This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
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THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
MIM Notes 142 JULY 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. IMPERIALIST PLUNDER: POVERTY CLIMBS FOR WORLD'S
MAJORITY
2. HUNDREDS DEMONSTRATE FOR PUERTO RICAN
INDEPENDENCE
3. LETTERS
4. NIKE WORKERS PROTEST IMPERIALIST STOMPING:
THOUSANDS STRIKE IN INDONESIA AND VIETNAM
5. BETTY SHABAZZ DIES IN VICTORY FOR WHITE
SUPREMACY
6. TOBACCO SETTLEMENT SLAPS CANCER PIMPS ON WRIST
7. DEATH MERCHANTS OF IMPERIALISM
8. DWB: DRIVING WHILE BLACK AN OFFENSE IN FLORIDA
9. INJUSTICE, THE AMERIKAN WAY
10. PIGS KILL CHINESE MAN, FBI PIGS TO INVESTIGATE
11. MERCURY NEWS DEMOTES WEBB
12. AMERIKAN WAR AGAINST OGLALA CONTINUES
13. NATIONALIST PEQUOT ART TARGETED FOR CENSORSHIP
14. U.C. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BAN MAKES ALLIES FOR
THE INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT
15. 1997 COLLEGE GRADS ON EASY STREET
16. IMPERIALISTS AND THEIR LACKEYS DIVIDE AND THEN
STARVE THE KOREAN PEOPLE
17. IMPERIALISTS REACT TO THREAT OF AFRICAN UNITY
18. MOVIE REVIEWS: CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION AND
THE LOST WORLD
19. UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND
PRISONS
* * *
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
* * *
IMPERIALIST PLUNDER:
POVERTY CLIMBS FOR WORLD'S MAJORITY
One fourth of the world's population lives in
conditions of poverty, according to the publication
Human Development, produced by UNDP (United Nations
Development Program), released in mid-June. In
imperialist-labeled developing countries (poor
countries that are colonies or neo-colonies of
imperialism), 1.3 billion people survive with less
than a dollar a day.
The director of the office of the ONU in Spain,
Isel Rivero, said "The money that is lacking --
80,000 million dollars -- is the equivalent of the
fortune netted by the seven richest people in the
world, or 10% of the amount spent annually on arms.
For what it costs to make a Disneyland park, 5,000
million dollars, it would be possible to end
poverty in the five most marginalized countries on
the planet."(1)
STATISTICS UNDER IMPERIALISM
According to the UNDP report, poverty is increasing
for the world's people. The poorest 20% of the
world's population, who in 1960 received 2.3% of
wages worldwide, now only receive 1.1% and this
continues to drop. There are still one billion
illiterate people, 160 million malnourished
children and 110 million children deprived of any
schooling in this world.
Only two to five per cent of the 500 million
poorest households worldwide have access to
institutional credit. Without this, they are unable
to seize market opportunities or build up savings
to survive crises.(2) It's important to keep in
mind that the majority of working people in
imperialist countries have access to credit and
take this ability to survive swings in their
financial situation for granted. In fact, the
poverty reported on in the UNDP report is largely
unfelt by residents of the imperialist countries.
In the United Snakes, the majority of the workers
enjoy conditions that place them in the wealthiest
portion of the world's population.
The poverty line varies according to the region,
but the World Bank generally uses a dollar a day as
the poverty level in developing countries, two
dollars a day in Latin America and the Caribbean,
four dollars a day in Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet states and 14.40 dollars a day for
industrial countries -- which is the income poverty
line in the United Snakes.(3) This raises other
questions about the measurement of poverty in
different countries (which MIM addresses more
thoroughly in issues 1 and 10 of its theory
journal). Marx pointed out that the cost of living
will vary in different areas of the world, and we
have to take this into account when measuring
poverty.
Within a country, the report pointed out that some
groups of people suffer more than others. Children,
wimmin and the aged were singled out as the groups
most affected by poverty.
This year the UNDP introduced a Human Poverty Index
(HPI), which measures the percentage of the
population expected to survive to age 40, the
percentage of illiterates, and lack of access to
healthcare, safe water and reasonable nutrition.
Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Chile, Singapore and
Costa Rica score highest. On the lowest rankings,
where the UNDP estimates that humyn poverty exceeds
50%, six out of the bottom seven countries are in
Africa: Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso,
Ethiopia, Mali, Cambodia and Mozambique. This index
helps demonstrate the swings in development under
imperialism which lead to different countries and
regions developing at different rates.
In subsaharan Africa and in the south of Asia there
is the greatest incidence of poverty which affects
40% of the inhabitants and this continues to grow.
Compared to 1970, it is more likely now that poor
people are African or Latin American instead of
Asian.
These statistics are underscored by a report
released May 20 from the Fundacion Salvadorena para
el Desarrollo Economico y Social (Salvadoran
Foundation for Social and Economic Development)
which states that 65% of the rural population of El
Salvador lives in poverty. Two million people in
rural areas of the country live in these conditions
and 400 thousand of these people fall in the group
of "extreme poverty". The Foundation attempted to
blame the problems on agricultural failures but the
real culprit is capitalism.(4)
THE PROBLEMS ARE SYSTEMIC
The UNDP report provides some useful information on
the causes of poverty. Human Development reports
that annual losses to developing countries from
unequal access to trade, labor and finance are
estimated at US$500 billion, 10 times what these
countries receive in foreign aid. Debt relief from
the Group of Seven and Bretton Woods institutions
by 2000 for the 20 worst-affected countries would
cost between US$5.5 billion and US$7.7 billion --
less than the price of one Stealth bomber.(5)
While the world economy stands at 25 trillion
dollars, the ratio between the richest and poorest
people on the planet has gone from 30 to one in
1960 to 78 to one in 1994, the report said.
Meanwhile the world's 10 top billionaires account
for a wealth of 133 billion dollars, or 1.5 times
the total revenue for the world's least advanced
countries. Of the world's 100 largest economies, 50
are mega-corporations. The 350 largest firms
control 40 per cent of global trade, with a
turnover that exceeds the gross domestic product of
many countries.(5)
All these numbers point to one thing: a systemic
problem of disparities between wealthy and poor
that is perpetuated by those in power who hold the
wealth and guns at the expense of the majority of
the world's population.
SOLUTIONS
The UN Development Program insists that "it is well
within our grasp" to reduce severe poverty in the
first decades of the next century. The UNDP argues
that recent advances in the world are proof of the
potential to reduce poverty: "Few people realize
the great advances already made. In the past 50
years poverty has fallen more than in the previous
500." The report cited facts that since 1960, or
slightly more than one generation, child mortality
rates have dropped by more than half in developing
countries while malnutrition has been trimmed by
almost a third.
It is important that communists make clear that as
dialectical materialists we understand the advances
possible under capitalism. But we also understand
its limitations. We understand the elimination of
poverty is not going to happen within capitalism
precisely because it exists off the exploitation of
labor of the proletariat.
When faced with the question of how to eradicate
poverty within the imperialist system, the UNDP
suggests that extreme poverty could be eradicated
over the next 20 years, as long as countries
implement policies that are "pro-poor". This would
entail addressing structural inequalities in the
distribution of assets, such as land, housing and
social services; institutional and policy reforms
to promote better access and greater security of
tenure for wimmin and greater support for
agricultural productivity, promoting micro-
enterprises and the informal sector, as well as
labor-intensive manufacturing.(6)
The report put a price tag on reducing world
poverty, which it said would cost the planet 80
billion dollars or less than 0.5 percent of global
income, or in other terms, less than the combined
wealth of the world's seven richest people or 10
percent of world military expenditures for 1995.
Even recognizing that this is merely "reducing"
poverty, the very fact that such reduction is well
within reach but yet is not accomplished should
alert socially conscious people to the fact that
imperialists don't want to eliminate poverty.
The institutional reforms the UNDP is proposing
will not be implemented by imperialist countries
that benefit from inequalities. Reforming
imperialism will not eliminate the basis for
exploitation and oppression.
REAL SOLUTIONS: CHINA VS. INDIA
The UNDP report attempts to make the comparison
between China and India to point out some of the
differences in development in different countries
over the past several decades. The report points
out that "almost all Chinese children" go to school
now, adult illiteracy dropped to 19 per cent from
50 per cent in 1950 and infant mortality dropped to
42 per 1,000 live births from 200 per 1,000 in
1950. "Progress in recent decades (in China) has
been remarkable" despite setbacks and advances, the
report said. These advances are all measured since
the revolution in China which overthrew Japanese
imperialism in 1949.
While some measurements of wealth continued to
increase under the state capitalist dictatorship of
Deng Xioping, others have fallen. The report
pointed out that China's national poverty line,
those living on 60 U.S. cents (0.60 dollar) a day,
fell from 33 per cent in 1978 to 9 per cent in
1985. But in the late 1980s, the number of rural
poor increased as a result of a shift in
development strategy away from agriculture to
industrial and export sectors.(7) And regardless of
the changes since the late 1970s, clearly
tremendous advances for the Chinese people can be
attributed to the Chinese revolution and the Maoist
leadership in building socialism for almost 30
years. (For more information and statistics on the
advances in China under Mao see MIM Theory #4, A
Spiral Trajectory: The failure and success of
communist development, available for $5 from MIM).
India is a good country to use for comparisons
between the accomplishments of capitalism and those
of socialism. In 1949 both India and China were
poor countries facing many similar problems. China
then began socialist development while India
remained capitalist. In India, the report said,
"the record is mixed and India remains a country
with stark contrasts and disparities" after decades
of trying to improve living conditions. The report
said that currently 53 per cent of children, or 60
million, are still malnourished despite a four-fold
boost in grain production from 1991 to 1995; half
of the population is still illiterate, with 45 per
cent of children not reaching grade five. The
infant mortality rate has been halved to 74 per
1,000 live births in 1995, but still each year 2.2
million infant deaths have been reported.(7)
If we want to truly wipe out poverty, oppression
and suffering in the world we are going to have to
do more than advocate that countries adopt "pro-
poor" policies. Historically, socialist revolution
has been the greatest force for wiping out poverty
and increasing the wealth and well being of the
world's population. For all those hoping to fight
for a more just and equal system MIM encourages
serious study of the history of revolutionary
struggle compared with the failures of capitalist
development. And for those already convinced that
imperialism will never solve the problems of
poverty that it perpetuates, fight with MIM to
overthrow this rotten system.
NOTES:
The text of highlights of this report can be found
at http://www.undp.org/undp/hdro
1. 13 June, 1997: http://www.eurosur.org/rebelion/
2. New Straits Times 16 June 1997, p21.
3. Agence France Presse 12 June 1997.
4. 21 May 1997, San Salvador. Agencia Púlsar found
at:
http://www.eurosur.org/rebelion/internacional/salva
dorpobreza.htm
5. New Straits Times 14 June 1997, p.21.
6. Africa News 13 June 1997.
7. Deutsche Presse-Agentur 12 June 1997.
* * *
HUNDREDS DEMONSTRATE FOR PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE
On June 19 and 20 hundreds of people gathered in
New York to support Puerto Rican independence and
the release of Puerto Rican prisoners captured and
imprisoned for their independence activities.
On June 19 the colonial case of Puerto Rico was
discussed before the United Nations Decolonization
Committee. This committee has put on the pretense
of addressing colonialism and since 1972 the case
of Puerto Rico has been on its agenda. While
organizers of this demonstration recognize that
gaining the support of a UN committee will not
achieve independence for Puerto Rico, they
understand that the pressure from such an
organization can help in the anti-imperialist
struggle.
There was a sense of urgency around this year's
hearing because the United States Congress is
currently considering the Young Bill ("The United
States-Puerto Rico Political Status Act") which
recently passed a committee in the House of
Representatives. The result of this bill would be a
referendum in 1998 in Puerto Rico similar to the
illegitimate referendum held in Hawaii recently
where the imperialists put on the pretense of
allowing the people to decide when in reality they
are forcing a colonized people to chose between
forms of colonization.
The National Committee to Free Puerto Rican
Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners put
together the following points of unity for the
vigil in front of the United Nations office: 1.
Unconditional Amnesty For The Puerto Rican
Political Prisoners And Prisoners Of War; 2.
Independence For Puerto Rico; 3. Affirmation Of The
Right Of The Puerto Rican Diaspora To Participate
In The Decolonization Process Of Puerto Rico.
An organizing flyer for the demonstration stated:
"The majority of the Puerto Rican Political
Prisoners have endured inhuman treatment and
isolation in U.S. jails for more than seventeen
years. . . Their crime is their passion for
freedom, their love and commitment to see their
nation stand sovereign among the nations of the
world."
A rally held in the afternoon of the 19th included
the keynote speaker Lolita Lebro'n, a hero of the
independence movement for her participation in the
storming of congress. Many people spoke at the UN
committee hearings, all stressing the importance of
independence for Puerto Rico and the need for the
freedom of the Puerto Rican political prisoners.
The speakers drew parallels between the occupied
status of the Puerto Rican nation and the holding
of people fighting for liberation of their country
as criminals in the Amerikan injustice system.
MIM interviewed an activist with the National
Committee who pointed out that the UN
Decolonization Committee does not consider First
Nations or Blacks colonies in spite of their
obviously colonial status within US borders. In
fact, the UN committee only recognizes a few
territories as colonies and this reveals one of the
many limitations of an organization that is part of
an arm of imperialist power: the United Nations.
Although the UN committee did not take up any
resolutions in favor of Puerto Rican independence
or the freedom of the prisoners, they also did not
take up a resolution to create a new republic out
of Puerto Rico and this was considered a victory.
The activist said such a proposal was brought to
the committee and it would have only couched
colonialism in another form.
The United States has been pushing to close down
the UN Decolonization Committee, saying that it has
no purpose. Of course, to an imperialist power, an
organization that focuses on decolonization has no
purpose. As the Puerto Rican activist noted, this
"forum can not bring independence but at least it
puts pressure" on the imperialists.
The U$ wants to remove any avenue that anti-
imperialists find useful as a part of their larger
struggle. The activist noted that the U$ "doesn't
want to fully solve the status of Puerto Rico. It
is a colony that provides the greatest benefit.
They just want to undo the political problem [of
Puerto Rico] without acknowledging that they have a
problem and without admitting any crimes."
To achieve independence the activist stressed that
all imperialist troops must be removed from Puerto
Rico. Nominal independence will not bring
sovereignty and the Puerto Rican people are
demanding their right to self-determination,
something that can only be achieved once
imperialist power has been removed from their
country. "Once we have sovereignty we want the
people to decide. And hopefully they will decide
that we will be a socialist country run by the
proletariat serving the people of the world" said
the activist.
The activists hope to pressure other Latin American
countries to support Puerto Rican independence and
they believe this is a winnable battle because the
Latin American countries would lose little from
taking such a stance. These countries act as good
neo-colonies of Amerikan imperialism and the
activist MIM interviewed suggested that it was fear
over losing free trade status with Amerika that is
one of the biggest obstacles to these countries
supporting Puerto Rican independence.
MIM sees the value in targeting institutions like
the United Nations to pressure the imperialists as
a part the Puerto Rican liberation struggle, so
long as we always are clear that this battle will
not win the war. And we also agree with the
importance of drawing connections between the
colonial status of Puerto Rico and the holding of
revolutionary activists in Amerikan prisons for
their political crimes. But we take this further
and also recognize the Puerto Ricans who are held
in Amerikan prisons for other imperialist-defined
crimes as political prisoners who were not judged
by a jury of their peers and who had the entire
system stacked against them from the cops to the
courts. When over 90% of prisoners held in control
units in some states are Latino, the political
nature of crime, as it is defined and prosecuted in
this country, is very clear.
We join the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican
Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners in calling
for complete sovereignty for Puerto Rico starting
with a removal of the US military. The liberation
of Puerto Rico is an important part of the struggle
against Amerikan imperialist domination around the
world.
NOTES: The National Committee to Free Puerto Rican
Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners
* * *
LETTERS
WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE LUMPEN AND COPS
Dear Comrades,
I am curious as to what MIM's line is on organizing
the lumpen proletariat. You accurately
characterized them ( in MIM Notes 130) as "a
difficult class to organize," and thus I do not
believe they can be effectively organize in the
same manner as the proletariat.
I would also like to know what action MIM thinks
communities should take in dealing with killer
cops?
-- An Iowa Prisoner, 20 Mar. 97
MIM RESPONDS: The reason that Marxists distinguish
between the lumpen proletariat and the proletariat
is because they can not be organized in the same
manner, so MIM agrees with you on this question.
In "The Communist Manifesto" Marx referred to the
lumpen as "the dangerous class" and remarked that
as the group on the bottom of society, "thrown off
by the lowest layers of old society, [it] may, here
and there, be swept into the movement by a
proletarian revolution; its conditions of life,
however, prepare it far more for the part of a
bribed tool of reactionary intrigue."(p92, Penguin
edition)
The important point is recognizing the material
difference between the proletariat and the lumpen
proletariat. While the proletariat is an organized
force of workers whose relation to production is
established through its productive role, the lumpen
have been forced into a position of non-
productivity where crime is often the only way to
survive. As a result, in this country we can see
examples of what Marx discussed in lumpen who are
willing to sell themselves as snitches to the pigs.
Crucial to materialist analysis is the distinction
between the bought off working class in imperialist
countries at this stage of imperialist development,
and the proletariat. The workers, particularly
among the white nation, in Amerika have been bought
off so that they do not have a material interest in
revolution. So when we contrast the lumpen and the
proletariat we are not talking about the majority
of the workers in this country.
As for dealing with killer cops, MIM believes that
overthrowing imperialism is the best defense
against killer kops. But in the short term, one way
to organize against imperialism is educating people
about the problems with the kops and giving them
tools to fight these problems by setting up
community watches where folks watch out for one
another while at the same time educating and
organizing about the need to overthrow imperialism.
There is no way we are going to reform this system
to eliminate killer kops and national oppression so
it is important that we involve communities in the
anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle. The Black
Panther Party attempted to protect the community
against kops by arming themselves. While this
confrontation with imperialism ultimately led to
the state destroying the Party, we can not give up
on the possibility of organizing communities in
self-defense. We have to take lessons from the
experience of the Black Panthers and continue to
organize.
LAZY CRITIC SAYS MAOISM IS "BAD"
Dear MIM,
I was a former member of the Students for a
Democratic Society (Lunar Rosa) at a college in
Greater Boston. And what a mistake it was. They
used Maoist propaganda and after all these years, I
found out how bad it was.
Hey look at the world today. There is no more
soviet Union or Soviet Blocks. North Korea is
starving as is Cuba. So what is left, China? They
are getting more capitalist every day. They may
fall too.
Now I have read several issues of your MIM Notes
and have come to the conclusion that you people are
nothing but a bunch of fucking assholes that need
to be reamed out. Wake up shit heads communism is
dead. Why don't you morons die too.
Thank you.
--a critic in the east
P.S. My friend agrees too. And by the way, a pig
saved my friend's life and he is Black too.
MIM RESPONDS: This is a good example of someone
who wants politics spoon fed to them because they
are too lazy to study for themselves. If an
organization you are involved in is claiming
Maoism, you have a responsibility to find out what
that means. How could it take years to find out
that Maoism is bad unless you are too lazy to do a
little investigation? Of course branches of SDS or
any other organizations claiming Maoism have a
responsibility to be clear about why it supports
Maoism but even if this critic's SDS branch failed
to do this, that does not excuse the laziness of
the critic.
MIM does look at the world today, and clearly we
look at it more carefully than this critic. We have
always been clear that the Soviet Union was state
capitalist from the time Kruschev took power, and
since Mao died the same is true for China. MIM is,
in fact, one of the few anti-imperialist
organizations in this country that has never
claimed that Cuba is socialist. If this critic
reads MIM Notes so slopily that s/he missed these
very important points (several of which are listed
in the What is MIM? Box on page 2 of every issue),
it is no wonder it took him/her years of membership
in an organization claiming Maoism before s/he
decided Maoism was bad.
It is no surprise that this lazy critic feels the
need to resort to identity politics arguments and
examples of one person's experience: if the
agreement of one friend is enough to support the
argument that Maoism is bad, the imperialists have
already won. Fortunately, MIM knows that not all
readers of MIM Notes are so lazy and uninterested
in serious political study and struggle.
* * *
NIKE WORKERS PROTEST IMPERIALIST STOMPING;
THOUSANDS STRIKE IN INDONESIA AND VIETNAM
by a RAIL comrade
Recent strikes in sneaker factories have brought
attention to the Nike Corporation's ongoing labor
exploitation. Two recent strikes involved 10,000
workers in Indonesia and 1,300 in Vietnam.(1)
Stories of Nike's use of super-exploited labor in
sweat shops have painted a grim picture of the
functioning of imperialism. Despite the oppressive
conditions, the workers have risked their well-
being to protest low pay, forced overtime, poor
working conditions, and abusive management.
The most integral part of Nike's exploitation of
labor is the low wages -- which allow for higher
profits to be extracted benefiting imperialism. The
figures blatantly illustrate this strategy -- such
as when a worker is paid $5 for labor on shoes that
are then sold for $150. In Indonesia, the minimum
wage is $2.46 per day, which affords only 90% of
one person's necessities. Vietnamese workers can
not even afford three meals a day with the wage of
$1.60 per day.(1)
The stories of oppression and abuse further reveal
the nature of the imperialist system. Force against
workers is necessary for imperialists to maintain
control and to continue sucking profits. People
interviewed at shops which supply Nike with its
products reported that physical abuse is common. In
one instance, fifty-six wimmin, twelve of whom
passed-out, were forced to run, until exhaustion,
around the factory for not wearing the proper
footwear.(2) Many wimmin reported being struck on
the head for scuffing the product. Talkative
workers have had their mouths taped shut. One
worker said, "The only rest you can get is after
you collapse at your machine."(3)
Through terror tactics, management keeps workers in
line. In March 1995, when twelve workers expressed
their grievances about their conditions, the
company responded by locking the workers in an
unused room for a week guarded by the local
military. They have since been suspended from work
without pay.(3)
In 1992, Nike enacted a Code of Conduct in response
to complaints of such human rights abuses.(4) They
claim to enforce this code by ending business with
any contracted manufacturers which break the rules.
But recent reports clearly show Nike is only
concerned with profits, not human rights.
Some argue that Nike doesn't own the factories and
it can't control the policies and customs of the
local nations. Such an argument aims to blame the
barbarities of imperialist operation on the
policies of Third World nations which are military,
politically and economically controlled by the
imperialists in the first place. The case with Nike
is not merely a situation where a large corporation
has "turned a blind eye." This is what Nike and the
thousands of other imperialist corporations depend
on to increase profits. The U$ government gladly
steps up to ensure that lackey governments have the
weapons and power necessary to help control the
masses and aid in the siphoning of profit flow to
the imperialist nations.
Some groups have set out to boycott Nike to protest
oppressive tactics. But this will not end
imperialist oppression. The idea that "Where Nike
goes other manufacturers follow" is ludicrous.
Imperialism depends on oppressed workers to
perpetuate the accumulation of capital. Nike will
continue to put up a front of humanitarianism to
quiet complaints.
Nike made a recent attempt to improve its
popularity among Amerikan consumers by joining the
Leave No Trace organization to prevent the
degradation of parks and the natural environment
from athletic activity. Nike made a $125,000 annual
grant to the education campaign.(5) First, the idea
that we can save the natural environment by
promoting better athletic practice is ridiculous.
Recreational environmental degradation is the least
of our worries when big industry is destroying the
earth at an unsustainable rate by itself. So it
seems odd that Nike is willing to give all that
money to this program, when it is not willing to
pay its workers a livable wage under humane
conditions. This program is merely another
promotional opportunity. Meanwhile, it is not in
the interest of profits to raise wages.
Nike is making a profit off of the oppressed
through low wages and threatening conditions, while
trying to maintain its image back home. But more
importantly this is merely one example that
illustrates the economic system of imperialism.
Therefore it is important to publicize examples
such is these in that context. Then it becomes
evident that it is not one problem that can be
changed with a new law or code of conduct. But it
is a systematic problem that must be stopped by
changing the system.
Notes:
1. The San Francisco Examiner 9 June 1997.
2. The Cincinnati Inquirer 7 June 1997.
3.
http://www.essential.org/monitor/hyper/mm0695.html/
#nike
4. Jakarta Post6 June 1997.
5. E-wire 11 June 1997.
* * *
BETTY SHABAZZ DIES IN VICTORY FOR WHITE SUPREMACY
26 June 1997 -- When Betty Shabazz died from burns
suffered in a fire allegedly set by her 12-year-old
grandson Malcolm, her death marked another victory
for white supremacy, and another call to arms for
those who seek an end to the Black nation's
oppression at the hands of Amerika. Shabazz was the
widow of the late Black leader Malcolm X, who was a
target of the FBI's COINTELPRO and was assassinated
in 1965.
Betty Shabazz raised their four daughters and
eventually went back to school, earning a doctorate
in education. She became a professor and
administrator at Medgar Evers College and hosted a
talk show there.(1) She also made public
appearances including at the Million Man March in
Washington where she was honored by Black
supporters as part of the legacy of Black struggle
and white repression in this century. She also
contributed directly to ongoing reformist civil
rights struggles.
"Malcolm's agenda was human rights and self-
determination," Betty Shabazz said in 1992. "Free
people have a right to self-determination, self-
defense. Now, a lot of people say, 'Self- defense?
Oh, my God, that's violence.' If people think by
any means necessary' means violence, what that says
is that that individual is violent and hostile. But
not my husband."(7) She was correct that Malcolm X
was not violent, but he certainly intended "by any
means necessary" to include violence if necessary.
Shabazz was correct to the extent that Malcolm's
point was that the oppressed do not wish for
violence or initiate it, but are the victims of
violence in the first place. From this quote it
sounds as if we may disagree with her that violence
is in fact necessary for national liberation. As
the line from the Public Enemy song goes: "I got a
right to be hostile / my people been persecuted."
President Clinton contributed to the violent
seizure of Black history in his four-sentence
statement of condolence, which didn't even mention
Black people or political struggle or Malcolm X.
"She devoted a long career to education and to
uplifting women and children," he said, attempting
to complete her conversion from radical Black
nationalism.(8)
HISTORY OF REPRESSION
When Malcolm X was young, his family came under
attack from "social service" agents of the state --
the soft side of the state's national oppression
that breaks up families.(3) Where once white slave
traders sold family members to different
plantations, now the supposedly benevolent agents
use selective laws and bogus psychology to break up
Black families. Now Malcolm's grandson, son of his
daughter Qubilah, has once again been removed from
his family, this time for a juvenile detention
center, where he is charged with juvenile
delinquency and possibly murder.(6)
Malcolm has faced many hardships as a result of his
grandfather's murder and his mother Qubilah's
subsequent problems which include state harassment
culminating in an FBI plot to entrap her in a
murder plot against NOI leader Louis Farrakhan.
After the FBI plot was revealed, the state did not
fully prosecute Qubilah, but instead settled for
psychiatric punishment and seizing little Malcolm.
The disruption and psychological torture brought
upon Malcolm are blamed for his actions in New
York. The state claimed he started the fire in his
grandmother's house there in a protest against
living there.(1) MIM does not have anything more
than state/media sponsored gossip about Malcolm,
but family spokespeople have not publicly denied
that he started the fire. MIM is perfectly willing
to blame the state and white supremacists for
Malcolm's oppressive childhood and subsequent
problems based on the information that we do have.
The state is now delighted to prosecute and
incarcerate the young Malcolm, just to rub their
temporary victories in the face of the Shabazz
family and the supporters of national liberation.
Malcom X's house was firebombed when he was a
child, in a racist attack aimed at the family
because his father was a Black nationalist
activist.(3) The Shabazz home was firebombed in
1965, shortly before the assassination, and the
family barely escaped alive. "I won't burn to
death," Malcolm X said after the fire. "I'll
probably be shot to death on the street one day. Or
maybe while I'm speaking."(4) Malcolm was shot a
week later. Malcolm had tried to make arrangements
for Betty and their children to live in Africa if
he was killed.(5) She did not move to Africa, but
Betty lived much longer, and was not as lucky in
her death: she lived for three weeks after
suffering terrible burns over most of her body.(1)
MIM takes the moment of Betty Shabazz's death to
draw several conclusions.
First, from slavery and KKK white supremacist fire-
bombing, to state repression, FBI movement
infiltration, "social service" repression,
psychological torture, traitorous plots, and
historical revisionism, Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X
and their family -- and the Black nation as a whole
-- have suffered millions of unjust deaths. Her
death is one more brutal reminder of this legacy.
Second, Betty Shabazz in some ways continued her
husband's work, but along with the other symbolic
civil rights leaders, her work in later years was
partial and mostly reformist. We say this not as a
personal criticism, but to make the point that it
is movements, organizations, and political parties
that make revolutions, not individuals and those
they leave behind to carry on their memories. The
individuals left behind when leaders are killed may
or may not be great leaders themselves. We cannot
expect them to be, and we cannot put all our eggs
in the baskets of any few leaders, however
important we know they are; we need to be making
new leaders all the time. And although we remember
the fallen, we must never substitute the inspiring
memory for the current revolutionary struggle.
Finally, MIM and all revolutionaries are inspired
by and learn from victory and defeat alike. We who
oppose all oppression, organize and fight on in the
memories of all those who labored and died in
oppression -- the famous and the anonymous alike.
NOTES:
1. Washington Post 24 June 1997, p. A1.
2. NAACP information from http://www.naacp.org.
3. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex
Haley. Ballantine Books, 1964.
4. Peter Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X.
University of Illinois Press, 1979. p. 263. 5.
Ibid., p. 256.
6. Reuter, 24 June 1997, "Death of Betty Shabazz
Ruled a Homicide."
7. The New York Times, 24 June 1997, p. A1.
8. Although the media reported that Clinton "said"
these kind words, in fact they were delivered to
the media in writing, unsigned. See
http://www.whitehouse.gov, press statements for 23
June 1997.
* * *
TOBACCO INDUSTRY SETTLEMENT SLAPS CANCER PIMPS ON
WRIST
On June 20, forty state attorneys general reached
an agreement with the biggest tobacco companies
which would require the tobacco industry to pay
more than $368.5 billion over the next 25 years in
compensatory and punitive damages for its promotion
of smoking. The proposed deal also drastically
restricts the tobacco companies' domestic
advertising, and forces them to help fund anti-
tobacco advertising. Smoking causes more than 1,000
deaths in the u.s. every day.(1)
Mississippi attorney general Michael Moore calls
this deal "the most historic public health
achievement of this century."(2) But even many
bourgeois analysts admit that this agreement will
do little to curb the tobacco industry or come
close to the elimination of smoking-related deaths.
For starters, the agreement has to be ratified by
congress, and this is by no means guaranteed. There
are also major concessions to the tobacco industry
in the deal intended to preserve the industry's
profitability. And the deal says nothing about the
export of tobacco, which the u.s. government
encourages.
The Amerikan tobacco industry has knowingly
profited off of an addictive and life-threatening
product and will continue to do so in the future,
despite this agreement. The u.$. government remains
concerned about the profitability of the tobacco
companies even while censuring them for dealing in
death. This is another example of Marx's teaching
that, "The purpose of capital is not to satisfy
needs, but to produce profit."(3) Only socialism --
which organizes production for need, not for profit
-- can stop the needless deaths associated with
smoking.
SMOKING KILLS
Epidemiological studies linked smoking to lung
cancer and heart disease more than thirty years
ago, and recently clinical studies found the
biological mechanism behind the smoking/lung cancer
connection. According to the Center for Disease
Control (CDC), 400,000 people die each year from
smoking-related causes in the u.$. alone.(1)
Despite the clear evidence that smoking causes
cancer and increases the risk of heart disease, the
tobacco industry consistently denied the link
between smoking and these diseases. Many bourgeois
analysts see the agreement between the industry and
the attorneys general as a tacit admission that
cigarettes kill and that the industry is guilty of
"moral wrongdoing."(1)
Earlier this year, one of the smallest tobacco
companies, the Liggett Group, admitted that smoking
was addictive and that cigarette companies'
advertising targeted youth and children.(1) The CDC
estimates that 3,000 teens become regular smokers
every day -- meaning they have smoked at least one
cigarette per day for a month.(1)
Much of the $368.5 billion settlement will go to
the states, in order to help them recover Medicaid
expenses incurred by smokers. The remainder of the
money will ostensibly pay for youth anti-smoking
campaigns, health research programs, and federal
oversight of the tobacco industry. In return, the
tobacco industry will be immune from all other
class action suits (including many currently
pending). Individuals can still sue, but no
individual has ever won a lawsuit against the $50-
billion-a-year tobacco industry.
The Minnesota attorney general considers the
settlement money chump change, and estimates that
the industry could afford over $800 billion,
"without putting a dent in overseas profits, stock
dividends, or executive perks."(1) And other
bourgeois experts say that the money is not the
heart of the deal. After all, most of the money
goes to reimburse the states for medical costs
already incurred. The real effectiveness of the
deal, say these experts, lies in the power it gives
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate
the industry.(1) Assuming that is true, then the
deal will be pretty ineffective. Public-health
advocates argue that the agreement sets conditions
on FDA authority which would effectively allow the
tobacco industry to fend off regulation.(4)
The proposed agreement also restricts the use of
human forms and cartoons in advertising, and
forbids billboard advertising and T-shirt give-
aways. Many of these restrictions and the proposed
anti-smoking advertisements will be aimed at youth.
But John Garrison, the head of the American Lung
Association, believes the industry will find a way
around these regulations. He says, "The ability of
the tobacco industry to reinvent itself and
circumvent such restrictions is remarkable."(1)
Another bourgeois expert candidly admits that
"teenage smoking will not go away -- the industry's
survival depends on it."(1)
Finally, even if this settlement is a "tacit
admission of guilt," the tobacco industry still has
not explicitly admitted that it knows cigarettes
cause cancer and are addictive. Part of the
settlement allows the industry to keep secret many
internal documents which could be damaging to them
in court. And even though the agreement mandates
the closure of pro-tobacco lobbies like the Tobacco
Institute and the Council for Tobacco Research USA
(industry-funded organizations which made their
living "proving" that cigarettes were harmless or
that nicotine was not addictive), this closure may
only exist on paper. According to Tobacco Institute
vice-president Walker Merryman, "All we're going to
do is change the name on the door. We're going to
continue to do what we have always done."(5)
Ultimately, any strategy which seeks to raise the
health standard of the people of the world (see
sidebar) by reforming the existing system without
overthrowing capitalism and imperialism is doomed.
As long as there are immense profits to be made
producing and selling a product which makes
millions of people ill and causes many to die, some
capitalist will make that product. And providing
expensive but necessary health care to the broad
masses of people will never be a profitable
business. Again, only socialism, a system which
organizes production to serve people's needs
unhindered by the profit motive, can raise the
health standard of the broad masses of the world.
NOTES:
1. Time 30 June 97, pp. 24-32.
2. Time 30 June 97, pp. 25. Moore is being more
than a little chauvinist, narrow-minded, and self-
aggrandizing here. Even if this deal does what it
purports to do--which it won't--it would not
compare to the major public health successes which
liberation and the development of socialism in
China brought. Expected lifespans doubled from
liberation to the end of socialism in China in
1976.
3. The Fundamentals of Political Economy, p. 63.
4. Reuters 25 June 97.
5. Los Angeles Times 24 June 97.
* * *
DEATH MERCHANTS OF IMPERIALISM
The lack of any restrictions on the export of
cigarettes in the agreement between the state
attorneys general and the tobacco industry clearly
exposes the capitalist rationale behind the deal
and shows how imperialist monopoly capitalists
respond to crises by stepping up exploitation and
oppression of the masses in the colonies and neo-
colonies.
The proposed deal may force domestic cigarette
prices up 50%, which could cause a 15% drop in
domestic sales. This will force cigarette
manufacturers to expand their marketing abroad.
Already half of the revenues of some Amerikan
cigarette manufacturers come from overseas, and
Amerikan cigarette sales abroad are rising 3% to 5%
per year.(1)
In order to ensure the industry's profitability,
the u.$. government supports the tobacco companies'
infiltration of overseas markets through subsidies
and political lobbying. For example, a pack of
Amerikan cigarettes can cost as little as US$ 0.50
in the Philippines. And Amerikan embassies have
dissuaded other governments from enacting
legislation similar to the deal proposed by the
attorneys general. Indeed, as even National Public
Radio's senior news toady, Daniel Shore, pointed
out, Amerika already has the dubious distinction of
being the number one arms merchant in the world.
Now it will be the number one cancer merchant as
well.(2)
NOTES:
1. Time, 30 June 97, pp. 24-32.
2. National Public Radio Weekend Edition, 22 June
97.
PAPER TIGERS
***All reactionaries are paper tigers. In
appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but
in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-
term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but
the people who are really powerful.***
--Mao Tsetung
DRIVING WHILE BLACK (DWB) IS AN OFFENSE IN FLORIDA
Sheriff Kevin Beary's Crime Patrol Unit -- a drug
squad that sets up stopping points on Orlando
turnpikes -- is six and a half times more likely to
search Black motorists than white drivers according
to the findings of the Orlando Sentinel. In
reviewing records of 3,800 plus stops and almost
500 searches, the Sentinel found that although only
16.3% of the drivers stopped are Black, they
account for 70% of the dog searches and more than
half of all searches. Traffic stop records from
January 1996 through April 1997 indicate that Black
drivers were searched 39.6% of the time, 17.9% of
Latinos, Asians and other nationality motorists
were searched, while only 6.2% of white drivers
were searched. Sheriff Beary oinked in denial "We
are not out there targeting any specific race."
On the contrary, MIM points out that the criminal
Amerikan injustice system disproportionately
targets members of oppressed nations.
NOTE: Reuters 9 June, 1997.
INJUSTICE, THE AMERIKAN WAY
6 June, 1997 Torrance, CA-- In separate trials,
Deputy DA Todd Rubenstein successfully prosecuted
two different men for firing the one bullet that
killed Willie Yen, a supposed drug dealer, in
October 1995. John Patrick Winkelman and Stephen
Edmond Davis were both convicted for the same fatal
shot by two separate juries. Yen was killed by a
single bullet in the upper back. Both Davis and
Winkelman were allegedly involved in the incident.
Ballistics tests were inconclusive. In his closing
remarks, DA Rubenstein stated to the Winkelman jury
that "it's unrefuted that John Winkelman is the
actual killer;" the next day arguing to the Davis
jury that it was "quite clear" that Davis was the
killer. The presiding judge ruled that Rubenstein's
parallel arguments were not grounds for a mistrial.
Lawyers for both defendants are appealing. Law
expert Robert Pugsley says that legally nothing
prevents a prosecutor from arguing different facts
to different juries in the same case. The results
may be messy, but Pugsley affirms "I'm not sure
it's unjust."
MIM sees this as further proof that the Amerikan
legal system doesn't care about justice. People who
demand real justice should work with MIM, PIRAO and
RAIL and struggle against Amerikan injustice.
NOTE: The Los Angeles Times 7 June, 1997, p. B1,
B8.
PIGS KILL CHINESE MAN, FBI PIGS TO INVESTIGATE
Rohnert Park, CA--Alleging threat in a "martial
arts fashion," officer Jack Shields shot and killed
Kuanchung Kao at point blank range in his own
driveway at 2 a.m. on 29 June 1997. The two
officers present prevented his wife, a registered
nurse, from administering first aid on threat of
arrest, claiming standard procedure (because she
might attack the officers with a hidden weapon in
derangement). Instead, the pigs "administered"
first aid; they turned the still-breathing Kao
over, handcuffed him, and waited for the ambulance.
Kao died and his body remained in the driveway
until noon. His five-year-old daughter witnessed
the disturbance from her bedroom window.
Kao, an engineer, had gone drinking with friends to
celebrate a promotion. Two Rohnert Park pigs
responded to complaints of a drunken man waving a
broomstick in this small, mostly white city.
According to pig spokesman Bob Williams, Kao didn't
respond to their commands to drop the stick and
wielded it "in a threatening martial arts fashion .
. . as people have seen on TV"; therefore Shields
was justified in shooting Kao in the chest from
less than ten feet away (and in preventing his wife
from giving him medical assistance).
Local Chinese groups are outraged at "police
insensitivity" to Asians. They demanded a federal
investigation and have gathered more than 1,000
signatures. Assistant u.s. Attorney Albert Glenn
said that only the possibility of undue force will
be investigated; "race is irrelevant to that
constitutional right." San Francisco supervisor
Mabel Teng disagrees, stating "this killing seems
(to say) that somehow an Asian American [sic] life
is worth less."
MIM says that this tragic death is another
indication that the Amerikan police state is set up
to perpetuate national oppression. Because of its
function "to protect and serve" the white
supremacist bourgeoisie, police brutality in
oppressed nation communities is commonplace. The
anger of the Asian community is justified, but FBI
probes will do little to effect change. An FBI
probe would just scapegoat particular individuals
to appease the community while ignoring the
fundamental systemic problems. No, MIM recognizes
that more is needed. We call on everyone to join us
in organizing against the criminal Amerikan
injustice system.
NOTE: San Francisco Examiner 21 May 1997.
MERCURY NEWS DEMOTES WEBB
Gary Webb, author of the San Jose Mercury News
stories which exposed the CIA/crack connection, has
been demoted to a suburban office and have taken
him off the story.
After the editor in chief attacked the stories, the
editors have refused to run follow up stories which
Webb points out offer even more proof. They are now
hoping to bury the story entirely by forcing Webb
to quit so that the paper can go back to claiming
objective reporting by printing state department
press releases as if they were fact.
MIM is not surprised that the SJMN turned on Webb
and his stories exposing Amerikan government
treachery. What was really surprising was that
these stories ran in a mainstream paper at all. In
spite of claims of free speech, the media is very
tightly controlled by multinational advertising
interests and government news sources. When a paper
breaks ranks and runs facts damaging to
imperialism, it is attacked by both the government
and other media.
This underscores the importance of independent
media. MIM offers to publish Gary Webb's follow-up
stories in MIM Notes: a newspaper that is
independently produced and funded and that exists
only in the interest of serving the international
proletariat. We admit that we are biased: we are
biased in the interests of the oppressed people of
the world, and this newspaper helps us expose
oppression and injustice while organizing against
the imperialist system behind these problems.
MIM encourages all bourgeois reporters and other
folks working for bourgeois media to take a lesson
from Gary Webb's experience and realize that the
truth about imperialism will not be exposed by the
mainstream media. You need to put your skills, time
and money into independent revolutionary media.
NOTE: Boston Globe June12, 1997, p.A14.
* * *
AMERIKAN WAR AGAINST OGLALA CONTINUES
by RC35
The New York Times reports that the Oglala First
Nation tribe of Pine Ridge South Dakota is the
"Poorest Indians." Though the article correctly
notes the conditions of colonialism within the
illegitimate borders of the U$, the article's
omission of the historical truth of genocide is a
perfect example of the pitfalls of bourgeois
journalism. The historical settler land grabbing,
massacre, FBI attacks, assassinations of leaders
and more against the Oglala-Lakota are the
foundations for the current conditions. The high
rate of poverty and unemployment are the legacy of
Amerika's war against the Oglala.
Pine Ridge, with about1.3 million people, has an
unemployment rate of 49% -- though another
statistic says that only 1 in 4 adults has a job.
The only source of income for many families comes
from federal aid, which is drastically being cut
for settler nation greed. The so-called housing is
nothing more than shacks, and youth are contracting
diabetes from being fed soda rather than milk
during infancy because of prices and the fact that
most mothers only receive $78 a month in income.
The New York Times article claims the problems are
partially because the government is cutting aid.
The white settler nation attempts to erase the
memory of plundered resources from the Oglala and
keep more of Amerika's wealth for itself. So though
relying on the oppressor for sustenance is not a
sustainable practice, it's a way to win partial
legal reparations for hundreds of years of murder.
The denial of aid with the effect of poverty is
nothing more than the continuation of war.
Imperialism dangles aid in front of the oppressed
in order to quell rising resistance and denies the
aid when needed to make Amerikans fatter.
The New York Times also blames the lack of
resources for the poverty. The fact that all First
Nations were systematically uprooted from fertile,
bountiful and self-sustaining land and dumped into
overcrowded desert-like badlands conveniently gets
omitted by the media. Reducing poverty to "terrain
[yielding] no oil or gas, coal or gold, crops or
lumber" makes it very easy to blame social
inequality on "natural" conditions. There is
nothing "natural" about mass murder and
dislocation.
The large Lakota territory covering the Amerikan
states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas
before the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty was rich in
oil, coal, uranium, gold and silver and other
minerals, forests and fertile agricultural land.
The Lakota Nation led by Red Cloud and later
Tesunke Witko (Crazy House) won significant
struggles and defeated the land grubbing settlers -
- retaining the control over the Lakota territory.
It was only through lying that the settlers were
able to assassinate the leaders (as the defeated
settlers pretended to meet for a peace treaty) and
take more control over the territory including the
mineral-rich Black Hills.
The settlers continued to steel land, massacring
hundreds at Wounded Knee in 1890 in order to secure
control over the natural resource rich territory
and forced the resistance of the entire Lakota
nation to organize covertly.
As activism rose in the late 1960s (after much of
the resources has been depleted and toxic sites
placed close to living areas) the Oglala's along
with leaders and activists from the American Indian
Movement attempted to regain the territory. Through
protests, demonstrations and legally proving that
the Amerikans had lied and connived, they built
support for a rising movement for self-
determination. In the 20 point platform of the
"Trail of Broken Treaties," AIM leaders and
activists and community members and elders demands
to recover Lakota jurisdiction and subordinate FBI-
backed GOONs which were repressing and killing the
masses.
Then again, not only were the Oglala denied access
to their land and natural resources, the FBI
operation against self-determination held Oglala
and other First Nation members hostage at Wounded
Knee, hauled in 17 tanks, helicopters, Phantom
jets, used millons of rounds of ammunition and
again killed and wounded the people rightfully
belonging on the land. The FBI operations and those
of the GOONs backed by the FBI against the Oglala
served to reinforce the broken treaties, deny the
Oglala access to natural resources and relegate the
people to lives under repression and poverty.
Now, the only "exploitable" resource the Oglala
have is grasslands for grazing cattle sold to keep
amerikan's literally fat and the best fed people in
the world...all while the U$ internal colonies
literally starve.
The New York Times article also tried to blame the
Oglala'a for their own problems. Historical
materialism escapes the bourgeois media once again.
Bringing up issues of alcoholism and poor
technological planning made the argument rather
thin considering the fact that the white settlers
would be dead if it weren't for the advanced native
farming techniques (oh, yeah, and LAND!!) they
stole. However alcoholism is a problem for the
oppressed because of desperation, and decadent and
patriarchal ideologies from the white social
structure. Drug use is something all oppressed
nations have to combat via structuring
revolutionary activity around creating an
alternative to the desperate conditions.
The Oglala's tried to follow the lead of the Pequot
tribe in Connecticut, but have no savings to put up
as collateral to build a casino. Though MIM
realizes that casinos are capitalist enterprises,
we uphold First Nation's right to take back as much
wealth as possible from bought off white settlers
through whatever means are available and decided by
the peoples of First Nations.
Bourgeois journalist will go down in history for
basically ignoring it, but the article exposes well
the true conditions of Amerika's internal colonies
and shuts up those borderline fascist forces who
uphold the Ct. Pequot's as the majority and not the
minority that they are.
We urge all interested in changing the conditions
of oppressed people all over the world to work for
real change through exposure of bourgeois society
and by building up independent institutions of the
oppressed to ensure real material change. A good
source for the history of repression, murder, set-
ups and imprisonment of Oglala fighting for self-
determination is Agents of Repression by Ward
Churchill and Jim Vander Wall which MIM regularly
uses for study and distributions. ($25)
* * *
NATIONALIST PEQUOT ART TARGETED FOR CENSORSHIP
by two First Nation friends
Hartford, CT -- Peter Sutton, incoming director of
the Wadsworth Atheneum plans to remove an
historical exhibit from the museum's lawn. Sutton's
position is that the exhibit is too controversial
to be displayed in such a prominent location. The
exhibit is a result of six years of research and
planning by Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds, professor
of art at the University of Oklahoma. The piece,
entitled Dunging the Ground, is a tribute to the
hundreds of Pequots who died in the massacre of
1637 at Mystic Fort, and includes the following
quote from the diary of John Mason; "Thus was God
crushing his proud enemies, burning them up in
fire, dunging the ground with their flesh. It is
marvelous in our eyes!"
Mason's massacre of the Pequots at Mystic Fort is a
tragic, but essential part of Connecticut's
history, as well as that of America at large. With
the prevalent political environment in America, it
becomes essential that we not let the people forget
that America was built on the blood and bones of
its first inhabitants. If this work is viewed as
controversial, it is because the history of early
America is controversial. To deny the validity of
Dunging the Ground as art, is to deny the emotions
of a people who are beaten, but not defeated.
Must art be relegated to the realm of fantasy? Has
the expression "art imitating life" lost its
validity? Dunging the Ground is an emotional piece
representing the emotions of a real event in
history. To refuse to consider its artistic merit
is to deny its historical significance; to deny the
tragedy of the event. Isn't the Holocaust Museum an
art gallery representing sorrow and tragedy? Isn't
the sorrow and tragedy the basis for the
expressions of same as art? There is no real
difference except perhaps in size.
Dunging the Ground is gut level emotion, expressed
in the context of one of Connecticut's darkest
moments. The work must remain accessible to the
people as an educational experience. All people who
believe in revealing the truths that have not been
taught to us through our jaded educational system
should set Mr. Sutton straight, and urge him to
keep the exhibit in place. Write to Peter Sutton at
the Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main St., Hartford, CT
06103. Carbon copy Andrea Miller-Keller, Curator of
Contemporary Art; she supports Heap of Birds
exhibit, and can use public support to fuel her
struggle.
MIM ADDS: The 1634-1637 Pequot War was a key
milestone in the settler domination of this
hemisphere because it destroyed the leading
economic power in the region. Pequot's controlled
the currency through wampum, and this fact was
recognized by the English. In order to gain an
advantage against the Dutch and French, the English
almost completely destroyed the Pequot Nation as a
way of stealing their trading position.
"In late May 1637, three regiments from Windsor,
Hartford and Wethersfield under the leadership of
Captain John mason, set out for Mystic,
Connecticut, along with forces sent by the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their singular goal was
the extermination of the Pequot tribe. Captain
Mason vowed to cut off the Remembrance of them from
the Earth." In their attack on the Pequot fort atop
a prominent palisade in Mystic, the entire village
was burned to the ground. Almost all of the nearly
700 inhabitants were incinerated. John Mason
himself proudly took full credit for igniting the
fire from inside the fort. Those Pequots who sought
to exit from the confines of the conflagration were
immediately killed or apprehended by a double
circle of adversaries that strategically surrounded
the perimeter of the fort. Those few Pequots who
escaped with their lives were enslaved by colonists
and rival Indian tribes, including the Mohegans and
Narragansetts, who had actively supported the
English in their efforts to vanquish the Pequots.
So complete was the devastation, the Pequot nation
was officially dissolved by the 1638 Treaty of
Hartford, which the remaining Pequots were forced
to sign."(1)
The Pequot Nation still exists, and as a result of
its new casino was able to build a museum for its
history, where some of the information for Heap of
Birds art installation came from. The reactionaries
make their art, such as a statue of John Mason,
recently moved from the site of the massacre to
Windsor, CT. The people must also have their art,
which defends them and advances the people's
struggle.
Revolutionaries and progressives must do all they
can to help develop art for the people. When by
chance the people's art gets displayed prominently
on the front lawn of a bourgeois museum where
thousands see it a day, we should fight to retain
it in that place of high exposure.
NOTE: Pamphlet from Atheneum for Heap of Birds Art
work.
* * *
UC AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BAN MAKES ALLIES FOR THE
INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT
by a RAIL comrade
Law school acceptance has dropped from up to 81%
for Blacks and up to 32% for Latinos to the law
schools in the University of California system
since the UC Regents banned Affirmative Action
programs. The new "colorblind" policy forbids the
use of "race", ethnicity and/or gender as criteria
in admissions. The affirmative action ban applied
only to graduate admissions this year, but will be
effective for undergraduate admissions beginning
next year.
UCLA's School of Law accepted only 21 blacks and 73
Latinos, down from last year's 104 and 108
respectively. UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School
offered admission to only 14 Blacks (75 in 1996)
and 39 Latinos (78 in 1996).(1) The actual
enrollment was expected to be half the number
offered admission since many had multiple offers,
but the final figures are even more devastating.
Not one of the 14 Black applicants admitted to
Boalt (UCB) accepted; there will only be one
incoming Black student this fall semester who had
deferred enrollment last year. The two First Nation
applicants also declined and only 18 of 48 Latinos
have accepted compared to last years figures of 4
and 28 respectively.
At UCLA's law school, only 10 Blacks and 41 Latinos
have accepted, although the possibility that they
may change their minds still exists.(2) UC Regent
Richard Russell -- one of three Blacks out of 26 on
the Regent board and who was appointed after the
ban was approved -- stated " it's obvious that the
re-segregation of higher education has begun."(2)
A continent-wide study published in the New York
University Law Review showed that many Blacks would
have been excluded from law school if LSAT test
scores and grade point averages had been the only
criterion.(1) However, Black students demonstrated
no difference in graduating or passing the bar
exams than other students. The author of the study
concludes that eliminating affirmative action and
basing acceptance offers solely on so-called
objective factors would "deny a legal education to
many minority applicants who were fully capable of
the rigors of a legal education and of entering the
legal profession."(1)
UC Regent and resident Uncle Tom Ward Connerly -- a
major proponent of the affirmative action ban --
applauded the drop in Latino and Black admissions
as an exposure of an "artificially engineered
system of preferences that has been propping up
diversity . . . We are too politically correct to
reach the conclusion: They are not as competitive
to be lawyers and doctors."(1) Similar drops in
admissions are expected for the 600 other UC
graduate programs, including the five medical
programs.
Clearly, working within the system has done very
little to advance equality for the oppressed
nations within the u.s. Reformism has proved itself
a failure time and time again. Even, affirmative
action, the pacifying token reform from the civil
rights era, is being dismantled. So now, the few
oppressed nationals who benefited from it are being
denied even that. By eliminating affirmative
action, the imperialists have pushed the
vacillating oppressed national petit bourgeoisie in
the direction of revolutionary nationalist and
proletarian movements.
Self-determination and self-reliance are the only
true means for the oppressed to liberate themselves
from subjugation. It is time to choose the proven
strategy for ending oppression and gaining
liberation, and work with MIM, the PIRAO, and RAIL.
MIM calls upon those few oppressed national
intellectuals and professionals to devote their
bourgeois skills to the service of the people.
Notes:
1. The Los Angeles Times 15 May 1997, p.A1.
2. The Los Angeles Times 27 June1997. p.A1, A22.
See also MT7, "Supreme court makes allies of the
international proletariat.
* * *
1997 COLLEGE GRADS ON EASY STREET
by a MIM comrade
As a record number of recruiters have hit the
campuses this year, 1997 college graduates are
landing jobs easily.(1) Students have had their
pick of job offers and many had jobs by mid-senior
year.
Although Black and white college grads both face
good employment prospects, Blacks are both denied
that education, and even with equivalent education,
get paid less than whites. In 1996, 30.6% of whites
age 25-34 had at least a bachelor degrees, compared
to 13.7% of Blacks in the same age group. Of those
with bachelor's degrees, the median income for
whites is $35,559, compared to $29,105 for Blacks
in 1996.(2)
While white unemployment is at almost its lowest in
twenty-five years, Black unemployment is still at
least twice as high as white unemployment. Since
1994, there has been a steady decline in white
unemployment, while Black unemployment has
increased or remained steady.(3) But, in 1996, the
unemployment rate for college graduates (no longer
in school) under 25 years old was the same for
whites and Blacks: 5.3 percent.(4) What this means
is that even though college educated Blacks are
doing fine in the job market, the children of the
labor aristocracy -- college educated or not -- are
still doing much better.
The graduates with engineering and computer degrees
are able to pick and choose jobs more than liberal
arts graduates. Overall unemployment is now below
five percent, and the job market is booming.(1)
Many market analysts believe that the current surge
in hiring is in part due to the massive layoffs of
the late 1980s -- companies found that with the
growth of the economy new employees were needed to
fill positions that had been downsized. MIM
believes, however, this explanation rings hollow.
Unemployment has fluctuated some over the past
twenty years, but the vast majority of college
graduates have been able to get well-paying jobs.
New graduates with degrees in chemical, electrical
and mechanical engineering can expect starting
salaries at over $39,000, an increase of at least
four percent over last year.(5) Starting salaries
are up 4.5 percent for computer science graduates,
beginning at almost $37,000. Job market analysts
say that not only are new college graduates able to
pick and choose jobs based on salary, but they are
also able to secure generous benefits packages,
including stock options.(5)
MIM understands that this is further evidence of
the fact that capitalism is working for the labor
aristocracy. With more and better opportunities in
the job market, the college educated white nation
is happy to hold on to their degrees and look
forward to a bright future of milking the benefits
of imperialism.
NOTES:
1. New York Times 19 May 1997, p. A1.
2. The Black Population in the United States: March
1996 (Update), U.S. Census Bureau (P20-498),
avaible at
.
3. Current Population Surveys, Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
4. Current Population Survey, 1996, Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
5. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 29 April 1997, p. 6C.
* * *
IMPERIALISTS AND THEIR LACKEYS DIVIDE AND THEN
STARVE THE KOREAN PEOPLE
by MC45
North Korea recently made an international request
for flood and famine relief, following two years of
serious flooding in 1995 and 1996, and an extended
effort to deal with the famine independently. The
Public [food] Distribution System (PDS) in north
Korea has kept the famine from hurting too many
Koreans until recently.(1) The west criticized
north Korea for not calling for aid sooner --
Amerika understands north Korea's reticence on this
point as secrecy and reluctance to admit
weaknesses, a characteristic imperialism says is
typical of socialist countries.
But north Korea was able to manage its food
production and distribution effectively over the
past two years by applying Kim Il Sung's strong
notion of the self-reliance of peoples -- Juche.
Now that north Korea has asked other countries for
help easing its current famine (as it gave aid to
south Korea after floods 13 years ago)(2) we can
see the necessity of Juche. Amerika has made
political differences a consideration in giving
food aid at the same time as the united snakes
claims that north Korea is making politics a
barrier to aid. This conditional aid-giving by
Amerika proves the necessity of self-reliance in
the face of the option of asking imperialist
countries for help.
While the united snakes demonizes north Korea as a
Communist country, MIM does not uphold north Korea
as socialist or communist. We do support the right
of the Korean people to self-determination and
liberation from u.s. imperialism, and their right
to food and basic needs. We also do not criticize
the north Korean government for its refusal to
prostrate itself to Amerikan demands. Amerika has
no business deciding who should live or die on the
Korean peninsula.(3) Amerika makes big claims about
communist countries killing their people through
poor planning and food distribution. But the U.$.
is guilty of helping to cause the famine in the
first place by splitting the nation, occupying half
of Korea and making it impossible for the Korean
people to build a total independent economy. Now,
the U$ is making the famine worse by stalling on
aid.
AMERIKAN INTERVENTION AND MANIPULATION
Thanks to successful spin doctoring by the
imperialist- driven press, north Korea's so-called
unwillingness to accept help in easing the famine
its people are suffering has received more
attention than the famine itself. The accusation
that north Korea will not accept aid from
supposedly willing donors such as the United Snakes
of Imperialism has even obscured the reasons for
that famine.
So what if Amerika tries to impose its political
and economic will on the Korean peninsula through
economic blockades? So what if the politically
repressive (albeit Western-style democratic) south
Korean regime aggressively supports Amerikan
propaganda while squashing any indigenous support
for reunification it can identify? The government
in the north somehow becomes the one politicizing
the famine by refusing to surrender its autonomy in
exchange for food aid.
According to an Amerikan mass organization lobbying
for more u.s. food aid to north Korea, it would
cost $95.5 million to feed the currently at-risk
population there. The United Snakes has been giving
fractions of this amount, while it continues to
spend $3 billion annually to keep an occupying
force of 37,000 Amerikan troops stationed in south
Korea. In addition to keeping its own troops in
south Korea, Amerika spends hundreds of millions of
dollars in military aid to south Korea -- giving
$233 million in 1985 alone.(6)
The underlying cause of famine in north Korea is an
economy crippled by the U.$. military-enforced
division between north and south Korea. MIM does
not recognize two distinct nations on the Korean
peninsula -- south Korea was carved out by Amerikan
occupiers immediately following World War Two.
Amerikan occupiers keep the south and north
separate. Division between north and south,
together with a consistent imperialist threat from
Amerika and Amerikan-backed forces has kept north
Korea with its smaller population and poorer farm
land in a weak economic state.
U.$. lackey state south Korea has followed Amerikan
instruction well, making it illegal for south
Koreans to give private donations directly to the
north Korean people.(5) This ban is both a means of
enforcing the division among the Korean people and
a way for the government in the south to exercise
greater political control through food aid. Clearly
the division among the Korean people is artificial
if the southern government has to make it illegal
to give food across the so-called border. The
Korean people want reunification and have no desire
for continued Amerikan occupation. The Amerikan
occupiers present the principal obstacle to
reunification and self-reliance at this time.
CONDITIONAL AID
The U.$. Secretary of Defense, making food aid
explicitly conditional on north Korea's
friendliness to Amerika, has "sternly warned the
North Koreans to stop military provocations and to
show a willingness to negotiate if it hoped to
received more food aid."(7)
Even pacifist humanitarian aid givers who would
oppose communism generally agree with MIM on this
point: "It is inhuman to reach out with a loaf of
bread to a starving person and make the gesture
conditional on a political agenda."(4) Everyone but
the imperialists and their lackeys can see that
one's opinion of the north Korean government are
not the principal question when the north Korean
people are starving.
MIM must point out in this discussion that we do
not advocate Amerikan food aid generally, because
it never comes without political compromise. So
while we would not criticize people who are
starving by Amerika's hand in the Third World for
taking food from the United Snakes, we do not
advocate such aid as the solution to Third World
hunger. Amerikans should recognize that if food aid
from Amerika to north Korea is to be genuinely
unconditional, the U.$. must end its occupation of
Korea.
NOTES:
1.
http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/970610/wfp97
0603- 1.html
2. http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/news.html
3. For more of MIM's line on the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), see the essays
on MIM's website at
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/MIM.essays/korea/
4.
http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/noteveryone.
html
5.
http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/noteveryone.
html
6. "North Korea Famine Factsheet," Campaign to Stop
Famine in North Korea.
7. New York Times 16 April, 1997, p. A7.
* * *
IMPERIALISTS REACT TO THREAT OF AFRICAN UNITY
by a RAIL comrade
The past few months have marked major power
struggles in Africa, including the overthrow of the
controlling governments in Sierra Leon and the
newly formed Democratic Republic of Congo. Both of
these movements opened opportunities for true
revolutionary change to occur.
Neighboring African nations look on optimistically
in hopes of movement towards a free, democratic and
self-sufficient Africa. A comrade from the CPL-
Zaire praised the movement led by Laurent Kabila in
the Democratic Republic of Congo. The comrade
stressed the need for national democratic
revolution to break from dependence on imperialism,
to promote land reform, and for the liberation of
local production from imperialism.(1)
Museveni, president of neighboring Uganda, has
suggested the formation of a united government of
democratic forces in Africa, to be guided by
Kabila.(2) This possibilities of unity and
relinquishing Africa from the chains of imperialism
caused Clinton to take recent steps to prevent such
actions. While it is not yet clear where Kabila's
alliance lies, imperialists are taking action to
try to influence him to join their ranks. Clinton
announced his great plan to provide 'relief' to the
highly indebted countries of central Africa on June
17.(3)
He brought attention to this issue just before the
"Summit of Eight" where he plans to ask the help of
the seven other richest nations in the world to
participate in the U.S.-led actions. Any anti-
imperialist should shudder at the thought of the
world's leading imperialist nations joining in an
"effort to bolster capitalism and democracy across
the neglected region" of colonialized Africa.(3)
Clinton's proposal includes a call for U.S. tariff
reductions on some 1,800 exports, allowing the
nations involved to export nearly 50 percent more
to the United States without duty.(3) This increase
in exports only allows for more multinational
corporations to increase business and further the
exploitation of labor in these countries. The
people of these nations will not see an increase in
living conditions because these companies are
exporting more. They don't need exports ala mono-
exports which deplete the possibility of self-
sufficiency. They need industry through which they
can provide for themselves and create self-
sufficiency.
Clinton also promised to bulk up Amerikan
investment in African nations by setting up an $150
million fund at the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation.(3) This also provides more
opportunities for Amerikan corporations to go in
and exploit these nations. Amerikan investment in a
country does not translate into prosperity but
rather exploitation of the workers and
environmental degradation.
The president called for a $500 million fund to
finance African infrastructure such as
telecommunications and power plants as well.(3)
Developing these areas technologically allows big
business to operate more efficiently, but most
likely, the average African will not see any
benefits of this construction. This development
will go to help power and link communications in
imperialist corporations; not to improving the
lives of the oppressed.
MIM supports the self-determination of African
nations and unity developed by oppressed nations
that will force out imperialism. We urge the people
of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leon,
and all of Africa to seize the time and take this
movement to the next level; socialist revolution.
For through socialism the people can guarantee
their freedom from imperialism.
NOTES:
1. MIM Notes 140. p.6.
2. MIM Notes 140. p.3.
3.Times Union 18 June 1997. p.A-2.
* * *
MOVIE REVIEWS:
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION LACKS HISTORICAL
ANALYSIS
The Australian film Children of the Revolution
creates the bizarre story of an Australian labor
leader who sleeps with Stalin just before he dies
and later raises his son. The movie relies on
biological determinism and individual personality
traits to create bourgeois criticisms of Stalin as
an evil tyrant and leader of a personality cult.
In the 1950's Joan, the womyn, led the Australian
communist party. She supposedly put the cause of
the people above all else but the film makers
portrayed it as a weird personality trait. Stalin,
in this movie, is portrayed to be a crazy, dumb,
but sly dictator who uses this womyn's admiration
for his leadership of the Soviet revolution to get
her into his bed, thereby incorrectly reducing all
liberation movements down to struggles for
individual and patriarchal power.
The whole picture of the Soviet Union is a spoof on
history, but clearly is meant to reflect what the
bourgeoisie sees as reality. The extreme images of
Stalin as a lunatic, the dopey yes-men and the
Australian spy, who is also a KGB agent working for
Stalin, are all opportunistic insults to the
communist state. It benefits those trying to stop
all progressive revolutionary movements by
discrediting the leaders as no more than
personality cults and ignoring the true facts
behind mass participation in peoples liberation.
Stalin died after having sex with Joan in the
movie. As she was leaving the country she asked the
KGB/Australian agent why Kruschev and the other
yes-men were so happy when millions of people of
the country had filed past Stalin's dead body
crying. Just as Joan's conviction to communist
ideals and the importance of devoting her life to
changing the world is portrayed as a weird fluke,
this reaction of the Soviet people is also
dismissed.
By turning all eyes to an individual, the masses
are discredited and all personal responsibility is
absolved from the international community. In the
same way that it makes Stalin out to be nothing
more than a virulent dictator, it discredits the
entire Soviet revolution as a truly progressive
historical movement that can be used as a lesson
for today.
The movie also suggests that Stalin's portrayed
evil was genetic and therefore his son was doomed
to be a BAD man too. The biological determinist
ideas of evil were shown with (little) Joe's
inclination for prison games as a child, his
reluctance in protesting with his mother and his
eventual leadership in the Union of Prison Workers
and Police. Though this correctly puts the
injustice system on the side of the bad guy, it
doesn't recognize the material conditions that
create group alliances. Joe's position gave him so
much power that it became a near takeover of the
country from behind the scenes, again alluding to
Stalin's alleged cult of personality as being the
only reason why he became head of the Soviet Union
-- ignoring Stalin's election based on his correct
line on Soviet liberation.
The movie also plays into the favorite anti-Stalin
complaint that Stalin was responsible for all the
evils that happened all around the world to this
day. The man that Joan married when she learned she
was pregnant joined the communist party to be near
her. He was never interested in politics, just the
womyn. When Joe became so powerful and evil that he
was having his political enemies killed, his mother
decided she had to tell everyone that he was
Stalin's son to stop the evil that he was doing.
Her husband left her saying that Stalin had
destroyed his life.
Overall there is little progressive in this movie.
The strong conviction of Joan to the cause of the
people and her correct assessment that Gorbachev
was not a communist were high points. Joan's
failure to assess the nature of the working class
in Australia in the 1990's and the reasons behind
its lack of interest in revolution was one reason
for the demise of the communist movement, as
opposed to the film maker's direction of the blame
at Stalin. Her son Joe laughs at her for believing
the people will get up off the beaches, shake the
sand out of their shoes and overthrow the
government. It is likely that this criticism is
correct since white Australians are settlers living
off of stolen indigenous land and third world
super-profits.
The movie was another bourgeois attack on Stalin
offering nothing more then patriarchally-grounded
criticisms and a complete ignorance of historical
materialism. We urge those with doubts about
Stalin's leadership to ask the question, what else
could have been done given the time in history and
social knowledge? With study of the context it is
easily found that Stalin DID do all he could for
the Soviet People and kept it on the socialist
road.
We offer MIM Theory 6, "The Stalin Issue" as a good
alternative to this bourgeois trash. If you are
interested in seriously taking up study of the
history of socialism in the Soviet Union, don't
settle for pithy spoofs on history which just
repeat all the bourgeois lies and one liners,
history is complicated and we have a responsibility
to study it thoroughly.
* * *
PSUEDO-ENVIRONMENTALISM HOLLYWOOD STYLE IN SEQUEL
THE LOST WORLD
by MC17
The Lost World, sequel to Jurassic Park, tried to
make it as a big movie on reputation and a few
special effects, and it seems to have worked.
Little plot, lousy characters, and fewer dinosaurs
than Jurassic Park have led lots of people to walk
out of the theater but still has created a box
office hit. The main political message in the movie
is a pseudo-environmentalist, preserve nature
theme. One of the main characters is an Earth
First! activist, who was under cover as a
photographer on the trip to the island of dinosaurs
just in case the bad guys showed up. Of course, the
bad guys did show up, but the Earth First! activist
did little more than cut a few locks with a wire
cutter he brought along for the occasion and stuff
some blanks into a shot gun so that one of the bad
guys could not shoot a T-Rex.
The environmentalist message is confusing because
the island of dinosaurs was created by humyns but
is being defended by its creator as a natural haven
that needs to be preserved and left alone by
humyns. There were the obvious questions about an
island with Pterodactyls which seem like they might
be able to reach humyn inhabited land. But this
movie also raises the question of what should be
considered a natural resource. There was little
justification given for the importance of
preserving the dinosaur island and MIM does not
agree with this mystical approach to
environmentalism. MIM does not wish to eliminate
humyn influence on the environment because we know
that all animals on this planet (including humyns)
will have an influence on the environment. Instead
we recognize that humyns are going to have to live
with the environment and it is in our interests to
preserve it. We advocate preserving natural
resources because of the value this has for all
life on this planet. Along these lines, humyn-made
resources may also be worth preserving because of
the value it has for furthering life on this
planet. But similarly, if it was clear that this
island of dinosaurs was going to lead to death and
destruction of humyns, MIM is not afraid to make
decisions about containing or eliminating such
dangers.
The real Earth First! organization generally does
more politically progressive actions with more than
just mystical justifications although, as their
name implies, the organization does believe that
the earth is more important than humyns.
True environmentalists recognize the
interconnectedness of humyn and environmental life
and strive to create a beneficial balance between
the two. This can only be done by recognizing the
systematic destruction that imperialism brings to
the earth and struggling to liberate all people
from its system of exploitation and oppression.
* * *
UNDER LOCK AND KEY: NEWS FROM PRISONERS AND PRISONS
PRISON BRIEFS
NO TIME FOR APATHY
Revolutionary Greetings, Be advised, even a
superficial look at history reveals that no social
advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability.
Every step toward the goal of justice requires
sacrifice, suffering and struggle; tireless
exertions and passionate concern of dedicated
individuals. This is no time for apathy or
complacency. This is a time for vigorous and
positive action. All Power To De People!!!
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 15 January 1997
500 TRANSFERRED TO PRIVATE PRISONS IN TEXAS
i was caught up in a "shuffle" by the kkkolorado
department of kkkoruptions that resulted in the
placement of 500 prisoners of war into "private
prisons" in tekkkas. After a month of being "in
transit", i remain behind enemy lines in kkkolorado
and am now being "permanently housed" at a new (to
me) facility.
The plans to begin a revolutionary study group at
my "old" facility, must now be revised. The search
for conscious comrades here is proving tedious and
in all likelihood I will have to educate and
recruit first. Nonetheless, it's ever-forward,
never back!
-- A Colorado Prisoner, 27 March 1997
INSUFFICIENT FOOD SERVICES
Got an interesting story for you about FCI Bastrop.
About 2 months ago they decided to remodel the
floor in food service because the tile wasn't the
right color. Now we have to eat off paper plates
and cold food for the last two months. Now they
have a make-shift kitchen that can't feed the whole
institution and are dumping the cleaning water for
the dishes into storm drains and are polluting
Bastrop lake with refuse and garbage. Hopefully
someone will give them up here to OSHA or EPA or
Greenpeace. Perfect for Earth Day, but I'm still
hanging on by a thread.
-- A Texas Prisoner, 21 April 1997
CENSORSHIP DOESN'T STOP STUDY GROUP
MIM Comrades, Revolutionary Greetings! I am writing
to you from the Gulags here in Pennsylvania, to
bring you up to date on the latest form of
oppression. The literature you sent to me has been
denied, claiming that it advocates violence and is
a clear and present danger to the orderly running
of this institution. The literature that was sent
to me was MIM Theory #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12. All
were denied.
I am currently appealing this decision, so I will
keep you posted on the situation. We have started a
study group here, with about eleven fellow comrades
with the number growing every day. It is hard to
educate without enough literature, and these people
denying MIM Theory only makes it harder. But what
these PIGS fail to realize is that all of us have
dealt with such treatment and oppression all our
lives. We've struggled this far through life and
we'll continue to strive and over come! The
Prisoncrats have not tried to censor MIM Notes yet,
and hopefully they won't.
We understand the Struggle will be a hard and long
fight, and we are prepared to go the distance!!! I
will include the names of those responsible for
censoring MIM Theory, so letters of protest can be
sent. Maybe once they see that we have outside
support, they will stop this censorship.
--A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 21 March 1997
Letters of Protest can be sent to: Acting
Superintendent, Ben Varner, SCI Greene, 1040 E. Roy
Furman Hwy, Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090 and John J.
D'Eletto, Chairperson, Publications Review
Committee, SCI Greene, 1040 E. Roy Furman Hwy,
Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090
MORE CENSORSHIP IN PENNSYLVANIA
Dear MIM,
I previously sent you a letter concerning the
censorship of MIM Notes by Prisoncrats in
Pennsylvania. My efforts to resolve this matter
with prisoncrats has been largely unavailing.
Therefore I intend to initiate legal action against
them. As you well know, prisoncrats cannot censor a
publication because it contains views unfavorable
to the penal system or because they disagree with
the philosophy of the organization that publishes
it.
You may send letters of protest to the following
individuals.
Commissioner, Martin F. Horn, Pennsylvania
Department of Corrections, PO Box 598, Camp Hill,
PA 17001-0598
Superintendent, Kenneth D. Kyler, SCI Camp Hill, PO
Box 200, Camp Hill, PA 17001-0200
I will keep you abreast as things develop.
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 14 April 1997
EDUCATION IS A SECURITY THREAT IN AMERIKAN GULAGS
IN NEW YORK
Receiving MIM Notes is an absolute honor for me. I
in turn encourage other prisoners within these
boundaries (hole) while sharing the informative
pages of your paper.
However, these pigs are very sure to render some
kind of burning bridge that would urge a divide and
conquer maneuver for the action of stopping
educational books, newspapers, pamphlets, etc, that
will expose the filth embedded in this colonial
system. They disapprove entirely of one as myself
who's action is illustrated from a solid mind-frame
-- but they are most certain to shake in their
pants when a selected few inmates get together and
bring the light (true knowledge) amongst the
masses.
-- A New York Prisoner, 4 April 1997
IN SOUTH CAROLINA
For according to the mentality of SCDC [South
Carolina Department of Corrections] workers they
will never promote such education [i.e. MIM Notes]
to prisoners. My experience with America's Prison
Institutions have shown me that the clowns who run
them from high positions along with their pawns who
enforce their will, do not want prisoners to
educate themselves. They prefer to keep [prisoners]
illiterate, angry and doing all the wrong things
(such as dealing in homosexual activities and
telling on fellow prisoners). This causes disunity,
one never knows who to trust.
Also I'm considered a threat because they claim
that because I'm one with an extensive amount of
knowledge (According to how much literature I had
in my possession). I pose a security threat to
their operations, even thought I never committed
any violation of their rules and regulations I have
been pre-judged only because of what I study!!!
Thus I've been on lock-up until I max out unless
their judicial system follows its guidelines
pertaining to discrimination and due process. As
far as study groups on lock-up it is pretty much
impossible. Being that inmates are kept apart with
the exceptions of one hour of recreation. But even
then we are not allowed to bring anything out of
our cells.
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 23 April 1997
MIM ADDS: Though prisoncrats may encourage
prisoners to focus on sexual activities in order to
divert people from political activism. It is our
assertion that homosexual activities are not wrong.
It is patriarchal dominance that is wrong and it is
the bourgeois, patriarchal power structure which
perpetuates the ideology that only white settler,
heterosexist interests must be served.
FLORIDA KENNEL CONDITIONS
After reading Under Lock and Key, I'm here to
comment on the writings of a prisoner in New York
who speaks of the new dog kennels they have [MIM
Notes, 1 Feb 1997, #131, Under Lock and Key
article, "New York Continues Repressive
Conditions"]. I'm at the Washington Correctional
Institution and have been a guest of the new
kennels they have here since Sept. 10, 1996. We
however only get 2 hours of recreation time a week
and spend the rest of our time in the cell. This is
called CM, Close Management, and lasts up to 36
months, this is due to change to a minimum of 36
months and up to 60 max in the near future.
They have CM in almost every prison in the state
now and have just opened New River which is nothing
but CM and will house about 1,000. If you treat bad
people good, then some will turn good themselves,
treat bad people bad and all will get worse. I just
don't see the point. Prisoners everywhere, beware
this is the prison of the future!
-- A Florida Prisoner, 6 March 1997
FLORIDA OPPRESSION CONTINUES
I just finished reading MIM Notes for February 1,
1997. I read "New York Continues Repressive
Conditions Part 2". Well, I'm almost in the same
predicament as the brother from New York only I'm
in the prison system in Florida. They are making
most of the prisons in Florida, "lock-down" 24
hours a day.
Any inmates that don't agree with this system are
placed on the Close Management for 37 months. There
was a time when only very few inmates were placed
in this type of housing, but now if you even
receive a minor write-up, they are putting us on
this "Max Lock-Up" and there is nothing that can be
done. They are building so many prisons with this
in mind, that they are in need of clients. Any
movement is done in restraints, legs as well as
hands. Showers are 3 a week in still restraints.
Visits are the same, cuffs and leg irons.
-- A Florida Prisoner in the injustice system, 5
March 1997
FEDERAL GANG UNIT
MIM, First and foremost, I'd like to commend you
all at MIM for the relentless struggle you all have
maintained in the direction of socialism and
proletariat revolution. My most sincerest hopes are
that one day we shall all share in the fruits of
the fight!
I am one of fifty prisoners, segregated on one of
the many concentration camps here in corporate
ameriKKKa - namely, the USP at Leavenworth,
infamous building #63. I am writing you in the
highest of hopes of some assistance in the
unveiling of some of the health threatening, and
repressive practices under which we reside.
On February 15, 1996, I along with about 45-50
other Mexican inmates were rounded up and placed in
administrative segregation under the motive of an
investigation, and guise of gang activity. We were
placed in building #63 here at leavenworth, a
building over one hundred years old, and long ago
condemned to closure along with the holdover unit
at El Reno in Oklahoma in 1993 by Attorney Janet
Reno. Since then building #63 has been utilized for
assumed emergency reasons on an on again, off again
basis. However, never has anybody or any group, at
one time resided in health hazard condemned
building #63 for such a long period of time as we
have for 'over one whole year now!'
The reason the Attorney General shut down this
building, along with the holdover unit at El Reno
in Oklahoma, was due to the fact that said
buildings are infested with Toxic Agents, namely
Asbestos; "this is our prime concern here among
us'. Also the plumbing in this building is so
deteriorated that pipes are constantly bursting,
some individual go months without adequate plumbing
when such happens. The sewer lines are also always
backed up and the foulest of odors has kept the air
in a constant state of pollution. To top things
off, there is no adequate system of ventilation -
remember this building is over one hundred years
old! In the summer time, we are left to deal with
the heat in the best way we possibly can, for there
is no sort of air conditioning what so ever. We are
left to sweat like dogs in cages at a K9.
Inmates have been injured by flying pieces of the
ceiling falling upon us, and inmates have been
infected by spider and various insect bites one too
many times. This building is clearly a health
hazard and must be condemned and further demolished
once and for all.
When we were first placed in segregation building
#63 and under investigation status, we were denied
all privileges and warrant conditions forthcoming
us: proper medical attention, adequate recreational
facilities, laundry and clothing exchange,
visitation, full commissary ability, phone usage,
and we are still not able to participate in
education programs or programs of such, otherwise
available to the general population. Over a year
behind us now, one hunger strike, two brief
uprisings, exhaustion of all institutional
remedies, various letters to our respective state
representatives, and the request for assistance in
an effective transfer to our regional director -
and we are still here under the same ongoing
investigation, and under the same health
threatening conditions!
Sure enough - yet needless to say - we have gained
some concession amenities, such as: extended
recreational periods, an expanded commissary
ability, and other peace meals as such. But we are
all aware that these are merely psychological
straight jackets, constraints to keep us repressed.
We are asking that an end be given to this
exhausted investigation, and that inference be made
based on the collected information. If the
conclusion is determined that we are to remain
under segregation status, then make arrangements
for effective transfer for appropriate
segregational facility, so that we can be given
every detailed condition we got forthcoming to us.
Due Conditions that are here at Leavenworth
Building #63 will never become feasible!
Power to the Peoples! Always a Comrade In Struggle!
-- A Federal Prisoner, 16 March 1997
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE TEST OR TRICK
There is a new trend that's sweeping through these
corruption mechanized slave kamps. This genocidal
tactic is under the disguise called a
"psychological profile test". However, this tactic
is directed toward the militant brothers who have
been singled out by the prison keepers and placed
in control units and long term ad-seg. for their
political, cultural and religious understandings.
Here in the Slave Delta of South KKKarolina, myself
along with a number of other brothers have been in
these units for 2, 3, 4 and some for 10 years with
no institutional infractions. And since April 27,
we have been placed on ML5 status, meaning
permanent isolation until otherwise deemed by the
prison keepers to replace us back into general
population. But in order to be eligible to be
placed back into population we must undergo this
psychological profile test. Keep in mind comrades,
that this test is being administered by the same
prison keepers that initially placed us on these
units to begin with. And agreeing to this test,
once you're deemed psychologically unfit (in which
we will be), then these corrupt prison keepers
advance into a position to further restrict us from
the general population as well as placing us on
"mind altering drugs" that decreases the mental
powers.
This is a tactic that's being carried out under the
banner of protecting the greater imperialist
capitalist society. And to eradicate the prison
masses of political cultural and religious
conscious that would enhance resistance. So, in
actuality, this psychological profile test is being
implemented as a behavior modification tactic
that's designed to mentacide and genocide a whole
breed of militant resisters who are within those
deprivation kamps.
Those who have been deemed psychologically unfit by
a so called psychologist, would be placed in long
term isolation unit until otherwise cleared or
cured.
Also comrades we must remember that our enemies
will use every method available to discredit and
eliminate the opposition that opposes their
oppressive capitalist rule. The history of
COINTELPRO proves this. "A final goal should be to
prevent the long range growth of militant Black
nationalist organizations, especially among the
youth. Specific tactics to prevent those groups
from converting young people must be developed."
(COINTELPRO sub-sec. No. 51)
From closely observing this, it's clear that this
psychological profile test is only a tactic to
eradicate militants through mentacidal and
genocidal tactics. So remain steadfast in the
struggle to free the land, through stiff
resistance.
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 20 February 1997
IN PRISON PSYCHOLOGY = TORTURE
Things are pressured in on all sides. Yet, I'm not
crushed in my struggle to keep my head above the
waters of sanity. I stand firm and tall in what I
represent as truth and justice. As expected in a
Texas Prison, that's a major no no. Due to my
strong remission against bowing down to injustice,
the unit warden referred me to a psych Doctor, who
sent me to Rusk, Texas, TDC, Psych Treatment
Center, where I've been for nine months.
They had me tagged as being in a structure program
that would shape my mind, where I could comply with
the prison regulations. They us the tactics of
drugs and severe mental anguish in order to break a
person's spirit to maintain control in part of the
program. Yet I withstood it and came out gracefully
without a scratch. I refused to bow down and didn't
swallow their poison. I will never bow down. I am a
true soldier 'til my death.
Meanwhile so many women are dying in the Texas
Prison system - mostly from lack of medical
attention and horrid treatment and housing. At this
time on Murray Unit they have over 600 women locked
in a big warehouse like building with the windows
nailed down, no air conditioning. More than 6% of
us are sick.
Unfortunately, Texas women usually are very weak,
simple minded with no backbone, two faced, scary,
ass hoes. Who spend more time breaking each other
down and jealousy. They can't seen when their
looking.
--A Texas Prisoner, 17 February 1997
MIM RESPONDS: We agree that psychology is another
word for torture in prison. Remember that the
prisoncrats are your principle enemy, not your
fellow prisoners. The pigs are the ones torturing
people by denying medical care and breaking
people's spirits.
Others around you may not be as strong as you, that
is why you must lead by example. Calling names and
making broad generalizations about your fellow
prisoners does not help the struggle for
revolution. It only helps to divide you, which is
exactly what the pigs want. Instead try to educate
and lead. Remember you are not alone. There are
many serious revolutionary prisoners out there
facing similar problems. Do not give up hope in
your fellow prisoners, help them change for the
better. Work with MIM to educate and organize for
revolution.
NOT ALONE IN THE STRUGGLE
...I was surprised to acknowledge in [MIM] Notes
134 that other prisoners have responded to my
article in [MIM] Notes 126 titled, "Unity in
Michigan Prisons Questioned". I was especially
pleased to know that my voice did not fall upon
deaf ears and has been heard as far as Wisconsin.
I thank all the comrades that have responded to my
article and letting me know that I am not alone in
my struggle. Being encouraged by you brothers is a
good thing and helps serve to uplift my spirits.
But the reality of my environment - the unity of a
forward, intelligent and rational struggle is still
in question.
I know that there are brothers who are real with
this struggle such as I am. (even some at my
location) But these such brotha's are kept
separated and divided from a brotha as myself, for
the fear that we my come together and unify our
minds, movements, methods and "intelligent" tactics
to move our struggle forward, progressively for
positive change. And so, they keep the serious
revolutionaries separated in an attempt to deviate
and dismantle change.
The plot is to discourage and weaken us by
separating us as one of their transparent tactics
to break our spirits, so that we will begin to feel
(psychologically) that we are in this struggle
alone. With these feelings the mind and heart begin
to program itself into giving up hope and struggle
for change. Thus allowing himself to become broken,
passive and submissive. Because it is known that
often when one begins to feel the effects of
aloneness in his/her struggle, one begins to give
up hope and starts thinking that the possibility
for change is impossible. And with this thought the
spirit is broken, the mind is broken, the struggle
is broken. Once this circle of spirit, mind and
struggle is broken, then the programming of the
beast has claimed you to think, act, walk and do as
a man-made robot would do - modified, dictated and
controlled by the beast that created you. With only
one single thought -- If you can't beat 'em join
em'. Now the circle is broken and the beast has
successfully completed his goal.
But this my brotha's, irregardless of how alone,
separated and divided from real brotha's like you,
will never become me. I could and will never become
broken and programmed into submitting, downing
down, giving in and giving up the struggle to be
free. My struggle for justice and to live in human
dignity. The beast agenda for psychological ,
social and institutional programming will not
affect me to change backward in a self-destruction
direction. No matter how alone I may feel in this
struggle I will still keep it real! Thank you
whole-heartedly for your distant support.
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 15 April 1997
* * *
MIM ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS
MIM seeks to build public opinion against
Amerika's criminal injustice system, and to
eventually replace the bourgeois injustice system
with proletarian justice. The bourgeois
injustice system imprisons and executes a
disproportionately large and growing number of
oppressed people while letting the biggest mass
murderers - the imperialists and their
lackeys - roam free. Imperialism is not opposed to
murder or theft, it only insists that these crimes
be committed in the interests of the bourgeoisie.
MIM does not advocate that all prisoners go free
today; we have a more effective program for
fighting crime as was demonstrated in China prior
to the restoration of capitalism there in 1976. We
say that all prisoners are political
prisoners because under the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie, all imprisonment is substantively
political. It is our responsibility to exert
revolutionary leadership and conduct
political agitation and organization among
prisoners – whose material conditions make them an
overwhelmingly revolutionary group. Some prisoners
should and will work on self-criticism under a
future dictatorship of the proletariat in those
cases in which prisoners really did do
something wrong by proletarian standards.
***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.
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