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 106 November 1995
Get MIM Notes 106 from the Maoist Internationalist
Movement (MIM), and get the latest in Maoist news
and analysis - put a revolutionary weapon in your
hands.
In MIM Notes 106, read a Maoist analysis of recent
events the bourgeoisie has hypocritically termed
"racially divisive" such as the Million Man March
on Washington and the trial and verdict of OJ
Simpson. Follow the continued efforts of MIM and
the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League to
promote the revolutionary struggles of our comrades
in the Philippines. Learn more about the
exploitation of migrant farm workers in Amerikkka.
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.
For a free issue mailed to your Internet address (a
large text file), send a message explaining your
interest to: mim@mim.org.
MIM Notes 106 includes:
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. GROWERS EXPLOIT NEW JAMAICAN WORKERS
2. LETTERS TO MIM
3. MILLION MAN MARCH IN YOUR FACE
4. FRENCH IMPERIALISM ROCKS THE PACIFIC, AFRICA;
MASSES PREPARE RETRIBUTION
5. BLACK STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS HONOR MURDERED
LEADERS
6. PRESENTATION ABOUT ERITREAN LIBERATION
STRUGGLE
7. GUILTY: BLACK AMERIKA'S VERDICT ON THE LAPD
8. PALESTINIAN WOMEN DEFY ISRAELI TRICKS; REMAIN
IN PRISON
9. AMERIKAN LABOR DEMANDS MORE, IGNORES
INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT
10. SECOYA NATION: BESIEGED BY OIL COMPANIES AND
COLONISTS
11. YOUTH SEEK JUSTICE AT THE UNAM
12. COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES AND
KURDISTAN WORKERS PARTY BUILD UNITY
13. COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES STATEMENT
ON THE SUSPENSION OF FORMAL TALKS WITH THE
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES
14. DARE TO KEEP COPS OUT OF SCHOOL
15. FILM SHOWING EXPOSES MIGRANT LABOR
CONDITIONS
16. MIM AND RAIL MAKE NEW FRIENDS FOR THE NDFP
17. MARCH AGAINST PRISONS: MASSES REJECT
BRUTALIZING "CORRECTIONS"
18. PROGRAM OF THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
19. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: LETTERS FROM PRISON
20. ANN ARBOR FILM SERIES CONTINUES IN NOVEMBER
21. BOSTON-AREA EVENTS IN NOVEMBER
22. AMHERST, MASS: PRISON AWARENESS WEEK
* * *
GROWERS EXPLOIT NEW JAMAICAN WORKERS
Puerto Rican and Mexicano farm workers in
Massachusetts have been replaced with Jamaican
workers in the past few years. The Puerto Ricans
and Mexicanos are no longer desirable employees
because they resist oppressive work conditions too
much. Jamaican guest workers brought in to Amerika
under the H2A program, a federal work program
regulating non-U.S. citizen temporary employment
within U.S. borders, are much more compliant
because they have no citizens' privileges in
Amerika and are terrified of being sent home to
Jamaica. Because of their tenuous position within
U.S. borders, the Jamaican workers receive brutal
physical treatment and severe economic
intimidation.
GROWERS LOBBY FOR REPRESSION
In 1994 tobacco workers in Western Massachusetts
struck over food quality; the growers were feeding
the workers rotten meat. When a government agency
was called in to investigate the workers' claim,
the growers threw away all the meat before the
inspectors showed up, so it was impossible to tell
if the meat had been rotten before the inspection.
The inspectors refused to implicate the growers,
but the dissent was enough to convince the growers
to lobby for a switch to the more obedient Jamaican
workers.
Unlike the Puerto Rican and Mexicano workers who
are citizens and can work wherever they want, the
Jamaican H2A workers are contracted to a specific
farm. If they find the conditions intolerable,
their only recourse is to go back to Jamaica. In
Jamaica, the official unemployment rate is 18% and
workers have to bribe officials to get H2A jobs.
H2A workers are unlikely to complain about maggots
in the food or exposure to pesticides. They are so
afraid of reprisal from farm owners, they were
unwilling to talk to outsiders about their
conditions. One worker in a medium sized camp--
where it would be easy to know everyone well--
denied that workers were injured on the job,
despite the presence of a man who couldn't walk
after a serious farm injury.
EXPLOIT THE WORKERS AND KEEP THE WAGES IN AMERIKA
Most of the workers are not let off the farms to
spend their wages; they pay for food on the farms.
When they are allowed to leave, they spend large
portions of their wages on alcohol, and they are
strongly encouraged to spend their money on
electronics and designer clothes so that they go
home with only goods and no money. This is truly a
parasitic cycle: Amerika destroys the Jamaican
economy and culture, breaks up Jamaican families
for six to eight months out of the year, brutally
exploits the men who go to the farms to work, and
both encourages and coerces the workers to buy
overpriced Amerikan products with their wages
rather than bringing the money home.
GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIGRANT WORK ECONOMY
There are several "streams" of migrant work within
U.S. borders. The streams flow from where the
workers originate during the winter, and span the
territory worked during the course of the season.
This article is about migrant workers in New
England, which is not part of the three main
streams. New England draws its workers directly
from their homes.
Until recently, migrant workers in New England were
Puerto Ricans, or Mexicanos living in Texas. The
workers interviewed in the documentary Harvest of
Shame are part of the eastern stream, which runs
from Florida to New Jersey. The western stream runs
along the Pacific coast from California to
Washington; and the midwestern stream runs from
Texas to Michigan. The old Bracero program in the
Southwest, mentioned in the documentary, by which
Mexicano men were encouraged to come to the U.S.
for jobs has been replaced. Now H2A workers are
brought directly from other countries such as
Jamaica or the Philippines.
BOURGEOISIE SPLIT OVER WHICH WORKERS TO EXPLOIT
The Amerikan bourgeoisie is split over the number
of H2A workers allowed inside U.S. borders. It is
illegal for H2A workers to take Amerikans' jobs
(actually not Amerikans, but members of the
internal colonies), so each year a limit is set on
the number of H2A workers to be hired the following
year. Growers prefer H2A Jamaican workers even
though their minimum wage is higher than Amerikan
workers', because the Jamaicans work harder and
don't resist. For example, the growers might
require that job applicants have a high school
degree, speak English, provide their own
transportation, call for employment between the
hours of noon and 1 p.m., all to prevent U.S.
citizens (principally poor Blacks and Latinos from
area cities) from taking the jobs. The growers
don't tell citizen applicants that housing is
available and instead require that they have their
own transportation. In addition to keeping the
number of domestic, or seasonal, workers down,
discouraging citizens from applying to work in
agriculture creates phony evidence for the growers'
claims to need H2A workers.
The other wing of the bourgeoisie is led by people
like Massachusetts Governor William Weld, who wants
to keep the H2A workers out to save these jobs for
people on welfare. Weld wants to be able to say
"what do you mean you can't find work? Go pick
tobacco." Right now, the growers seem to be ahead
in this debate between domestic and H2A workers--
the great majority of the workers MIM saw at the
camps were Jamaican.
NOTES: Jamaica Five Year Plan 1990-1995, Jamaica
1990, p.33; interviews with pro-migrant activists.
* * *
LETTERS TO MIM
NORWEGIAN IS DOES NOT UNDERSTAND RACISM
Dear MIM: You asked me about the movement in
Norway. The Internasjonale Sosialister are a
blueprint-copy of the British SWP and U.S. ISO. A
general nuisance! We had a visit here in Norway
from Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, and on the meeting in
Nidaros (Trondheim). They really made fools of
themselves. After Dhoruba had spoken about white
racism, and racism in all Western ideologies and
ways of thinking, stressing the need for individual
organisation among the oppressed nationalities, an
IS spokesman forwarded Black & white, unite and
fight as a slogan to be approved by the meeting.
Dhoruba replied along the lines of: Haven't you
heard a word I've been saying?
We have a daily newspaper called Klassekampen. It
was the party organ of the Workers' Communist Party
(m-l). In the early nineties, AKP(m-l) became AKP,
and the newspaper became independent, a
revolutionary socialist paper for the left. I
regret both of these developments. The AKP(m-l)
grew out of the revolutionary youth movement in
late sixties, and became a party in 1973. The party
organized an electoral front, Red Electoral
Alliance, which participated in elections in order
to reveal the true character of the parliamentary
charade. This front is now a faction-filled
independent party, in which there are some
trotskyists, revisionists, reformists,
revolutionaries. The RV has about 60 reps in local
councils, and one MP. The AKP initially supported
Deng Xiao-ping, but later renounced him and broke
with China. Their student league broke with the
party as a result of the flirting with Dengism, and
it still supports MLMZT. There is a fast-growing
youth movement called the Red Youth. It is the
youth organisation of both the RV and AKP. I'm a
member of the AKP, RV, student league and youth
organisation. Well this seems very opportunist and
unprincipled, I'm sure.
--A Norwegian comrade studying MIM line
September, 1995
MIM REPLIES: Thank you for updating us on the
situation. Since we cannot read Norwegian, we have
always been disappointed not to be able to
understand Klassekampen. We were hoping some
Maoists had accomplished publishing of a daily
paper.
We hope to learn more about your organizations'
ideas about cardinal principles in future issues.
It is our thesis that the imperialist country
working classes no longer contain proletarian
classes. As we recently pointed out, the early
COMINTERN of Lenin and Trotsky defined proletarian
the same way we do. In later years the imperialist
country Marxists lost track of the original
principles and smuggled parasitic labor activism
into the proletarian movement. We hope to hear your
reactions to this line, and what the youth think of
the Communist Party of the Philippines and the
Peruvian Communist Party.
BOSNIA AND MAO
*The following is a comment to MIM from the
Internet.*
On your central comments about the Cultural
Revolution, I think you have a telling point about
capitalist restoration certainly including
communist party members. On this list in the course
of arguing about Yugoslavia we noted the case of
Abdic, the communist leader, who split from the
Bosnian government, then became a warlord, and then
a capitalist.
The growth of the mafia in the former Soviet Union
is clearly closely linked with corruption in the
Communist Party, as are many of the enterprises
that are starting off with adaptations of economic
units under the previous regime. Mao did not live
to have direct experience of how this might work
out. He did argue in general terms that many
members of the communist party of the Soviet Union
were "good" and it certainly appears that now, in
however confused a way people are struggling to
regroup.
I see merits in restating Mao's analysis of the
danger of capitalist restoration because we have
had previous complex arguments on this list about
whether and when the Soviet Union ceased to be a
socialist state and what it was. By contrast Mao's
analysis points to the insidious nature of the
process, which undoubtedly includes ideology.
In welcoming rational dialogue with you however, I
do not wish to imply I am in total agreement. I am
not by the nature of my work a member of the most
proletarian sections of society! And your comments
about the class nature of subscription to Internet
seem to me to be objective.
In particular I think there were major problems
about the scope, the speed and the handling of
ideological issues in the cultural revolution. I
think at its worst, the re-education of
intellectuals in the countryside was a punishment
and only the slightly more humane Chinese
alternative to the concentration camp. Most
seriously of all I think there were big problems
about the economic programme of the cultural
revolution, and indeed Mao's whole economic policy
from the Great Leap forward. But there will be time
enough to clarify issues about this another month.
--A London Reader
September, 1995
MIM REPLIES: Thank you for filling us in on Bosnia
in response to our point that only Mao showed that
capitalist-roaders and outright capitalists could
emerge in real communist parties and so-called
communist parties. Yeltsin, Gorbachev and Ramiz
Alia all share this in common and now you tell us
about the leaders in Bosnia.
Yugoslavia used to follow its own phony road to
communism. The Communist Party never conducted a
Cultural Revolution struggle against the
bourgeoisie in the party and was so far to the
right that it was really just a social-democratic
party. Now that it has fallen apart in such a
reactionary fashion so that there is hardly any
dispute amongst progressives, we can see yet again
that there was a bourgeoisie in an alleged
communist party. These bourgeois factions are in
this case so reactionary that they cannot offer a
road forward, just instant ethnic conflict.
COPS DO WRONG, BUT ARE THEY PIGS?
MIM's lead story from MIM Notes 105, "Canada Guns
Down Chippewas Occupying Their Rightful Land," in
which MIM referred to the Canadian police as "pigs"
generated this response on the Internet:
Excuse me, but I do scientific research for part of
the Canadian government, and I can assure you that
as yet we have not discovered the secret to getting
any member of any porcine species to obey abstract
orders on demand, let alone found the secret to
genetically manipulating porcines sufficiently to
allow them to reliably aim firearms. It was humans,
not porcines, that undertook the actions you
describe. That makes the offense even worse, as
animals cannot be expected to understand what they
are doing, but humans should. IMHO [In My Humble
Opinion, or In My Honest Opinion], dehumanizing
those who undertook this makes this piece little
better than an exercise in self-indulgent
crankiness.
--INTERNET reader
October 1995
MIM REPLIES: Yes it was humans who undertook these
disgusting actions. There is, however, a
revolutionary history behind referring to police
and other agents of the repressive imperialist
state as "pigs" from which MIM is borrowing the
term. According to Huey P. Newton, co-founder and
Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party,
vanguard of the Black nation in the United Snakes
in the late 1960s, the Panthers started the
practice in order to replace the fear people had of
the police with disgust--a more empowering and
appropriate approach to what they correctly saw was
a force of colonial occupation in their nation.
This situation of internal colonization is very
similar to the situation of the Chippewas in
Canada. MIM contends that these pigs knew exactly
what they were doing, and our dehumanization of
them emphasizes, not undermines this point.
RAIL BUILDING AROUND ISSUES OF PIG REPRESSION
Dear MIM,
If not for recent positive developments I would
have asked that you send less number of MIM Notes
but please keep the same amount coming. We have
some serious, intelligent people interested in
MIM/RAIL! CAUSI [Coalition Against U.S.
Imperialism] and the Eastern Missouri Coalition
Against the Death Penalty held a demonstration for
Mumia Abu-Jamal at the Federal Courts Building in
downtown St. Louis on August 16, 1995. I spoke on
behalf of RAIL. Other speakers included reps. from:
Organization for Black Struggle, All African
People's Revolutionary Party, Citizens United for
the Rehabilitation of Errants, and the Eastern
Missouri Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The
plight of ALL prisoners in the united snakes was
emphasized as was the use of the death penalty as a
tool of the capitalist-imperialist state. About 50
people participated in the demo. itself while
scores of people stopped and listened to the
speakers.
Festus, Mo. and Crystal City are like twin cities.
There is a large Black population in Crystal City
which has historical roots in the sharecroppers'
struggles of the 1930s. These are some of the
incidents they related to me: If three or more
Blacks are gathered in one place, and there is a
pig that sees them, they are told to "move on." One
man told me he was in his own front yard talking
with several people when a pig approached them and
said they were violating curfew. He said it was his
house but the pig insisted that they were in
violation and had to "go inside." They told me this
was common. When young whites "hang out" with their
Black friends, they are labeled by the pigs as
troublemakers and "continually harassed." Recently
a Black man and his pregnant white girlfriend were
jumped by a group of youth who beat the man
seriously (he was med-evaced by helicopter to St.
Louis University Hospital and released four days
later). The woman was punched in the stomach but
did not lose the baby and was not seriously
injured. The pigs helped move the young nazis out
of town!
For 31 years a man by the name of Gibbs had the
only Black owned business in Crystal City--a
bar/liquor store. They told me that his customers
were harassed so much that they would no longer
patronize him and he finally had to close his
business. He took it to court, accusing the pigs of
harassment but lost.
I encouraged them to organize a group. Gave each a
copy of RAIL [Notes]. We had already discussed
capitalism, socialism, communism, etc. They are not
afraid of words like revolution and communism and
were all very articulate and familiar with various
situations such as: political prisoners, Northern
Ireland, South Africa, Korea. They asked me
questions such as: is a revolution in Amerika
possible without being annihilated like the BPP? We
discussed Cointelpro [the FBI's Counter-
Intelligence Program which infiltrated and
destroyed many revolutionary nationalist and
communist groups in the 1960s and 70s], security,
focoism.
In struggle,
--A friend in the Midwest
October 1995
MIM REPLIES: Keep up the good work! We print this
letter so that others just beginning to form RAIL
in their communities can understand via your
example how to organize people around issues that
affect them and relate to broader issues.
In the future, if political activity is going
poorly, we hope you will ask for more, not less
papers. Getting the word out is key to building
public opinion.
Some RAIL branches are starting campaigns against
social control--prisons, militarized campuses,
police harassment. Following reports of their
progress might give you ideas as well.
Finally, a comrade in Ireland recently corrected us
on our own use of the term northern Ireland:
"'Northern Ireland' is the British imperialist name
for what Republicans call the 'occupied six
counties.' The name you use with regard to the
North decides (usually) which side you are on. The
neo-colonial South, which, incidentally has no
multi-national corporations, is referred to by
Republicans as the '26 counties' and sarcastically
as 'the Free State.'"(MIM Notes 105, p. 2) MIM
apologized for its use of the imperialist term, and
we now refer only to the occupied six counties, in
our support for the Republican struggle.
* * *
MILLION MAN MARCH IN YOUR FACE
October 17, WASHINGTON, D.C.--To the consternation
of millions of whites, hundreds of thousands of
Black men responded to the call by Nation of Islam
leader Louis Farrakhan to bring one million Black
men to march on Washington. The march had
contradictory meanings but signaled an important
milestone for the Black nation within the United
Snakes as Black men broke one of the oldest
Amerikan rules: no congregating without white
permission or supervision.
The disproportionately petit bourgeois crowd sent a
strong message to whites who wanted them to boycott
because of Farrakhan's leadership, and to all those
whites who objected to O.J. Simpson using money
like any white man to hire good lawyers and win
against state prosecution. The Black petit
bourgeoisie is indignant when it doesn't get the
same privileges as whites. Much of this anger is
progressive and can turn into support for national
liberation struggle; some of it is simply more-pie-
ism and integrationism. The call for Black unity in
the face of white attacks on Black leaders such as
Farrakhan is also progressive, even when the
leaders in question do not propose true national
liberation.
Two weaknesses of the march message were the theme
of atonement and the promotion of voting. Speakers
held white people accountable and called on Amerika
to atone, but Black people don't need that. True
national liberation will come from Black people'
struggle for self-determination and for control of
their lives and their nation. Then they can force
white people to correct national oppression. The
march also had voter registration tables and
volunteers available to demonstrators. But getting
out the Black vote is not going to eliminate
national oppression. Amerika must be dismantled and
replaced with a dictatorship of the proletariat so
that Black people can have genuine political power.
Some Black women turned out for the march,
disregarding the organizers' request that Black
women take the day to stay home with their families
in solidarity with the men marchers, and were not
turned away. Other Black women were angered by this
attempt at depoliticizing them; they recognize this
approach as paternalism, and understand the
importance of Black men and women struggling
together against national and gender oppressions.
WHITE PEOPLE STAY HOME;
WHITE LEADERS DENY NATIONAL DIVISIONS
Instead of a rush-hour crisis, traffic was very
light as whites stayed home, afraid of everything
from traffic to purse-snatching to violent
rebellion. With more than 700,000 rides on the
city's subways, the pigs reported no violent
incidents.(1)
White commentators everywhere, from Bill Clinton to
the Trotskyists, bemoan the "racial" chasm that
"divides" U.S. citizens. In fact what they are
complaining about is that the Black nation is
evermore conscious of its common identity, while
whites have always practiced such unity among
themselves.(3) Black people did not create the
chasm integrationists whine about. Black people
were formed into a distinct nation separate from
white Amerika through a history of abduction,
slavery, brutality under the law and
discrimination. The white leaders are not upset by
this division, but nervous about Black people's
movement to correct its consequences.
NATIONALIST STRENGTH; NATIONALIST AMBIGUITY
The march attracted a disproportionately college-
educated, petit bourgeois group of Black men. A
large Washington Post poll found that more than
two-thirds of the marchers came from households
with incomes of more than $30,000. Almost three-
quarters had at least one year of college; more
than a third were college graduates.(2)
The Black petit bourgeoisie has an ambiguous
relationship with Black national liberation.
Because the Black bourgeoisie is stunted in terms
of truly Black-owned and independent capital, the
great majority of the Black petit bourgeoisie is
dependent on the white economy for success.
Although they are fettered by racism and national
oppression, petit bourgeoisie Blacks are also
reluctant to embrace true Black liberation in the
form of a separate Black nation.
Farrakhan expresses this sentiment well. He spoke
of the legacy of national oppression, of "those who
died in the middle passage, who died in the fields
and swamps of America, who died hanging from trees
in the South, who died in the cells of their
jailers," and so on. But at the same time he
referred to the "United States" as "this nation,"
and called for "a more perfect union," in Thomas
Jefferson's phrase, and said "we're not here to
tear down America."
Farrakhan also said that white supremacy is bad for
whites and Blacks. "Socially, the fabric of America
is being torn apart, and it's black against black,
black against white, white against white, white
against black, yellow against brown, brown against
yellow. We are being torn apart." Farrakhan does
not call for a separate Black nation, and he does
not acknowledge the different nations within U.S.
borders.
WHITE PSEUDO-FEMINISM SHOT AGAIN
MIM has unity with the Black women who opposed
being elevated symbolically and marginalized
politically by the organizers of this march. For a
truly revolutionary and proletarian march both
women and men need to be included. While many Black
women correctly supported the revolutionary
nationalism in this march and refused to elevate
the gender question above the struggle for national
liberation, MIM agrees with those women who see
that the national liberation struggle can not be
fought by the men alone. A true national liberation
struggle must be both proletarian and feminist.
This line on gender is not unique to the NOI, it
has been common in all but the most feminist of
revolutionary nationalist movements (like China,
Philippines, Peru, Black Panther Party, MIM). This
position of protecting Black women also makes sense
in the context of imperialism brutalizing Black
men, women and children in the name of defending
the sanctity of white women, children and property.
But the NOI position is a liberal response to
imperialism. Revolutionaries need not dwell on the
bourgeois nonsense of feminine fragility; that
steals time from uniting all Black people in a
struggle for political power.
The success of the march was another blow to white
pseudo-feminism, which protested the men-only
aspect of the march. Just as Black women stunned
white pseudo-feminists by overwhelmingly supporting
the acquittal of O.J. Simpson over the objections
of the National Organization for (white) Women,
Black women demonstrated support for the march.
Speakers included Rosa Parks, a venerated Civil
Rights leader; Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow;
Maya Angelou, and others. The pseudo-feminists were
surprised in both cases because they expect all
women to place gender ahead of all other political
considerations.
MIM is glad to see white pseudo-feminism further
discredited as a part of white imperialist
domination. Genuine feminists should be clear that
gender is not the principal contradiction at this
time. The contradiction between the oppressed
nations and imperialism is principal and will
continue to complicate gender politics across the
division between oppressed and oppressor nations.
At the same time, we know that liberation for the
Black nation, like any national liberation, will
require feminist as well as proletarian leadership
if it is to succeed.
REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL
The increasing Black consciousness, even though it
is largely reflected in cultural nationalism, is a
progressive trend that heralds a potentially great
revolutionary force. The Black petit bourgeoisie
will surely continue to vacillate as the struggle
for national liberation progresses. The poll of
marchers found that 73% had a "favorable
impression" of Colin Powell, an imperialist
genocidal maniac, and 54% said the same of Clinton,
whom we crown with the same distinction. At the
same time, marchers cheered when speakers pointed
out the systematic oppression of Blacks in the
prison system, and the gross injustice apparent in
the discrepancy between O.J. Simpson and Mumia Abu-
Jamal's cases.
But even if they don't lead in the fomenting of
true national liberation struggles, this Black
petit bourgeoisie will be the source of many allies
of the revolution when the time comes to choose
sides. Revolutionaries face the task of uniting all
who can be united behind proletarian and feminist
leadership in the course of waging a revolutionary
nationalist struggle. We hope to see as many of
these marchers as possible swaying in the direction
of the masses' force and adding the strength of
their numbers to the cause of anti-imperialist,
proletarian justice.
NOTES:
1. WTOP-AM1500 10/16/95.
2. Washington Post 10/17/95.
3. For the history of white unity across class
lines, MIM recommends Settlers: The Mythology of
the White Proletariat, by J. Sakai, available from
MIM for $10.
* * *
FRENCH IMPERIALISM ROCKS THE PACIFIC, AFRICA;
MASSES PREPARE RETRIBUTION
by MCG3, MC49 & MC45
Defying protesters all over the world, France
recently detonated two nuclear bombs in an atoll of
its Polynesian colony. The first bomb, exploded on
September 6, carried the force of the one the U.S.
military dropped on Hiroshima in 1945--the
equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT.(1) On October 4,
the French military invaded neo-colonial territory
in the Comoros Islands between Mozambique and
Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The invasion ended
a coup by a mercenary France has hired in the past
to do its military work in Africa.(2)
The French imperialists continue their frivolous
militarism because they cannot do otherwise, they
must defend their parasitic interests. MIM calls
imperialist militarism frivolous because it is
destruction with no end, no worthy goal in sight.
But in the end, it is up to the masses to make
history and to the masses this militarism is
anything but frivolous. The people living under
illegitimate French authority will turn this
militarism into a distant nightmare instead of a
brutal reality.
NUKES GET TESTED ON INDIGENOUS LAND AND PEOPLE
In a protest following the blast, the masses burned
down "French" Polynesia's international airport.
The bourgeois media labels the protesters "anti-
nuclear," but this designation ignores the true
meaning of anti-nuclear politics for indigenous and
oppressed people. These activists are also
necessarily anti-militarist and anti-imperialist.
They fully understand the destructive force and
potential of French occupation, and will expel the
imperialists from their land.
A flyer, "Walk Across America for Mother Earth"
(1992) points out that "all countries which have
nuclear capabilities, test their weapons on the
lands of native peoples.
"U.S. missiles are not detonated near Washington
D.C. or New York City, but on the land of the
Western Shoshone. The Soviet Union tests in
Kazakhstan and now in Novaja Zembla as well; China
tests its bombs on the land of one of its national
minorities (the Uygur); France does it on the coral
islands in Polynesia; Great Britain first bombed
the land of the Australian Aboriginal and now they
too test on the land of the W. Shoshone."
The French government plans to continue the nuclear
"testing." Such insolence will further fuel the
flames of liberty in the hearts of the Tahitians.
The current independence movement in Tahiti is
bound to grow and gain international support as
France continues to spit in the faces of the
oppressed.
FLEXING NEO-COLONIALIST MUSCLE IN AFRICA:
PART OF THE MILITARIST PROGRAM
The invasion of Comoros on October 4 is a nasty
reminder of how imperialism breeds war. These pigs
play with the fate of the planet and the world's
people by hiring killers and then planning
invasions when the hired guns get out of hand. The
French military and government have no legitimate
claims either to Polynesia or to the Comoros
islands.
These attacks on Polynesia and the Comoros islands
intensify the contradiction between imperialist
France and its colonies and reveal imperialism's
nature: violence against the people. The masses
struggle for self-determination and communism will
ultimately defeat this militarism with the support
of the majority of the world's people who oppose
senseless murder and violence.
NOTES:
1. Los Angeles Times 9/7/1995, p. A4.
2. New York Times 10/5/95.
* * *
BLACK STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS HONOR MURDERED LEADERS
LOS ANGELES, October 10--More than 50 people
attended a memorial protest commemorating the
murders of Black Panther Party members Alprentice
"Bunchy" Carter and Jon Huggins at UCLA's Campbell
Hall more than 26 years ago. The African Student
Union (ASU) at UCLA organized the event as part of
a week of student activism against the University
of California regents' decision to end its
affirmative action programs. Speakers at the event
encouraged those present to learn more about the
Panthers' history and to organize beyond this one
issue.
Huggins and Carter were shot by members of Ron
Karenga's United Slaves (US) organization on
January 17, 1969. The FBI and its COINTELPRO
(Counter-Intelligence Program) played an important
role in the murders. In the months prior to the
shootings, the FBI distributed cartoons to the two
organizations which were designed to "promote
violence between the Black Panther Party (BPP) and
other... organizations." J. Edgar Hoover instructed
FBI offices to "fully capitalize upon BPP and US
differences" to incite what he called "gang
warfare" and "threats of murder and reprisal."(1)
Huggins and Carter were leaders in the Los Angeles
Chapter of the BPP and were involved in the
struggles of UCLA's Black Student Union around the
creation of the High Potential Opportunity Program,
which sought to make the University more accessible
to Black people.
The speakers included members of the current ASU, a
former member of the BSU who witnessed the murders,
and a member of the New African-American Vanguard
Movement (NAAVM). All of the speakers placed the
struggle to defend affirmative action in a correct
perspective. They stressed that the existing
affirmative action programs were better than none
at all and should be defended, but ultimately did
not make a difference in the lives of most people
from oppressed nations. The president of the ASU
criticized existing programs for aiding white women
while remaining largely ineffective for members of
oppressed nations, and the speaker from the NAAVM
said that the regents were "trying to take away
something I ain't never seen." All were clear that
real affirmative action requires that Amerika pay
the Black nation reparations for hundreds of years
of stolen labor.
MIM believes that the emerging student struggle in
defense of affirmative action is progressive, but
limited. The fact that 30 years of reform were
wiped away in one blow demonstrates once again the
futility of the reformist approach to making social
change.(2) MIM encourages activists to follow in
the footsteps of the revolutionaries in the BPP,
who struggled for self-determination by building
independent institutions of the oppressed and
sought to ally the Black nation with the oppressed
nations in the Third World.
NOTES:
1. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, Agents of
Repression, pp. 42, 77-79.
2. See MIM Notes 104, p. 9.
* * *
PRESENTATION ABOUT ERITREAN LIBERATION STRUGGLE
"From the point of view of justice, the opinion of
the Eritrean people must receive consideration.
Nevertheless, the strategic interests of the United
States in the Red Sea Basin and world peace make it
necessary that the country be linked with our ally
Ethiopia." (U.S. Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles, 1952)
Amherst, MA, September 26--A movie and slideshow
were shown as an introduction to a discussion of
the Eritrean liberation struggle. A visitor to
Eritrea in 1988 gave a presentation, including
brief historical background citing Eritrea's post
World War II strategic importance to Amerika for
its Red Sea oil lanes, deep water ports, and CIA
listening post at Kagnew.
The Ethiopians and Italians both colonized Eritrea.
During WWII England and Eritrea made a deal
guaranteeing Eritrean independence if Eritrea would
fight against the Italians. After Italian and
German fascism were defeated, Amerika latched onto
Eritrea's two deep water ports (Massawa and Assab)
on the Red Sea. Amerika needed to control this
maritime access, and Ethiopia's land and natural
resources, and rejected Eritrean self-
determination.
The presenter described Eritrea as an underground
24-hour per day school with its bunkered and
camouflaged factories, garages, classrooms,
clinics, hospital and irrigation and communications
systems. The role of Eritrean women as teachers,
skilled laborers and soldiers was of striking
revolutionary importance to him.
One participant argued that the role of women
hadn't changed that much because in independent
Eritrea, there were no women in the Ministry. The
speaker argued that the campaign against
clitorectomy and enfibulation as well as the large
number of girls in school and in many areas of
employment was a very significant change.
Another person argued that the EPLF had neo-
colonized itself to the Israelis by trading away
its coastline for economic aid, after having fought
against Israel for 30 years. As such, the
participant considered the EPLF government as not
being very self-reliant or revolutionary. All in
attendance agreed that Eritrea is better off now
than it was under Ethiopian rule.
Eritrea's future and the question of whether it
will be able to remain self-reliant and free are
uncertain. But it is clear that the masses of the
world can celebrate Eritrea's People's War for
national liberation and self-determination, which
won freedom from Ethiopia in 1991. This war was a
ferocious demonstration of the strength of self-
reliant military strategy and the courage and will
of the Eritrean people. Eritrea's war of national
liberation will forever be an inspiration to
oppressed people, who will struggle to emulate its
successes and learn from its shortcomings.
* * *
GUILTY: BLACK AMERIKA'S VERDICT ON THE LAPD
by MC31 and MC5
MIM applauds the verdict of "not guilty" in the
O.J. Simpson trial even though we do not believe it
means the criminal injustice system works for
Blacks in general. We have no opinion on whether
Simpson did murder the two people, but we are happy
to see that O.J. will not be going to prison for
the rest of his life. We do not recognize any white
Amerikan authority over the Black nation and uphold
every instance of Black people beating back the
white system.
MIM denounces the racist oppression by the LAPD and
all police forces, and works for the end of
national oppression and domestic violence. Under
socialism, suspected criminals will genuinely be
tried by their peers and Black people will not be
subjected to white injustice. People who abuse
others will take a leading role in their own
rectification through self-criticism, study and
work.
The media is now full of commentators trying to get
their word in on how the "stupid" "racist" Black
jury freed O.J. because he is Black. MIM says if
the majority-Black jury did acquit O.J. because he
is Black, more power to the jury!
More power to O.J. and his lawyers for putting LAPD
racism on trial. In the language of the Amerikan
legal system, there was plenty of reasonable doubt
to go around. Blacks in Amerika know that pigs
plant evidence and lie and kill even unarmed Black
youth and justify murder with more lies. The masses
also know that O.J. is not "everyBlackman" and he
is not a hero of the people. While the verdict
should be applauded because another Black man is
free, we should remember that hundreds of thousands
of Blacks are under lock and key.
MIM has written extensively about national
oppression and why the term "racism" does not
adequately describe the power of the oppression and
the alliances and divisions that exist between
Amerikans and oppressed nations in this country.(2)
Much has been said throughout the O.J. trial and
since the verdict about how "race" factored into
the defense case and the jury's decision. O.J.'s
lead defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran, hit it
right on the money when he said after the verdict
that race is a part of everything in Amerika, and
it is silly to dance around and pretend that it
isn't so. Cochran did not say that white people
should not be so up in arms when a mostly Black
jury lets a Black man go free; whites have let
white murderers off for years. And of course, all-
white juries send Black men to prison, or their
deaths by lynching without the formality of a
trial!
MIM applauds the crisis of legitimacy for the state
vis a vis the Black nation. This crisis can only
bring revolution closer as the masses get angrier
about national oppression. A poll taken right after
the verdict showed that 83% of Blacks agreed with
the verdict, while only 37% of whites did; 18% of
Blacks thought O.J. was guilty, and a whopping 70%
of whites thought so; 64% of Blacks thought the
police framed O.J., and 26% of whites agreed.(1)
O.J. might not have won the acquittal if he did not
have millions of dollars to invest in a bunch of
lawyers and investigators and DNA specialists and
all the rest. Under socialism, O.J. would not have
had the millions that he did, and he would not have
needed them. The entire justice system will be
radically different under socialism, where wealth
will not play a role in the judicial system, and
the police will not be national oppressors and
corruption would not go unchallenged for so many
years as pig Fuhrman's racist evidence-planting
tricks did.
MORE RAPE LAWS MEAN MORE NATIONAL OPPRESSION
We know that laws do not protect women, even the
white women they are meant to help. Mandatory
arrest and sentencing laws increase national
oppression and put Black men in prison.(3) MIM is
concerned that Simpson's acquittal and the
revelations of abuse in the O.J.-Nicole
relationship will spurn increased pseudofeminist
calls for new rules regarding evidence that can and
cannot be presented in a trial of a gender crime.
Even though O.J. is rich, he is still a Black man
who can be nationally oppressed, and mercilessly
attacked by pseudofeminist activists who think that
locking up batterers will end domestic abuse. These
women who cry "Remember Nicole!" have no real
interest in destroying the patriarchy that ensures
continued violence against women. The pseudo-
feminists also do not give women credit for their
ability to make decisions and rational choices. MIM
says most First World women do have choices about
their abusive relationships, though not necessarily
good ones.
Nicole did not get killed "fleeing" her abuser, she
moved a mile away and stayed on his payroll. At
least one juror said that the prosecution's whole
argument about O.J. killing Nicole as the
culmination of years of domestic violence was a
waste of time, and did not resonate with the jury
of mostly Black women. While a jury in the Amerikan
criminal justice system is a distorted context in
which to make a political statement, O.J. got much
closer to having a jury of his peers than most
Black people on trial in Amerika do. A group of
Black women, given the opportunity, has spoken.
White women interested in ending domestic violence
and gender oppression should listen carefully: it
is not possible to end gendered violence through
increasing national oppression.
NOTES:
1. ABC News Nightline 10/3/95
2. See MIM Theory 7: Proletarian Feminist
Revolutionary Nationalism, on the Communist Road,
especially chapter "The Black Nation" (p. 39-69) on
the nature of national oppression within U.S.
borders.
3. See MIM Theory 2/3: Gender and Revolutionary
Feminism, especially "Revolution and violence
against women" (p. 29-36) and "Myth of the Black
rapist" (p. 91-97) for statistical analyses of
violence against women, and the intersections of
nation and gender oppressions in sentencing.
* * *
PALESTINIAN WOMEN DEFY ISRAELI TRICKS;
REMAIN IN PRISON
Palestinian women being held in Israeli prisons
demonstrated their will for national liberation in
October when they refused release from prison on
the grounds that some of their comrades were still
being held unjustly. In the context of bogus peace
accords and capitulation on the part of the PLO,
these women's determination to remain in prison
under brutal conditions is a fierce statement on
the true meaning of peace.
In early October, Israel began to release
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons as a part
of its peace agreement with Palestine. All
Palestinian women were to be the first released.
But President Ezer Weizman of Israel refused to
grant pardons to two women convicted of murder, and
Israeli military refused to release two women in
its prisons. There is strong support among Israelis
for the president's and military's position against
releasing anyone who has the blood of Israelis on
their hands.
In response to this blatant violation of the
accord, all other women in prison (20) except one
refused freedom. The one woman who was released on
October 8th said that she had been in isolation and
had not heard of the boycott or she would have
joined the other women in refusing to leave.
For these women, refusing release on political
principle is a heroic act that makes it clear that
the Palestinian struggle for true freedom and self-
determination has not been bought off. Israel is
demanding that prisoners sign an agreement to
undertake no further aggression against the state
on their release. But while Israel demands this
agreement of Palestinians, Palestine has no way of
enforcing the same agreement from Israelis.
Palestinian police do not even have the authority
to arrest or detain Israelis on Palestinian soil.
MIM does not criticize Palestinian prisoners who
were released and did agree to cease aggression
against Israel. In the context of a genuine
national liberation struggle, no individual's
contract with the Israeli government is binding
because the Israeli government has no legitimate
authority over Palestine. And unless prisoners are
required to sellout the struggle to get out, there
is nothing wrong with doing what they can to get
out of prison.
It is terrible to see the bald treachery of the
Israeli government against peace, but the
Palestinian will is inspiring. Self-determination
is still a long way off for the Palestinian people,
but the struggle is still alive.
* * *
AMERIKAN LABOR DEMANDS MORE,
IGNORES INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT
1-800-AABUSCH
Teamsters Local 122 of 650 Beacon Street, Boston
(1-800-AABUSCH) is fairly active these days on the
streets. It gathers supporters at street corners
and parking lots to publicize the boycott of
Budweiser beer products.
The workers are complaining that Bud wants to hire
workers at lower wages, retire older workers and
cut back job security. Their campaign to boycott
Anheuser-Busch features a "Bud weasel" in a red
circle and slash through it. Stickers and leaflets
for the movement are all over Boston.
This is not a struggle MIM particularly cares
about, but the leaflet does show that even Amerikan
labor organizers aren't as dim-witted and thin-
skinned as their supposedly Marxist apologists make
out: "In the old days, workers faced UNION BUSTERS
who used guns and clubs. Now they carry briefcases
and use calculators. And the hurt from those
weapons can last a lifetime." The workers realize
that they do not have the labor movement of the
past. While they fail to mention that most of the
world's laborers still face guns and clubs, these
labor aristocrats seem aware that they have to
justify their struggle against imperialists who
don't use the same old tactics. Listening to some
lying phony communists, one would think that the
imperialists don't negotiate at all and just use
physical force every day on the Amerikan workers.
The leaflet says Anheuser-Busch profits reached a
record in 1994, but ignores the debt the
corporation owes Third World workers. Instead, the
Teamsters Local 122 seeks to justify its share of
the super-profits. MIM calls these workers labor
aristocracy because they are receiving more than
the value of their labor at the expense of
exploited and superexploited workers in the Third
World. (MIM Theory 1: A White Proletariat? includes
calculations on the source of imperialist profit
and refutation of the myth of white worker
exploitation. Send $3 for a copy.)
UAW
A recent flyer put out by the United Auto Workers
is more political than the Bud Weasel campaign. "If
their wages don't come up, ours will go down," is
the title of the leaflet and it starts right into
the subject of organizing internationally.
MIM likes this flyer a little more than the other
one, because of its attempt to fight national
chauvinism. The "they" in "their wages" is
undoubtedly a reference to the true proletariat of
the Third World.
Labor organizers seeking to lend solidarity to
Third World workers deserve our respect. Most of
the time the UAW and the labor aristocracy it
speaks for is busy raising its own share of the
superprofits extracted from the proletariat abroad.
This is especially evident when these workers
ignore or oppose the demands of Third World labor
while engaging in self-aggrandizement.
Labor aristocrats are inclined to say "Park your
import in Tokyo" and support the Proposition 187
anti-immigrant movement. This sort of labor
movement is an enemy of the international
proletariat.
The UAW leaflet concludes asking workers to take up
voluntary union activism by joining picket lines
and handing out leaflets or by visiting other
workers at home to talk about the union. The
assumption is that such activities will help raise
the wages of the others, but it is a false
assumption. A movement not specifically targeting
imperialism and militarism can just as easily be
the type of labor movement that Le Pen or the KKK
supports--one for a narrow section of workers at
the expense of others. For over 50 years, the
Amerikan working class has the experience of seeing
other working classes' wages go down or stagnate
while its own wages go up. Hence the flyer makes
use of some admirable intentions, but leads readers
down a false road.
* * *
SECOYA NATION: BESIEGED BY OIL COMPANIES
AND COLONISTS
by a member of RAIL
UMASS Amherst, October 10--Two activists from the
Secoya nation in the rainforest of northeast
Ecuador talked to a group of approximately thirty
today about the problems facing their nation. The
300 members of the Secoya nation are victims of
water pollution resulting from nearby oil drilling
by Texaco and Petro-Ecuador. Their only water
sources are heavily contaminated and they are no
longer able to eat fish, drink water, bathe, swim,
or cook. Cancer, rashes, vomiting, headaches,
stomachaches and premature death are all common.
At the same time, white colonists are moving nearby
and the government is clearcutting the rainforest
to provide housing, roads, etc. The Secoya are
dependent on the rainforest for their food and
production of palm oil, and have been forced to
start buying rice from outsiders to feed
themselves. To get money to buy food, many Secoya
cut wood from the rainforests. Though they know
that this lifestyle is unsustainable, they feel
that they have no choice.
The Secoyan activists want to save their people
from extinction. They have organized with the other
nations in the area against the Ecuadorean
government and petroleum industry. They are trying
to create ecologically-sound economic practices
like aquaculture, eco-tourism, and handicraft
production so they can stop cutting down trees.
They are fighting to teach their native language in
school and write their own books as well as
reinstitute traditional patterns of dress and
housing. They are also trying to stop the
government from seizing Secoyan youth and drafting
them into the army (currently nine Secoyans have
been captured while traveling).
One Secoyan activist said "The whole world needs
petrol. I think there must be a method to get
petrol without destroying the Earth, but in the
last 25 years we have only seen destruction... The
government says that Texaco is good for the country
but in reality Texaco is good for the government
and it is not good for the people."
* * *
YOUTH SEEK JUSTICE AT THE UNAM
by MCG3
In late September, students at the Autonomous
National University of Mexico (UNAM) took over the
administration building accusing the administration
of corruption. The UNAM is the largest university
in Latin America. The protesters said that the
corrupt administration had denied 8,000 people
access to education. The majority of the students
at the University come from middle class families.
The students presented evidence that the
administration is guilty of favoritism benefiting
the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
They showed letters sent by high officials of the
government demanding that certain students were
accepted and other specific students were not. The
protesters also showed proof that certain people
were allowed to buy copies of the admissions
exam.(1)
MIM is not surprised that UNAM denies education to
the majority in Mexico. Inequality is a rule of
capitalism, which says that basic education is a
privilege. It does not surprise us that the
government chooses who can and cannot receive an
education. The dominant class has been dictating
who eats and who does not for years. The
bourgeoisie dictates who can live and who dies.
Capitalism denies millions the basic necessities:
food, clothing, shelter, education and health care.
The oppressed will only obtain these and other
basic rights when they destroy the capitalist
system. Capitalism, no the UNAM's specific
policies, is the reason that people are denied an
education--so we struggle against capitalism. We
support the struggle of the students to expose the
corruption within the University and the struggle
to fight for justice.
NOTES: Los Angeles Times 9/27/95, p. A4.
* * *
COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES AND
KURDISTAN WORKERS PARTY BUILD UNITY
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines
(NDF) and the National Liberation Front of
Kurdistan (ERNK) recently signed an agreement
promising mutual support and solidarity. The
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) also published a
joint protocol.
The protocol states: "We, the Kurdistan Workers
Party and the Communist Party of the Philippines,
will intensify the ties between our comrades in the
future. We will struggle against imperialism and
reactionary forces, and we will strengthen our
solidarity in the struggle for our national
liberation and democracy. We will develop a
democratic revolution with a socialist revolution
as our goal. We have as our foundation the
fundamentals of proletarian internationalism. We
will turn these ideals into reality by means of our
revolutionary praxis."(1)
The PKK leads a national and democratic revolution
against the Turkish state and the remnants of
feudalism in Kurdistan itself. It has been engaged
in armed struggle since 1984. Turkey consistently
and violently denies the Kurdish nation self-
determination. In October 1994, for example, the
Turkish army burned villages and forests in a
desperate attempt to rob the PKK of its support.(2)
The CPP leads the national-democratic struggle in
the Philippines along Maoist lines. It has been
building independent institutions for the oppressed
and waging armed struggle for more than 20 years.
U.S. imperialism is an enemy of the people of
Kurdistan and the Philippines. The Amerikan state
provides both Turkey and the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines with military supplies
and advice. Until recently, the U.S. army had
installations in both Kurdistan and the
Philippines.
MIM is happy to see both of these anti-imperialist
parties and movements uniting to share experiences
and support.
NOTES:
1. Arm the Spirit, translated from Kurdistan Report
75, July/August 1995.
2. See MIM Notes 85, 95, and 100 or Liberation
International May-August 1995 for more information.
* * *
COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES
STATEMENT ON THE SUSPENSION OF
FORMAL TALKS WITH THE NATIONAL
DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES
***The following statement was issued by Gregario
Rosal, national spokesperson of the Communist Party
of Philippines (CPP) in response to the unilateral
withdrawal of the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP) from peace talks with the
National Democratic Front (NDF). See MIM Notes 103
and 104 (August and September 1995) for discussion
of the case of Sotero Llamas.***
The GRP's refusal to fulfill its obligation under
the Joint Agreement of Safety and Immunity
Guarantees (JASIG) was the cause of the latest
deadlock in the talks between the NDF and GRP. And
yet on top of this, it was the GRP panel headed by
Ambassador Howard Dee that arbitrarily declared a
unilateral suspension of the talks.
The case of Comrade Sotero Llamas [arrested May 17,
1995] who is a political consultant of the NDF goes
beyond the issue of his release. It is an important
test of the GRP,s sincerity in the entire peace
talks. The issue here is whether the GRP is ready
to comply with the agreements arrived at by the two
parties.
In the JASIG approved by both sides last April, the
NDF and the GRP agreed to grant personnel of the
other side who are involved in the talks the
guarantee of safety and immunity form arrest and
from any form of harassment. But in the case of
Comrade Llamas the GRP us openly reneging on its
obligations.
The first evidence of insincerity on the part of
the GRP in the case of Comrade Llamas was when the
GRP suddenly sought the delay in the effectivity of
the JASIG. Not long after, while the GRP,s motion
was still being threshed out, news broke out that
Comrade Llamas had been wounded and captured in an
assault by combined forces of MIG and the 2nd IB,
PA, in Sorsogon. Since April, Comrade Llamas has
been included in the first list of those designated
as consultants in the peace talks and covered by
the guarantee of safety and immunity under JASIG.
And now the GRP is saying that even General Ramos,
the President of the GRP, is powerless to order the
release of Comrade Llamas and it is now up to the
courts to decide. If Ramos is incapable of
complying with the obligations he has accepted
under the JASIG, what guarantee is there that the
GRP will abide by the commitments it makes in the
peace talks?
Actually, General Ramos is only using the courts as
a pretext to yield to the demand of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines not to release Comrade
Llamas even if it means outrightly reneging on the
obligations of the GRP under JASIG. Essentially,
the GRP has not stopped in its efforts to undermine
the rules established in the JASIG and the
provisions of the Hague Declaration of 1992, and
bring the peace process back along the militarist
line and demanding the unconditional surrender of
the revolutionary movement.
It is completely correct for the NDF panel to stand
firmly on the release of Comrade Llamas and on his
participation in the talks as a requisite for the
resumption of the formal negotiations. It is
completely correct for the NDF panel to insist on
the GRP,s compliance with the agreement it has
signed. We laud the NDF panel for its vigilance in
safeguarding the integrity of the political
negotiations and in defending the rights and
interests of the revolutionary movement.
We condemn the insincerity of the GRP in the case
of Comrade Llamas and its arbitrary decision to
unilaterally suspend the talks.
This whole incident has once more proven the
correctness of the overall policy of the NDF and
the revolutionary movement to persevere in the
struggle while engaging in talks with the
reactionary government.
July 19, 1995
* * *
DARE TO KEEP COPS OUT OF SCHOOL
In September, a DARE cop in the Braintree, MA
schools was suspended "because she plotted to make
false accusations about drug use in the schools."
In March, Officer Barbara Skrycki "secretly asked a
male friend" to pose as an irate parent and accuse
the town's Alliance Against Drugs of "covering up
life-threatening drug incidents." This incident is
a good illustration of the pigs' agenda: they are
not overly interested in stopping drug use, but in
exposing supposed "incidents" so that they can lock
more people up.
DRUGS ARE AN EXCUSE TO LOCK PEOPLE UP
Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier offered this
explanation of Skrycki's zeal: "I think she did
this because she thought the schools could have
been doing more for drug education and enforcement,
that hearing it from an irate parent, people would
open their eyes." Apparently these good intentions
earned Skrycki her job back, although on patrol and
not in the schools.
MIM hasn't talked to Skrycki, but we offer a
different analysis. The cops don't care about crime
or drugs; they care about maintaining the
oppressive capitalist system. This is done through
the selective application of arbitrarily defined
notions of criminality. For example, the
bourgeoisie defines possessing a small amount of
crack to be a crime, but it's business as usual for
the CIA to bring in coke by the ton. Oppressed
nationalities are targeted for drug surveillance,
and proportionally many more oppressed nationals
are arrested than whites.
When whites are arrested for possessing small
amounts of crack, the "just-us" system gives them
shorter sentences than it gives to oppressed
nationals. This clearly exposes that the cops and
the laws have nothing to do with stopping crime and
everything to do with stopping the oppressed.
SPLIT THE WHITE NATION FROM THE POLICE STATE
To support greater and greater repression, the cops
and politicians occasionally need to fan the flames
of settler anti-crime sentiment. In this case the
masses were already quite reactionary, but Skrycki
apparently thought the posse wasn't hysterical
enough. We must always resist the attacks of the
state, and when the politicians take the largest
leaps from reality, such as arguing that more
prisons are needed to stop crime, we must intervene
and attempt to split chunks of settlers from the
lynch mob.
Parts of the labor aristocracy can be split from
the pro-cop, pro-prison movement for reasons other
than proletarian ones, such as the fact that more
cops and prisons could mean higher taxes. If wings
of the labor aristocracy and bourgeoisie are too
cheap to pay half of Amerika as cops to lock the
oppressed nationalities up, then that group can be
a tactical ally in the struggle against national
oppression. Exposing cases like Skrycki's may be
useful in convincing some settlers that pigs are a
waste of money.
NOTE: Sunday Republican 9/10/95.
* * *
FILM SHOWING EXPOSES MIGRANT LABOR CONDITIONS
ANN ARBOR, MI, September 20--RAIL and MIM showed
Harvest of Shame as part of a fall series of
events. A fruitful discussion spanning numerous
topics followed the film.
Harvest of Shame is a 1960 documentary which shows
the oppressive conditions of migrant workers who
produce food for the best fed country on earth--
Amerikkka.
The movie makes many sharp exposures: comparing
migrant transportation to the laws regulating
cattle transportation, and comparing migrant
housing in one area to local horse stables. In each
case the animals come out ahead. One grower is
quoted: "we used to own our slaves, now we rent
them."
The documentary tracks mostly Black migrant farm
workers as they travel north from Florida as far as
New Jersey. It consists of interviews with
migrants, religious workers, growers and the U.S.
Secretary of Labor who makes many surprisingly pro-
migrant, anti-grower statements. He does expose his
imperialist perspective and his clear differences
with the rest of the government over how large the
bought-off classes should be: "It's morally wrong
for anyone to exploit their workers in this day and
age; we shouldn't tolerate it."
Some of the migrants in the film are white. The
RAIL member leading the discussion pointed out at
the beginning that white agricultural workers in
such a desperate situation would be difficult to
find these days. The audience members agreed that
the availability of legal and illegal immigrant
labor and the "legal" temporary workers shipped to
Amerika from other countries enable farm owners to
avoid laborers who might demand safe working
conditions or a competitive wage. White-nation
workers are able to seek out more lucrative work
while Third World peoples slave to produce their
food.
Harvest of Shame briefly discusses the old Bracero
program in the Southwest by which Mexican men were
encouraged to come to the U.S. for jobs. The
discussion is quite racist though, blaming the
Mexicans for taking jobs from Blacks and poor
whites. This federal program has now been replaced
with the H2A program, which includes Jamaican
workers, Filipino workers and workers from other
oppressed nations.
In contrast to the way agricultural workers are
treated in 1960s Amerika, in China under Mao the
peasants and workers were correctly recognized as
the backbone of society upon which everything else
was dependent. Land reform liberated poor peasantry
from enslavement by landlords. Industrialization
was planned to lessen the contradictions between
the cities and the countryside. Changes made in the
superstructure, such as in education, served
peasants and workers and gave them opportunities
which were formerly available only to the
elite.(See MIM Theory 7 p. 92-94 for more on
migrant conditions in the U.S. and the improvements
for peasants under Mao.)
One audience member disagreed with the headline in
the national RAIL newspaper which reads, "Newspaper
employees strike for piece of pie." They opposed
MIM's line on the white working class and stated
that workers should not be concerned with anything
but their own material interests. What more, they
reasoned, could we expect?
MIM and RAIL pointed out that while white nation
workers certainly are concerned only with their
material interests, organizing for these interests
is not progressive. If the workers aren't talking
about liberating the Third World proletariat and
ending imperialism, then they are objectively
supporting First World dominance over internal and
external colonies. They ally with the violent
imperialist system to further oppress the rest of
the world in exchange for better benefits.
Supporting their demands amounts to strengthening
white nation chauvinism. Another audience member
agreed with MIM on this point.
* * *
MIM AND RAIL MAKE NEW FRIENDS FOR THE NDFP
by MIM and RAIL
In October MIM and RAIL organized a showing of two
videos of the Philippine revolution on an East
Coast college campus. The event was well attended
by Filipino students and supporters of the Filipino
people and included a lively discussion about the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the
New People's Army and the rectification movement of
the Communist Party of the Philippines. The
school's newspaper had printed an editorial the
previous week in support of Philippine President
Fidel Ramos and his "Philippines 2000" plan to
further open the Philippines to imperialist capital
so this was also a topic of discussion.
MIM explained that the National Democratic Front of
the Philippines (NDFP) is a united front of anti-
imperialist and anti-feudal organizations led by
the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines and
that its army, the New People's Army is engaged in
protracted People's War against the U.S.-backed
Ramos regime. As the videos and MIM explained, by
building base areas of support in the countryside,
the NDFP is able to institute land reform and
gather forces to defeat the state's military.
The first video was Green Guerrillas, on the work
of the New People's Army among the indigenous
people of Mindanao and how the people's guerrillas
work with indigenous people to protect their
environment. This video was made this year and it
clearly shows the progress of the return of the
Communist Party of the Philippines and its New
People's Army to their Maoist roots via the
rectification movement. In the late 1980s, the
Mandayan forcibly ejected the NPA from the area
because of the NPA's incorrect behavior. Now the
NPA has reformed and was welcomed back by the
Madayan people.
The second video, Medics of the People, is about
the medical work of the New People's Army. Medics
treat injured soldiers of both sides and conduct
clinics in the rural barrios.
MASSES RECOGNIZE THE STRENGTH OF RECTIFICATION
One audience member wanted to know more about this
struggle to return to the revolutionary Maoist
roots of the struggle. He said it was "very
impressive that mistakes that serious could be
made, recognized and reformed."
Filipinos in the audience who had been in Amerika
for only a few years, and those who have been here
for more than 30 years explained that they were
very interested in learning more about the struggle
of their country. There was a variety of political
perspectives among the people at the event, but
everyone in the audience agreed that the
Philippines suffers from imperialism and that
Filipinos' lack of knowledge about their own
country is a sign of this imperialism. Even the
Filipinos educated in the Philippines said this,
because Amerika set up the educational system there
to teach U.S. history and push an Amerika-centric
approach to education and the world.
One Filipino defended Ramos' Philippines 2000
economic development program because he thought it
would industrialize the Philippines. He also said
it would generate a middle class. This last point
wasn't contested, but many members of the audience
sharply opposed the view that opening the
Philippines up to further imperialist penetration
would make the country as a whole stronger or
improve the standard of living of the majority of
the people.
A Filipina and MIM discussed how economic
development programs like Philippines 2000 have
been complete failures in Latin America and in Peru
specifically at achieving anything but First World
enrichment and generating tiny Third World elites
at the expense of the laboring masses. There is no
evidence that Ramos' plan will produce different
results and much evidence that it is a sinister
plan to auction the sweat and blood of the Filipino
people even more cheaply than Ferdinand Marcos did.
The audience learned a lot about the Philippine
revolution, bought several copies of Liberation
International (the magazine of the National
Democratic Front) and Maoist Sojourner. In
addition, the audience members committed to
organizing to bring Rafael Baylosis to speak in
April about discuss the root causes of the armed
conflict between the NDFP and the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP's
struggle for a just and lasting peace. Finally, the
students suggested organizing a study group about
the Philippines and its revolution.
Contact your local MIM or RAIL chapter to find out
how to put on cool events like this one in your
area. Contact MIM for more information on the
Communist Party of the Philippines.
* * *
MARCH AGAINST PRISONS: MASSES REJECT
BRUTALIZING "CORRECTIONS"
September 30--A RAIL contingent joined in a march
of over 100 people initiated by the American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC) against prisons in
Massachusetts. The march started at Norfolk Prison
and ended at Walpole, covering 2 miles and passing
plenty of cops on the way. The march was to protest
the conditions in Massachusetts prisons, detailed
in the article on this page which was distributed
as a flier to everyone at the march.
The demands of the march were stated in a flier
drawn up by the Coalition of prisoner Families and
Friends, a committee of the AFSC and one of the
principal organizers of the march. The organizing
flier stated: The Coalition of prisoner Families
and Friends calls on the Department of
"correction," the Legislature, and Governor Weld
to:
* END THE LOCKDOWN AT WALPOLE PRISON FOR ALL
WALPOLE PRISONERS
* END THE LOCKDOWN AT SHIRLEY PRISON
* END ARBITRARY SEGREGATION AND ABUSE
OF LATINO PRISONERS
* RESTORE CONTACT VISITS AT WALPOLE
* RESTORE PROGRAMS AND TRAINING IN
ALL MASSACHUSETTS PRISONS
* PROVIDE ADEQUATE HEALTH CARE FOR PRISONERS,
ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE HIV POSITIVE
* CLOSE THE DEPARTMENTAL DISCIPLINARY UNIT
* PROVIDE ADEQUATE PROGRAMS AND MEDICAL
CARE TO FEMALE PRISONERS
A musical group called Vida Urbana in Springfield
provided the marchers with songs along the way. In
between songs people chanted enthusiastically and
waved signs condemning the criminal injustice
system. None of the participants thought that being
at the rally would make a sudden change in the
prisons. But by bringing people out for a march
that targeted the prisons MIM and the masses
oppose, we showed the state that we are watching
every time the pigs abuse a prisoner, and that we
know they are working to remove all semblance of
civility from the prisons. We will make sure that
the people know this is happening. MIM and RAIL
work to build public opinion in opposition to pig
institutions. Only through many such actions and
educational events can we hope to win small battles
for better conditions in the prisons while we work
to overthrow the capitalist system that
necessitates repressive prisons as institutions of
social control.
The police and FBI were out in full force with
cameras and video equipment all along this march.
Demonstrating what they see as a real threat, there
were more cops and agents at this march than at
many of the larger rallies with less radical
demands and a less threatening target.
RAIL is working on a campaign against prisons in
Massachusetts and is organizing a prisons awareness
week in Amherst and a series of educational events
about prisons in Boston. We are also planning a
rally against the Department of Corrections and
NYNEX, the New England phone company that works
with the DOC to severely restrict prisoners access
to people on the outside. The DOC and NYNEX
conveniently have offices across the street from
one another in downtown Boston. Contact RAIL to get
involved in this campaign.
***RAIL distributed the following flyer at the
anti-prisons march described in the article March
against prisons: masses reject brutalizing
"corrections" on this page. The information in the
flyer was taken from an interview with an anti-
prisons activist in Massachusetts. Please see the
Massachusetts events calendar on this page and
contact RAIL for more information.***
Over the last few years the state of Massachusetts
has increased the repression and abuse in its
prisons leading up to the implementation of
unprecedented repressive policies and practices in
1995. This should be no surprise considering that
the Commissioner of Corrections is Larry Dubois,
infamous for his participation in the
administration of the control units at Marion,
Illinois and Lexington, Kentucky where prisoners,
particularly those who were politically active,
were abused and humiliated.
This year's repressive measures include cutting
back on the very limited access to education,
training, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation,
limiting medical care, cutting off prisoner's
ability to write letters to other prisoners, and
requiring all prisons to convert part of their
space into segregation units which in reality are
control units, or prisons within prisons. The
conditions for women, held in the Framingham
women's prison, are among the worst in the system,
with women not even having the very limited rights
and access given to male prisoners.
In addition to these reactionary policies, two
prisons in Massachusetts, Shirley and Walpole, are
currently locked down, meaning that no one can come
into the prison, the prisoners are not allowed
contact with other prisoners, they are only allowed
out of their cells a few times a week and then only
for a shower, and they do not get out to exercise.
The lockdown in Walpole began on March 21st after a
prisoner was stabbed. During the first 10 days of
the lockdown prisoners were violently beaten by
guards on B-4 cellblock and on April 3rd a B-4
guard was stabbed. Shortly after the institution of
the lockdown, the DOC designated Walpole a
Supermax, upgrading it from a Level 5 Maximum
Security Prison. In a Supermax prisoners can only
leave their cells twice a week, just for a shower,
they get no exercise and are allowed no visitors.
The designation as a Supermax allowed Walpole to
build non-contact visiting rooms. After the
construction of these was completed, on August 7th,
the prison officially ended the lockdown. But this
is just an official smokescreen: many prisoners
remain in isolation and lockdown, only the label
has changed.
To add to the repressive conditions in Walpole, the
Plymouth High Security Unit was created as a part
of this Supermax. Prisoners who are labeled
"dangerous" are now pulled out of other prisons and
moved to this unit. These prisoners are usually
identified as gang members and upwards of 90% of
them are Latinos. The majority of these prisoners
in Plymouth were the most vocal advocates for
themselves and other prisoners and so of course
considered dangerous.
In addition to the Plymouth unit, Walpole also has
the Departmental Disciplinary Unit (DDU). This is a
unit of total deprivation that is entirely sound
proof. There are also Blocks 8, 9 and 10 which are
segregated but not totally isolated: prisoners can
yell to one another from their cells. More than
half of the prisoners in Walpole are held in one of
these prisons within the prison and they are all
required to wear uniforms. The internal level of
the prisoners is matched by clothing colors with
Plymouth seen as the worst, wearing bright orange.
The lockdown in Shirley is in its fourth week.
After a guard sat on the bed of a Latino prisoner,
counter to prison policies, the prisoner and the
guard got into a fight. The guards then started
beating every Latino they found on the ward. The
harassment continued the next day and the prisoners
rioted and took over a room. Shirley has been on
lockdown ever since. 40 of the Latino prisoners
were shipped immediately to the Plymouth High
Security Unit.
The lockdowns and repressive measures implemented
in prisons across Massachusetts must be fought. The
prisoners are fighting from behind the bars and we
must support their struggles and make use of the
freedom we have to organize outside the prisons.
People must be made aware of the conditions in
prisons and of the real use for prisons as tools of
social control by the rich and powerful in Amerika.
The Amerikan injustice system does not intend to
"rehabilitate" anyone, it is used to keep people in
their place, punishing political activists for
crimes they did not commit, and taking off the
streets the "dangerous" Blacks and Latinos who do
not even get a trial of their peers, while allowing
the worst murderers and thieves to operate freely
as a part of the Amerikan government and Amerikan
imperialist corporations.
Join the campaign against Amerika's social control.
We are working to expose and oppose Amerika's use
of social control against the people that the
imperialists see as a threat, principally Blacks,
Latinos and Indigenous peoples. For more info
contact your local RAIL branch.
* * *
***This is MIM's political program, approved during
the party's 1995 Congress. Our Program is written
on the model of the Black Panther Party's 10-Point
Platform and Program. For a summary of other
developments of the Party's most recent Congress,
please see MIM Notes 105, October 1995.***
PROGRAM OF THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
October 1995
WHAT WE WANT
WHAT WE BELIEVE
1. We want communism.
We believe that anyone who opposes all oppression--
power of groups over groups--is a communist. This
includes opposition to national oppression, class
oppression and gender oppression.
2. We want socialism.
We believe that socialism is the path to communism.
We believe that the current dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie oppresses the world's majority. We
believe that socialism--the dictatorship of the
proletariat and peasantry--is a necessary step
towards a world without inequality or dictatorship-
-a communist world. We uphold the USSR under Lenin
and Stalin (1917-1953) and China under Mao (1949-
1976) as models in this regard.
3. We want revolutionary armed struggle.
We believe that the oppressors will not give up
their power without a fight. Ending oppression is
only possible by building public opinion to seize
power through armed struggle. We believe, however,
that armed struggle in the imperialist countries is
a serious strategic mistake until the bourgeoisie
becomes really helpless. Revolution will become a
reality for North America as the U.S. military
becomes over-extended in the government's attempts
to maintain world hegemony.
"We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do
not want war; but war can only be abolished through
war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is
necessary to take up the gun."--Mao Zedong
4. We want organization.
We believe that democratic-centralism, the system
of unified application of majority decisions, is
necessary to defeat the oppressors. This system
includes organization, leadership, discipline and
hierarchy. The oppressors use these weapons, and we
should, too. By building a disciplined
revolutionary communist vanguard party, we follow
in the tradition of comrades Lenin, Mao and Huey
Newton.
5. We want independent institutions of and for the
oppressed.
We believe that the oppressed need independent
media to build public opinion for socialist
revolution. We believe that the oppressed need
independent institutions to provide land, bread,
housing, education, medical care, clothing, justice
and peace. We believe that the best independent
institution of all is a self-reliant socialist
government.
6. We want continuous revolution.
We believe that class struggle continues under
socialism. We believe that under socialism, the
danger exists for a new bourgeoisie to arise within
the communist party itself. We believe that these
new oppressors will restore capitalism unless they
are stopped. We believe that the bourgeoisie seized
power in the USSR 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. We believe
that China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
(1966-1976) is the farthest advance towards
communism in human history, because it mobilized
millions of people against the restoration of
capitalism.
7. We want a united front against imperialism.
We believe that the imperialists are currently
waging a hot war--a World War III--against the
world's oppressed nations, including the U.S.
empire's internal colonies. We seek to unite all
who can be united under proletarian and feminist
leadership against imperialism, capitalism and
patriarchy.
We believe that the imperialist country working
classes are primarily a pro-imperialist labor
aristocracy at this time. Likewise, we believe that
the biological women of the imperialist countries
are primarily a gender aristocracy. Thus, while we
recruit individuals from these and other
reactionary groups to work against their class,
national and gender interests, we do not seek
strategic unity with them. In fact, we believe that
the imperialist country working-classes and
imperialist country biological women, like the
bourgeoisies and petit bourgeoisies, owe
reparations to the international proletariat and
peasantry. As such, one of the first strategic
steps MIM will take upon winning state power will
be to open the borders.
We believe that socialism in the imperialist
countries will require the dictatorship of the
international proletariat and that the imperialist
country working-classes will need to be on the
receiving end of this dictatorship.
8. We want New Democracy for the oppressed nations.
We want power for the oppressed nations to
determine their destinies.
We believe that oppressed people will not be free
until they are able to determine their destinies.
We look forward to the day when oppressed people
will live without imperialist police terror and
will learn to speak their mind without fear of the
consequences from the oppressor. When this day
comes, meaningful plebiscites can be held in which
the peoples will decide for themselves if they want
their own separate nation-states or some other
arrangement.
9. We want world revolution.
We believe it is our duty to support Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism everywhere, though our principal
task is to build public opinion and independent
institutions in preparation for Maoist revolution
in North America. The imperialists think and act
globally--we must do the same.
10. We want politics in command.
We believe that correct tactics flow from correct
strategies, which flow from a correct ideological
and political line. We believe that the fight
against imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy goes
hand in hand with the fight against revisionism,
chauvinism, and opportunism.
"The correctness or otherwise of the ideological
and political line decides everything. When the
Party's line is correct, then everything will come
its way. If it has no followers, then it can have
followers; if it has no guns, then it can have
guns; if it has no political power, then it can
have political power."--Mao Zedong
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY:
NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS
SHAKA SHAKUR TRANSFER--EMERGENCY RESPONSE
We have received word that prison activist Shaka
Shakur is slated to be transferred back to a
control unit prison. Shaka spent many years at the
Maximum Control Complex control unit prison in
Westville, Indiana where he struggled from the
inside to shut it down. Now the Indiana DOC wants
to send him back to a control unit prison--the SHU
unit [Security Housing Unit] at the Wabash Valley
Correctional Center.
We are asking for you to make calls, faxes and
letters to Commissioner Debruyn and Superintendent
Al C. Park (addresses and numbers are listed
below). Shaka has devoted much energy to seeing the
movement grow on the inside and the outside - this
is a retaliatory move the Indiana DOC that must be
stopped.
Commissioner Debruyn, 804 State Office Building,
100 N. Senate, Indianapolis, IN 46204, Phone: 317-
232-5715, FAX: 317-232-6798
Superintendent Al C. Park, Indiana State Prison,
P.O. Box 41, Michigan City, IN 46360, Phone: 219-
874-7258, FAX: 219-874-9001
Please send a copy of your letters to Shaka at:
Shaka Shakur, 28443, Indiana State Prison, P.O. Box
41, Michigan City, IN 46360
SAMPLE LETTER TO SEND/FAX TO THE ABOVE OFFICIALS:
Dear Sir,
I am writing regarding the upcoming transfer of
Shaka Shakur DOC 28443. He is currently
incarcerated at Indiana State Prison in Michigan
City and is slated to be transferred to the Wabash
Valley Correctional Center--more specifically, the
SHU. Mr. Shakur has spent the last two weeks in the
infirmary at Indiana State Prison and is in need of
direct medical attention. He has already been sent
to an outside specialist once and is scheduled for
an EMG by an outside specialist very soon. Mr.
Shakur is finally receiving treatment for his
medical situation which has been ignored for almost
a year by the staff at Indiana State Prison. Mr.
Shakur is on crutches and must be moved about the
prison via wheelchair.
It would be unconstitutional to transfer Mr. Shakur
to the SHU Unit, a high security disciplinary unit.
The SHU would not be capable of handling Mr.
Shakur's medical situation. Mr. Shakur has served
time at the Maximum Control Complex in Westville,
Indiana. The Taifa v. Bayh settlement mandates that
all inmates be placed in general population upon
release from MCC. It would seem that this transfer
is in retaliation for the filed petition about the
unhealthy conditions--leaking roofs, rats, etc.--
currently existing at Indiana State Prison that has
brought in the Indiana Department of Health.
If it is not in retaliation of prisoners trying to
keep themselves free of disease, why are they not
being transferred to other open units at Indiana
State Prison?--when the space does exist. Mr.
Shakur must not be sent to the SHU, and this
medical situation must be given highest priority.
Sincerely,
[your name here]
INFORMATION ON SHAKA SHAKUR
My name is Shaka Shakur. I am a 28 year old New
Afrikan Political Prisoner and member of the New
Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) fighting for
the liberation of the Republic of New Afrika, in
the Southeast part of the united states. At the age
of 16 I was arrested and charged with the erroneous
charge of "attempted robbery." I was
railroaded/convicted and illegally sentenced to 30
years. Despite the fact that I was charged with the
wrong crime and illegally sentenced to 30 years
(when by law I should have received no more than 8
years), I have served 12 and a half years of this
sentence.
While in prison I embarked upon a journey of self-
education and politicization. I became a
politically conscious and a politically active
prisoner. A prisoner who understands the socio-
economic relationship and role of my imprisonment.
A politically conscious prisoner who understands
the overall political ramifications of the u.s.
domestic genocidal policy of mass incarceration of
New Afrikan (Black) people in particular and all
oppressed working class people in general.
With the transformation of my character and sense
of political awareness, for approximately the last
ten years, I have made a conscious effort to
educate, politicize, and organize my fellow
prisoners. I have implemented numerous programs at
my own sacrifice and persecution, to help ensure
that those of Us who are released return back to
the community as assets instead of predators.
I have been active in working with both inside and
outside civil and human rights organizations,
political organizations and some progressive
attorneys. I have worked with some of these
political organizations in not only trying to
alleviate some of the third world conditions We
exist in inside these prisons, but also to expose
such blatant contradictions to the public/world, of
a hypocritical system that proclaims to be a
democracy. As a result of such actions and efforts
I have been targeted for brutalization, harassment
and torture both mentally and physically. As a
result of exercising what is supposed to be a human
right, I have been discriminated against and
politically persecuted by those who are supposed to
be sworn to uphold the "law."
The Indiana Judicial System has refused to abide by
its own colonial judicial laws, by not reversing an
illegal conviction. In at least ten other cases,
with issues identical to mine, the court has ruled
for new trials. However, in my case, the courts
have refused to apply the same principles of law.
They have chosen instead, for political reasons, to
discriminate and allow an illegal conviction to
stand. The State of Indiana has instead chosen to
deny me a new trial as dictated by their own law.
Why? Because I have chosen to pledge my allegiance
to a set of principles and politics that the
enemies of freedom fear.
Because I have chosen to dedicate my life to the
upliftment of humanity, to the betterment of my
community. I am forced to remain illegally held in
a dungeon. I am forced to be held inside an
"administrative segregation" unit under close
supervision and monitoring, under restrictive
movement. In spite of the fact that I have not had
a serious rule violation in over two years. I am
fighting for a new trial. Help me force Indiana to
abide by its own laws and discontinue its political
persecution. I have done my time and paid my dues.
In the spirit of commitment and struggle,
--Shaka Shakur, 6/24/95
BRUTALITY AT THE SCOTTS
CORRECTIONAL FACILITY FOR WOMEN
From a very reliable and confidential source inside
the Scotts Correctional Facility (SCF) in Plymouth,
Michigan, it has been reported that on July 31,
1995, in the housing unit "Essex," a woman was
found in a coma.
Sources have revealed that this woman was
sadistically beaten by seven women prisoners who've
been caught. This savage beating was supposed to be
over a $4,000 drug deal gone bad. The irony of the
story is that the woman beaten was tied up and
gagged and locked in a maximum security area where
only the officer has a key to let the prisoner into
her cell. This would suggest that the seven women
who beat this woman into a coma had to be let in in
order to carry out their deed. This would suggest
that an official knew and allowed this act to
happen.
The federal government had officials at the SCF and
was looking into this issue and past issues in
which the feds had been investigating.
We are beginning to see within the Michigan
Department of Corrections (MDOC) a build-up of
abuse and attacks against prisoners whether
directly or through indirect means. For example;
the incident at the Michigan Parole Camp where six
corrections officers strangled an inmate on July
13, 1995 because the officers thought he had
swallowed some drugs. While this prisoner was down
on the ground and handcuffed he began to choke from
the officers attempting to force him to open his
mouth. In addition the officers had lost the
handcuff keys whereby they were unable to uncuff
the prisoner's hands while he lay dying. However
the officials, very neatly had all the witnessing
inmates transferred to higher security facilities.
There has been no substantial news coverage of this
incident, which suggests that the MDOC is
attempting to 'cover this up.'
There was also an incident at the Charles Egeler
Correctional Facility (SMN) where one corrections
officer attacked and assaulted an inmate by
punching and slamming this inmate into a wall. This
officer had to be restrained by another corrections
officer. Pending the investigation of this
incident, the assaultive officer has been suspended
and the inmate who was assaulted has been
transferred from the Egeler facility.
These brutal acts by MDOC employees can only occur
if the higher officials in Lansing, Michigan turn a
blind eye to what is happening within the prison
system, which for the most part is what they have
done. The public is fed a bunch of lies and rarely
does the public show a concern about "human rights
violation" unless mass media attention is brought
on the subject. Something must be done. If these
acts continue to occur, then I fear that we will
see an explosion unlike Michigan has ever witnessed
and there will be many people dead, maimed or in
other dehumanizing conditions throughout the prison
system.
If Michigan wants a "Lucasville" to take place,
continue to be silent.
--a Michigan prisoner, 8/14/95
SEVERE LOCK-DOWN IN TEXAS
MIM has received letters from nine prisoners from
the same unit in a Texas prison. They all wrote
similar letters about the oppressive conditions and
abuses they face:
Dear Comrade,
I'm writing in regards to my and many more
prisoners' present condition. Currently myself and
about 100 to 160 more prisoners are suffering
tumult and oppression at the hands of high level
officials here on the Terrell Unit.
The administration on this unit has
unprofessionally and biasedly placed us on
"Institutional Lock-Down" for the offense of one
individual, whom they have in segregation. We have
been denied a hot meal for over a month now.
Sometimes the meat they feed us is spoiled. Many
times the chicken salad will contain bone
fragments. Sometimes the milk is spoiled and the
officers refuse to exchange it.
Don't misunderstand me, they are feeding us but
they're feeding us in paper sacks which do not
contain the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA)
and it's barely enough to sustain one's appetite.
On occasion there are cases where the supervising
officials will deny a prisoner their food for any
given, apparent reason. Sergeant Owens (first
shift) and Sergeant Harris are two among several
officers who have denied meals here on Terrell
Unit. There is no reason to deny food to any living
being.
Furthermore, we suffer further tumult and
oppression at the hands of this administration in
the fact that we are denied visitations. This is in
fact a violation of TDCJ-ID regulations which say
that visitation rights will not be denied as a form
of punishment. In addition, the administration has
refused to feed us by RDA guidelines, denied us our
TDCJ-ID mandated one hour of recreation. In many
instances medical treatments either audaciously
denied or delayed for days. The most common claim
is that they do not have the appropriate staff to
escort an inmate to the infirmary, when in fact
there are an estimated 1,000 employees for the
Terrell Unit.
The administration claims that their foul prone
action are due to the violence on this side of the
building. The truth is that violence exists in all
prisons. The administration here took it upon
themselves to impose unjustified punishment upon
us. No one can bend, manipulate or go above Federal
and state laws but this administration has decided
to do just that.
This is a clear showing of the cruel and unusual
punishment that has been heavily imposed by this
foul-prone administration on Terrell unit. This is
a clear violation of the 8th and 14th amendments as
well as a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Nevertheless this is our present state and not our
first. The last lockdown lasted 11 months with no
visitations, no hot meals, no allowance of outside
recreation. We are currently in desperate need of
your help in contacting a federal agency in Texas
and the TDCJ-ID director of internal affairs, John
Mcalliffe, to investigate our situation.
Lastly, please reply to confirm that you indeed
received this letter. This insecurity is due the
fact that mail is often "lost," "misplaced," or
delayed.
Whatever help or pressure you can assist us with
will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your
time and help.
--Several Texas prisoners, 9/13/95 - 9/14/95
DOES RELENTLESS ACTIVISM AMOUNT TO NOTHING?
Greetings,
I received MIM Theory 8. Thanks! A couple of items
from you were censored earlier by prison officials
here. I'm not sure if you received notice of if the
materials were returned. In January 1995 the
implementation of administrative bulletin 95/i
added to the greatly expanding censorship policies
of the California Department of Corrections (CDC)
and the reducing of due process safeguards or
accountability of prison staff.
I have multiple civil actions pending in federal
court, but in the meantime Pelican Bay State Prison
(PBSP) and the state of California are the supreme
law in this corner of the land. No civil liberties
or constitutional "rights" for us here! The whole
system of judicial review is so inherently unjust I
suspect my lawsuits will be dismissed or
prejudicially ruled in the state's favor, due to
the fact that I have no lawyer, no support and no
way to publicize the blatant injustice being
perpetuated!
I am so sick of all the bullshit. 5 years of filing
writs, literally fighting prison officials and
relentless activism and it amounts to nothing. No
comrade to visit me. No local contacts to assist
from the outside. No solidarity. I read all these
prisoner rights materials. Where are these people?
Why have I never had an opportunity to participate
directly in their projects?
I have turned a 7 year robbery conviction into 30
years plus 25 to life prison term, permanently
stuck in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) 24 hour
lock down and still fighting! I have suffered the
beatings and torture of prison life, yet I'm strong
and proud!
Is there a comrade or a support group out there
that can keep in contact with me and be a source of
encouragement, maybe assist somehow with my
struggle?
In struggle,
--a California prisoner, 7/10/95
RCG1 responds: This prisoner speaks of solidarity,
support, comrades, contacts, assistance, and
encouragement. He feels all alone and that his
struggle has amounted to nothing. Readers of UL&K,
what do you think? Do you feel that this prisoner
is alone in the struggle? Do you feel that all his
struggle against oppression has amounted to
nothing? Do you have any suggestions about how this
prisoner might build a support network at his
prison?
CALENDARS ARE CONTRABAND
While I'm here on Disciplinary Confinement (DC), I
get to see first hand how these pigs outright lie
and falsify official documents. On the other wings
most of the cats (prisoners) are busy, most notably
watching television, being quite complacent so
there's no reason for the pigs to harass them.
Here on DC you can't have tobacco or coffee, it's a
crime in the pigs' eyes, so they constantly shake
you down looking for it or anything else they deem
to be contraband on DC. Recently I had an episode
in which they took my calendar!
After a week of writing the usual grievances, I
managed to actually see the Captain. He tells me
that calendars are contraband on DC. Only the state
issue items are allowed which gives the pigs a lot
of leeway, as they'll take a few items this time
and some more next time. It's just a harassment
game with them.
I use my pen a lot against them which they do not
like at all. Using their own rules to point out
their mistakes, lets them know that I know what
they're doing and use the paperwork to help
establish a case against them.
I know the obstacles in my path and I'm well aware
of what's ahead of me. I just refuse to compromise
my beliefs or to become complacent in here.
The other night two brothers got into an argument
about nothing really, a simple misunderstanding. My
comrade tried to tell them, "Hey you should be
arguing and fighting with he pigs, not each other!"
The reply was, "That's just a fantasy, an illusion.
No one does that." What happened to others was of
no concern to him, all he cared about was himself
and getting his. Which explains the mentality of
this place and most of those inside this state.
It's sad, isn't it? When they speak of getting out
and back into it is to get theirs: the money, the
cars and whatever else they can buy. Capitalist
criminals, always thinking of how to make
themselves rich. Little do they realize that in a
few years we may have martial law in this land. You
can see how the police-state mentality is slowly
growing acceptable, all in the name of "safer"
streets.
I have found a comrade here on DC and we both enjoy
MIM Notes, as well as continue to struggle against
the fascist administration. Perhaps in a few more
months we'll be able to find other comrades besides
us. Trying to show these cats how wrong capitalism
is and how we need a revolution to fix it all, is
like trying to convince someone the glass is half
empty when they swear it is half full. It's that
early indoctrination of the importance of money and
capitalism. Breaking through all of that will take
some time.
PRISON BRIEFS
Double-celling is proceeding apace. Some of us
political prisoners are forced to work in Unicor. A
comrade was framed recently.
--a Kansas prisoner, 5/1/95
I was in Vietnam, captured as a POW, and received
better treatment than that which is now being
afforded to me here.
--a Colorado Prisoner, 7/17/95
The blowers are being turned on in our cells,
causing the temperature to drop to around 40
degrees. This started about a month ago. For the
first week the blowers remained on 24 hours
straight. Since then they are turned on at 7 a.m.
and shut off at 4 p.m.. The reason: an alleged high
level of carbon monoxide.
--a Maryland prisoner, 4/3/95
The beatings still go on. Isolation cells are still
being used, although I hear that both the "pink-
room" and the "cadre area" isolation cells are no
longer to be used due to a government
investigation, but if so, it hasn't started yet.
The physical and psychological torture is applied
constantly and the blowers I mentioned are still in
effect.
--the same Maryland prisoner, 5/7/95
Texas no longer feeds its captives beef. Yeah
they've got a new flavor, "VitaPro" (soybean). They
are actually feeding us animal food. That and pork
(forced vegetarianism). Despite the fact that the
system raises and slaughters thousands of cows and
pigs a week. Obviously being sold for private
profit.
--a Texas prisoner, 6/2/95
We've been facing down attacks from various
plantation "administrators" because of our
political activities. Our press has been withheld
from captives at different kamps. One brother was
put in the "hole" for a piece that he wrote on the
Oklahoma City bombing by the right-wing
reactionaries. Another brother was placed on "phone
restriction" for calling the media. So these are
some of the things that we must contend with. And
this isolation isn't helping one bit. Nevertheless,
just thought I'd "plug in". Press on and keep up
the good work.
Stand Firm
--a Michigan prisoner 9/17/95
* * *
ANN ARBOR FILM SERIES CONTINUES IN NOVEMBER
November 8
THROUGH THE WIRE -- Testimony from three women
prisoners in Lexington supermaximum security
control unit, documents the control unit's purpose
as a means of repressing political prisoners.
November 29
PEOPLE OF THE SHINING PATH -- An inspiring
documentary on the People's War in Peru,
demonstrates the will of the Peruvian peasants to
establish New Democracy and the brutality of the
Fujimori government they are fighting.
Both events will be held in the University of
Michigan's East Quadrangle room 126 at 7:15 p.m.
Discussions will follow the films.
* * *
BOSTON-AREA EVENTS IN NOVEMBER
OPPOSE SOCIAL CONTROL!!! FILM AND DISCUSSION SERIES
November 8
Thought reform in revolutionary China--Hear from
Allyn Rickett, author of Prisoners of Liberation
and Amerikan citizen who was imprisoned by the
revolutionary Chinese government for acting as an
Amerikan spy. After years in the Chinese
revolutionary prisons he became a supporter of the
Chinese revolution and their method of imprisonment
and reeducation.
November 15
Shut down the Control Units at Marion Prison--
Control Units are used to silence political
prisoners. This film documents the injustice and
abuse that is the main purpose of Control Units.
November 29
60 Minutes documentary on Pelican Bay Prison--film
exposing the repression and torture that goes on at
Pelican Bay prison.
All events are held on Wednesday at 7:30 pm in the
Old Cambridge Baptist Church, 1151 Massachusetts
Ave. One block from Harvard Square.
* * *
PRISON AWARENESS WEEK: AMHERST, MASS
Sunday Nov. 5 - Saturday Nov. 11
UMass Amherst Campus Center
Prison Awareness Week will include speakers, films,
discussions and music on a broad range of topics
concerning prisons and social control in the U.S.
The week will be both educational and oriented
towards organizing.
Sunday, Nov 5
"The Murder of Fred Hampton" Classic documentary
film about Chicago police/FBI murder of Black
Panther Party Leader.(Shown at Hampshire College
FPH.)
Monday, Nov. 6
6:30PM: "Cops, Gangs, and Youth in Western Mass.":
Panel discussion led by a group of Massachusetts
youth and facilitated by RAIL, on the increased
repression of young people by police.
8:00PM: "Learning Across Razor Wire: Education in
Prisons": Panel discussion led by members of the
UMass Prison Education Project
Tuesday, Nov. 7
6:30PM "The Death Penalty": Panel with
Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty.
8:00PM "Criticism and Self-Criticism: How a
Socialist Society Deals with its Enemies" Allyn
Rickett, arrested as a US spy in China in 1951,
discusses his experience of reeducation.
Wednesday, Nov. 8:
6:30PM "Debate: Are all Prisoners Political
Prisoners?"
8:00PM Ramona Africa: MOVE member who survived the
Philadelphia police bombing in 1985, after which
she spent eight years in prison for surviving. She
will discuss the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and
issues of social control.
Thursday, Nov. 9:
6:30PM: "The Political Economy of Prisons: 3
Strikes Laws, Privatization, and Racism": Panel
discussion.
8:00PM: "Cada Guaraguao Tiene Un Pitirre" How
control units are used to break the most political
of prisoners, with a focus on the repression of
Puerto Rican freedom fighters. Discussion led by
the Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War
and Political Prisoners.
Friday, November 10:
6:30PM Film: "Attica" and discussion led by MIM.
8:00PM "Jazzotree": Political Music and Poetry.
Saturday, November 11
1:00-5:30 "End the Amerikan Lockdown" conference.
The event will consist of two sessions, each part
panel discussion and part small groups. This should
provide an opportunity to develop and struggle over
radical/revolutionary theory and practice in the
fight against the Amerikan lockdown.
The sessions:
1. "Unwinnable Battles: Prison Resistance from
Attica to Westville, Indiana--strategies and
tactics of prison resistance and the need for
solidarity"
2. "Military Suppression of Youth from the Ghetto
to Prison"
Sponsors: UMass Radical Student Union, Maoist
Internationalist Movement, Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League, American Friends Service
Committee, Western Mass. Prison Issues Group. Rooms
to be announced. Schedule current as of: 10/18.
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