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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

MIM Notes 118	JULY 15, 1996


MIM Notes speaks to and from the viewpoint of the world's 
oppressed majority, and against the imperialist-patriarchy. Pick 
it up and wield it in the service of the people. support it, 
struggle with it and write for it.

IN THIS ISSUE:

1.  ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION AND GENOCIDE SPUR 
    RESISTANCE IN THE PHILIPPINES
2.  LETTERS: SALUTATIONS AND CONGRATULATIONS TO MIM 
    ON PERU SOLIDARITY WORK
3.  ELECTIONS: WHAT GOOD ARE THEY?
4.  MOVE WINS TRIAL AGAINST AMERIKA
5.  THE PEOPLE FIGHT STATE-SANCTIONED EXECUTIONS IN 
    MISSOURI
6.  INDIGENOUS HAWAIIANS PROTEST PHONY REPARATIONS 
7.  CULTURE PAGE: TIMOTHY LEARY AND *I SHOT ANDY WARHOL*
8.  FLORIDA ANTI-PRISONS ACTIVISTS FACE FELONY CHARGES
9.  COPS PROTECT FASCISTS, REVISIONISTS PROTECT IMPERIALISM
10. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS
11. FBI STEPS UP SURVEILLANCE AND REPRESSION 
12. MORE PIG BRUTALITY IN NEW YORK
13. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION SETBACK IN TEXAS
14. PEOPLE'S MEDIA NEEDED FOR PROTEST COVERAGE 


* * *

WHAT IS MIM?

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary 
communist party that upholds Marxism- Leninism-Maoism, comprising 
the collection of existing or emerging Maoist internationalist 
parties in the English-speaking imperialist countries and their 
English-speaking internal semi- colonies, as well as the existing 
or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist internationalist parties of 
Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories of the U.S. Empire. MIM 
Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the newspaper of the 
Spanish- speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM. 

MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the 
vantage point of the Third World proletariat; thus, its members 
are not Amerikans, but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other 
groups: classes, genders, nations. MIM knows this is only possible 
by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle. 

Revolution is a reality for North America as the military becomes 
over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world 
hegemony.

MIM differs from other communist parties on three main questions: 
(1) MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist 
revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under 
the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party 
itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power 
after the death of Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's 
death and the overthrow of the "Gang of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM 
upholds the Chinese Cultural Revolution as the farthest advance of 
communism in human history. (3) MIM believes the North American 
white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it is not the 
principal vehicle to advance Maoism in this country.

MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basic principles 
and accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on 
other questions of party line.
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally 
applicable. We should regard it not as dogma, but as a guide to 
action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and 
phrases, but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of 
revolution."
-- Mao Zedong, Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 208 

* * *


ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION AND GENOCIDE SPUR RESISTANCE IN THE 
PHILIPPINES


On March 28 toxic mine wastes poured from a broken drainage tunnel 
of the Marinduque Copper Mining Corporation (Marcopper) in the 
Philippines. The six- foot-deep flowing sludge contaminated 
several townships' water supply and stranded at least 130 
families.(1)

This disaster was a predictable result of the U.S.- Ramos regime's 
"Philippines 2000" economic plan and its Mining Act of 1995. 
Philippine President Ramos claims that "Philippines 2000" will 
make the Philippines a "newly industrialized country" by the turn 
of the century, but in reality the plan will preserve the 
backwardness and poverty of the economy and ensure that big 
monopoly capital controls the resources and peoples of the 
Philippines.


MINING ACT BRINGS IMPERIALIST EXPLOITATION... 


As MIM previously reported (MN114), the Mining Act of 1995 tears 
down all remaining safeguards on the Philippines' mineral 
resources. It allows foreign companies to repatriate 100% of all 
profits, and gives each control over a minimum of 247,000 acres of 
land for a minimum of 25 years. The companies also receive the 
timber and water rights to the lands they control.

Imperialist corporations quickly jumped at the chance to penetrate 
further into the Philippines. Two Australian mining conglomerates 
already have contracts with the Philippine government under the 
terms of the Mining Act. ARIMCO corporation has its claws on the 
rich lands of Nueva Viscaya, in Luzon, and the Western Mining 
Corporation is exploring lands in Southern Mindanao. There are 67 
more contracts pending, giving the imperialists potential control 
of 6.7 million hectares of land, or 22% of the Philippines' total 
area.(2) 


...ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE...


Aside from stealing the resources and exploiting the labor of the 
Filipino people, the large scale operation of big mining firms 
causes immediate and long- lasting environmental damage. Bulk 
mining methods cause irreversible damage to the land and water 
supply and greatly affect the livelihood of peasants and fisher 
folk.

The disaster in Marinduque forced the evacuation of 1,295 
residents. At least 189 cases of respiratory ailments and diarrhea 
were reported after the toxic mine wastes swept through the town 
of Boac and killed the town's river. The disaster was hardly 
extra-ordinary. Marcopper has dumped about 20 million cubic meters 
of waste into the Marinduque Bay and has repeatedly violated 
environmental safeguards. The Philippine government, always 
looking to please big investors, consistently looks the other way.

Marcopper officials admitted that the latest tunnel leak began 
last year. But the government and the company ignored appeal from 
local residents to do something to stop it.(1)


...AND GENOCIDE


The indigenous peoples of the mountainous Cordillera region of 
Luzon are particularly hard hit by "Philippines 2000" and the 
Mining Act. In the name of "development" the Ramos government is 
destroying their ancestral land or forcing them from it, which 
amounts to genocide.

More than 50% of the Cordillera region may soon be under the 
control of various foreign companies, including the Amerikan 
Newmont Mining Corporation and the Canadian TVI Group Co. Mining 
companies regularly use armed force to evict people. In several 
cases indigenous peoples have barricaded their community and 
fought back when the companies came to seize their land.

The U.S.-Ramos regime also plans to build at least two "megadams" 
in the Cordilleras: the San Roque dam in Benguet province and the 
Casecnan Dam in Nueva Viscaya province. Both projects require 
indigenous peoples be "relocated." In many cases, those slated for 
"relocation" have already been displaced by earlier dam projects. 
The dams will also harm the people who are not immediately 
evicted. In the case of the Casecnan dam, about 300,000 acres of 
land near the dam will be declared as a watershed, making hunting 
and kaigin farming-- the main livelihood of the people living 
there-- illegal.

Imperialist monopoly capital has a hand in these dam projects as 
well. An Amerikan firm, California Energy, owns 70% of the 
consortium building the Casecnan dam.(3)


RESISTANCE


The National Democratic movement in the Philippines continues to 
mobilize the people of the Philippines against imperialism. Mass 
organizations like the May First Movement and the Cordillera 
Peoples' Alliance have launched broad campaigns to educate people 
about the Mining Act and have organized strikes and protests 
against leading mining companies like Marcopper. The New People's 
Army (NPA), which is led by the Communist Party of the 
Philippines, continues to wage Protracted People's War to 
overthrow the toadying U.S.- Ramos regime and replace it with an 
anti-imperialist and socialist government.

According to mainstream media sources, the NPA attacked a 
helicopter in Nueva Viscaya province on June 5, killing a Canadian 
geologist working for ARIMCO. The geologist, Colin Spence, was 
conducting an aerial survey for the mining company. In so doing, 
Spence was directly aiding the mining company's plans to increase 
the exploitation and oppression of the people of the Philippines. 
This makes him a legitimate target for the people's army.

The Venerando Villacillo Operational Command of the NPA operates 
throughout Nueva Viscaya. The attack on the helicopter supposedly 
took place near one of the NPA's bases.(4) Regardless of the 
actuality of this incident, the NPA is following the correct 
course for saving the people and the environment that sustains 
them: fighting anti-imperialist war for self- determination.

NOTES:
1. Balitang BAYAN (People's News), Mar-Apr 1996. 2. BAYAN 
resolution, March 22, 1996.
3. Hapit, Official Publication of the Cordillera Peoples' 
Alliance, Jan-Apr 1996.
4. Philippines Diary, June 6, 1996.


* * *


LETTERS


SALUTATIONS AND CONGRATULATIONS TO MIM ON PERU SOLIDARITY WORK

Dear MIM,

We are happy to receive the news that the Peruvian comrades abroad 
encourage us to continue our work to build support for the 
Peruvian revolution. It's significant that the masses around the 
world know that the PCP advances the people's revolution with 
unity.

Discrediting the lies and rumors spread by cops and opportunists 
is an important contribution to the people's war in Peru and to 
proletarian
internationalism.

We enthusiastically look forward to spreading news and building 
support for our comrades in struggle in Peru.


In struggle and solidarity,

MORAIL


* * *


ELECTIONS: WHAT GOOD ARE THEY?

23 June--RAIL hosted a debate this evening on elections as a 
strategy and tactic for liberation with a representative from the 
Universal African American Peoples Organization. In attendance 
were reps from the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party (A-
APRP), the Greens, and a number of unaffiliated persons.

A Missouri RAIL (MORAIL) comrade began the evening with greetings 
and stressed the importance of unity-struggle-unity as we proceed 
in debate. MORAIL began the debate saying that "elections in a 
white-settler state are anything but democratic for the poor and 
oppressed." The capitalist ruling class sets the agenda: time, 
candidates, and issues. That's why the oppressed can't get any 
power through the electoral arena. The ruling class never has and 
never will give up power via the ballot box.

The UAAOPO comrade expressed agreement with RAIL on a number of 
points. S/he recognized the value of the Black Panther Party's 
legacy and Lenin. Also, money and wealth control the electoral 
process. "It's hard to find anti-imperialist candidates." But s/he 
argued that circumstances call for using the electoral tactic.

With the recent increased attack on the Black nation, the comrade 
asserted it's time to "bite, scratch and kick," to fight, quoting 
Malcolm, "by any means necessary." The comrade called on 
revolutionaries to "triple your efforts." Having said that, the 
comrade also understands that true liberation cannot be achieved 
through bourgeois elections. Nonetheless, s/he is supporting a 
candidate for circuit attorney in order to combat police 
brutality.

The A-APRP member agreed with the goal of self- determination and 
national liberation from white supremacy. But, s/he pointed out, 
the electoral tactic of working with the Democratic or Republican 
parties stifles the development of consciousness. It confuses the 
people, sending the message that the person in office is the 
problem, rather than the capitalist structure itself. The vanguard 
must change the message to people's principle's, and the electoral 
system obscures this message. This is crucial because the masses 
must take up the banner of revolution; for only the masses can 
take action and bring about change.

A MORAIL comrade observed that while Blacks have increased their 
positions in elected offices in Amerika to 10,000, the attack on 
the internal colonies in Amerika has increased at the same time. 
RAIL maintains that elections are not an effective avenue for 
struggle at this time, under these conditions.

A Green Party representative spoke of the poisonous environmental 
damage that imperialism perpetrates, and advocated ballot 
initiatives as a tactic to combat it. RAIL sees advancing the 
struggles of oppressed nations as the best way to save the 
environment. And in the course of discussion, we learned that this 
Green Party comrade has supported oppressed nation struggles many 
times. We all agreed on the importance of building independent 
media of and for the oppressed, and that in order to win people's 
democracy, not phony bourgeois democracy, the imperialist white 
supremacist system must be smashed. Everyone used this opportunity 
to speak out. And RAIL will continue to provide forums for debate 
and discussion on issues vital to the oppressed, building public 
opinion in favor of the oppressed.

MIM adds: It is important to also talk about the correct political 
line behind the correct strategy. The A-APRP does not support 
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as the most advanced revolutionary line. 
Instead they uphold a pseudo-socialist ideology they call Pan-
Africanist Nkrumahism-Tureism which includes support for many 
revisionist and non-revolutionary regimes. While we agree with the 
A-APRP on the question of elections as a strategy for
overthrowing imperialism, we do not agree on what is the most 
effective strategy for overthrowing imperialism or on what is 
genuine socialism. 


CORRECTIONS:

In MIM Notes 116, (June 15, 1996) we referred to the Communist 
Party of Peru (PCP) as the Peruvian Communist Party. This was an 
error, as the "Peruvian Communist Party" is the English 
translation of different party
with Soviet revisionist politics.


* * *


MOVE WINS TRIAL AGAINST AMERIKA

On June 24th a federal jury ordered the city of Philadelphia to 
pay $1.5 million to Ramona Africa, only adult survivor of the 1985 
police bombing of the MOVE organization, and others, relatives of 
two dead MOVE members. Police bombing of the house of the radical 
political MOVE organization killed 11 people and destroyed 61 
homes in the neighborhood. This court case provides small 
reparations for the death and destruction caused by the city of 
Philadelphia.

As MIM Notes has reported in the past, the motivations for this 
bombing were clearly political. MOVE has consistently organized on 
the side of the oppressed, fighting police brutality, prison 
repression and other imperialist repression. Members were unarmed 
during the entire conflict with the police and when some tried to 
leave the house and surrender prior to the bombing they were shot 
at by police. Ramona Africa was the sole adult survivor of the 
bombing, and was subsequently tried and jailed for terrorism and 
conspiracy--the very crimes of the police.

In addition to the money awarded for pain and suffering to Ramona 
Africa and the surviving relatives of some of those who were 
killed in the bombing, the jury also ordered former Fire 
Commissioner William Richmond and former Police Commissioner 
Gregore Sambor to pay Ramona Africa token damages of $1 a week for 
11 years. 

There is no way to put a price on the lives of the MOVE members 
murdered by the pigs in the bombing in 1985. But court victories 
like this one are an important step in exposing the brutality and 
injustice of Amerikan imperialism, and the few that are won can 
provide important financial resources to revolutionaries. MIM 
hopes that Ramona Africa will continue to put her time and money 
into causes of the oppressed.

The lives of so many in the oppressed nations in this country and 
around the world have also been lost to less spectacular police 
brutality, imperialist imprisonment, and other imperialist 
violence. These injustices will never be paid for in court. 
Reparations for all of this injustice can only began to be won 
once imperialism has been overthrown and replaced by socialism. 
Work with, fund, and join MIM to fight against the daily murders 
by the imperialists.


* * *


THE PEOPLE FIGHT STATE-SANCTIONED EXECUTIONS IN MISSOURI

by a RAIL comrade

June 14-16: A group of activists made a 50-mile walk for justice 
from St. Louis to the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, 
MO, where Missouri death row inmates are imprisoned, to protest 
and stop the execution of Thomas Battle. Battle is scheduled for 
execution on August 7. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon ordered 
five executions last year, a record for the state of Missouri. 
Groups such as the New Life Evangelistic Center and the Missouri 
Coalition Against the Death Penalty have become more active to end 
the death penalty as a result of this state-sanctioned slaughter.

Jefferson County police harassed the walkers along the way, 
arresting one on bogus charges of missing a 1994 court date for a 
traffic violation. For this, the pigs handcuffed her and took her 
to jail. The arresting officer put on a bullet-proof vest while 
holding her in custody, and said "When you see a Black man and a 
white man walking down the road, you know they're up to no good."
Battle was convicted of the rape, robbery, and murder of an 30 
year-old woman. On September 18, 1981, Thomas Battle was sentenced 
to death by legal injection. Evidence proving Battle's innocence 
was suppressed or disallowed in the trial and appellate courts.

Battle's illegally obtained videotaped confession was allowed as 
evidence during the trial. Battle's original state-appointed 
lawyer was incompetent and did not pursue leads that could prove 
his innocence. The state of Missouri refused to allow jurors who 
opposed the death penalty, contrary to a US Supreme Court case, 
Wainwright vs. Witt, that says that the state cannot do that. Of 
course, jurors are routinely kept off of juries by prosecutors 
because of their political views about the death penalty.

Battle's case is typical in a number of ways. Being Black and 
lacking money for a competent lawyer, he wound up on a death row. 
While 12% of Amerika's population is Black, over half of Amerika's 
prison population is Black, almost half of Amerika's prisoners on 
death row are Black, and almost half of those executed since 1976 
have been Black. 

RAIL agrees with the broad range of activists that the death 
penalty should be abolished. But in addition, we say that the u.s. 
injustice system, prison system and police are imperialist 
terrorists and have no right and no moral authority to arrest, 
prosecute or imprison people. Their purpose is oppression, and 
they do nothing to deal with problems of drugs and violence in 
Black communities and poor communities. One woman with whom a RAIL 
comrade spoke recently correctly said that the police are really 
kidnapping Black youth. RAIL says that the only real solution for 
the Black nation and other oppressed nations is self-
determination. 

MIM adds to this that we are against the racist U.S. death penalty 
and we are also communists who want a world with no death penalty. 
But revolution and socialism will include executions and we don't 
agree with the pacifist anti-death penalty activists who oppose 
the death penalty for all time under all circumstances. The 
process of getting to communism requires violence under socialism 
and that is why we are honest in calling it a dictatorship of the 
proletariat.

This protest walk and accompanying press coverage has proven 
effective already. After four months of repeated requests from 
Battle's lawyer, sister, and supporters, Circuit Attorney Dee 
Joyce Hayes has released evidence that, through DNA testing, could 
prove Battle's innocence. Battle's case and others like it are of 
the highest urgency. Readers are urged to write the following 
addresses to demandthat the DNA testing be done with the utmost 
expediency and Battle's court case be re-opened, that Battle not 
be executed, and that the state- sanctioned execution of Missouri 
prisoners be stopped altogether.


PLEASE WRITE:
Jeremia W. Nixon Office of Attorney General Supreme Court Building 
P.O. Box 899 Jefferson City MO 65102 

Governor Mel Carnahan State Capitol Jefferson City MO 65102
Dee Joyce Hayes Circuit Attorney Municipal Courts Building 1320 
Market St. Room 33 St. Louis MO 63103 

Sources: Cry Justice Journal, Volumes 2 and 3 Statistical Abstract 
of the United States 1995, pp.291,220. MIM's Amerikkan Lockdown 
Index Statistics were compiled from The Real War on Crime, by 
Steven R. Donziger: "The Appeal of CP- 13".


* * *


INDIGENOUS HAWAIIANS PROTEST PHONY REPARATIONS 

For the indigenous people of Hawaii, like many other indigenous 
peoples, the United Church of Christ is the "United Church of 
Colonialism." Demonstrators denounced it as such in a protest on 
June 13. The demonstration was a response to a plan to 
"compensate" Hawaiians for injustices suffered under imperialist 
rule, injustices which were aided and abetted by the church. The 
church's plan was for the money to never really change hands. This 
demonstration was part of an important summer of Hawaiian activism 
against illusory plans for sovereignty sponsored by the state.

The United Church of Christ acknowledged its role in the overthrow 
of the Hawaiian government and apologized a hundred years after 
the fact, in 1993. Now the church is pretending to "redress" some 
of that harm by passing money from one hand of the church to the 
other. Rather than paying reparations to the Hawaiian people as a 
whole or to any organization, the church is giving money and land 
to Hawaiians in the church, who constitute only 1.5% of the 
membership of the church.

Hawaiians are protesting the proposal and struggling to define the 
terms of their own deserved reparations and sovereignty. 
Crucially, they are protesting the phony "Native Hawaiian Vote" 
scheduled for August. Like the recent plebiscite in Puerto Rico, 
the Hawaiian plebiscite asks Hawaiians to validate their colonial 
status with a vote. Activists have already succeeded in winning a 
delay of the vote. They are trying to cancel the vote altogether.

MIM says that the question is how best to get to the point where 
oppressed peoples can really have the choice of living in their 
own liberated territories. If the revolutionary forces accumulate 
the power to make that a real possibility, then it is appropriate 
to ask the question, "integration or liberation?" Then there 
should be a plebiscite or series of plebiscites to decide the 
question. Asking the question before the oppressed nationalities 
have the power to control territory only proves what the peoples 
will say when the imperialists are twisting their arms behind 
their backs. The people must have a genuine choice, not a choice 
dictated by the imperialists. Then we can trust an oppressed 
nation plebiscite--the outcome of the ballot box among the people. 
Under New Democracy, the oppressed peoples will learn what it 
means to live without imperialist police terror and they will 
learn to speak their mind without fear of the consequences from 
the oppressor.

NOTES: The Honolulu Advertiser, June 14, 1996, p. A3


* * *


CULTURE PAGE

OBITUARY: TIMOTHY LEARY'S FINAL TRIP
1921-1996

On May 31, Timothy Leary, proponent of psychedelic drug 
experiences and "free your mind" type approaches to opposing the 
power structure, died at the age of 75. Leary coined the phrase 
"tune on, tune in, drop out" in the 1960s as a marketing jingle 
for LSD.

Leary was, and his legacy continues to be, objectively, an aid to 
the status quo. His research on psychedelic drugs in the 1960s 
was, if not directly funded by the CIA, at least aided the CIA in 
developing drugs it wanted for use in controlling the minds of its 
opponents. The CIA was largely responsible for funding drug 
experiments throughout the 1960s and tested some of its products 
on oppressed nation prisoners.(1) 

The CIA may or may not have wanted these drugs to reach the masses 
of white-nation youth. But eventually the drugs became easily 
available on the black market. If one interprets the drug 
availability as getting "out of control" as far as the CIA was 
concerned, this phenomenon was allowed to continue and was a 
perfect sedative for real political activism during a period of 
political turmoil. One would have a hard time keeping "politics in 
command" and making any kind of serious analysis when influenced 
by LSD, mushrooms or psilocybin. If the CIA failed in developing 
mind controlling drugs, they succeeded in encouraging the escapism 
of a generation of youth.

Leary was once a fugitive from "justice", escaping from a 
California prison in the early 1970s after being convicted on drug 
charges.

At the height of political activism in the late 1960s, Leary 
disavowed politics, ignoring the slaughter of the Vietnamese and 
the struggle of Blacks for national liberation, in favor of 
preaching escapism and typical oppressor nation individual 
approaches to "liberation." "Free your mind" was Leary's approach 
to a better world, despite the fact that his freedom to research 
and experiment with psychedelic drugs came at the expense of the 
Vietnamese and all other oppressed nation people who support the 
decadent life of Amerikan intellectuals.

MIM can give Leary credit for denouncing psychotherapy as useless, 
after his received his PhD in psychology from the University of 
California, Berkeley.(2) But he did not go so far as to denounce 
psychology altogether, as MIM would. Furthermore, he moved on to 
equally reactionary approaches to peoples "minds" or problems by 
advocating escapism and mysticism of the Eastern religion variety. 
This may work to make some privileged people in the imperialist 
countries less bored, but it leaves the most violent and 
destructive economic and political institutions intact.

Leary's politics are typical of parasites and popular among white- 
nation youth. It's the same old individualism, different package.

* *

I SHOT ANDY WARHOL PORTRAYS RIGHTEOUS BUT MISGUIDED ANGER

*I Shot Andy Warhol* tells the story of the would- be radical 
feminist who founded (and was the sole member of) the Society for 
Cutting Up Men (SCUM), and so you know going into the flick that 
the heroine is going to be more interesting than your average 
Hollywood female. Lili Taylor, in her role a Valerie Solanas, does 
not disappoint. Her politics are presented without much judgment 
from the director, so they get you thinking. She is essentialist 
and thinks that men are biologically inferior, which is incorrect, 
but her anger is righteous and her advocacy of asexuality and 
destruction of Amerika are right on.

The basic plot is that Solanas was a troubled youth who after 
collage took to prostitution and panhandling in Union Square, New 
York City. She was a gifted writer and her favorite topic was the 
oppression of women. She wrote a man-hating play and thought that 
Andy Warhol was her best chance of having it produced. Of course, 
he was awfully busy navel-gazing and his clique at "the Factory," 
a hangout where nothing is produced, is too cool for Solanas' 
dirty words. Eventually, Solanas comes to the conclusion that 
Warhol and her publisher are conspiring to steal the SCUM 
manifesto. She shoots and wounds Andy Warhol pretty seriously not 
because he is a man, but because she thinks he is cashing in on 
her work.

Valerie Solanas knows about sexual oppression first hand--as just 
about all women do. The audience discovers her sexual history from 
a very clinical monologue by some sort of shrink. The shrink seems 
to think that she became a prostitute, a lesbian, wrote radical 
writings, and eventually lost touch with reality because she was 
molested by her father as a child. Maoists know that this if p 
then q is bogus, and the movie correctly portrays things as much 
more complex.

Still, her experiences of sexual oppression and sexual 
exploitation are important because they are the fodder for the 
political analysis that Solanas developed in the mid sixties, 
before the Second Wave of feminism had captured the imaginations 
of the masses of women. Solanas is isolated and not part of a 
movement, and the film criticizes her for that. When Solanas sees 
some women from the Women's Liberation Movement marching in front 
of the Miss America pageant, she says to her companions in the 
desolate world of Andy Warhol "I should be there." And she should 
be. In an environment of people actually working for social 
change, rather than glorifying in their degeneracy without putting 
forth anything of value, perhaps she could have handled reality. 
Her death caused by homelessness exemplifies the lack of advances 
one makes in her type of organizing.

Though Solanas identifies as a lesbian, she advocates asexuality. 
Her contention is that sex is basically a waste of time for women, 
and their time and energy would be best spent elsewhere--for 
example taking over the country. MIM agrees. That does not mean 
that we mandate rooting sexuality out of the lives of our comrades 
or others, but it does mean that we reject the notion that women 
"need" sex for some Freudian or sociobiological reason. 

This is anther good point that Solanas brings up: just because men 
have always existed does not mean that they have to continue to do 
so. Disease has always existed too, and we are doing our best to 
get rid of it. She is wrong that men are biologically inferior, 
but she is right that biology is not social destiny.

The best thing abut the film is how disgustingly the alternative 
scene is represented. This is no safe haven from patriarchy, to be 
sure, but additionally it is just as decadent and meaningless as 
the mainstream. Warhol says that he started doing films because 
they were easier. He had no desire to create art, just money and a 
following. It is extraordinary that a women who wanted social 
change thought he could be worth anything. 


CULTURE CALL!!!!

This is a call to all readers and comrades to submit culture copy 
for MIM Notes. The bourgeoisie uses art and literature to build 
public opinion for counter-revolution, and we must smash their 
scheme while we build up the art of the proletariat. 

If you have seen, read, produced or heard anything revolutionary 
in our culture, send us in an article about it. We can't be 
everywhere and the more knowledge all comrades have of the "good" 
stuff going on out there, the better we can support it. Likewise 
for the not-so-revolutionary stuff. The wrong political lines in 
our culture run rampant and we need to have a good look at and 
analysis of all of it, so send in your criticisms too. Our culture 
is shaping us all, it is about time we start shaping a 
revolutionary culture. Send all original work, articles and 
criticisms to MIM and work to create a culture that is "for the 
people, and by the people."


* * *


FLORIDA ANTI-PRISONS ACTIVISTS FACE FELONY CHARGES 


**In MIM Notes 110, (March 1996), we printed a statement from the 
Brew City Anti-Authoritarian Collective about the police round-up 
of Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) activists in Jacksonville, Florida. 
The Anarchist Black Cross supports political prisoners.**

Once again, the criminal state is charging activists who challenge 
its policies on crime. Three Jacksonville Anarchist Black Cross 
activists are being charged with "criminal mischief" a felony, and 
are being made to pay $1,850 for the cost of deposition. Despite 
having lost their jobs as a result of the arrests, the judge 
denied their motion to be declared indigent. Indigency would have 
forced the state to pay some of the expenses. 

Outside the courtroom, one of the activists took a picture of the 
prosecutor, Eric Davis, to use in local literature about the 
trial. The prosecutor was enraged, and dragged them back into 
court to argue that ABC was a "violent hate group that might be 
threatening my [Davis's] life or my family." The judge did follow 
some bourgeois pretension at the "rights" of the activists, and 
ruled that there was no law against taking pictures of public 
officials. 

As one activist responded to a friend: "WE are the ones who should 
be worried about lives being taken or homes being raided. He has 
no RIGHT to fear us. We have never caused harm to anyone. We have 
never been associated with any violence or unjust treatment of any 
individual. THEY, on the other hand, have. THEY are the ones who 
raided our home, took our things, put guns on US! The only weapons 
we have ever put on them was a pen...some paper [and]...a camera!"

NOTE: ABC Federation Update, June 1996, p. 4-5. See also 
http://www.jaxnet.com/~yamjxabc/index. html. For defense 
information, contact Jacksonville ABC- BG 3628 Park St 20, 
Jacksonville FL 32205. 


* * *


COPS PROTECT FASCISTS, REVISIONISTS PROTECT IMPERIALISM

June 23, ANN ARBOR--Hundreds of people demonstrated at the Ann 
Arbor Court House against a rally being held by the Ku Klux Klan 
today. Seventeen members of the KKK rallied, with state 
protection, on the roof of the Ann Arbor Court House. An eight-
foot fence around the periphery of the property, constructed 
exclusively for the event, kept anti- Klan demonstrators 100 feet 
from the building where the Klan gathered. Three foot by one foot 
purple signs with black lettering placed on the fence read, "Do 
not touch the fence or you will be maced."

On the Klan side of the fence, pigs situated every few feet in 
riot gear made sure no one got through. The road which runs along 
the front of the Court House was blocked off and each side was 
staffed by about fifteen pigs. The roof of the fire station across 
the street from the Court House served as a lookout for more pigs, 
one of whom wielded a video camera. There were 277 police officers 
in all, according to NPR (1). Despite the huge police presence, 
some activists thought it useful to instigate violence. This 
adventurism gave the police an excuse to mace people and to throw 
a dozen canisters of tear gas into the crowd, sending anti-Klan 
demonstrators running down the block and breaking up the rally. 
Eleven demonstrators were arrested. The cost of the police 
protection totaled about $50,000, $8,000 of which was for the 
fence.(2)

MIM thinks the use of violence by activists was incorrect in this 
context. There is little to be gained by beating someone up and 
getting arrested. Some may argue as the Weather Underground 
Organization (A.K.A. the Weathermen) once said that activists 
should try to provoke violent actions by the state in hopes that 
the state's use of violence will radicalize the masses. The 
crypto-Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist Party, USA apparently 
subscribes to this approach. At the least, such a line is 
prevalent in RCP,USA circles, and the RCP,USA itself does nothing 
to combat it. MIM does not subscribe to this approach, which we 
consider to be alien to the Maoist approach of attending to the 
well-being of the masses. Sure, pigs are pigs, but why antagonize 
them when you know you have no chance of winning the battle? 
People who really know what oppression by the pigs is often don't 
live to tell about it.

The organizations which led the rally were two separate 
Trotskyist-led coalitions. MIM attended the demonstration, talked 
with people there and distributed MIM Notes. RAIL also went and 
distributed a flyer. MIM never works with Trotskyists because they 
are revisionists and enemies of the people. Their tactics at this 
rally show how their incorrect line leads them to foolish 
adventurist acts. (For more on our basic differences with 
Trotskyists, see On Trotskyism, by Kostas Mavrakis, available from 
MIM).

The Klan is not the most important political target, though it is 
one which stirs a lot of emotion. The KKK is blatantly offensive, 
but it is incorrect to organize against the Klan without 
organizing against its social base. The Klan is more 
straightforwardly pro-oppression than other white nationalist 
organizations like the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the 
various Trotskyist parties, or the RCP,USA. But all of these, 
despite their strategic and tactical differences, and despite the 
rhetoric of some to the contrary, are organizations which 
objectively uphold white and Amerikkkan nationalism. Unlike the 
KKK, the imperialists hold state power, and are thus the principal 
enemy of the world's oppressed majority. The KKK's rhetoric is 
more repugnant than the imperialists', but the imperialists in 
fact do more damage.

The social base for imperialism and for the KKK is one and the 
same: the white Amerikkkan oppressor nation, the heart of a 
settler-empire. To fight the Klan without fighting the oppression 
of the white nation over other nations is like plucking a weed 
without digging out its roots. The oppression of the white nation 
over the Black nation is the result of economic, political and 
military domination, not just people's racist ideas or speech. 
Even violent acts by the Klan, seen in this context, are offensive 
not only because of what they are but because they are allowed to 
continue. The state allows the Klan to operate and chooses not to 
destroy it as they did the Black Panthers in the 1960s.

Demonstrators engaged in two separate incidents of violence. The 
first occurred when a man with a confederate flag sewn on the back 
of his vest walked toward the demonstration. (The confederate flag 
was the battle flag of the pro-slavery South in the U.S. Civil 
War.) A group of people charged and attacked him, hitting him with 
sticks. A Black woman threw herself on top of the man to protect 
him from the masses' wrath. Minutes after the attack started, half 
a dozen pigs rushed over and broke it up. They took the fascist, 
who suffered a bloody nose, away in a police car.

The second violent incident occurred toward the end of the rally, 
after many people had already left. According to the Ann Arbor 
News, the National Women's Rights Organizing Committee (NWROC), an 
organization led by the Trotskyist Revolutionary Workers League 
(RWL), began throwing rocks at cops. The pigs responded quickly by 
putting on their gas masks, rushing into the crowd, macing people 
they came in contact with and tossing canisters of tear gas, which 
sent people running down the block. 

The adventurist initiation of violence by the Trotskyists is the 
result of an incorrect analysis of the material conditions in the 
United Snakes. The Klan are only the tip of the iceberg when it 
comes to national oppression. Their words may be uglier than 
others', but they are not the principal enemy. In fact, 
objectively they are not that far politically from the majority of 
the white-working class that supports the continued economic and 
political domination of the Black, Latino and First Nations within 
the United Snakes. And certainly they are in synch with the U.S. 
government's treatment of oppressed nation people.

The Trotskyists' approach overlooks the fact that many people who 
support the U.S. government, Democrat or Republican, are 
supporting the oppression of Blacks. The overwhelming support from 
the white nation for things like prison expansion, harsher prison 
terms, the death penalty, despite or because of the fact that all 
of these things objectively and unjustly oppress the Black nation, 
shows that most whites are only for more subtle oppression. 
Furthermore, MIM would point to the support that the white nation 
gives for imperialism (at home and abroad) as more reason why 
throwing rocks at the Klan does nothing to solve the problem of 
national oppression.

The Klan is not the cause of national oppression, they are just 
one blatant expression of the reactionary nation which wants to 
maintain it. MIM is for ending all national oppression, not just 
erasing some of the more obviously offensive representatives of 
it. The pseudo-left of this and other imperialist countries seeks 
to make apologies for the reactionary, bribed workers of the 
oppressor nations. The pseudo-left points its fingers at the 
fascists in the hope that doing so will divert the masses' wrath 
away from the rest of the oppressor nation population. Thus, the 
pseudo- left provides a valuable service for imperialism. This is 
why we say that the revisionists are pro- imperialist, and in the 
Western context, white nationalist. This also explains why Lenin 
said that the struggle against imperialism was bound up withthe 
struggle against revisionism and opportunism. 

When pressed on Trotskyism's failure to seize state power anywhere 
since its 1924 split from the International Communist Movement, 
many Trotskyists will avoid the question by pointing to successful 
street actions against the Klan and other fascist scum. What they 
don't mention is that these actions, good though they are, are 
nothing compared to the most successful anti-fascist action in 
history--the defeat of the Nazis by the Red Army under the 
leadership of Comrade J.V. Stalin. 

What MIM proposes to accomplish the end of all national oppression 
is building vanguard parties to seize state power and building 
independent institutions of the oppressed. We support national 
liberation for the oppressed nations inside and outside U.S. 
borders and organize to end the system of national oppression 
which allows the Klan to continue with their fascist propaganda 
and organizing.


NOTES:
1. National Public Radio, June 26, 1996. 2. Ann Arbor News 
6/23/96, p. A9.


* * *


UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS 

CALIFORNIA PRISON CENSORS MIM NOTES AND OTHER NEWSPAPERS


To whom it may concern,

My father, X, recently sent my name and address to you so that I 
could be put on your mailing list for your newspaper. Since then, 
you've mailed me the paper, but the mailroom censor determined 
that material in your paper was considered to be "forceful, 
violent and threatening." I was told that such material would not 
be allowed. Your paper is not the only one that I subscribe to 
that is not allowed and steps are being taken to correct this 
problem.

This is a new prison and the rules and regulations are still 
changing....[Please write] letters of concern to our warden Gail 
Lewis. Ask for the exact reasons why this prison is so different 
from the other 33 California prisons, that inmates should not be 
allowed to read news articles similar to those in the Los Angeles 
Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. Being an "alternative" 
paper, such as MIM Notes, it seems to me that Pleasant Valley 
State Prison is being discriminatory to disapprove your paper!

Thank you for your time in this matter. I felt you should know 
that for some strange reason your paper is not allowed in this 
prison, yet. I wish to remain on your mailing list and I anxiously 
await a response from you. Have a great day and please continue 
the good work!
Respectfully yours,

--a California prisoner, April 15, 1996

Letters of protest can be sent to:
Warden Gail Lewis, Pleasant Valley State Prison, PO Box 8503, 
Coalinga, CA 93210.


KENTUCKY PRISON CENSORS MIM NOTES AND MAOIST SOJOURNER

The item establishes probable cause to believe that information 
contained within constitutes a threat to institutional discipline 
or security (i.e. contains racist or gangster material).


--Frances Cooter, Mailroom Staff, May 2, 1996. 


Letters of protest can be sent to:

Luther Luckett Correctional Complex, PO Box 6, LaGrange, KY 40031.


ARIZONA SENDS BACK CENSORED MIM NOTES AFTER ONE YEAR

On June 6, 1995 the following [MIM Notes No. 100, May 1995] was 
received in the mail at the Arizona State Prison and is considered 
to be contraband. 

Mail/Publication contains material which, in the Warden's opinion, 
pose[s] a threat to the safe, secure and orderly operation of the 
prison. Inmate has the right to seek review of the decision to 
restrict his mail by contacting his unit's grievance coordinator.


-- Duran 694, Mailroom Officer, [postmarked May 19, 1996! --MIM]


Letters of protest can be sent to: D.W. Bourgeous, Deputy Warden, 
Arizona State Prison Complex, PO Box 4000, Florence, AZ 85232.


WOMEN PRISONERS ARE DYING AT CHOWCHILLA SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN FOR 
COMPASSIONATE RELEASE!

Four women prisoners with full-blown AIDS are dying of AIDS-
related complications in the infirmary at the Central California 
Women's Facility (CCWF) (across the street from Valley State 
Prison For Women.) These women should be granted compassionate 
release. Yet, in each case, either the prison doctors, the 
Department of Corrections or the Board of Prison Terms are holding 
up the process. CCWF does not have an infectious disease 
specialist on staff or any support services for women locked away 
in the infirmary.


WHO ARE THESE WOMEN?

+ [S T], W26443, has no CD4 cells, suffers severe weight 
loss, has a hard time walking and can't keep food down. The 
medical staff will not put her on a special diet.

+ [U V], W40993, has a low CD4 count, night fevers, sores 
all over her body and can't walk. 

+ [W X], W54091, has a low CD4 count, recurring pneumonia 
and pneumocystis carinii. She has suffered weight loss and 
weakness.

+ [Y Z], W60387, also has a low CD4 count and has suffered 
severe weight loss.

All of these women have families anxious to take care of them or 
hospices willing to house them in the community.


WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Write, call or fax Dr. Gwendolyn Dennard, Chief Medical Officer, 
CCWF, P.O. Box 1501, Chowchilla, CA 93610-1501; phone (209) 665-
5531; fax (209) 665- 7158. Demand that [A] and [B]
be immediately medically evaluated for compassionate 
release. Send copies to Warden Teena Farmon (at the same address).

Write, call or fax Director James Gomez, California Department of 
Corrections, P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento, CA 94283-0001; phone 
(916) 445-7688; fax (916) 327-1988. Demand that [C] be 
approved for compassionate release immediately. Director Gomez 
recently refused her compassionate release request.

Write, call or fax Executive Officer Ted Rich, Board of Prison 
Terms, 428 J Street, 6th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814; phone (916) 
445-1539; fax (916) 445-5242. Demand that [D] be 
approved by the parole board for compassionate release. The Board 
has turned her down three times! Send copies of your letters to 
the HIV/AIDS in Prison Project of Catholic Charities, 433 
Jefferson Street, Oakland, CA 94607 and they will be forwarded to 
the women prisoners. Also send copies to any state legislators or 
media that may be helpful.

SUPPORT ASSEMBLY BILL 3093--THE COMPASSIONATE RELEASE BILL
For more information, contact Catholic Charities' HIV/AIDS in 
Prison Project at (510) 834-5656, ext. 3150.


--Catholic Charities' HIV/AIDS in Prison Project, June 10, 1996


SOUTH CAROLINA PRISONER SUPPORTS WOMEN PRISONERS' STRUGGLE

This letter is to inform MIM that I am continuously receiving MIM 
Notes uninterrupted, so please continue to send it to me. I am 
writing this in response to the letter written in the 111 issue of 
MIM Notes. This letter in the 111 issue, ["Silent Deaths, Beatings 
and Rapes at Dwight..."] was submitted by a woman in an Illinois 
prison and dated December 25, 1995. This woman really got to me 
because of the way she explained the death and mistreatment of the 
women in that prison. I never really thought of the treatment of 
women in prison to be anything like what was stipulated by this 
woman.

I ask myself how can this treatment go on without anyone aiding in 
keeping up with the women's medical rights, health and training. I 
am really angry because this Beautiful Woman took her time out to 
explain in informative details the atrocities that go on in her 
present, and the strength it took to write.

We are caring human beings who should not allow this treatment to 
continue . We must constantly let these savage pigs know that when 
you deliberately mistreat a woman, and it doesn't matter what she 
has done, when she is punished by the law then you do not have the 
right to continually punish them. 

You who subject women to cruel inhuman treatment have lost all 
link with reality. Hell, you probably think you are performing 
some royal duties, with your insignificant lives. The type that do 
these sort of things to get recognition from your weaselly peers, 
you are nothingness and a misrepresentation of a man.

I wish that there was something I could do to make a difference, 
"Illinois Prisoner." However, stay strong. You will make it out of 
there. Stay strong for as long as you fight, you can count on 
another alongside you!!!

--A South Carolina prisoner, May 9, 1996 


THE WELL DESERVED DEATH OF VITAPRO

The following article is reprinted from Prison News Service 54, 
Spring 1996.

James A. "Andy" Collins was the executive director of the Texas 
Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), which is the largest prison 
system in the world. According to his peers he was the most 
respected figure in national "corrections". He was power 
personified, and to more than 40,000 employees in over a hundred 
prisons he was god. He had been with the TDCJ for nearly 24 years 
and his $120,000 a year salary plus benefits seemed to be enough 
to get him by, but it is said in toilets all over Texas, wherever 
prisoncrats meet, that ol' Andy was one never to let an easy buck 
escape his greedy grasp.

VitaPro was one of those little bird nests on the ground that Andy 
was so good at pouncing upon. The contract he made for VitaPro was 
one of those no- bid, under-the-table, let's-make-some-money deals 
that Andy loved, and if it hadn't been for a Collins henchman by 
the name of Patrick H. Graham, who got busted with both hands 
stuck in the cookie jar, Texas prisoners would still be eating the 
garbage.

But first, let me tell you non-Texas prisoners about VitaPro. It 
all started one day in November '94 when I went into the chow hall 
hungry as hell. I had been working since 6 a.m. and it was now 12 
noon. As I entered the dining room there was an evil smell not 
unlike about 5,000 dirty socks, each with its own personal stench. 
I thought how I wished I had eaten breakfast, but breakfast for 
Texas prisoners takes place at 3 am and I don't do nothin' at 3 
a.m. but sleep. The closer I got to the serving line the more I 
realized it wasn't dirty socks at all, but a new, so-called "food" 
Andy Collins had wanted us to eat, called VitaPro. Manufactured in 
Canada from a soy base, it was nasty, it stunk and it was 
inedible. Many of us wouldn't eat it at all, but for over a year 
you either ate VitaPro or tried to exist on spoonfuls of beans, 
carrots and greens. When we wouldn't eat it, they gradually cut 
down all food, trying to starve us into eating it.

They have a chain gang without chains in Texas and they call it 
the line. Guys working the line are picking cotton or hoeing the 
hard ground in the blistering Texas sun all day, and in order to 
survive they had to eat VitaPro. Many of the ones who were eating 
it began to sicken. They were stricken with rashes, boils, 
diarrhea and chronic fatigue when, lo and behold, on January 4, 
1996 a good ol' boy in the Texas prison business (who was Andy 
Collins' business associate) got busted in the parking lot of an 
On The Border restaurant in Houston, just as he was stuffing 15 
bundles of cash - each bundle containing 10 thousand dollar bills 
- into his hungry briefcase. The money was to be a down payment on 
the half million dollars Mr. Collins' road-dog wanted to engineer 
the escape of a former millionaire, still a rat, wife-murderer 
doing 75 years in a Texas prison.

Patrick H. Graham, the man who was selling escapes on the 
installment plan, was a builder of prisons with a shaky past. He 
told the wife-murderer's girlfriend he was a top prison official 
named Harold Robert, and demonstrated on several occasions that he 
had inside connections with Andy Collins. The plan called for her 
boyfriend to be transferred to a hospital, and then be re- 
classified for minimum security so he could work as a trusty on an 
outside detail. Graham would pick him up in a car, whisk him to 
the airport, and fly him to Costa Rica in his private plane. But 
the part that delivered us from VitaPro was the fact that Graham 
had a business card on him saying that he was a representative of 
VitaPro. hee hee hee. 

Because Graham and Collins were associates, and because the escape 
plot wouldn't have worked without Collins making the re-
classification and transfer, and due to the fact that Graham and 
Collins had appeared together inside a prison to visit one of the 
players in the escape plot, questions were flying in the media and
investigations were being launched and the links between Graham, 
Collins and VitaPro were exposed to the light of day. Even 
Governor George Bush, Jr. expressed his shock and outrage that one 
of the members of his gang would make 6 million crooked VitaPro 
dollars without him being in on it. 

The initial VitaPro contract was for $6.7 million which would buy 
17 metric tons of beef and chicken- flavored VitaPro each month 
for five years. No competitive bidding. It got so good for them 
that they later jacked it up to $33.7 million. The plot was for 
Texas Corrections Industries (TCI) to become exclusive 
distributors in North America excepting Georgia, Louisiana and 7 
federal prisons that were already using VitaPro. Texas would be 
paid 15% commission on any sales made.
Mathematicians among us will note that the first contract made 
someone just over $1 million, and the larger one made those same 
someones more than $5 million. There were, however, several slight 
problems: (1) Us convicts wouldn't eat it. (Just say no! to 
VitaPro! was the watchword of the day.) (2) They couldn't sell it 
(at a product
demonstration in California, the VitaPro meal came out so pasty it 
stuck to the spoon. And when Missouri officials opened a bag 
shipped to them for a test meal, they spotted a dead mouse 
inside). And then (3) the great escape plot got busted, causing 
investigations into just about everything, especially VitaPro. And 
somewhere in a rusty cage an old deer could be heard chortling far 
into the night.

The VitaPro deal was brought to Collins by Charles Terrell, a 
Dallas insurance executive who went into the private prison 
business after he stepped down as Chairman of the Board of 
Corrections in 1990. 

In February '94, Collins called all his top aides to a meeting 
where VitaPro was pitched by Terrell and Azie Morton, a former 
U.S. Treasury Secretary who was peddling VitaPro. They stressed 
that it was cheaper than meat, it required no refrigeration so it 
was cheaper to store and ship, and it is fat- free so as to give 
the prisoners a healthier diet (they're worried sick about our 
health, that's the reason they took our cigarettes), and all you 
have to do is add water and cook and it is tender, succulent and 
delicious. Yummy!

So the executive director leaned favorably in VitaPro's direction 
and, of course, all his underlings leaned with him. Within weeks, 
the prison system opened competitive bidding for a test. Two 
companies made bids:

VitaPro at $62,000, and an Indiana company whose price was roughly 
a fifth of that amount. They rejected the low bid because it did 
not meet their specifications(?!). In a memo that surfaced they 
also acknowledged that VitaPro's bid did not offer a cost saving 
when compared to real meat and chicken.

Instead of a second round of bidding they awarded the contract to 
VitaPro, invoking a little-known provision in state law that 
allows Texas prisons to buy materials without competitive bids for 
the Prison Industries program. In order to get this together, 
Collins had to cut the head of Texas Corrections Industries, Larry 
Kyle, in on the deal by giving him a $13,200 annual pay raise and 
promoting him to deputy director, bringing his pay up to $75,744. 
(Kyle has since been suspended pending the outcome of the 
investigations.) 

They planned to resell it to their own food services departments 
plus other prison systems. This repackaging business caused the 
prison grapevine to go wild with rumors that VitaPro was animal 
food from Canada, and that it was being repackaged because the 
original packages said "Not for Human Consumption". These were 
great rumors and I loved them, but unfortunately they are quite 
untrue. But that they were, we could all be rich by suing for 
damages caused by that armadillo food. 

Yank Barry, the CEO of VitaPro, has complained that the prisons 
fed it once a day instead of three times a week. He also said that 
the water to mash ratio was too high. Janie Thomas, assistant 
director of food services for TDCJ said that Andy Collins ordered 
her to "rewrite" the menus to place VitaPro on every prisoner's 
plate once a day. So Yank is right about that. But on the ratio 
complaint , Ms. Thomas said she developed a chart showing how much 
water should be mixed with VitaPro and sent it to Yank Barry for 
approval before she sent it to prison cooks. She said Barry 
approved the water to mash formula. So go figure. 

To settle the taste-test business I must refer you to John Kelso 
who writes for the Austin American- Statesman. What he did was 
take a mess of VitaPro to three great eateries in Austin. He said 
in part: "I've decided not to rob any banks in Texas because if I 
ever eat VitaPro again it will be too darn soon. I took some of 
the soy-based meat substitute to some Austin restaurants and asked 
some cooks to prepare it--P.U. But don't blame the cooks. This 
would be like asking someone to knit a nice sweater out of navel 
lint."

The first VitaPro test was at the swank Shoreline Grill where 
executive chef Dan Haverty whipped up a fancy dish he called 
"Huntsville Chicken". Using the tricks of the master chef, he 
tossed in dried habanero pepper and guajillo powder. Forming 
VitaPro into a cutlet, rolling it in bread crumbs and deep-frying 
it, he laid it on top of a bed of ancho sweet potatoes. He 
decorated the plate with yellow tomato basil sauce and other 
colorful items, and set a high dollar bottle of La Grande Dame 
champagne on the table with it. Kelso says, "He should have sucked 
down the booze and tossed the VitaPro cutlet in the lake." He said 
the aftertaste was sidling up on raunchy. Chef Haverty said it was 
due to all those nine-syllable ingredients mentioned on the bag.

Then he went down to Dirty's hamburger joint just north of the 
drag, where owner Mark Nemir made burgers out of the beef-flavored 
burger mix. It wasn't pretty. "It reminds me of a mash my dad used 
to feed the chickens."

Kelso went on to the Texas Chili Parlor where John Cook prepared 
beef-flavored VitaPro for tacos. The fake beef while simmering had 
an odor Cook referred to as "roadkill helper". I still maintain it 
smells like dirty socks. But the experts generally agreed that 
VitaPro is best used as a crime prevention tool.

The only good thing about VitaPro is that Yank Barry is one of our 
own: an ex-convict...ta da! Yank did his time in Canada under his 
real name, Gerald Falovitch. I, of course, support ex-cons, but in 
Yank's case I think the support would be one-sided. So I'll just 
have to go along with my stomach and say, Yank, old bean, you've 
sure got a shitty product, and I hope you made Andy eat some of it 
with a straight face when he was trying to peddle it.

Yank runs in some high-powered company these days. Would you 
believe his pal Andy even ordered him an identification badge that 
claims Yank is an Official? The most Yank would be entitled to 
without an ex-con background would be a vendor i.d. badge, which 
is very limited. With the ex-con thing he wouldn't be able to get 
any i.d. at all unless it was the kind I wear. Mr. Falovitch says 
that Collins and Corrections Board Chairman Allan Polunsky both 
knew he had been in prison. Polunsky, however, hotly denied he 
knew. Now there is an investigation into badges and who got how 
many of what kind. Andy offered his resignation in September '95. 
It became effective January 1, '96 and no sooner did he hit the 
ground than he had a one-thousand-dollar-a-day consultant job with 
guess who??? VitaPro. When that hit the papers he quit that job. 
Now there's a bunch of stuff about no-bid fence contracts, and 
lying under oath to a senate committee which should keep the man 
who would be king of VitaPro busy in his retirement years. But the 
investigation has been taken out of the hands of Andy's prison 
gang at Internal Affairs of the TDCJ and placed into the capable 
hands of the dreaded Texas Rangers.

It is ironic that VitaPro came to an end in Texas prisons not 
because it is garbage not fit to eat, but rather because the 
keepers of the kept have once again proved to be bigger crooks 
than the little crooks they keep.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

--a Texas Prisoner, Jun. 10, 1996


U.S. RIGHT TO LIFE VIOLATIONS

Following are some findings by U.N. Human rights investigator 
Bacre Waly Ndiaye on American death row cases. The report did not 
provide informationon where these cases took place or include 
hometowns for the people listed.

People allegedly sentenced to death despite their serious mental 
retardation: Mario Marquez, Roosevelt Pollard, Maurice Andrews, 
Willie Clisby, Varnall Weeks, Girview Davis, Larry Lonchar, Luis 
Mata, Robert Brecheen, Barry Fairchild, Frederic Jermyn and 
Anthony Joe Larette
Those said to have been sentenced to death after trial in which 
their full rights to adequate defense had not been ensured: Alan 
Jeffery Bannister, Kermit Smith, Calvin Burdine and Robert T. 
Sidebottom

Those allegedly sentenced to death despite strong indications 
casting doubts about their guilt: Gregory Resnover, Jesse Jacobs, 
Nicholas Ingram, Larry Griffin, Joseph Spaziano and Dennis Waldon 
Stockton.

Those sentenced to death after a trial allegedly marked by racial 
bias: Hernando Williams, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Thomas Joe Miller-El.

Sentenced to death without any resort to any appeals: Thomas 
Grasso.

Sentenced to death by a judge overruling a unanimous jury 
recommendation of life imprisonment: Raleigh Porter.

--an Indiana prisoner, June 1996


***WHAT NON-PRISONERS CAN DO TO SUPPORT
PRISONERS***

*1. Struggle with, work with, finance and join MIM. The best way 
to support prisoners is to overthrow the system under which 
capitalists profit from the exploitation of prisoners. History 
shows that the best way to do this is to build a Marxist-Leninist- 
Maoist party. The oppressors will not give up their power without 
a fight.
*2. Finance MIMÕs prison work. Our biggest bill each month is 
postage. Most of the prison comrades who read MIM Notes have no 
way of paying for it. So if you have money, send what you can 
afford. Every cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. 
*3. Distribute MIM Notes and Notas Rojas. Bring the voices of 
prisoners and their supporters to as large and wide an audience of 
people as possible. Contact MIM for bulk rates and distribution 
tips. *4. Start or join a prison support group. MIM can provide 
advice and resources to help you build public opinion for 
prisoners and their struggles. *5. Fight censorship, beatings, 
torture and other fascist outrages. Under Lock and Key often 
features the addresses of prisonersÕ friends and enemies. Work 
with the friends and let the enemies know youÕre watching. (DonÕt 
expect to win the fascists to the side of humanity, however. See 
#1 in this list).
*6. Stay in touch. Keep us informed of pro-prisoner work you do. 
Our readers might find it educational or inspirational.


***WHAT PRISONERS CAN DO TO BUILD MIM*** *1. Start a study group. 
This is the best way to share materials and ideas. In groups, 
prisoners can better benefit from the limited resources MIM has. 
*2. Get MIM Notes and MIM Theory into your library. This allows 
one copy of the paper to be seen by many comrades.
*3. Contact people on the outside. MIM needs comrades and allies 
everywhere. Maybe you know people on the outside who want to 
subscribe to MIM Notes or distribute it.
*4. Share materials. If MIM sends books or periodicals, please 
make sure that as many people as possible get a chance to read 
them.
*5. Write MIM at least every three months. Otherwise, you will be 
dropped from our mailing list. There are many cases where your 
keepers throw out MIM Notes, so we need to know that you actually 
get it. Also, comrades are moved around a lot, especially those 
who are known to be political. Please let us know of any address 
changes as soon as you know them.
*6. Make MIM Distributors an official distributor. Many prisons 
require registration before MIM can send books or other materials. 
Usually we can comply with these bogus rules. It helps immensely 
to have someone there do the reasearch and send us the proper 
forms.
*7. Send money or stamps. Our biggest bill each month is postage. 
Most of the prison comrades who read MIM Notes have no way of 
paying for it. So if you have money, send what you can afford. 
Every cent helps, and stamps are as good as cash to us. Please 
make all checks payable to ŌMIM
Distributors.Ķ
*8. Write for MIM Notes or Notas Rojas. Prisoners write almost all 
of Under Lock & Key. We donÕt care if you know how to spell or 
write good English or Spanish. Write on any topic you like, it 
does not have to be a prison story.
*9. Translate. If you can read and write English and another 
language fluently, let us know. Any translation work you do will 
help us make Maoist ideas accessible to more people.
*10. Fight censorship. When you know of censorship of books or 
newspapers, investigate. Write to MIM to confirm what has 
happened, then see what you can do about it.
*11. Keep in touch after your release. Many comrades stop doing 
political work after their release. Write to MIM as soon as you 
know where youÕll be so we can hook you up with comrades on the 
outside.


* * *


FBI STEPS UP SURVEILLANCE AND REPRESSION 

by MC12

The FBI is rapidly increasing its powers within U.S. borders, and 
devoting more and more resources to secret surveillance and 
investigations in the name of "national security." This year 
Congress beefed up the 1978 Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA), a 1978 law, which "permits secret 
buggings and wiretaps of individuals suspected of being agents of 
a hostile foreign government or international terrorist 
organization, even when the target is not suspected of committing 
any crime."(1)

The number of intelligence gathering or national- security 
wiretaps approved in 1994 was 576, which was more than the 554 
approved for federal criminal cases. By 1995 the number of such 
FISA
authorizations had jumped to 697. And the first three months of 
this year are running more than 20% ahead of last year's rate, 
which means the total this year would be around 830, for a total 
44% increase over two years.

The rate of increase may further accelerate because this year 
Congress widened FISA to permit property searches instead of just 
electronic surveillance. Now, "anytime an FBI agent wants to enter 
a private home to conduct a national security investigation, he or 
she has to secure the permission of a court ... that ordinary 
citizens cannot visit, whose files cannot be publicly reviewed, 
and which presides in secret in a restricted area" of the Justice 
Department.(2) The secret court of judges in the Justice 
Department has received thousands of requests, and never ever 
rejected one of them. 

In 1995 there were 2,000 FBI special agents assigned to foreign 
counterintelligence, spending more than $500 million. A lot of 
this is for alleged economic and industrial espionage, but the 
powers they have can be used for political purposes as well. 
Attorney General Janet Reno, whose appointment pleased pseudo-
feminists everywhere, is the main leader of the buildup. A "major 
supporter of wiretapping and electronic surveillance," she signs 
every request for surveillance.(3) 

Unlike searches in criminal cases, which are supposedly covered by 
the Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and 
seizure, investigations under FISA do not require the 
justification of "probable cause," and the subjects of the 
investigations never have a chance to attack the searches in 
court, if they ever find out about them. The Justice Department 
reviews requests for searches and passes them on to the secret 
judges. 

The woman who used to be in charge of passing on requests, a non-
famous lawyer named Mary Lawton, received the CIA Seal Medallion 
when she died, and was eulogized by Reno and FBI Director Louis 
Freeh. It was her job to push them through with legal 
justifications. Freeh said at her funeral, "Her favorite 
expression was: 'You owe me bigtime' -- and believe me, we do owe 
her bigtime."(4) 

A big use of the FISA surveillance was the famous Committee to 
Support the People of El Salvador (CISPES) case, in which 1,330 
groups were put under surveillance in the early 1980s; no one was 
ever charged with a crime. CISPES coordinated support for the 
FMLN's war against the Amerikan-backed Salvadoran government. That 
investigation produced a lot of files on people that could have 
been used for anything, and still might be.

One of the first cases in which the FBI used the new property-
search power, according to a recent Washington Post article, was 
after the subway gas attack in Japan. Within two days they had 
permission to break into the apartment of members of the Japanese 
religious group suspected of committing the attack, searching and 
bugging the apartment and tapping the phones. There was no 
evidence anyone there did anything wrong (and it had not been 
proved that the group in Japan was responsible), no probable 
cause, and the search turned up nothing but they left the bugs 
behind. 

Just because the FISA searches aren't covered by the Fourth 
Amendment doesn't mean the information they supposedly turn up 
can't be used in criminal cases. There have been more than 50 
cases in which FISA evidence was used for criminal prosecutions, 
including the case of the man suspected of being a member of Abu 
Nidal who was allegedly tape-recorded as he killed his daughter. 
The tape was used in court in Missouri and he was sentenced to 
death in the case. The courts have said this use is fine as long 
as the "primary purpose" of the surveillance is a legitimate 
national security interest rather than a criminal case.

We highlight this story because it reveals a big part of the 
imperialist state's repressive apparatus. Anyone or any group can 
be categorized as "terrorist," a category that obviously includes 
all heroic resistance to imperialism, such as the people's wars in 
Peru or the Philippines. Even though these thousands of cases of 
"legal" surveillance are kept secret, MIM always assumes anything 
formally recognized understates the actual amount of surveillance 
and repression. Part of a course toward fascism is the increasing 
legitimacy of such anti-democratic forces. The legal process has 
no problem allowing this, and the mainstream political process 
welcomes increases in repression. For every act of repression the 
pigs admit to, revolutionaries know from experience that more is 
happening off the books.

NOTES:
1. Washington Post Magazine article "Someone to Watch Over Us," 
June 23, 1996, adopted from the forthcoming book Main Justice, by 
Jim McGee and Brian Duffy, Simon and Schuster, 1996. p. 10. 2. 
Ibid., p. 25.
3. Ibid., p. 12.
4. Ibid., p. 21.


* * *


MORE PIG BRUTALITY IN NEW YORK

by MC313

On Sunday May 26, 21 year-old Shane Daniels was beaten into a coma 
by off-duty NYC detective Constantine Chronis outside the Club 
Marakesh in Westhampton, L.I.. Witness stories contain conflicting 
details, but all agree the attack was unprovoked and racially 
motivated. Daniels is Black and the police officer is white. 
Witnesses say that the pig yelled racial epithets at Daniels and 
his friends before launching the physical attack in which one of 
the pigs companions held back the crowd with a gun while the pig 
beat Daniels with a steel steering-wheel-locking device called 
"The Club." (1) Daniels was in a coma for about a week and 
suffered serious brain swelling from repeated blows to his head. 
Daniel's doctor said that he will probably have some permanent 
loss of vision. The pig is being held on $1 million bond or 
$500,000 bail and was suspended without pay. Detective Chronis' 
companions have not yet been identified.

Blacks are beat and killed all the time by police officers, 
usually ones who are on duty. However, this case is different 
because the pig got caught. There is no room to claim that the 
Black man was a threat to the officers life, as they often try to 
do in less obvious cases of police brutality. Detective Chronis 
was responsible for initiating the violence and continuing the 
beating of the defenseless Danials with a steel club. The officers 
fled the scene when they heard sirens.

One of the victims friends believes that the incident was over the 
fact that a white woman accompanied the group of Black men. The 
witness said that "they didn't like the fact that we were with a 
white girl." (2)

The pigs have the job of protecting white-nation interests and 
helping to enforce national oppression through constant harassment 
and violence against oppressed nation people. This officer likes 
his job so much that he couldn't contain himself when off duty 
from almost killing a Black man just for existing (and maybe for 
being in the presence of a white woman).

MIM reports on incidents of police brutality to expose the reality 
of this criminal injustice system. Join MIM in fighting against 
all imperialist brutality. Only through revolutionary struggle to 
seize power will the oppressed end imperialist sponsored violence. 
Maoism is the most effective revolutionary strategy as has been 
proven in practice in China and continues to be proven today in 
revolutions around the world.

NOTES:
1. NYT May 31, 1996, p.2A.
2. NYT May 30, 1996, p.A1.


* * *


AFFIRMATIVE ACTION SETBACK IN TEXAS

The verdict in a recent Texas case, **Hopwood et al. vs. The State 
of Texas,** continues the trend towards more reactionary cutbacks 
in affirmative action across the United Snakes. The circuit court 
pointed out the facts of affirmative action as if they were 
crimes: "With the best of intentions, in order to increase the 
enrollment of certain favored classes of minority students, the 
University of Texas School of Law discriminates in favor of those 
applicants by giving substantial racial preferences in its 
admissions program. The beneficiaries of this system are blacks 
and Mexican Americans, to the detriment of whites and non-
preferred minorities."(1) MIM thinks that affirmative action that 
benefits Blacks and Latinos to the detriment of whites is a good 
thing. Whites have all the advantages in Amerika, so policies that 
force some small balancing of the scales are progressive. 

The plaintiffs, white applicants to the UT Law School, claimed 
their rights were violated when they were not admitted. The court 
said there is no justification that allows UT "to continue to 
elevate some races over others, even for the wholesome purpose of 
correcting perceived racial imbalance in the student body."(1) Of 
course they neglected to comment on the issue of why it is OK for 
UT to elevate the white race over others by considering only 
biased tests like the SAT and LSAT for admissions or by looking at 
grade point averages without accounting for the circumstances of 
the Black and Latino kids who lived in the projects and worked 
part- time all through high school compared to the white kids who 
had private tutors.

In addition to a number of stupid comments from the court 
addressing a non-issue by arguing that race is not determinist in 
a student's achievement or abilities, this case sets a clear 
precedent for an incorrect evaluation of affirmative action. 
Affirmative action is a minor reform in a country that has, for 
500 years, discriminated against certain groups and favored other 
groups. There is no fairness to inner city kids being harassed by 
pigs for walking the streets, or having to work while going to 
school, or going to schools that are poorly funded because their 
property taxes are lower because they can't afford to live in the 
wealthy neighborhood. There is also no fairness in the SAT which 
is a better measure of one's whiteness and maleness than one's 
"intelligence". As one UT student put it "Given that slavery 
lasted more than 200 years, shouldn't we give affirmative action 
an equal time span to prove itself effective?"(1)

A recent study by the University of Texas Press supports MIM's 
understanding of discrimination in Amerika; it points out that 
Latino students who drop out of high school do so because of 
failures in the school system not because their family does not 
value education. For instance, the schools overestimated the 
educational and financial resources of the Latino parents in the 
study. Schools assumed that parents would make up for educational 
deficiencies in their children even though most of the parents of 
the Latino kids had less than a high school education themselves. 
One school consistently placed students who were having trouble 
into the low-level programs or other punishment environments where 
teacher help was hard to find.(2) This is just one small piece of 
a whole system that does not make growing up in Amerika a fair 
contest between different nationalities. 

MIM thinks that all education should be available to all people 
who want it and that there should be no arbitrary admission 
"standards", especially none based on incorrect estimations of 
success like biased standardized tests. While affirmative action 
is a progressive reform under capitalism that helps a few more 
members of oppressed nations get an education they can use to 
fight against this repressive system, we fight for the day when 
education will be open to everyone. MIM works toward an 
educational system that encourages growth and learning in everyone 
regardless of their nation, class or gender.


NOTES:
1. The University Review, The Independent Student Journal at The 
University of Texas at Austin, May 15, 1996.
2. Arriba, June 14-June 27, 1996, p.5.


* * *


PEOPLE'S MEDIA NEEDED FOR PROTEST COVERAGE 

by a comrade

A new study of media coverage of political protests documents that 
the bourgeois media selectively covers protests and ignores most 
of them and the coverage appears to be decreasing. The study 
looked for word of 1,209 Washington, D.C. demonstrations in 1982 
and 1,856 demonstrations in 1991 in the New York Times, Washington 
Post, and the three leading TV network evening newscasts.

In 1982, 13% of all protests were reported in any of those 
sources, and that dropped to just 7.1% in 1991. Coverage for 
protests with 101-1,000 participants dropped from 34.7% to 11.9%. 
Even among protests with 1,001-10,000 participants, less than one-
half were reported in 1982 (47.1%), and less than one-third were 
reported in 1991 (29.8%). 

There are many tiny protests in Washington, so the authors of the 
study also compared how many of the total demonstration 
participants were at demonstrations that were reported. In 1982 
that was 80.1%, and it dropped to 29.8% in 1991.

The study has some problems: it only counted demonstrations with 
permits (although they did figure out how to include some 
unpermitted demonstrations) and they used the projected 
participant size rather than actual size of the demonstration 
(which would have to be collected from media sources and are 
generally an
underestimate). But the results are strong enough to overlook 
these shortfalls and allow us to make some general conclusions.

The results give a clear picture of what MIM has been saying for 
years: protest strategies that rely on bourgeois media coverage 
either end up catering to bourgeois media views, or go unreported 
and therefore ignored. Instead, MIM says to build a people's media 
as an independent institution of the oppressed and we publish the 
newspapers, journals, pamphlets, and texts on the Internet to back 
this up.

Two specific findings confirm MIM's point. First, the single 
greatest factor influencing whether bourgeois media covers a 
protest was size. The lesson there is clear: cater to the 
mainstream to get the biggest numbers if you want bourgeois press 
attention. Second, "media cycles" were a very important factor in 
determining selective coverage. That is, protests focusing on 
subjects that the media was already covering got press time. 
Protests that diverged from the media agenda were largely ignored.

The authors conclude: "The likelihood that a protest will be 
reported by the mass media is shaped by forces mostly beyond the 
control of most protest groups, unless they are capable of 
generating mass participation in demonstrations." Further, the 
relative influence of "media cycles" increased between 1982 and 
1991, and the role of protest size diminished, especially with TV 
news. 

The media have further tightened their selective restrictions for 
who gets press. MIM says: let 'em have their press. The people 
have their own! 

SOURCE: "Media Bias in the Coverage of Washington, D.C. 
Demonstrations," by John D. McCarthy, Clark McPhail and Jackie 
Smith. American Sociological Review, Vol. 61, No. 3, June 1996, 
pp. 478-499. 

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