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         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

MIM Notes 132               FEBRUARY 15, 1997


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.  MORAIL AND MASSES EXPOSE MURDEROUS PIG BRUTALITY
2.  SAN FRAN COPS DODGE BLAME IN MAN'S MURDER
3.  LETTERS TO MIM AND RAIL
4.  'DEMOCRATIC' AMERIKAN ELECTIONS EXCLUDE PRISONERS
5.  'LIBERATION' OF HEBRON CONTINUES PALESTINE MYTHS
6.  RALLYISTS REMEMBER MASSACRE VICTIMS & VOW TO CARRY 
    ON THE FIGHT
7.  FRENCH CONTINUE IMPERIALIST MURDER IN CENTRAL 
    AFRICAN REPUBLIC
8.  ALABAMA USES MIDIEVAL PUNISHMENT ON PRISONERS
9.  PAPER TIGERS: CIA TEACHES TORTURE
10. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND 
    PRISONS
11. STUDENTS: SEIZE THE TIME! DEFEND ABILITY TO 
    ORGANIZE INDEPENDENT OF ADMINISTRATIONS
12. NEWS OF THE WEIRD SHOULD BE CALLED NEWS OF THE 
    BOURGEOISIE
13. AMERIKAN ENVIRO BOWL XXXI?
14. CULTURE: SHINE AND EVITA REVIEWED
15. CHINESE STATE-CAPITALISM: HEAVY-HANDED RESPONSE 
    TO RELIGION


* * *


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


* * *

MORAIL & MASSES EXPOSE MURDEROUS PIG BRUTALITY

by a MORAIL comrade

Responding to a call by MORAIL (The Missouri 
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League), the families 
of victims of police murder and other opponents of 
police terror gathered on January 25th to organize at 
a church in St. Louis. The meeting was prompted by the 
recent murder of an unarmed Black man on October 10th 
1996.

47 year-old Randy Vance called the St. Louis pigs 
while suffering hallucinations that someone was in his 
home and "going to kill him." When pigs Harold Stone 
and Mark MacCurrey entered the apartment, they 
immediately subdued their victim and restrained him 
with handcuffs and ankle cuffs.

For thirty minutes, they beat him with nightsticks and 
flashlights, kicking and stomping their victim as they 
dragged him from his home. They dragged him down 
twelve concrete steps. Ignoring his pleas for them to 
stop, they continued to stomp and kick him. Minutes 
after the torture, Mr. Vance died.

More than two months later, St. Louis Chief Medical 
Examiner Dr. Michael Graham ruled "agitated delirium 
syndrome" as the cause of death. This rationalization 
covers up the 30-minute beating by concluding that the 
victim died as a result of ingesting cocaine combined 
with police restraints, thus (supposedly) increasing 
the victim's body temperature to the point of 
death.(1)

MORAIL describes "agitated delirium syndrome" as 
unscientific because there is no consensus in the 
medical community that it is a viable cause of death. 
The St. Louis Post-dispatch published a front page in-
depth article on this pseudo-scientific cause of death 
admitting that, "More than a decade after the syndrome 
was first described by a Miami medical examining 
team... doctors still do not have a good understanding 
of agitated delirium."2)

In response to the cover-up, the pastor of the church 
which Mr. Vance attended, along with his family and 
MORAIL called a press conference displaying pictures 
of the beaten body of Randy Vance to expose the white-
wash. They demanded justice and immediately proceeded 
to the office of the circuit attorney, Dee Joyce 
Hayes, who refused to see the outraged seekers of 
justice. However, an appointment was made for the 
following week which proved to be fruitless.

Because the chief medical examiner had concluded that 
the pseudo-scientific "agitated delirium syndrome" was 
the cause of death, the only charge Hayes said she 
could possibly tag the pigs with would be assault. She 
said internal affairs was investigating it, and 
pending the results, she may consider a grand jury 
investigation. MORAIL knows that no such thing will be 
done without mass agitation.

(Hayes stated that in the 15 years that she has been 
circuit attorney, she has NEVER prosecuted a pig and 
put him or her in prison. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch 
reported on May 7 1978, "In the St. Louis area, about 
1,400 complaints of police abuse were made to 
authorities in the last seven years. Only about 10 
resulted in trials or guilty pleas." So, according to 
a St. Louis city government official, and a mainstream 
well-established liberal newspaper, St. Louis pigs 
have been getting away with murder and brutality with 
impunity for at least the last 26 years.) (3)

At the church meeting, an eyewitness to Mr. Vance's 
murder recalled the details of it. The mother of 
another police murder, recalled how her son, Walter 
Bynam, was forced to get on his knees and then shot in 
the head by one of St. Louis' "finest." This was 
followed by a talk from a relative of Garland Carter 
Jr., who was shot in the back by police last year. 
S/he spoke of the importance of documenting police 
abuse (vindicating MIM and RAIL's practice of exposing 
police brutality).

A representative from the Mayor's office and an 
alderperson spoke about the people's responsibility to 
combat crime. Their vague solutions to combat police 
violence were relegated to legislation and electoral 
politics. The meeting was structured by pastor of the 
church (not MORAIL) without any democratic input from 
the participants and no concrete plan of action 
resulted. The preacher talked about organizing a mass 
demonstration against police brutality. But MORAIL has 
learned, through experience, that the preacher really 
wants to discourage such activity. The meeting 
adjourned without any date set for a future meeting or 
action of any type except for an announcement by 
MORAIL about our own organizing meeting. When 
announcing it, everyone extended a hand for a flyer.

When the meeting adjourned participants marched 
several blocks to the sight where Walter Bynam was 
murdered by St. Louis pigs. A wreath was then given to 
his mother.

NOTES:
1. See MIM Notes Nov 15, 96, p. 3 "St. Louis police 
beat former prisoner to death", and RAIL Notes Winter 
1997, p. 1, Amerikkkan Injustice Rules; St. Louis 
Medical Examiner Covers for St. Louis Pigs 
2. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan 13, 1997, p. 1A and 
5A.
3.  St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 7, 1978, pp. 1A and 
12A "Policeman's Badge: A License To Break The Law?"


* * *

SAN FRAN COPS DODGE BLAME FOR MURDERING MASS

by a comrade

On January 15th, 100 angry people demanded that the 
San Francisco Police Commission give a harder look to 
police misconduct when it looks into charges on 
January 22nd that five officers assaulted Aaron 
Williams with pepper-spray, denied him prompt medical 
attention and then lied to investigators about the 
situation.

On November 20th, the San Francisco Police Commission 
on a 2-2 vote, acquitted police officer Marc Andaya of 
using "unnecessary force" in the murder of Aaron 
Williams, who died in the back of a police van parked 
outside the Richmond station in June 1995.(1)

According to the San Francisco medical examiner, 
Williams died of "'excited delirium' caused by acute 
cocaine poisoning." But Williams also "suffered 18 
injuries during the arrest struggle, and some 
witnesses have testified that they saw Andaya kick 
[Williams] in the head."

Andaya even admits to kicking Williams but he uses the 
excuse that the kick was only to dislodge a can of 
paper spray from his hands.(1) (Of course, the 
question of who brought reactive chemicals like pepper 
spray into the situation wasn't addressed by the Pro-
Police Commission.)

This is not the first time that Andaya has been 
accused of brutality. In 1984, police rookie Andaya 
fatally shot Jerry Stancill, an unarmed Black man, and 
was "suspended for 30 days in 1985 for allegedly 
choking a suspect. In 1993, the Oakland Police Review 
Board found him guilty of using excessive force 
against another African American man."(1) During the 
investigation of the murder of Williams, Andaya has 
remained on the force. Though suspending one pig does 
not fundamentally change the purpose of the entire 
occupying police forces in Amerika's internal 
colonies, allowing pigs to continue to police while 
under investigation for murder shows the genuine 
interest of the police system to repress and 
subordinate Amerika's oppressed nations.

The Rev. Donnell Miles, pastor of the First AME Church 
in Richmond, told the Examiner, regarding Andaya:  
"When they have identified a bad egg, they should 
rectify that."(1) This is a naive view of justice in 
Amerika. The brutality and extra-judicial killings of 
oppressed nationals by the police is essential to 
Amerika's struggle to maintain control. Officers like 
Andaya are a problem only in that getting caught 
attracts unnecessary attention to the police. Miles is 
correct to oppose police brutality, but incorrect to 
think that the police have an interest in removing the 
most brutal of cops.

Jim Collins, Pig Andaya's attorney said on the vote: 
"The charges were not sustained against him.... We won 
and we are happy."(1) MIM doesn't expect the just-us 
system of the government to play much of a progressive 
role against police brutality. However, here even the 
government body set up to oversee the San Francisco 
police had its doubts even beyond the tied vote.

According to San Francisco Examiner sources, it wasn't 
a clear decision for the two members of the commission 
who voted for the officer:

"Commissioner Clothilde Hewlitt -- who voted in favor 
of the cops -- was clearly teary-eyed. 'Chloe kept 
saying how she was torn between being a leader in the 
African American community and her feeling toward the 
police,'

"Word is, Keker, who voted not to pursue charges, also 
had doubts about the cops' truthfulness about what 
happened.

"'He felt he had to show support for the cops,' the 
source said."(2)

MIM prints this long quotation because it shows how 
small-time government leaders recognize the importance 
of the police. Whether they truly believe the pig 
propaganda about being out numbered and out-gunned by 
"rising" crime, or whether this is in response to the 
political clout held by the police, it shows that how 
little real oversight exists over the police in the 
current system and how the system co-opts progressive 
minded people.

NOTES:
1. The San Francisco Examiner, 21 January, 1997, p. 
A1, A5. 
2. The San Francisco Examiner, 22 November, 1996, p. 
A25.
3. The San Francisco Chronicle, 16 January, 1997, p. 
C4.


* * *

LETTERS

THE STATE, THE RIGHT, GUNS AND MIM

Dear comrades,

I would like to respond to the article "State attacks 
Brooklyn political activists" (#128, December 15, 
1996, p.1,6).

First, I would like to thank you for this article. I 
did not hear about it form any other source (NPR, 
corporate news, progressive media). However, I would 
like to address some matters in your analysis which 
might have been inaccurate.

1. The reasons why the Second Amendment was included 
in the U.S. Constitution were several. We ought to 
first ask ourselves "Against whom did the authors and 
ratifiers of the Second Amendment intend for these 
guns to be used?" Firstly, some of the "Founding 
Fathers" were sincere libertarians (Thomas Jefferson) 
who feared the coercive power of the State and 
standing armies could be used to abridge the "rights" 
of individuals. Secondly, most, if not all, of them 
were radically anti-tax; they wanted military goals to 
be fulfilled by volunteerism ad not by paid 
professionals (also related to the first point). 
Thirdly, most of those guns would be used against 
rival settler factions (the French, English, and 
Spanish), rebellious and runaway slaves, and the 
Native Americans. Fourthly, disarming the population 
would have been totally impossible. Therefore, it is 
only partially correct when MIM wrote "The original 
point of making it a right to bear arms was to prevent 
the government from imposing tyranny on unarmed 
citizens."

2. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads 
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the 
security of a free State, the right of the people to 
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." It should 
be clear that the purpose of the "right to bear arms" 
is limited. Compare the Second Amendment to the 
others. The First Amendment does not read, in part, "A 
free, commercial press being necessary to the 
viability of a capitalist economy, Congress shall make 
no law abridging the freedom of the press." Ardent 
supporters of the Second Amendment usually stress the 
second half and ignore the first.

3. While I recognize that the NRA and MIM have little 
to nothing in common with each other, I do not think 
it is a good strategy to give them any credit for 
pointing out the government's hypocrisy because the 
NRA is equally if not more hypocritical than the 
federal government. Did they defend the so-called 
"Provisional Party of Communists?" Did they defend the 
Black Panthers or AIM? Did they defend MOVE? RAM, 
Weather Underground, etc.? I don't think so. The only 
political groups they defend are racist reactionaries 
and Christian fanatics. Following the L.A. riots of 
April 1992, they applauded shopkeepers for lethally 
defending their private property against looters. MIM 
knows whose side the NRA is on.

4. The language of the article switches in and out of 
the recognition of bourgeois rights. On one hand, MIM 
argued "there are no rights, only power struggles." On 
the other hand, MIM stated "it is illegal to restrict 
the rights of the people to bear arms." (p.1) The 
problem arose, I imagine, because: MIM was dealing 
with two forms of truth - objective, scientific truth 
(power struggles) and conventional truth (what is true 
within the bourgeois rights paradigm); and the authors 
are students of the Marx-Lenin-Mao tradition as well 
as being constantly immersed in the language of 
American political discourse.

5. MIM wrote "The founding men were not very good at 
finding out that property-owners had concentrated 
power to oppress " (p.6) Actually, the "founding 
Fathers," especially Alexander Hamilton, who MIM 
quoted, were quite aware of the connection between 
private property and the power of the State. Charles 
Bear made this point in An Economic Interpretation of 
the Constitution(1913) as did Richard Hofstadter in 
his chapter on James Madison in The American Political 
Tradition and the Men Who Made It(1948). Both pointed 
out that the "Founding Fathers" were economic elites 
who feared the power of the propertyless and 
smallholder majority. Consequently, they structured 
the federal government in such a way as to limit the 
political influence of the masses. (I suggest that MIM 
and MIM Notes readers check out the sections on 
Alexander Hamilton's economic policies as Secretary of 
the Treasury, the Whiskey Rebellion his policies 
triggered, and the federal government's response, in 
any college-level American history survey textbook. 
Boyer, et. Al. The Enduring Vision is adequate.) A 
more recent book that addresses this issue in the 
contemporary setting is Frozen Republic by Daniel 
Lazare.

6. MIM wrote "MIM does not care one way or the other 
about the Constitution .Even if we had a constitution 
of entirely correct principles, this would not ensure 
a just society because those who are in power decide 
how to interpret those documents." (p.6) MIM is 
correct on this second point. Although court cases 
involving constitution issues are initiated at the 
popular level (juries), once they are appealed, they 
go before judges. On the other hand, the masses are 
the ultimate interpreters of the Constitution because 
of the people's power to amend it (despite the 
difficulty in doing so - see #5 above). It is true 
that no document can ensure a just society. Nothing 
ensures a just society except the members of that 
society. The U.S. constitution should not be 
worshipped like a finished work of art made by some 
"genius, "but rather as what the masses have built for 
themselves thus far (right to organize, change the 
government, disseminate ideas, etc.).

7. MIM wrote "The original defenders of the 
Constitution believed the citizens should be able to 
overpower the government, including the whole army." 
(p.6) In regards to the original defenders, see my #5 
above. Rather, I would prefer to address the 
contemporary context. Defenders of the masses, global 
or in the U.S., still believe "the citizens should be 
able to overpower the government, including the whole 
army."

It is my position that the existence of the Second 
Amendment is not instrumental in fulfilling that end, 
thus it is not worth defending. Did the people of 
Kenya, Vietnam, et. Al., have the "right to bear 
arms?No, but when their situations required lethal 
self-defense, revolutionaries seized weapons from 
their oppressors.

I have "the gun argument" with friends from time-to-
time. They point to Waco, COINTELPRO, the Drug War, 
etc. and tell me I've got to be against "gun control" 
so we can protect ourselves from a tyrannical 
government. I point out to them that the Black 
Panthers, Branch Davidians, and drug dealers had guns 
and these guns didn't protect them from a tyrannical 
government. It will not affect the relationship 
between the State and the citizenry whether U.S. 
citizens allow each other to own any type of weapon 
anyone wants, or if we set restrictions based upon the 
type of weapons available. It will affect, however, in 
what kind of numbers we kill each other. An interview 
with Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie Mellon University 
(Rob Stewart, "Youth, Guns, and the Drug Trade" The 
Drug Policy Letter, Drug Policy Foundation, #30, 
Summer '96, p 28-30) indicates that the rise in the 
murder rates between 1985-95 was solely attributable 
to the drug trade and availability of guns. We are 
killing each other with our guns, not our oppressors. 
Can anyone argue that other rich Western nations are 
less democratic than the U.S. (within their own 
borders) because their people aren't as armed?

Historian Howard Zinn was quoted as saying something 
like "I'm not a pacifist. I can't look at history and 
say that great changes were not made without some 
violence. But violence is often times a sign of inept 
organizing in a movement." I agree. Let us look at 
U.S. history. The greatest events in U.S. history -- 
African-American civil rights, women's rights, labor 
union, and the anti-Vietnam war movements -- got their 
strength not from armed struggle from mass 
mobilization. A Supreme Court Justice (I can't 
remember which )once said something like "No law, no 
government institution can preserve liberty if it is 
not within the spirit of the people" I agree with MIM 
when they decry "adventurist violence" as 
counterproductive to revolutionary movements. People 
who defend the Second Amendment and carry guns but 
won't do the hard work of organizing are looking for a 
quick, romantic fix that doesn't exist. I will go this 
far with MIM: armed struggle cannot be ruled out (I'm 
not a pacifist), but I can't say that it is 
inevitable.

I hope my criticisms have not overshadowed my 
appreciation for the work MIM does.

In Struggle,

--A friend in the midwest
30 December, 1996

MIM RESPONDS: Wow, you certainly study history 
closely. That is great, an important thing to do. It 
is people like you that we need writing articles for 
MIM Notes. People who can integrate their knowledge of 
history with their understanding of current events to 
produce educational information for the public.

In response to your comments, the main disagreements 
we have with your criticisms involve the importance of 
pointing out contradictions within the bourgeoisie 
where they exist and the importance of not giving the 
government more power. We point out these 
contradictions to be able to utilize every possible 
tool against the oppressor nation.

You correctly point out that we are talking about two 
different kinds of truths:  objective and bourgeois. 
This is exactly why we talk about the contradictions 
between the NRA and the government. These are 
important to exploit when we can use them to create a 
little more freedom for the people. Of course we 
should never mislead people about the NRA's 
reactionary politics, but just as Mao was willing to 
shake hands with Nixon while calling him and the 
Amerikan government evil imperialists, we can 
sometimes use the contradictions to our advantage. 
Similarly, this is why we talk about the "right" to 
bear arms.

On the question of bearing arms, you raise some points 
similar to those who wish to ban pornography. Guns and 
pornography in the hands of the people in this country 
are both generally used to do bad things. But we know 
that the government will abuse any power it has and so 
we must fight to keep as much power from the 
government as possible during this stage of the 
struggle.

We can not support the government stepping in to 
intervene in gun fights between the people even if 
those gun fights are bad. The government does not 
represent a neutral force:  it will not do us good to 
give the government more power over the lives of the 
people. On this question, we are willing to unite the 
libertarians and whoever else we can unite to win 
battles against the government. As long as the 
communists remain in the leadership and with the 
independence of initiative we can make use of these 
other forces in our struggles.

The alternative to giving the government power is for 
us to be organizing the people to defend themselves 
against the government and the drug war being waged 
against the people, in this context we can explain why 
violence against the people is wrong.

While you are correct that ultimately it will not 
matter whether we have the "right" to bear arms or the 
"right" to free speech or any other so-called rights, 
at this point in time, these relative freedoms are 
useful. Precisely because we are not at the stage for 
armed struggle yet in this country, we are not able to 
defend our speech and actions with force.

We must resort to defending ourselves within the 
context of the legal system when possible, in order to 
secure a little more freedom to organize. This means 
that we do need to use the Constitution to defend our 
"rights" even while recognizing that these are not 
really rights. When a comrade gets arrested for giving 
out MIM Notes for free, we need to fight in court for 
their "right" to free speech if this will get our 
comrade out of prison. But we need to be clear with 
the people that we are fighting this battle in order 
to expose the contradictions in a system that claims 
to give everyone the right to free speech, and because 
we want our comrade to be free, not because we have 
some faith in the Constitution or the criminal 
injustice system.

So we must exploit the contradictions within the 
Amerikan system in order to gain some more freedom to 
organize while we work toward the day that we are able 
to overthrow this imperialist system and set up a 
people's government. And while we are doing this, we 
must not lose sight of the fact that our main enemy is 
the imperialists and we do not want any wings of the 
imperialist Amerikan government to gain any more power 
than it already has.

PRISON ON HUNGER STRIKE

Last month MIM Notes reported on a hunger strike being 
waged by a prisoner in the Texas gulag system to 
protest inhumane material conditions. Here are two 
addresses which people can write to concerning the 
hunger strike and the Texas Prison Labor Union:

Lt. Col. Ricky L. Long #PP490671
Founder
RR 3 Box 59 PP490671
Rosharon, TX 77583

Willie A. Milton # PP560104
Executive Director
RR 3 Box 59
Rosharon, TX 77583


* * *

'DEMOCRATIC' AMERIKAN ELECTIONS EXCLUDE PRISONERS

by MC53

Amerikan elections cannot further the democratic 
aspirations of Amerika's internal colonies for the 
simple fact that the election process serves only to 
bolster support for the oppressive status quo and lend 
legitimacy to the dictatorship of the imperialist 
bourgeoisie through token ballot casting.

MIM and RAIL consistently expose the hypocrisy of 
Amerikan 'democracy.' Instead of telling people to put 
all their time into counter-productive electoral 
battles, we tell them to build public opinion against 
Amerikan imperialism explicitly and build the 
independent people's institutions which will overthrow 
this evil system.

An article in today's New York Times about the non-
participation of prisoners in Amerikan elections 
vindicates MIM and RAIL's practice, showing that 
Amerika electoral politics are not a path for true 
people's liberation or true representation of the 
people.

Members of the Black nation make up 51% of the prison 
population though the Black nation only makes up 14% 
of Amerika. Black wimmin were excluded from the 
article's data despite the fact that 46% of the wimmin 
in prison were Black nationals as of 1992. That right 
there sets our understanding of how prisons are used 
as tools to control the Black nation. It's not that 
Black nationals commit more crimes than members of the 
white nation. Fact is that the criminal just-us system 
is controlled by the white nation and 
disproportionately targets members of the internal 
colonies to ensure its political power and economic 
domination.

Stemming from the pig-occupiers' disproportionate 
targeting of internal colonies, 14% of Black men of 
voting age are not allowed to participate in Amerikan 
elections. Of the 1.46 million Black men without the 
privilege of voting, 510,000 are permanently barred 
from participating in 13 states.

46 of the Amerikan states ban the participation of 
people convicted in the white nation's courts of 
felonies. 31 of those states ban participation while 
the ex-prisoner is on probation or parole. And 13 
states deny completely and permanently people 
convicted in the white nation's courts the privilege 
of voting. That blows any facade created by the 
imperialists that the state actually believes that 
prisons and the alleged crack down on crime provide 
rehabilitation.

So let's pretend that oppressed nation interests were 
represented on the ballots. Prisoners would still not 
be allowed to vote for a candidate that would work in 
their interests and end the repression of internal 
colonies through disproportionate imprisonment. 
Prisoners would also be denied the ability to vote for 
candidates who promised to change the material 
conditions of Amerika's internal colonies.

The New York Times article goes on to take a stab at 
how this affects the turn out of election results. One 
political analyst said prisoner participation in 
elections would probably not make a significant 
difference because Black nation members vote 10 to 20% 
less than white nation members and poor voters also 
turn out less in the voting boxes.

The analyst went on to say, "You have a prison system 
where black men are back in servitude ... so it all 
ends up in the minds of black Americans that the 
system is basically rigged to diminish their political 
power and recreate the plantation system with 
prisons."

Many of the prisoners who write to MIM say the same 
thing except they'd clarify that it is not just in the 
minds of the Black nation that severe oppression and 
exploitation exist in the prison system and that the 
Black nation has no political power within the united 
snakes. It's reality.

MIM devotes at least two pages each issue to the 
letters, announcements and articles written by 
prisoners. We do this so that we can push political 
organization forward in mobilizing people to see what 
interests the prison system serves and who is 
affected. We print Under Lock & Key to enable 
prisoners to organize and know what is going on in 
other comrades' struggles. We support national 
liberation so that the internal colonies as self-
determining nations can decide how to treat the 
problems of unemployment, policing and crimes within 
their own nations. MIM may be small, but this is more 
than the Amerikan government provides to prisoners 
despite its droning of allegiance to democracy.

NOTE:  The New York Times. 30 January 1997. p. A8.


* * *


'LIBERATION' OF HEBRON CONTINUES PALESTINE MYTHS

by MC12

Some people spoke of the recent agreement between the 
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the 
Israeli government for the redeployment of some 
Israeli troops out of the city as the "liberation" of 
Hebron. "Now the city of Hebron is a liberated city," 
Arafat told the crowds in Hebron. Reuter wrote that 
"Israel's 30-year-long occupation ended" with the 
signing of the deal.(1) Nothing could be further from 
the truth.

The deal that PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed with 
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, like the deal on 
the other cities that the Palestinians now supposedly 
control, specifically gives Israel the right to 
protect the "overall security" of Israeli Jews in the 
area. It specifies narrow limits of Palestinian 
authority, and sets a small Palestinian police force, 
armed with a set number of prescribed small 
weapons(approved by Israel), and operating only in 
some areas of the city. They can't even make changes 
in the traffic patterns without consulting with 
Israel.(2)

About 2,000 Israeli soldiers remain in the city on a 
daily basis, supposedly there to protect a settlement 
of 400 Israeli Jews living in the city of 100,000 
Palestinians. The Palestinian security force in the 
city is supposed to be 900, although the PLO says 
there are more.(1)

Arafat, however, repeated his claim that the 
redeployment of some Israeli troops was another step 
on the road to an independent Palestinian state. 
"Hebron is a springboard for what comes after ... so 
that we can establish our independent Palestinian 
state," Arafat said, according to the Reuter 
translation. "A promise is a promise, we will continue 
to Jerusalem."(1) The Hebron agreement is the last of 
seven city "transfers" to Palestinian Authority, all 
under the supervision of the Israeli military.

MIM does not deny that the current process may 
eventually lead to a formally-independent Palestinian 
state, although that is by no means a sure outcome. 
However, even if such a state is one day named, 
without economic and real political independence, such 
a development will only propel the Palestinian nation 
into a new stage of neo-colonialism and subservience 
to Israel and the imperialist nations.

The Amerikan hand in the negotiations -- and in the 
myth-making that surrounds the so-called peace process 
-- is everywhere. The U.$. government helped set up 
the current process, and supervised the latest 
negotiations, intent upon "stabilizing" the region to 
make it safer for imperialist investment and military 
domination -- both parties were under severe pressure 
from the U.$.

"U.S. mediators lit cigars like proud fathers after 
the tense talks" leading up to the Hebron deal.(3) In 
fact, the deal is not substantially different from the 
one the Israelis refused to implement with the 
previous Israeli government more than a year ago; they 
blamed the delay on bombings in Israel.

When MIM talks about "national liberation," we do not 
mean declaring formal independence. Many oppressed 
nations in the world today have formal independence, 
including the Philippines, for example, but remain 
oppressed nations in need of national liberation.

National liberation is only achieved when the people 
drive the imperialist powers out of their positions of 
power over an oppressed nation, and the people of the 
nation are then freely able to determine their own 
destiny. The only way that this has been achieved in 
the era of imperialism has been through the communist-
led national liberation struggle, and so that is the 
method that MIM advocates and organizes for.

NOTES:
1. Reuter 19 January, 1997.
2. Text of the Hebron agreement, Jerusalem Post, 15 
January, 1997.
3. Reuter, 16 January, 1997.


* * *

RALLYISTS REMEMBER MASSACRE VICTIMS & VOW TO CARRY ON 
THE FIGHT

LOS ANGELES, January 22, 1997 -- Over thirty 
protesters picketed the Philippine consulate on the 
tenth anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre. The 
protest was organized by BAYAN -- International USA 
and other organizations linked to the legal national 
democratic movement in the Philippines fighting for 
authentic land reform and true national 
industrialization. MIM and RAIL supporters helped to 
promote the event as part of the struggle to build 
public opinion against the u.s. imperialism and its 
fascist puppet regime in the Philippines and to 
support the struggles of Philippine peasants for 
genuine land reform and against imperialism.

Ten years ago 30,000 peasants and sympathetic students 
and workers marched to the Presidential Palace to 
demand that the u.s.-Aquino regime implement its vague 
promises for land reform. Hundreds of police and 
Philippine marines stopped the protesters near the 
Mendiola Bridge and then fired upon them for more than 
a minute. The police and marines shot many of the 
demonstrators in the back or in the head, killing 
thirteen and wounding 105.

The protesters at the commemoration in Los Angeles 
carried signs which read "Amerikan Bullets Kill 
Filipinos," "Smash U.S. Imperialism." They also 
chanted militant slogans from the legal national 
democratic movement in the Philippines, such as "The 
Struggle for land is a Struggle for Life!" and "Down 
with Imperialism, Feudalism, and Bureaucrat 
Capitalism!"

A supporter of the League of Filipino Students -- 
International USA read a statement which said: "To 
date, the victims of the dastardly act in Mendiola, 
like other heinous crimes perpetrated under Marcos, 
Aquino, and now the Ramos regime, get no justice. 
Human rights violation is the natural cornerstone of 
the Philippine government program to pursue its farce 
development policy. Ramos as a lapdog of US monopoly 
capitalism would like to satiate the interest of the 
IMF-World Bank dictates on the Philippine economic 
policy."(1)

Land reform is a vital concern for the people of the 
Philippines, 70% of whom live in the countryside. The 
pro-imperialist and pro-landlord policies of the u.s. 
puppet regime force more and more peasants from their 
land. One part of current president Ramos' economic 
plan will displace 130,000 families and more than 
600,000 coconut farmers in order to make way for 
foreign monopoly capitalists' projects. The big 
landlords and imperialist corporations (such as Dole 
foods) which control agriculture also grow crops for 
export instead of for local consumption, while 70% of 
the population is malnourished.(2)

The basic political and economic situation in the 
Philippines has worsened in the last decade. The 
number of human rights abuses committed by the 
military has more than doubled under the current u.s.-
Ramos regime, for example.

Amerikan imperialism has dominated the Philippines 
since the turn of the century. Amerikan capital 
accounts for more than half of the foreign capital in 
the Philippines and the amerikan government supplies 
and advises the Armed Forces of the Philippines in its 
"low-intensity war" against the people. Amerikan 
imperialism is just as responsible as the local 
fascists for the January 22 Massacre and the 
continuing poverty and violence in the Philippines.

NOTES:
1. Statement of the League of Filipino Students, 
International, USA, January 22, 1997.
2. "The Truth About the Ramos Regime," BAYAN 
International, 1994.


* * *


FRENCH CONTINUE IMPERIALIST MURDER IN CENTRAL AFRICAN 
REPUBLIC

by MCB52

A couple of January incidents where French Army 
soldiers have killed rebels in the Central African 
Republic bring new spotlight to an old problem for 
that country and the former French colonies of Africa: 
neo-colonialism. Claiming neutrality is increasingly 
untenable as France's 2000 troops stationed in the 
country -- part of its African total of 10,000 -- use 
overwhelming force to protect CAR's president and 
their own presence.(1)

On January 5, two French soldiers were killed by 
rebels. Their response was quick and harsh. The French 
army used armored cars, rocket-launchers, and 
helicopter gunships to attack a rebel post.(2) 
According to the French, ten rebels died and 30 were 
taken prisoner. According to the rebels, 21 of their 
own were killed along with 11 civilians.(3) Either 
way, a rebel spokesman's simple words are an apt 
indictment:  "France is killing the Central African 
people. It's open war."(3)

The military maneuver was followed by extensive 
searches of civilians' homes, confiscating weapons. 
They had to abandon this due to huge public outcry.(4) 
On January 16, the French killed another rebel and 
took another prisoner. In addition to these French-
uniformed killings, scores of people have been killed 
in clashes with the presidential guard troops, which 
have French backing.(5)

Even liberals in NGO's are not fooled by France's 
claim to be defending democracy in the CAR. In 
practice, its deal with the government to do military 
patrols in exchange for using bases in the CAR means 
that it is the weak government's police force, 
quelling insurrections but not serving the people. 
Survie and Agir Ici, two French NGOs issued a joint 
statement pointing out  "Not only does France occupy 
military bases in the CAR, it pretends it is looking 
after the country and, as a result, occupies it as 
well!"(6)

France alternates between claims that the recent 
killings do not amount to taking sides with the 
government -- which it has protected in two other 
rebellions in 1996 -- and justification for that 
intervention. In the words of a French foreign 
ministry spokesperson:  "Our aim is not to put down 
the mutineers, our aim is to ensure that the Central 
African Republic can continue its democratic 
process."(7)

But the French foreign ministry said on another 
occasion that "Regarding the Central African Republic, 
one must not forget that the Central African 
president, Mr. Patasse, was democratically elected. 
Everyone is asking France to support democratic 
regimes. France has respected its commitments. It will 
act accordingly."(8) This exposes the bankruptcy of 
First World phony leftists who call for imperialist 
intervention into Third World struggles. The fact is 
that without constant French intervention, African 
people would have been able to build democracies -- 
perhaps even people's democracies (socialism) -- for 
themselves long ago.

We have to remember the history of France in the CAR. 
In 1979, it organized a coup against its post-
independence ruler, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, and installed 
military dictator Andre Kolingba who ruled until 1993. 
The push for democratic elections was very great and 
the people of the CAR voted out that dictator.

Bruno Barrillot, defense specialist at the Center for 
Documentation and Research on Peace and Conflict, a 
French NGO, said France "put dictator Jean-Bedel 
Bokassa in place and had him replaced when he became a 
liability. President Patasse is still favored but if 
he in turn becomes a burden, he could see himself 
replaced, too."(9) While the French forces continue to 
occupy the country elections do not ensure democracy.

France's presence is rife with hypocrisy. France's 
defense minister told the BBC:  "France has been 
present in African for a long time. There are 
historical and friendly ties between France and the 
African countries. France signed defense and 
cooperation agreements....But France's aim is to be 
able to provide African countries with the means of 
stability and international security." (10) The 
presence has been long, no doubt, but hardly friendly.

France's colonies in Africa served it well in older 
inter-imperialist battles, including World War I in 
which thousands of Africans dead in the fight against 
Germany. In World War II, again, France used its 
colonies as a base area for the resistance after 
France was occupied. For years after that, it secured 
United Nations votes from its now-independent neo-
colonies.(11)

This is happening in a context of French intervention 
all over the continent. Part of that is being masked 
by a slight shift toward multi-lateral ventures, 
rather than the direct and open military intervention 
France has long preferred. Where in 1994 France had 
launched its own "military-humanitarian" ventures into 
Rwanda -- from its bases in the CAR -- last year it 
wanted to set up an "international force" to "keep 
peace."(8) The proposal died because of criticism that 
France was just trying to improve stabilization of its 
ally, Zaire's president, Mobutu Sese Seko.

French imperialist aggression toward the masses of its 
neo-colonies continues both through military 
intervention and economic domination. Work with MIM 
and RAIL to expose and oppose imperialist aggression!

NOTES:
1. Agence France Presse, January 16, 1997.
2. The Guardian, 6 January, 1997, p. 9.
3. The Herald (Glasgow), 6 January, 1997, p. 8.
4. Agence France Presse, 19 January, 1997.
5. Reuters North American Wire, 16 January, 1997.
6. Inter Press Service, 9 January, 1997.
7. The Guardian, January 6, 1997, p. 9.
8. BBC Summary of World Broadcasts 16 January, 1997.
9. Inter Press Service, 9 January, 1997.
10. BBC Summary of World Broadcasts. 10 January, 1997
11.  Financial Times 17 January, 1997, p. 16.


* * *


ALABAMA USES MEDIEVAL PUNISHMENT ON PRISONERS

by MC45

The New York Times reports that the day when Alabama 
will have to stop using hitching posts -- the modern 
version of the pillory -- to punish prisoners is 
getting closer. A Federal Magistrate recommended on 
January 30 that the hitching posts, to which prisoners 
are chained for hours at a time, be outlawed as 
"painful and tortuous punishment." The case still has 
to go before a judge to be decided, as all cases 
brought by prisoners must go through the extra step of 
a magistrate's decision before being heard.

An Alabama DOC spokespig who calls the hitching posts 
"restraining bars" defended this form of torture 
saying it isn't punitive, but "a useful correctional 
tool." The pig continued, saying that "the rules state 
that it will be used for individuals who won't go out 
on the gang" and "all the individual has to do is go 
on out to the work site" to avoid being hitched to the 
crossbars of the H-shaped post. But prisoners who are 
testifying in this case have said that they were 
hitched to the post when they were sick, or when they 
were late for work.

Prisoners have also been left cuffed to the posts for 
up to 7-1/2 hours without being given food or water or 
allowed to use a toilet. Guards have also cuffed 
shorter prisoners to the higher bar of the posts and 
taller prisoners to the lower bar to make them more 
uncomfortable. This is clearly not "correctional" 
treatment, as there is no way that being publicly 
humiliated and physically abused at the same time 
could possibly correct anything. These hitching posts 
are being used for the same purpose as the Alabama 
prison method of having prisoners work on chain gangs. 
As a prison comrade wrote in MIM Notes 131, "contrary 
to many published reports ... the chain-gang HAS NOT 
been abolished in Alabama. ... These prisoners are still 
individually chained for [no] other reason than 
humiliation and degradation."

Discipline which fundamentally separates prisoners 
from productive society (chaining them up rather than, 
say studying with them or engaging in productive work 
with them) is nothing but punishment and has nothing 
in common with correction or rectification. We already 
know that the state of Alabama has no legitimate 
authority over its prisoners, and the state only 
proves this point again by torturing prisoners and 
attempting to repress all their social interaction. 
Under socialism, the oppressors will be the majority 
of prisoners and people will be put in prison for 
crimes against the people not for crimes against 
capital. Socialist prisons will correct individuals' 
thinking and actions through study and work, not 
through mindless torture and punishment.

As this case of the hitching posts progresses through 
the courts we hope to be able to report more accurate 
information about what the decisions about their use 
really mean. MIM encourages prisoners and others with 
information on how well the state is abiding by its 
own rules to write in, and use the pages of this 
newspaper to further expose reactionary policies and 
plans in the prisons.

NOTE: New York Times 31 January, 1996, p. A10. MIM 
Notes 131, p. 6.


* * *

PAPER TIGERS

**All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, 
the reationaries are terrifying, but in reality they 
are not so powerful. For a long-term point of view, it 
is not the reactionaries but the people who are really 
powerful.**

--Mao Zedong


CIA TEACHES TORTURE

"A newly declassified CIA training manual details 
torture methods used against suspected subversives in 
Central America during the 1980s....

"'Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual -- 1983' 
was released in response to a Freedom of Information 
Act request. The CIA also declassified a Vietnam-era 
training manual that also taught torture and is 
believed to have been a basis for the 1983 manual.

"Torture methods taught in the 1983 manual include 
stripping suspects naked and keeping them blindfolded. 
Interrogation rooms should be dark and soundproof, 
with no toilet, the manual says...." (1)

NOTE:  Los Angeles Times, 28 January 1997, p. A4.


* * *


UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR AWARD

"WASHINGTON -- A newly declassified CIA training 
manual details torture methods used against suspected 
subversives in Central America during the 1980s, 
casting doubt on agency claims that no such methods 
were taught there."

NOTE:  Los Angeles Times, 28 January 1997, p. A4.

** Wanna tell the world about disgusting Amerikan 
imperialist intervention?

Write a short paper tiger to start with. Get the facts 
out through the newspaper and struggle with MIM about 
the best method to smash Amerikan imperialism. Send 
the info to the address on page two or e-mail 
**


* * *


UNDER LOCK & KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS


REBELLION IN NORTH CAROLINA

Due to my being on lock up for 30 days, I've been 
unable to properly respond to your letters and what 
not. At any rate, I received your very valuable MIM 
Notes. I was very happy and well informed by the 
latest addition. Being cut off from your mailing list 
for the free subscription is equivalent to being re-
sentenced on being denied excess to freedom, if you 
will. Furthermore, "we as modern day slavery" subjects 
need an outside source i.e. newsletters, MIM Notes 
etc. that enables us to get out very important 
information to the necessary party concerned.

Pasquotank Correctional Institution is basically a new 
prison, which has already had a so-called RIOT 
appropriately two months ago, due to their 
inexperience regarding running a prison, trying to 
treat people like caged animals. At the present time 
the administration is really doing a lot of 
experimental processes which are resulting in negative 
reactions from the inmate population thus far.

At any rate, I'm trying to get transferred as soon as 
possible, where their are more people my age range and 
[the pigs --MIM] respect us as humans first not just 
caged beasts and numbers. We'll write more next time.

In the struggle for Freedom, Justice and Equality.

--A North Carolina Prisoner, 10 November 1996


"RED ALERT! REVOLUTION POSTPONED IN PENNSYLVANIA"


As a result of a riot that took place on 14 August 
1995 at Pennsylvania State Correctional Institute-Coal 
Township, many comrades as well as myself have been 
sent to various Governmental research laboratories 
throughout the state.

I've received both newsletters of MIM Notes, and I'm 
fortunate enough to be able to report that they're not 
being censored in this institution, which is the most 
Supermax prison in Pennsylvania.

Because of my alleged participation in this riot, I 
received 29 months disciplinary time in the segregated 
housing unit. There are many other soldiers who are in 
the same position as me for taking a stand against 
these imperialistic tyrants all over the state. The 
sacrifices that many of us make are sometimes un-
noticed and often unappreciated. That's mainly because 
Pennsylvania has a "Vicious Put Em to Sleep Program" 
that's more deadly than a canister full of 100% Sarin, 
a poisonous chemical pathogen that's 1,400 times more 
powerful than cyanide.

The majority of prisoners in this state have been 
pacified so much that they can't even bare the thought 
of losing their special materialistic privileges. This 
type of psychological hypnotic strategy is one of the 
most effective methods of control over the oppressed 
that I've ever heard, read or witnessed.

Instead of Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections 
using whips, stun guns, black jacks and other 
torturous tools on a regular basis, like they used to, 
a mere threat of removing prisoners' televisions, 
radios and denying them permission to purchase clothes 
is a much more reliable persuasion tactic.

Because of the limited amount of political conscious 
prisoners, the struggle for freedom, liberty and 
justice is a never ending battle in which victory 
seems less contingent. Governmental issues whether 
it's local, national, or international is of no 
concern to the brain-dead prisoners in Pennsylvania. 
Rap videos have conquered their minds faster than a 
forest fire burning down trees.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying because me being a 
25 year old Afrikan, Rap is also one of my favorite 
forms of entertainment. But I refuse to devote hours 
everyday talking, reading, watching and living nothing 
but "RAP" when we've been saturated with problems all 
around our environment.

Just recently was I able to decipher and fully 
understand the connection that politics played in our 
everyday life. Because of an open mind and much 
sincerity, I've been fortunate enough to come across 
some very knowledgeable comrades who took their time 
to educate me. But sad to say there are many young 
prisoners who won't even take the time to listen.

Never-the-less many of us still continue to discuss 
the articles and issues raised by MIM.... Hopefully 
you could provide us with more information concerning 
MIM and what you're about. Sometime next month, I'll 
be able to send a little donation. It may not be much 
but I hope it will help.

So because of the lack of knowledge and large scale 
ignorance throughout the Pennsylvania Prison System, 
the revolution has been Postponed...once again.

May the struggle eventually be successful.

--A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 10 November 1996

While we recognize ignorance and passivity as 
obstacles for revolutionary work, but in no way has 
the revolution been postponed. Your letter above 
proves the fact that there are conscious individuals 
like yourself who are struggling and agitating for 
revolution. It is the work and study that you and many 
others are doing, both behind the walls and on the 
outside, that pushes the revolution forward. The 
greatest of waterfalls, starts with one drop of water. 
Revolution does not happen overnight. Do not discount 
yourself and the conscious brothers who helped educate 
you. You are not alone and the struggle for revolution 
is very much alive in the belly of the beast.

--RCG1, 27 January 1997

ARIZONA PRISONERS EXPOSE TORTURE AND ABUSE

**The following letter was sent to MIM by an Arizona 
prisoner (Prisoner A). All the names of the prisoners 
have been changed.**

Stewart Adams Honorable National Prison Project 
Arizona House Representative 1&75 Connecticut Ave. NW, 
#410 l700 W. Washington Street Washington, DC. 20009 
Phoenix, Arizona 85007

RE: Security Staffs' use of excessive force against a 
mentally ill prisoner, Inmate J housed at Special 
Management Unit-II, hereafter SMU-II.

Dear Mr. Adams and Honorable ;

Please be advised that the following 
information/events alleged by me, Prisoner A, had been 
witnessed to by at least four (4) other inmates 
besides myself and that we agreed that this should be 
addressed legally, by those with the authority to do 
so because, we cannot, nor can Inmate J, due to his 
mental status/condition.

Facts: Inmate J has been housed in [cell #], since 
August '96, and in this time, Inmate J has not taken a 
shower under his own power, has not cleaned his cell, 
nor submitted his clothing to be cleaned, does not 
speak or understand the English language or speaks to 
anyone, sleeps on the floor underneath his cell bunk 
and refuses to eat or accept the meals offered him.

11th, Oct. '96, security staff had removed Inmate J 
from has cell and had Inmate H, (witness) use a 
pressure steam cleaner to clean the cell, facility 
maintenance personnel to unplug the toilet and sink. 
Two (2) officers, one female and one male had taken 
Inmate J to another pod, into the recreational area 
and had Inmate J undress, at which time, the female 
officer used a wet toilet brush and powder cleanser to 
clean Inmate J, in place of a proper shower or bath, 
fully aware of Inmate J's mental condition.

17th, Oct. '96, security staff, Sgt. Wilson, upon 
request by facility medical personnel, to assist her 
or force Inmate J to submit to a TB test. Inmate J, 
like most of us inmates, was asleep at 08:05 hours, at 
which time Mr. Wilson ordered Inmate J to submit to a 
TB test, had ordered him to wake up and be handcuffed 
and despite the fact that many of us advised Mr. 
Wilson that Inmate J does not under stand or respond 
to English, used pepper spray on Inmate J.

At 08:08 hours security staff removed Inmate J from 
his cell and placed him unto the shower, and left him 
there and handcuffed with his hands behind his back. 
Thus Inmate J was unable to operate the shower. 
Security staff, fully aware that Inmate J had not been 
able to use the shower to wash off the pepper spray, 
placed Inmate J back into his cell.

At 08:15 hours, security- staff has turned off the 
ventilation system, which caused many inmates an I to 
choke and gag because of the pepper spray used. This 
should give you an idea as to how much pepper spray 
was used, and be advised that, a Video Camera was used 
during this event.

Despite the fact that security staff had witnessed 
Inmate J crying and gagging in his cell. [they] 
refused to address his problems until after all of us 
inmates started yelling and banging for security staff 
to address Inmate J's problems. [The pigs did not 
come] until four hours later, at 12:18 hours. At which 
time, security staff allowed Inmate J to shower, and 
due to the serious reaction Inmate J had to the pepper 
spray; i.e. deep red to his skin and eyes, had taken 
Inmate J to the facilities medical unit at 12:36 
hours.

At 12:40 hours Inmate J was brought back to his cell, 
given exchange clothing and bedding. I was advised by 
CPO B. Haro that, this administration is going to be 
reassigning Inmate J to a proper housing location. 
That he should not have been housed here. CS0. Ms. K. 
Garcis, #8742, advised us all, that Inmate J should 
have never been housed in this pod, and that she was 
going to find out why and correct the problem.

Inmate J, at present, seems to be alright, he has not 
said anything, nor is he crying. We have no way of 
knowing if he is doing alright because, like I stated 
earlier he does not talk, but he is no longer crying 
or gagging.

This inmate does not talk, does not respond 
immediately, most likely due to his mental problems. 
And the only thing that the facility medical personnel 
needed to do, was look at Inmate J's TB test results 
on his arm. This is not a security threat, the inmate 
was not out of control, or danger to others or himself 
therefore there was no justified reason to use pepper 
spray on this inmate, nor treat him as they did, after 
using the pepper spray.

There is new case law as to where and when pepper 
spray is to be used, and not to be used on inmates. 
What events, actions and conditions must be present 
prior to the use of pepper spray on an inmate; i.e. 
Pepper Spray cannot be used on an inmate for 
withholding food trays, nor can an inmate be forced to 
be subjected to medical treatment without a prior 
court order, or state law.

Please be advised, this is only one inmate's problem 
due to security's inhumane treatment of the concerns 
of prisoners at this facility, which has become 
regular operating procedure/requirements. [This] is 
being brought to you both because, not like the rest 
of us, Inmate J cannot help himself, nor can the 
remaining mentally ill prisoners, from this type of 
treatment. Additional information can be obtained by 
individual witnesses, listed below.

-Signed (Prisoner A), An Arizona State Prisoner, 17, 
October 1996.

Inmate Witnesses: 5 Arizona Prisoners, and ADOC 
[Arizona Department of Corrections] VIDEO CAMERA.


CENSORSHIP IN AMERIKKKA

MISSISSIPPI PRISONER FIGHTS CENSORSHIP

I received your letter dated 10-19-96 in reference to 
the returned copies of MIM Theory and the Communist 
Manifesto.

I am unaware of the reasons why MIM [literature] is 
being returned. I have written a letter to the 
Superintendent, James Anderson, concerning the 
returned materials. As of the date of this discourse, 
I have yet to receive a response. Therefore, I took 
the opportunity to acquire a copy of the Mississippi 
Department of Corrections Inmate Mail and 
correspondence-Policy # 06.01, by the Authority of the 
Commissioner, Steve Packett, effective date April 1, 
1996.

This copy is for your file and use as you may see fit 
to use. I shall send a letter or correspondence to 
Commissioner, Steve Pack and ask his assistance in 
this matter. Comrades, I am under the impression that 
I am allowed to receive books, newspapers, etc. When 
it's being mailed by the publisher of such. It may 
also be helpful if MIM forwarded a letter to 
Commissioner Packett concerning the matter.

Hopefully we can employ the assistance of the 
Commissioner and Insha'Allah we shall claim victory 
over the illegal mis-handling of the Mississippi 
Department of Corrections Policy.

--A Mississippi Prisoner, 4 November 1996


THE FEDS SUPPRESS MIM NOTES NATIONWIDE


** Recently the U.S. Department of Injustice, Federal 
Bureau of Prisons has been rejecting MIM Notes. Below 
are excerpts from two rejection notices from Federal 
Prisons in different states ** 

[...]Publication is viewed as posing a threat to the 
security and good order of the institution because 
there exists a number of inmates of different ethnic 
groups or racial backgrounds in the population at 
FCI/FPC Pekin. Specifically, the publication refers to 
these groups in derogatory terms and encourages the 
reader to foster an adverse attitude toward them.

The release of information of this nature into our 
system could adversely affect the security and orderly 
running of this institution.

--David W. Helman, Warden, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 
Federal Correctional Institution (FCI/FPC Pekin) PO 
Box 7000, Pekin, Illinois 61555-7000, 9 August 1996.

When certain publications are found to be 
unacceptable, it is the policy of the Bureau of 
Prisons that the publications be rejected as per 
Federal Bureau of Prisons Program Statement 5266.5, 
Incoming Publications.

The enclosed publication entitled MIM Notes is being 
rejected due to the fact that the publication 
encourages or instructs the commission of a criminal 
activity.

--Page True, Warden, U.S. Department of Justice, 
Federal Prison System, U.S. Penitentiary, Leavenworth, 
KS 66048-1254, 11 November 1996.


PELICAN BAY CONTINUES TO CENSOR MIM NOTES


A comrade working with RAIL sent the following letter 
to us[excepts]. It was sent in response to a letter 
the comrade sent protesting the censorship of MIM 
Notes in Pelican Bay State Prison. As the comrade 
pointed out "The warden does not specify exactly how 
MIM Notes supposedly violates the regulations he 
lists, and I do not know how or to what extent it will 
be of any help to you, but I send it for your 
records." We print the following because the list of 
criteria demonstrate just how far this censorship in 
prisons has gone. Virtually any mail could be 
classified into at least one of these categories, 
especially the one that involves "soliciting a 
response from an inmate" since many publications and 
letters request a response and MIM's regular reminder 
to prisoners that they must write to stay on the 
mailing list could be fit into this category.

** MIM is currently putting together a resource guide 
for prisoners who wish to challenge the censorship of 
MIM Notes or other mail and we are requesting 
information from any prisoners who would like to 
contribute to this brief guide. In addition, we need 
the help of jailhouse lawyers and lawyers on the 
outside who are willing to offer advice to prisoners 
pursuing these cases. Contact MIM if you can help out. 
**

This is in response to your correspondence dated 
October 26, 1996, concerning the censorship of Maoist 
International (sic) Movement (MIM), a bimonthly 
newspaper delivered to inmates incarcerated at Pelican 
Bay State Prison. The California Department of 
Corrections Administrative Bulletin No. 95/1 (AB 
95/1), issued January 6, 1995, implemented a more 
restrictive acceptance of publications allowable into 
departmental facilities. These restrictions are 
related to legitimate penological interests.

AB 95/1 states, "Inmates shall not possess or have 
under their control any matter which contains or 
concerns any one or more of the following:

Inciting murder; arson; riot; or any form of violence 
or physical harm to any person, or any ethnic, gender, 
racial, religious, or other group;  Blackmail or 
extortion;  Sending or receiving contraband;  Plans to 
escape or assist in an escape;  Plans to disrupt the 
order, or breach the security, of any facility;  Plans 
for activities which violate the law, these 
regulations, or local procedures;  Coded messages;  
Any description for the making of any weapon, 
explosive, poison, or destructive device;  
Illustrations, explanations, and/or descriptions of 
how to sabotage, disrupt, build, modify, or repair 
computers, communications, or electronics;  Catalogs, 
advertisements, brochures, and material soliciting a 
response from an inmate;  Maps depicting any area 
within a ten-mile radius of a facility;  Gambling or a 
lottery."

Publications meeting the above disapproval criteria 
are referred to a Facility Captain for review. A 
Notification of Disapproval-Publication form (CDC-
1819) is utilized to advise the inmate. Although you 
have observed constructive material in the MIM 
publication, parts of it have routinely contained 
material that met the disapproval criteria which 
required it to be reviewed and consequently denied.


PRISON BRIEFS

Dear MIM,

I am finally able to write back to you. I'm writing 
from the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, 
Minnesota. I was transferred from Stillwater 
Correctional Facility and I'd like to be put back on 
the list against for MIM Notes. I miss it. I've never 
seen a more truthful publication.

There's no college level courses here so I'm seeking 
out an Independent study course to finish my degree in 
Human Services.

There are some injustices here that are very 
borderline civil rights violations. We have recently 
been taken over by the Ultra Capitalistic CCA, 
Corrections Corporation of America. I'd like to know 
more about CCA. Do you have any information about 
them? There's poor health services and they 
discriminated against my "cellie". It's obvious.

Anyhow, I'll write more about that another time. You 
can send me a copy of MIM Notes, we'll see if it gets 
through these Anglo-Protestant, Manifest destiny 
tyrants. I've met quite a few men from Colorado 
interested and we do have some valid issues concerning 
the job and health issues. I'm not sure if I should 
write now about it. You may have a rejection, if this 
letter even gets to you. Thank you. Later,

--"The Prairie Prisoner", 14 November 1996


JERSEY PIGS GANG UP ON PRISONER


Dear Comrade,

Please be advised that I was beaten by four pigs here 
at East Jersey State Prison.

I'm in ad-seg (administrative segregation) now for 180 
days. You know the pigs said I beat them.

I would still love to read your issue of MIM. But at 
this time I'm not working. But if you can hold on I 
will sent something as soon as I get it.

I'm in the struggle.

--A New Jersey Prisoner, 9 November 1996


NEW NAME AND POLICIES IN INDIANA


This is X from the Reformatory. Correction, they have 
changed the name of the facility to the "Pendelton 
Correctional Facility!

To inform you that I have been receiving MIM now for 
the last few months. I'd just like to thank you for 
the excellent work that MIM is putting forth. I'll be 
looking forward to receiving the next issue of MIM!!

To update you at MIM as to what's going down behind 
the bricks as referred to the opening of this letter. 
I informed you that they've changed the name of the 
kamp and of course a name change also ushered in a 
policy change! They are now limiting the amount of 
personal cosmetics that we can have to only two (2) 
items per person. They've come through the kamp and 
taken any "what they now cal x-tra's" and have 
confiscated our personal belongings.

In the D/S (Direct Segregation) unit, they have had us 
on lock-down for almost two weeks now. They claim that 
a piece of metal is missing from a bed. They came in 
and shook everyone down stripping us to da' skin. They 
found nothing on no-one but are still refusing to let 
us off of lock-down. We only get 3 hours a week for 
recreation which is an hour and a half short of 
federal regulation and now we are being refused that!

Well just to let you know what the prisoncrats are 
doing at Gilmoore's Ranch. Peace to you at MIM.

--An Indiana Prisoner, 11 November 1996


RESOURCES FOR PRISONERS

FREE BOOK FOR NEW YORK PRISONERS

I write to let you know that I'm receiving the MIM 
Notes and that I received the MIM Theory #11 and the 
pamphlet "What is MIM". Thanks! Keep me on the mailing 
list.

Also, there's a book called "Connections IV Plus The 
Job Search", which is 147 pages. [It] contains 
information on the resources available to prisoners 
being released into the New York City area. The book 
is free to all prisoners in New York State (available 
in English and Spanish: Indicate [preference]). For 
free copies write to: Institutional Library Service, 
The New York Public Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, New 
York, NY 10016.

--A New York Prisoner, 25 November 1996


TRADITIONAL TOBACCO AVAILABLE FOR PRISONERS


Dear RAIL,

[A First Nation comrade] in the federal prison at 
Petersburg VA suggested that I contact you. My 
organization provides Native American inmates with 
traditional tobacco and other sacred plants, at no 
cost, as long as the recipients agree to use the 
tobacco and other plants for ceremonies, prayers, and 
related purposes. We also provide sacred tobacco to 
native health groups, schools, and other organizations 
and individuals needing tobacco for traditional 
purposes. Please let people know about our program. 
Thank you!

Traditional Native American Tobacco Seed Bank and 
Education Program

1717 Lomas Blvd.
NE Albuquerque, NM 87131
jwinter@unm.edu
http://www.treaty7.org/friends/tnat/tnat.htm
505-277-5853

ULK is happy to print this letter to let our 
indigenous comrades know about this program because we 
believe that the survival of national culture is 
important to the survival of First Nations. Cultural 
support to our comrades in prison is helpful while 
they are fighting the national liberation struggles 
that are essential to the survival of oppressed 
nations.


***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 MIM's 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 prisoners' friends and enemies. 
Work with the friends and let the enemies know 
you're watching. (Don't 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 "MIM 
Distributors."
*8. Write for MIM Notes or Notas Rojas. Prisoners 
write almost all of Under Lock & Key.  We don't 
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 
you'll be so we can hook you up with comrades on 
the outside.


* * *


STUDENTS: SEIZE THE TIME!
DEFEND ABILITY TO ORGANIZE INDEPENDENT OF 
ADMINISTRATIONS

** This is a general article about the need for 
progressive-minded students to demand that 
administrators stay out of their non-classroom life. 
While we think that students should control curriculum 
too, there is even less justification for 
administrators to tell students what they can and 
can't read in their spare time, so we're focusing on 
this at the moment.

Though the concrete examples are from UMass Amherst 
the concepts are widely applicable. We welcome 
contributions from students and partisans at other 
institutions, and would especially like to meet with 
UMass student leaders to discuss how to launch a 
campaign to defend the "voice" of the student 
population. **

The autonomy that college students can exert over 
their education, or even their leisure time is under 
attack in Amerika. As recent events at the University 
of Massachusetts at Amherst and other schools 
illustrate, the hard won gains of the 1960s are almost 
gone. Administrators are cracking down on the 
"freedoms" given to students, and have often 
successfully won student body and student leader 
complicity in these actions.

This trend is problematic for revolutionary 
organizing. It impedes access to a population that has 
historically played key organizing roles in the early 
stages of revolution. It also decreases the influence 
that radicalized and revolutionary students can have 
over other students.

Despite the fact that Amerikan college students are 
disproportionately of the oppressor nation, the age 
contradiction and their unique social circumstances 
make white students a population to work closely with. 
Students have more of an interest in change, leisure 
time to study the best path forward and learn the 
facts and can provide funds and resources to 
progressive causes.

While white nation youth have an interest in settler 
parasitism, their age can separate them from the rest 
of the white settler nation. Within the white nation, 
youth have the greatest material interest in 
overthrowing the system. The aren't as tied into the 
system as their parents and they have much longer to 
live, so they would benefit much more from a world 
without patriarchy or environmental destruction.

In the 1960s, college administrators were not as 
powerful as they are today. Faculty and student 
organizations held comparatively more power in 
determining issues of curriculum and student life. In 
the late 1960s, the campuses were a hot bed of 
activism, with students providing concrete support to 
the Black Panther Party, opposing the Vietnam War and 
forming their own revolutionary organizations. 
Berkeley students who wished to distribute anti-Jim 
Crow literature were prevented from setting up a 
literature table in the main area of the campus. In 
organizing the Free Speech Movement, students won this 
privilege and continued to build organizations with 
increasingly radical politics.

Since the 1970s, administrators have been scheming to 
depoliticize campuses by restricting independent 
initiative and replacing it with corporate culture. 
The administrators have an upperhand in the present-
day battle because material conditions are different. 
In the 1960s, self-interest in avoiding the draft was 
a significant impetus for organizing. Now, there are 
fewer reasons to be a revolutionary from an oppressor 
background.

In the early 1970s, one million college students told 
a major magazine they considered themselves 
revolutionaries. While such a survey would find a much 
smaller number today, administrators recognize the 
volatility of student populations and do their best to 
impede independent organizing.

First came administrative offices designed to "help" 
students organize. These Student Activity Offices 
(SAOs) gave student access to a small amount of 
University funds, but heaped on requirements for 
organizing including requirements that all monies go 
through the University. The problem with this is the 
incredible bureaucracy created to spend that money, or 
requirements that meetings be held with inaccessible 
advisors before holding a large event. The students 
who call SAOs "Strangling Activities Office" have the 
right perspective. The Free Speech Movement opened the 
floodgates of a revolutionary tide by giving a forum 
for revolutionary ideas. Now, administrators are 
slowly turning off the taps.

RAIL comrades regularly travel to distribute 
newspapers in First Nation territory and on college 
campuses. Comrades have seen that already inadequate 
space for literature on campuses is disappearing. In 
the last few years, many campuses have removed racks 
that could be used for any type of literature, leaving 
only space for daily student newspapers, the sex-
funded non-student weeklies (Advocate, Village Voice) 
and the spring break/credit card literature. 
Infrequent or monthly newspapers are less and less 
welcome.

More nefariously, RAIL has found that newspaper rack 
removal increases in times of student unrest. For 
example, during large battles in New York City against 
budget cuts, or during anti-racist struggles on other 
campuses, the literature racks disappear.

On a similar theme, postering is under attack by 
administrators and a few student lackeys. Postering is 
a cheap, timely way to inform thousands of people 
about an event or idea. Overall, more and more 
campuses are enforcing rules that postering be 
restricted to "approved surfaces", with these approved 
surfaces becoming smaller and smaller over time. A 
related phenomenon is that of requiring that posters 
be approved be a bureaucrat, or some other overpaid 
bureaucrat will rip them down.

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 
China, where the government represented the majority 
of the people, walls were filled with big character 
posters denouncing top Party leaders and reactionary 
college leaders. When walls were filled, the reed mats 
were erected in the streets to hold the views of the 
students.

The Amerikan college population is largely content 
with a passive acceptance of their decadence. However 
it's a sign of student potential that that the 
administrators try so hard to restrict what the 
students have access to. Recently, MIM Notes reported 
on the Swarthmore librarian who told MIM that students 
had better things to do than read newspapers. Mass 
RAIL often writes about the New Students Program that 
asks us to stay away from the incoming students 
because they are so "impressionable".

RAIL believes that 18-22 year old student can make 
political decisions for themselves. Readers familiar 
with the film "Battle Of Algiers" will remember the 
scene in which a seven year old boy risks death to 
steal the megaphone of a French Colonialist soldier to 
denounce French imperialism. The adults were cowed by 
French armed might, but this young person risked his 
life to encourage the adults to rise up. If a child 
can make this decision, or if younger Palestinian 
children can hurl stones at Israeli soldiers during 
the Intifada, students three times older can certainly 
decide upon a balance between math homework and 
struggling over revolution.

A particularly dangerous phenomenon is the 
administration movement to build up lackeys that 
appear to be students-serving-students but are 
actually traitors to student power. The 
administrations first seized upon this idea after the 
successful struggles by oppressed nations students to 
establish cultural centers on the campuses in the late 
1960s and early 1970s. These cultural centers 
eventually got full time bureaucrat staff members and 
the funds to hire many students. These cultural 
centers, along with their counterparts, the oppressed 
national studies departments, were the product of 
revolutionary struggle. But just as Department of 
Black Studies professors owe their jobs to the 
bureaucracy, the cultural centers are forcibly 
detached from the political movements that spawned 
them. The only political struggle that remains from 
within the cultural center movements is the struggle 
to maintain or expand the dependent finical 
relationship on the college's white bureaucracy.

When students or staff of these cultural centers go 
beyond a de-politicized culture and lend support to 
political activity in defense of their nation, they 
come under considerable pressure to drop it in favor 
of sanitized dissent like Jocyln Elders of Lani 
Gunier. Student government institutions have the 
potential to lead broad-based pro-student struggles, 
but are often a haven for compradors.

At UMass, the Campus Center/Student Union Commission 
(CCSUC) is a subset of the student government and is 
responsible for policy within the buildings of the 
same name. In 1995, the CCSUC attempted to regulate 
postering within the Complex, but this power grab 
failed when they realized that they didn't have the 
funds necessary to pay themselves enough to do the 
job.

RAIL would imagine the CCSUC is pushing for more funds 
so as to implement this proposal again. One sign that 
a student policy organization isn't representing 
students is when it isn't clear (to administration, 
the students or the student policy org) who is n 
control.

In 1995, some bulletin boards were removed from within 
the CCSU Complex, and the CCSUC told a RAIL comrade 
that the CCSUC wanted the boards put back. If the 
CCSUC was really in charge and not just playing king 
of the dung heap, they could have ordered the boards 
replaced.

In 1996 the record of the CCSUC was mixed. The only 
thing that was clear is that such power puppets only 
will serve students when their is a bottom up pressure 
to counter that of the administration. When the CCSUC 
told a group supportive of RAIL that they couldn't 
table in the summer because the policy was "no 
tabling" (with the unwritten part saying "unless you 
are a big bank or the police) these comrades took the 
cause to streets, gathering hundreds of signatures, 
including from the political volatile parents of 
incoming students.

The comrades were allowed to table, but Vending 
Coordinator Esther Salas' promise in July of an 
announcement of a new formal, pro-student policy, has 
gone unfulfilled. Likewise when an adult administrator 
named Charley was ripping down RAIL posters because 
they were "too many" and "offensive", and when Charley 
credited the CCSUC with this "policy", the CCSUC 
responded to a widely distributed open letter by 
telling Charley to back off.

The CCSUC is not cured off its lackey nature yet, 
though. The more difficult issue of the removal of 
half the bulletin boards is still unresolved. In the 
summer of 1996, the Department of Environmental Health 
and Safety allegedly told the CCSUC that so much 
bulletin board in a long hallway was a fire hazard. 
Like a good puppet, the CCSUC had the bulletin boards 
taken down, but didn't have them put up anywhere else. 
Suspicious of this, a RAIL supporter asked the CCSUC 
for proof that this is a true fire hazard. The 
supporter asked for documentation of this fire code or 
study. The supporter and RAIL don't think this 
documentation exists. If this documentation does 
exist, it doesn't change the fact that the CCSUC 
accepted this analysis without question, nor does it 
change the subjective nature of this ruling.

In an open letter to the CCSUC in October, the CCSUC 
was asked to get this documentation from EH&S. Since 
then Esther Salas told RAIL that the individual in 
question at EH&S works odd hours and is difficult to 
get in touch with. It's ironic at best that the CCSUC 
and the EH&S person had no problem getting in touch to 
get the boards taken down, but now that the pressure 
is on, the individual is unreachable.

Twenty and thirty years ago, revolutionary and radical 
students organized solidarity organizations under the 
leadership of liberation movements, and also firmly 
controlled their student governments. Now, radical 
student groups are weak if they still exist, and the 
power of student governments is mostly symbolic or 
inconsequential.

At this time, RAIL sees it as most effective for 
revolutionaries within the student governments to get 
out of these organizations and dedicate themselves to 
more revolutionary work. There are enough liberals who 
can be radicalized through a combination of pressure 
from revolutionaries and the simple act of the 
revolutionary stepping out of the way. This also 
removes the revolutionary from getting bogged down in 
liberal, tactical details and frees the revolutionary 
to do work that only a revolutionary will do.

The radicalization of students requires that student 
independence be defended and expanded. It has been 
RAIL's experience that the exposure of this college 
administrator plot and of student complicity in it has 
been successful at making some important changes. 
Hopefully this article will take us several big steps 
forward in that regard.


* * *


NEWS OF THE WEIRD SHOULD BE CALLED NEWS OF THE 
BOURGEOISIE

by a comrade

The January 23rd edition of News of the Weird 
gleefully carried stories of two prisoners whose death 
sentences were reduced to life imprisonment, but who 
were electrocuted in accidents while sitting on their 
metal toilets. News of the Weird is a syndicated 
column containing clippings of stories considered 
"weird."

Many of the stories are about Amerikan decadence, such 
as $10 bags of "DietDirt" [sterilized dirt] you can 
buy to sprinkle on your food so that it won't taste so 
good or doctors who implant metal snaps in men's 
heads, so that toupees can be firmly attached, and 
yet, removable. The remainder of the stories ridicule 
the culture of people who aren't part of the 
"straight," white male mainstream -- such as the 
report of a store in San Francisco that caters to 
cross dressing men -- or ridicules the actions of the 
desperately oppressed.

Regular features include criticizing people for making 
careless mistakes during the commission of "crimes" 
that get them arrested. But the parts that makes MIM 
cringe the most are the stories about prisoners 
struggling for better conditions or scheming in one 
way or another to improve their lives. MIM sees 
nothing "weird" in a desperate escape attempt, such as 
painting your clothes green so you look like a doctor 
or trying to mail yourself out of the facility. The 
conditions in prisons are horrible, and thoughts of 
escape are quite rational. MIM focuses on fighting 
winnable battles for better conditions as we work to 
raise the political level of the 1 million residents 
of Amerika's gulags.

MIM has so far ignored News of the Weird in print, but 
their celebration over the accidental deaths of two 
prisoners merits response. In 1989 in South Carolina, 
Michael Anderson Godwin was electrocuted while 
attempting to fix his TV while sitting on his metal 
toilet. On January 1, 1997 in Pennsylvania, Laurence 
Baker was electrocuted by his home-made earphones 
while sitting on his metal toilet.

To News of the Weird, this is some kind of poetic 
justice that the court system saved these men from the 
electric chair, but that their own electric work 
killed them. To MIM, these two deaths are another sad 
sign of the poor conditions to which prisoners are 
subjected. Prisoners are paid sub-minimum wage, if 
they are paid at all, leaving them with nothing to pay 
for the things they need, be it earphones or 
television repair. Most prisons censor from prisoners 
information on how electrical devices work, and all 
would deny the prisoners the proper tools to do this 
work. And while News of the Weird assumes that these 
two prisoners were stupid to sit on the metal toilets, 
the reality is that there was likely no where else to 
sit.

News of the Weird regularly celebrates accidental 
deaths with the headline "Thinning the Herd." MIM 
instead mourns unnecessary deaths as symptoms of a 
system that doesn't value human life. Under socialism, 
instead of wasting resources on decadence, these 
resources will be used to bring up the oppressed 
majority and educate everyone about how to live and 
work safely.

NOTE: Valley Advocate 23 January 1997, p. 15.


* * *


AMERIKAN ENVIRO BOWL XXXI?

by MC45

As New Orleans hosted this year's XXXI, the city's 
Super Bowl XXXI Host Committee and the National 
Football League teamed up for the Super Bowl XXXI 
Environmental Program. No, this wasn't a collaborative 
effort to save the environment by slowing rainforest 
depletion; and it's not intended to slow and 
eventually stop the export of Amerikan nature-killing 
slop to the Third World.

The Super Bowl Environmental Program was designed as 
an almost purely recreation-driven activity. Its 
mission: to help control excess trash generated by 
hot-dog-and-potato-chip-eating, beer- and Pepsi-
guzzling, t-shirt- and cheesehead-wearing Amerikan 
football fans. The organizers did also include one 
progressive activity in their special program:  they 
included the Second Harvesters Food Bank in the plans 
to form a Prepared and Perishable Food Rescue Program. 
An organizer with Second Harvesters said of the food 
drive, "we are hoping to collect enough food to serve 
at least twenty thousand meals to the needy." While 
such programs objectively fed people it is by no means 
satisfactory in meeting the needs of the people, only 
in alleviating the depth of contradiction between 
decadent parasitism and poverty within Amerika.

MIM does not make fun of the Super Bowl cleanup 
because we think Amerikans should just dump trash and 
not have to worry about it. We think the whole 
structure of professional sports in Amerika is silly, 
and a pseudo-environmental program catering to the 
decadent pro-sport culture is not environmentalism at 
all but legitimization and glorification of something 
which deserves neither.

Pre-Bowl estimates were that Super Bowl events 
(including an "NFL Experience Football Theme Park") 
would generate hundreds of tons of solid waste 
including cardboard, plastic and aluminum. As far as 
MIM is concerned, this is an outrageous way to run a 
sporting event. 

Much of the solid waste generated is food packaging, 
which means that a lot of people who come to this 
sporting event are eating fast food rather than taking 
part in the athletic activity which is supposedly 
central to the Super Bowl. MIM would like to see all 
those people who packed themselves into the football 
dome play sports themselves. Under socialism, we will 
see mass participation in sport, rather than paying a 
very select few million-dollar salaries to play sports 
to the point of injury so that the majority can watch 
instead of taking part in healthy physical activity.

Since we know people who play sports get hungry, and 
that mass sporting activity will build up a few 
appetites, we also expect to see more cooperative food 
preparation under socialism. This will eliminate a 
great deal of solid waste before it is produced 
(because commercial food producers will be out of the 
picture and so will their wasteful packaging), and 
have the added benefit of encouraging Amerikans to eat 
healthier food without the preservatives and 
artificial flavorings the commercial producers use.

The Food Bank component of the Enviro Bowl activities 
highlights the contradiction of most Amerikans 
spending large amounts of their disposable incomes on 
unhealthy food while poor people are dependent on 
scraps and charity for a subsistence-level diet. Under 
socialism, reforming sports culture as described above 
will not be a high priority. The first priorities of 
socialist society will be as they were in Maoist 
China, providing for the basic needs of the people: 
food, clothing, shelter, health care and education.

If you too think that these things should be higher 
priorities than trying to control the mess generated 
by decadent entertainment activities, get in touch 
with MIM or RAIL at one of the addresses on page two. 
Work with us to build for socialist revolution to meet 
the basic needs of the people.

SOURCE: E-Wire Press Release 24 January, 1997. A 
cheesehead is a kind of hat worn by fans of the Green 
Bay, Wisconsin football team, the Packers -- this 
year's Super Bowl winners. Wisconsin's economy is 
largely dairy, so the Green Bay fans show their 
support by wearing foam or cardboard wedges on their 
heads, colored and shaped to look like Swiss Cheese.


* * *


REVOLUTIONARY CULTURE

SHINE REVIEW

by MC12

On one simple level Shine is another individualist 
story of the triumph of the "human spirit." But with a 
Maoist perspective it is possible to draw 
revolutionary lessons from it, on: nature versus 
nurture in the making of child prodigies, parenting, 
art and mental illness.

The movie tells the supposedly-true story of David 
Helfgott, an Australian-born son of a Jewish survivor 
of the Nazi concentration camps. His father is a man 
tortured by the fact of his own survival when so many 
others, including his whole family, died.

In the late 1950s, he turns young David into a child 
prodigy piano player through constant emotional 
pressure and cruel parental authority. He tells David 
that he is lucky to be able to play music while his 
father had his violin destroyed as a child. He tells 
David that he will be a great piano player by winning 
many competitions. Basically, the only thing David can 
do to keep his father from completely losing it is to 
become a great piano player. Through endless practice 
and complete emotional investment, David succeeds -- 
but eventually he loses his mental stability in the 
process.

The father's obsession threatens to derail David's 
success, when he decides that David going off to the 
Royal College of Music in London will destroy the 
family like the Nazis destroyed his old family. It 
takes the intervention of an underdeveloped character 
-- a pro-Soviet communist womyn author -- to convince 
David to escape his father and go off to school. One 
implication of this is that his father was so rotten 
partly because he was a communist. On the other hand, 
the "communist" womyn is a hero in getting the child 
to escape his cruel father. On a third hand, she is 
presumably a revisionist anyway, so the whole thing is 
a wash.

Once at school, David gradually starts slipping even 
further out of "normalcy." He forgets to put on pants, 
doesn't cut his hair, eats erratically, and so on, all 
the while becoming a great pianist. He finally breaks 
down completely at the end of a dramatic performance 
of an immensely difficult piece. From then on it's the 
story of his virtual escape from the mental health 
establishment in Australia and his return to 
performing in the 1980s.

The first good part about the movie is in the 
depiction of the making of a prodigy. Many people will 
continue to assume that children with great abilities 
in narrow areas are somehow mystically gifted, but 
from cases such as this it is much more sound to 
conclude that the conditions of David's upbringing led 
him to this "greatness." David was the pawn of first 
his father, and then his aging mentor at school, both 
of whom saw David as expressions of their own 
greatness, furthering the alienation of his position.

Second, and this requires an analysis from beyond the 
movie, it is a good example of the social folly and 
cruelty of individual parenting. David's father is 
simply unfit to parent. He not only has no idea what 
is best for children, but his own past also prevents 
him from seeing beyond himself. He is a rotten parent 
and his kids' lives are jeopardized. In a socialist 
society it is possible to have collective parenting, 
preventing children from falling victim to the whims 
of their parents and allowing all children to have an 
equal chance at pursuing what they like.

Third, the movie -- and the beautiful music performed 
-- are good examples of why art by emotionally 
tortured people can be so compelling. From classical 
artists like Mozart to nineteenth century artists like 
Van Gogh, sixties figures like Janis Joplin, and rap 
artists like Tupac Shakur, some of the best artists 
have been the ones able to turn their difficult lives 
into artistic expressions that engage people because 
of their emotional intensity and the prowess that 
comes from pouring emotion into practice and effort.

Some of this is from the oppressed, and some is from 
non-oppressed people with other problems (some of them 
self-imposed). In the case of the oppressed, this can 
be a model of fighting back against oppression; in the 
case of the oppressors, this can be a voyeuristic 
attraction to suffering by the parasitic classes. In 
all these cases, though, the pain of the artist is 
part of what makes the art speak to so many people.

In socialist or communist society, will we want that 
to be a model of great art? Yes and no. On the one 
hand, as long as there is pain and suffering, it will 
be the fuel for a lot of great art, and that is going 
to be for a long time. On the other hand, we want 
people to be able to express emotional intensity and 
virtuosity without having messed-up lives. From the 
movie it appears that David could not have been such a 
virtuoso without losing his grip and falling apart.

For Helfgott, the beauty of the music is in the pain 
it expresses -- and partly because it appears to be 
his escape from that pain. Maybe in a communist 
society there would be no David Helfgotts because 
children will have more balanced lives. It's not 
healthy for a young child to focus so intensely on one 
area of study and ability, to the exclusion of others, 
and out of a coerced sense of obligation. So we would 
give up some blind virtuosity in exchange for an 
artistic aesthetic that reflects a society in which 
people have more control over the course of their 
lives. Rather than expressing an escape from a life of 
torture imposed by others, art can represent the 
advances that society makes collectively in the 
direction of liberation and self-realization.


EVITA REVIEW

by MC17

Evita is an interesting look at the politics of 
Argentina in the 1930s and 40s. Attending the movie 
without any knowledge of the plot behind the musical, 
this reviewer was surprised by the radical political 
content. The narrator of the story, played by Antonio 
Banderas is an excellent character that provides a 
good political perspective on the reactionary events 
taking place in the country.

Eva Duarte was born into the lower class of Argentina, 
the 'bastard child' of a middle class father. She 
learned how to use sex to work her way up in society 
and used a string of men who helped her achieve fame 
as a model, singer, actress, and radio personality. 
She is an example of the gender privilege that wimmin 
can command. Although it is unusual in Third World 
countries for wimmin to be able to win any kind of 
gender privilege, Eva Duarte seemed to end up with the 
right men at the right time and was able to use her 
good looks to manipulate these men in her ever 
advancing career.

Finally picking up Juan Peron, then a Colonel in the 
armed forces of Argentina, Eva decided that the two of 
them could rise to power and run the country. At this 
time in Argentina's history, a string of dictators 
followed one another in seizing power through military 
coups and the repression of the people was severe.

Peron, before meeting Eva, was already cultivating his 
political career by visiting unions, helping people 
after a severe earthquake disaster, and giving the 
impression to the public that he felt the masses pain 
and supported their struggles. After resigning his 
commission in the army, Peron was arrested by the 
military probably because of the strong following he 
was building. Eva then went on to lead a tremendous 
movement to get him out of prison, rallying the masses 
of the country by telling them that Peron was the only 
man who could lead the country in their interests. 
Finally the regime was forced to release Peron and he 
went on to win the "democratic" presidential election 
in Argentina.

Evita makes it clear that Peron was not the socialist 
that some might claim but instead was a reactionary 
nationalist who tended towards fascism. In fact, 
Peronism is the name now of a fascist movement in 
Latin America. Banderas' character points out that the 
"democratic" election was marked by violence against 
Peron's opponents who also were running under the 
banners of democracy and service to the people. 
Peron's anti-Yanqui stance was probably sincere, but 
so was his admiration for Hitler(not portrayed in the 
movie). And as Banderas points out, it was no mistake 
that the people in several European countries Eva 
visited protested her visit and called her a fascist. 
All the promises they made to serve the people of 
Argentina were just words as the press was tightly 
controlled, the military was sent in to break up labor 
protests, the unemployment rose, and poverty was not 
alleviated.

Eva Peron's response to the social problems in her 
country was to start a charity foundation. She took in 
lots of money in donations (no small amount of which 
disappeared) and gave much of it out in public 
settings that made her look like a patron saint 
helping the poor. The reality that these programs did 
little more than pacify the population became 
increasingly clear as Peron's leadership continued to 
fail to address the peoples problems. Protests against 
the government grew over the years, put down with 
military might, but according to the movie, many 
people still loved Eva and did not equate her with the 
dictatorship of Peron. And when Evita died in her late 
20s from health problems, much of the nation, both 
rich and poor, went into mourning. 

The musical Evita makes the point that history should 
judge Eva Peron for all that she did not do with the 
positions of power she was able to acquire. Rather 
than seeing her as the hero and patron saint of 
Argentina, the musical takes the point of view of the 
oppressed masses. The oppressed were fighting for 
freedom of the press, livable wages and against the 
abuses of the string of dictatorships that have 
exploited and oppressed the population of Argentina, 
sometimes in slightly different forms, but always with 
the same oppressive outcome for the people.

In the original musical the narrator is supposed to 
represent Che Gueverra, the focoist revolutionary, and 
although this is not made clear in the movie, the 
incorrect side of Gueverrist ideology comes through. 
There is little analysis of why the people followed 
fascist leadership, and why they supposedly blindly 
supported Evita except the suggestion that they were 
duped. This dim view of the masses leads to the 
Gueverrist position that sensationalist action will 
spark a revolution rather than the Maoist struggle of 
education and organization that goes into building a 
people's war to overthrow imperialism. History has 
shown that Maoism is effective while Gueverrism has 
not led to any successful revolutions.

This movie point speaks to the need for revolutionary 
struggle led by the people and not by false patron 
saints using their gender and class privilege to lead 
a country into false hope. As an important lesson in 
history, MIM recommends Evita to those looking to see 
a good bourgeois movie.


* * *


CHINESE STATE-CAPITALISM:
HEAVY-HANDED RESPONSE TO RELIGION

by MC45

The state-capitalist Chinese regime has cracked down 
hard on Catholics in China in the past year and a 
half. Leaders in the Chinese Catholic church in part 
of Southeastern China were arrested at Easter-time in 
1995, following a large Easter service and 
celebration. Beginning in 1994, China's president 
Jiang Zemin has been preaching that "social stability" 
is more important than anything in China right now; 
and Mr. Jiang has advocated slowing capitalist 
economic reforms to keep people happy with the economy 
and encourage social unity.

From the state-capitalist perspective, religious 
belief is antithetical to living and cooperating in a 
socialist society, and repressing religion is a 
necessary component of promoting social stability. For 
this reason, Jiang is talking about doing things which 
will make Chinese state-capitalism look very backward 
to Western capitalist powers: slowing reforms and 
reinstating price controls.

From MIM's perspective, and from the genuine Maoist 
perspective, people can hold religious beliefs and 
contribute to socialist society at the same time. MIM 
also believes that genuine socialism is better for the 
masses than religion is, but this means we support 
convincing people through socialist practice, not 
threatening them to make them give up their religion.

One Amerikan academic from the University of 
California gave the classic imperialist explanation of 
why more Chinese are turning to religion today than 
they were when Mao was alive. "In the past, many 
people did believe [in Communism], and it motivated 
them to hard work and sometimes great self-sacrifice 
that gave a kind of moral legitimacy to the Communist 
state because it was a moral project to build the 
state -- a religious project ultimately."

The Western scholar is correct that it was a moral 
project to build socialist China, because the 
socialists who led this project held it as a moral 
issue that the great masses of Chinese people deserved 
to live in an economy which would allow them to feed, 
clothe and shelter themselves adequately and to 
provide an education for their children. But the 
Western scholar overrates religion when he refers to 
the project of building the socialist state as a 
religious project. Religious ideology never did 
anything to liberate a country from foreign occupation 
(as China was liberated from Japan in 1945) or to 
secure political power for the masses of working 
people (as China's socialist revolution did in 1949). 
Referring to Chinese socialism as a religious project 
minimizes the importance of socialism.

Socialism requires that people work evermore in 
cooperation with each other and that they take an 
active role in building socialist production. Within 
this context, religious belief and institutions will 
eventually wither away. But this will happen as the 
people realize that through socialist political power 
and participation they can control their own 
destinies. When the masses understand through practice 
that there is no higher power controlling their lives 
now, and that they do not need to wait for a higher 
power to improve their lives in the distant future, 
they will drop religious ideology and support 
socialist materialism as the means through which they 
can master their own fates. 

NOTE: New York Times 26 January, 1997, p. 1, 4. Also, 
see the upcoming MIM Theory for more on Marx & Engels 
on religion, and socialist policies on religion.