or e-mail.
Send only cash, stamps or check made out to "ABS." Write:
MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576.
E-mail: mim@blythe.org
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