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.
I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T M O N T H L Y
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM NOTES 110 MARCH 1996
GET MIM NOTES 110 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 110, FIND CONTINUING COVERAGE OF
STUDENT ACTIVISM AGAINST NATIONAL OPPRESSION AT
EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY; RAIL'S PROTEST OF GULF
WAR KILLER NORMAN SCHWARTZKOPF; MIM'S VIEWS ON THE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT AND THE 1996 PRESIDENTIAL
CAMPAIGN, AND MORE LETTERS FROM PRISONERS IN
AMERIKAN GULAGS. ALSO NEW THIS MONTH: READ M-L-M
ONLINE -- NEWS AND ANALYSIS DEVOTED TO THE
INTERNET.
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 110 INCLUDES:
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. MASSACHUSETTS UPS THE ANTE ON CRIMINAL
INJUSTICE
2. EMU ADMINISTRATION SANCTIONS NATIONAL
OPPRESSION
3. LETTERS TO MIM AND RAIL
4. CPUSA MEMBER EDUCATES ABOUT PHILIPPINES,
PROMOTES NIHILISM OVER CPP
5. HOW THE "AID" GAME WORKS
6. MONEY BEFORE HUMANITY
7. M-L-M ONLINE: AN INTERNATIONAL ARENA OF
POLITICAL STRUGGLE
8. PARENTAL RIGHTS AND CHILD PROTECTION:
CHILDRENATTACKED BY BOTH PARENTS AND GOVERNMENT
9. BOURGIE MEDIA DEFEND THE STATE
10. BUILD INDEPENDENT MEDIA; SUPPORT INDEPENDENT
POLITICAL ACTION
11. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
PRISONS
12. BLACK PANTHER PARTY HISTORY: SEALE LIES TO
STUDENTS: "WE DID NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT
SOCIALISM"
13. ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE FIGHTS NATIONAL OPPRESSION
AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
14. RAIL PROTESTS GULF WAR VILLAIN
15. STATE-CAPITALIST RULE BETRAYS CHINESE WOMEN'S
LIBERATION
16. BOSNIA LIE EXPOSED
17. ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: THE PCP IS STILL IN
BUSINESS
18. FASCISM GAINS GROUND IN LOUISIANA
19. FLORIDA CRACKS DOWN ON ANTI-PRISONS ACTIVISTS
20. THAT VOTING DOLLAR: AMERIKAN PRESIDENCY GOES TO
THE HIGHEST BIDDER.
***JOIN MIM AND RAIL IN PRISONS AWARENESS WORK
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) and the
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) are
working with other organizations that oppose the
Amerikan criminal injustice system across the
Continent. Our work to expose oppression and
brutality within Amerikan prisons includes
reporting and agitation here in MIM Notes, RAIL
Notes and other RAIL publications; educational film
showings and discussion series; rallies and more.
To get involved in this anti-prisons work in your
area, write to your regional contact (see address
on this page) or to one of the addresses on page
two. Work with MIM and RAIL to expose the
injustices of the Amerikan prisons system!
BUILD PUBLIC OPINION IN SUPPORT OF
THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION
MIM and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League
(RAIL) are organizing a continental campaign to
educate people about the revolution in the
Philippines. Work on this campaign includes writing
for and distributing Maoist Sojourner (a monthly
publication by and for Third World exiles led by
MIM), MIM Notes and the RAIL publications; film
series about various aspects of the Philippine
revolution including medical work in the
countryside and treachery of the so-called
democratic Philippine governments; discussion
sessions about the meaning of the revolution in the
Philippines and how people living in Amerika can
best support it. To get involved in this anti-
imperialist work in your area write to your
regional contact (see address on this page) or to
one of the addresses on page two. Work with MIM and
RAIL to popularize the Filipino people,s just
struggle! Oppose Amerikan intervention and the
Amerikan-backed government in the Philippines!***
* * *
MASSACHUSETTS UPS THE ANTE ON CRIMINAL INJUSTICE
On January 22nd, the Massachusetts State House and
Senate both unanimously passed a bill to fund more
prison and jail cells, providing money for 3,000
new and renovated cells. In a publicity trick to
get this bill passed, Massachusetts Governor
William Weld took 299 prisoners hostage, sending
them to Texas to illustrate the supposed
overcrowding problem in Massachusetts prisons. Weld
wants to build more prisons, so he created an
overcrowding problem by moving prisoners from lower
security to higher security prisons to make it look
like there was a lack of high security facilities.
These state-sponsored criminals play games with
prisoners' lives in the newspaper and the
legislature, all to boost their own 'law and order'
images and improve the state's economy.
The bill authorized a total of $486,255,860 in new
expenditures for the Massachusetts criminal
injustice system. Rehabilitative services such as
education, family visits, drug and alcohol
programs, and even medical care have been cut
recently, yet in this close to $500 million bill
the only rehabilitative services of any kind are
new "boot camps" being built for
juveniles. The
bill included provisions to pay for police
facilities and grants for "publicly owned
capital
projects" as an incentive to communities
building
more prisons.
OPPRESSED NATIONALS PRONE TO CRIME?
Another measure hidden in this bill was the
following: "...the department of correction,
in
conjunction with the department of public health
and the department of education, shall conduct a
study into the biological causes of crime based on
the premise that scientists have been studying
biological risk factors which they believe
predispose individuals to criminal behavior;
provided further, that said study should
incorporate these findings to work toward a more
effective approach toward criminology..."
Since Blacks and Latinos are locked up at a
disproportionate rate relative to their numbers in
the population, this so-called study will find that
race determines criminal behavior. Capitalist
society does not recognize the murder, theft, rape
and pillage conducted by our government against
peoples of the Third World and oppressed nations
within U.S. borders as crime. This "more
effective
approach toward criminology" just means
expanding
the lockdown in communities of oppressed
nationalities.
RAIL held a rally in Springfield, Massachusetts on
February 10. The really marked the second
anniversary of the police execution of Black
motorist Ben Schoolfield, the February 7 national
day of action for Mumia Abu-Jamal and protested the
expansion of the police in Springfield. Springfield
already has the second largest police force in New
England with 500 armed oinkers, but it is far from
the second largest city. Apparently the masses of
Springfield are not adequately locked down, and the
city's new mayor wants to spend $3 million adding
100 new cops to the force. See the next issue of
MIM Notes for an article about this rally.
* * *
LETTERS TO MIM AND RAIL:
CASH FOR COMMIES
DEAR MIM: Enclosed is a check in response to your
funds appeal. I am increasing my monthly dues.
--a friend in the midwest
January 1996
MIM RESPONDS: Thank you! Your contribution will
help us in our efforts to publish Maoist newspapers
weekly. (see MIM Notes 109, January 1996 for
details.) we hope other readers will follow this
comrade's example and contribute articles, money
and distribution efforts to help us advance to this
goal.
OBSERVING MLK DAY IN THE SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE
***In response to a flyer announcing RAIL/MIM's
recent rally against Prison Expansion in Boston,
one prisoner wrote back:
***
I will fast on MLK day and not eat the Fried
Chicken, Collard Greens, etc., etc., meal which is
served. I think that in and of itself is
denigrative of all that my ancestors have died in
struggle to rid the world of. If you can sacrifice
your time to stand in the cold I can go without
food in congruence with your endeavors. Please send
any paperwork evolving from the Jan. 15th protest
event. Thanx and stay strong of spirits--forever
keep the faith.
MIM RESPONDS: Thanks for writing and for your
solidarity! MIM Notes and activist information is
hard to get into the prisons, and so consciousness-
raising from within is vital. We'll keep you
abreast of the goings-on in our prison campaign,
and hope that you will reciprocate with news from
the inside.
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WANTS AN INTERNSHIP
Dear MIM,
Hello. I'm a senior in high school... I'm wondering
if I can come work for you for my Senior May
project. To explain what Senior May project is,
I'll quote from the letter I got in school:
"The
Senior May Project is a school sponsored activity
that encourages second semester seniors to
participate in a work experience in a field that
they are considering as a college major or as a
profession....Senior May Project students are
expected to work with their employer supervisor to
create a work experience that is as close as
possible to the professional tasks that the
employer does each day, i.e., an intern experience.
Students are expected to work a full work day and
to be responsible to schedules and duties as if
they were actually working as a paid employee.
Students, however, cannot be paid for their work on
these projects. ..."
That's basically what the project is. As for myself
and how I thought of the idea of working for MIM
Notes as my Project... I found out about MIM notes
when I used to go to the Barnes and Noble bookstore
by my house, and see a stack of them sitting in the
newspaper section. At the bookstore, I would always
pick up a copy for me and one for my friend. What
interested me to read MIM notes was the stories on
current native american Indian affairs.
--A reader in the Midwest
MIM RESPONDS: Thanks for writing. We would very
much like to figure out some working relationship
with you that would meet both of our needs. We'd
like to explain the major points of how working
with MIM would be very different structurally from
working with any non-communist organization or
newspaper so you can better evaluate whether you
want to work with us for your project.
In general, we need as much help as possible
building public opinion in favor of the oppressed
and in favor of Maoism, so in that context we are
delighted and flattered by your offer. It's not
every day someone offers us 40 hours/week worth of
their labor. Since you've read our newspaper you
already have an idea of the size of our goals and
the scope of our work; there is definitely no
shortage of interesting and challenging work to be
done.
The major aspect of our work we need to talk with
you about before deciding to go forward is
security. We welcome any questions you have about
this and hope you will follow up if any of this is
unclear because we would very much like to be able
to establish a working relationship with you.
You may have noticed in the staff box of MIM Notes
(page 2, directly under the "What is
MIM?" box)
that we make a policy of not publicizing the names
of our members or associates in our newspaper or
anyplace. This is because we have learned valuable
lessons from the Amerikan government's brutal and
illegal (even by its own standards) treatment of
the Black Panther Party and the American Indian
Movement, as well as other revolutionary
organizations and individuals. The same rule
applies to our willingness to talk about some of
the mechanics of our work: we do not tell people
where we print our newspapers for example, or the
size of our print run, number of members in the
organization, etc. The reasons for this are clear:
politically, we want to be judged on our line, not
on our size or other factors; in terms of security,
we do not want to invite state repression by
cavalierly sharing information about ourselves and
making the cops' job easier.
If you agree with and/or understand these
constraints in theory, we have ideas about how we
could work around them and still help you with your
project in practice. The worst thing that can
happen is that you will wind up working with us in
your spare time and on weekends and doing something
else for your school project, if you are interested
in our politics we would very much like to start
working with you before May. But there should be a
way for you to work with us to get your project
done. If you disagree with or don't understand
either of these points, we hope you'll write back
with questions; we don't want a misunderstanding to
keep you from doing work with us.
TROTSKYISTS ATTACK THE PCP, AGAIN
In the January 18 issue of the Spartacist League
newspaper Workers Vanguard, in an article titled
"Down with Police-State Repression In
Peru!" The
Sparts mourn over the capture and sentencing to
life terms of some Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
Movement (MRTA) members and U.S. supporter Lori
Berenson. This article continues the Sparts' long
tradition of repeating bourgeois lies about the
Communist Party of Peru (PCP) without
documentation. The WV is a mouthpiece for
imperialist slander against the Maoist PCP.
The Spart article paints the PCP as "anti-
worker,"
saying "over the last decade, [the MRTA] has
mainly
struck at military installations and foreign-owned
businesses, in distinction to the Maoist Sendero
Luminoso movement, which has often launched
murderous attacks on workers and peasant unions as
well as armed clashes with the MRTA."
According to
the Sparts the PCP kills workers and the MRTA is
the real anti-imperialist.
MIM is still waiting for the documentation behind
these statements. We have carried out serious
investigation of the practice of the PCP and we
know that the source of these lies is the desk of
Peruvian President Fujimori and the Peruvian
military, who delight in massacring the masses and
then blaming it on the PCP. The PCP has led strikes
in Peru's cities and has significant influence in
many unions in addition to its support in the
countryside. The Sparts ignore the tremendous
successes of the PCP, which controls much of the
countryside and has reached a stage of strategic
equilibrium in its fight against the imperialists.
The MRTA, on the other hand, has never moved beyond
focoist attacks and retreats, and its failed line
and strategy have not gained the support or respect
of the Peruvian people. (Send $4 to MIM for our
Peru Pamphlet for more information.)
The Sparts don't even address the clear
contradiction in their support for the MRTA after
admitting that the MRTA supports the "United
Left"
electoral front. In the last elections the United
Left had renowned imperialist puppet Javier Perez
de Cuellar as its presidential candidate and
supported Fujimori before that. MIM thanks the
Sparts for not equivocating in choosing the MRTA's
electoral version of Castro/Guevarism, a failed
strategy, over Maoism, the successful line of the
PCP.
MIM does agree with the Sparts on one point: we too
mourn the arrest of the Amerikan activist Berenson.
Although she chose the wrong side in the revolution
in Peru, she is currently under attack by the
imperialist-backed Peruvian state and will be
unjustly imprisoned alongside the many hundreds of
captured Maoists. Her public statements that she is
a revolutionary contribute to the consciousness of
the people in Amerika who would like to pass her
arrest off as the actions of a silly girl who must
have been coerced and brainwashed into this work by
some big strong men. The failure of the Amerikan
government to act on her behalf is a damning
indictment of the Amerikan imperialist support for
the fascist government in Peru. MIM expects that
Berenson will be further educated in Maoist theory
and strategy by the very well organized Maoist
comrades in prison, and we hope she will dedicate
herself to future struggle behind the correct and
successful line and strategy of the PCP.
It is important to choose sides correctly in the
struggle against imperialism. Attacking the
revolutionary organizations of the people is
supporting the military attacks on the people.
While the fascist Peruvian government hands down
harsh sentences against members of both the PCP and
the MRTA in military tribunals led by anonymous
hooded judges, Amerikan Trotskyists dance around
the real issues and uphold the lies of the
imperialist media. In 1995 at least 75 people were
sentenced to life in prison for crimes of
"aggravated terrorism" in Peru.
The people of Peru continue to live below the
poverty level suffering from malnutrition, lack of
medical care, unsanitary water, outbreaks of
preventable diseases like Cholera, inadequate
housing and unemployment. In areas liberated by the
PCP, the people have been organized to farm
collectively, provide for their own needs and
educate the members of their communities. They are
able to live without the daily suffering and fear
that haunts life under the Fujimori dictatorship.
These seeds of a new society demonstrate the
correct and successful program of the PCP and these
successes will not be destroyed by the lies of the
academic Trotskyists who criticize everything and
never accomplish anything but support for the
status quo of imperialism.
NOTES: Reuter Jan. 16, 1996.
* * *
CPUSA MEMBER EDUCATES ABOUT PHILIPPINES,
PROMOTES NIHILISM OVER CPP
Cambridge, MA, February 10--Former CPUSA member
Daniel Boone Shirmer gave a talk entitled
"Philippines ten years after democracy."
Most of
the talk was devoted to discussing the changes in
the 10 years since the overthrow of the Marcos
regime. Shirmer now works with a small group in
Cambridge called "Friends of the Filipino
People"
and claims to not take sides on the revolution
going on within the Philippines. But MIM knows that
it is impossible to not takes sides without
supporting the bourgeoisie in practice.
Shirmer's analysis of the different movements
within the Philippines makes it clear that he
supports the Philippine social democrats and not
the successful struggle of the Maoist Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP). Shirmer correctly
fights U.S. intervention in the Philippines. He is
also clear that he does not believe Amerikans
should be interfering in the Filipino affairs, but
instead should be supporting Filipino people's
right to self-determination. But Shirmer's stance
on the internal struggles in the Philippines does a
disservice to the people.
Hailing the resistance of the masses, Shirmer
pointed to the September 16, 1991 Philippine Senate
refusal to renew U.S. military bases in the
Philippines as an historic advance. Shirmer was
careful to point out that Amerika has continued to
maintain its military domination and use of the
Philippines after Marcos, but the removal of these
bases was a victory for the people. Shirmer pointed
out that Ramos, the current Amerikan puppet ruling
the Philippines, publicly supported the Acquisition
and Cross-Servicing agreement (ACSA) which was to
be signed in 1994 and which would have given the
United Snakes back the military access it lost in
1991. Ramos went so far as to say that ACSA would
allow U.S. military troops to enjoy rest and
relaxation in the Philippines--Amerikan soldiers
could would be able to enjoy the prostitution of
Filipino women.
Shirmer made it clear that the Ramos regime is not
a government of the people. The vast majority of
members of congress are millionaires, and the
appointed heads of branches of government are
leaders of the capitalist industries. 76% of the
population lives in poverty as defined by the
Filipino government: 1/2 of the urban population
and 3/5 of the rural population. 1/11 of the
Philippine population, approximately six million
people, are driven abroad to work and live by
poverty. 60% of these people are women working
primarily as domestic servants.
Shirmer touched on the failure of Structural
Adjustment Programs in the Philippines, but his
analogy to Newt Gingrich's programs in the U.S.
congress does not describe the misery created by
these programs. Republican-Democrat maneuvering
around U.S. domestic programs don't approach the
devastation that SAPs cause to the welfare of the
populations of Third World countries.
Shirmer credits the CPP with leading the masses to
overthrow the Marcos dictatorship. He praised the
party's ability to organize and inspire the
resistance. But he incorrectly describes the
current situation as an even split into three
factions: Sison supporters who "played a
splendid
role in resisting the Marcos regime;"
rejectionists
who want to "pay more attention to the
cities;" and
the "democratic socialists" who want to
break away
from communist organization altogether.
Shirmer, a social democrat himself, did not mention
the rectification movement in the CPP or the
overwhelming support of the people for the CPP over
the "rejectionists" or "democratic
socialists." MIM
spoke up at this talk to clarify the history of the
CPP and point to the importance of its recent
theoretical and strategic advances. MIM also
pointed out the error in the characterization of
the CPP as ignoring the cities, noting the
participation of many unions and city organizations
in the National Democratic Front (NDF), the United
Front against imperialism led by the CPP in the
Philippines. Following a correct Maoist strategy of
surrounding the cities from the countryside, and
ignoring the cities entirely, are two very
different things.
Ultimately Shirmer exposed his support for
imperialism when he answered a question about what
he believed was the correct solution to the evils
of imperialism by saying "the Third World
needs
capital to develop" but we just need to
"put
controls over this capital." "Don't
prevent
corporate capital, just put limits on it."
While
Shirmer says that he believes in not taking sides
and letting the people of the Philippines decide
for themselves how to liberate themselves from
imperialism, He supports capital over the most
progressive anti-imperialist movement.
As one audience member pointed out, the Philippine
government has used the existence of non-CPP
organizations as a tool against the CPP in the
current peace negotiations, claiming that these
other small organizations are the "true"
representatives of the Philippine people. By not
taking a clear stand in support of the CPP, Shirmer
leaves the people confused about these government
machinations and sows confusion and doubt rather
than support and solidarity with the people of the
Philippines.
MIM is organizing film showings and talks about the
Philippines in the Boston area and around the
country. Write to your local MIM contact or the
address on page 2 for information about these
events. For a copy of MIM's new pamphlet,
"Support
the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines"
send $1 cash, check or money order to the address
on page 2.
* * *
HOW THE "AID" GAME WORKS
The International Development Fund and the World
Bank have been exposed, once again, as a cloak for
imperialist domination. Even within its own
confines, the "aid" game is designed to
benefit
Amerikkka directly. "The International
Development
Agency (IDA) [is] the World Bank's soft-loan
arm....[T]he IDA brings plenty of benefits to the
United States. For a start, every dollar America
spends on the IDA results in a dollar's worth of
contracts for American firms on third-world
projects. More important, perhaps, it is a cheap
way of influencing foreign policy: every dollar
that Americans contribute to the IDA brings $4 more
from other donors, yet America retains the most
powerful voice within the World Bank."(1)
Amerika
increases its international hegemony through eager
participation in its own self-serving institutions.
People in the Third World will be able to create a
thriving, self-sustaining economy only after their
success in defeating all the faces of imperialism.
NOTES: The Economist Oct. 14, 1995, p. 93.
* * *
MONEY BEFORE HUMANITY
Exposure of the real motives beyond the bombing of
Hiroshima is nothing new. Howard Zinn, for example,
documented in 1970 in the Politics of History that
Japan was close to agreeing to an unconditional
surrender in the summer of 1945. Yet MIM is happy
to see new sources reconfirming what we already
know.
Manhattan Project participant turned anti-Bomb
activist, Joseph Rotblat, "heard U.S. General
Leslie Groves, the Manhattan Project's supervisor,
say that the real reason for continuing was to keep
the Russians in line after the war...."(1)
Islands in East Asia were and are a prime source of
raw materials for the United Snakes. Amerika saw
fit to murder over 200,000 people to ensure further
extraction of this wealth.. Amerikan economic
interest has always taken precedence over the lives
of non-Euro-Amerikans. Just ask the First Nations,
Panamanians, Haitians, Peruvians, Guatemalans,
Filipinos.
NOTES: Time Oct. 23, 1995, p. 84.
* * *
M-L-M ONLINE:
AN INTERNATIONAL ARENA OF POLITICAL STRUGGLE
WHY M-L-M ONLINE
Starting this month, MIM will be devoting one page
per month to coverage of politics and culture on
the Internet. Since the Fall of 1993, MIM Notes has
been distributed electronically both by
subscription to individuals and for free by
individual article on Usenet news groups and by e-
mail. With M-L-M Online, MIM strengthens its
commitment to this rapidly expanding forum of
political debate and struggle.
Just as we are relying on our readers to help us
achieve biweekly production of MIM Notes (See
"Maoist Publications Go Weekly" MIM Notes
109, Feb.
1996, p. 3), we are appealing to our readers of
both print and electronic MIM Notes to sustain our
coverage of news on the Internet. Write to us about
your favorite political site on the World Wide Web,
a discussion you've had on Usenet, or your views on
the new telecommunications act.
Like any powerful resource under imperialism, the
Internet embodies the parasitism and decadence of
bourgeois culture, in pornographic Web sites and
the enormous bandwidth devoted to commercial
enterprises and ideology such as interactive CNN
and the New York Times. But it also contains the
seeds of the destruction of bourgeois culture;
thousands of students and youth treat the Internet
as a serious, international political forum and a
source for alternative information. M-L-M Online
will bring you a Maoist analysis of these
developments, and encourages your participation.
Please write to mim@nyxfer.blythe.org with your
submissions.
STRIKING NEWSPAPER WORKERS FIND PHONY
MAOIST ALLIES ON THE INTERNET
In the past few issues of MIM Notes, MIM and RAIL
have been covering the ongoing 6-1/2 month long
Detroit newspaper workers' strike. We have exposed
the reactionary class nature of the workers'
demands for more money, more superprofits, more
subsidies--more of the wealth that already binds
them tightly to imperialism.
One Usenet news reader claiming to be a Maoist
responded to our posting of "Update on the
Detroit
Newspaper Strike: An Amerikan Proletariat?"
(MIM
Notes 108, January 1996)insisting that real
revolutionaries should support the Detroit
newspaper strike. This same reader argued that
there is an Amerikan proletariat, which is paid
"an
extremely small amount in return for their
labor"
and who "do not make decisions in the
workplace."
The reader challenged MIM to define concretely who
comprised the labor aristocracy, insisting that a
white temporary worker making $4.50 an hour should
be considered proletarian.
The reader argued that since the proletariat is an
international class, Marxists need to "fight
against the narrow nationalist outlook, while also
fighting even more resolutely against national
chauvinism" and accused MIM of
"abandoning Marxism
for nationalism."
MIM pointed out that "From Engels to Lenin to
the
Comintern at key points in its history, the
possibility of a whole nation's workers being
bought off has been acknowledged by Marxism. ...
"MIM is glad to see this objection raised, by
someone claiming Maoism and in an international
arena such as the Internet," we wrote.
"The crisis
of leadership among revolutionaries in general
requires all those in the Marxist tradition to
confront this very question, to reclaim the true
meaning of PROLETARIAN from the vulgar apologists
for imperialist parasitism, to resolutely apply a
CLASS analysis, and to learn from rather than give
lipservice to, the lessons of labor aristocracy
history. ...
"A worker making $4.50 an hour for a short
time,
whose parents and brother own houses and have
better jobs, is not the same as a CLASS of people
who are exploited. This is important to the
question of consciousness. ... As MIM has
documented over and over, the overall condition of
whites in the United Snakes has continued improving
even during these supposedly dark days. The
relatively few, very highly publicized cases of
white workers being laid off pales in actual
comparison to the growth of the parasitic middle
classes. The whites who are in trouble, relatively
speaking, are those without high school education.
What proportion of whites don't finish high school?
Very few. ...
"Historically, where was the white working
class on
the proletarian revolutionary struggles of the
Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, or the
Vietnamese? Or, for that matter, on the Zapatistas?
Fighting NAFTA and crying out for more militarized
borders, that's where.
"You want to look at an individual worker,
divorced
from CLASS analysis and divorced from HISTORICAL
analysis, and use that to promote politics PROVED
suicidal for oppressed-nation proletarians for 300
years. The Maoist Internationalist Movement did not
liquidate the proletariat in favor of nations. The
imperialist nations have turned their former-or-
potential-proletarians into fat parasites and made
national oppression the principal contradiction in
the world today."
POLICE STATE: VERY FUNNY?
The Washington Post reports in its gossip/cute-news
column, that when a young Rochester, N.Y. computer
artist put up a World Wide Web page depicting Bob
Dole's head blowing up in comic-book style, the
Secret Service "came to call. ... Two agents
visited Burford at work, to make sure he wasn't a
security threat, then asked him to headquarters for
a little chat about his mental health, arrest
history and firearm ownership."
The Post headline ("He Has a Head for the
Web") and
photo caption ("a headache for Dole?")
make light
of the fact that the Secret Service patrols the
Web and intimidates and interrogates people whose
speech it doesn't like. Taking this kind of
crackdown lightly is the privilege of those who
slavishly to support the system. For those of us
who oppose it, this just isn't funny.
One lesson we learn from this experience is that
anyone making this kind of "threat" on
the
Internet--even in jest--is inviting the same kind
of treatment by the pigs. MIM encourages people to
channel their anti-Amerikan energy into more
productive, revolutionary agitation, and to take
politics as seriously as the bourgeoisie. The state
pours billions of dollars into its own political
propaganda. The best way for progressives to combat
this is to work, study and struggle with MIM.
Source: Washington Post Jan. 25, 1996, p. C3.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILL MEANS MORE
CONCENTRATION OF CAPITAL
When the new, repressive telecommunications bill
swept both Houses of Congress only to be embraced
and signed by President Clinton, Internet
progressives immediately began protests of the new
restrictions on "indecent" material,
which includes
a ban on information discussing abortion. Some
World Wide Web pages were darkened the day the bill
was signed, and people forwarded electronic
messages of protest of the bill on First Amendment
grounds. Activists have reason to be alarmed.
Sanctions for violating the indecency restriction
can be "two years in prison and up to $250,000
in
fines."(1)
Bourgeois liberal organizations like the American
Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation are on the case, and there are likely to
be some successful court challenges to this latest
assault on so-called free speech. But communists
know that there are no rights, only power
struggles, and the right to free speech is always
constrained by the power of those controlling the
means of expression--whether it is print, broadcast
media, or the Internet. This means that the courts
will give in to the liberals on this issue to the
extent that doing so does not threaten the
bourgeois order. Genuine free speech requires
equality of power, which cannot be granted by the
Amerikan court system.
But there are broader and ultimately more lethal
implications to the bill than curtailment of
specific speech. The bill allows
"competition"
among "cable firms, telephone companies, and
television broadcasters,"(2) which means
mergers
and even further monopolization in the
communications industry are imminent. Monopoly
capital, an essential component of imperialism, is
characterized by "more acute and cruel"
competition
between monopoly and non-monopoly enterprises.(3)
The monopolization resulting from this bill will
further entrench the bourgeoisie's hegemonic
control over culture--a development more
comprehensive than the reactionary restrictions on
"indecency."
But monopoly also hastens imperialism's inevitable
demise. When the proletariat seizes power, it will
seize all resources, including the means of
communication, to place them firmly in the service
of the people. The proletarian feminist party will
get rid of pornography through resolute political
struggle and the liberation of women. So while MIM
hails the protests of this bill and calls out the
lie that patriarchal structures can protect women
and children from the evils of pornography, we have
our eyes on the bigger picture. We are fighting for
the liberation of humanity, not the rights of
bourgeois speech.
NOTES:
1. Washington Post Feb. 5, 1996, p. A8.
2. Washington Post Feb. 8, 1996, p. V3.
3. The Fundamentals of Political Economy,
(Shanghai: Shanghai People's Press), 1974, p. 161.
Send print submissions to M-L-M Online to MIM
Notes, Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576, or send
us electronic submissions, articles, letters, etc.
to mim@nyxfer.blythe.org.
* * *
"PARENTAL RIGHTS" AND "CHILD
PROTECTION"
CHILDREN ATTACKED BY BOTH PARENTS AND GOVERNMENT
There are two movements currently working to
increase the repression of children in North
America. The first is for more government
involvement in oppressed families a-la-Child
Welfare League, the second is for a restoration of
more unquestioned parental authority a-la-Christian
Coalition. In the bourgeois democratic discourse,
these reactionary proposals masquerade as the
"left" and right. Revolutionaries must
expose both
tendencies as reactionary. We recognize that real
empowerment of children lies outside the
imperialist state and the patriarchal family.
A number of recent cases of children killed by
their parents has fed an awareness of the abuses by
parents, which is a good thing, but has been used
negatively in a trend toward more state power over
children. MIM interviewed the policy director of
the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children. She said that "people are
fighting nonstop to give children their
rights."(1)
This argument correctly recognizes that children
are being harmed and that other members of society
have a responsibility to prevent that. However, she
said that the solution for the extreme violence
against children in this country is more funding
for the Department of Social Services: a solution
that works against the real empowerment of
children.
In this context, people fighting for more state
control over children are not fighting for their
rights. In the real world, children who are abused
know that the DSS cannot be counted on to offer
anything better. And children of oppressed nations
also know that their parents are targets of
suspicion regardless of their actions. More
government control is not progressive for children
because it transfers them from one adult oppressive
authority to another.
The DSS is not the only enemy of children's rights.
KKKristian conservatives around the country have
begun to promote a "parental rights
amendment"
which most commonly reads: "The right of
parents to
direct the upbringing and education of their
children shall not be infringed."(2)
The practice of the parental rights advocates
differs from the DSS-supporters only in who has
control over the children. Despite their different
vantage points, they lead to the same end:
increased repression of children.
It is no coincidence that the parental rights
advocates are the very same people who call for
uninhibited property rights in general. The
executive director of a group called Of the People,
that has worked full-time for the amendment for two
years, said "Opponents immediately leap to
horror
stories. It shows the level of distrust of parents
of the elitist so-called experts who want to raise
our children. Whose kids are they, anyway?"(3)
There is actually a nugget of a good criticism of
the liberals in this statement. Their reliance on
horror stories does distract from the basic
conditions of childhood in Amerika. However, MIM
maintains that those conditions are exploitative.
Children are their own people, and should not
belong to the elitist experts or to the patriarchal
families. In revolutionary China, child care was
collectivized and parents and other caregivers were
held accountable for their actions by the entire
society. This is a very different thing from a
stronger tie between the patriarchal family and the
imperialist state.
The arguments reveal their base in gender
privilege. The head of Of the People said that even
if the amendment fails, it will have brought the
need for more old-fashioned patriarchal control to
national attention. He compares it to the Equal
Rights Amendment, which failed but raised
consciousness about women's rights. He opposes
equality before the law for both women and
children, and says that his amendment "is a
way to
put the other side [those who supported the ERA] on
the defensive."(4)
However, the "other side" that Of the
People vilify
are not a real opposition. A real opposition stands
behind children, for a social reorganization to
empower children to the greatest extent possible.
Gender oppression--control over bodies, sexuality
and reproductive labor--is what supporters of the
amendment are after. Governor George Allen of
Virginia is a supporter of the amendment because,
he says, "Parents have the right to know, to
be
involved, if their young daughter is undergoing the
trauma of an abortion."(4) The issue of
abortion
and reproductive health in general is a hot spot
for many of those behind the amendment. This
underscores the gendered relationship between
parents and children.(6)
The amendment and the movement is not something of
the lunatic fringe. Even though progress on
amendments to state constitutions has been limited,
legislation has been progressing in many states'
legislatures and has begun to be heard at the
federal level. Senate majority leader--and
potential president--Bob Dole is one of the co-
sponsors of the parental rights bill introduced in
both houses of Congress last year.(5)
The supporters of the legislation and of the
amendment are clear that they resent having any of
their repressive power taken by the state. A
Washington State Representative contends that
"Over
the last 25 years, parents have seen the government
take over the role of parenting. They [parents]
want their rights back."(4) Revolutionaries
are
going to give them a fight for it. Rather than
calling on the state to their aid, we work to build
a new society where children can develop their
skills and independence alongside their parents,
not as property of their parents.
NOTES:
1. MIM interview Jan. 22, 1996.
2. The text of the "Contract With the American
Family" of which this amendment is part, can
be
found at the Christian Coalition's website:
http://www/cc/leg/contract.html.
3. NYT Jan. 15, 1996.
4. Christian Science Monitor June 7, 1994.
5. International Herald-Tribune Jan. 16, 1996.
6. See MIM Theory 9: Psychology and Imperialism for
an analysis of the oppression of children.
* * *
BOURGIE MEDIA DEFEND THE STATE
On January 16th, the Boston Globe ran a very short
story about RAIL and MIM's January 15 rally against
prisons. The rally opposed funding for new prisons
and demanded the return of prisoners held hostage
in Texas for this budget battle. The Globe did not
mention the object of the rally and instead focused
on the statements of one mother of a prisoner
transferred to Texas without mentioning the context
of her comments.
The article did mention the terrible conditions
these prisoners are facing in Texas, but concluded
by saying: "Gov. William F. Weld ordered the
prisoners transferred to Texas to relieve prison
overcrowding in Massachusetts." RAIL and many
individuals sent letters to the Globe criticizing
this article, none of which have been printed to
date. The following is the text of the RAIL
response to this article.
*** Dear Boston Globe,
Your January 16th article about the prisons rally
the day before left out some important facts and
hence misled your readers. This rally, organized by
the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League, was held
not only to protest the transfers to Texas, but
also prison expansion. The combination of the two
is important to expose the lie of prison
overcrowding that Gov. Weld has used to justify
taking the 299 prisoners hostage, holding out for
more prison funds. As speakers at the rally pointed
out, there are empty beds in Massachusetts prisons
at the minimum security level. These are not filled
because prisoners are over-classified into higher
security ratings.
The Globe has quoted Gov. Weld as saying the prison
expansion in Massachusetts is for "capital
investment." This has nothing to do with crime
or
overcrowding. In fact, the dramatic increases in
imprisonment rates in all states over recent years
has shown that there is no association with crime
rates. Those few programs that Massachusetts had to
actually rehabilitate prisoners have been discarded
for isolation units. With out-of-state transfers,
prisoner's tenuous stake in the community is
severed. This shows that prisons are not interested
in helping individuals to rejoin the society
productively. ***
* * *
BUILD INDEPENDENT MEDIA;
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT POLITICAL ACTION
The Boston University Daily Free Press ran a great
quarter-page article covering the rally against
prison expansion in the first issue following
winter vacation. While student newspapers don't
generally enjoy real independence from school
administrations, they often offer progressives a
forum more willing to print stories that don't make
it into the mainstream media. But student
newspapers can not be counted on to publicize the
causes of the oppressed. We must build independent
media to reliably reach the people and educate
about and agitate for revolutionary change.
The bourgeois press is an arm of Governor Weld's
public relations apparatus; it hammers out the
message that Massachusetts needs more prisons and
that prisoners have it easy living off the state.
These are the most common objections we hear when
we ask people to sign petitions to shut down the
control units or to oppose prison expansion. Many
U.S. citizens believe these lies because they want
to hear that prisoners--mostly poor Blacks and
Latinos--deserve their lower position in society.
Amerikans, and even oppressed members of Amerika's
internal colonies, are enjoying the by-products of
oppression in the form of a drastically higher
standard of living than the majority of the world's
population. It is our job to confront Amerikans
with the grotesque truth about oppression in their
society, and to persuade them to join in the
struggle against oppression.
We need our own newspapers, our own TV stations,
our own radio station, and our own Internet news
services to counter all the lies put out by the
mainstream media. MIM needs your support to build
these institutions and build public opinion in
support of the oppressed of the world. Our most
immediate goal is stepping our newspapers up to
weekly publication; write to any of the contact
addresses on page 2, or your regional contact
(address on page 1) to find out what you can do to
help.
NOTES: Coverage of our January 15 rally and another
one on January 3 is in MIM Notes 109 Feb. 1996, p.
8.
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY:
NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS
A REVOLUTIONARY ALERT!
A Revolutionary Alert to all prisoners held captive
in North Carolina's state prisons! I am a
revolutionary prisoner presently being held at the
Maximum Control Complex (MCC) in the state that
always smells like straight up shit, Indiana. I am
here to warn my long-distance fellow prisoners in
North Carolina that y'all are in danger, 'cuz your
state's politicians and prison administrators (i.e.
pigs) are up to their trickery.
Just about an hour ago [10:00am October 24, 1995],
I was working out on the recreation pod, and I saw
one of the most sickening sights: a crowd of pigs
in suits and ties being escorted around the pod for
about half an hour. They were being given a tour of
MCC. It just so happens that these pigs were from
North Carolina, and were here in Indiana touring
this prison camp because they now want to build a
control unit in your state and were here to get
ideas.
So all you state prisoners in North Carolina, if I
were you, I'd keep my ear close to the ground and
start organizing both prisoners and people on the
streets. Make inquiries and make a plan of action,
so when the pigs let it out about their plans,
y'all can counter them and shut them down before
they get it off the ground.
BECOME ACTIVELY POSITIVE, PROGRESSIVE AND
PRODUCTIVE!
Also, to all the prisoners presently at the MCC
here in Westville, Indiana, and to all prisoners
nation-wide, I'd like to quote Chairman Mao Zedong.
"Recently there has been a falling off in
ideological and political work among students and
intellectuals, and some unhealthy tendencies have
appeared. Some people seem to think that there is
no longer any need to concern oneself with politics
or with the future of the motherland and the ideals
of humankind. It seems as if Marxism was once all
the rage but is currently not so much in fashion.
To counter these tendencies, we must strengthen our
ideological and political work. Both students and
intellectuals should study hard. In addition, to
the study of their specialized subjects, they must
make progress both ideologically and politically,
which means that they should study Marxism, current
events and politics. Not to have a correct
political point of view is like not having a
soul."
("Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong",
page 142)
What I just quoted is very applicable to the
present situation here at MCC, which is very sad!
When I was first brought to MCC back in February
1994, the atmosphere on this set was one of nothing
but straight-up consciousness. Every section I was
on or around, people were unified as a whole,
people were striving to become re-educated and
progressively conscious and we were working
collectively to challenge the numerous violations
committed by the prison administrators and state
politicians.
Now it is rare, I mean very rare, to see any of
this. All I hear is people rap'n about now days is
that same old-ass penitentiary bullshit, such as
who's a fag, or who's a coward, etc. People are
walking around doing nothing but searching for
reasons to disrespect someone or assassinate
someone's character. And I could go on. Why is
this? Here people are sitting in these cement
crypts partaking in activities which are negative,
not progressive and these are counter-productive.
What ever happened to collective struggle? I'm not
saying that this is everyone, because there are a
few of us prisoners who are still struggling with
and challenging the pigs every time they violate
those who do attempt to remain actively progressive
and attempt to help people re-educate themselves.
But the majority of prisoners on this set have
become so damn pacified and negative-minded that it
makes me sick.
I do not knock people for listening to the radio,
watching television, or eating commissary, 'cuz
there is nothing wrong with that per-se. But there
is something wrong with these items when they allow
you to become lazy and blinded, to where that is
all you want to do. You dudes are pathetic; you
need to get your lazy asses out of bed and learn to
discipline yourselves. Start shedding that bullshit
"convict" mentality, and become actively
positive,
progressive and productive.
Then there are those who are in fact progressively
conscious, but who have become discouraged,
depressed and withdrawn 'cuz of the level of
unconsciousness that now infests this set. I say to
you, do not allow yourselves to lose sight of hope
and slack from your responsibilities. Stay strong,
and continue to be actively progressive and
productive, and to attempt to bring the unconscious
and negative-minded into a conscious and positive
mind-frame. Pass these words of consciousness down,
the range, so all can once again become unified and
productive.
--a Indiana prisoner, Oct. 24, 1995
FEDERAL PRISONERS FACE LOCKDOWN
Dear Comrades,
In my last two letters, I forgot to mention that I
have been receiving your MIM Notes unhindered.
Please be aware that I will never lose interest in
your work, but as you say, policy is policy.
What do you think about the national shutdown of
nearly all federal prisons? Within this state
(South Carolina), they have moved all inmates into
a security system called "control
movement".
Instead of allowing us to go to the recreation
field, which was probably an area of one square
mile, they have placed us in an area of maybe 250
square yards behind our dormitories. One dorm alone
houses about 300 inmates.
We are not allowed to go from the A-side to the B-
side of the dorm any longer. Whatever side you are
on, that's the side you stay on. They are really
making it a cattle stall now....Until next time,
may we all struggle as one against the beast!
--a South Carolina prisoner, Oct. 30, 1995
ONE YEAR LATER...REMEMBER AJAMU NASSOR
(AUG. 12, 1951-DEC. 8, 1994)
"I REFUSE TO APOLOGIZE FOR BEING SOMETHING
OTHER
THAN A MODEL INMATE... A BEHAVED SLAVE" -
AJAMU
NASSOR
One year ago today the state of Indiana murdered a
proud New Afrikan warrior by the name of Ajamu
Nassor. Ajamu is remembered by many, especially
those who he worked with and helped guide in the
kamps of Indiana. We should not forget this
brother--we must let his death be a constant
reminder of why we continue our work.
--an Indiana prisoner, Dec. 8. 1995
IT'S OVER?
It wasn't over when your first
invaded and plundered the
Mother Land
Committed your vicious acts
and made a vow to annihilate
the Afrikan man
It wasn't over when you nefariously
conspired and murdered brother
Nat, Malcolm, George & Fred
Our anger must never subside
and should be appropriately
stored within our heads
And to this day, we refuse to
allow it to be over
Even with your attempts to murder
brother Ziyon and Mumia Abu
And you foolishly thought we
forgot when you brutally murdered
brother Ajamu?
--An Indiana prisoner, Aug. 12, 1995
DEATH AFFIRMING REALITY IN INDIANA
The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is bringing to light
many other situations of injustice that have been
glossed over for far too long. Sitting in two
different Indiana prisons are two men awaiting
state murder, two New Afrikan men, two soldiers.
The cases of Ziyon Yisrayah (slave name Tommie
Smith) and Khalfani Khaldun (s/n Leonard McQuay)
are tied together by a comrade of both men who was
murdered on August 8, 1995 by the State of Indiana.
His name is Ajamu Nassor (s/n Gregory Resnover).
Ajamu and Ziyon were co-defendants stemming from a
pre-down raid on their home on December 11, 1980.
The raid left Ziyon wounded and a white police
officer, Sgt. Jack Ohrberg, dead. In a stark
similarity to the August 8, 1978 raid on MOVE
headquarters in Philadelphia, Ajamu and Ziyon were
charged with killing the police officer when in
fact the officer was shot in the back while facing
Ajamu and Ziyon. The only people behind the officer
were other cops. Even the Governor of Indiana and
the prosecutors of the case have publicly
acknowledged that Sgt. Ohrberg was shot in the back
and that neither of the guns found in the house
could have fired the fatal shot.
Nevertheless, Ajamu and Ziyon were sentenced to
die. Ajamu was murdered on December 8, 1994, and
was pronounced dead at 12:13 a.m. Ajamu's family
was there and claimed the body immediately
afterward and drove it to Indianapolis where their
twelve-car procession stopped at the governor's
mansion.
Prior to his execution, the Indiana ACLU battled
for Ajamu's life. They presented evidence that in
the electric chair, one's body temperature goes
from 98.6 to 117 degrees in seconds, that third
degree burns are administered while the mind is
still conscious, and that death takes at least five
minutes.
In a manner familiar to anyone working around the
case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, this case has had a well-
oiled machine pushing for Ajamu's and Ziyon's
deaths from day one--namely the Fraternal Order of
Police (FOP). The Indianapolis FOP sent a gang of
cops to the prison who carried signs and chanted
"Fry him". The police tried to physically
intimidate the people holding the prayer vigils and
the bigger anti-death rally sponsored by Amnesty
International and others. One of the signs carried
by an Indianapolis FOP demonstrator said,
"Justice
is 5,000 volts burning through a body." The
sadistic nature of the police showing its true face
once again.
"JUSTICE IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD" --
GEORGE JACKSON.
On December 13, 1994, a corrections officer,
Phillip Curry, was killed at Indiana State Prison
where Ajamu had been killed five days earlier. An
article that appeared in Prison News Service from
an anonymous prisoner had this to say, "In de
evening of December 13th, a Black kkkop was stabbed
twice and later died as a result of his wounds. De
kkkamp was placed on total lockdown while de
reality dat justice is a double edge sword settled
into de minds of other kkkops and state officials.
Inside sources stated dat immediately afterwards 17
soldiers quit, resigned." Khalfani Khaldun was
the
first prisoner that investigators came after.
Investigators told Khalfani "I'm putting this
one
on you and it's gonna stick."
Khalfani was transferred out of Indiana State
Prison to the infamous Maximum Control Complex at
Westville, Indiana. He was charged with the murder
of Officer Curry on January 31, 1995 and the state
has promised to seek his death if convicted. Prior
to these charges Khalfani was scheduled to be
released in two and a half years.
It is important to realize that all of these
brothers were/are working for the people on the
inside. They are working to transform the
colonial/criminal mentality that they observe in so
many young men coming into the prison camps. They
are freedom fighters, fighting for a better life
for all of us on the inside, and all of us out here
in the minimum security "free world".
It was the ruling class that killed Ajamu, and it's
the ruling class that wants to kill Ziyon, Khalfani
and Mumia Abu-Jamal. It's the ruling class that
wants all of us to live in a world where we toil
for their benefit. They're tired of the problems
that they created by cutting off the inner- cities,
by burning children out of their homes, by cutting
wages, by lay-offs, and many other points in their
pogrom. They are tired and their solution is mass
incarceration and mass murder. They will say it is
in the name of the people, it is up to the people
to stop it.
For more information contact:
The Human Rights Coalition of Indiana, 508 E. Corby
Blvd., South Bend, IN 46617
--by the Brew City Anti-Authoritarian Collective
(BCAC), Dec. 8,1995. BCAC can be reached at P.O.
Box 93312, Milwaukee, WI 53203.
PRISONER WINS IN COURT, PIGS RETALIATE WITH
LOCKDOWN
In the October 1995 issue of MIM Notes, we printed
a letter called "Prisoners fight oppressive
conditions" dated Jun. 20, 1995. The following
letter is a continuation of one prisoner's legal
battle against the pigs in Pennsylvania.
Dear Comrades,
...Thanks for bringing attention to my struggle. I
received a hung jury on June 30, 1995 for the
assault charge they gave me on the guard. Well, on
Dec. 4, 1995, the judge consented to my motion to
dismiss the case under rule 1100 and the
commonwealth's violation of Double Jeopardy
principles.
The judge stated that the District Attorney could
not prove his case...and that he had had 120 days
to retry me and had violated that. In addition, all
my witnesses were threatened, put in the RHU
(Restricted Housing Unit), etc. The commonwealth's
violations of my rights were too harmful to ignore.
In reality the courts did not want to waste any
more money on this case because the evidence showed
that I was defending myself against abusive guards.
So I have been sent to the SMU (Special Management
Unit) twice for cases I won in court. The first one
was in Huntingdon, on Nov. 13, 1992. I was found
not guilty, and three days later I was sent to the
SMU, where I stayed until June 1994 when the courts
got involved. I stayed locked down from March 27,
1992 until June 1994, just because they do not like
my politics. This for a bogus case in which I was
found not guilty.
This time I was given 90 days in RHU by the hearing
examiner at Rockview on Dec. 31, 1994. On Feb. 3,
1995, I was sent back to the SMU where I will sit
until 1996, 1997 or longer. Again I WON in court.
What does it matter if you win in court, when the
prison system can still violate you and retaliate
against you by locking you down for years under the
pretense of administrative custody in the SMU,
where all the conditions are disciplinary and twice
as bad as the RHU. So the 90 days the hearing
examiner gave me was immaterial.
Well Comrades, I leave you in the spirit of unity.
--A Pennsylvania prisoner, Dec. 9, 1995
YOU HAVE A LOT OF MEN AND WOMEN ON YOUR SIDE!
***This letter is a response to an article printed
in the November 1995 MIM Notes called "Does
relentless activism amount to nothing?"***
Greetings MIM,
From reading MIM Notes and the information that's
being stressed is an enlightening forum for
comrades around the world to view, I trust that MIM
is acting in the best of its ability to make
comrades aware of MIM theory. I received my Nov.
issue of MIM Notes and I appreciate what you do and
did for men like myself, and other comrades that
are struggling to make a change for the better.
There was a letter from Under Lock & Key dated
July
10, 1995 from a comrade subjected to California's
pig prison plantation. I read and studied his
letter with great understanding. The conditions
he's under affect me mentally because I've been
subjected to his effect and impact.
Brother to brother
More important is that men like us, brother, learn
to deal with these unnatural conditions of life.
Brother, nothing is lost until you've given up on
self. Say Brother, I can attest from your letter
that you have a strong mind and body, soldier. You
have the strength to lead a productive group of men
at your location to deal with those pigs with a
mindframe of awareness.
Brother, you may not realize it, but you have a men
[and women] on your side. We can't hand up our guns
up because when those pigs start rollin' we have to
be ready to fight them to the grave!
--Maryland prisoners, Dec. 5, 1995
MARION CONTROL UNIT RELOCATED TO FLORENCE
Dear Comrades,
I received the first issue of your excellent paper
in English and Spanish dated November 1995, ...and
will see to it that the papers are read by everyone
that wants to read them. On page 6 of the current
paper under the heading "Boston-Area event in
November", you make a reference to a film that
documents abuses and brutality at the control unit
of the United States Penitentiary at Marion,
Illinois (USP- Marion) and further suggest to
"Shut
down the control units at Marion prison".
Please be advised that the Bureau of Prisons has
terminated its control unit at USP-Marion and
relocated it at the United States Penitentiary at
Florence, Colorado (ADX-Florence) where I am being
held. There are several institutions at Florence,
Colorado involving different levels of security
classification. ADX-Florence is the control unit
that officially opened on April 18,1995,
accommodating all USP- Marion control unit
prisoners. ADX-Florence control unit is a long term
segregation unit for Federal Prisoners. We do not
have access to the main library...
Political consciousness is virtually non-existent
at the present time. The majority of control unit
prisoners, although they are from the working
classes, nevertheless identify themselves either
from the west or east coast or other locations.
Although I can write fairly well in Spanish, at the
present time English would be more appropriate to
evade the ever present censor. It would take the
lazy prison guards several weeks to censor any out-
going letters written in Spanish for obvious
reasons....
Luchando Siempre, [In the struggle always,]
--a Colorado prisoner, Dec 17, 1995
A MASSACHUSETTS PRISON CONTINUES TO CENSOR MIM
NOTES
***One Massachusetts prison has been censoring MIM
Notes since May 1995. In September 1995, Under Lock
& Key printed "Massachusetts prisoner
fights
censorship" which documents one prisoner's
struggle
to receive MIM Notes. This prisoner is continuing
his legal battle to receive this paper, as the
prison continues to censor MIM Notes. The following
is the most recent censorship letter from the
prison officials.***
Dear Sir/Madam:
Please be advised in accordance with the Department
of Corrections policy, 103 CMR 481, Inmate Mail
Regulations, your publication, MIM Notes, shall be
disapproved for receipt by an inmate at Old Colony
Correctional Center for the following reasons:
poses a threat to security and good order of the
institution.
481.15 (1) (e) Depicts, describes or encourages
activities that may lead to the use of physical
violence or group disruption.
481.15 (1) (f) Encourages, facilitates or instructs
in the commission of criminal activity.
You may appeal this decision to the Superintendent,
Paul B Murphy, should you opt to do so.
Respectfully,
Edward Ficco, Deputy Superintendent of Operations,
Oct.12,1995
Letters of Protest can be addressed to:
Edward Ficco, Deputy Superintendent of Operations,
or
Paul B. Murphy, Superintendent Executive Office of
Public Safety
Department of Correction Old Colony Correctional
Center
One Administration Rd.
Bridgewater, MA 02324
Calls can be made to:
Massachusetts Department of Correction (617) 727-
3400 or
Old Colony Correctional Center (508) 697-3360.
PRISON BRIEFS
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, Sep. 17, 1995
The Texas prison system has gotten tougher on its
inmates.... TDCJ is taking our locks, and if we
want another we have to buy it for $10.50, at a
$5.50 increase. After 20 years of selling locks in
the Texas prisons, now they are dangerous. ...Price
Daniels Unit also makes its own policy outside of
TDCJ rules. Such as, prisoner are not allowed to
have everyday cold pills or headache pills without
a doctor's prescription. Yah right, as if the
doctor will write one. Last week the doctor took a
man's leg till he proved he needed and owned the
leg. Like we steal legs every day.
--a Texas prisoner, Nov. 25, 1995
Graterford Prison just had a major breakdown and
shakedown. Dogs were jumping on the inmates' beds
and other personal effects while the inmates stood
outside their cells, butt-naked. They were treated
like animals. Animals in a zoo are treated better,
although I don't agree with locking up animals
without a trial by jury.
--a Pennsylvania prisoner, Dec. 7, 1995
VEGETARIAN HUNGER STRIKE
...As I have stressed to these people more than
once, my diet cannot include "meat" since
I am a
strict vegetarian. These people have deliberately
placed meat on my tray. MCC officials continue to
disrespect my religion. Due to this strange but
known tactic by officials, I have chosen not to eat
until some kind of comprehensible understanding can
be reached. I know without my medication and food,
I will be seriously damaged for a long
time....Standing Strong.
--an Indiana prisoner, Dec. 8, 1995
PRISONER RECEIVED MIM NOTES AFTER BEING CENSORED
I am in receipt of the latest MIM Notes.... I was
contemplating whether or not I should inform you to
discontinue forwarding the paper because of the
prison's censorship policies. They have refused to
allow the last two issues of MIM Notes to come in.
However, I was blessed to receive the latest one
that is now circulating amongst the other captives
in this section. Our appreciation and solidarity
always.
--a California prisoner, Dec. 8, 1995
* * *
ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE FIGHTS NATIONAL OPPRESSION AT
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The Alliance for Justice led a Unity March on MLK
day, January 15. MIM congratulates the organizers
for not relying on the pigs as students marched
through the streets. Instead, students were
organized to stop traffic and protect the marchers.
The Unity march and rally marked the public
announcement of the formation of the Alliance for
Justice.
The Alliance for Justice is made up of minority
student organizations--the Black Student Union,
Alianza, the University of Michigan (UM) chapter of
the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, the Native American Student
Association and the United Asian American
Organization. The coalition group publicized its
demands to UM on January 19th. The demands center
around the criticism that the UM has failed to meet
the needs of national minority students on campus,
the lack of student input involved in decision-
making, and the failure to develop ethnic studies
programs.(1)
The Alliance for Justice states that the University
must focus on the retention of national minority
students. The Alliance is demanding specific ethnic
housing to be established immediately. Trotter
House is not large enough to meet the needs of
national minority students either for housing or
for organizing events. Similarly, the immediate
establishment of ethnic specific cultural centers
is being demanded because currently national
minorities are lumped together in inadequate
facilities. The spokesperson for the BSU said that
Trotter House has not gotten any larger but the
Black population of students alone has doubled
since the house was established.
Another demand of the Alliance is to give money
directly to national minority student
organizations. The current problem is that the
Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives
and Minority Student Services leeches off the work
of minority student organizations. For example, the
University is supposed to put on a certain number
of events dealing with education of national
minorities. The student leaders from organizations
work with the University and the above two
university organizations to sponsor events, but the
students are the ones doing the work when it is
supposed to be the University increasing its
education about oppressed minorities, not claiming
credit for events that students are already
organizing.
The Alliance for Justice wants the University to
create a student-picked student advisory board to
meet with Minority Student Services once a month.
At a forum held by the Alliance to discuss with
students ways to support the Alliance and advance
their demands, spokespeople for the Alliance said
the office for Minority Student Services could not
even describe its accomplishments in response to
direct questions. Students should be able to see
what MSS is doing for them, but they can't. The
Alliance for Justice wants to revamp MSS to provide
and increase services to students and
organizations.
LEARN FORM THE PAST AND EXPOSE THE HYPOCRITES
MIM applauds the Alliance's statement that national
minority students on campus have been ignored for
too long and that it is time for demands to be met.
The letter stating the Alliance's demands refers to
gains won and lost by previous generations and
correctly criticizes the University for dismantling
students' victories from the past. MIM believes
that it is essential to learn from past mistakes
and to improve practice for the future so that
activists today don't have to waste valuable time
repeating the mistakes of our predecessors. For
this reason, MIM sees it as essential that students
fighting Universities must continue to expose the
Universities' role in perpetuating oppression, at
the same time as these students work to achieve
immediate demands.
MIM supports strategies to tie the University up in
its own public image by pointing out that it
babbles about multiculturalism while doing nothing
to educate people about anything other than white
history, culture, etc. and we emphasize the need to
simultaneously develop foundations for students to
understand the nature of the University's interests
and the limits that these interests cause on the
advancement that the Universities are willing to
allow national minority students.
In order to organize future student leaders to
carry on struggles, the true nature of the
University as an arm of the imperialists must be
exposed. The University is a state institution
which earns money for militarist research and for
training militarists and entrepreneurs who will
become rich through operating the high end of an
unjust system. The University can temporarily
redeem itself by meeting a set of demands (however
stringent) for national minority education but it
is up to younger leaders to keep the University in
check and to advance the struggles of future
national minority students.
Revolutionary anti-imperialists have to keep in
mind that reforming their universities is only
effective as a means to create more room for
education and organizations of the oppressed. This
education and organization must be used in the
struggle to dismantle the imperialist system that
perpetuates the white supremacy of these
educational institutions. Join MIM and RAIL in
fighting to smash the imperialist system.
NOTES: Write to MIM for a copy of the "Open
letter
to the University Community" for a detailed
list of
demands of the Alliance for Justice.
* * *
BLACK PANTHER PARTY HISTORY:
SEALE LIES TO STUDENTS:
"WE DID NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ...
SOCIALISM"
***Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther
Party (BPP) spoke at the University of Michigan's
Ann Arbor campus on January 15th as part of the
University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day programs.
Seale gave students an animated retelling of the
BPP's struggles and emphasized that the young
generation of activists must study and learn to use
technology as a way to organize, educate and dispel
lies about Black history. MIM agrees with Seale
that the lessons of history are important, this is
why we study the history of the BPP, our most
immediate Maoist predecessors. Because we have
studied the history of the Panthers, we know that
much of what Seale now says about the Party is
untrue and that he is in fact reversing many
positions he took in his own book about the Black
Panther Party, Seize the Time, published in 1968.
Many former Communists now disavow Communism
because they have much to gain materially from
doing so. In Seale's case this material gain means
speaking tours and book sales, and living a normal
bourgeois life after having been a Maoist activist
for many years. It is very important for genuine
Maoists to be vigilant about degenerations such as
Seale's because the bourgeoisie will use these
people to its greatest advantage to discredit
Communism and if we sit back and are slack in our
responsibility to write our own history, we may as
well be inviting the bourgeoisie to write it for
us. MIM reviews Seale's speech here as part of our
ongoing effort to educate and build public opinion
in favor of Maoism in Amerika. We hope readers will
join us in studying the true history of the Black
Panther Party and building on the Party's legacy,
rather than joining the BPP co-founder in trashing
the Party's revolutionary history.***
Bobby Seale plugged his own work on a new movie
about the BPP. He criticized Mario van Peebles,
film Panther, saying that "90% of what was
portrayed never happened." Seale charged that
Panther "catered to the racist pattern of
portraying us as hoodlums" by portraying
Panthers
as a bunch of street gang members. He emphasized
the need to stop perpetuating myths about Black
history in general and the Panthers specifically.
MIM Notes reviewed the movie Panther when it came
out and wrote that while it was not fully accurate
(and included some dramatized fiction) it was
better for people to watch that film than nothing
at all about the BPP. The story line for the first
half of the movie bears a striking resemblance to
Seize the Time, so if Seale really thinks this
stuff never happened, we'd be interested in hearing
what he was trying to do when he wrote the book.
REWRITING HISTORY TO SERVE THE BOURGEOISIE
Seale explained that the BPP grew out of the Black
intelligentsia. He explained that the BPP's
consciousness developed from tracing the real
history of Blacks in the United Snakes and Africa
and developing a criticism of the education of
Black history as historically inaccurate. Seale
said that human liberation is 50% knowledge,
meaning we must understand our history to change
it. MIM can't account for the percentage, but
understanding the history of class struggle,
colonialism, imperialism and patriarchy is
essential to the development of revolutionary
change.
Even while he advocates revolutionary struggle as a
means of advancing political activity, Seale is
working to derail this process. Seale argued that
if you want to end police brutality, you have to
capture the imagination of the people and organize
electorally. He also said that this was the plan of
the Panthers all along: "Notice that we did
not say
anything about command economies or
socialism."
The program for Seale's talk said: "Seale
changed
the agenda of the Black Panthers from that of
revolutionary activism to one of community action
programs." This is not true, the Black Panther
Party was the Maoist vanguard in Amerika in the
late 1960s and early 1970s. The Black Panther Party
had a Ten Point Platform and Program of
revolutionary activism which ran in every issue of
The Black Panther, the Party's weekly newspaper.
The Program was composed of goals of national self-
determination: exempting Black people from trial
and judgment by a white injustice system, granting
Black people the right to decent housing and an
education which "exposes the true nature of
this
decadent American society."
The BPP's work included some revolutionary reforms
in the shape of the Free Breakfast for
Schoolchildren Program, free grocery distribution,
free community medical care programs and Freedom
Schools which educated Black children about Black
history. The Party showed the people through
practice that communal activism was an effective
way to meet their needs when capitalism failed. The
Communist Party of Peru (PCP) and the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) are surviving
vanguard parties that simultaneously meet the needs
of the People and work to tear down terrorist
regimes. The Panthers were the first party in
Amerika to apply Mao's understanding that
revolutions are only won by organizing the power of
the masses.
MIM also criticizes the manner in which Seale
portrayed Huey Newton. Seale said that Newton was
not involved in the rapid growth of the BPP because
Newton was in jail and it was Seale who was
organizing Black communities. Seale portrayed
Newton as a man who could recite the law well, but
degenerated because he was not out organizing the
people. Given Seale's revisionism on the rest of
the Panthers' history, MIM doesn't buy his analysis
of how Huey degenerated, though it is clear that
Huey did degenerate because he was not doing good
work for 15 years preceding his death.
Seale said many times that we should "make
sure
that ideas correspond to reality." He argued
that
the world is too interconnected to advocate
separation of peoples, but did not say to what
extent he was advocating integrationism. MIM
believes that the primary contradiction today is
between the oppressed nations and imperialism. This
means that it is the revolutionary duty of
oppressed nations to fight for national self-
determination. We work to develop independent
institutions of the oppressed because we know that
integration without liberation only perpetuates the
dictatorship of the imperialist bourgeoisie which
is currently in power.
LITERATURE FOR LIBERATION
Bobby Seale has written a cookbook, Barbeque'n with
Bobby, whose proceeds go to neighborhood renovation
in Philadelphia. Given Seale's current approach to
politics--electoralism and integrationism--MIM
doesn't think buying this cookbook to help forward
the former Panther's political agenda is much of a
political investment. Readers who are interested in
advancing progressive politics in Amerika should
support MIM's Free Books for Prisoners program
instead. We are working to meet the educational
needs of comrades under lock and key because the
Amerikan prison system denies them access to
materials for studying history, economics and
theory: send revolutionary reading materials, cash,
check or money order to either address on page 2.
We have asked Bobby Seale to help get us copies of
the new edition of Seize the Time free or at a
discount in order to send them to comrades in
prison. You can get a copy of Seale's book from
Bobby Seale, P.O. Box 4138, Philadelphia, PA 19144.
MIM asks that you also write him to convince him to
help with MIM's Books for Prisoners program.
* * *
RAIL PROTESTS GULF WAR VILLAIN
***On January 31 a crowd of activists protested
outside a speech given by Amerika's Gulf War
commander, Norman Schwarzkopf, on the campus of the
University of Southern California. The protest was
organized independently by the Revolutionary Anti-
Imperialist League (RAIL) and USC's Muslim Student
Association.
The protesters defied rain and the pro-militarist
audience in order to demonstrate their opposition
to the Gulf War and the continued Amerikan presence
in the Persian Gulf. Protesters carried banners
which said, "U.S. is Guilty of War
Crimes," and
"700,000 killed for profit;" RAIL
supporters also
passed out informational flyers and discussed the
reasons for the protest with audience members and
passers-by.
A supposedly "progressive" and
"alternative" weekly
with a large circulation, the Los Angeles Reader,
exposed its true colors. Not only did the Reader
fail to publicize the information on the rally
which RAIL sent them, but it instead gave free
publicity to Schwarzkopf's lecture itself, complete
with ticket prices and purchasing information.(1)
The following article is an edited version of the
flyer the RAIL activists distributed.***
U.S. OUT OF THE PERSIAN GULF!
Five years ago in January the United Snakes of
Amerika launched its largest military operation
since Vietnam: The Gulf War. Like the war in
Vietnam, the invasion of Panama, and
"covert" U.S.
intervention in Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua,
this war was fought to extend U.S. economic and
political power--in this case, power over the oil
reserves in the Persian Gulf and the whole Middle
East. More than 200,000 people died as a direct
result of the bombing and the invasion and more
than 500,000 Iraqi children have died because of
damage to the civilian infrastructure and the
economic embargo on Iraq.(2)
THE MYTH OF AMERIKA'S "ALTRUISTIC"
MOTIVES EXPOSED
The United Snakes claims that it besieged, bombed
and invaded Iraq in order to "oppose
aggression and
dictatorship." This is not true. The United
Snakes
itself has a history of aggression and invasion
(Vietnam, Panama, etc.) and regularly turns a blind
eye when one of its allies invades a neighbor.
Turkey invaded Cyprus, displacing 200,000; Israel
invaded Lebanon and killed 20,000; Indonesia
invaded East Timor and killed 200,000--the United
Snakes had nothing to say about its friends acts of
aggression, and continues to send them lots of aid.
The United Snakes also has a long history of
supporting dictators in foreign countries and then
ousting them when they become too independent or
too ineffective: Ngo Diem in Vietnam, Marcos in the
Philippines, Noriega in Panama, and of course
Saddam Hussein himself. The United Snakes had
nothing to say when Hussein killed 20,000 Kurds
with poison gas (Amerika was supporting Iraq in the
Iran-Iraq war at the time), but when Hussein
invaded Kuwait (500 people died, according to
Amnesty International) and threatened to disrupt
Amerikan control of Middle East oil reserves, the
United Snakes sent in its troops.(3)
THE GULF WAR WAS AN ATROCITY
Once the United Snakes decided to defend its
interests in a big way, a negotiated settlement
could not be enough. The U.S. military planned and
carried out a brutal operation against the Iraqi
military and people.
The Pentagon admits that army bulldozers buried
thousands of Iraqi soldiers alive during the first
hours of the ground offensive.(4) Thousands of
retreating soldiers were killed when Amerikan
planes bombed the highway leading north from Kuwait
City. The carnage was so great that even the
Amerikan pilots called this highway the
"Highway of
Death"(5) The Iraqi soldiers had nothing to
gain
from this war--even if they won--but they lost
everything anyway.
UNITED SNAKES IS NO FRIEND OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE
The economic and political situation for the
majority of the Iraqi people has worsened. Even
before the war began, international doctors' groups
claimed that the economic blockade of Iraq had
doubled the infant mortality rate.(6) Now doctors
estimate that the infant mortality rate has
quintupled.(2) U.S. bombers directly targeted water
and sewage treatment plants during the war, which
caused outbreaks of cholera and typhus.(7) The
bombings and the blockade have also caused a severe
food shortage, and as many as 3.5 million people in
Iraq suffer from malnutrition.(8)
TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS
After the Gulf War, U.S. imperialists deepened
their ties with allied states in the region and got
juicy new economic deals. Aside from renewed
Amerikan investment in the oil industry in Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia, U.S. companies got 70% of the
contracts for the rebuilding of Kuwait.(9) The U.S.
military was guaranteed a massive presence in the
Middle East and used the war to justify its role as
"world cop," which allows it to threaten
"Rogue
Nations" (read: Third World countries which
refuse
to take Washington's orders) with invasion. In
fact, the U.S. military recently expanded its
presence in the Persian Gulf, saying that the Iraqi
"threat" could only be minimized "as
long as the
United States is there."(10) Currently, about
13,000 Amerikkkan military personnel and 40 U.S.
warships are stationed in the Persian Gulf. Every
day, Amerikkkan aircraft fly more than 100 sorties
over southern Iraq.(11)
THE REAL CULPRIT: IMPERIALISM
The Gulf War was part of Amerika's struggle to
defend the political and economic system which
sucks raw materials and labor out of the Third
World and leaves it impoverished. For example: U.S.
companies encourage the production of cash export
crops like coffee and bananas instead of staples
like rice or beans, to the point where entire
countries cannot feed themselves. As a result, 14
million children die of malnutrition every year in
the capitalist Asian countries alone.(12) And in
order to preserve "stable" conditions for
Amerikan
investment, the U.S. government sends money and
military advisors to repressive regimes waging
"low
intensity war" against their own people. The
U.S.
is currently involved in such wars in the
Philippines, Palestine, and Kurdistan, to name a
few.
The oppressed peoples of the world can work
economic and political miracles when they are
allowed to manage their own affairs and develop
economies to suit their own needs, not the whims of
international finance. U.S. military intervention
serves to bolster the exploitation of these nations
and cannot bring democracy or peace--not in Iraq,
not in Somalia, not in Haiti, not in Bosnia.
Build public opinion against the Gulf War and all
imperialist wars!
Take a stand on the side of the majority of
humanity and oppose Amerikan imperialism and its
lackeys!
NOTES:
1. Los Angeles Reader, Jan. 26, 1996, p. 33.
2. New York Times, Dec. 1, 1995.
3. Z Magazine, Feb. 91, p. 55.
4. Detroit News, Sept. 31, 1991.
5. PBS Documentary, Jan. 14, 1996.
6. Washington Post, Dec. 15, 1990.
7. BBC World Service, Mar. 22, 1991.
8. UNICEF Report, Sept. 1995.
9. NYT, Feb. 28, 1991.
10. Daily Bruin, Jan. 15, 1996.
11. Daily Bruin, Jan. 16, 1996.
12. World Military and Social Expenditures, 1987-
88, p. 25.
* * *
STATE-CAPITALIST RULE BETRAYS CHINESE WOMEN'S
LIBERATION
Since China changed course after 1976, heading away
from socialism and toward capitalism, things have
gotten worse for women in many ways; patriarchy
there is growing continuously more acute.
Last August, as the revisionist Chinese regime
hosted the United Nationsí conference on women, it
released a "Program for the Development of Chinese
Women," no more radical than most bourgeois
democratic governmentsí goals for equality of
women, and full of lies. Although it pledges that
"Chinese women will be more involved in decision-
making and management of state and government
affairs," Chinese womenís minimal representation in
China's governing political bodies shows that the
opposite is happening. The Program also talks about
increasing women's employment and equal pay for
equal work, the numbers contradict that lie as
well. With regard to family relations, rather than
fundamentally changing patriarchal family relations
and collectivizing the work done by women, as was
widely attempted in the socialist era, the Program
merely calls for husbands and wives to share
housework.(5)
Politically, women are losing representation in
leading governing bodies. The percentages of women
in the National People's Congress, formally the
highest governing body in the country (established
after 1949), and the NPC's Standing Committee,
peaked during the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution (GPCR). But womenís position in the NPC
has declined since Maoís death.(1)
NPC NPC-SC
1954 12.0 5.0
1959 12.2 6.3
1964 17.8 17.4
1975 22.6 25.1
1978 21.2 19.4
1994 21.0 12.3
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR:
1966-1976) was the greatest attempt ever at
eliminating patriarchy and liberating women. Many
advances made during this time have been rolled
back by the capitalist-roaders who came to power in
1976. By the time of the Women's Congress held in
1978, the shift was clear. "Strikingly absent [at
the Congress] was discussion of the need for women
to struggle against wide historical, social, and
economic forces that perpetuated female inequality
in Chinese Society."(2) By 1980, Phyllis Andors
concluded: "The present attempts to identify women
with home and family and certain kinds of jobs . .
. must be considered a retreat from the goals of
female emancipation . . ."(3)
In the new attempts to develop a "socialist market
economy,î women are suffering disproportionately,
although of course most men are as well. "Women are
taking it on the chin in China's new, profit-
oriented workplace," reports the Toronto Globe and
Mail. "With the cracking of the renowned 'iron rice
bowl' of guaranteed employment, they're the first
fired and the last hired by firms worried that
potential maternity benefits and time off for
breast feeding will affect their bottom line. Women
now account for 70% of layoffs in China." Further,
"There are no women on either the powerful
Politburo or the Standing Committee of the State
Council. Only 12 of the Communist Party's 189-
member Central Committee are women."(4)
President Jiang Zemin has supported the continued
burden of reproduction on women. Xinhua reported of
Jiang: "He also stressed the work of women who, he
said, have the dual responsibilities of social
production and reproduction of the mankind." For
"women's liberation," he recommended family
planning rather than fundamentally altering women's
roles.(6) Family planning is a good thing, but
womenís liberation requires comprehensive
structural and social change. In contrast to the
phony Maoist program of the reactionary Chinese
regime, MIMís revolutionary feminist line demands
that we work to lift the burden of reproduction
from women, as it is a cornerstone of gender
oppression. This is possible to a great extent even
as long as women remain child-bearers, but it
requires a revolutionary feminist struggle against
patriarchal social relations--a task long since
dropped from the agenda of the reactionary Chinese
regime.
NOTES:
1. NPC from Wei Chang-ling, Status of Women, China.
Bangkok: Unesco Principal Regional Office for Asia
and the Pacific, 1989. NPC-SC from Elizabeth Croll,
Chinese Women Since Mao, (London: Zed), 1983. 1994
figures from "The Situation of Chinese Women,"
Information Office of the Chinese State Council,
June 1994, as distributed over Internet by Zhiwei
Xu (zxu@monalisa.ucs.edu).
2. Phyllis Andors, The Unfinished Liberation of
Chinese Women 1949-1980, (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press), 1983. p. 153.
3. Ibid., 169.
4. Toronto Globe and Mail Aug. 30, 1995.
5. Xinhua News Agency Aug. 7, 1995.
6. Xinhua News Agency Mar. 19, 1995.
* * *
ECONOMIST MAGAZINE: THE PCP IS STILL IN BUSINESS
One is more likely to find some truth in The
Economist than in the average pro-imperialist news
source. The reason is that The Economist aims to
provide useful information to its core audience,
bourgeois internationalist investors--information
they can use to make educated business decisions.
Notably, the Economist is based in London, the
world center of bourgeois internationalism (that
is, more international trade is conducted in London
than in New York, Tokyo, or elsewhere).(1)
So while most of the imperialist media
unquestioningly spreads the Fujimori regime's lie
that the Maoist Communist Party of Peru (PCP or
Sendero Luminoso) has been defeated, The Economist
qualifies the usual lies with the following: "We're
still in business. That is the message from Peru's
Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas....[T]he
[Peruvian] government appears rattled. It has used
its influence to play down reports of Shining Path
attacks....[The PCP] and the fierce counter-
insurgency measures they inspire are clearly not
finished yet."(2)
--MC49
NOTES:
1. The Economist September 23, 1995, p. 64.
2. The Economist July 29, 1995, pp. 30-31.
* * *
BOSNIA LIE EXPOSED
"Gen. Charles Boyd, recently retired from the U.S.
Air Force and deputy commander in chief of U.S.
European Command between 1992 and July of this
year, has a striking piece...in the
September/October issue of Foreign Affairs. The
arms embargo on Bosnia, Boyd observes, has long
been a fiction, with the United States insuring a
steady flow."(1) The selective enforcement of the
arms embargo, or the existence of it in theory
only, is a policy which allows the United Snakes to
formally claim neutrality. In practice however, the
US has been backing the Muslims to ensure
themselves economic control in the Balkan region.
The arms embargo is a way to impede the supply of
arms to enemies of US interest (the Serbs and at
one time the Croats). In addition, Amerika can use
the so-called embargo as a political safety net
nationally and internationally to perpetuate its
fictitious image as world protector of "democracy"
and human rights.
NOTES: Alexander Cockburn, The Nation Magazine Oct.
16, 1995, p. 411.
* * *
FLORIDA CRACKS DOWN ON ANTI-PRISONS ACTIVISTS
***As revolutionary consciousness grows among the
more than one million people held captive in
Amerika's gulags (evidenced by recent continent-
wide prison uprisings), and support for their
struggle against daily brutality and exploitation
grows on the outside, the Amerikan state takes
notice and retaliates. In Jacksonville, Fla. the
state is targeting activists from the Jacksonville
Anarchist Black Cross, a group which has been
active in support of political prisoners. MIM first
redistributed the following article by the Brew
City Anti-Authoritarian Collective on the Internet,
and reprints it here as a statement of support for
all forces fighting the imperialist aggression of
the prison system.***
POLITICAL PRISONER SUPPORT GROUP
ARRESTED IN JACKSONVILLE, FL
by Brew City Anti-Authoritarian Collective
On January 12, 1996 more than 22 SWAT and
Jacksonville tactical police raided the home of
members of a political prisoner support
organization, Jacksonville Anarchist Black Cross,
and arrested Robert Cluesman. During the raid
Jacksonville police searched the entire house
without a warrant and without the consent of
Cluesman or the other three persons inside the
house. The police detained the three other
occupants in one room while confiscating 2 legally
owned shotguns, political literature, computer
disks, spray paint and stencils. Officials claimed
that all of these items were being held as evidence
in an ongoing investigation.
Aside from very legal support for political
prisoners, Jacksonville ABC and the Youth Action
Movement have been noted for their positive work in
the community. They have regularly operated a free
food and literature distribution in the city of
Jacksonville. The local media ran several
supportive interviews after the initial raid.
On January 24 at around 8:15 pm, the Jacksonville
police re-raided the home. Unlike the first raid,
this time the officers came with warrants for the
arrest of three Jacksonville ABC members, Rob
Cluesman, Justin Tichy and Chris Herndon. Police
arrested Cluesman at their home and arrested Tichy
and Herndon at the workplaces. All three have been
charged with Criminal Mischief which is a felony in
Florida. They face over $3,500 in fines and 2 years
in prison each. Their bail has been set at $10,000
each or 10% of that amount cash each. A request has
been made for people to please forward donations to
NJ ABC at the address below to help secure bail and
start a fund for legal fees. At present they are
without legal representation and it is needed -- if
you can offer your help please contact NJ ABC at
the phone number below.
This is a very serious situation. This repression
comes as a direct result of the political activity
and efforts in the community by Jacksonville ABC
and the Youth Action Movement. Most of Jacksonville
ABC are currently being held by the state so all
inquiries and funds for now should be directed
toward NJ ABC at:
New Jersey Anarchist Black Cross, Post Office Box
8532, Paterson, NJ 07508-8532.
Office phone: 201-357-0994. email: pacnjabc@aol.com
* * *
FASCISM GAINS GROUND IN LOUISIANA
Patrick Buchanan won the Louisiana Republican Party
caucuses on February 6th and gained 13 out of 21
delegates. To do so, he had to beat the better-
funded Senator Phil Gramm.
One card that Buchanan had up his sleeve was the
endorsement of fascist and former Nazi and Klan
leader David Duke. Buchanan is also the only
Republican candidate for president who opposes
NAFTA and the latest GATT treaty.
As MIM Notes pointed out in February (See "Buchanan
steals phony Marxist thunder"), Buchanan believes
the best strategy to preserve the status quo is to
oppose "free trade" and support the middle-class
workers MIM calls "labor aristocracy." As the
perfect anti-feminist, Buchanan puts preserving the
family institution above the usual capitalist
shibboleth of "free trade" as the center of his
reactionary strategy.
Buchanan television commercials emphasize "Keep
American jobs on American soil." As MIM has said
all along, the phony Marxists can be seen doing the
same thing as Buchanan and David Duke. They openly
attack Mexican workers with regard to NAFTA and
they encourage Amerikan workers to pit themselves
against all the world's workers with regard to GATT
treaties.
The phony Marxists are not really fighting the far
right. They are clearing the way for it. Now David
Duke gains legitimacy not just from the majority of
whites in Louisiana who voted for him for governor
in the second-to-last governor's election, but also
his message gets added vindication from phony
Marxists who avoid the reality that the majority of
workers here are bought-off allies of imperialism.
The reason the Amerikans want to keep "their jobs"
is that they know they have the white-collar work
at overpaid salaries that is gained at the expense
of the world's majority of workers.
NOTES: New York Times Feb. 8 1996, p. B12.
* * *
THAT VOTING DOLLAR:
AMERIKAN PRESIDENCY GOES TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
FEBRUARY 15--It appears that Steve Forbes,
publisher of Forbes Magazine--a self-proclaimed
"capitalist tool"--is close to winning the U.S.
presidency. After decades of proclaiming that greed
is good and that inheritances like Steve Forbes's
should not be taxed away, the Republican candidates
losing ground to Forbes, who has spent over $10
million in television ads, are complaining about
the presidency being "for sale."
For decades candidates Buchanan, Dole and Gramm
have been telling us that capitalism is good, that
the money one earns through using the system is
indicative of one's worth and that the capitalists
should be able to spend their money any way they
please without government regulation. Now that they
might be losing an election to a rich newcomer,
these candidates talk like they are the most
oppressed proletarians on the face of the earth.
Dole said: "'what we're trying to do is defend
ourselves. . . I'm playing a little defense after
10 million dollars worth of Bob Dole bashing.'"
Most of the candidates already knew that the
government is for sale or rent, as proven by their
own assiduous fund-raising. Bob Dole has received
his largest sums from gambling interests and has
been Mr. Agrofuel for decades. Phil Gramm receives
his largest donations from medical interests
opposed to national health insurance and from the
National Rifle Association. Lamar Alexander is the
trickiest of them all: he appears on the surface to
be funded by various Tennessee interests who just
want a president from Tennessee, but his donations
are the largest from individuals of unnamed
sources.
Now Steve Forbes spends his personal wealth on
television ads and the columnists all rise up to
say he is "rewriting the rules" of presidential
campaigns. He seems to have had little activist
Republican support, just a way with television ads.
Ross Perot did the same thing in 1992, before he
lost credibility by quitting the race for
president. Phony Marxists would say the "working
class" voters are being fooled by Perot and Forbes,
but MIM says everyone knows how highly Perot and
Forbes rank among the rich. The labor aristocracy
knows that Perot and Forbes are blatantly pro-
capitalist, and chooses them with the thought that
only the super-rich cannot be bought-off by
particular interests.
Phil Gramm, Alan Keyes, Richard Lugar, Lamar
Alexander and Patrick Buchanan all would cut or
eliminate estate taxes. At the same time these
candidates are now complaining that Forbes is
buying the presidency. Former candidate Senator
Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania says, "'somebody is
trying to buy the White House, and apparently it is
for sale.'"
New Right theorist Kevin Phillips noticed the same
thing a long time ago and has written books and
essays on the subject. Jerry Brown made it an issue
in his campaign in 1992, but none of these
politicians admit that the socialists are correct
about how so-called democracy works under
capitalism. They give us no reason to believe that
this is not a permanent and inherent problem of
capitalism.
One of the largest reasons political democracy does
not work in Amerika is that money talks. In
practice, the capitalist class gets what it wants,
and we call it a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
From MIM's point of view, since more than half the
federal government spending is on the military and
foreign policy related to meddling in other
governments' affairs, the oppressed masses of the
Third World should get a vote too. That would be a
step forward for so-called democracy.
NOTES: Boston Globe Jan. 31, 1996, pp. 8, 10-11,
13.
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